LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
March 22/2010

Bible Of the Day
Jesus Heals Blind Bartimaeus
Mark 10/46-52: " They came to Jericho. As he went out from Jericho, with his disciples and a great multitude, the son of Timaeus, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the road. 10:47 When he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to cry out, and say, “Jesus, you son of David, have mercy on me!” 10:48 Many rebuked him, that he should be quiet, but he cried out much more, “You son of David, have mercy on me!” 10:49 Jesus stood still, and said, “Call him.”They called the blind man, saying to him, “Cheer up! Get up. He is calling you!” 10:50 He, casting away his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus. 10:51 Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “Rabboni, that I may see again.” 10:52 Jesus said to him, “Go your way. Your faith has made you well.” Immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.

Free Opinions, Releases, letters, Interviews & Special Reports
End tutelage of Lebanese/By: Ahmed Al-Jarallah/March 21/10
Waging Jihad Through the American Courts/by Daniel Pipes/March 21/10
The truth behind the crimes/By:Sarah Lynch/Now Lebanon/March 21/10

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for March 21/10
Obama invites Netanyahu to White House?Now Lebanom
Ban: Israeli Gaza blockade creates unacceptable sufferings/Now Lebanon
Sfeir: Preserving the Presidency Essential Factor in State's Consolidation/Naharnet
STL, Hizbullah Say No Comment on Wahab Info that Investigators Asked to Question Hizbullah Members/Naharnet
Lebanese Army Opens Anti-aircraft Fire on Israeli Fighter Jets/Naharnet
Decomposed, Beheaded Body Found in South/Naharnet
Aoun Advocates Dialogue Not Blood in Solving Differences/Naharnet
Berri Travels to Ankara to Consolidate Arab-Turkish Dialogue/Naharnet
Maqdah Denies Joining Hizbullah with 2,000 Fatah Fighters/Naharnet
Suleiman Satisfied with Situation Despite Campaign Against Him/Naharnet
Hariri in Riyadh/Naharnet
Arslan: Political system needs discussing in national dialogue/Now Lebanon
Jumblat to Abandon Majority after Visiting Syria, Berri: Jumblat Trip Puts Us before New Political Scene /Naharnet
Nations Decline to March to US Beat/Wall Street Journal
Squeeze Israel by cutting US aid? Not likely/Washington Post
Lebanon: Four charged as Israeli spies/Jerusalem Post
UN chief to meet IDF intelligence chief/Ynetnews
Why Obama staged a crisis/Examiner.com
Peretz: I was victim of Lebanon war/Ynetnews
Syria's quiet revolution/The Guardian
MESS Report / Israel and the General/Ha'aretz

