LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِDecember 07/2010

Bible Of The Day
Days Of Persecution
Matthew 10/16-20: “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. 10:17 But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to councils, and in their synagogues they will scourge you. 10:18 Yes, and you will be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony to them and to the nations. 10:19 But when they deliver you up, don’t be anxious how or what you will say, for it will be given you in that hour what you will say. 10:20 For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.


Free Opinions, Releases, letters, Interviews & Special Reports
Iraq Attack Kills Elderly Assyrian Couple At Home/AP/December 06/10
Egypt's Elections Obliterate Coptic Voice/AINA/December 06/10
Christianity Arguably the Most Persecuted Religion in the World/AINA/December 06/10
Leaders idle as Lebanon burns/Daily Star/December 06/10
Indictment would imperil Hizbullah's just image/By: Rana Moussaoui/AFP/December 06/10 
US has failed to curb Damascus' interference in Lebanon - report/Daily Star/December 06/10 

Yet more frustration/Now Lebanon/December 06/10
Between confrontation and compromise/By: Hazem al-Amin/December 06/10
WikiLeaks cable exposes Iran hand in Hezbollah communication network/By: Barak Ravid/December 06/10

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for December 06/10
Rain Finally Arrives, Dousing Dozens of Forest Fires/Naharnet
Baroud Speaks of 120 Fires across Lebanon, Suspects Arson /Naharnet
US embassy cables: Lebanese leader worries about Syrian role/The Guardian
WikiLeaks: Hariri Afraid Next Israel War Would Kill March 14/Naharnet
WikiLeaks cable exposes Iran hand in Hezbollah communication network/Haaretz
Lebanon told allies of Hezbollah's secret network, WikiLeaks shows/The Guardian
US Diplomat: STL Not Solely For Hariri … Indictment Won't Lead to Violence /Naharnet
Turkey sends fire-fighting planes to Lebanon after Israel/www.worldbulletin.net
Forest fires rage across Lebanon/Xinhua
Lebanon in a Quandary/Australia.TO
Ogassapian says it is impossible for cabinet to convene/Now Lebanon

The Hague Sources to Naharnet: Bellemare Has Not Yet Submitted a Draft Indictment to Fransen /Naharnet
Berri Accuses March 14 of Crippling Government: Court in Suleiman, Hariri's Court/Naharnet
Suleiman Meets Jumblat, Announcement of Consultation Results Not Looming in Horizon /Naharnet
US Senate vote to renew 'middle-class' tax cuts fails/Reuters
Lebanon lodges complaint with UN over Israeli spying devices/Daily Star
MP says current deadlock requires 'deep' settlement/Daily Star

Wahhab: UN peacekeepers will not be safe if strife erupts/Daily Star
Miqdad: Syria will not meddle in Lebanese affairs/Daily Star
French Source: Indictment with Fransen Pending a Settlement /Naharnet
Miqdad: Hizbullah Does Not Fear Indictment
/Naharnet
Hashem: Indictment Before Dec. 15
/Naharnet
Majdalani Accuses Opposition of Paralyzing Government
/Naharnet
Civil Aviation Director to Resign over Dispute with Aridi
/Naharnet
Top 3 Leaders Meet as Talks Among Officials Gather Pace
/Naharnet
Abul Geith Calls on Lebanese to 'Make Accurate Calculations'
/Naharnet
Gemayel: Hizbullah Should Help Us Find the Truth
/Naharnet
Assiri: Saudi-Syrian Initiative Not Linked to Indictment
/Naharnet
Hariri Meets with Sultan Qaboos
/Naharnet
Suleiman Inspects Fatri as Forest Fires Rage across Lebanon
/Naharnet
Israeli Exit from Ghajar Spells Trouble for Lebanon, Experts Say
/Naharnet
Moqdad: Syria Will Not Return to Lebanon Militarily, STL is Politicized
/Naharnet

More foreign fighters seen slipping back into Iraq/AP

Rain Finally Arrives, Dousing Dozens of Forest Fires
Naharnet/Lebanon on Monday finally received the much-awaited rain that helped douse dozens of forest fires, including a 7-day blaze on the outskirts of the Jbeil town of Fatri. "The sky saved the earth," said the Voice of Lebanon radio station. "Heavenly rains did what mankind failed to do," it added. Interior Minister Ziad Baroud on Sunday announced that around 120 forest fires were raging across the country, including four major blazes. Well into the night Sunday, firefighters, backed by Lebanese army helicopters, battled to contain a seven-day blaze on the outskirts of the Jbeil town of Fatri. But they failed. Thanks to heavy rains which started pouring on Lebanon in the early morning hours, helping put out the fires.
Civil Defense chief Darwish Hobeika said 75 percent of the fires were "deliberate." Prime Minister Saad Hariri called from Oman for a Cabinet meeting to be held on Monday to discuss the fires. Beirut, 06 Dec 10, 07:16

Hariri returns to Beirut from Oman

December 6, 2010 /Prime Minister Saad Hariri returned to Beirut at 12:30 p.m. after his two-day official visit to Oman where he discussed bilateral relations with officials, the National News Agency (NNA) reported on Monday.-NOW Lebanon

The Hague Sources to Naharnet: Bellemare Has Not Yet Submitted a Draft Indictment to Fransen

Naharnet/The Hague sources told Naharnet that Special Tribunal for Lebanon Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare has not yet submitted a draft indictment to STL Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen.
Moreover, Bellemare office sources stressed to Naharnet that when the prosecutor submits a draft indictment to Fransen, he would issue an official statement to announce that. MTV reported Sunday evening that Bellemare had submitted the aforementioned draft to Fransen, "who has one month to scrutinize it before witnesses are called.""It is expected that the court will start its work in mid-February, 2011," MTV added. Meanwhile, in an article published Sunday in the French daily Le Figaro, journalist Georges Malbrunot quoted an STL source as saying that Bellemare "finalized drafting the indictment in the murder case of ex-PM Rafik Hariri and submitted it to Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen." The source noted that Fransen is supposed to take the decision of ordering the arrest of the accused after confirming the indictment, "the thing that would take between one-several weeks." One expert says, according to Malbrunot's article, that Fransen "has enough time to publish these accusations, which the Lebanese, Hizbullah in particular, have been worrying about." "Fransen could take into consideration the ongoing efforts to defuse tensions between the Lebanese over the indictment," the expert added. Beirut, 05 Dec 10, 20:49

French Source: Indictment with Fransen Pending a Settlement

Naharnet/A French source at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon said the indictment in the 2005 assassination of ex-PM Rafik Hariri has been submitted to STL Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen. The source told As-Safir in remarks published Monday that Fransen has "plenty of time – maybe one week or several weeks – to announce the indictment."
He said Fransen "may be sensitive" to efforts undertaken by many sides to find a settlement to the crisis over the indictment "in order to avoid violence by those indicted."
The source said Fransen also wants to allow some time for the consultations carried out by Paris with the Lebanese factions "to receive the indictment with the least possible losses."
Beirut, 06 Dec 10, 09:47


Suleiman Meets Jumblat, Announcement of Consultation Results Not Looming in Horizon

Naharnet/President Michel Suleiman ended consultations with top Lebanese officials on Monday after holding talks with Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat.
A source involved in the consultations that Suleiman started at Baabda palace last week, told An Nahar newspaper that the president would not announce the results of his talks anytime soon.There are ongoing regional consultations, particularly by Riyadh and Damascus in parallel with local efforts made by Suleiman to end the Lebanese crisis, the source said.
That's why "it is too early" to make an announcement, he told An Nahar. Jumblat also told al-Binaa newspaper that he did not have any information about the initiative but was waiting for its results. Meanwhile, ministerial sources reiterated to pan-Arab daily al-Hayat that Suleiman did not ask the officials he met to refer the issue of false witnesses to the national dialogue table.Some officials have misunderstood Suleiman and thought he was asking the cabinet to drop discussion of the issue, they said. Beirut, 06 Dec 10, 09:01

