LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
March 13/2010

Bible Of the Day
Matthew 9/27-34: "As Jesus passed by from there, two blind men followed him, calling out and saying, “Have mercy on us, son of David!” 9:28 When he had come into the house, the blind men came to him. Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They told him, “Yes, Lord.” 9:29 Then he touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith be it done to you.” 9:30 Their eyes were opened. Jesus strictly commanded them, saying, “See that no one knows about this.” 9:31 But they went out and spread abroad his fame in all that land. 9:32 As they went out, behold, a mute man who was demon possessed was brought to him. 9:33 When the demon was cast out, the mute man spoke. The multitudes marveled, saying, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel!” 9:34 But the Pharisees said, “By the prince of the demons, he casts out demons.”

Free Opinions, Releases, letters & Special Reports 
How to Make Defeatism Look Good: Let's Give Up and Cheer the Islamists/By Barry Rubin/March 12, 2010
Antione Choueiri's legacy lives on/Daily Star/March 12/10   
Washington is the indispensible partner for a settlement/By Ziad Asali/March 12/10 
Turkey and Armenia must speak privately/By Vartan Oskanian/March 12/10
Sweden Recognizes Assyrian, Greek and Armenian Genocide/AINA/March 12/10

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for March 12/10 
U.S.-Syrian Dialogue: Senate to Hear Ford's Testimony, Feltman and Shapiro in Damascus this Month/Naharnet
Syria: Border Demarcation Bilateral Issue, No Palestinian Bases on Border with Lebanon/Naharnet
Suleiman Will Not Attend Arab Summit in Libya/Naharnet
Syria requests not be mentioned in Resolution 1701 reports/Now Lebanon
Rifi says political campaign has been launched against him/Now Lebanon
Scientists predict large Lebanon earthquake looming/Daily Star
Biden calls for Hizbullah disarmament during Tel Aviv University talk/Daily Star
Biden Says U.S. to Keep on Supporting Lebanon Institutions, 1701 Implementation to Disarm Hizbullah/Naharnet
Cabinet Forms Committee Tasked with Submitting Ideas on Appointments Mechanism/Naharnet
Lebanese Tycoon, Choueiri, Buried in Hometown/Naharnet
Lebanese man becomes first to sue former Syrian jailers/AFP
Berri Describes as 'Very Dangerous' the Alleged Signing of Saniora Government of Security Agreement with U.S. Embassy/Naharnet
Russian Ambassador: Time for Lebanese to Take Reins of Government/Naharnet
Magistrate lists charges in Ain al-Remmaneh case/Daily Star
Ministers to set rules for filling key posts/Daily Star
Lebanese industrialists disregarding ministry controls/Daily Star
Bank Audi report highlights detrimental impact of global crisis on Jordan's economy/Daily Star
Ex-minister Daher calls National Dialogue 'illegitimate/Daily Star
EU Official in Beirut to Discuss Prospects for Peace/Naharnet
Man Arrested in North Lebanon for Sister's 'Honor Killing/Naharnet
Police Arrest 44 in Night Raids/Naharnet
Jumblat Surprised at Different Damascus Visit Dates Circulated by Media/Naharnet
Maqdah Rejects Abbas' Offer to Move Out of Lebanon/Naharnet
Murr: No Army Protection for Tribunal/Naharnet
Judiciary Calls for Death Penalty against Abu Madi's Suspected Killer/Naharnet

Syria requests not be mentioned in Resolution 1701 reports
Now Lebanon/March 12, 2010
Syrian Ambassador to the UN Bashar al-Jaafari delivered a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council requesting not to mention Damascus in any report issued on the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, As-Safir newspaper reported Friday. In Ban’s 12th report on the implementation of Resolution 1701, he stated that neither the Lebanese government nor UNIFIL reported any violations of arms smuggling into Lebanon, however, added the Lebanese cabinet admitted that its border can be porous.
Damascus said that reports there was arms smuggling via Syria are “claims and lies,” adding the report helps Israel justify and carry on its aggressions.
Syria called on Ban to condemn Israeli violations of Lebanon’s airspace, urging the UN chief to take the necessary measures to stop them.
The letter also said the delineation of the Lebanese-Syrian borders “is a bilateral issue that is in the process of being settled.”
Syria denied Ban’s statements that there are Palestinian military bases along the Lebanese-Syrian border, saying that these are only present on Lebanese territory.
Damascus defended its position in the region, saying it supported the Lebanese government in exercising its authority over its territory. “Syria also highly contributed to enhancing the Lebanese army’s capabilities and to ensuring Lebanon’s security and stability, since [the situation] reflects on Syria and the region.”
Lebanese-Syrian relations have drastically improved since December 2009 when Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri visited Damascus to meet with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said the letter. “The coming weeks and months will [be a period of] continuous efforts [to improve relations] between both countries.”
-NOW Lebanon

U.S.-Syrian Dialogue: Senate to Hear Ford's
Testimony, Feltman and Shapiro in Damascus this Month
Naharnet/The U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations is scheduled to hold a hearing early next week to approve or reject the appointment of Robert Ford as Washington's ambassador to Damascus, As Safir daily reported Friday. The newspaper said that the move would come amid a third visit to the Syrian capital by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman and senior White House official Daniel Shapiro end of March. The committee's communications director, Frederick Jones, told As Safir that setting Tuesday as a date for the nomination of the new ambassador comes within the "natural course" and is not an urgent issue. He stressed that the committee chairman, John Kerry, "believes that it is important to have diplomatic representation in Syria." Kerry, who will preside over Tuesday's hearing, held a meeting with Syria's ambassador to Washington Imad Mustafa last week. As Safir also quoted sources in the U.S. capital as saying that preparations are underway for a visit to Damascus by Feltman and Shapiro as part of efforts to continue dialogue with the Assad regime on regional issues. Several sources in Damascus also said the two U.S. officials will visit Syria end of March as part of "continued dialogue between Damascus and Washington over bilateral ties and regional issues." Beirut, 12 Mar 10, 08:06