End tutelage of Lebanese
By: Ahmed Al-Jarallah
Arab Times 21/03/10
ِTHE ‘orchestra’ in Lebanon, which specializes in beating the drums of discord, has started beating the drums of isolation and is almost repeating its 2004 behavior. The previous behavior initiated a wave of assassinations that claimed several top officials, including well-known peacemaker and the then Prime Minister Rafiq Al-Hariri. Will the ‘Misfortune Band’ initiate a new wave of violence? Is the information that is being leaked from the US State Department about the possibility of a fresh wave of assassinations in Lebanon credible?
This is not strange in a country like Lebanon, which is suffering a serious crisis due to the supply of arms to a certain faction at the expense of all others. The empowered faction is determined to take control of the country despite the opposition of a majority of people. Hezbollah, which suspended the activities of all institutions in the country for over two years, tried to take control of the capital overnight by force. It has not abandoned the destructive project and is trying to implement its devilish coup plan.
Does this have any link to the expected ruling of the International Criminal Court in the assassination case of Rafiq Al-Hariri?
Is anybody scared of exposing his complicity in the assassination, thereby pointing fingers randomly at every part of the country? There is no better explanation for the coordinated efforts of the so-called ‘March 8 Group,’ which has taken over state institutions. At a time, when some mouthpieces of the bygone tutelage system are attacking President Michelle Sulaiman and are demanding his resignation, somebody has been announcing the formation of the so-called resistant forces by the Hezbollah without declaring the real intention behind the move. The internal security forces, which foiled a series of Israeli espionage networks, have been facing serious attacks, which started with the arrival of international investigators in Lebanon. Is there any other explanation for this?
We will not return to the past and we will not suspect the intentions of Hezbollah and the ‘March 8 Orchestra.’ The only scary aspect of it is the inability of ‘Hezb Al-Selah’ to retrace steps and realize the environment within the country. We are not from Lebanon and so cannot understand its characteristics, but why don’t the Lebanese citizens seize the opportunity of heterogeneous nature of their country to strengthen stability and growth? Won’t it be ideal, rather than turning their backyard into a regional battlefield for a cause, which this small country does not stand to benefit? They have been trading in the blood of their compatriots in favor of others. This started after the Iranian-Syrian summit in which Hassan Nasrallah participated. Did they plan this scenario during the summit?
Nobody will vouch that this renewed isolation by leaders of the so-called Lebanese Political Movement is patriotic, because it defies all political norms. It was a provocation and an attempt to clampdown completely on the country. This could be a possible ploy to prepare ground for Iran to use Lebanon as a source of assault, in case of a military offensive by the US or Israel instead of using Tehran. This could also be an attempt to obstruct chances of delivering justice and punishing the assailants of martyr Rafiq Al-Hariri and also exit from a series of other minor crises the focal nations (Syria and Iran) are facing.
Countries and their citizens suffer a great deal whenever a group sells its conscience to foreigners. It is the same when certain groups sell their tears for meagre amounts of money. While we are not accusing anybody in the case in which the ruling is about to be delivered, we implore everybody to take advantage of the diverse culture and population in the Arab World. Lebanon was an oasis of democracy and a large economy, but it is currently under the bondage of mercenary extremists. Is there any other explanation for this situation other than the aforementioned? Email:ahmed@aljarallah.com

Sfeir: Preserving the Presidency Essential Factor in State's Consolidation
Naharnet/Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir reportedly said Sunday that preserving the seat of the presidency is an essential factor in the consolidation of the state and Lebanon's independence.Lebanese Forces MP George Adwan, who visited Sfeir in Bkirki, also said that the patriarch reiterated support for President Michel Suleiman.
In his turn, the lawmaker said that the campaign against the president targets the independence of Lebanon's free-decision making because the head of state and the prime minister are trying to put Lebanon back in the international arena through their visits abroad. Statements calling on the president to resign pose a threat to the endurance of institutions and aim at shaking civil peace and the constitution, he added. Beirut, 21 Mar 10, 13:48

Moussa: Lebanese Ambassador to Arab League Received Libya Summit Invitation
Naharnet/Arab League chief Amr Moussa on Sunday said Lebanese Ambassador to the Arab League Khaled Ziade received an official invitation to attend the Arab summit in Libya later this month. The invitation from Libyan leader Moammer Gadhafi to President Michel Suleiman to attend the summit scheduled to be held in Tripoli, Libya March 27-28 was handed over to Ziade, Moussa told reporters. Moussa said he attended the invitation handover at the headquarters of the General Secretariat of the Arab League. The Lebanese Cabinet is due to discuss Lebanon's participation and take a decision in this regard, Moussa added. Beirut, 21 Mar 10, 19:49

