LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
March 05/2010

Bible Of the Day
Lebanon’s politicians know no shame or blush./Because human beings remain entangles in traps of covetousness in all times and ages, and because their thinking components are always strongly inclined to fall in temptation, and because their chronic struggle between good and evil continues on, and because sadly this is our situation today in occupied Lebanon, and because the Lebanese have lost their priorities and confused their criterion of what is right and what is wrong, and because the Lebanese politicians are hostages for ingratitude, selfishness and lead to disasters, we borrow the below verses from Jeremiah hoping that it might awake those who are lost & confused:
Jeremiah 6/10-15/To whom shall I speak and testify, that they may hear? Behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they can’t listen. Behold, the word of Yahweh has become a reproach to them. They have no delight in it. 6:11 Therefore I am full of the wrath of Yahweh. I am weary with holding in. “Pour it out on the children in the street, and on the assembly of young men together; for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him who is full of days. Their houses shall be turned to others, their fields and their wives together; for I will stretch out my hand on the inhabitants of the land, says Yahweh.” “For from their least even to their greatest, everyone is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even to the priest, everyone deals falsely. They have healed also the hurt of my people superficially, saying, ‘Peace, peace!’ when there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time that I visit them, they shall be cast down,” says Yahweh.

Free Opinions, Releases, letters & Special Reports
Just what does Barack Obama stand for?/By Michael Young/March 04/10
National Dialogue session 'will not push Hizbullah to disarm/By Michael Bluhm/March 04/10
The Iranian lobby/Hussain Abdul-Hussain/March 04/10

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for March 04/10
Appointments Made by Majority Vote: Aoun's Bloc Vetoed, Hizbullah Abstained, Tashnag Approved/Naharnet
Egyptian FM advises Israel not to start another war in Lebanon/Ynetnews
Bashar Assad: What you see is what you get/Jerusalem Post
Shami: U.S. Embassy Eavesdropping Report Exaggerated/Naharnet
New Hurdle to Iran Sanctions/Wall Street Journal
US request for data on mobile networks came through improper channels - Berri/Daily Star
Magistrate urges death penalty for 9 Fatah al-Islam fighters/Daily Star
Maronite Bishops call for united Lebanese vision/Daily Star
National Dialogue session 'will not push Hizbullah to disarm/Daily Star
Lebanese Cabinet green lights administrative appointments/Daily Star
Sleiman's National Dialogue line-up stirs debate among parties/Daily Star
Minister determined to overhaul Lebanese agricultural sector/Daily Star
Professors strike as Cabinet fails to meet demands/Daily Star
Draft law to ban tobacco advertisement approved/Daily Star
Study looks into Arabic as a heritage language/Daily Star
Abboud, Wardeh discuss diaspora at news conference/Daily Star
Chouf project hopes to reconnect people with nature/Daily Star
Who is she in Lebanon?/Daily Star
LAU creates web database of prominent women/Daily Star
Iran casts its shadow over high-stakes Iraq vote/The Associated Press
Hamas, Hezbollah Could Push Isr ael To War/Aviation Week
Egypt Court Orders Retrial for Tamim Murder Death Row Pair/Naharnet
Abul Gheit: Egypt against Any Israeli Attack on Lebanon, Syria/Naharnet
PM Tasks Khalife, Harb to Look Into Aide to Families of Plane Crash Victims/Naharnet
Hariri: Weekend in Kuwait/Naharnet
Abu Moussa Says Ready to Relocate Fatah-Intifada Bases to Points Defined by Lebanese Army/Naharnet
Hizbullah: All Foreigners in Lebanon are Possibly Spy Agents/Naharnet
Sami Gemayel: Predetermined Ranking of Candidates Undermines Proportional Representation, Dialogue Must Be 'Lebanese'/Naharnet
Berri Wonders about Link between U.S. Training ISF, Requesting Mobile Network Data/Naharnet
8 Charged with Plotting Attacks on Lebanese Army/Naharnet
Karami Snaps Back at LF: Congratulations to Those Who Turned the Criminal into a Saint/Naharnet
Abu al-Aynayn says Israel will launch a new war/Now Lebanon

Hizbullah: All Foreigners in Lebanon are Possibly Spy Agents
Naharnet/Security must be stepped up for all foreigners entering Lebanon as they could be secret agents like those who murdered a top Hamas militant in Dubai, Hizbullah MP Nawaf Moussawi told AFP. "We must tighten foreign passport control at the airport and elsewhere in the country," Moussawi said. "Every Lebanese and Arab must deal with holders of foreign passports as potential spies." Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a founder of the military wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, was found dead in his luxurious Dubai hotel room on January 20. Dubai police have said he was drugged then suffocated in what they say was a Cold War-style hit carried out by Israel's Mossad secret service.
British, Irish, French, Australian and German passports were used in the murder, the police said. Moussawi slammed European states for failing to "assume responsibility for the violation of their sovereignty" over the use of their passports by Mabhouh's killers in Dubai. "If European countries do not respect their own passport-holders... then they must expect they will be treated with suspicion," he said. Moussawi said Israeli journalists with EU passports had also entered Lebanon in 2006 during the Shiite militant party's devastating war with the Jewish state.
"It happened in Lebanon in 2006, so the risk of it happening again is more than likely," said the MP. Lebanese authorities have made dozens of arrests in an expanding crackdown on Israeli espionage rings launched last year. Lebanon and Israel remain technically at a state of war, and convicted spies face life in prison with hard labor or the death penalty if found guilty of contributing to Lebanese loss of life. Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Monday called for any Lebanese citizens convicted of spying for the Jewish state in a series of trials in recent months to be hanged. Retired security official Mahmoud Qassem Rafeh, 63, was sentenced to death last month for espionage on behalf of Israel.
He was also convicted for involvement in a 2006 car bombing in the southern coastal town of Sidon that killed brothers Mahmoud and Nidal Mazjoub, members of Islamic Jihad.
A Lebanese arrested last month on suspicion of spying for Israel on Monday also confessed to his involvement a 2004 bomb attack that killed Hizbullah official Ghaleb Awali, a security source told AFP. Israel has made no public comment on the arrests.(AFP) Beirut, 04 Mar 10, 07:12

Abu al-Aynayn says Israel will launch a new war
March 4, 2010 /Naharnet/Fatah Movement official Sultan Abu al-Aynayn said in an interview with Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Anbaa published on Thursday that he believes Israel will launch a new regional war, adding Tel Aviv wants to tip the balance of power in its favor. “We will keep fighting as long as there is occupation,” said Abu al-Aynayn, before calling for “inflicting pain on the Jewish State.”He voiced regret that Arab states are incapable of confronting Israel, and said he was afraid that the upcoming Arab summit in Libya might fall short of attaining its goals. He also said that Arab governments should foster good relations with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, adding, “It is the right of Arab [states] to call on the Palestinians to unite, and it is our right that they support and protect us.” Abu al-Aynayn also touched on last year’s almost-reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah, saying that the former did not sign the agreement because it has other interests. However, he did not elaborate further. -NOW Lebanon

Abul Gheit: Egypt against Any Israeli Attack on Lebanon, Syria
Naharnet/Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said Egypt rejects any "act of aggression" against Lebanon and advised Israel not to resume war against him. "Weapons should not be used to try to solve problems because violence was not in any way the key to solving any dispute," Abul Gheit told pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat in remarks published Thursday. He stressed that Egypt also rejects any Israeli attack on Syria. Lebanon and Syria "are two Arab countries and we seek to ensure that the best interests of their peoples are met," Abul Gheit added.
He agreed that the region is now "held hostage by Iran." Abul Gheit, however, stressed that "Egypt spearheads the defense of Arab interests." Beirut, 04 Mar 10, 11:31