Syria: Border Demarcation Bilateral Issue, No Palestinian Bases on Border with Lebanon
Naharnet/Syria has again protested against the inclusion of Damascus in U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon's reports on the implementation of Security Council resolution 1701 without taking into consideration the Syrian point of view. Syria's ambassador to Washington Bashar al-Jaafari sent a letter to Ban criticizing accusations of arms smuggling to Lebanon from Syria without hearing Damascus' point of view. The letter also criticized Ban for referring to the improvement of Lebanese-Syrian ties after PM Saad Hariri's visit to Damascus. Instead the U.N. chief should focus on daily violations of Lebanese airspace by Israeli fighter jets, the letter said. Jaafari has already sent two similar letters to Ban and members of the Security Council. In the third letter, he reiterated that demarcation of the border between Lebanon and Syria is a bilateral issue.
The ambassador also denied the presence of armed Palestinian bases on the Lebanese-Syrian border saying the bases are only present on Lebanese territories.
He said Syrian-Lebanese ties witnessed a historic leap forward last December when Hariri "made an important visit to Damascus" during which the two sides discussed ways to improve ties in all fields. The Syrian letter came on the eve of a Security Council session to discuss Ban's latest report on the implementation of resolution 1701. U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams will brief the Council on the report on Friday. Beirut, 12 Mar 10, 08:52

Suleiman Will Not Attend Arab Summit in Libya
Naharnet/Information Minister Tareq Mitri has unveiled that President Michel Suleiman will not attend the Arab summit in Libya end of this month following demands by the Shiite community to boycott the meeting. Sources from Speaker Nabih Berri's Development and Liberation bloc told An Nahar daily that "Lebanon's participation in the summit is a very dangerous issue and would worsen the situation in the country." Shiites have been demanding Lebanese authorities to boycott the summit over the disappearance of Imam Moussa al-Sadr. In 1978, the Shiite religious leader flew to Tripoli for a week of talks with Libyan officials. He was never seen or heard from again. Meanwhile, Arab League chief Amr Moussa told An Nahar that he hasn't been asked to deliver any invitation to Lebanon to participate in the summit. It is the responsibility of the host country to do so, he said. "When I last visited Beirut, I agreed with officials that Lebanese representation at the summit should be (at the level of) responsibility and that the government would decide on the level." Moussa is expected to visit Beirut on March 18 to attend USEK's celebration of the establishment of the Arab League. Beirut, 12 Mar 10, 09:17

EU Official in Beirut to Discuss Prospects for Peace
Naharnet/EU High Representative for Foreign Policy Catherine Ashton will visit Beirut March 16 as part of a four-day regional tour, press reports said. They said Ashton is to discuss with Lebanese officials prospects for Mideast peace as well as Lebanese-European relations. Beirut, 12 Mar 10, 12:08

Man Arrested in North Lebanon for Sister's 'Honor Killing'
Naharnet/A Lebanese man has been arrested in northern Lebanon for killing his sister earlier this week in what authorities described as an honor killing, a security official said on Friday.
"The 24-year-old victim was single and apparently had a boyfriend," the security official told AFP. "(Her brother) admitted shooting her twice in the head to cleanse the family honor."
The woman was only identified by her initials, as was her 28-year-old brother. Her body was discovered on Tuesday on the main road of the village of Hakr al-Daheri, in the northern Akkar region. "This kind of crime is not common in Lebanon but we have a few every year," the official said. Lebanese law stipulates extenuating circumstances for so-called honor killings, in which male relatives kill female kin they suspect of illicit behavior with men. In 2007, Lebanon's top Shiite Muslim cleric Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah issued a fatwa, or religious edict, banning honor killings as repulsive acts that contradict Islamic law. Beirut, 12 Mar 10, 13:06

Maqdah Rejects Abbas' Offer to Move Out of Lebanon
Naharnet/Head of the Palestinian Armed Struggle in Lebanon Mounir al-Maqdah rejected an offer by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to transfer him to any destination of his choice, pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat said Friday. Abbas had ordered new appointments within the leadership of Fatah in Lebanon. While Abbas has offered Maqdah to choose his country of residence and any post outside Lebanon, he appointed Fatah's commander in Lebanon Sultan Abul Aynayn as his advisor for Palestinian refugee affairs, al-Hayat newspaper has reported.
It said Abul Aynayn is likely to be based in Amman, Jordan. Fatah's military commander in Lebanon Sobhi Abu Arab, who maintained his post, said Maqdah was denied promotion due to a mistake he made during the fighting that broke out on February 15 between members of the Fatah faction and Osbat al-Ansar militants at Ain el-Hilweh camp. Abu Arab said that Maqdah was biased in favor of Osbat al-Ansar and had differences with Abul Aynayn. Beirut, 12 Mar 10, 10:46

Murr: No Army Protection for Tribunal
Naharnet/Defense Minister Elias Murr denied that a security force has been at the disposal of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. "There has been no legal request in this regard,' Murr said in remarks published Friday by the daily Al-Akhbar. Unconfirmed reports had said that the STL plans to request the Lebanese government to assign a 300-strong Lebanese army force to be ready when the orders of summons are issued by STL President Daniel Bellemare against a number of Lebanese personalities. The daily Al-Liwaa, which had carried the report, said Bellemare will refer the orders of summons to the STL Beirut office. It had quoted Lebanese judicial sources as saying that the move comes as part of the completion of the probe into the crime in preparation for issuing the charge sheet, which may be delayed pending finalization of investigation. Beirut, 12 Mar 10, 10:01

State Department: Torture and Extralegal Intimidation of Journalists
The Lebanese government has continued to deny the use of torture, although authorities acknowledged violent abuse sometimes occurred during preliminary investigations at police stations or military installations, the State Department said."Such abuse occurred despite national laws preventing judges from accepting confessions extracted under duress," the annual report by the State Department on human rights practices said. On freedom of speech and of the press, the report said "political violence and extralegal intimidation in recent years have led to self-censorship among journalists." In 2008, several journalists "reported receiving threats from political parties, politicians, fellow journalists, and opposition militia figures who generally threatened violence against them and their families if they did not cease writing articles on sensitive political issues," the report said. In its annual survey of human rights in 194 countries, the State Department noted that in November 2008 more than 15 supporters of the SSNP attacked Future News TV reporter Omar Harqous with sticks in Beirut's Hamra Street, injuring him in the head, neck, and chest. The report reiterated that prison conditions were poor and did not meet minimum international standards. "Prisons were overcrowded and sanitary conditions, particularly in women's prisons, were very poor," it said. In a positive development, the State Department said there were no reports of political prisoners or detainees.
On freedom of movement, the report noted that "government forces were unable to enforce the law in the predominantly Hizbullah-controlled Beirut southern suburbs and did not typically enter Palestinian refugee camps." Beirut, 12 Mar 10, 09:57