STL, Hizbullah Say No Comment on Wahab Info that Investigators Asked to Question Hizbullah Members
Naharnet/Tawheed movement leader Wiam Wahab has created a new commotion in the country after saying that the committee investigating ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's murder has summoned Hizbullah members for questioning. However, Wahab's statement was neither confirmed by Special Tribunal for Lebanon prosecutor's office nor by Hizbullah.
"A problem could take place in the country because the investigating panel will create strife," Wahab told al-Jadeed TV on Saturday. The former minister also advised Premier Saad Hariri to "avoid the trap of the international tribunal."Earlier in the week, Wahab asked President Michel Suleiman to resign, unleashing a wave of support for the head of state. Spokeswoman of the tribunal prosecutor's office, Radhia Achouri, refused to deny or confirm Wahab's information. "Work at the prosecutor's office is ongoing as you know and meetings and interviews take place with people," she told An Nahar daily in remarks published Sunday. "However, we don't give information or details about the course of our work," Achouri said. About reports that 11 international investigators have been in Lebanon for investigations on Hariri's assassination and for the questioning of several witnesses, the spokeswoman said: "No comment on this issue and no details on it.""This is the policy we adopt on not giving information about the investigation," she told An Nahar. On Wednesday, Achouri told Naharnet that having investigators in Beirut is not something new. "I just want to reiterate that we always have investigators in Beirut, be it those based in there or those who go on mission," she said. Hizbullah on Sunday was also hush-hush on the issue. "We don't comment on everything related to the international tribunal," MP Nawaf Moussawi told al-Jadeed TV on Saturday when asked about the court's summoning of Hizbullah members. "No one can cross out the resistance," he stressed. Beirut, 21 Mar 10, 08:19

Rival Political Sides Clash with Sticks in Bekaa, Gunshots Heard
Naharnet/A clash with sticks and stones erupted Sunday between rival political sides in the Bekaa town of Taalbaya, local media reported. They said a personal dispute developed into a fight between families belonging to opposing political parties. The Lebanese army rushed to the scene after gunshots were heard. NO casualties were reported, however. The Voice of Lebanon radio station said Lebanese troops launched raids at the suspects' houses and several men believed to be responsible for the violence were arrested. Beirut, 21 Mar 10, 19:36

Lebanese Army Opens Anti-aircraft Fire on Israeli Fighter Jets
Naharnet/The Lebanese army on Sunday opened anti-aircraft fire on two Israeli warplanes overflying southern Lebanon and the Bekaa valley, the Lebanese military command said in a communique. It said the fighter jets flew at a high altitude and returned to Israel after the Lebanese army opened fire on them. The National News Agency said the incident came as the Israeli army carried out patrols on the border in the area between Metulla settlement in the west and Shebaa farms area in the east. Beirut, 21 Mar 10, 11:23

Baroud Urges Police to Curtail Stone-Crushing, Quarry Violations
Naharnet/In a letter sent to the Internal Security Forces command, Interior Minister Ziad Baroud requested police to take stringent measures against any violation committed by stone-crushing, stone quarry and sand making workers. Baroud, in his letter, called for a freeze on all the operations associated with stone-crushing, stone quarries and sand making that does not have a legal license issued by the Ministry of Environment. He warned of "taking maximum disciplinary measures" against negligent policemen, including officers. Beirut, 21 Mar 10, 17:08

Decomposed, Beheaded Body Found in South
Naharnet/A decomposed and beheaded body was found on Sunday on the Zrariyeh beach in southern Lebanon, the National News Agency reported. NNA said security forces transported the body to Rafik Hariri state hospital for identification and the necessary medical examination. Zrariyeh's police station opened an investigation, NNA added.
Beirut, 21 Mar 10, 14:27

Aoun Advocates Dialogue, Not Blood, in Solving Differences
Naharnet/Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun said Sunday that differences should be solved through dialogue and not blood.
"In our Christian teachings hatred does not exist," Aoun said following a mass on the occasion of St. Joseph Day at the Haret Hreik church named after the Saint. Based on the concept of solving differences through dialogue "came our understanding with Hizbullah" the MP said. "We should love the entire nation. The south is ours, the Bekaa is ours, Beirut is ours and all of Lebanon is ours," Aoun told the crowds. "All the Lebanese are our people … we want to live the nation together." Beirut, 21 Mar 10, 12:53