WikiLeaks: Hariri Afraid Next Israel War Would Kill March 14

Naharnet/Prime Minister Saad Hariri told former U.S. Ambassador Michele Sison he feared another war with Israel would mean the "death" of his pro-Western March 14 alliance, leaked cables showed Monday. A document reportedly obtained by whistleblowing website WikiLeaks and published on the website of local daily al-Akhbar quoted Hariri as saying he believed Hizbullah would rise again should there be another round of violence. According to the October 15, 2008 cable, Hariri told Sison he did not believe his U.S.- and Saudi-backed alliance could survive. "Hariri confessed that he shared (Hizbullah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan) Nasrallah's fear of a war with Israel," read the cable, classified by Sison as secret.
"Asserting that some in Israel and the U.S. believe Israel should clear Lebanon of Hizbullah 'once and for all,' Hariri warned that such a move would only temporarily put Hizbullah out of commission because Iran and Syria would rebuild Hizbullah's presence in Lebanon," it added. "Moreover, he argued, the Sunnis and Christians would lose because Israel would be fighting a nation, not just Hizbullah. 'It would be the death of March 14,' he portended." Al-Akhbar began to publish a series of Lebanon-related cables it allegedly received from WikiLeaks days after the website's founder Julian Assange said his group would be collaborating with Arab media organizations.(AFP-Naharnet) Beirut, 06 Dec 10, 09:59

Berri Accuses March 14 of Crippling Government: Court in Suleiman, Hariri's Court

Naharnet/Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri accused the majority March 14 coalition of paralyzing the Government. Berri dismissed accusations that the Hizbullah-led Opposition was crippling the Government. "March 14 is the one that bears a direct and clear responsibility for crippling the Government," Berri said in remarks published Monday by As-Safir newspaper. He said Prime Minister Saad Hariri's insistence not to hold a Cabinet session if the Opposition wants a vote on the false witnesses' issue has crippled Cabinet.
Hariri "has informed the President that he refuses to vote in Cabinet to forward the false witnesses' issue to the Judicial Council and threatened to withdraw from any meeting that supports the option of voting, thus crippling Cabinet due to his stance," Berri said. "The ball is now in the court of President Michel Suleiman and Hariri, and they have to agree to convene a Cabinet meeting immediately," Berri believed. He suggested that if Suleiman was embarrassed, he can ask his Cabinet ministers to stay neutral in any vote.
"If the prime minister wants to withdraw, let him withrdraw. The important thing is to get over with this (false witnesses) issue," Berri concluded. Beirut, 06 Dec 10, 08:10

Miqdad: Hizbullah Does Not Fear Indictment

Naharnet/Hizbullah MP Ali al-Miqdad said leaks that the indictment in the Hariri murder case will be issued soon "aim at creating confusion in Lebanon."Such leaks are an "attempt to explore how the situation will be dealt with after issuance of the indictment," Miqdad told al-Manar TV. He said the Special Tribunal for Lebanon has been committing "sins" since it was launched in 2005. Miqdad stressed that the Resistance is "sacred and should exist until the demise of Israel." Beirut, 06 Dec 10, 12:37

Why is no one defending the Resistance?
December 6, 2010 /Hezbollah MP Ali Moqdad questioned why no one is telling the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) or its prosecutor, Daniel Bellemare, “that what is happening in the tribunal is a criminal act against the Resistance.”“We are not afraid of the indictment but from the repercussions on Lebanon,” he told Al-Manar television on Monday.
He also said he appreciates the Syrian-Saudi initiative to resolve the political impasse in Lebanon, adding that Saudi Arabia realized there should be a settlement on the indictment before it is issued. Tension is high in Lebanon amid unconfirmed reports that the UN-backed probe will soon issue an indictment in its investigation of the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. There are fears that should the court indict Hezbollah members, it could lead to clashes similar to those of the 2008 May Events – when gunmen led by the party took over half of Beirut.Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has repeatedly said that the STL is an Israeli project that will indict members of his party. -NOW Lebanon

Abul Geith Calls on Lebanese to 'Make Accurate Calculations'

Naharnet/Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Geith has warned the Lebanese – Christians and Muslims – against slipping into a confrontation. "Egypt has always called on Lebanese of all sects to be wary of slipping into a confrontation that could lead to a situation similar to pre- or post-Taif," Abul Geith told Egyptian television. He also called on Lebanese to "make accurate calculations and avoid mistakes." Tension has been running high in Lebanon with reports that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon is set to implicate Hizbullah members in the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Beirut, 06 Dec 10, 08:49

Ogassapian says it is impossible for cabinet to convene

December 6, 2010 /Now Lebanon/Minister of State Jean Ogassapian – a Future bloc minister – said it is impossible for the cabinet to convene given the current circumstances.
Ogassapian told LBCI television that the “false witnesses” issue is a judicial matter, and added that the aim of addressing this matter is to obstruct the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL).
Al-Hayat newspaper reported Monday that ministers were informed of a Wednesday cabinet session late on Sunday night. The cabinet has not met since its November 10 session in which discussion of the “false witnesses” controversy was postponed to avoid a divisive vote. March 8 politicians have called for the cabinet to task the Justice Council with investigating the issue of witnesses who gave unreliable testimonies to the international probe into former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s 2005 assassination. However, March 14 figures have said that the regular judiciary should handle the issue.-NOW Lebanon

New Opinion: Yet more frustration
December 6, 2010
In a country so heavily defined by its religious makeup, it is fitting that with the first precipitation of the season, the Voice of Lebanon radio station declared, “Heavenly rains did what man failed to do.” But Sunday’s fires – there were dozens around the country, four of which were categorized as “serious,” while one in the Fatri area in Jbeil had raged for seven days – were the tragic culmination of months of frustration that that has swamped the country. The fires started because the country is bone dry and for this no one can be blamed, but the lack of a swift response and the lack of clear planning for what is becoming an annual hazard merely compounded the frustration felt by the severe water shortages the Lebanese have endured since the long, hot summer. The old woman interviewed on LBCI television summed it up for the nation when she moaned that “the politicians were busy with themselves doing nothing, and we have to suffer,” adding, “Let them throw me in jail, I don’t care.”
It is a sentiment that will have been shared by many who feel let down by the state. Already exhausted by years of having to pick up the shortfall in electricity, the public has either had to endure living with intermittent water supply or buy extra from private suppliers. (Quite where these suppliers get that water from is anyone’s guess, and many have accused the state’s water stations of selling water to private contractors).
And so Lebanon lurches from one political crisis to another. The country’s curse is that the woes of the region are finely distilled into this tiny land. Topping the current agenda are the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL); the national dialogue and the issue of Hezbollah’s weapons to name but a few.
But all this counts to naught when the livelihoods and lives (although this year, unlike in Israel, thankfully there were no fatalities) are lost to natural disasters, for which the state has not made provision. It all counts for naught when people cannot be sure they have water in their homes, and it all counts for naught when more than 20 years after the civil war ended, they still cannot give our citizens 24-hour power. These words will no doubt fall on deaf ears, but the government must wake up and recognize that it has a solemn duty to its people. It should remember, and we emphasize the ‘should’ because successive administrations have clearly forgotten, that they are also accountable to the people. The last few months of drought have shown that Lebanon’s road map for prosperity (if such a roadmap exists) cannot be founded on putting the welfare of tourists and foreign investors before the people. The country cannot grow without firm foundations, and there can be no blueprint for long term growth while the country constantly hovers on the brink of collapse.
Electricity, water, environmental regulation and civil defense must be considered as important as debating what to do with the so-called STL false witnesses and what will or will not happen should indictments be handed down to Hezbollah members.
Then again can we really expect any progress on this or any other issue for that matter when we hear Environment Minister Mohammad Rahhal quoted on Sunday as saying that efforts are underway to hold a cabinet session before Christmas? If a session is indeed held two days before the holiday, then it will be the first time it has met since November 10. This meeting, Rahhal said, would be to discuss “the extension of Central Bank governor Riad Salameh’s term and other matters of public administration.” It is nice to know the state is running so well that the cabinet need only meet every six weeks and then to discuss the Central Bank, one the few state institutions that is not in crisis.
But back to the smoldering embers of Sundays fires. Interior Minister Ziad Baroud has that the Interior Ministry will provide 50 4x4 vehicles, each with a capacity of 50,000 liters to deal with future fires. We’ll see. In the meantime, let us enjoy the rain.