Appointments Made by Majority Vote: Aoun's Bloc Vetoed, Hizbullah Abstained, Tashnag Approved
Naharnet/Following a heated debate, 20 Cabinet ministers voted in favor of a series of appointments and the Council of Ministers is scheduled to hold an extraordinary session on Thursday to approve other designations. Selection of names was not itself shocking, but the way Prime Minister Saad Hariri handled the issue when he insisted that the appointments be made by a majority vote of the Cabinet. Those who voted in favor of the measure where ministers representing Future Movement, Progressive Socialist Party, AMAL, Lebanese Forces and Phalange Party. Three ministers from Michel Aoun's Change and Reform bloc vetoed the appointments and two Hizbullah members abstained from voting. And to complete the surprise, Tashnag Cabinet Minister Abraham Dedeyan, who is a member of Aoun's bloc, was the person who tipped the balance in the voting. The government on Wednesday named former Cabinet Minister Khaled Qabbani as head of the Civil Service Council, Judge Aouni Ramadan as President of the Audit Bureau and Magistrate Ahmad Karam as head the Judicial Inspection Committee. Cabinet also agreed to a proposal by Energy and Water Minister Jebran Bassil to stop subsidizing diesel oil. "Minister Bassil will submit suggestions in the next session aimed to help citizens and reduce their fuel expenses," Information Minister Tareq Mitri said. Cabinet will meet Thursday to approve appointments for the Banking Control Committee. Beirut, 04 Mar 10, 08:10

Shami: U.S. Embassy Eavesdropping Report Exaggerated
Naharnet/Foreign Minister Ali al-Shami said Thursday a report accusing the U.S. of eavesdropping is "exaggerated."
The daily As-Safir had said in a recent report that the U.S. embassy in Lebanon has asked Lebanese police to provide the diplomatic mission with data on Lebanon's two mobile phone companies – Alfa and MTC Touch. "The story was just a news report," Shami said after talks with Arab League chief Amr Moussa on the sidelines of a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo. "The official U.S. position, however, as we were told and understood, is that the issue is not so serious and the report has been exaggerated by the media," Shami told reporters.
"Lebanon's security is exposed by a global decision and by a security system that lacks national regulations and by a political system which makes Lebanese citizens serve as members to external powers," As-Safir wrote. It said on April 1, 2009 a U.S. embassy official handed over a letter to the Office of Head of the Criminal Investigation Department at the headquarters of the Internal Security Forces in Beirut. The letter, according to As-Safir, called on ISF to provide the embassy with data on Alfa and MTC as well as an overview of transmission and distribution in terms of the operating boundaries. The embassy was also said to have asked for technical details related to the telecommunications sector. As-Safir said that one of the two mobile companies turned down the embassy request, saying it won't give any information unless authorized to do so by Telecommunications Minister Sharbel Nahhas.
It said the request went through many levels of the Lebanese bureaucracy, until it finally landed at Nahhas' office, a process which took about a month.
As-Safir said the then Telecommunications Minister Jebran Bassil did not hesitate to reject the request, citing his refusal in a letter to Interior Minister Ziad Baroud as follows: "We found that the U.S. Embassy request to the ISF asking for information about the mobile broadcast networks is an extremely important issue related to national security. Such information, consequently, cannot be offered to foreign embassies." Beirut, 04 Mar 10, 13:08

PM Tasks Khalife, Harb to Look Into Aide to Families of Plane Crash Victims
Naharnet/Prime Minister Saad Hariri has tasked Health Minister Mohammed Jawad Khalife and Labor Minister Butros Harb to look into the appropriate aide to families of the ill-fated Ethiopian Airlines plane. Hariri, who headed a Cabinet meeting at the Grand Serail on Wednesday, informed Cabinet members about his meeting with the victims' families.
Hariri responded to inquiries of families of the plane crash victims and listened to their demands and legal rights, Information Minister Tareq Mitri said. On Tuesday, Hariri met with the victims' families and promised compensation for them. "I promise to give you compensation as soon as Cabinet takes a decision in this regard," Hariri has said. Beirut, 04 Mar 10, 08:41

Abu Moussa Says Ready to Relocate Fatah-Intifada Bases to Points Defined by Lebanese Army
Naharnet/Fatah-Intifada chief Abu Moussa on Wednesday expressed willingness to relocate his organization's military bases -- operating outside Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon -- "to other points defined by the army." In an interview with the state-owned Iranian Arabic news channel al-Alam, Abu Moussa noted that "relocating the aforementioned bases is subject to dialogue with the Lebanese government and the ball is now in its court," stressing the willingness of his organization "for talks with the Lebanese authorities."Furthermore, Abu Moussa saw the possibility for "incorporating Palestinian arms in the frame of Lebanon's defensive strategy," hoping for his vision "to be taken into consideration on the eve of national dialogue." Beirut, 03 Mar 10, 20:42

Sami Gemayel: Predetermined Ranking of Candidates Undermines Proportional Representation, Dialogue Must Be 'Lebanese'
Naharnet/Phalange parliamentary bloc MP Sami Gemayel on Wednesday tackled the issue of the upcoming municipal elections, stressing that "the type of proportional representation law suggested by the cabinet, in regards to predetermined ranking of candidates, undermines the concept of proportionality." "How would we convince villagers and residents of some areas to agree on who ranks first and who ranks second in a given list?" he added. "This method generates a negative response to the concept of proportionality, while it is an excellent law, but improper implementation will fire back negatively." At a press conference, Gemayel called for adopting preferential voting through giving the voter the right to arrange names in a list instead of predetermined ranking imposed by those who put the lists together. "That would lead to dilemmas and disputes among families, the thing that leads to halting the process of list formation," he added. Gemayel also suggested to rank candidates according to alphabetical order giving the voters the right to choose their favorite candidates. He stressed: "This is the best way to achieve proportional representation, and not to get into problems. We have started to hear objections in opposition to proportionality coming from Zahle and Majdal Anjar."
As to March 14 general-secretariat's demand to invite the Arab League to participate in national dialogue, Gemayel said: "We want inter-Lebanese dialogue away from any foreign intervention.""This dialogue is for the Lebanese to talk to each other and find solutions without anyone's sponsorship," he added. Commenting on the issue of expanding the national dialogue agenda to include topics other than the defensive strategy, Gemayel said: "We reiterate that Lebanon can't go on with the current approach. We are facing fundamental problems in the Lebanese political regime and a major crisis of confidence among the Lebanese that all need treatment. We do not oppose discussing important issues at the dialogue table, related to Lebanon's future, and topped by Hizbullah's arms issue." Beirut, 03 Mar 10, 18:41

Hariri: Weekend in Kuwait
Naharnet/Prime Minister Saad Hariri briefed Cabinet on his recent trip to Doha where talks focused on Israeli threats as well as the promotion of Qatari investments in Lebanon, particularly in infrastructure. Information Minister Tareq Mitri said Hariri would visit Kuwait over the weekend, without giving details. Beirut, 04 Mar 10, 09:29