Two Lebanese Troops Found Dead in Smar Jbeil
Naharnet/Tanios Yammine and Chahine Elia, two Lebanese troops, were found dead Saturday morning inside the army's barracks in the Batroun area of Smar Jbeil. The state-run National News Agency that carried the report did not mention additional details on how they died. However, it said that the military police has started its investigation into the incident. Later Saturday, an army spokesman told Agence France Presse, on condition of anonymity, that the "two soldiers committed suicide separately in their barracks at dawn this morning, around 15 minutes apart."The spokesman identified the soldiers as Tanios Yammine and Chahine Bashir, both of whom hail from northern Lebanon, but would give no further details or speculate on a motive. Beirut, 20 Mar 10, 13:56

Suleiman Satisfied with Situation Despite Campaign Against Him
Naharnet/President Michel Suleiman has reportedly said that the campaign against him had no justification and expressed satisfaction with the situation in the country. The president's visitors told Ad-Diyar daily in remarks published Sunday that "ties between him and the Syrian leadership are very good and nothing prevents the improvement of such relations."
All issues discussed with Syrian President Bashar Assad during two summits are being worked on for implementation "despite all the obstacles," Suleiman reportedly said.
His visitors also quoted him as saying that he was going ahead with reforms at all levels and that municipal elections should be held on time."There is no need to delay them (the polls) and they should take place on the basis of the reforms that are being currently discussed in parliament," Suleiman said, according to Ad-Diyar. Beirut, 21 Mar 10, 10:06

Hariri in Riyadh
Naharnet/Prime Minister Saad Hariri traveled to Riyadh on Saturday for a private visit.Hariri also held a telephone conversation with Massoud Barazani, the president of the emiautonomous Kurdish region in Iraq. The two men discussed latest regional developments. Beirut, 21 Mar 10, 09:08

Jumblat to Abandon Majority after Visiting Syria, Berri: Jumblat Trip Puts Us before New Political Scene
Naharnet/"Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat will abandon the parliamentary majority following his anticipated visit to Damascus -- after he had already abandoned the March 14 Alliance," well-informed sources announced. "Available information indicate he will stay on good terms with PM Saad Hariri, based on the solid relation he had with martyr PM Rafik Hariri, and as a result of the special relation between him and Saudi Arabia," the sources added. The same sources told Ad-Diyar Lebanese daily that "Hizbullah Secretary-General's Political Assistant Hussein Khalil visited Damascus for a second time to discuss the issue of Jumblat's anticipated visit as information indicate that Hizbullah is working on concluding the issue in a short time, considering that as beneficial for the internal situation and for everyone." "Jumblat will stay overnight in Syria and he will have his word on the essential issues, whether in terms of Lebanese-Syrian special relations or in terms of the resistance topic. He decided to voice these stances directly before President (Bashar) al-Assad to stress his new choices," the sources added. On the other hand, Speaker Nabih Berri's visitors quoted him as saying that "Jumblat's visit to Damascus will put us before a new political scene on the internal level, whether in terms of the resistance decision or in terms of special relations between the two countries.""This thing will represent the safety valve in maintaining Lebanese stability," Berri was quoted as saying. Beirut, 20 Mar 10, 14:38