Between confrontation and compromise

Hazem al-Amin, December 6, 2010
We must not stop contemplating the phenomenon that is General Michel Aoun, nor think that we have given it enough scrutiny. Continuing to interpret this phenomenon and turn it over in our minds is a kind of self-revision. By doing so, we pause to see what one can expect from one's situation and oneself. Michel Aoun is a truly representative sample of us Lebanese of average means, intelligence and acumen. He astonishes us daily with his disdain for our intelligence and the rules of our life and behavior, but he is only doing this driven by a thing that grips us all.
The General claims that he is the foremost representative of Christians in Lebanon. Based on this supposed position, he wages mini-wars that make those whom he claims to represent equal in weight to these small wars. He said in a statement this week that both Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri are handling negotiations and dialogue for March 8. In the meantime, he is handling attacks against former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and Hariri's tenure.
This division of labor has two meanings. The first lies in Michel Aoun's marginal position, and the marginal position of those whom he represents in the formation of the domestic compromise or explosion. Aoun has distanced the Christians, whom he claims to represent, from the negotiations and from the ongoing efforts to produce an escape from the Lebanese predicament. He has entrusted this mission to his great allies. Sleiman Franjieh, for example, did not do this. Franjieh presents himself as if he is at the heart of the outcome's formation. In spite of his marginal representative weight, Franjieh realizes that lines and channels of communication are difficult to cut off in Lebanese life. He also realizes that targeting the role of one sect in its entirety involves an adventure that could destroy what remains of the causes of internal cohesion.
As for the second meaning of the position that Michel Aoun proposes for the Christians, he is completing the ongoing operation to marginalize them. According to the General's plan, their representative function is supposed to be limited to its Lebanese aspect, linked to mini-wars in the parliament. In the best case, the Christians turn into a group that opens up the way for the great confrontation, which is then handled by his allies if it happens. Put more clearly, Michel Aoun, as a Christian, is handling the mission of paving the way for confrontation, while Sleiman Franjieh – also a Christian – undertakes the task of paving the way for compromise.
However, let us contemplate a little the situation of the Christians according to this equation. If a compromise occurs, the Christians will be on its margins if we suppose that Aoun is their representative, since he will not be at the heart of it. If we suppose that a confrontation occurs, Aoun's ability to participate in it will be feeble and limited. Our unique general will not be the one to mobilize the streets. Once again, the Christians will be on the margins of the momentous event. The General will not be able to trouble the position of the Sunni sect in Lebanon. This is an impossible task in light of a domestic and regional sectarian situation that is this complicated. However, in light of this effort of his to lead them, the Christians' fear for their position will be doubled. Aoun's taking precedence in leading them will lie at the head of many circumstances that give Christians legitimate cause for worry today. This article is a translation of original, which appeared on the NOW Arabic site December 3, 2010.


MP says current deadlock requires 'deep' settlement

By The Daily Star /Monday, December 06, 2010
BEIRUT: Hasbaya MP Wael Abu Faour said Sunday the current political deadlock required a “deep” settlement that cements the Taif and Doha agreements, rather than a “short-lived” agreement. “We do not want a short-lived agreement for a transitory period, but we want a deep settlement that cements Lebanese principles again,” he said during a ceremony to commemorate the 93rd anniversary of late Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Kamal Jumblatt in the village of Mazraat al-Chouf in Chouf. “[Lebanese principles] including first the Taif agreement that cemented the Arabism of Lebanon and its civil peace along with its special ties with Syria. And second, the Doha agreement that calls for preserving civil peace and rejects resorting to arms in resolving any political dispute, and that decreases Lebanese concerns and prevents targeting any internal side,” he said. – The Daily Star

Leaders idle as Lebanon burns

Daily Star/Monday, December 06, 2010
Clergymen in Lebanon Friday were leading prayers for rain. Perhaps the country’s politicians and officials took notice, and perhaps not. Even if they found the exercise quaint, they could have at least noticed that down in Israel, a deadly forest fire was wreaking havoc, whether in human, material, economic or political terms. The Daily Star began the month of December by chiding Lebanese officials for having ignored the menace of fires, despite all the weeks of dry weather, despite all of the environmental costs, and despite the all the signs that the threat had yet to disappear. This weekend, the Lebanese took a break from the usual rhetoric from politicians, about the possibility that the Special Tribunal indictment would set Lebanon “ablaze.” Unfortunately, the news that replaced the STL stalemate was that the country was actually on fire.
According to Sunday’s count (120 separate blazes), the issue is obviously tantamount to a national emergency. What has happened? The president inspected the site of one fire, and the prime minister is securing foreign assistance. The interior minister has said he suspects arson to be at least partially responsible. But the most intensive action has been taken by the public, as people plead with Electricite du Liban to cut off power supplies and prevent even more damage.
Just as Ziyad Baroud is unable to ensure – by himself – that the country’s roads are safe, no one person can fight Lebanon’s fires. Other officials and figures can step forward, whether they’re in other ministries, or municipalities, or even civic or business associations. Most people suspect what’s behind Lebanon’s susceptibility to fire. Some fires are deliberately set, in order to reap a “harvest” of wood to be used in heating homes during the winter. But these malevolent entrepreneurs aren’t naturally inclined to destroying the environment for profit. The problem is that the liquid fuel used to heat homes is too expensive for many people living in rural areas. The economic logic is brutal, but it’s understandable. Government officials can do the following calculation: if fuel prices are reduced, this will mean less revenue for the government. But if fuel prices are reduced, this will mean fewer costs for the government, whether in terms of the environment or public health. It also would also bolster tourism revenues. Or, politicians can simply remember Lebanon’s two prime sources of capital: its people, and its scenery.
In Israel, the entire country has mobilized to fight the threat. In Lebanon, most of our politicians seemed to be enjoying their weekend. In Israel, people were arrested for allegedly starting the blaze. In Lebanon, by the time someone is arrested for arson, all of the country’s green space might be gone. In Israel, there are calls for the resignation of top politicians. In Lebanon, the clergymen pray.

