LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

Bible Of the Day
Matthew 5/43-48: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor,* and hate your enemy.*’ 5:44 But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you, 5:45 that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. 5:46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? 5:47 If you only greet your friends, what more do you do than others? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? 5:48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Free Opinions, Releases, letters & Special Reports
The never-ending exodus of Christians from the Middle East/By: Robert Fisk/January 23/10
Exemplary, and in need of protection/The Daily Star/January 23/10
Hezbollah's relocation of rocket sites to Lebanon's interior poses wider threat/Washington Post/January 23/10
Major Hasan and the Ideological Blinders/By: Walid Phares/January 23/10

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for January 23/10
Israeli Minister: Policies of Israel, Hizbullah Lead to War/Naharnet
Suleiman Urges Adopting Nationality Law, Granting Immigrants Right to Vote/Naharnet
Geagea Calls on the Lebanese to Rally in Martyrs Square on February 14, Says Suleiman Shifting from Consensus Position/Naharnet
PFLP-GC Conducts Military Exercises in Quosaya/Naharnet
PFLP denies reports of Bekaa missile tests/Now Lebanon
Aoun, Berri at Loggerheads Again
/Naharnet
Adwan Conditions Lowering Voting Age by Granting Immigrants Right to Vote
/Naharnet
Parliament General-Secretariat: Defense Committee Hasn't Accomplished Nationality Law
/Naharnet
Jumblat to Kouchner: Hizbullah Arms 'Essential Guarantee' to Face Any Israeli Aggression
/Naharnet
Sarkozy to Hariri: We Vow to Try Preventing Bombarding Basic Infrastructure, Not More
/Naharnet
Hariri in Cairo Tuesday
/Naharnet
Hizbullah: Kouchner's Stances Colluded with Israel, France Must Actualize Keenness on Lebanon
/Naharnet
French Company to Revamp Lebanon's Gazelle Helicopters, Equip Pumas
/Naharnet
Achrafieh MPs call for continuing Beirut’s municipal sectarian balance/Now Lebanon
Minister Peled: Conflict on northern border a matter of time/Ynetnews
At least 3 hurt in Lebanon during protest over Egypt's Gaza barrier/Ha'aretz
Tensions rise as Israeli Army stages maneuvers on border/Daily Star
US puts ball in Palestinian court on peace talks with Israel/Daily Star

Hamas vows to resist pressure to recognize 'Zionist entity'/Ha'aretz
Sarkozy concerned with just peace for Lebanon - Hariri/Daily Star
Lebanon logistics performance 33rd globally/Daily Star
Moscow warns against hasty sanctions on Tehran/Daily Star
LADE warns against insufficient electoral reform/Daily Star
Hariri commemoration litmus test for March 14/Daily Star
Danish Embassy hires courier on eco-friendly wheels/Daily Star
Waad Party to commemorate slain Hobeika and comrades/Daily Star
Snow season gets late kick-start/Daily Star
Soueid reflects on March 14 movement and its mistakes/Daily Star


Hamas vows to resist pressure to recognize 'Zionist entity'

By Reuters /Hamas will not recognize Israel despite new pressures on the group and will give priority to building resistance to the Jewish state, the Islamist group's leader Khaled Meshal said on Friday.
Addressing a rally in the Syrian capital to mark the end of the Israeli attack on Gaza a year ago that killed 1,400 Palestinians, Meshal said Hamas does not want another war with Israel but it will stick to armed struggle as a means to liberate occupied land.
"Hamas will keep rejecting the occupation and refuse to recognize the legitimacy of the Zionist entity. Priority will remain building and developing the resistance," said Meshal, who lives in Syria along with other Hamas leaders in exile. "Pressure, siege, temptations and opening doors or communication channels will not fool Hamas, which will not compromise on the rights. Hamas will be only tempted by restoring the land," Meshal said. Meshal was referring to increased contacts between Hamas and Western delegations since the Gaza war, including a meeting with a U.S. group that included Jack Matlock, a former American ambassador in Moscow.
Israel said it attacked Gaza to end rocket launches by Hamas fighters into Israel. The invasion killed more than 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians. Thirteen Israelis were killed.
"Triumphant Gaza today is still wounded. Its houses are still destroyed. It's still under siege and its borders are still closed. Add to this the new steel wall," Meshal said, referring to a structure being built by Egypt along its border with Gaza to stop the smuggling of arms and goods into the strip.
"Today we do not seek war but if war is imposed on us we will fight fiercely," Meshal said.
Hamas, which is backed by Syria and Iran, last week urged Palestinian groups in Gaza allied to it to observe what amounted to a ceasefire that ended the Israeli attack on the strip a year ago after its allies fired rockets into Israel and Israeli air strikes killed several Palestinians. Israel and Egypt maintain a blockade on Gaza, which has been ruled by Hamas since it won in 2007 a brief civil war against supporters of Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas's more secular Fatah faction. Hamas also opposes Abbas's approach to peace with Israel, although Abbas broke off peace talks with Israel during the Israeli invasion of Gaza and a U.S. drive to resume the talks since has failed. Meshal said reconciliation with Abbas was needed to strengthen the Palestinian cause but he made no new proposals on how to do so after Egyptian efforts to bring about agreement between the two sides foundered. Islamists founded Hamas in the 1980s. The group refuses to recognize Israel in defiance of international demands. Hamas has offered Israel a decades-long truce if Israel withdraws from the Palestinian territories it occupied in the 1967 Middle East War and recognized what Hamas considers as the Palestinian refugees right of return

