LCCC
ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
January 19/10
Bible Of the
Day
The Good News According to Matthew 5/21-26: "5:21 “You have heard that it was
said to the ancient ones, ‘You shall not murder;’* and ‘Whoever shall murder
shall be in danger of the judgment.’ 5:22 But I tell you, that everyone who is
angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment; and
whoever shall say to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council; and
whoever shall say, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of the fire of Gehenna. 5:23
“If therefore you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remembered that
your brother has anything against you, 5:24 leave your gift there before the
altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and
offer your gift. 5:25 Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are with him
in the way; lest perhaps the prosecutor deliver you to the judge, and the judge
deliver you to the officer, and you be cast into prison. 5:26 Most certainly I
tell you, you shall by no means get out of there, until you have paid the last
penny."
Free Opinions, Releases, letters & Special
Reports
Let not the jihadists
call the shots in the war on terrorism/Dr.
Walid Phares/January 18/10
New Opinion: It won’t just go
away/Now Lebanon/January 18, 10
Latest News Reports From
Miscellaneous Sources for January 18/10
Phalange Party Warns of
Fatah-Intifada 'Old-New Approach/Naharnet
Aoun
Backs Dividing Beirut into 3 Constituencies in Municipal Elections/Naharnet
Jumblat
Calls for Abiding by Constitution Concerning 'Commission to Abolish Sectarianism
/Naharnet
Qanso:
If Jumblat Insists on Previous Stances, He Won't Visit Syria/Naharnet
Hariri Meets UAE
Counterpart/Naharnet
Bickering over Municipality
Elections Expected to Dominate Cabinet Meeting/Naharnet
Hariri
Meets UAE Counterpart/Naharnet
Ongoing deliberations on voting in
Beirut municipal elections, Kanaan says/Now
Lebanon
Appointments: No Agreement on Mechanism, Dispute Widens between Suleiman, Berri/Naharnet
Berri
Snaps Back at Hariri on Sectarianism Committee, Says 18-year-olds Should Have
the Right to Vote/Naharnet
Fneish Waits for Cabinet
Green Light on Mechanism of Appointments/Naharnet
Aaraji: Abu Moussa’s statement on
Palestinian arms in Lebanon is unacceptable/Now Lebanon
Al-Hayat: Abu Moussa’s
statement presents challenge to Lebanese government/Now
Lebanon
Fatah-Intifada Arms on
Cabinet Agenda/Naharnet
Justice Palace at Risk of
Collapse/Naharnet
Report: Hizbullah
Operative Killed Iranian Nuclear Scientist/Naharnet
Maqdah: Abu Moussa’s statement
addresses Israel/Now
Lebanon
Abdullah: Opposition to convene on
Monday to address major issues/Now
Lebanon
Baroud: Changes in
Municipal electoral law cannot include lowering voting age/Now Lebanon
Bickering over Municipality
Elections Expected to Dominate Cabinet Meeting /Now Lebanon
/Naharnet/A Cabinet meeting that has been brought forward to Tuesday because of
Prime Minister Saad Hariri's decision to head to Paris on a three-day official
visit is likely to be a stormy one. News reports on Monday said the meeting will
be decisive regarding the scorching issues of municipality elections and the
appointment of administrative employees.
Maximum attention will be focused on the weekly Cabinet meeting which will test
where the various Lebanese political leaders' interests lie with regards to
these two hot issues.
A draft law on the amendment of municipal elections proposed by Interior
Minister Ziad Baroud is expected to draw a political debate over a number of
points, particularly those related to whether the voting age should be lowered
to 18 or remain at 21. As-Safir daily on Monday said
Speaker Nabih Berri was surprised by the absence of any mention of lowering the
voting age to 18, contrary to what Baroud had wished.
It said Cabinet ministers belonging to Berri's Development and Liberation bloc
will raise this issue during Tuesday's meeting.
Baroud justified the lack of mention of lowering the voting age to 18 in the new
draft law, saying he had originally prepared a draft law on the amendment of
municipal election during the previous government.