US Senate vote to renew 'middle-class' tax cuts fails

Monday, December 06, 2010 /Kim Dixon and Patricia Zengerle
Reuters /WASHINGTON: Democratic measures to extend tax cuts for most Americans failed in the US Senate over the weekend as Republicans – and some Democrats – blocked them because they did not also extend low rates for the wealthy. President Barack Obama said he was disappointed with the vote, but indicated he was open to compromise on the tax cuts enacted under former Republican President George W. Bush, if certain conditions were met. The Democratic plans – to renew low tax rates for individuals with income up to $200,000 and for those making up to $1 million – failed in procedural votes, as Republicans said low tax rates for the wealthiest should also be extended. No Republicans backed the proposals, and a few Democrats voted against them. The weekend’s rare Senate votes were the latest skirmish in the battle over the tax cuts, which expire at the end of 2010.
Obama and other Democratic leaders want to extend only the cuts for low- and middle-income Americans, contending the tax breaks for the wealthy would add too much to the US budget deficit.
Republicans, who dismissed the weekend’s vote as a political stunt because the measures had been expected to fail, argue that raising taxes for the rich is a mistake that would cost jobs because wealthy Americans provide employment. “Those provisions should have passed,” Obama told reporters. “I continue to believe that it makes no sense to hold tax cuts for the middle class hostage to permanent tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans – especially when those high-income tax cuts would cost an additional $700 billion that we don’t have and would add to our deficit.” He said negotiators had to “redouble” efforts to ensure middle-class Americans did not face higher taxes on January 1.
A White House official said Obama told Democratic congressional leaders over the weekend he was open to compromise but would oppose even a temporary extension if it did not include an extension of benefits for the unemployed and extension of other tax cuts that benefit middle-class families.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, said he hoped to come to a consensus on the tax issue by the middle of next week but was not specific. He said he wanted the Senate to adjourn by December 17. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said after the votes he was “relatively confident” that bipartisan talks would lead to an across-the-board renewal of the tax cuts and that the only unknown was the length of the extension. The votes came two days after the House of Representatives passed an extension of the lower tax rates on individual income up to $200,000. Democrats currently control both chambers but have a larger majority in the House. All the lower tax rates enacted under Bush in 2001 and 2003 will expire at the end of 2010 if Congress does not act. Taxes are levied marginally, so individual income of $300,000 would get the lower rate on the first $200,000 of income. Republicans will take control of the House in January and have more seats in the Senate following the party’s gains in the November 2 congressional elections. The electoral shift has emboldened Republicans and led some Democrats, including Obama, to signal willingness to move toward the Republican position on the Bush-era tax rates.
Obama’s top advisers and lawmakers are in talks on a potential deal that could renew all lower rates for one to three years, according to congressional aides.
Democrats want a one-year renewal of jobless benefits for hundreds of thousands of Americans. The benefits began to expire this week when Congress did not agree on an extension.
Extending all the Bush-era tax rates would cost about $3.6 trillion over a decade, according to administration estimates. Keeping them for those earning $200,000 and under would cost $2.9 trillion, while preserving the lower rates benefiting the highest income groups would cost $700 billion.

Lebanon lodges complaint with UN over Israeli spying devices
Foreign Ministry says espionage gear inside Lebanon constitutes violation of 1701
By Mohammed Zaatari /Daily Star
Monday, December 06, 2010
SIDON: Lebanon lodged over the weekend a complaint with the United Nations over spying devices installed by Israel on Lebanese territories.
“Lebanon has filed today a complaint against Israel before the Security Council via its permanent mission at the United Nations in New York, after its [Israeli] troops remotely detonated Friday spying devices that Israel had planted in Lebanon,” said a statement by Lebanon’s Foreign Ministry Saturday.
The statement said that Israel’s planting of spying devices “inside Lebanese territories constitutes a severe violation of Lebanese sovereignty and international law and to Security Council Resolution 1701.”
The Israeli Army detonated two of its espionage devices Friday in southern Lebanon after Hizbullah discovered the equipment was being used to infiltrate its telecommunication network, a statement by the party said the same day. Nabil Qaouq, the deputy head of Hizbullah’s executive council, said Sunday the latest attempt by Israel to infiltrate “the resistance’s telecommunications network in Wadi al-Qaysiyya near Majdal Silm is part of the ongoing war against the resistance via different means and additional evidence that Israel continues its aggression against Lebanon.” “This aggression is not only against the resistance, but against sovereignty because sovereignty can never be divided,” he added.
Hizbullah said in a statement Friday that “telecommunication technicians discovered an espionage device that the enemy planted on our telecommunication network in Wadi Qaysiyya outside of the village of Majdal Silm, and which the enemy detonated by remote control after we discovered it.” Qaouq said Hizbullah’s discovery of the “infiltration attempt is an achievement for the country, the Lebanese people and the resistance.” “Also, this attempt is evidence that the international community is unable to deter Israel and prevent it from continuing its aggressions against Lebanon,” Qawouq said during a ceremony in the southern village of Taybeh. “The Security Council is unable to liberate itself from the complexities of satisfying America and Israel,” said the Hizbullah official. Qaouq emphasized Hizbullah’s readiness to defend Lebanon against Israeli aggression. “This implies the resistance shall remain committed to the priority of protecting the country and its sovereignty,” he said, stressing that all internal disputes and divisions have not distracted the resistance from such a priority. “We will not allow the enemy to take advantage of the political crisis to make gains at the expense of the country or resistance,” he stressed. Meanwhile, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)’s spokesperson Niraj Singh said in a statement that a UNIFIL probe team headed Saturday morning to the area that saw the two explosions to determine what happened “and whether any violation to Resolution 1701 has occurred.” The statement said that UNIFIL had intensified patrols in the area at night to maintain security in cooperation with the Lebanese Army. – Mohammed Zaatari

Wahhab: UN peacekeepers will not be safe if strife erupts

By The Daily Star /Monday, December 06, 2010
BEIRUT: The UN peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, will not be safe if there is strife following the release of an indictment into the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, former Cabinet minister Wi’am Wahhab has warned. Wahhab, a pro-Syrian politician allied with Hizbullah, has repeatedly lashed out at the UN-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), dismissing it as an “American-Israeli” tool designed to target the resistance. He and other leaders in the March 8 camp have called for the abolition of the STL altogether. The STL is expected to issue its indictment into Hariri’s killing this month. “If the outside [world] is indifferent toward strife in Lebanon, we can confirm that in the event of strife, UNIFIL troops in Lebanon will not be left in peace,” Wahhab said in a statement published by newspapers Sunday. A UNIFIL spokesperson refused to comment on Wahhab’s remarks when contacted by The Daily Star. “Usually, we don’t comment on such reports,” he said.
Wahhab said that if strife occurs, there will be no need for UNIFIL to stay in south Lebanon, accusing the UN peacekeepers of serving as spies for Israel.
“The [Lebanese] Army is capable of ensuring security. Judging by the STL’s work and UNIFIL troops’ behavior, it seems that they [UN peacekeepers] are spies for Israel,” Wahhab said, adding, “This was confirmed by the former UNIFIL commander in his statement that all UNIFIL information goes to the Israelis,” he added.
UNIFIL has in the past received threats from Al-Qaeda-linked militant groups, prompting the UN force to take extra security measures.
The Lebanese are jittery and worried about the consequences of the STL’s indictment, which is widely expected to implicate some Hizbullah members. As the release of the indictment approaches, political tension is rising between the March 8 and March 14 camps as the two sides remain sharply split over the STL’s indictment, raising fears of sectarian strife. The split has paralyzed the Cabinet, which has not met since November 10. “Today, all the people are worried about the future and the developments that could happen regarding the tribunal and other issues,” Wahhab said. – The Daily Star

US has failed to curb Damascus' interference in Lebanon - report
Israeli official says Syrians escorting arms shipments into neighbor, adds strike still an option