PFLP-GC Conducts Military Exercises in Quosaya
Naharnet/The members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command on Saturday started military exercises at their base in Qousaya in Bekaa.
Reports quoted a security source as saying that the echoes of artillery, rockets, and anti-aircraft guns were heard in the area.Lebanese Army units deployed in the area took strict security measures. Beirut, 23 Jan 10, 12:49

Israeli Minister: Policies of Israel, Hizbullah Lead to War

Naharnet/Israeli State Minister Yossi Peled on Saturday warned that both policies of Israel and Hizbullah pave the way for the eruption of a new war, accusing the international community of contributing in mounting the military capabilities of Hizbullah. In remarks carried by military radio and the popular Ynet news website, Peled said: "We are heading toward a new confrontation in the north but I don't know when it will happen, just as we did not know when the second Lebanon war would erupt." He was referring to the devastating war Israel fought with Hizbullah in 2006, which killed more than 1,200 Lebanese, most of them civilians, and more than 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers. "Although Hizbullah is part of the Lebanese government, the latter has no influence on it," Peled said, adding the Jewish state will hold Hizbullah and its ally Syria responsible for any attack on Israel. Israeli officials have repeatedly warned in recent weeks that any attack by Hizbullah would be met with a strong response. Last week Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned Lebanon and Hizbullah against any attempt to undermine the "calm" prevailing at the border between the two countries.(Naharnet-AFP) Beirut, 23 Jan 10, 17:38

Geagea Calls on the Lebanese to Rally in Martyrs Square on February 14, Says

Suleiman Shifting from Consensus Position
Naharnet/Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea called on the Lebanese for a mass turnout in Martyrs Square on February 14 to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the assassination of Lebanon's ex-premier Rafik Hariri. In an interview with the Central News Agency, Geagea said the main headlines of the event have become clear by now, but added that the small details and the list of leaders expected to deliver speeches are still under mulling. Geagea stressed that the February 14 rally will have a special flavor this year given that "the other coalition has insisted on repeating, since one year and eight months, that March 14 ended" as a political camp and that there is "no more Cedar Revolution nor cedars."On the other hand, Geagea answered a question about "the campaigns targeting" President Michel Suleiman by saying: "First of all, I believe that the president is the one subjecting himself to those campaigns, that is to say every time they put obstacles in his way or wage attacks, he tries to stop those campaigns by satisfying them. When they found that suitable for them, they persisted in that direction."
"This direction, in my opinion, made the president shift from his consensus position … because if we observe his stances at all Arab and international forums, or even in Lebanon, we find them closer to the other camp."Geagea hoped that President Suleiman "would return to his consensus position despite the attacks he is being subjected to from the other camp, because if he decides to give them what they want under pressure of attacks, they will always attack him."As to Lebanese-Syrian relations, Geagea stressed that he has never called for building a separation wall between Lebanon and Syria or to cut the relations. "We were demanding that Syria engages with Lebanon in a state-to-state approach … but in the last two weeks negative developments occurred whether through 'summoning' Abu Moussa to the Lebanese scene after a 25 years absence, or through today's reports about live ammunition exercises taking place in Quosaya," added Geagea. Beirut, 23 Jan 10, 17:23

Suleiman Urges Adopting Nationality Law, Granting Immigrants Right to Vote

Naharnet/President Michel Suleiman on Saturday said that "Lebanon is facing electoral, political, administrational, and reform challenges," adding that "reforming laws and implementing them solves a lot of current problems." Suleiman told his visitors that those challenges include the electoral law, lowering voting age to eighteen years, the right of immigrants to vote, and administrative appointments. "The country will not advance if it did not respect the resident and immigrant youth of Lebanon, their competencies and achievements, and their right to practice democracy."Suleiman called for a speedy adoption of the law on reclaiming nationality for immigrants of Lebanese origin in order to grant them the right to vote.
The president stressed that achieving appointments on a non-sectarian basis opens the door for actualizing the abolishment of political sectarianism. Beirut, 23 Jan 10, 15:53