Sleiman's National Dialogue line-up stirs debate among parties
‘It is Impossible to satisfy all parties, but everyone will participate,’ says adviser
By Elias Sakr /Daily Star staff
Thursday, March 04, 2010
BEIRUT: As Speaker Nabih Berri stressed Wednesday that any decision with regard to National Dialogue sessions was up to President Michel Sleiman to take, the latter’s choice of participants continued to stir debate among political parties. Sleiman’s political adviser Nazem Khoury said that despite objections over the participating committee, the president would not make any amendments regarding the nominated representatives. Berri, who discussed with Sleiman at Baabda Presidential Palace the latest political developments, stressed earlier that he would attend the national dialogue meeting scheduled next Tuesday.
“It is impossible to satisfy all parties but we will reach a certain procedure that guarantees everyone’s participation,” Khoury added. On Sunday, Sleiman announced an expanded list of participants, but members of both the majority March 14 and the opposition alliances have voiced reservations about the inclusion of new members to the committee, as well as the exclusion of others. Khoury added that Sleiman would make an opening speech highlighting the circumstances surrounding the formation of the National Dialogue Committee ahead of its first meeting.
Meanwhile, Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s political aide Hussein Khalil said Wednesday that his party demanded unified and clear standards regarding the representation of all parties.
However, he added Hizbullah would not withdraw from dialogue sessions to prevent the interpretation of such a step as a maneuver to avoid discussing a national defense strategy.
Following a meeting with former Premier Omar Karami, Khalil said Hizbullah supported the participation of all former Lebanese top officials in national dialogue regardless of their religious affiliations. In a response to a statement Tuesday by Karami saying that he was not keen to participate in National Dialogue sessions “given the participation of a murderer called Samir Geagea,” the Lebanese Forces (LF) said Karami provoked chaos in the media since he was not invited to participate in the elections. “Karami’s problem is with March 8 forces rather than March 14 Christians, since the opposition used him as a cover to implement their agenda and then dumped him after fulfilling their plans,” the LF statement said.
The LF also accused Karami of setting up false charges against Geagea with the help of the Syrian intelligence during their presence in Lebanon.
A statement issued Wednesday by Karami’s press office said that the former premier “will not be drawn into a debate with either saints or murderers” as “certain parties elevated Geagea to the level of a saint while others forgave him as a murderer and released him from prison.”
On Wednesday, Geagea held discussions with Sleiman at Baabda Presidential Palace.
Also in a statement issued Wednesday, Hizbullah slammed the LF statement saying the party sought to instigate strife among Lebanese and its statement represented an insult to all Lebanese and the presidency. “The viewpoints of the March 14 camp, especially its Christians, are well-known: They want to offer an immediate service to Israel,” Karami
said Tuesday, adding that “however, it won’t happen.” Meanwhile, controversy emerged among the ranks of the March 14 alliance Wednesday with regard to demands calling for the participation of the Arab league in National Dialogue sessions as Phalange Party MP Sami Gemayel rejected any foreign interference even by the Arab league.
“We want an inter-Lebanese dialogue without any foreign influence and we reject any interference by the Arab league,” Gemayel said. “The Arab league participation in the dialogue represents the Lebanese top interest since protecting Lebanon besides being a Lebanese responsibility is an Arab and international one too based on Arab solidarity and UN Security Council Resolution 1701,”a statement made Wednesday by the March 14 General Secretariat said. The secretariat also called for restricting discussions to the national defense strategy and granting the Lebanese state monopoly over security and defense decisions. Separately, Hizbullah’s Loyalty to Resistance bloc voiced hope Wednesday that the National Dialogue table would be an opportunity to reach a consensus among the Lebanese over a national defense strategy that protects Lebanon.
However, the bloc’s statement stressed that last week’s summit between Nasrallah, Syrian President Bashar Assad and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was “the objective response to Israeli threats.” “The cooperation and harmony among resistance movements in the region along with national unity in Lebanon is enough to eliminate any potential aggression against Lebanon,” the statement added. Separately, Zahle in the Heart bloc questioned Wednesday Free Patriotic Movement MP Michel Aoun’s demand to appoint former MP Elie Skaff to represent Greek Catholics in National Dialogue sessions contrary to the June 2009 poll results.

National Dialogue session 'will not push Hizbullah to disarm'
Country is in a state of total political immobility, say analysts
By Michael Bluhm
Daily Star staff/Thursday, March 04, 2010
Analysis
BEIRUT: President Michel Sleiman is merely fulfilling his requirements as head of state by convening next Tuesday’s National Dialogue session, even though the meeting will not budge the status of Hizbullah’s arms, a number of analysts told The Daily Star on Wednesday.
“It’s a periodic photo opportunity to reinforce the prevailing calm and remind everyone of the pressing issues without the illusion that the issues will be resolved at that table,” said Habib Malik, who teaches history at the Lebanese American University and is the son of Charles Malik, one of modern Lebanon’s founders and co-author of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
While some politicians said they were surprised by Sleiman’s announcement on Sunday of the dialogue’s participants, the president would have likely convened the session long ago had the country’s rival political factions not taken more than five months to form a national-unity government after last June’s general elections, said Former Ambassador Abdallah Bou Habib, managing director of the Issam Fares Center for Lebanon, a non-partisan think tank.
After Prime Minister Saad Hariri cobbled together the 30-member Cabinet late last November, the president allowed the holidays to pass before beginning preparations to resume the National Dialogue, Bou Habib added. In addition, international actors such as the US and the UN have been pushing Sleiman to reopen the subject of Hizbullah’s weapons, said Hilal Khashan, professor of political studies at the American University of Beirut. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged Sleiman to resume the National Dialogue in his latest report on the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 summer war with Israel. Spanish UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon also recently performed maneuvers with the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) on Mount Hermon, an unprecedented exercise in stemming the alleged flow of illegal arms to Hizbullah, Khashan added.
Sleiman “is coming under international pressure,” Khashan added. “The issue [of Hizbullah’s arms] has been revived … and the president finds himself compelled to do something about it.”
Israel and Hizbullah have lately been trading threats of military action, and Sleiman might also have called for dialogue as a means to calm tensions and avert conflict.
With belligerent rhetoric running high, Sleiman wants to give the impression that the Lebanese state – and not Hizbullah – still makes decisions on war and peace, said retired General Elias Hanna, who teaches political science.
While the topic of Hizbullah’s arsenal continues to make headlines, the National Dialogue can accomplish “absolutely nothing” toward resolving the dispute over Hizbullah’s right to bear arms, Khashan said. When Hizbullah’s military superiority allowed it to easily seize swathes of western Beirut in brief civil unrest in May 2008, it also cemented its political control over Lebanon and its power to decide the country’s most vital issues, the analysts said.
Sleiman “knows – like everybody – that this will be a futile exercise,” Khashan said. “Realistically, nothing will come out of it.”
The Shiite group cannot entertain thoughts of disarming, Hanna said, because Hizbullah’s weapons play too important a role in the ongoing regional standoff between Hizbullah’s allies in Iran, Syria and Hamas against the US, Israel and their regional partners. “Hizbullah’s arms are higher in the regional hierarchy than the dialogue table,” he added. “The table of dialogue will not affect this balance of power. Nothing essential will come out of this table.” While the dialogue sessions will not result in any change in the status of Hizbullah’s arsenal, at least hearing copious objections from its opponents might lead Hizbullah to reconsider any military plans, Malik said.
“It’s healthy for them to hear that many Lebanese are concerned about having a war thrust on them,” he said, adding that he thought Hizbullah was not planning to initiate any conflict with Israel that might upset Hizbullah’s dominant domestic standing. For their part, Hizbullah is “not interested” in holding any dialogue about its arms, Khashan said. “Every time these talks are activated, it puts Hizbullah on the spot,” he said. “Hizbullah does not want any coordination with the army.”
Khashan added that, despite the National Dialogue’s impotence, the impasse over Hizbullah’s weapons remains Lebanon’s central issue, because the unresolved matter has dragged the country into a comatose state, as the attendant instability prevented any development in a number of spheres. “The country is on hold,” he said. “Nothing will happen in Lebanon until after this issue is resolved. The country is in a state of total political immobility,” he added. Although the dialogue will not make any progress regarding Hizbullah’s weapons, it could act to consolidate the standing of the LAF as the country’s guarantor of law and order, Khashan said. Sleiman, former head of the LAF, last month traveled to Russia and sealed a deal for 10 M24 helicopters, which can be used to ensure domestic security, Khashan added. “There is a general expectation that the army will play a greater role in maintaining law and order in the country in future,” he said. The course of the dialogue session will also bear watching for signs of the continuing political realignment, as Progressive Socialist Party head Walid Jumblatt moves away from the March 14 camp toward the Hizbullah-led March 8 alliance, Malik said. In spite of the low expectations surrounding the National Dialogue, its mere occurrence could serve to defuse lingering political antagonisms by conveying the image of rivals engaging in peaceful dialogue, Malik added. “We have dialogues when things are calm, and after dialogues things tend to stay calm,” he said.