By The Daily Star /Monday, December 06, 2010
BEIRUT: The Obama administration’s efforts at dialogue with Syria have done little to counter its interference in Lebanon, which has undermined the United States’ efforts to promote Lebanese independence from external actors, said a report in the Washington Post over the weekend. Also to the dismay of the US, Syria’s alliance with Iran remains strong. The US, according to the Washington Post report, has hoped to drive a wedge between Syria and Iran, in part to stop the flow of weapons to Hizbullah.
“But Syria’s support of Hizbullah remains robust,” the US daily said. An Israeli military official told The Washington Post that Israeli surveillance tracks the nighttime missile shipments as Syrian personnel escort them from clandestine bases in Syria to the Lebanese border. At the swap area, the weapons are transferred to Lebanese trucks and driven into southern Lebanon and to Beirut, the Israeli military official said. Asked about the likelihood of Israel striking at the border transfer area or one of the camps inside Syria, the military official said: “This is definitely one of the options Israel has. Of course any attack like this could lead to an escalation.” “[The US] persuading Syria to break its alliance with Hizbullah’s chief patron, Iran, would be a key step toward ending the shipments,” The US daily said. Following the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005, Syria ended an almost 30-year presence in Lebanon after the Lebanese took to the streets calling for the pull out of Syrian troops.
Although President Barack Obama has named a new ambassador to Syria, his appointment is being held up on Capitol Hill by senators who say they do not want to send a new envoy to Damascus until the United States better articulates how having an ambassador there would help achieve its goals.
Without a permanent top diplomat in the Syrian capital, US envoys – including Middle East peace mediator George J. Mitchell, the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern affairs Jeffrey Feltman and Senator John Kerry – have flown to Damascus to try to persuade Syrian leaders to take steps to improve relations with the United States, which hit a low point in 2005.
“Today, there are clear signs that the country has emerged stronger than before,” The Washington Post report said.
“But it is in Lebanon that Syria’s regional resurgence has been felt most profoundly,” it added.
According to the Washington Post report, Lebanon’s top security positions – the head of military intelligence and director of General Security – are controlled by Syrian-approved appointees. “The government can’t make many major decisions without first consulting with Damascus. Lebanon’s top leaders, including Prime Minister Saad Hariri, toe a pro-Syrian line,” added the report. But according to the US daily, the clearest example of Syria’s restored influence may be Progressive Socialist party leader MP Walid Jumblatt.
“Five years ago, Jumblatt, a well-known Druze politician whose party holds swing votes in Lebanon’s coalition government, marched with the pro-democracy March 14 movement against Syria’s occupation,” the report said. “He now describes that period as a momentary lapse of sanity,” it added. – The Daily Star

Miqdad: Syria will not meddle in Lebanese affairs

By The Daily Star /Monday, December 06, 2010
BEIRUT: Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Miqdad said in comments published over the weekend that Syria refuses to interfere in Lebanon’s domestic affairs, adding its politicians were capable of running their own country. “Syria will not interfere in Lebanon in the interest of any side and Lebanese officials are responsible for their country,” Miqdad told Kuwaiti-daily Al-Rai. Miqdad said Lebanese-Syrian ties would not remain normal if the situation in Lebanon was not normal, the paper reported Sunday. He added that Syria was keen on preserving Lebanon’s independence and sovereignty. Tensions have mounted in Lebanon in recent months over the indictment to be issued by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) probing the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Several reports indicated that the UN-backed court was moving toward indicting Hizbullah in the 2005 murder.
The Hariri murder has been widely blamed on Syria, which has repeatedly denied involvement. The son of the slain statesmen, Prime Minister Saad Hariri said this year he was wrong to have originally accused Syria of killing his father. Miqdad said Hariri was misled into thinking Syria had been involved. He accused the Netherlands-based court of being politicized. “I know all the schemes which were employed to establish the tribunal,” the Syrian official said. Miqdad added that Lebanon was “vulnerable” but gave assurances that “Syria will not return to Lebanon militarily no matter how difficult the situation becomes.” – The Daily Star

Indictment would imperil Hizbullah's just image

By Agence France Presse (AFP)
Monday, December 06, 2010
Rana Moussaoui
BEIRUT: An indictment of Hizbullah members in connection with the murder of Lebanese former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri could forever tarnish the party’s image as a resistance movement and threaten its raison d’etre, analysts say. “Whether one single member or 100 are implicated makes absolutely no difference, Hizbullah won’t accept it,” said Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, a political analyst at the Doha-based Arab Institute for Research and Policy Studies. “The impending indictment not only affects Hizbullah’s constructed image as being a just organization,” Saad-Ghorayeb told AFP. “It violates the very integrity of Hizbullah’s identity … its raison d’etre.” The powerful party and its allies for months have been engaged in a relentless campaign to discredit the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), which was set up by the United Nations in the wake of Hariri’s 2005 assassination along with 22 others in a massive seaside bombing. According to unconfirmed reports, the STL is poised to indict high-ranking Hizbullah members in connection with Hariri’s killing, a scenario rejected by party leader Hassan Nasrallah who has accused the court of being part of a US-Israeli plot.
All parties are currently banking on a Saudi-Syrian initiative to prevent a full-blown crisis once the indictment falls.
Founded in 1982 in response to Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, Hizbullah has enormous support among the country’s Shiite community and its leader Nasrallah is widely admired in parts of the Arab world for his stand against Israel. The party, blacklisted as a terrorist organization by Washington, receives financial and military support from Iran. It is also backed by Syria.
“Hizbullah is a movement that has built its image around its fight against Israeli aggression,” said Waddah Sharara, author of the book “The State of Hizbullah: Lebanon as an Islamic Society.” “Now, they might be accused of murder,” Sharara told AFP. “It would be like a reversal of their image. “Their message has always been that they are the strongest group, the most honest, and above all suspicion,” he added. “Being challenged now contradicts their rhetoric.”
Diplomats in Beirut say Hizbullah’s fierce campaign to ward off the indictment and undermine the tribunal is linked to the fact that an accusation will likely deal a major blow to the party’s image. “The mere fact that the names of members can be cited is unacceptable to them because that would be a black page in their history,” a Western diplomat who did not wish to be identified told AFP. “Whatever they do, they will always be associated with this crime which will be like a scarlet letter.” Experts say that even offers of an “honorable exit” for Hizbullah, in which any members indicted will be described as rogue elements, are not acceptable for the party. “Hizbullah is a not a political party in the conventional sense, where if one member is accused of wrong doing, it does not affect the rest of the body,” Saad-Ghorayeb said. “The party does not differentiate between the individual and the group,” added Sharara.
“If one member is involved, the dignity of the whole party is at stake.”

Lebanon told allies of Hezbollah's secret network,
WikiLeaks shows Cable exposes deep regional and international concerns about volatile situation in Lebanon following 2006 war

Middle East editor guardian.co.uk, Sunday 5 December 2010
Lebanese communications minister Marwan Hamadeh told the US that the network covered Palestinian camps, Hezbollah training camps and penetrated deep into Christian areas.
Lebanon's western-backed government warned its friends that "Iran telecom" was taking over the country two years ago when it uncovered a secret communications network across the country used by Hezbollah, according to a US state department cable. The discovery in April 2008 came against a background of mounting tensions between the Beirut government and the Iranian-backed Shia organisation, which escalated into street fighting in the capital just weeks later. The US document, classified secret/noforn (not for foreign eyes) exposes deep regional and international concerns about the volatile situation in Lebanon amid fears of a new clash with Israel following the 2006 war.
Information on the Hezbollah fibre optics network, allegedly financed by Iran, was immediately passed to the US, Saudi Arabia and others by Lebanese ministers. The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy was "stunned" by the discovery, the US embassy reported.
The Lebanese are bound to assume that the information also went to Israel, for whom Hezbollah is a significant enemy and priority intelligence target.
The US cable is one of several that have been published in Beirut by the leftwing al-Akhbar newspaper which has apparently been leaked as part of the WikiLeaks cache obtained by the Guardian, the New York Times and three continental European publications.
Al-Akhbar has highlighted contacts between the March 14 movement led by the current prime minister Saad al-Hariri, the US and the Saudis, prompting denials or defensive reactions from those named.
Marwan Hamadeh, the Lebanese minister of communications, warned the US charge d'affaires of the risks involved after Hezbollah indicated it would see any action against the telecoms network as "equal to an Israeli act of aggression". Hamadeh also reported interference with Lebanese mobile communications by Syria and Israel.
The discovery of the telecoms system was linked to the demand, anchored in UN resolution 1701 but never implemented, that Hezbollah disarm after the 2006 war with Israel. Hezbollah told Lebanese intelligence that the communications network was "a key part of its arsenal".
Hamadeh told the Americans that the network ran from Beirut, into the south below the Litani river and back up through the Bekaa valley to the far north, covering Palestinian camps, Hezbollah training camps and penetrating deep into Christian areas. He cited the Iranian Fund for the Reconstruction of Lebanon as the source of the funding. This group had been rebuilding roads and bridges since the 2006 war and had been accused of installing telecommunications lines in parallel with new roads.
Other leaked US cables underline the nervousness of the Lebanese government over the fibre-optics affair: "A … public accusation against Hezbollah would beg the same question as to why the government of Lebanon did not remove Hezbollah's tanks, and entailed military risks for the government," the embassy reported later.
"Hamadeh highlights the system as a strategic victory for Iran since it creates an important Iranian outpost in Lebanon, bypassing Syria," Washington was told. "He sees the value for the Iranians as strategic, rather than technical or economic. The value for Hizballah is the final step in creating a nation state. Hizballah now has an army and weapons; a television station; an education system; hospitals; social services; a financial system; and a telecommunications system." Hamadeh has described the US cable quoting him as "a story full of slanders and fabrications" and declined to comment further to Lebanese media. Lebanon's defence minister, Elias Murr – reported in other leaked documents as telling US officials that the army would not involve itself in a future Israeli attack on Lebanon – said the allegations sought to cause unrest. "The information posted by WikiLeaks is not complete and is not accurate," said an aide, George Soulage. "The aim behind this is to sow discord in Lebanon."

