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.