Just what does Barack Obama stand for?
By Michael Young
/Daily Star/Thursday, March 04, 2010
Why is it that only days before Iraq’s parliamentary elections, we’re getting no sense of what they mean for the United States? Barack Obama’s White House and the American public seem strangely detached from the event, the mental door having been closed on Iraq some time ago. This begs a larger question: What does the US stand for in the Middle East?
Judging from the Obama administration’s performance recently, it’s hard to tell. If we take a random selection of values or principles that might be guiding the US in the region, we enter a policy fog, the frequent over-reliance on style at the expense of substance. One can say many things about George W. Bush’s years in office, positive and negative, but he never sinned through ambiguity. A year into Obama’s term, however, ambiguity and disorientation are presidential trademarks in the Middle East.
Does the administration stand for democracy, for example, or more broadly has it made human rights principles a centerpiece of its policy? Not really. During his campaign Obama consciously played down that trope by accepting that he would talk to the region’s rogues without condition. He tried with the Iranian regime, which ignored his overtures, and when the Green Movement took to the streets last summer, the president for a time studiously avoided encouraging the demonstrators. In his Cairo speech, Obama only paid lip service to democracy and human rights, showing that they were really not what preoccupied him.
Now Washington has sent an ambassador back to Damascus – without conditions. Syria’s responsibility for the assassination of Rafik Hariri has been quietly played down (though to be fair, no less so than it has been in Beirut), and the Assad regime’s abuse of its own population is of utter disinterest to the Americans. Syrian involvement in the myriad bomb attacks in Iraq, its support for Iraqi Baathists, and its permissiveness toward Al-Qaeda in Iraq have not made the administration reconsider its Syrian opening. Violence works, and Obama has not proven otherwise.
In that case, can we say that the administration stands for stability and balance in the Middle East? Syria may have a nasty regime, defenders of that argument might say, but at least it can help the US counter-balance its other regional rivals, above all Iran. If so, then nothing indicates that Obama’s team is close to achieving that premise. The Syrians have made it amply clear that they will not turn against Iran, nor do they see any advantages in doing so, and Damascus’ propensity for exporting conflict to Iraq, the Palestinian areas, and Lebanon, hardly enhances stability.
One country where the balancing game might be played against Iran is Iraq, but there the US has managed in the past year to greatly undermine its own effectiveness. The administration’s focus on a military pullout has reduced its leverage in Baghdad (recall Vice President Joe Biden’s failed mission recently to get the Iraqi government to reverse a decision to ban Sunni candidates). There is also the fact that Obama, from the beginning, never clearly defined what role Iraq would play in American regional strategy. The president has neither highlighted the country as a model of Arab pluralism and democracy (albeit an imperfect one), nor as an essential front line in the containment of Iranian regional influence.
So, if the US priority in the Middle East is not advancing democratic ideals or enforcing human rights principles, and if its ambition to impose stability and balance is sorely lacking, then what else defines its behavior? Is it to enhance American power regionally? Power was at the center of the neoconservative worldview, so when Obama entered office he tried to portray his administration in less stark a light. Yes, power was important, for example in Afghanistan, but America would also seek dialogue, consensus, peace between Arabs and Israelis, and would generally put on a kinder, friendlier face than the Bush administration.
That kinder, friendlier face was shown two weeks ago, when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton publicly declared that the US would not use force against Iran. An attack on Iran would doubtless be a terrible idea, but for Clinton to rule out such an action so bluntly was not the best use she could have made of American military superiority. Indeed, it clarified a situation that the Obama administration should not have clarified, and the statement may ensure that the hardest of the hardliners in Tehran will win all future domestic debates on the best way to deal with international efforts to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
American power has been equally absent elsewhere. Nothing has been done to make Syria pay for undermining Iraqi stability, which presumably is a vital American interest. Iran has been more effective than the US in building networks of alliances in Iraq, even though the Americans have spent seven years in the country. Nothing has been done to make Israel more pliant on a settlement with the Palestinians, though administration spokespersons have described Palestinian-Israeli peace as a vital US interest. And Washington has, similarly, been incapable of persuading Arab states to implement even limited normalization with Israel as a prerequisite to regional talks, which Obama promised he would restart.
The reality is that the Obama administration these days provokes little confidence in its allies and even less fear in its adversaries. The US remains the dominant actor in the Middle East, but to what end? If Obama’s ultimate goal is to be different than George W. Bush, he hasn’t even managed that. As setback follows setback, he is increasingly finding himself constrained by the same dynamics that Bush faced. But at least Bush knew what he was supposed to be about. Obama just seems lost. *Michael Young is opinion editor of THE DAILY STAR.

Politics - Lebanese Forces blasts Omar Karami for slandering head of the LF Samir Geagea
NNA - The Lebanese Forces (LF) criticized in a statement former prime minister Omar Karami for his verbal attacks on the national dialogue committee and head of the LF Samir Geagea. It added that Karmai is waging a vicious campaign against the committee just because he was not named by the president to take part in the discussions. The statement expressed its indignation over the remarks of Karami who said that he will not sit next to a criminal person like Geagea. It called on Karami to end this travesty as most Lebanese no longer heed his words or advice. The LF stressed that Karami's position would have been totally different if he was named as member of the national dialogue committee. It added that March 8 has used Karami as a camouflage to implement its schemes and then dumped him after fulfilling all its plans. The LF accused Karmai of fabricating, with the help of the security apparatus at that time, fictitious files and charges against Geagea. It reminded Karami that even MP Michel Aoun at one point accused the security apparatus of fabricating all the charges against Geagea and all those who were struggling against the Syrian hegemony in Lebanon. "Karmai is the last person to slander Geagea especially since this person ( Krami) was a witness for the political siege against former prime minister Rafik Hariri and until his assassination," the statement said. It suggested that Karmai was involved in covering up the scene of the crime against Hariri.
03/03/10 13:22

Politics - Hizbullah critical of Lebanese Forces statement against Karami and opposition
NNA - Hizbullah issued a statement today, in which it sounded critical of the statement lately released by the Lebanese Forces attacking Former Prime Minister Omar Karami and the Lebanese Opposition. In its statement, Hizbullah reaffirmed its support to Karami, especially in light of the heinous verbal attack he has been subject to by the Lebanese Forces. Moreover, party assured that the LF hasn't surprised it with its desperate attempts at fomenting strife between forces belonging to the same national rank. Hizbullah assured as well that the language of slander and libel is an insult addressed to all the Lebanese people, and to the Lebanese President 03/03/10 13:22