Aoun, Berri at Loggerheads Again

Naharnet/The periodical disputes between Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun and Speaker Nabih Berri have surfaced again as the issue of lowering voting age scheduled for Monday's parliamentary session stirred the underlying tensions, after they bickered earlier over abolishing political sectarianism and administrative appointments. Aoun asked on Friday: "Why rushing (lowering voting age to) 18 years?" In comments aired by OTV network, Aoun said that the law on reclaiming Lebanese nationality was adopted by the parliamentary committees on April 6, 2009, while the law on lowering voting age reached the parliament after that date with one and a half months. "Why do we rush an item and postpone another?" Berri snapped back through his media office, accusing Aoun of "avoiding municipal elections." "Many times we have tried to correct Aoun's targeting to what we are practicing of implementing the Constitution and rules of procedure of the parliament until some thought, among them 'the victorious' General Aoun, that we cannot answer them back," said the statement of Berri's media office. The statement added: "Delaying laws or suggestions before the parliament is not our habit since the start of Taef Accord's implementation, (the accord) which you had not backed."
Political sources expected urgent contacts to ease the tension between the two men. Al Liwaa daily mentioned that "Hizbullah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has effectively entered the mediation efforts and designated his political assistant Hussein Khalil who secretly met with each of Berri and Aoun during the last twenty four hours, and urged them to ease the tone of statements between them." The newspaper added: "It is expected that a tripartite meeting would take place during the coming few hours gathering Aoun, Berri, and Nasrallah in order to bring together the standpoints of Berri and Aoun, and hence coordinating the stances of the parliamentary minority regarding the raised issues on the political spectrum, especially over the issues of abolishing political sectarianism and administrative appointments, in addition to municipal elections." The efforts aim at showing the consolidation of the parliamentary minority and refuting rumors about recent disputes inside the coalition, according to Al Liwaa. Beirut, 23 Jan 10, 09:55

Adwan Conditions Lowering Voting Age by Granting Immigrants Right to Vote

Naharnet/Lebanese Forces' MP George Adwan on Saturday said that his party is "concerned with what the Lebanese decide about Hizbullah's arms" not with what French FM Bernard Kouchner says. In an interview with Voice of Lebanon Radio, Adwan said: "When these arms become handled by the State, the position of the Lebanese State will differ, and we have never said that we will throw these arms in the sea. The state will become strong when Hizbullah hands over its arms to the legitimate authority, and then we will take the decisions of war and peace together." On the other hand, Adwan commented on the issue of lowering voting age by saying: "There is a parliamentary session Monday and we will participate and voice our opinion on lowering the voting age to 18 years which is related to enabling the immigrants of voting; and the two subjects are reciprocally connected." Beirut, 23 Jan 10, 15:05

Parliament General-Secretariat: Defense Committee Hasn't Accomplished Nationality Law

Naharnet/Parliament Secretary-General Adnan Daher on Saturday stressed that the draft law -- on reclaiming Lebanese nationality for immigrants of Lebanese origin – is not listed on the agenda of the parliamentary session to be held Monday because it has not been accomplished by the Defense and Municipalities Committee. A statement issued by Daher clarified to MP Naamtallah Abi Nasr that "the suggestion had been submitted to both Committees of Administration and Justice; and National Defense and Municipalities. However, it has not been accomplished by the later." Earlier, Abi Nasr had asked Speaker Nabih Berri about the fate of the draft law he submitted on September 2003 to define the conditions of reclaiming the Lebanese nationality for immigrants which was passed by the Administration and Justice Committee unanimously on April 6, 2009. Beirut, 23 Jan 10, 13:40

Jumblat to Kouchner: Hizbullah Arms 'Essential Guarantee' to Face Any Israeli Aggression

Naharnet/Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat declared he opposes French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner over his stance from Hizbullah's arms.
In an interview with As Safir daily, Jumblat said that "the arms of the resistance and Hizbullah represent the essential guarantee to face any possible Israeli aggression against Lebanon, especially after the latest statements of U.S. President Barack Obama in wake of his defeat in Massachusetts, and his declaring of the difficulty to achieve what is called settlement in the Middle East. All of that talking reflects the depth of the U.S. deadlock.""The (current) defensive strategy is in its place in facing any aggression. Therefore, I personally disagree with Minister Kouchner despite our friendship, and despite the previous fellowship which gathered us among the ranks of Socialist International." Beirut, 23 Jan 10, 11:29

Sarkozy to Hariri: We Vow to Try Preventing Bombarding Basic Infrastructure, Not More