Baroud, in remarks published by An-Nahar newspaper on Monday, said that once
Article 21 of the Constitution has been amended, the voting age will be set at
18 "and I am looking forward to that."Regarding Beirut, An-Nahar said Opposition
Cabinet ministers, particularly Christian leaders belonging to Michel Aoun's
Free Patriotic Movement and Suleiman Franjieh's Marada Movement have demanded
diving the capital into three electoral constituencies.
This demand is strongly rejected by Hariri's Mustaqbal Movement.
Mustaqbal sources told pan-Arab Al-Hayat newspaper that Hariri's
rejection stems from his belief that Beirut should not be divided into three
constituencies "because he does not want to take the country backwards, but
instead he is looking forward to more coexistence among the Lebanese."
As-Safir said a meeting grouping several Opposition Cabinet ministers is
scheduled for Monday to decide on a unified stance regarding the draft law on
municipal elections and the mechanism for administrative appointments. It
pointed to divisions among Opposition parties in this regard. Beirut, 18 Jan 10,
08:16
Appointments: No Agreement on Mechanism, Dispute Widens between Suleiman, Berri
Naharnet/The issue of administrative appointments will be high on the agenda
during Tuesday's Cabinet meeting and discussions will focus on an appointment
mechanism. Sources close to State Minister for
Administrative Development Mohammed Fneish said no mechanism had yet been worked
out, adding that "all there is, were just a few ideas being considered."
Al-Liwaa daily, meanwhile, said the dispute has widened between President
Michel Suleiman and Speaker Nabih Berri over the appointments.
It said that while Suleiman favors making appointments through the
promotion to the vacant posts within the department in order to avoid quotas and
preserve the principle of efficiency, taking into account sectarian balances,
Berri is adamant on placements of new employees "to maintain his share." Beirut,
18 Jan 10, 09:10
Hariri Meets UAE Counterpart
Naharnet/Prime Minister Saad Hariri met on Monday with UAE's Prime Minister
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum at Mushrif palace in Abu Dhabi, Emirates
News Agency reported. Sheikh Mohammed is also UAE vice
president and Dubai's ruler. The meeting was attended
by Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, Foreign Minister
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan and National Security Advisor Sheikh Hazza
bin Zayed al-Nahyan, according to WAM. Hariri was in
the UAE on a two-day official visit. The premier is scheduled to travel to Paris
on Wednesday for talks with top French officials. Beirut, 18 Jan 10, 12:40
Berri Snaps Back at Hariri on Sectarianism Committee, Says 18-year-olds Should
Have the Right to Vote
Naharnet/Speaker Nabih Berri has stood firm on his proposal to set up the
committee on the abolishment of sectarianism from politics and criticized the
municipal elections draft law which has set voting age at 21.
"There is no going back from the proposal" to set up the committee, Berri
told An Nahar daily in remarks published Monday.
Asked about the criticism of several parties, the speaker said: "I will hold
onto my stance. He also stressed to As Safir newspaper that his campaign is
based on a "firm approach" and that he would continue to push for the
establishment of the committee despite all the obstacles.
On Premier Saad Hariri's statement that the formation of the committee
requires consensus, Berri said: "His words are not correct … Everything
mentioned in the constitution should be implemented and does not need consensus
because the issue is about implementing the constitution and not amending it."
The speaker also held onto his own mechanism on administrative
appointments in state institutions. Berri had suggested to President Michel
Suleiman and Minister Mohammed Fneish that a committee should choose the right
candidates and the cabinet would later on nominate the best person for the job.
Berri told An Nahar that he was surprised by the municipal elections
draft law which was proposed by Interior Minister Ziad Baroud, saying
18-year-olds should be given the right to vote. "It is
the right of (people from) this age group to become candidates and vote," the
speaker said. Beirut, 18 Jan 10, 08:37
Fatah-Intifada Arms on Cabinet Agenda
Naharnet/An announcement by Fatah-Intifada leader Said Moussa that he rejects
attempts to disarm Palestinian militants outside refugee camps in Lebanon will
reportedly be discussed during Tuesday's Cabinet meeting. Ministerial sources
told pan-Arab Al-Hayat in remarks published Monday that the Palestinian position
"is a challenge to the Lebanese government and the national dialogue."The
sources did not rule out that the timing of Abu Moussa's announcement had to do
with reports circulating recently about Cabinet's intention to take a unanimous
decision regarding Palestinian arms outside refugee camps.