Rifi says political campaign has been launched against him
Now Lebanon/March 12, 2010
Cooperation agreements between countries and systems have never been and will never be tackled in the form of administrative memorandums that are discussed in councils and ministries and exposed to the media, said Internal Security Forces Director General Major General Achraf Rifi in an interview in An-Nahar published on Friday.
This comes in reference to reports about a supposed security cooperation agreement between the US and the ISF, following a US request for information on Lebanon’s cellular phone networks. The request led to March 8 coalition figures, including Loyalty to the Resistance bloc MP Hassan Fadlallah and Speaker Nabih Berri, criticizing former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora’s cabinet for allegedly signing the agreement with the US Embassy. “The US and European companies who have installed the systems have access to the maps anyway,” he said.
Rifi added that a political campaign is being launched against him on the issue. “I do not have the right to send anyone else but ISF members to training,” he said, in reference to As-Safir’s report on Thursday that one of the supposed agreement’s clauses state that the Lebanese government should confirm that all ISF members who receive training are not affiliated with any organization listed by the US as terrorist. Rifi also questioned who has an interest in diverting attention by “engaging in futile domestic disputes” rather than focusing on Israeli espionage networks and means of dismantling them.-NOW Lebanon

Sweden Recognizes Assyrian, Greek and Armenian Genocide
3-12-2010
http://www.aina.org/news/20100311192620.htm
Stockholm (AINA) --- In adopted a resolution adopted today, the Swedish parliament (the Riksdagen) referered to the World War I-era killings of 2.75 million Armenians, Assyrians (also known as Chaldeans and Syriacs) and Pontic Greeks by the Ottomans as a genocide. Turkey is regarded legally and politically as the successor state of the Ottoman Empire but vehemently rejects calling the killing genocide according to the U.N. definition adopted in 1948, insisting that those killed were victims of war and uprising.
The genocide claimed the lives of 750,000 Assyrians (75%), 500,000 Greeks and 1.5 million Armenians.
The resolution passed by a single vote after some members of Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt's ruling centre-right coalition broke ranks and voted with the red-green opposition.
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt is cited by Swedish radio news saying that he regretted the Parliament's decision and feared it could "be used" by reform critics in Turkey and that it "will unfortunately not have a positive effect on the ongoing normalization process between Turkey and Armenia."
In contrast the Left Party's foreign policy spokesperson Hans Linde told The Local newspaper on Thursday that the time had come for Sweden to take a stand on the issue. "First, to learn from history and stop it from repeating and second, to encourage the development of democracy in Turkey, which includes dealing with its own history. The third reason," added Linde, "is to redress the wrongs committed against the victims and their relatives."
The Washington Post cites Gulan Avci saying that, "after 95 years it is time for people who have suffered so long to obtain redress." Gulan Avci is a Liberal Party lawmaker who broke with her party's line and voted to recognize the resolution. Avci is a Kurdish immigrant from Turkey.
The uniqueness of Sweden's genocide adoption is that it refers also to Assyrians and Pontic Greeks. Their suffering during the World War I has been mostly forgotten for decades, but in December 2007 the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) did vote overwhelmingly and recognized the genocides of the Assyrian and Greek populations of the Ottoman Empire between 1914 and 1923. For the Assyrians organizations in Sweden, the recognition of the genocide, called Seyfo in Assyrian, is a milestone in their effort for political acknowledgment. More than 80,000 Assyrians live in Sweden, and they closely followed the debate in the parliament.
As expected, Turkey condemned the decision of the Swedish Parliament. A strong condemnation was voiced in a press release from the Prime Minister's office. Turkey recalled its ambassador to Sweden for consultations and said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has cancelled his planned visit to Sweden on the 17th of this month.
Last week a U.S. a congressional committee approved a similar resolution that would send the measure to the full House of Representatives. Minutes after the vote, Turkey withdrew its ambassador to the U.S. Also last year, Turkey also recalled its ambassador to Canada after Prime Minister Stephen Harper referred to the killings as genocide.
By Abdulmesih BarAbrahem
Copyright (C) 2010, Assyrian International News Agency. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use.
 

http://www.persecution.org/suffering/newssummpopup.php?newscode=11903&PHPSESSID=f0e88144c4e3ebaa1b9443357a5f0ce0
500 Christians Slaughtered
Where is the worldwide outrage for such an atrocity?
How could the murder of a six-week-old child be revenge for anything?
On 7 March 2010, in the middle of the night, Muslims murdered 500 Christian women and children in the village of Dogo Nahawa, near the city of Jos. The Muslims massacred children as young as six weeks old.
Muslim extremists invaded the village at 2 a.m. local time and slaughtered Christians with machetes. In some cases, the Muslims wiped out entire families. Of those murdered, 380 were buried in a mass grave. The police have arrested 93 people and recovered guns, knives and other types of weapons from the suspects.
The security officials knew what was happening but did not intervene.
The Reverend Chuwang Avou, General Secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Plateau State said Christians from the village called him as soon as the Muslims started their attack. He immediately alerted the security officials.
The security officials went to the village, where they witnessed Muslims were killing Christians, but didn’t intervene to stop the massacre. When other Christians from surrounding villages attempted to intervene, the security forces stopped them by stating they couldn’t enter the village until 6 a.m. The Muslims carried out the massacre until 5:30 a.m. and then left the village.
Reverend Avou, said, “Christians are intimidated. We need assistance from outside Nigeria because we don’t have confidence in this country. We have lost confidence in the security forces in our country . . . . Military people, especially the army, are taking sides. We want the United Nation to come to our aid.”
Jonah John Jang, the Governor of Plateau State, where the attack took place, confirmed the failure of the military to stop the killing. According to the Nigerian newspaper, This Day, on March 6, at 9 p.m., the governor reported the possibility of the attack to Major-General Maina Saleh, the commanding officer of the military in the area. But the military failed to take actions despite the warning by the governor.
According to Governor Jang, the massacre “could have been avoided, if they acted on my report.”
 