Naharnet/French President Nicolas Sarkozy informed Lebanese officials that "France vows to try to prevent Israel from bombarding the basic infrastructure of Lebanon, but not more than that," stressing to those he met on the need to "control the internal Lebanese situation and prevent any provocations," according to well-informed Lebanese sources.
Sources close to the French presidency told the pan-Arab Asharq al-Awsat daily that Sarkozy answered the concerns of PM Saad Hariri from a possible Israeli attack on Lebanon by saying "Lebanon can depend on France's friendship and support." According to the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat, Sarkozy stressed that "France supports Lebanon's independence and sovereignty," in addition to being a friend to Israel.  "However, France demands Israel to respect the sovereignty of Lebanon because it is keen on that matter, as Sarkozy told the Israelis," added al-Hayat.Hariri clarified in comments to the Lebanese press that the French president "was clear and honest, as he confirmed that Paris will do all the possible contacts and will talk with the Israelis" in order to prevent an attack on Lebanon. Hariri added that France considers such acts as "unaccepted and unjustified," and that it "will do the needed steps to prevent them." The premier added that U.S.' stance "resembles" the French one. Asharq al-Awsat did not conceal the Arab and international fears of a possible Israeli strike on Lebanon. It added that there are "concentrated Arab and regional efforts toward the U.S. to pressure Israel not to carry out a military operation against Lebanon."MP Okab Sakr told Asharq al-Awsat: "Friendly countries, among them Saudi Arabia, are exerting major efforts to convince the U.S. administration to prevent an Israeli strike against Lebanon," calling Hizbullah "not to give Israel any chance to turn it into an alibi to strike Lebanon." Beirut, 23 Jan 10, 10:38

Hariri in Cairo Tuesday

Naharnet/Prime Minister Saad Hariri heads to Cairo Tuesday on a first official visit to Egypt since he took office as premier. Al-Liwaa daily cited well-informed diplomatic Egyptian sources as saying that Egypt has a special rank in the considerations of the Lebanese premier in light of its supportive stances to Lebanon, adding that Hariri has always visited Egypt for consultations as to everything related to Lebanese affairs. The sources added that the visit's agenda includes a lot of important issues, topped by developments in Lebanon and supporting the new government in establishing security and stability, hinting in this context to Egypt's steady support to Lebanon, refusing to any foreign interventions in its affairs. Hariri's discussions -- whether with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak or with PM Ahmed Nazif -- will tackle the means of fortifying bilateral ties on all aspects and the special arrangements for holding the next session for the Joint Higher Commission in Beirut, according to the same sources. Beirut, 23 Jan 10, 12:41

French Company to Revamp Lebanon's Gazelle Helicopters, Equip Pumas

Naharnet/Lebanon has signed an agreement with the French company Euro Tech --specialized in revamping and equipping planes -- to revamp 13 Gazelle-type helicopters owned by Lebanon and equip the Puma helicopters granted by the UAE to Lebanon, according to the Central News Agency. The agreement implies revamping the helicopters and training Lebanese pilots on flying the French-manufactured Puma helicopters. The Puma helicopters are expected to start arriving within the first half of 2010 in two batches, the first includes four helicopters and the second includes six. Earlier media reports said that France was worried that providing the Lebanese army with weapons, including missiles for the Gazelle helicopters, could end up in Hizbullah hands.France's stance was conveyed during a visit by Prime Minister Saad Hariri to Paris. It came in response to Hariri's request to provide Lebanon with Gazelle missiles since the Lebanese Air Force used up all the rockets against Fatah al-Islam militants during the battle of Nahr el-Bared in 2007. Pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat on Friday cited well-informed sources as saying that French officials and while expressing willingness in principle to provide Lebanon with weapons, French military commanders, however, voiced fear that such missiles could end up in Hizbullah hands and used in war against Israel. As-Safir newspaper, for its part, said French Prime Minister Francois Fillon has said that talks tackled "specific issues on the process of modernization of the Lebanese army," without being committed to steps toward arming the Lebanese army, particularly to provide helicopters with missiles. The French position matched the U.S.' stance which was not enthusiastic about the issue of providing the Lebanese Air Force with weapons that could be used against Israel. The ten Puma helicopters that were part of UAE grant to Lebanon were also to be used for light transport and liaison roles and not for combat. Beirut, 22 Jan 10, 20:02