Waging Jihad Through the American Courts
by Daniel PipesظThe American Spectator
March 2010
http://www.meforum.org/pipes/8131/jihad-through-american-courts
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[Slightly differs from the published version.]
On March 20, 2002, officers from the FBI, customs, immigration, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), raided nineteen offices and residences in Virginia and Georgia in the largest action against suspected terrorism-financing in American history. One of the targets of "Operation Green Quest" was the Washington, D.C.-area residence of Iqbal Unus, a nuclear physicist, along with his wife Aysha Nudrat and their 18-year-old daughter Hanaa.
The Unus family responded to the raid by filing an implausible but important lawsuit two years later in the U.S. district court for Eastern Virginia. The three plaintiffs claimed there had been no probable cause to search their house, they further alleged a "conspiracy to violate [their] Constitutional rights," and they sought punitive damages from several individuals associated with the raid:
•David Kane the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent who signed the 106-page affidavit that justified the search;
•Rita Katz, a private counterterrorism specialist and director of what is now called the SITE Intelligence Group; and
•"All unknown named federal agents … who searched plaintiffs' home." Those agents, the Unus family claimed, "knew or should have known that the affidavit did not contain probable cause for the search … for financial documents." (The agents, later named, numbered eleven in all: four customs agents, four Internal Revenue Service agents, an Immigration and Naturalization Service agent, a Secret Service agent, and a postal inspector.)
These defendants together stood accused of conspiring to "contrive allegations" that documents relevant to the financing of terrorism were located at their house. In plain English, the Unus family alleged that Kane, Katz, and the federal agents fabricated reasons for the raid.
In other words, the Unus family ascribed responsibility for the search of their house, a sovereign decision of the U.S. government, to specific federal employees and, even more bizarrely, to a private person (Katz) who had never served as a U.S. government employee. They justified suing Katz because she had claimed in her autobiography, Terrorist Hunter and on the CBS program 60 Minutes) to having unearthed the information that led to Kane's affidavit. Accordingly, the Unus family deemed her "the impetus" behind the search warrant and the source for its "every piece of information."[1]
The Unus lawsuit, only recently settled, warrants scrutiny because it fits a common pattern of what I call predatory exploitation of U.S. courts by Islamists. It raises several questions: What did the Unus family hope to achieve from its lawsuit? How does this incident fit into the larger scheme of Islamist ambitions? How can this abuse of the U.S. legal system be prevented?
The Lawsuit
The main target of the raids was a small office building at 555 Grove Street in Herndon, Virginia (picture), the site of over a hundred closely related commercial companies, think tanks, religious organizations, and non-profit charities controlled by a handful of individuals, known collectively as the "Safa Group," after one of the major companies in that network, or the "SAAR network," after the initials of Sulaiman Abdel-Aziz al-Rajhi, the Saudi financier alleged to have funded the enterprises.
Kane's affidavit stated that several members of the Safa Group "maintained a financial and ideological relationship with persons and entities with known affiliations to the designated terrorist Groups PIJ [Palestinian Islamic Jihad] and HAMAS." The affidavit connected Iqbal Unus to the Safa Group in two main ways. First, it said he worked for the Safa Group via e-mail accounts registered to his home address, serving variously as manager, officer, director, or administrative and billing contact. He acted in these capacities for such Safa Group companies as the International Institute of Islamic Thought, the Fiqh Council of North America, the Child Development Foundation, the Sterling Charitable Gift Fund, Sterling Management Group, and the International Islamic Charitable Organization.
Second, the internet registration for the Fiqh Council of North America's website, http://www.fiqhcouncil.org/, "identifies Iqbal Unus as the billing and administrative contact for this domain, with an email contact address of iqbalunus@aol.com. According to records received from America Online, the email account iqbalunus@aol.com is subscribed to by Iqbal Unus at 12607 Rock Ridge Road in Herndon." (This fact had particular relevance in justifying a search of the Unus residence).
This documentation, the U.S. government argued, established the Green Quest raids as "completely lawful." The judge in the Unus case, Leonie M. Brinkema, agreed. In January 2005, she made short shrift of the Unus family's argument, dismissing it not just with prejudice[2] but with disdain: "there's no way in which Ms. Katz could ever be held liable under this fact scenario."[3] Further, she found the Unus family's claim against Katz "frivolous, unreasonable, or groundless," and ordered them to pay her $41,105.70 to reimburse her legal expenses.
Subsequent rulings confirmed this decision: in November 2007, Brinkema granted a government motion to throw out the remaining part of the Unus case, which focused on tactics the government agents on entering their house, rejecting the Unus family claims to false imprisonment, assault and battery, conspiracy, and unconstitutional search and seizure.