Scientists predict large Lebanon earthquake looming
Sidon shake registering 3.8 on Richter Scale this week just latest earth movement
By Patrick Galey /Daily Star staff
Friday, March 12, 2010
BEIRUT: Although it probably passed you by, Lebanon was one of many countries to experience an earthquake this week.
A quake registering 3.8 on the Richter Scale hit 50 kilometers off the coast of Sidon at just after 2:30 Tuesday morning. No damage was reported and, according to Ata Elias, assistant professor at the American University of Beirut’s (AUB) Department of Geology, it was in no way related to recent larger tremors. “The earthquake that happened off the coast of Sidon was very small,” he told students at AUB Thursday. Already in 2010, huge earthquakes have killed thousands of people and caused billions of dollars worth of damage in Haiti, Chile and most recently Turkey. Elias was keen to point out these tremors were not part of a wider trend of earth movements:
“These have nothing to do with our faults. There are on very different faults and not related,” he said.
But that’s where the good news ended. The eastern Mediterranean basin lies next to the boundary between African and Arabian tectonic plates, forming one of the most volatile seismic regions on earth.
“The Mediterranean has lots of earthquakes … especially the eastern Mediterranean because this area is surrounded by major faults,” Elias said.
Lebanon is particularly vulnerable to tremors; it is bisected by the Yammouneh fault and Mount Lebanon Thrust fault lines, which produce hundreds of minute shocks a year.
“Earthquakes happen everywhere and everyday in Lebanon,” Elias said.
Most of these are too small for concern – around 1,000 times weaker than the last major quake to strike Lebanon, in 1759 at a magnitude of 7.4, which killed tens of thousands of people. In 1956, the 5.7M Chim earthquake caused loss of life and significant material damage.
Scientists believe that a colossal quake occurred off the coast of Lebanon in 551, producing a tsunami that razed Beirut to the ground.
Elias and Abdel-Rahman, professor and chairperson at AUB’s Department of Geology, warned that another earthquake of this magnitude could occur any day. “The Yammouneh fault produces major earthquakes about every 1,000 years; the Mount Lebanon Thrust every 1,500 to 1,750 years. But we can have earthquakes before and after these dates and that’s the only scientific account we can give of a possibility of earthquakes in the area,” Elias said.
“In other words, if we learn that there was a large magnitude earthquake [in 551], we are expecting one with a similar magnitude around now,” Rahman added.
“Obviously we cannot do to much predicting. We still cannot predict to any reasonable degree when an earthquake will happen.” Elias said that the current lull in major earthquakes in Lebanon was not uncommon, nor did it mean the area’s seismic activity had ceased. “The fact that today we are not witnessing major earthquakes is not unusual, but it tells us that maybe the stress is loading … and a major earthquake will happen. Maybe we are close to the end of a seismic cycle,” he said.
It is a danger humans in Lebanon have faced since the first inhabitants of the Fertile Crescent – even the architects at Baalbek’s Temple of Bacchus designed its keystone to withstand seismic activity – and Elias said it was each homeowner’s responsibility to ensure modern buildings could stand up to future jolts.
“It’s up to everyone among us to check whether their house is well built or not,” he said. He added that Lebanon’s seven seismic activity monitor centers made it one of the best placed countries in the region to come up with viable methods of reducing earthquake-induced damage.

Lebanese man becomes first to sue former Syrian 'jailers'
By Agence France Presse (AFP)
Friday, March 12, 2010
BEIRUT: A Lebanese man has filed an unprecedented lawsuit against five Syrians, including four officers, that he said kidnapped, tortured and jailed him in Syria, his lawyer told AFP on Thursday. Elias Tanios was kidnapped from Lebanon by Syrian soldiers in 1992 and taken to Syria where he was held in jail until his release in 2000, Sleiman Labbous said. “Two days ago he filed a suit in a Beirut court against four officers responsible for his detention and his torture during his years in jail,” the lawyer said. Tanios, a former member of the Lebanese security services, also filed a suit against a Syrian man, who also holds Lebanese nationality, who allegedly “denounced him.” The attorney refused to give a motive for the arrest and detention of his client but insisted that he was “innocent.” The suit is the first of its kind to be filed against Syrian authorities by a Lebanese once held in Syria – which ruled Lebanon politically and military for nearly three decades until April 2005. Syria rounded up hundreds of Lebanese during its occupation of Lebanon, holding them in detention either in Lebanese or in Syrian jails. Hundreds of Lebanese who went missing during that time are still believed to be held in Syrian prisons. Families of the missing have been pressing the Syrian authorities to free them or to report on their fates. Families have been demanding for years their release, as well as a probe into the fate of hundreds of their kin who went missing during Syria’s domination of Lebanon. In October 2008, Lebanon and Syria established their first ever diplomatic ties after decades of strained relations between the two neighbors. The defendants named in the lawsuit include Jameh Jameh, a Syrian officer who was in charge of an infamous detention and torture center in Beirut in the 1990s, the lawyer said. Also named was Barakat al-Ash, who ran the Saydnaya prison, one of Syria’s largest jails, as well as officers Dib Zeitouni, Kamal Youssef, and Ghassan Alloush who allegedly denounced Tanios to the Syrian authorities. – AFP