Politics - MP Gemayel holds press conference at Nejmeh square
NNA - Member of Parliament, Sami Gemayel, held a press conference at Nejmeh square following his encounter with Speaker of the House Nabih Berri.
Gemayel made clear that his visit to Berri aimed at discussing the Municipal elections law issue. Gemayel suggested giving people the right to "favorite vote" and to allow citizens to reorganize name order of electoral rolls. Touching on the dialogue table negotiations, Gemayel assured that all those who seek Arab participation in the dialogue table, are in no way speaking on the behalf of March 14 forces. 03/03/10 13:22

Politics - Minister Shami voices utterance before the Arab League Council
NNA - Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Ali Shami, spoke today before the council of the Arab League at the ministerial level during its 133rd ordinary session.
In his word, the Minister expressed gratefulness to the Arab League for its continuous support for Lebanon. He went on to evoke the issue of the constant and repeated Israeli aggressions and violations, especially of the UN Security Council Resolution 1701. He said Lebanese army, people, and Resistance, were all able to face Israel, yet an Arab support is still required particularly on the diplomatic level. Subsequently, he pointed that the national unity government will endeavor to consolidate the relations with the Arab world. On the other hand, Shami said the Arab society is asked to secure development and growth with the view of fighting poverty. He accordingly underlined the role of Arab expatriates in that respect. "We finally welcome the call of the permanent committee of legal affairs for forming an advisory commission for expatriates' affairs", he concluded. 03/03/10 13:22

Politics - March 14 General Secretariat holds its weekly meeting
NNA - March 14 General Secretariat held today its periodic meeting at its headquarter in Ashrafieh, in presence of former Deputies Elias Atallah, Mustafa Alloush, and Fares Soueid, and Eddy Abi Lamaa, Elias Abu Assi, Nasseer Al-Assaad, Hirar Hovivian, Youssof Doueihi, Nawfal Daou, and Wajih Norbatalian. According to the final statement issued in the wake of the meeting, conferees discussed the general situation in the country, especially in matter of Lebanon's readiness to face risks and perils in the light of the Israeli escalation. In this context, March 14 forces called upon all Lebanese political poles to close ranks with the view of bolstering national domestic immunity.
"Lebanese government is urged to hold on to avoiding any regional confrontation", the statement stressed. With respect to the national dialogue table, March 14 General Secretariat emphasized again on its relevant remarks and observations handed to the Lebanese President. It thus highlighted that the defense strategy must be a sole clause on the discussions' agenda. It added that the participation of the Arab League in this dialogue is deemed valuable as protecting Lebanon is also an Arab responsibility based on the international and Arab solidarity as per Resolution 1701. "The required readiness necessitates an efficient government that is capable of making decisions in different fields to address all national political, economic, and administrative issues", the statement concluded. 03/03/10 13:22

Politics - Maronite Bishops Council: controversial opinions still divide between Lebanese who pin hopes on the dialogue table
NNA - Maronite Bishops Council said controversial opinions between politicians are segregating between Lebanese, indicating that the current circumstance necessitates a local solidarity, in order to save the country. The council commended the formation of national dialogue committee, pointing that Lebanese are pinning hopes on it to start soon and solve all the still pending vital issues preoccupying Lebanon. The Maronite Bishops Council called on the government to double efforts to improve its performance and exceed the paralysis occurring to the nation. It wrapped up on a positive note for cabinet, which announced the Enunciation of Virgin Mary, on the 25th of March, as a public holiday, since this occasion, according to council, serves to unite between hearts. 03/03/10 13:22

Assyrian Genocide Researcher Sends Letter to Obama
GMT 3-4-2010 3:33:6
Assyrian International News Agency
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Mr Sabri Atman, the Director of the Assyrian Genocide and Research Center (Seyfo Center), together with Professor David Gaunt of Södertörn University, Sweden, have jointly written to the President of the United States of America and United States' House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, urging both the President and honorable members of the House Committee when voting on the recognition of the Armenian Genocide to consider at the same time the simultaneous Seyfo Genocide, committed against the Assyrian people during World War I, as one same issue.
Mr. Atman and Mr. Gaunt have stressed importance of the recognition of the Genocide and requested the Administration serve to force Turkey to recognize its past acts. Further they have expressed their fear that without the persistence of this Administration, the Assyrian Genocide issue will remain unattended to and unanswered.
Here is the text of the letter:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 March 2010
His Excellency President Barack H. Obama
President of the United States of America
Honorable Members
United States House of Representatives
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Dear President Obama and Members of the House Committee,
On behalf of the Assyrian Genocide and Research (Seyfo) Center and its worldwide affiliates, we extend to you our warmest greetings.
At the same time we would like to take this opportunity to extend the thanks of the Seyfo Center to you on the efforts of the President and US congressional leaders with regard to the current plight of the Assyrian people around the world.
The Seyfo Center (Assyrian Genocide Research Center) comprises Assyrians and non- Assyrians from around the world who share a passion and a determination for the recognition of the Assyrian Genocide as well as that committed against the Armenian and Greek peoples during the same period in Ottoman Turkey. Our Board of Directors comprises many noteworthy Assyrian and non-Assyrian scholars and academics and is an international center of research.
We would like to bring to your attention a matter of great important to the Assyrian people worldwide; the recognition of the Genocide committed by the Ottoman Turks against the Assyrian, Armenian and Pontian Greek peoples of Asia Minor between 1914-1918.
You may be familiar with the widely-known and recognized Armenian genocide. What is less familiar to most individuals is the simultaneous genocide committed against the Assyrian people residing in the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. During this period hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of Assyrians faced genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Turks and Kurds. This number equates over 50 per cent of the Assyrian population at the time.
There is in existence an extensive body of academic research and material which has found beyond the shadow of a doubt that what can easily be termed 'genocide' did take place from between 1914 and until 1923 in what was previously known as the Ottoman Empire. Taking the form of massacres, death marches and forced deportations, the Young Turk government systematically initiated a policy of riding the Ottoman Empire of its Christian inhabitants. The resulting policies resulted in the death and murder of millions of Assyrians, Armenians and Greeks.
Similarly, countless books, studies, doctoral thesis and articles in addition to archival materials attest to the irrefutable fact that this genocide, arguably the first major genocide of the twentieth century, did indeed take place within the geographical parameters of the former Ottoman Empire. In fact, in December 2007, the world's foremost group of genocide academics and scholars, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, formally recognized both the Assyrian and Greek genocides (following its 1997 recognition of the Armenian Genocide), announcing that:
"It is the conviction of the International Association of Genocide Scholars that the Ottoman campaign against Christian minorities of the Empire between 1914 and 1923 constituted a genocide against Armenians, Assyrians, and Pontian and Anatolian Greeks." It "calls upon the government of Turkey to acknowledge the genocides against these populations, to issue a formal apology, and to take prompt and meaningful steps toward restitution."
Within the above excerpt from the International Association of Genocide Scholars' wider report on the Assyrian Genocide is the affirmation that the Genocide committed within the Ottoman Empire during the previously noted period was not one simply against the venerable Armenian peoples but against all Christians more broadly and in particular, against the Assyrian people.
Until this very day Turkey bullies the small number of Christian minorities living in the country through various legal and land disputes (Refer to the ongoing case of the St. Gabriel Assyrian Monastery in Midyat) and threatens and puts on trial those who dare to voice an opinion which does not follow the state view of history or offends 'Turkishness' (Refer to Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code). Despite this, our communities hold no ill-feelings towards the Republic of Turkey. We only hope that as Turkey modernizes and aims to enter the European Union, that its past policies with regard the Christian populations of the Ottoman Empire are not ignored or denied but that it does what the majority of academics and scholars in the genocide field as well as numerous governments have already done; recognize the Assyrian, Armenian and Pontian Greek Genocide.
Mr. President and honorable members of the House Committee, we would like to take this opportunity to urge you to not overlook the Assyrian people in the vote on the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. We ask that, as countless universities and scholars have done, to include ample reference to the Assyrian Genocide within the resolution to be debated and voted on by your committee.
President Obama, we understand that with your recent victory and assumption of the leadership of the United States, you have already pressing matters, both domestic and foreign with which the Administration must contend. Turkey without regret has refused to recognize or acknowledge the Assyrian Genocide and as you may be aware has placed heavy fines and burdens on those who do proclaim the fact to be evident, both in and out of Turkey. With its horrific track record in human rights violations, we fear that without the persistence of this Administration, the Assyrian Genocide issue will remain unanswered. In no uncertain terms, the diplomatic actions of the United States must serve to force Turkey to recognize their acts of Genocide against the Assyrians. The repercussions of the Assyrian Genocide are real and are felt today in Iraq by the Assyrian people. History is, no doubt, repeating itself in the current war in Iraq.
Even today, as a community of 3.5 million Assyrians living worldwide, the atrocities committed against the Assyrian people since the Genocide of 1915 has had profound cultural, political and economic ramifications on the Assyrian people. The Assyrian people, since the fall of the Assyrian empire, have been targets of countless acts of Genocide, resulting in the dwindling of its people. We fear that future generations will only be able to look to ancient history books for signs that an Assyrian people once existed if concrete and effective action is not taken.
Under your watchful eye and guidance, we urge you to hold Turkey accountable for its actions and crimes against humanity. In this respect, we urge you, President Obama, to make right what history could not.
Sincerely Yours,
Sabri Atman
Assyrian Genocide and Research Center
Seyfo Center
Professor David Gaunt
Director Södertörn University, Sweden
Seyfo Center
Copyright (C) 2010, Assyrian International News Agency. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use.