Hezbollah's relocation of rocket sites to Lebanon's interior poses wider threat
By Howard Schneider
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, January 23, 2010
BEIRUT -- Hezbollah has dispersed its long-range-rocket sites deep into northern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, a move that analysts say threatens to broaden any future conflict between the Islamist movement and Israel into a war between the two countries.
More than 10,000 U.N. troops now patrol traditional Hezbollah territory in southern Lebanon along the Israeli border, and several thousand Lebanese armed forces personnel also have moved into the area. A cross-border raid by Hezbollah guerrillas in summer 2006 triggered a month-long war that prompted the United Nations to deploy its force as part of a cease-fire.
The United Nations is confident that the dense presence of its troops in the comparatively small area is helping lower the risk of conflict and minimizing Hezbollah's ability to move weapons across southern Lebanon, but analysts in Lebanon and Israel say the U.N. mission is almost beside the point.
Hezbollah's redeployment and rearmament indicate that its next clash with Israel is unlikely to focus on the border, instead moving farther into Lebanon and challenging both the military and the government. The situation is important for U.S. efforts in the region, whether aimed at curbing the influence of Hezbollah's patrons in Iran or at persuading Syria to moderate its stance toward Israel and its neighbors.
Hezbollah "learned their lesson" in 2006, when vital intelligence enabled the Israel Defense Forces to destroy the group's long-range launch sites in the first days of the conflict, said reserve Gen. Aharon Zeevi Farkash, a former head of IDF intelligence. In effect, he said, "the 'border' is now the Litani River," with Hezbollah's rocket sites possibly extending north of Beirut.
In a December briefing, Brig. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, the IDF head of operations, said some Hezbollah rockets now have a range of more than 150 miles -- making Tel Aviv reachable from as far away as Beirut. The Islamist group has talked openly of its efforts to rebuild, and Israel estimates that Hezbollah has about 40,000 projectiles, most of them shorter-range rockets and mortar shells.
The group "has been fortifying lots of different areas," said Judith Palmer Harik, a Hezbollah scholar in Beirut. With U.N. and Lebanese forces "packed along the border," she said, "we are looking at a much more expanded battle in all senses of the word."
Just a matter of time?
The border has been relatively quiet since the 2006 war, a fact that officials with the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon attribute at least partly to the 400 or so patrols they send out each day to search for weapons stores and prevent border violations.
Armored U.N. vehicles sit at the entrance to southern Lebanon, alongside Lebanese army and intelligence checkpoints; blue-flagged U.N. troops occupy mountaintop posts that Hezbollah used as firing sites in 2006.
"We are covering every square inch," said Maj. S.K. Misra, a spokesman for the battalion of India's 3/11 Gurkha Rifles corps that patrols southeastern Lebanon. "It's impossible for anything to move."
At the same time, debate is raging in political and military circles between those who argue that the damage to each side in 2006 has created a sort of respectful deterrence between Israel and Hezbollah and those who say it is only a matter of time before violence erupts again.
Hezbollah lost hundreds of fighters in the conflict and was put on the defensive in Lebanon, where some questioned whether the group's vow to continue "resistance" against Israel was worth letting an unregulated paramilitary organization effectively make decisions about war and peace.
With Iran backing and supplying Hezbollah and the United States backing and supplying Israel, "the battlefield is Lebanon," said Marwan Hamadeh, a Lebanese member of parliament and supporter of a government coalition that is trying to curb Hezbollah's arms and limit Syrian and Iranian influence in the country. "This is where the Iranian missiles sit, and this is where the Israeli air force can reach