Christianity Arguably the Most Persecuted Religion in the World
12-5-2010
Earlier this month, Christians who are free to observe their faith gathered in churches around the world for the annual International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. They recited pre-written invocations for fellow Christians who face violence and oppression.
Maybe pew-bound Christians should instead heed the sentiments of escaped American slave Frederick Douglass: "I prayed for 20 years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs."
Certainly, there are many reasons to take action:
Terrified Christians in Iraq are still mourning the 50-plus deaths in an Oct. 31 attack against worshippers attending mass at Our Lady of Salvation church in Baghdad, in which a militant group called the Islamic State of Iraq sprayed the sanctuary with bullets.
• StarAsia Bibi, a 45-year-old Christian mother of five in Pakistan, remains on death row -- after spending more than a year in prison -- for allegedly blaspheming the Prophet Muhammad. Last week, a court blocked a presidential pardon until an appeals court hears her case. Also in Pakistan, police said two Muslim extremists shot a Christian to death in Punjab province shortly after the victim was granted bail in a "blasphemy" case -- and less than a week after Islamic militants in the same province killed four members of a Christian family for their faith.
• In Uzbekistan, a Christian man has been fined the equivalent of seven years' salary for possessing a movie about Jesus.
• The Vietnamese government has announced the continuation of a massive military operation to "wipe out" Christians in the central highlands who refuse to join the state-approved church.
Christianity is arguably -- and perhaps counter-intuitively -- the most persecuted religion in the world. And the reason for the blissful obliviousness to that fact of well-fed Christians in the West is "ignorance," says Michael Horowitz, a U.S. Jewish activist who has written on Christian persecution. Horowitz contends this lack of awareness "is fostered by preconceptions and conventional wisdoms that lead many in the West to dismiss anti-Christian persecution as improbable, untrue, impossible."
Persecution of Christians just doesn't compute. After all, it's the faith of record in the world's richest and most powerful countries, where Christians have been ensconced for centuries.
And given Christianity's well-documented history of brutality, modern-day elites are more conditioned to think of Christian believers as the persecutors, not the victims, says Horowitz.
But the face of Christianity has changed drastically. "There's still the mindset that Christianity is white, Western and European," says Paul Marshall, of the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., and a former senior fellow at the Center for Religious Freedom.
Today, he points out, two-thirds of the world's Christians live outside the West. "The average Christian, if one can use that term, is now a Nigerian woman," Marshall says. And numbering 2 billion, there are plenty of Christians to oppress.
Virtually every human rights group and Western government agency that monitors the plight of Christians worldwide arrives at more or less the same conclusion: Between 200 million and 230 million of them face daily threats of murder, beating, imprisonment and torture, and a further 350 to 400 million encounter discrimination in areas such as jobs and housing. A conservative estimate of the number of Christians killed for their faith each year is somewhere around 150,000.
Christians are "the largest single group in the world which is being denied human rights on the basis of their faith," the World Evangelical Alliance has noted.
In a report to a conference on Christian persecution hosted by the European Parliament last month, the U.S. Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life put it this way: while Muslims and Jews worldwide and Baha'is in Iran certainly suffer too, Christians were "harassed" by government factors in 102 countries and by social factors, such as mob rule, in 101 countries.
"Altogether, Christians faced some form of harassment in two-thirds of all countries," or 133 nations, the report said. Muslims also face "substantial" harassment, the Pew report found, but in fewer countries. Christians face harassment in more countries "than any other religious group," a Pew Forum spokesperson told the Star.
Put in sharper focus, "at least" 75 per cent of all religious persecution in the world is directed against Christians, the conference was told.
The euphemistic term "harassment" encompasses vigilante and terrorist attacks against Christians in more than a dozen Muslim countries. In Sudan, an estimated 1.5 million Christians have been murdered by the Islamic Janjaweed militia, including some who were crucified. In Nigeria, 12 states have introduced sharia law. Thousands of Christians were killed in the ensuing violence. In Saudi Arabia, the only faith permitted by law is Islam. Christians are regularly imprisoned and tortured on trumped-up charges of drinking alcohol, blaspheming or owning religious artifacts. In Egypt, Coptic Christians are still reeling from a church attack last January in which eight worshippers were killed. "The situation is deteriorating and is very tense," Sam Fanous, a leader of Toronto's Coptic community, told the Star from Cairo. He said that after Friday Muslim prayers, streets fill with anti-Coptic protests.
In historically tolerant Indonesia, Islamic militias have bombed churches in majority Christian regions and killed or forcibly converted thousands.
China, meantime, continues to shutter "underground" churches and ship pastors to prison. Open Doors International, a group that reaches out to persecuted Christians, lists the 10 most repressive countries for minority religions and Christians in particular: North Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Maldives, Afghanistan, Yemen, Mauritania, Laos and Uzbekistan.
The plight of Christians in Communist and formerly Communist countries is "slowly easing," says Marshall, but getting worse in India and across the Muslim and Arab world, where even to own a Bible means courting danger. The reasons for this torment are complex, but generally in these places Christianity is seen as a proselytizing faith and a vehicle for Western imperialism and colonialism. "There is a tendency to associate Christianity with the West," Marshall says. So why aren't Christians marching in the streets and demanding action the way Jews did on behalf of their Soviet brethren in the 1970s and '80s? "Because most of the persecution of Christians is not happening in our own backyard and the issue is not generally reported in the mainstream media," says Corey Odden, CEO of The Voice of the Martyrs Canada, which is dedicated to raising awareness and support for persecuted Christians around the world.
"The lack of understanding comes from a lack of knowledge." Marshall, co-author of a 1997 book about Christian persecution, Their Blood Cries Out, has another reply: "I kick myself [and] ask myself that all the time."
By Ron Csillag
www.thestar.com
© 2010, Assyrian International News Agency. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use.

Iraq Attack Kills Elderly Assyrian Couple At Home

12-5-2010 /Assyrian International News Agency
BAGHDAD (AP) -- Iraqi police are reporting a new attack on Christians in Baghdad by gunmen who broke into the home of an elderly couple and killed them.
It was the latest in a series of attacks on the country's Christian minority, which has been fleeing the country in droves since an Oct. 31 assault on a Catholic church that killed 68.
al-Qaeda's front group in Iraq has threatened Christians, saying the violence is retribution for Egypt's Coptic Church holding women captive for converting to Islam.
Police said four gunmen raided the home in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood Sunday evening and repeatedly shot the couple with silenced pistols before escaping. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.
Copyright (C) 2010, Assyrian International News Agency.