The Iranian lobby
Hussain Abdul-Hussain,
March 4, 2010
Now Lebanon/
In a recent Op-Ed in The Washington Post, James Lindsay and Iranian-American Ray Takeyh argued that whatever diplomatic course the United States employs to deal with Iran, it should be backed with military force.
Four days later, New York-based writer Hooman Majd published a rebuttal accusing Lindsay and Takeyh of aping Iraqi politician Ahmed Chalabi, who contributed to building the case for the American war in Iraq. Majd wrote that the use of force against Tehran would only “convince Iran that a nuclear weapon or two might be useful.”
I argued in the Huffington Post that “consistent” Iran has been making and maintaining allies in the region since the early 1980s, while an “inconsistent” America – especially under Barack Obama – has so far lost whatever friends it has made over the past decade, especially in Iraq and Lebanon.
An Iranian blogger, who goes by the online name of Bibi Jan, protested my argument and provided, as an alternative, a link to a pro-regime website.
Majd and Bibi Jan’s approach are part of a trend of coordinated PR to convince Washington to not only not attack or impose sanctions on Iran, but to befriend it in spite of its human rights record.
Many are buying into the idea. Steve Coll, writing in The New Yorker, described Majd as someone who stands “against the assumptions of the regime-change crowd in the West.” Coll endorsed Majd’s line: “[O]ne hopes that American policymakers will take the time to absorb [Majd’s] book.”
However, the most sinister of the Iranian regime’s lobby in the United States is Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC). Despite his best efforts, Parsi has failed to cover his pro-regime sympathies, as he expresses opposition to military strikes or sanctions.
When the Green Revolution broke out in June 2009, Parsi was the first to try to dismiss it in an article in Foreign Policy in which he prematurely predicted that the regime had already turned “a mass movement into dispersed pockets of unrest.”
Parsi has dismissed those who accuse him of being Iran’s lobbyist as “Zionists” and “neo cons” in the same manner the regime tries to undermine its opponents. When Parsi sued his accusers, court proceedings produced emails from Parsi promising Iran’s permanent representative to the UN meetings with members of Congress.
Before Parsi, America had to contend with similar Iranian lobbyists. There was Hooshang Amirahmadi, president of the American-Iranian Council (AIC), and supporter of unconditional ties between Washington and Tehran, and, on the AIC’s board, Hamid Shirvani, president of California State University- Stanislaus, home to tenured Lebanese professor As’ad AbuKhalil, a.k.a. the blogger Angry Arab.
Any reader of AbuKhalil’s blog cannot but notice that while he regularly trashes most Middle Eastern groups and governments, he remains silent on Iranian issues. AbuKhalil writes a weekly column for the Lebanese Arabic daily Al-Akhbar, known for its sympathies with Iran and the regime’s Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah.
Amirahmadi has received funds from the Alevi Foundation, an organization that defines itself as a promoter of Islam and the Persian culture, but which the FBI suspected of being a front for Iranian state-owned Bank Melli. (The foundation’s president, Farshid Jahedi, pleaded guilty to charges of destroying documents subject to subpoena.)
Several other high-profile Iranian-Americans help Parsi. Among them is scholar Reza Aslan, a member on the board of Ploughshares Fund, and former Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel, who is famous for his calls to befriend Iran in the same manner the US opened up to China, where, incidentally, Hagel made a fortune in the 1970s.
Ploughshares Fund’s President Joe Cirincione argued last week on Fox News that Iranian claims of increasing nuclear capabilities were greatly exaggerated, and that despite Iran’s progress in its nuclear program, technical difficulties are slowing it. Cirincione’s line is being peddled by all the Iranian lobbyists who are trying to convince Washington that the clock is far from ticking on Iran’s bomb.
Ploughshares Fund was also one of the sponsors of Parsi’s conference on US policy on Iran in November. Speakers included journalist Genieve Abdo and former Ambassador Thomas Pickering.
Even though Abdo says that she was deported from Iran, she supports the Iranian lobby’s conclusions that Tehran is still far from making a nuclear bomb, and that Washington should not impose sanctions or go to war with Iran.
Last month, Parsi and Abdo participated in a panel at a Methodist Church along with like-minded experts on Iran such as Jim Walsh of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who co-authored with Pickering an Op-Ed in The New York Times in January 2009, in which they wrote, “The United States should seek to open talks with Iran without preconditions.”
Walsh and Pickering even advocated giving Iran a say in regional affairs: “On Iraq and Afghanistan, direct US engagement with Iran… will be necessary if the United States hopes to draw down its forces and bring stability to these war-torn nations.”
Pickering, the co-author with Walsh and the speaker at NAIC’s conference with Abdo, is co-chair of the International Crisis Group (ICG), one of the advocates of engagement with Hezbollah. Together with the Carter Foundation and a handful of groups, ICG went to the US Supreme Court to reverse a Congressional law that criminalizes US citizens who offer support to groups placed on America’s list of terrorist organizations.
The many Washington think-tanks that support unconditional US relations with Iran include The New America Foundation, where Steve Clemons, who interviewed Hamas’s Khaled Meshaal in October in Damascus, hosted pollster Steven Kull, of the New World Opinion.
In an article in Open Democracy, in November, Kull disclosed the results of a poll “conducted by native Farsi speakers calling into Iran, thus bypassing any possible government controls,” concluding that “it reveals that large majorities continue to support the Iranian system.”
Kull presented the findings of his telephone poll, clearly assuming that Iranians believe their phone lines are free of government surveillance and thus speak their minds when interviewed, at Clemons’ New America Foundation, the president of which is none other than The New Yorker’s Steve Coll, who hopes America will one day give up regime change in Iran.
The Iranian lobby in the United States might not present itself as such. But when you see activists, journalists, former members of Congress, former diplomats, experts and academics serving on boards of organizations, participating in panels, co-authoring Op-Eds, silently rubbing shoulders with each other inside Washington’s corridors of power, propagating a line that favors America befriending the oppressive Iranian regime and allowing it to become the region’s patron, one cannot but think that an invisible network brings all these people together.
This Washington usually calls a lobby. And Iran has apparently managed to create an effective and successful one.