Magistrate lists charges in Ain al-Remmaneh case
Khamis demands death penalty for killer in bloody incident
By The Daily Star
Friday, March 12, 2010
BEIRUT: Mount Lebanon Investigative Magistrate Fawzi Khamis issued Thursday a list of charges regarding the bloody Ain al-Remmaneh incident.
On October 6, 2009, 31-year-old Georges Abu Madi was killed and four others were wounded when violence erupted between young men from the mainly Shiite district of Shiyyah and men from the nearby Christian area of Ain al-Remmaneh.
The incident sparked fears of further outbreaks of sectarian violence similar to the events of May 7, 2008, when bloody clashes broke out between pro-government and opposition gunmen in West Beirut and the Chouf region.
Khamis demanded that the death penalty be given to Ali Yassin for deliberately killing Abu Madi by stabbing him in the chest and for attempting to kill others. The magistrate also demanded life imprisonment with forced labor for Ali al-Sayyed Hussein, Samih Hammoud, Ali Bilal, Kamal al-Shafawi, Ahmad Eissa, Ibrahim Yassin, Yahya Yahya, Hassan Jaber, and Abass Zahwi for attempted murder. The men were all found to have participated in beating Abu Madi and a number of his friends.
Khamis also accused the detainees of participating in a “riot, gatherings on public roads, undermining national unity and instigating sectarian tensions.”
Khamis said the charges revealed that on the day of Abu Madi’s killing, the accused had agreed to go from Beirut’s southern suburbs to Ain al-Remmaneh simply to create trouble to avenge one of their friends being humiliated in the area a week earlier.
With knives, sticks and daggers in their possession, the accused went to the area on five motorcycles. After reaching Gallery Kanaan on Haneen Street, they found Abu Madi standing near his house with a number of individuals. The men then battered Abu Madi, Selim Boulos, Jean Al-Haber, Mazen Mitri, George Mansour, Boulos Abdel-Ahad, and Jean Habib. During the fighting, Abu Madi was stabbed in the chest and died.
Yassin later confessed to stabbing Abu Madi, saying he’d bragged about it to his friends.
Different Lebanese political factions condemned the incident in the wake of the crime.
Hizbullah and the Amal Movement, the two parties that hold sway in Beirut’s southern suburbs, issued a joint statement condemning the “painful” incident and urging security forces and judicial authorities to disclose the details of the event. “All parties should bear their national responsibilities, preserve coexistence and work in favor of the country’s best interests,” the statement said.
The statement also criticized all those “seeking” to provoke sectarian strife, adding that “impulsive attitudes” do not serve Lebanon’s interests. “The incident was personal rather than politically or religiously motivated,” it said.
A few days after the incident, the pan-Arab Al-Hayat newspaper published remarks by MPs quoting Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri as saying that the group that entered Ain al-Remmaneh “came from [the southern suburb of] Bourj al-Barajneh to drink and gamble.” Berri told his visitors that “the incident was a personal one but this does not justify what happened, particularly since the victim was an innocent bystander,” the paper added. – The Daily Star

Antione Choueiri's legacy lives on
Friday, March 12, 2010
Editorial/Daily Star
The passing of Antoine Choueiri this week is being marked in Lebanon and the region, as people use words such as “mogul” to refer to his legacy in the advertising industry, and “president” to refer to his legacy in the realm of sports.
A man of many hats, Choueiri might not have pleased everyone, but the bottom line is this: During the Civil War, which is remembered directly by fewer and fewer people, there came a point where he almost single-handedly lifted the country’s advertising industry, with a knock-on effect in related sectors.
In our part of the world, the media has two main sources of income. One is the government, while the other is “political money,” which has a variety of manifestations. Neither is particularly responsive to the media industries as such; the concern of states and powerful figures is one of “get my message out” and damn the consequences.
By contrast, Choueiri played a distinctive role. He wasn’t an advertising man per se; he didn’t spend his days polishing the image of clients. Instead, he was the real estate agent who dealt in selling column inches of advertisements. He was a broker between ad agencies and the media, and more importantly, he used his own money to develop the industry and let it discover new opportunities.
He was a master of networking before the term became widely used. He and the country benefited from his connections to international associations and bodies active in media and advertising. He put his money where his mouth was: he funded conferences and brought people together, which lifted the profile of Lebanon’s advertising firms. Lebanon’s media surged after the war, and Choueiri was central in this process. And, he was equally pivotal in making Dubai’s advertising sector what it is today.
Choueiri might have had his biases and wasn’t a reflection of Gandhian purity. But, he was as close to the concept of professionalism, and his work was as close to being market-driven, as you can possibly get in this part of the world. He was a ruthless businessman, but the industry demanded it. He was also a risk-taker who pushed the envelope. As an individual, he was a salesman par excellence. As time went on, as a businessman, he came to function, invisibly, as the banker of the advertising industry.
Rafik Hariri might not have pleased everyone, but his name came to be associated with the very word Lebanon, because of his local reconstruction achievements and massive external clout. The same goes for Antoine Choueiri and Lebanon’s advertising agencies, which means a true giant has passed from the scene. He was a mogul, and a president, but more importantly, he was a builder.

Lebanese Tycoon, Choueiri, Buried in Hometown
/Naharnet/The body of millionaire Antoine Choueiri was buried Thursday in his hometown of Bsharri in north Lebanon. The funeral service for the 69-year-old businessman was held at St. Georges Cathedral in downtown Beirut before midday Thursday. Choueiri's funeral was attended by a huge number of relatives, friends as well as government and media officials. Choueiri, a prominent Lebanese businessman and media magnate, died on Tuesday after a long battle with illness. He had been rushed to the intensive care unit at Hotel Dieu Hospital in Ashrafieh about 20 days ago. During the 38 years he spent in the business world, Choueiri was the main advertising representative of several Arab media corporations such as An-Nahar and As-Safir Lebanese dailies, Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International TV, Al-Jazeera pan-Arab TV, al-Hayat London-based pan-Arab daily, and Dubai Media Incorporated. Choueiri was responsible for managing advertising sales for some of the largest broadcasters in the region such as LBC, MBC and Dubai TV. His prevailing influence in the world of television prompted the formation of the GCC Association of Advertisers 3 years ago. Members of the GCC Association of Advertisers include Emirates Airlines, Unilever and McDonalds. All of the members are said to spend over $100 million a year on advertising in the region. The Choueiri Group is a privately held company initially formed by Antoine Choueiri in Paris after civil war erupted in Lebanon in the 1970's. The first regional firm launched by the Choueiri Group was in Saudi Arabia, where Antoine Choueiri built on his reputation and his expertise until he was ready to launch in Lebanon and in the UAE, in what has become the most expansive media network in the region. The Group is involved in managing and marketing the advertising space of more than 30 TV and radio stations, print title and billboard signs in the GCC. On the other hand, Choueiri was renowned for his passion and support for Lebanese basketball. He was the chairman of Sagesse Club for a long period during which the club was able to reap many local and international championships, including 8 Lebanese League Championships, 3 Lebanese Basketball Cups, 2 Arab Clubs Championships, and 3 Asian Basketball Club Championships. Beirut, 11 Mar 10, 13:01