Abu Moussa on Sunday rejected disarming Palestinian militants outside
refugee camps in Lebanon and stressed that the issue of weapons would only be
resolved through a Palestinian decision. "Palestinian
arms outside refugee camps … are aimed at confronting the Zionist enemy in case
there was a new aggression on Lebanon's south," Moussa said after a visit to
Sidon Municipality head Abdel Rahman al-Bizri. The
Sidon visit of the group's secretary-general was the first since 1982, the
National News Agency reported. Any "decision on
Palestinian arms in Lebanon is an internal Palestinian decision that has nothing
to do with any other party even if there was a Syrian signal to Prime Minister
Saad Hariri to disarm" militants outside refugee camps, Abu Moussa said.
He also said he was "open for talks with the Lebanese government as long
as they do not try to hinder our struggle." Beirut, 18 Jan 10, 09:55
Al-Hayat: Abu Moussa’s statement presents challenge to
Lebanese government
January 18, 2010 /An anonymous ministerial source told Al-Hayat newspaper in an
interview published on Monday that the statement of Fatah al-Intifada Movement
Representative in Lebanon Said Moussa, also known as Abu Moussa, rejecting the
disarmament of Palestinian factions outside refugee camps in Lebanon presents a
challenge to the government and the upcoming National Dialogue sessions. The
cabinet took the decision to disarm all Palestinian factions outside refugee
camps and regulate their internal arms in the 2006 National Dialogue session.
According to the source, Palestinian armed factions outside the camps belong to
Fatah al-Intifada Movement and to the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) that is headed by Ahmad Gebril. Both
Syrian-based movements coordinated to prevent the disarming of Palestinian
factions in Lebanon, said the source, adding that both parties requested Hamas
not to take an official stance on the issue yet. -NOW Lebanon
Ongoing deliberations on voting in Beirut municipal elections, Kanaan says
January 18, 2010 /Change and Reform bloc MP Ibrahim Kanaan told LBCI television
on Monday that there are ongoing deliberations over either dividing Beirut into
three districts or applying a system of proportional representation during the
municipal elections scheduled to take place in May. “True representation is
essential in big cities, such as Beirut,” he said, adding that the
abovementioned options would pave the way for a better municipal electoral law.
-NOW Lebanon
Aaraji: Abu Moussa’s statement on Palestinian arms in Lebanon is unacceptable
January 18, 2010 /Lebanon First bloc MP Assem Aaraji told Future News on Monday
that Fatah al-Intifada Movement Representative in Lebanon Said Moussa’s Sunday
statement that he rejects the disarmament of Palestinian factions outside
refugee camps in Lebanon is unacceptable. Aaraji responded to Moussa, also known
as Abu Moussa, saying that the need to disarm Palestinian groups outside the
camps was an issue agreed on in the 2006 National Dialogue sessions. I do not
know the position of other Palestinian factions on the issue, said Aaraji,
adding that Hezbollah and the Amal Movement should clarify Moussa’s statement.
He touched on the cabinet’s upcoming administrative appointments, saying that
the yet-to-be-formed committee responsible for dealing with the issue could
uphold the politicization of posts as well as appoint qualified candidates.
Aaraji also commented on Speaker Nabih Berri’s proposal to eliminate political
sectarianism, and said that “such a proposal represents only Berri’s desire.
Even the Free Patriotic Movement expressed reservations on the proposal.”-NOW
Lebanon
Abdullah: Opposition to convene on Monday to address major issues
January 18, 2010 /Youth and Sports Minister Ali Abdullah told Future News on
Monday that the opposition will today convene to address the cabinet’s upcoming
administrative appointments, the National Dialogue and the issue of eliminating
political sectarianism. He added that a committee to set the mechanism for the
appointments will soon be formed. However, he did not elaborate further.
Abdullah also commented on the issue of changing the legal voting age from 21 to
18, saying it must happen before February 10, 2010. This will ensure the
municipal elections take place on time in May, he added. -NOW Lebanon
New Opinion: It won’t just go away
January 18, 2010
Now Lebanon
When asked about the Irish question, Oliver Cromwell was alleged to have said,
“If we forget about it, it will go away.” That was in 17th century England; over
300 years later the English are still trying to answer the Irish “question”. If
the great parliamentarian were alive today, he might have a word or two to say
to the Lebanese, many of whom appear to have forgotten about quite a lot.