Michel Sleiman
March 3, 2010
On March 2, the Hezbollah affiliated Al-Intiqad magazine carried the following exclusive report:
President of the Republic General Michel Sleiman assured that the timing of the national dialogue table was dictated by national considerations and not external considerations, including the position of United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki- Moon. President Sleiman stated that the dialogue table was a continuation of what was reached during the previous dialogue sessions. He then added as he received the editing board of Hezbollah’s online media department (Al-Intiqad.net and Al-Muqawama.net) headed by Dr. Hussein Rahhal, that in principle, the national dialogue session at the Baabda Palace will be held next Tuesday on March 9. Asked about the agenda of the dialogue table and whether or not it will remain limited to the national defense strategy, President Sleiman said that this article was on the table and that if the interlocutors decided to expand the agenda, he would not mind. He indicated that the defense strategy issue was linked to several other headlines to enhance national immunity, including the financial dossier. He added: “Therefore, if the interlocutors were to decide to discuss the latter dossier or any other, there is no problem with that.”
President Sleiman then indicated he was very pleased with the new representation around the dialogue table despite the criticisms which were addressed by more than one side in this regard, pointing out that it was impossible to please all the forces and political figures on the political arena. He then considered that the participation of Professor Fayez Hajj-Chahine was a “message” falling in the context of choosing competent figures in the civil society arena, just as was seen with ministers Adnan al-Sayyed Hussein and Ziad Baroud in the government. He continued that this also fell in the context of the reform process which he has started and by which he will proceed.
Regarding the presence of Minister Elias al-Murr, Sleiman said that the Defense Ministry must be represented around the dialogue table so that it expresses its opinion in regard to the defense strategy alongside the resistance. Asked about the Zionist threats against Lebanon, President of the Republic General Michel Sleiman assured that the enemy will think twice before engaging in any adventure in Lebanon because it had not yet forgotten its loss during the July 2006 war. He continued: “However, we cannot know the bad intentions of the enemy. The more the enemy is convinced that this war will be highly costly, the less likely it will wage war.”
President Sleiman then stressed the importance of having a unified national position to face the challenges, and while he pointed to the presence of voices outside national consensus that could be used by the Israeli enemy, he said that one of the goals of the dialogue table was to address the differences behind closed doors and in the media. He also pointed to the importance of enhancing the capabilities of the Lebanese army whose dismantlement was counted on by the enemy during the July war but without success. On the other hand, President Sleiman praised the Syrian and Iranian positions in support of Lebanon in the face of the Israeli threats, saying that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently assured him over the phone that Iran was willing to provide Lebanon with all the support it needed to confront the Israeli threats. Regarding the uncovering of the espionage networks working for the Mossad, the president of the republic stressed the importance of this exposure. And while he assured he did not interfere in the work of the judiciary, he praised the death sentence issued by the military court against agent Mahmoud Rafeh, saying it was a fair sentence.
Asked about the American [wire]tapping, the president of the republic stressed the importance of seeing the different institutions rising up to the level of the challenges and refusing to succumb to any requests made by whichever side. He then expressed his confidence in the work of the institutions, saying that the requests being filed were not as important as the refusal to respond to them, especially if they went against national interest. He gave many examples in which American demands were made of Lebanon during the Nahr al-Bared war for instance, but Lebanon turned them down because they went against the Lebanese stand. Regarding the budget which will be discussed by the government next Friday and which features the imposition of additional taxes, including the raising of the VAT from ten to twelve per cent, the president of the republic said that this will be the object of thorough discussions, assuring the rejection of any taxes that will affect the poor. However, he added that if these taxes were to affect certain luxuries, it would be fine. He concluded by saying that the way the money collected from these taxes is spent should be known.”

Using Intelligence from the al-Mabhouh Hit
March 3, 2010/Stratfor
By Fred Burton and Ben West
The assassination of senior Hamas militant leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh on Jan. 19 is still generating a tremendous amount of discussion and speculation some six weeks after the fact. Dubai’s police force has been steadily releasing new information almost on a daily basis, which has been driving the news cycle and keeping the story in the media spotlight. The most astounding release so far has been nearly 30 minutes of surveillance camera footage that depicts portions of a period spanning the arrival of the assassination team in Dubai, surveillance of al-Mabhouh, and the killing and the exfiltration of the team some 22 hours later.