In May 2009, a three-judge panel of the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld Brinkema's decision, finding that "the plaintiffs have failed to sufficiently identify any factual misrepresentations in the Affidavit, and therefore, have failed to identify how Katz caused any injury." The appellate court reversed Brinkema only on one small but significant point – her ruling that the Unus family must pay Katz's $41,105.70 for her legal fees, on the grounds that Unus' allegations did deserve "serious and careful consideration in a court of law." The Unus legal effort apparently completely bombed.
Purposes
This, however, is too narrow a prism through which to see the Unus lawsuit. Its goal would seem not to be to prevail in the courtroom but to attain multiple objectives outside the courtroom:
•To divert counterterrorism investigators, specialists, and prosecutors. The lawsuit forced Kane, Katz, and the others to waste time working with lawyers and explaining to judges an enormously complex investigation rather than proceeding with further counterterrorism efforts. (The Unus' own lawyer admitted it took her eight hours a day for five months to understand the Kane affidavit.)[4]
•To silence these same counterterrorists, who for the years during which the court proceedings took place could not speak freely about Unus or related subjects.
•To obstruct their work. For example, Unus argued that law enforcement officers must be instructed about Muslim customs before searching a Muslim-owned residence.[5]
•To distract attention. The Unus case followed on several other (ultimately successful) prosecutions of the Safa Group. Abdurahman Alamoudi, one of its major figures, signed a plea agreement in 2003 admitting his illegal financial dealings with Libya, a designated terrorist state, and participating in a plot to assassinate then-Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah; he is currently serving a twenty-three year prison sentence. Soliman Biheiri, also closely tied to the Safa Group, was convicted in 2003 and sentenced to 13 months and a day in prison, following which he was to be deported. Youssef Nada, another associate, was designated a terrorist sponsor by the U.S. Treasury Department and the United Nations Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee, while his Bank Al Taqwa was placed on the Terrorist Exclusion List.
•To glean information useful for Unus to defend himself from a possible indictment, which he might have feared given that some of his associates had been already brought to trial.
•To bankrupt private individuals who try to expose terrorists. Katz's legal bill came to $41,105.70 and she also faced two other related lawsuits. (Soon after Katz in May 2003 described on television her role in the raids and the alleged links of the Safa Group to terrorist organizations, two Safa Group organizations sued her, the SITE Institute, and CBS for defamation, seeking $80 million in compensation. Subsequently they dropped their case against all three defendants. A chicken farm in Georgia, also raided in March 2002 and described by the Kane affidavit as "a Safa Group company," filed a similar lawsuit for an unspecified amount.)
•To garner publicity for Islamists and win them sympathy as victims of government persecution.
More broadly, predatory lawsuits fit a pattern of Islamists exploiting the West's own tools against itself, as in their hijacking of airliners, reliance on the Internet, and (in Spain) swaying the political landscape via elections. Longshot suits such as the Unus one also reap wider benefits for Islamists:
First, by ascribing responsibility for sovereign U.S. governmental actions to private individuals such as Katz, they bolster a conspiracist trend to undermine its authority. Thus has Richard Perle been blamed for the Bush administration's decision to overthrow the Saddam Hussein regime and Steven Emerson and I held responsible for a federal raid on InfoCom Corporation in September 2001 as well as for Operation Green Quest itself.
Second, Islamists make a practice of misusing the legal system with predatory lawsuits against individuals, organizations, and companies who, like Katz, dare report on them:
•The Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, deemed in 2001 a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist Entity," sued the Dallas Morning News, four of its reporters, and its parent company Belo Corp., accusing them of defamation.
•The Global Relief Foundation sued the New York Times, ABC News, the Associated Press, the Boston Globe, the Daily News, Hearst Communications, and seven journalists for reports in 2001 that it was funneling money to terrorists.
•Seven Dallas-area Muslim groups sued Joe Kaufman of "Americans Against Hate" for an article detailing ties between the Islamic Circle of North America and terrorist groups (Hamas, Hezbollah, and possibly Al Qaeda).
•The Islamic Society of Boston brought a law suit against 17 defendants after news outlets and Jewish groups alleged that the ISB had connections to terrorist organizations and had purchased land from the City of Boston for below-market value
•Khadija Ghafur, superintendent of the now-defunct Gateway Academy, initiated a libel suit against the Anti-Defamation League on the grounds that its stated concerns (about the academy having connections to the terrorist organization Al-Fuqra and using taxpayer funding to provide religious instruction) were in fact part of ADL's "long-standing effort to denigrate Muslims as part of their advocacy for Israel."