Egypt's Elections Obliterate Coptic Voice

12-5-2010 /Assyrian International News Agency.
Egypt's minority Christian Coptic community know they are fighting a losing battle for political representation. In a best-case scenario following today's run-offs they could end up with five seats, or one percent, in the incoming 508-seat parliament. In a worst-case scenario, they will end up with half that amount.
At the polls today, just two Coptic candidates are left in the running: the suave Wafdist multi-millionaire Ramy Lakah, and Sameh Sadek, a lesser-know figure with shallow pockets. Both these men -- whose manifestos centre around calls for religious unity and an 'Egypt for all' -- are running in Shubra, a largely working-class district in Cairo with a high Christian presence.
The possibility of another parliamentary seat secured by the Copts today, possibly lies in the hands of the lesser-known Sadek, a member of the Democratic Front Party who is running as an independent. His opponent, Lakah -- a big man with the vocal leverage of money as well as ideas -- has allegedly withdrawn from the run-offs, but even if he has a change of mind as candidates are known to do, he is likely to be kept out of the parliamentary chambers, following the footsteps of equally prominent, equally surprising, losers this year, such as secretary general of the liberal Wafd party Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour.
For Egypt's Copts, who officially make up between six to ten percent of the country's 80 million population, this election year has been a brutal one. Long the subject of alleged persecution and marginalization, the election run-up was marred with markers of the endeavoured annihilation they have been crying foul against for years.
The ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) fielded just 10 Coptic candidates out of if its 780 nominees vying for the 508 available seats this year. Of a total 5,725 candidates running for election, just 81 -- less than 2 percent -- were Copts. This official selection, which was confirmed a couple of weeks before the 28 November first election round, irked the Coptic community. Former Coptic MP Mona Makram Ebeid called the choice "political", and in Alexandria, members of the community publicly spoke out in critique of the NDP for failing to fairly consider the estimated 690 names put forward by the Coptic Church.
Then, just days before the election, clashes broke out between anti-riot police and the Coptic community of Omraneya in the Pyramids district of Cairo. The government had ordered a halt on construction work on a community building, saying that the construction permit was for a "community centre", not a "church". Residents claim the tension broke out over the construction of a staircase, not the dome that the police alleged.
Demonstrators subsequently surrounded the premises, protesting the construction halt and what they criticized as part of widespread government-supported alienation and persecution. The riots, which saw police fire tear-gas and rubber pellets, ended with two dead, dozens injured, 133 arrested, and 156 people facing charges with possible maximum sentences of life in jail. The government's NDP spokesman Ali El-Din Hilal said the Copts incited the conflict, placing the blame on them. Egypt's Patriarch Pope Shenouda III immediately denounced the violence. He has not, to-date, responded to the outcome of the elections, and his office is not offering comment.
Although some of the country's most prominent businessmen and Ministers are Coptic -- including Minister of Finance Youssef Boutros Ghali, who was re-elected for a second parliamentary term this year -- persecution among the population's majority middle and lower working class has been widespread.
In January of this year, on the eve of the Copts' Christmas of January 7th, a drive-by shooting in the southern town of Naga Hamadi killed 8 Copts as they were leaving Church following mass. The court hearing against the three Muslims charged in the case is scheduled for 18 December. Hossam Bahgat, executive director of the Cairo-based Egyptian Initiative for Human Rights, has said that, "the Coptic community is vulnerable and exposed to sectarian violence".
Critics had cited the lack of Coptic representation in this year's elections as yet another antic by the government to suppress voices of opposition and maintain the status quo. Coptic representation fell even lower than that of women -- this year close to 130 women ran for seats. It also fell at almost fifty percent of Muslim Brotherhood representation -- 130 Muslim Brotherhood candidates also campaigned for parliamentary election.
With the outcome of the first election round last week, however, the predicament and marginalization of the Copts has taken different dimension. The ruling party pulverized all but the meekest voices in a political landscape long governed by limited pluralism: They won 209 seats of the 217 designated, leaving the Brotherhood with not a single one. Although Coptic representation in the incoming parliament will fall well below the 10 percent that would most fairly reflect the public demographic and voice, the outcome yields to the general quandary of representation that has beleaguered this year's election results.
"This year is a bad one for the Copts," said Michael Mounir, president of the US-based Copts Association and a long-time lobbyist for Coptic and minority rights and representation. "But it is also a bad one for everyone else. The government has gone the extra mile to annihilate everyone."
Mounir, who this year trained and fielded eighteen minority candidates for the elections under the umbrella of an NGO for change, says on the one hand the situation is getting worse, "but in a way the reverse is also true: Copts, and minorities in general, have become more aware of their rights. Their voices are now present in politics, even if under-represented. That's a step in the right direction."The question as to the future of the Coptic community is now the same one that faces the entire demographic of Egypt's political landscape minus the NDP -- where to from here? In the face of an election fraught with reports of vote-rigging and violence plus the obliteration of any voices of dissent, the government faces perhaps its greatest crisis of legitimacy before both the international community and as well as its own 80 million population. It also faces its greatest ever cohort of aggrieved politicians and activists. It is in this chorus of dissent that the Copts may at last find their platform and strong-hold -- amidst a community of mainstream and majority voices who face the same grievances as them.
By Yasmine El-Rashidi
http://english.ahram.org.eg
© 2010, Assyrian International News Agency. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use.