Russian Ambassador: Time for Lebanese to Take Reins of Government
Naharnet/"It is time for Lebanese to take the reins of the government themselves," Russian Ambassador to Lebanon Sergei Poukin said. He stressed the importance of dialogue in Lebanon "to discuss the most acute issues which still exist on the table."While pointing out that Lebanon is an independent country, Poukin rejected any foreign meddling in Lebanese affairs.
Beirut, 11 Mar 10, 12:15

Berri Describes as 'Very Dangerous' the Alleged Signing of Saniora Government of Security Agreement with U.S. Embassy
Naharnet/Speaker Nabih Berri on Thursday stressed that the Media and Communications Parliamentary Committee will persistently follow up on the issue of the alleged security agreement with the U.S. Embassy. In an interview with al-Manar TV network, Berri warned that if it appears that the ex-PM Fouad Saniora government had earlier signed the agreement, "then the issue will be very dangerous and it will lead to consequences."On the other hand, Berri urged finding a mechanism for administrative appointments to ensure balance.
Beirut, 11 Mar 10, 21:55

Biden calls for Hizbullah disarmament during Tel Aviv University talk
Us VP URGES immediate restart to Palestinian-Israeli peace talks after row
Compiled by Daily Star staff /Friday, March 12, 2010
US Vice President Joe Biden stressed Thursday during a speech in Israel that his country would pursue its efforts to fully implement UN Security Council Resolution 1701 to stop arms flow to Hizbullah and strip the party of its weapons, while also calling for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks to start without delay.
“Weapons constituting danger equally against Israeli and Lebanese civilians,” Biden said during a lecture at Tel Aviv University on Thursday.
Biden also slammed Iran’s leadership for funding and arming Hizbullah as well as seeking nuclear weapons.
“There is no doubt that the major danger in the region is Iran, whose leadership defies the international community in its attempts to acquire nuclear weapons,” Biden said.
“During the past 10 years, Iran became more dangerous and is building thousands of centrifuges while supporting and funding Hizbullah,” he added.
Tackling American-Syrian bilateral ties, Biden said the US was promoting bilateral ties with Damascus and that it had reassigned a new ambassador to Syria.
“However, we will keep our eyes open to Syrian acts that could threaten security in Israel and the region while hoping for improved ties between Syria and Israel,” Biden added.
Speaking of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Biden called parties to start talks without delay in spite of demands by Palestinians that Israel first cancel a settlement project announced this week.
On Tuesday, Israel announced its plans to build 1,600 settler homes in an area of the occupied West Bank near occupied Jerusalem.
The announcement, which was made during Biden’s visit, cast a shadow over American efforts to relaunch Middle East peacemaking.
“The most important thing is for these talks to go forward and go forward promptly and go forward in good faith,” Biden said in a speech at Tel Aviv University. “We can’t delay because when progress is postponed, extremists exploit our differences.”
The settlement announcement embarrassed Biden, who said it undermined peace efforts, and infuriated the West Bank-based Palestinian leadership, which had agreed to a US proposal for indirect talks under pressure from Washington and Arab allies.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa on Wednesday he had decided not to enter the talks for now. The Arab League had endorsed a four-month framework for the US-mediated negotiations.
In a telephone conversation with Biden before the Tel Aviv address, Abbas “reiterated to him that Israel must annul the settlement project in Jerusalem so that indirect talks will not be obstructed,” Abbas aide Nabil Abu Rdainah told Reuters.
Palestinian officials had no immediate comment on Biden’s Tel Aviv speech.
US officials expressed confidence that despite the flare-up, the indirect negotiations could begin as early as next week, when US Middle East envoy George Mitchell is scheduled to return to the region.
The vice president later travelled to Jordan for talks with King Abdullah to discuss the peace process.
In his address, Biden gave no sign Washington would press Israel to cancel the project as the Palestinians have demanded; and Israeli officials made clear it would not do so.
Instead, he termed “significant” assurances from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that building at the site, a religious settlement, would not start for years.
With no construction scheduled for now, Biden said, negotiators would have time to “resolve this and other outstanding issues.” He stressed that indirect talks should lead to direct negotiations on key issues of Palestinian statehood.
In a statement, Netanyahu said he had voiced his displeasure to his interior minister, a leader of the ultraorthdox, nationalist Shas party, over the timing of the announcement of the project.
Israel’s Labour Party, meanwhile, hinted that it may quit the ruling coalition over the decision to build the settler homes, Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon warned on Thursday.
“Members of the Labour Party have more and more difficulty in taking part in a coalition government that they joined with the purpose of relaunching the peace process with the Palestinians,” Simhon told army radio. “A grave error has been committed [by Israel] and there is a price to pay,” he added.
Biden’s speech was widely seen in Israel as an attempt by the White House to counter-balance the address to the Muslim world that President Barack Obama delivered back in June in Cairo.
Many Israelis view Obama with suspicion, and Biden reaffirmed in his speech a United States commitment to Israel’s security and what he called Washington’s determination to ensure that Iran does not obtain nuclear weapons.
On the Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic front, Mitchell, who has been trying to broker for a year a resumption of talks, was expected to return to Israel and the West Bank next week.
Abbas had demanded a full settlement freeze in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, areas captured by Israel in a 1967 war, before any resumption of the two-decade old peace process.
Israel considers all of occupied Jerusalem its capital, a claim that the international community rejects. Palestinians want occupied East Jerusalem to be the capital of the state they hope to establish in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
“Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and construction there will be carried out like in Tel Aviv or any other city – in every part of Jerusalem according to
the plans,” Israeli Cabinet Secretary Zvi Hauser told Israel Radio. The Palestinians say the settlements, considered illegal by major world powers, will deny them a viable state. Under US pressure, Israel announced in November a decision to restrain building in its West Bank settlements for 10 months but said the restrictions would not include occupied East Jerusalem.
The international community, meanwhile, continued to slam the Israeli plans to build new settlement homes. China, Turkey, and Spain denounced the plan on Thursday.
Lebanese President Michel Sleiman said the Israeli cabinet’s decision to build new settlements proved that Israel had rejected the prospect of partaking in the peace process.
“The policy of running forward to escape international pressure reveals with no doubt that Israel is not ready or willing to start serious peace negotiations with the Palestinians in order to establish a basis for a comprehensive and just peace in the Middle East,” Sleiman said.
Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos of Spain, which represents the European Union presidency, expressed concern over the announcement of the new settlements to Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman.
“I expressed my real deep concern, hoping that this settlement activity will be ended, and there will be no more announcement, no more expansion work.”
Turkey, for its part, said that the plan raised “serious doubts” on Israel’s commitment to peace. – AFP, with Elias Sakr