Major Hasan and the Ideological Blinders
By Walid Phares
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/01/major_hasan_and_the_ideologica.html
Major Nidal Hasan was not flagged because Washington has disarmed its own analysts with ideological blinders. The Pentagon's review of the act of terrorism committed at Fort Hood deserves national attention regarding not only its important conclusions, but also what it missed in terms of analysis.
Jihadi Penetration: Part of a War
As announced by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, the report "reveals serious 'shortcomings' in the military's ability to stop foreign extremists from trying to use America's own soldiers against the United States." The Pentagon's review of the Fort Hood massacre stated that "serious shortcomings" were found in "the military's ability to stop foreign extremists from trying to use its own soldiers against the United States." The first question that comes to mind is whether the issue is about "shortcomings," as described by the Pentagon, or about "systemic failures," as announced by President Obama in his evaluation of the Christmas Day terror act. For as underlined by the Department of Defense in the case of Major Hasan, these failures were about the military's ability to "stop foreign terrorists from using American soldiers against the United States."
Such a statement is extremely important, as it finally informs the public that the U.S. personnel roster is indeed being infiltrated and recruited by foreign jihadists, who are described politically by the administration as "extremists." Hence, the first logical conclusion from that finding is that jihadi networks are performing acts of war (and thus of terrorism) against U.S. defense assets and personnel in the homeland. This warrants the reevaluation of the conflict and a re-upgrading of it to a state of war, even though it would still need to be determined "with whom."
Self-Radicalization
Secretary Gates said that "military supervisors are not properly focused on the threat posed by self-radicalization and need to better understand the behavioral warning signs." He added that "extremists are changing their tactics in an attempt to hit the United States." He then concluded that the Fort Hood massacre "reveals shortcomings in the way the department is prepared to defend against threats posed by external influences operating on members of our military community. ... We have not done enough to adapt to the evolving domestic internal security threat to American troops and military facilities."
The bottom line of the Department of Defense report is, as I relentlessly argued before and since Hasan's shootings, that the U.S. military and intelligence lack the capability of detecting radicalization, should it be "self"-developed or activated from overseas. American analysts are not able to "detect" radicalization from where it is generated. In my last three books and dozens of briefings and testimonies to legislative and executive forums, I underlined the crucial importance of identifying the ideology behind radicalization. The latter is produced by a set of ideas assembled in a doctrinal package.
Unfortunately, the Bush and Obama administrations were both poorly advised by their experts. They were told, wrongly, that if they try to identify a "doctrine," then they will be meddling with a religion. Academic and cultural advisers of the various U.S. agencies and offices (the majority of them, at least) failed their government by triggering a fear of theological entanglement. To the surprise of our Arab and Muslim allies in the region, who know how to detect the jihadist narrative, Washington disarmed its own analysts when bureaucrats of the last two years banned references to the very ideological indicators that could enable our analysts to detect the radicalization threat.
And it is not about "extreme religious views" as much as it is about an ideology. If Arabs and Muslims can identify it in the Middle East, why can't Americans also? It is simply because jihadi propaganda has already penetrated our advising body and fooled many of our decision-makers into dropping the ideological parameters.
Hence, stunningly, Major Hasan, who fully displayed the narrative of jihadism, was not spotted as a jihadist. The report tried to blame his colleagues and other superiors for failing to find him "suspicious enough" and thus for causing a shortcoming. I disagree: What allowed Hasan to move undetected was a bureaucratic memo issued under both administrations, and made into policy last summer, ordering the members of the public service not to look at ideology or refer to words that can detect it. We did it to ourselves.
The Strategic Threat Ahead
The report raises "serious questions" about whether the military is prepared for similar attacks, particularly "multiple, simultaneous incidents." In my book, Future Jihad: Terrorist Strategies against America, published half a decade ago, I sternly warned about the strategic determination of jihadists, al-Qaeda and beyond, to target the U.S. homeland -- not just in terms of terrorizing the public, but in the framework of a chain of strikes widening gradually until it would evolve to coordinated, simultaneous attacks. In 2006-2007, I served on the then Task Force on Future Terrorism of the Department of Homeland Security and developed an analysis clearly showing the path to come. My briefings to several entities and agencies in the defense sector clearly argued that implanting, growing, and triggering homegrown jihadists to strike at U.S. national security is at the heart of the enemy's strategy. I even projected the existence of a "war room" that directs these operations; Imam al-Awlaki's example of multiple operatives' coordination is only a small fragment of what it would be like.
In facing this mushrooming threat, not only do we lack a detection capacity to counter it, but we have been induced in error to adopt policies opposite to those suitable to our national defense. The misleading advice that the U.S. government relied on is deeply responsible for the failure to stop and counter radicalization. The report, although a step in the right direction, has troubling shortcomings:
A. It claims that "fixation on religion" is a missing indicator. This means that if Muslims insist on praying or Catholics refrain from eating meat on Fridays during Lent, this could be a lead to radicalization. Obviously, it is a dead end, for the indicator is the substance of the fixation, not the mere fact of religiosity. One statement of commitment to jihad is by far more important than fasting during the whole month of Ramadan. It is not theology but ideology, even though many writers in town insist on merging both based on their readings of text. I offer our government an easier way to detect the threat without venturing into unnavigable religious debates or unnecessarily apologizing for one or another particular faith.
B. The report describes Hasan as "an odd duck and a loner who was passed along from office to office and job to job despite professional failings that included missed or failed exams and physical fitness requirements." Nice shot, but it leads nowhere, for the other potential Hasans amongst us aren't all necessarily odd, failed students, and physically unfit. The next jihadists could be sharp, professional, and extremely social. It all depends on what the "War Room" is going to surprise us with. Medical doctors in Britain, rich young men from Nigeria, or converted farmers from North Carolina aren't all in one profile basket. So let's stop looking for framing "profiles" and start detecting ideology.
C. The report calls on the Defense Department "to fully staff those teams of investigators, analysts, linguists and others so the Pentagon can quickly see information collected across government agencies about potential links between troops and terrorist or extremist groups." This is a long-awaited initiative, short of creating further catastrophes by staffing our bureaucracies with more cultural advisers who would further mislead our leaders and worsen the fledgling counter-ideology sectors already in place. I am making the bold statement that our problem is precisely that the expertise we sought over the past eight years is the reason for our inability to detect radicalization. Hence I would recommend an additional inquiry into our own specialization body before we re-contract it to lead the war of ideas.
The beef is there. Everything else is dressing.
**Dr. Walid Phares is Director of the Future Terrorism Project at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) in Washington, D.C. He is the author of the recently released book, The Confrontation: Winning the War against Future Jihad.
2 Comments on "Major Hasan and the Ideological Blinders"