By last count, Dubai police claim to have identified some 30 people suspected of involvement in the assassination; approximately 17 have been convincingly tied to the operation through video footage either as surveillants, managers or assassins, with the rest having only tenuous connections based on information released by the Dubai police. In any case, the operation certainly was elaborate and required the resources and planning of a highly organized agency, one most likely working for a nation-state.
Pre-Operation
While the 22-hour period depicted in the video showcased the tactical capabilities of the various teams, it hardly tells the whole story. In order to pinpoint the location of al-Mabhouh on the day of his killing, the organization responsible for this operation would have had to have tracked al-Mabhouh for months, if not years. This can be done in three ways: technical surveillance, utilization of human sources and physical surveillance.
Technical surveillance of al-Mabhouh would include monitoring his e-mail, telephone calls and other forms of electronic communications such as online credit-card transactions and travel reservations. This could reveal his physical location and future plans, which would allow the assassination team to anticipate his location and prepare well ahead of time. With such a large team involved in the assassination, careful coordination and planned movements would have been required to ensure that all members were in place without attracting attention.
But technical surveillance has limitations. An experienced operative like al-Mabhouh (who had been the target of two previous assassination attempts in as many years) would most likely have taken precautions that would have limited his electronic visibility. The operational team likely used human sources with close ties to al-Mabhouh who could corroborate the information and possibly influence the target’s movements, putting him in place for the operation. Human sources could have included al-Mabhouh’s colleagues within Hamas or a member of a rival group such as Fatah. (Three Palestinians suspected of being members of Fatah were arrested by Dubai authorities in connection with the assassination, indicating that the group may have provided human intelligence to the organization responsible for al-Mabhouh’s assassination.) Other people could have been recruited using a number of incentives (including cash) without their knowing the consequences of their assistance. Both the technical and human intelligence operations would have been run by intelligence officers operating abroad and at locations separate from the operational team.
According to Dubai police, physical surveillance was conducted by members of the operational team during al-Mabhouh’s previous trips to the United Arab Emirates. Physical surveillance is a critical part of any effective assault (whether it’s a clandestine intelligence operation or a car-jacking) because it gives the operatives an opportunity to become familiar with their surroundings and recognize their target in his or her “natural” environment.
Once all this homework was done to establish al-Mabhouh’s normal routines and determine his approximate location and duration of his stay in Dubai, the intelligence-collection process moved into the deployment phase and an operational team was sent into action.
The Operation
Prior to Mabhouh’s arrival, surveillance teams set up in the airport and at different hotels to make sure they could obtain a visual confirmation of their target. Based on their intelligence of his prior trips to Dubai, planners placed teams in two hotels to wait for al-Mabhouh approximately an hour before his arrival. They also had a surveillance team waiting for him at the airport to follow him as soon as he entered the country and report his movements to the rest of the team. While it wasn’t captured on video, we suspect that a mobile surveillance group tracked al-Mabhouh from the airport by car. To help ensure a successful outcome, the operational team used overwhelming force to prevent the target from ever seeing the same face twice. When it was established that al-Mabhouh was staying at the Al Bustan Rotana, the team responded by abandoning their other posts and directing their focus to that hotel.
Once al-Mabhouh was identified, the team locked on to him at the hotel and started initiating further steps in the operation. The first surveillance team watched al-Mabhouh register at the front desk and then followed him to his room, noting the target’s specific room number. This was relayed to other members of the team, who then placed a reservation for the room across the hall from al-Mabhouh, which gave them direct access to their target. The selection of the room is very interesting for two reasons. First, it was directly across the hall from al-Mabhouh’s room, giving the team a perfect spot from which to monitor his movements. Second, the room was just behind the video camera for that floor and the camera was trained on the emergency stairwell exit, which allowed the assassination team to carry out the attack on his room without being filmed.
Meanwhile, down in the hotel lobby, surveillance teams were rotating to monitor the target’s movements in and out of the hotel. At one point, a surveillant is seen following al-Mabhouh out to the street to relay by cell phone the type of vehicle he had entered. These surveillants, operating in teams of two, used disguises such as hats, sunglasses, beards and work-out gear to establish a cover for action and better conceal their identities. While many members of the operational team were identified on closed-circuit television (CCTV), hats and sunglasses helped distort their images and reduce the already low risk of being recognized by the target or any protective team during the operation.
Another necessity in any operation like this is communications. Surveillance video of the team involved in this operation shows them using cell phones to send text messages and talk to other members of the team. According to reports from Dubai police, the cell phones used in the operation were dialed to an Austrian number, likely the operations and support center for the team on the ground and any others involved in the operation. This might have been an open conference line into which all members of the operational team could dial to monitor the movement of their target. It is unlikely that the center was actually in Austria; it probably used a proxy phone line to mask its true physical location.
Assassination and Exfiltration
At approximately 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 19, after al-Mabhouh returned to his hotel room from a meeting, the assassination team moved in. It was important to carry out the killing at a time and in a manner that would give the team the maximum window of opportunity. They suspected that al-Mabhouh was in for the night, which meant that nobody would miss him until early the following afternoon, giving the team ample time to flee the country. The team carried out the assassination smoothly, with video surveillance showing only two operatives casually talking outside the elevator (a cover for monitoring the hall for possible distractions) — in other words, nothing out of the ordinary. The assassination team members also exhibited no unusual behavior when they departed the scene. Demeanor is extremely important, and the ability of the team to act calmly and naturally and not catch the attention of security guards monitoring CCTV ensured that the act remained a secret until hotel cleaning staff found the body more than 17 hours after the entire team had departed Dubai.
The assassination team also killed al-Mabhouh in a way that apparently confounded medical examiners trying to determine the cause of death, delaying the announcement of a criminal case for nine days. This delay gave the operational team ample time to cover its tracks, possibly by using third- and fourth-country border crossings, additional false identities and safe-houses, making it much harder for Dubai authorities to track team members to their ultimate destinations. This confusion appears to have been created by the use of a muscle relaxant called succinylcholine (also known as Suxamethonium), which, if used in large enough quantities, can cause the heart to stop, making it appear that the victim died of cardiac arrest. The drug also has a very short half-life, meaning that traces would degenerate and virtually disappear shortly after injection, making it ideal for covert operations such as this one.
The team was not able to pull off the operation with complete anonymity — it is virtually impossible to operate in a modern environment without leaving some kind of electronic trace. The Dubai police were able to use video surveillance from the airport, hotels and a nearby shopping center to trace back the movements of the operatives and establish their identities according to the passports that they used. These later proved to be fraudulent passports from the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany and France — but they were extremely well-made fraudulent passports that were discovered later, only after video surveillance prompted closer scrutiny; customs officials were unable to detect this when the operatives were arriving or departing. Moreover, the credit cards used by several members of the operation team were linked to a company called Payoneer. The company’s CEO is a former member of Israel Defense Forces special operations, and Payoneer has financial backing from a company based in Israel.
Dubai police have announced that they retrieved DNA evidence from at least one of the members on the assassination team and fingerprints from several others, giving authorities pieces of evidence that are unalterable, unlike a passport. However, DNA evidence is only helpful when it can be compared against an exemplar. If Dubai police are unable to find a match to the DNA sample or a fingerprint, then these clues will offer little immediate help.
The passports also provide little immediate help in terms of tracking down the suspects. The discovery that fraudulent British, Irish, German and French passports were used has created a diplomatic problem for Israel (Mossad is understandably at the top of the list of suspects), which raises the profile of the operation considerably. This is certainly not what a clandestine operation is supposed to do. Although the operatives will probably never be found and handed over to UAE authorities, the fact that so many details of the assassination have been made public jeopardizes the anonymity that is supposed to surround this kind of operation.
Potential Consequences
Al-Mabhouh was hardly a likable character. As a senior Hamas military commander, arms smuggler and liaison to Iran, he was already on the terrorist watch lists in the countries that have complained about the use of fraudulent passports. Public indignation is a necessary and expected reaction from these countries to save diplomatic face, but when it comes down to it, there would be few incentives to seriously punish Israel, if it indeed sponsored the hit. The police of Dubai and the United Arab Emirates, rightfully frustrated that they are tasked with solving an unsolvable case, will still probably not miss al-Mabhouh. Their efforts to stir up outrage over the assassination are likely fueled by their desire to save face in the Arab world, where the Palestinian cause is of high rhetorical importance but little strategic importance.
The fact is that the high level of complexity involved in this assassination, along with the smoothness with which it was carried out, is evidence that the operation was undertaken by an elite covert force, the likes of which could only be sponsored by a nation-state. The ability to conduct preliminary intelligence collection, to muster a large and coordinated team of skilled operatives, to fabricate passports to an exacting degree, to successfully exfiltrate all members of the team — all of this requires a significant and well-funded effort that, we believe, exceeds the current capabilities of any non-state terrorist group. It is worth noting here that the most impressive aspect of the operation was the team’s tradecraft and demeanor. All the members of this team were professionals.
Indeed, with so much time having already elapsed, and if the operation was sponsored by a nation-state, it is highly improbable that any of the operatives involved will ever be caught. However, countries around the world are offering their assistance in the case, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Australia. Few officials from these countries actually believe any of the operatives will be apprehended, but that is not the real reason to participate in the investigation. What officials are really looking for are the granular details of how this group of assassins and surveillants operated. These details are extremely valuable in ongoing counterintelligence efforts by countries to thwart foreign intelligence agencies operating on their home turf. The information can provide clues to past and future cases, and it can be used to build databases on covert operatives, so that if any of these people show up unexpectedly at an airport, hotel or embassy in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia or elsewhere, the alarms can be sounded more quickly.