•CAIR brought a defamation lawsuit against former Representative Cass Ballenger (a Republican from North Carolina), after he spoke of having reported CAIR to federal authorities as a "fundraising arm for Hezbollah." CAIR also filed suit alleging "libelous defamation" against Andrew Whitehead of Anti-CAIR for his terming CAIR "a terrorist supporting front organization" founded by members of Hamas.
•CAIR-Canada, CAIR's Canadian adjunct, sued David Harris, formerly of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, along with Ottawa's CFRA radio station, because Harris, speaking on CFRA, noted that 70 percent of funds raised by CAIR-CAN go to CAIR and suggested that the Canadian government should look into CAIR-Canada's relationship with CAIR.
Finally, Islamists make life difficult for the U.S. government itself by bringing lawsuits against agencies tasked with maintaining security:
•A Georgia chicken farm alleged to be part of the Safa Group won much attention for suing the government because its attorney, Wilmer Parker, a former assistant U.S. attorney, claimed that federal prosecutors "knowingly made false statements" to obtain the search warrant for the raids. The lawsuit was dismissed.
•Five U.S. Muslim citizens got CAIR and ACLU support to sue the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol for detaining them upon their return from an Islamic conference in Toronto, a conference which the patrol believed was a potential meeting place for terrorists. The suit was dismissed.
•Abdel Moniem Ali El-Ganayni, a nuclear physicist of Egyptian origins, sued the Department of Energy after it revoked his security clearance following an investigation that revealed he had "knowingly established or continued sympathetic association with a saboteur, spy, terrorist, traitor, seditionist, anarchist, or revolutionist, espionage agent, or representative of a foreign nation whose interests are inimical to the interests of the United States."
Win or lose, the Islamists' legal gambits disrupt the work of law enforcement.
Such predatory lawsuits also carry risks, however. Not only are they expensive and likely to go down in flames, as did the Unus effort, but they can backfire and wreak damage on the plaintiffs. Plaintiffs can look foolish when they must suddenly drop lawsuits, as did the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in its case against Andrew Whitehead or KinderUSA in its case against Yale University Press and Matthew Levitt of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Worse yet, Enaam Arnaout, director of the Benevolence International Foundation (BIF), made statements in BIF's suit against the U.S. government that led to his being charged with obstruction of justice, convicted, and sentenced to 121 months in jail.
Policy Recommendation
The Unus and other lawsuits point to an abuse of the legal system in need of remedy. Fortunately, important steps toward such a remedy does exist, albeit usually only for private individuals: that would be Anti-SLAPP legislation, where SLAPP stands for "Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation." A SLAPP, according to the California Anti-SLAPP Project, generally is "a (1) civil complaint or counterclaim; (2) filed against individuals or organizations; (3) arising from their communications to government or speech on an issue of public interest or concern." When these conditions are met, the court can make the plaintiff pay the defendant's attorney's fees and other legal costs.
The legislation works. The ADL filed an anti-SLAPP motion against Khadija Ghafur, prompting the court to dismiss her case. KinderUSA dropped its lawsuit as soon as the defendants made an anti-SLAPP motion, even before the court ruled on it. But Anti-SLAPP statutes are only spottily available; nearly half the states and the federal government have not enacted them. Also, in too many instances the legislation is too narrowly construed by courts, making it an ineffective tool for defendants. For example, in the ISB case, the judge denied an anti-SLAPP motion on the grounds that only activities directly related to petitioning the government, not media activities, are protected by Massachusetts' anti-SLAPP statute.
It is time to enact a uniform, federal anti-SLAPP legislation, as is now being proposed under the name of the "The Citizen Participation in Government and Society Act." Among other benefits, this will protect researchers and activists dealing with radical Islam and terrorism from predatory use of the legal system. If the war against radical Islam is to be won, all avenues of attack, including the courts, need to be battened down.
Mr. Pipes is director of the Middle East Forum and Taube distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University.
[1] Deborah St. John, "Transcript of Motions Hearing," in Iqbal Unus et al. vs. David Kane et al., 11 January 2005, p .31.
[2] Leonie M. Brinkema, "Order," in Iqbal Unus et al. vs. David Kane et al., March 11, 2005, p. 3.
[3] Leonie M. Brinkema, "Transcript of Motions Hearing," in Iqbal Unus et al. vs. David Kane et al., January 11, 2005, p. 7.
[4] Deborah St. John, "Transcript of Motions Hearing," in Iqbal Unus et al. vs. David Kane et al., January 11, 2005, p. 27.
[5] Deborah St. John, "Transcript of Motions Hearing," in Iqbal Unus et al. vs. David Kane et al., January 11, 2005, p.33.