More Foreign Fighters Seen Slipping Back Into Iraq

12-5-2010 /BAGHDAD (AP) -- Intelligence officials say foreign fighters have been slipping back into Iraq in larger numbers recently and may have been behind some of the most devastating attacks this year, reviving a threat the U.S. military believed had been almost entirely eradicated. It is impossible to verify the actual numbers of foreign insurgents entering the country. But one Middle Eastern intelligence official estimated recently that 250 came in October alone. U.S. officials say the figure is far lower, but have acknowledged an increase since August. At the same time, Iraqi officials say there has been a surge in financial aid to al-Qaida's front group in Iraq as the U.S. military prepares to leave by the end of 2011. They said it reflects fears by Arab states over the growing influence of Iran's Shiite-led government over Iraq and its Shiite-dominated government.
On Sunday, security official Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi said Iraqi forces are searching for six foreign fighters who are among Iraq's most wanted terrorists.
The six are suspected of involvement in the Oct. 31 siege of a Christian church that left 68 people dead and drew international outrage, al-Moussawi said. They are also suspected in two summertime attacks on an Iraqi army headquarters in central Baghdad that killed a total of 73 people.
"All who committed these attacks are (non-Iraqi) Arabs," he said. "This indicates the failure of al-Qaida leaders to recruit Iraqis to carry out suicide attacks."
Al-Moussawi said five of the six suspects are hiding in two Sunni Muslim-dominated provinces bordering Syria, while one has fled to Syria.
U.S. officials are playing down the threat.
Army Col. Barry Johnson, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq, said the military noticed a slight increase in foreign fighters starting in August, but would not say how many. He said the number remains far lower than when insurgents were rushing in from Arab states between 2005 and 2007.
"There were some indications of a flow of foreign fighters in," Johnson said. "And that is often associated with suicide attacks, so we were anticipating something happening."
Last year, U.S. counterterrorism officials said the number of foreigners heading to Iraq had trickled from hundreds to "tens" in what they described as a severely weakened al-Qaida in Iraq.
But a Mideast counterterrorism official said an estimated 250 foreign fighters entered Iraq in October alone. He said they came through the Syrian city of Homs, a hub for Syrian Muslim fundamentalists that is run mostly by Tunisians and Algerians. Other fighters have come from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Libya and Yemen.
Additionally, the official said tens of millions of foreign dollars annually are funding the Iraqi insurgency, which has received about $5 billion in aid since 2007. The money comes from al-Qaida leaders, Muslims who want the U.S. to leave, and so-called 'Arab nationalists' who are eager for Sunni Muslims to regain power in Shiite-dominated Iraq.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.
Even at the height of the war, foreign fighters were considered a small percentage of the total insurgents in Iraq. But their presence encouraged donations from overseas, and they made up some of the most hardcore jihadists who were willing to carry out suicide bombings.
Officials see the fingerprints of foreign fighters in a spate of recent attacks:
-Four of the church bombers who were from Libya and Syria and carried fake ID cards that identified them as mutes to avoid talking in foreign accents to checkpoint guards, Iraqi Deputy Interior Minister Ahmed Abu Raghef told The Associated Press. He said $70,000 cash was seized from a western Baghdad home where their cell's leaders were operating.
-A Tunisian who was also pretending to be mute was arrested on terror charges in August in eastern Diyala province, according to an Iraqi security official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
-A Moroccan fighter was captured and two non-Iraqi insurgents were killed in a raid last Thursday in the northern city of Mosul, said Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mohammed al-Askari.
-Four Jordanian fighters were killed by U.S. troops in Iraq, according to a November claim by the Islamic State of Iraq, a front group for al-Qaida.
-A Nov. 2 string of rapid-fire blasts in Shiite neighborhoods across Baghdad killed 91. Iraqi counterterrorism commander Maj. Gen. Fadhel al-Barwari said it must have been carried out with foreign financing to buy the explosives needed "to launch an attack with a big number of casualties."
U.S. officials and experts voiced doubt that the foreign aid is as high as Iraqi and Mideast authorities believe.
A senior U.S. military official who spoke on condition of anonymity to talk candidly about the sensitive issue estimated about 10 foreign fighters enter Iraq each month. Michael Knights, a Lafter Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy predicted there are only "small cells of experienced foreign fighters in ISI."
But an analysis by private global intelligence firm Stratfor concluded that foreign help in the church siege signals al-Qaida "may have found a new source for militants, and they may have more resources to carry out fresh attacks."
By Lara Jakes and Qassim Abdul-zahra
Associated Press Writers Rebecca Santana in Baghdad and Jamal Halaby in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this report.
© 2010, Assyrian International News Agency. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use.

 

Obama’s Iran failure
Op-ed: Unlike Arab leaders, American president fails to understand scope of Iranian threat
Shoula Romano Horing Published: 12.05.10, 18:10 / Israel Opinion
For the last two years President Obama has been obsessing with “engaging” the Muslim world while ignoring the “moderates” in the Islamic countries who have been imploring the US to stop Iran’s development of nuclear weapons.
WikiLeaks: Full Ynetnews coverage
For two years President Obama and his administration have fabricated a mythical argument that progress on the Israeli–Palestinian issue through the stopping of settlement construction will help get the “moderate” Arab nations in the region like Saudi Arabia, the Persian Gulf State, Egypt and Jordan on board in stopping Iran.
But the confidential documents from US embassies made public on WikiLeaks reveal that those countries have already been on board, by hounding and begging the Obama administration to take military action, including airstrikes and the use of ground forces, against the Iranians
Moreover, while Obama was wasting time and personally orchestrating public confrontations with Israel over the settlement issue and the creation of a Palestinian state, it seems that Arab Sunni leaders, in private communications with US officials, did not even mention the settlements or the Palestinian issue as their main urgent concern. As one Middle East expert from Cairo told the Los Angeles Times, the official stance in the Middle East led by Arab Sunni states has always been” that it is Iran and not Israel that poses the main threat to the region.”
According to WikiLeaks, Saudi Arabian King Abdullah urged the US to attack ”evil” Iran, saying that “it is necessary to cut the head of the snake.” King Hamad of Bahrain was quoted in 2009 as saying ”the Iranian nuclear program must be terminated by whatever means necessary. The danger of letting it go on is greater than the danger of stopping it.” Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Zayed urged the US not to appease or engage Tehran, referring to it as an “existential threat” and stating that “Ahmadinejad is Hitler.”
Iran is not Soviet Union
It appears that Arab leaders agree with Prime Minster Netanyahu‘s assessment that Iran is the main threat to peace and stability in the Middle East and not the Israel-Palestinian conflict, and that economic sanctions may hurt Iran but military action is the only way to stop it.
It seems that Obama chooses to ignore the concerns about Iran from his friends, and feels compelled to occupy himself with sideshows like the Israeli-Palestinian issue and “settlements” because he does not understand the dangers of a nuclear armed Iran. Obama does not believe in a military solution because he believes it is possible to “contain” Iran as the US contained the Soviet Union. But he does not understand that contrary to the Communist leaders, Iranian leaders are not “rational “adversaries.
To understand Iran’s ambitions it is necessary to understand Iran’s religious ideology. The Iranian regime believes that the right religion for humanity is Islam and the right sect of Islam is Shiite and not Sunni. Iran’s ultimate aim is to establish global Islamic rule, a new Islamic empire, but this time under Shiite leadership.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stated in the past his belief that amidst the chaos of a catastrophic war, the 12th Imam, the Mahdi, would make his prophesied Messianic return and establish new order where the whole world would convert to Shiite Islam. This belief lies at the heart of Iran’s ambition to spread its influence and acquire nuclear weapons and this is the reason such ambition is dangerous not only for Israel but for Sunni Arab countries, Europe and the world. Acquiring nuclear capability would give Iranian leadership even more room for reckless and aggressive foreign policy.
The Sunni Arabs understand the Iranian Shiite ambitions for regional hegemony and the threat to their survival, even though Obama does not. The Israeli government should stop participating in the sideshows of Obama and refuse any requests for a settlement freeze or negotiations over a future Palestinian state until the Iranian threat is eliminated.
Shoula Romano Horing is Israeli-born and raised. She is an attorney in Kansas City, Missouri and a national speaker; Her blog: www.shoularomanohoring.com

Canadian resident sentenced to death in Iran, supporters allege abuse
By The Canadian Press | The Canadian Press/ on, 6 Dec/ 10
.TORONTO - An Iranian-born Canadian man has been sentenced to death in Tehran in a case his supporters say is rife with torture and human rights abuses. A website run by those campaigning for Saeed Malekpour's release from an Iranian prison says the 35-year-old was sentenced to death Saturday. Malekpour's supporters say an Iranian judge told his lawyer the death sentence was not his decision but one made by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Malekpour is a website developer who became a permanent Canadian resident in 2004.
His supporters, including his wife who now lives in Richmond Hill, Ont., say he was arrested in Iran in October 2008 after a trip to visit his ailing father. He has been held in Tehran's Evin Prison in relation to a case of "Internet offences" linked to a program he made for what turned out to be an adult website. The charges against him include "taking action against national security by designing and moderating adult content websites," "agitation against the regime" and "insulting the sanctity of Islam." His supporters say Malekpour wasn't aware the program he made would be used for an adult website. Malekpour wrote an open letter to Iranian officials in March this year alleging forced confessions, torture which includes lashings, and physical abuse resulting in broken teeth and bodily infections. “Most of the time, the tortures were performed by a group," he wrote. "While I remained blindfolded and handcuffed, several individuals armed with cables, batons, and their fists struck and punched me." Malekpour said his mistreatment was aimed at forcing him to admit to a false confession before a camera, based on scenarios his interrogators were dictating. Those campaigning for his release say he was often held in solitary confinement without any outside contact or access to a lawyer.
The group has also sent a petition to the House of Commons calling for Ottawa to appeal to the Iranian government and demand Malekpour's