For a while many of our politicians have kissed and made up with their so-called
former rivals, and while senior diplomats have echoed their respective nations’
approval of the reconciliations, there is still the little “question” of
Hezbollah, its weapons and its martial posture, which, if the rhetoric of the
last few days is anything to go by, is becoming increasingly belligerent. In
fact such is the level of saber rattling that we have to ask ourselves who is
running the show in Lebanon.
Sunday saw the wrapping up of a three-day Arab and international forum in Beirut
on supporting the Resistance. In the final statement, the delegates called for
Arab states to announce the failure of the Middle East peace process and adopt a
“confrontational” approach with Israel. Nothing new there you might say, but it
was the call for the “strengthening of resistance culture in educational
curriculums, literature and arts” that will send a shiver down the spines of
Lebanese who have witnessed firsthand what the Resistance has achieved in recent
years.
Then we have Loyalty to the Resistance bloc MP Ali Fayyad, who, earlier on
Sunday, said his group is “dealing with Israeli threats with utmost
seriousness.” That the Loyalty to the Resistance bloc has a say in foreign
policy will also come as a surprise to many Lebanese who like to think of their
government – one that that was borne, albeit painfully, out of the result of a
democratic election – as dealing with such matters.
But then again Fayyad was merely taking his lead from Hezbollah Secretary
General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who, on Friday opened the forum by saying that
his party would defeat Israel in any possible confrontation and “change the face
of the region.” Such is the binary mindset of those who see the world divided
into the pro- and anti-Israeli camps that Nasrallah could have said anything and
they would have applauded and forgotten the small matter of the majority of
Lebanese who would like to have some say in such an eventuality (as they no
doubt also would like have some say in Nasrallah’s stated yearning for a new war
with Israel, one that would give Lebanon “renewed pride and renewed victory”).
We have said it before and we will say it again because it won’t just go away by
itself. Lebanon cannot exist as a sovereign state with sovereign institutions
while there exists outside the state and its institutions an armed militia that
publically declares that it longs for war with Israel, a scenario that will have
potentially lethal repercussions for every Lebanese. This is not how a country
operates. Hezbollah exists because it chooses to exist. No one can control it.
The state cannot decide to end the Resistance. Lebanon is hostage to its whims.
In such an atmosphere, it doesn’t matter how dynamic Ziad Baroud is as interior
minister; it doesn’t matter how hard our other ministers are working to finally
get things moving, to boost tourism, to increase consumption, to make lives
marginally better, because at any time the hair trigger that is Hezbollah can
drag us into another conflict, one that by all accounts will make 2006 seem like
a walk in the park. Nasrallah said in his speech that the Resistance has been
forbidden from “voicing itself” by the international community. He needn’t
worry; we hear him loud and clear.
Baroud: Changes in Municipal electoral law cannot include lowering voting age
January 18, 2010 /Interior Minister Ziad Baroud told An-Nahar newspaper in an
interview published on Monday that changes to the municipal electoral law cannot
include lowering the voting age to 18 before amending Article 21 of the
constitution. The article states that that everyone above the age of 21 has the
right to vote.I strongly support lowering the voting age, said Baroud. However,
he added doing so before amending Article 21would be a violation of the
constitution. -NOW Lebanon
Let not
the jihadists call the shots in the war on terrorism
Dr. Walid Phares
Spero News/18.01.10
http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?idCategory=34&idsub=158&id=25725&t=Let+not+the+jihadists+call+the+shots+in+the+war+on+terrorism
In 2001, one would-be shoe bomber forced millions of travelers to take off their
shoes. In 2006, terrorists planned to bring down aircraft on transatlantic
flights by smuggling liquid explosives onto planes. They were thwarted but they
succeeded in preventing passengers from bringing liquids into airline terminals.
Lesson number one: In this terror war, the jihadists have the upper hand. They
are the ones who choose to use a new weapon and they are also the ones who—by
using simple logic—have refrained from using the same terror weapons more than
once. In fact, since September 2001, Al Qaeda’s terrorists have avoided rushing
into the cockpit of an airliner with box cutters.