Biden Says U.S. to Keep on Supporting Lebanon Institutions, 1701 Implementation to Disarm Hizbullah
Naharnet/U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday stressed the persistence of Washington in supporting Lebanon's institutions and working on the implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 "to stop the flow of arms to Hizbullah." Speaking at Tel Aviv University, Biden said that Hizbullah's weapons represent a threat to both "Israel and Lebanese civilians." The vice president described Iran as the greatest threat to the region due to its alleged nuclear program and sponsoring of Hizbullah.
On the other hand, Biden confirmed that Washington will send a new ambassador to Syria to enhance diplomatic relations. However, he called for keeping an eye on Damascus' acts that may jeopardize "the security of Israel and the region." Biden implored Israelis and Palestinians to move beyond a diplomatic spat that has marred his trip to the region, urging the sides to waste no time in resolving their decades-old conflict despite daunting obstacles. Biden used conciliatory language as he wrapped up a three-day visit to the area in an apparent attempt to get past the uproar sparked by an Israeli plan for new settlement construction in disputed east Jerusalem. The Israeli announcement -- seen as a slap in the face to Biden -- drew a sharp condemnation from the vice president as well as a Palestinian threat to withdraw from U.S.-mediated peace talks before they even begin. The 22-nation Arab League, which gave Abbas the backing to resume talks with Israel, has recommended withdrawing support for indirect talks in the wake of the Israeli settlement plan. Biden's speech appeared aimed at not letting the row with Israel derail the Obama administration's latest drive for Mideast peace. However, the vice president's effusive praise for the Jewish state — saying the U.S. has "no better friend" than Israel — could disappoint those who had hoped he would talk tougher in the wake of the new settlement plan. Biden said the sides must get down to the business of making peace.
"To end this historic conflict, both sides must be historically bold," Biden said. "If each waits stubbornly ... this will go on for an eternity."
In his speech, Biden outlined the contours of what the U.S. believes should be a final settlement. He said a Palestinian state must be based on the pre-1967 borders, with some modifications and strong guarantees for Israel's security. Biden listed what he believes to be reminders of Israel's security concerns: The strength of Hizbullah guerrillas to Israel's north in Lebanon, the Hamas presence in Gaza, the continued captivity of an Israeli soldier in Gaza, and "ongoing Palestinian incitement against Israel."(Naharnet-AP) Beirut, 11 Mar 10, 17:44

Cabinet Forms Committee Tasked with Submitting Ideas on Appointments Mechanism
Naharnet/The Cabinet on Thursday formed a committee tasked with submitting ideas for the criterions and mechanism of administrative nominations and appointments.
The committee is headed by PM Saad Hariri and consisted of the ministers Elias Murr, Jean Ogassapian, Mohammed Fneish, Jebran Bassil and Wael Abu Faour.
It is expected to submit its report to the cabinet by the end of this month. "The committee will convene Monday under Minister Elias Murr at the defense ministry," Information Minister Tareq Mitri announced after cabinet's extraordinary session. Mitri revealed that the "transparent" mechanism will guarantee the integrity of the candidates, equal Christian-Muslim powersharing, and increasing the rate of women's presence in public administrations. On Wednesday, a Cabinet meeting failed to approve administrative appointments.
Cabinet, however, approved a proposal by the Higher Judicial Council to name two active members among its ranks and appoint one additional member to the Justice Council.
"There were no appointments," Mirti told reporters. "There were some reservations but discussions did not take a long time."
Those who expressed reservations were ministers Elias Murr, Jebran Bassil, Charbel Nahhas, Abraham Dedeyan, Adnan Sayyed Hussein and Mona Ofeish.
Nevertheless, Council approved the nominations.
Beirut, 11 Mar 10, 22:21
 
Human Rights Watch
Sectarian Killings in Nigeria Continue
Investigations, Prosecutions Needed to Help Break Cycle of Violence
“They came with guns, ammunition, and machetes,” a 25-year-old student said. “One group surrounded our village and started shooting. I saw many villagers - women, children, and some men - hacked to death. I lost one of my daughters, who was 7 years old.”
The recent massacre in a mainly Christian village near Jos left at least 200 dead. Two months earlier, 150 Muslims from another village were massacred in a tragically similar fashion. More than 13,500 people in Nigeria, 3,000 of them in and around Jos, have died in sectarian clashes since the end of military rule in 1999.
Nigeria is deeply divided along ethnic and religious lines. Human Rights Watch research shows that profound levels of poverty, the failure to investigate and prosecute those responsible for the violence, and discriminatory government policies fuel tension and underlie the cycles of violence. The government policies deny government jobs and scholarships to people who can’t trace their ancestry to a certain area. "This kind of terrible violence has left thousands dead in the past decade, but no one has been held accountable," said Corinne Dufka, senior West Africa researcher. "It's time to draw a line in the sand