Robert Fisk's World: The never-ending exodus of Christians from the Middle East
One of the oldest sects in the world is still fleeing sectarian violence for the West
Saturday, 23 January 2010
The Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisks-world-the-neverending-exodus-of-christians-from-the-middle-east-1876432.html
I have usually found that the closer a religious Christian, Jew or Muslim comes to the Middle East, the madder they become. The most avuncular Shropshire vicar, the kindest Jewish moderate, the most secular Muslim – dump them within a thousand miles of Jerusalem and they have the eyes of Lord Blair of Kut-al-Amara, that crazed, glazed, faith-based lunacy that must have inhabited the eyes of the Crusaders when they slaughtered their way across the Holy Land, dropping off near modern-day Homs in modern-day Syria to consume – literally – some of their Arab enemies. Orthodox priests fight each other over Christ's tomb; Israeli settlers claim that the Koran is not "a valid document" and local Muslims fully intend to "Islamicise" the world.
Was I the only one to react with a total lack of surprise to the news that Muslim Afghan soldiers are fighting Muslim Taliban fighters with a coded inscription on their rifle sights from the Bible's Book of John? Could Holman Hunt – who also went batty in the Middle East – have imagined that his Light of the World (Jesus, no less, painted in 1854) would be guiding the path of American as well as Afghan army bullets into the hearts of the Muslim Taliban? Possibly. So it turns out that another bunch of religious nutters, the makers of Trijicon rifle sights in the United States, believe the inscription is "part of our faith and our belief in service to our country".
Not since the Serbs and Lebanese Phalangists set off to massacre and rape their Muslim enemies over the past three decades with pictures of the Virgin Mary on their rifle butts has there been anything so preposterous. No doubt, our brave Dutch newspaper cartoonist – he of bomb-in-the-Prophet's-hat humour – will now sketch Jesus using a clip of 7.62 ammo to bang on the door of that wretched cottage in the Hunt portrait. Indeed, 'twas I who first spotted two American M(12A)1 Abrams tanks parked in central Baghdad in 2003 with "Crusader 1" and "Crusader 2" painted on their barrels. But since the man who sent them there – check out Bush's lunatic conversation with Chirac – believes in Gog and Magog, what's new? Don't tell me no one in the Pentagon (or the British Ministry of Defence, which has an order in for another 400 Trijicon sites) didn't query that weird "JN8:12" on the equipment.
No wonder then – and here's a real tragedy – that Christians are in a state of perpetual exodus from the Middle East. In Egypt, six Coptic Christians were killed at Christmas – along with a Muslim policeman – when local Muslims attacked them. The Copts are maybe 10 per cent of their country's 80 million people but they are heading in droves for America. One problem they have is seeking official permission to build churches in Egypt – and if they get this permission, sure enough, up will pop a mosque right next door.
Courtesy of that great Bible-reader George W Bush, the Christians of post-invasion Iraq – one of the oldest sects in the world – are still fleeing sectarian violence for the West. They've been murdered and burned out of their homes. Why, even the head of the superior Islamic council of Iraq, Ammar al-Hakim, turned up in Beirut this week to tell the Maronite Catholic patriarch of Lebanon that he was doing "all he could" for his Iraqi Christian brothers and sisters. Algerian Islamists have just burned a Christian Protestant church in an apartment in the Berber city of Tizi Ouzou. But as an Algerian police officer said to the local AP man in the town a few days ago, "What happened is appalling, but the apartment wasn't an authorised house to practise a religion..." So that's OK then.
There's not much point, of course, in looking for the last known resting place of one and a half million Christian Armenians, because they were mass-slaughtered by the Turks in 1915 – although neither Bush nor his successor will call it a genocide because they are frightened of Muslim Turkey. Yup, the "era of martyrdom" started by Diocletian in AD284 just goes on and on.
The Christians of Lebanon would say the same, forgetting their own murderous militias of the civil war. But wasn't it the largely Muslim Palestinians who in that same war claimed that the "road to Jerusalem" passed through Ayoun el-Siman, the very Christian heartland of Lebanon? Please note how I have not touched upon the anti-Christian savagery of Nigeria – whose revolving presidency is currently held by a Muslim who is under permanent medical attention in Saudi Arabia, the seat of Wahhabism – nor of Malaysia, where Christians are now under attack for being allowed to call their God "Allah". The fact that Muslims and Christians both believe in the same deity has no apparent value. Indeed, in God's name – quite literally – the very name of the very patriarch of the Lebanese church is Nasrallah Sfeir – the "allah" bit meaning exactly what it sounds like. Ye Gods, I suppose we must say!
But I was heartened to read a fine article by my wise old journalist friend Jihad Zein in the Lebanese newspaper An Nahar last week. He believes that governments in the Muslim world have been repressing societies but – and I hope I have grasped his complex argument correctly – repressed societies are now repressing minorities. He points out that the exodus of Christians from neighbouring Muslim countries have actually thickened the Christian populations of Damascus and Aleppo in Syria. The 1914-18 war had a direct demographic impact on the Middle East's Christians, quite apart from the Armenian genocide.
The British tolerated – and in some cases actually covered up – the genocide of Assyrians in northern Iraq by their installed Iraqi monarch's army in 1933. I've read that some of King Faisal's soldiers had originally also fought in the Ottoman army, so practised the art of killing Christians by slaughtering Armenians – just as some German officers in the Ottoman army who witnessed the Armenian genocide thus learned how to murder the Jews of Europe a quarter of a century later. In any event, the Zein thesis is that Middle East governments have abandoned the idea of cultural authority in the interests of safeguarding the security of their political society. The Fisk thesis is that minorities don't count any more.
But don't bet on it. Was it not the army of Israel which named its 1996 bombardment of Lebanon "Grapes of Wrath", an operation which included the atrocity at Qana, when 106 Lebanese civilians, more than half of them children and including mothers and old men, were torn to bits by Israeli shells? And did not Grapes of Wrath take its name from chapter 32, verse 25 of the Book of Deuteronomy in which it is said that "the sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of grey hairs". All in all, a good description of the massacre at Qana. Or of those innocent Afghan villagers torn to bits in Nato's heroic air strikes. Indeed, I wouldn't be surprised to hear that DY32:25 is inscribed on Nato's bombs. Work that one out.