Does this mean we were successful in deterring the terrorists? Of course: as
long as we can prevent them from using the 9/11 methods, they won't be naive
enough to repeat the same strategy. So is the US winning the fight with Al Qaeda
by using these specific measures? No, we are simply protecting our population
until the war is won. But winning is not measured by surviving potential copycat
attacks.
Instead, this confrontation will be won by striking at the mechanism that
produces the jihadists. And on that level, no significant advances have been
made either under the previous administration or under the current one. For, as
President Obama admitted late last month after a near-terror attack on Northwest
Flight 253, there is a "systemic failure" in our defense against the jihadi
terrorists.
In my analysis, it has to do with the refusal by decision makers—based on the
opinion of their own experts—to attack the factory that produces terrorists and
instead to wait until the jihadists show up at our country's ports of entries.
Malaysia: Eleven Christian churches attacked, Jan 8 - 16
Sri Lanka demands end to election violenceThe US has been fending off the jihadi
operations inside its own trenches and often behind its own lines of defense.
Preventing Al Qaeda’s zombies from killing our airline pilots and flight
attendants by securing cabin doors with steel and installing machines to detect
liquid, creams, and potential explosives is like fighting an invading army
inside our own trenches and neighborhoods with bayonets. If anything, it means
that our strategists have no way to remotely detect this threat and they can’t
even decide what is and isn’t a threat until it actually strikes us or is a few
inches from us. It is a pretty ironic situation when the grand narrative of US
official strategies is that we are fighting terrorists or extremists (pick your
word, it has the same conclusion) in Waziristan, Afghanistan, and beyond, so
that our defense perimeters are thousands of miles away.
So are we wrong to institute any of the security measures? No, we need to take
all possible measures to secure the population, but we also need to take them in
the framework of a grand strategy to defeat the threat. And in this regard we do
not have one. The jihadists are monitoring our actions, our measures and may are
also comfortably spying on us and looking deeply into our security mechanisms.
After the Nada Prouty and Nidal Hasan penetration cases, no one can convince me
that neither Hezbollah nor Al Qaeda haven’t deployed more agents throughout our
national security apparatus.
The enemy knows our defense strategy, and some would argue that they are already
inside our walls. As we are learning—constantly and dramatically—the so-called
“isolated extremists” are not that isolated and those believed to be “lone
wolves” are in fact part of a much larger, well-camouflaged packs. The jihadists
are way ahead of our security measures—but we need to apply them nevertheless.
In the wake of the Abdulmutalib terror in Detroit, the Obama administration
announced that any traveler flying into the United States from foreign countries
will receive tightened random screening, and all passengers from
“terrorism-prone countries” will be patted down and have their carry-on baggage
searched before boarding US-bound flights. The list includes Cuba, Iran, Sudan,
and Syria as well as Nigeria, Pakistan, and Yemen.
But here is the problem: In the jihadi war room, this was duly noted. Thus, the
next human missiles will be selected from the “other”countries, and there are
many countries where combat Salafis are indoctrinated and readied: Egypt,
Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and Indonesia to name a few—all US allies. Even
better, the jihadi strategists could task recruits with German, British, French,
as well as Australian and Canadian passports to wreak havoc in our cities. The
past year has shown us that the jihadis can also emerge from North Carolina,
Illinois, New York, and other states all across the land. Most likely the
“emirs”of Al Qaeda will recommend ending the use of powder to blow up planes,
and soon another Zawahiri tape will rail at us for spending millions on a path
they won't use for a while.
As we move to implement our mammoth security measures, the swift men of jihadism
are already mapping out the endlessly open areas of our underbellies. In
strategic terms, we’re not even going anywhere near that direction; it is a dead
end. The Al Qaeda jihadists will keep coming, each time from a different
direction, background, with a new tactic. And they will surprise us.
Unfortunately, that is the price of a national security policy that identifies
terrorism as a “man-made disaster”and jihadism as a form of yoga.
*Dr. Walid Phares is the author of The Confrontation: Winning the War against
Future Jihad and a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
He is Terrorism Analyst at The Cutting Edge News.