How to Make Defeatism Look Good: Let's Give Up and Cheer the Islamists/By Barry Rubin/March 12, 2010
http://www.gloria-center.org/gloria/2010/03/how-to-make-defeatism
I'm not going to bash or rant about a Newsweek article about Turkey by Owen Matthews-shocking and dangerous as it is--but rather talk about what is wrong and inaccurate about it. That article is part of a new wave of defeatism sweeping the West, though it still remains subordinate to the more ostensibly attractive idea that there is no real conflict or at least one easy to fix by Western concessions.
Here's the title: "The Army Is Beaten: Why the U.S. should hail the Islamists." Yes, we should thank the Islamists for taking over Turkey. But wait a minute! The ruling AK party says it isn't Islamist. Indeed, I have been viciously attacked by them in the Turkish media for saying so. Up until now the line--including that from the regime itself--has been that we shouldn't be afraid of them because they are really just democrats. But now some are willing to face the truth and still sugarcoat it.
Matthews writes:
"The political logic should be simple. The arrest of a shadowy group of generals for allegedly plotting a bloody coup should be a victory for justice. The end of military meddling in politics should be a victory for democracy. And greater democracy should make a country more liberal and more pro-European."
Each of these sentences makes a false assumption and must be examined a bit.
Sentence one: Arresting military officers is only a victory for justice if they are guilty. Why does the author assume they are guilty? In fact, the claims are ludicrous. That a group of officers created a 5000 page plan for a coup that involved attacking mosques and massive attacks on civilians. It is one of a series of such accusations for which no real evidence has been presented, in which a widely disparate group of people have been arrested as alleged conspirators when their sole connection is that they are critics of the government.
This is ridiculously gullible. It's like the famous sentence by a newsweekly magazine that even if the Hitler diaries were forgeries (they were) that would tell us a great deal about the history of the time. If in fact the arrests were trumped-up to tame the army so that the current regime can impose a dictatorship in practice it was not a victory for justice but for injustice. Iran, Syria, Hamas, Hizballah, and Islamists in general lie a lot (and a lot more than democratic government) so why should they be taken at their word, especially when any serious examination of evidence shows the truth.
Sentence two: Of course, in general, keeping the army out of politics is a victory for democracy, but that ignores the specific history of Turkey. The army has viewed itself and been accepted there as the guardian of democracy. This history is certainly imperfect but when the country has been sliding into anarchy in the past or fallen into the hand of those who threatened to destroy the republic, the army has stepped in briefly, gotten civilians to reorganize things on a stable basis, and quickly gone back into the barracks.
The Turkish army is not like those of the Third World which hunger for power, destroy democracy, and unleash corrupt and repressive regimes. On the other hand, this article--and many others--show ignorance about the actual shifts in Turkey.
For example, there is no awareness that the regime is seizing control of the media; that the party leader (which means the prime minister for the ruling party) simply picks candidates for parliament as he pleases; that the reforms have strengthened the prime minister's power and not parliamentary democracy; and that women are being forced out of high positions. Merely weakening the army doesn't mean more democracy when in almost every other respect there is less.
Sentence three: If indeed-as is the case-the regime is systematically cracking down on the free media and imposing its control over all the institutions. This is not leading to greater but to less democracy. There should be a lot more reporting on what's happening within the country instead of just repeating the regime's claims.
Indeed, the author states:
"And with the last major obstacle to the ruling AK Party's power gone, Turkey's conservative prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will be free to implement his vision of a more Islamic Turkey. More democracy, then, doesn't necessarily lead to more liberalism, either."
The assumption here is that this is what the Turkish people want. Yet it should be noted there are some big problems for that claim. Turkey's electoral system is so weighted that the AK has received near-monopoly control on the basis of a vote that in most parliamentary democracies would have produced a coalition government.
Moreover, many or most Turks who voted for the AK weren't doing so because they wanted Islamism-as public opinion surveys clearly show--but because they thought (mistakenly, even according to this author) that it was a mildly conservative party.
And finally, the AK is seizing control over institutions so as to be sure that it will never lose another election. It is destroying Turkish democracy, a point made rather obvious by a long list of such actions over non-military institutions like the civil service, courts, and media. The author-and many others-are simply taking the regime's word for it and ignoring what the government is actually doing.
The author concludes by saying: "It's also clear that Turkey under the AK Party will remain a Western ally, and NATO will remain Ankara's most important strategic partner."
Then, this unusually candid if wrong author explains:
"How do we know? The AK Party says so, and it has no real options. There's no rival alliance, not with Iran, the Arab world, or Russia, which could possibly rival the clout Turkey has, with the second-largest Army in NATO."
Of course, Turkey has options. And here is the option the regime has chosen: To keep as much as possible the Western alliances while the content of its policy favors radical Islamist forces.
Incidentally, this "no option" argument is the root of a huge amount of confusion in the Middle East. Supposedly, Iran has "no option" but to become moderate; Syria has "no option" but to dump Iran; the Palestinian Authority has "no option" but to make peace. Yet over and over again the local forces find an option that they are quite happy to pursue other than the one laid out for them by Western observers. They have their own view of the world, ideology, and goals (often the goal of the regime being to amass wealth and stay in power).
And one of the key factors in this process is that--rightly or wrongly--they think they are winning so why should they change course or make compromises? And certain other ideas are calculated into their list of options: soon Iran has nuclear weapons. And the divine being is on their side. And the West is weak, stupid, cowardly, and easily fooled.
Turkey is one of the main places they think they are winning, according to Syria and Iran.
Now of course, the Turkish government doesn't have to say: America stinks and we're pulling out of NATO. It can keep the benefits of these relationships, having their cake and eating it, too. But in practice Turkey is moving closer to Iran and Syria, with the leaders of both of these two countries openly pointing out that fact. The question is what does it mean for Turkey to be a Western ally in a practical sense? If it supports Iran, Syria, Hizballah, and Hamas, just how does Ankara function as a Western ally? It's meaningless.
So, the article concludes, "The world would be wise to side with the AK Party, not seek a return of the discredited generals." I'm not sure why the generals are supposed to be discredited by ludicrous accusations orchestrated by an anti-American (in practice) government which needs to destroy them. Rather, it is the current regime in Turkey that should be discredited.
Still, it's a pretty neat trick when a regime repressing Turkish democracy and increasingly siding with the enemies of the West can convince people in the West that this is a good thing.
Incidentally, the New York Times has only a slightly more nuanced editorial than the Matthews article. Among other things, it take at face value that the story about the military planning a coup was broken by a small "independent" newspaper in Turkey. Actually, that publication is a front from the regime and is most unreliable--a point one might expect the Times to have discovered. The story was part of the regime's strategy, not some journalitic scoop.
As the theme song to the television show "MASH" put it:
"The game of life is hard to play,
I'm going to lose it anyway,
The losin' card I'll someday lay;
So this is all I have to say...
"That suicide is painless...
And I can take or leave it if I please."
The Western world should reject playing that particular card as its strategy.
*Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), with Walter Laqueur (Viking-Penguin); the paperback edition of The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan); A Chronological History of Terrorism, with Judy Colp Rubin, (Sharpe); and The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley). To read and subscribe to MERIA, GLORIA articles, or to order books, go to http://www.gloria-center.org.