Syria's Mufti: Islam commands us to protect Judaism
By Haaretz Service
19/01/2010
Syria's foremost Muslim leader declared on Tuesday that Islam commands its followers to protect Judaism, according to Army Radio. "If the Prophet Mohammed had asked me to deem Christians or Jews heretics, I would have deemed Mohammed himself a heretic," Sheikh Ahmed Hassoun, the Mufti of Syria, was quoted as telling a delegation of American academics visiting Damascus. Hassoun, the leader of Syria's majority Sunni Muslim community, also told the delegates that Islam was a religion of peace, adding: "If Mohammed had commanded us to kill people, I would have told him he was not a prophet." Religious wars were the result of politics infiltrating systems of faith, he said, asking: "Was Moses of Middle Eastern or European descent? Was Jesus a Protestant or a Catholic? Was Mohammed Shi'ite or Sunni?" According to the Mufti, the conflict between Israel and its Arabs neighbors has nothing to do with an Islamic war against Judaism. "Before you got American citizenship, and I got Syrian citizenship, we were all brothers under the dome of God," he said. Jews had once lived in Syria peacefully and with fair treatment, he added, explaining that his own grandfather had a Jewish partner. "Jews lived in Syria for years and they still have a role in Syrian society," he said

Exemplary, and in need of protection
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Editorial/Daily Star
No foreign government is as intimate with the Lebanese agenda as the French. As a former colonial power in the region and former holder of the UN mandate over Lebanon, the two countries have long historical, religious, linguistic and cultural ties. France contributed significantly to the reconstruction of Lebanon in the aftermath of the Civil War, and then following the devastating Israeli attack in 2006. It has played an active role in peace negotiations over the years, both internally and externally. The close friendship between former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and Jacques Chirac represented a high point in relations between the two countries. Recent reports of French reluctance to supply Lebanon with missiles over fear they will fall into the hands of Hizbullah is not representative of the role France could, and should be playing in helping Lebanon find peace with its neighbors. It is no secret that our neighbor to the south is militarily stronger – the international community seemingly has no qualms about hi-tech arms falling into the hands of a country which has shown willingness to use them unremittingly against civilians. Given the aggressive nature of said neighbor, it should also be no secret that Lebanon requires protection.  Despite its frailties, Lebanon is a fine example of how democracy can work in the Mideast, but its frailties cannot be ignored. Indeed, to disregard its weaknesses would be to risk Lebanon’s very survival. France has the ability, and in the past has shown the will to take up the role of Lebanon’s advocate; there is no reason why it cannot do so again. Lebanon requires a diplomatic wall to be built between it and Israel, different from the pseudo-defensive structure surrounding the people of Gaza in that rather than strangling Lebanon, such a wall would protect it. As a leader in Europe, France should be championing Lebanon’s cause among other EU powers. It, more so than any other country, has the means and the knowledge reach a diplomatic solution to the issues which threaten to cause conflict in Lebanon. Even aside from economic and historical links between Lebanon and France, and the responsibilities former colonial powers have to their former colonies, it should be incentive enough for France to preserve democracy in a region where it is severely lacking. It remains to be seen whether France’s lack of enthusiasm to support Lebanon’s army will translate into a détente of political support, or a diminishing of a special relationship. With talk of war becoming more frequent and insistent, the enthusiasm with which France once embraced Lebanon is needed more than ever.