The truth behind the crimes
Sarah Lynch, March 21, 2010
Now Lebanon
Year-over-year statistics indicate that murder rates increased in Lebanon, while all other crime rates are down.
From a bank robbery in Jnah, to a murder in Ghazieh, to a violent car hijacking in Dora, crime stories once rare to Lebanon have flooded the media in recent weeks. Most have involved innocent victims, taken place in unexpected neighborhoods and sparked worry among people who previously had little concern for their safety.
But these harrowing incidences have perhaps created what is only an illusion—that crime is on the rise. The reality is that year-over-year statistics indicate that only murder rates have slightly increased, while overall crime has drastically declined.
The Crime: Murder
“Until today, I never sleep well,” said Rania Yassine, a gift shop owner in Ghazieh. “I really feel I’m afraid. I was in my house and I felt like someone can come and shoot me.”
Yassine was in her shop two weeks ago when 57-year-old Wafika Ali Ibrahim Atwi Ghaddar, owner of a jewelry store next to Yassine’s gift shop, was shot three times and killed in an armed robbery. It was 1:30 in the afternoon. She left three children behind.
“I feel very afraid because nobody would think that in Ghazieh something like this would happen,” Yassine said. The crime has created fear in the local community, where police do not patrol in large numbers due to its usual calm.
The Stats
Year-over-year statistics indicate an 18 percent increase in homicides in Lebanon, according to the Internal Security Forces. In February 2009 there were nine homicides as opposed to eleven in the same month in 2010. But in comparison to other countries, this number is still considered low.
The Crime: Theft
Inside the First National Bank in Jnah last month, four masked men held employees at gunpoint forcing the victims to give them the key to the safe. They forced employees into a room, locked them up, and threatened to kill the manager if he didn’t hand it over.
The criminals reportedly escaped with nearly $300,000, making their getaway in a Mitsubishi SUV.
The Stats
Excluding car theft, there was a 13 percent decrease in theft from February 2009 to February 2010. One hundred forty-four robberies were reported in February 2009, down from 167 in the same month in 2010.
Looking specifically at pick-pocketing, there was a 44 percent year-over-year decrease of reported incidents in February.
The Crime: Car Hijackings
The parking lot at City Mall became a crime scene last month when a 20-year-old woman was brutally stabbed in the chest and stomach before having her car stolen. The thief got away with her Toyota Yaris, and the woman was rushed into surgery at the Saint Joseph Hospital in Dora.
The Stats
Car hijackings saw a drastic year-over-year decrease, down 78 percent. There were nine car hijackings in 2009, and two in February 2010, according to the ISF. To the relief of the general public, the ISF has identified the perpetrators of the City Mall stabbing and arrested one.
Apart from homicide rates, year-over-year statistics indicate that all other types of crime have declined in the country. Major Joseph Moussallem of the ISF attributes the decline to political stability, as deduced from statistics compiled by the ISF both four months before the November 2009 cabinet formation and four months after.
“Whether it’s car theft, any theft or even murder, all have decreased in the past four months,” Moussallem said, while noting that there has been a year-over-year increase in the homicide rate. He attributes the overall decline to increased focus on catching criminals following last November’s cabinet formation. “This proved that the more political stability in the country, the more we can focus on targeting crime.”