LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِJuly 11/2010

Bible Of the Day
Matthew 4:4
But he answered, "It is written, " 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.' "
Today's Inspiring Thought: Bread of Life
Like food that sustains our physical bodies, our spirits depend on the Word of God for life-supporting nourishment. Here, after 40 days of fasting in the wilderness, Jesus speaks the Word of God from Deuteronomy 8:3 to overcome the temptation of the devil. The Son of God, a man who possessed divine power to defeat the enemy, chose the weapon of Scripture to combat Satan. This powerful Sword is our weapon too—the same spiritual resource we have today—the Word of God! Are you feeding your spirit by feasting daily on God's Word?

Free Opinions, Releases, letters, Interviews & Special Reports
Iran’s Global Terrorist Reach/By Dr. Walid Phares/July 10/10

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for July 10/10
Hezbollah 'on high alert' against IDF/Ynetnews
Peres Accuses North Korea of Supplying Iran, and Consequently Hizbullah, with Weapons/Naharnet
Hizbullah: They Have Something in Store for us, But We Will Be Ready for it/Naharnet
Raad: Latest Developments in Lebanon and Region are Aimed at Taking Initiative Away from Resistance/Naharnet
Paris Committed to Implementation of 1701, Wants Lebanon to Assume Responsibility towards UNIFIL/Naharnet
Geagea: It's Unacceptable that Cabinet Simply Apologize for South Clashes as if it has Nothing to do with Them/Naharnet
UN calls for free movement of Lebanon peacekeepers/AFP
Body found on airplane wheels in Saudi Arabia/The Associated Press
Human Remains Found on the Tires of a Plane that Landed in Riyadh Flying from Beirut/Naharnet
Sending Hizbullah a message: Israel is ready/Jerusalem Post
Jewish senator may mediate Israel-Syria talks/Ynetnews
Israel's Army Turns Cautious on Criticism/Newsweek
Suleiman Signs 2010 State Budget Plan/Naharnet
Hezbollah smuggling people into U.S. through Mexico/Examiner.com
Hizbullah warns Israel on Syrian TV/Jerusalem Post
Sending Hizbullah a message: Israel is ready/Jerusalem Post
William Hague must sack British ambassador over Hizbollah tribute/Telegraph.co.uk (blog)
Foreign Office takes down blog praising late Hezbollah mentor/The Guardian
Civilian clashes with UN soldiers rise in Lebanon's Hezbollah heartland/Christian Science Monitor
Hezbollah denounces CNN's firing of Mideast editor/The Associated Press
South Lebanon people wary of French peacekeepers/Reuters
Iran's Global Terrorist Reach/Canada Free Press
Rahaf Abdullah Crowned Miss Lebanon 2010/Naharnet
Sakr: Protesters in South acting like “Hezbollah’s mouthpiece”/Now Lebanon
MP Bilal Farhat: Hezbollah protecting the security of UNIFIL in its areas of operations/Now Lebanon

Peres Accuses North Korea of Supplying Iran, and Consequently Hizbullah, with Weapons
Naharnet/Israeli President Shimon Peres accused North Korea of supplying Iran with weapons.
He told the Japanese daily Yomiuri: "The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is like a shop that sells missiles and nuclear equipment, as it supplies Iran with arms, who then consequently transfers them to Hizbullah."He added: "Removing the threats to Israel's existence is tantamount to a condition for it to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty," stressing the need to deploy a missile shield system in countries neighboring Iran. Peres noted that Iran can be thwarted through condemning its military dictatorial regime, imposing economic sanctions against it, and a security ring around it through a missile shield system. "We should try all possible means except war," the Israeli president said. Beirut, 10 Jul 10, 09:26

Hezbollah 'on high alert' against IDF
Lebanese group says info published on its Al-Khiam stronghold suggests Israel 'preparing something'
Roi Kais/ 07.10.10,/Israel News /Hezbollah responded for the first time Saturday to information revealed by Israel on its stronghold in the southern Lebanese village of Al-Khiam.
Sources from the organization told the London-based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat that the Israeli reports were a "fabrication" and that the state seemed to be laying the groundwork for some kind of move against Hezbollah. "They are preparing something for us, but we are on a high level of alert," one source told the paper, adding that a Security Council condemnation of the group's recent violence against the UN force in southern Lebanon proved the international community was also involved. "We want to stay as far as possible from an exchange of verbal blows because we want the Lebanese people to have a peaceful summer, despite Israel's attempts to carry out what it tried to do in 2006 – an exaggeration of a show of defense," the paper quoted. The sources also condemned France for calling the Security Council meeting on the attacks against UNIFIL forces, which are believed to have been carried out by Hezbollah agents. "The actions of the French UNIFIL force, just like France's new policy, prove that the country has gone back to implementing imperialistic policies against the Arab homeland," one source said. France called for the special council meeting following incidents on June 29th and July 3rd and July 4th in which angry villagers blocked roads to prevent peacekeepers from performing a military drill. Some threw stones, injuring at least three peacekeepers. The force commander, Maj. Gen. Alberto Asarta Cuevas, sent an open letter to the communities in the
south late Thursday urging villagers to discuss their grievances directly with the UN peacekeepers. He assured them the force has no "hidden agenda." A press statement read after the meeting strongly deplored the incidents and called on all parties to ensure the freedom of movement of the UN force, which has about 12,100 military personnel from 30 countries.

Geagea: It's Unacceptable that Cabinet Simply Apologize for South Clashes as if it has Nothing to do with Them
Naharnet/Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said Saturday that the LF and Mustaqbal Movement oppose the naturalization of Palestinians in Lebanon, saying that Lebanon's budget cannot support them. He told Voice of Lebanon Radio: "We have held long discussions and reached an agreement to reconsider the Palestinians' living and humanitarian conditions."
Addressing the recent security developments in the South, he asked if it was acceptable to antagonize troops from friendly nations deployed in Lebanon, pointing out that the residents who assaulted the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) are Hizbullah supporters. Geagea noted: "It is normal for any international force that is under pressure to raise a complaint to the U.N. Security Council, and it is unacceptable that Cabinet issue an apology as if it has nothing to do with the developments." He stressed that the internal situation may negatively impact Lebanon's ties with the international community, urging the government, army, and Security Council to tackle the issue. He also revealed that he will be attending the next national dialogue session "as usual", pointing out that a decision is still needed over the issue of Hizbullah's arms. "The most powerful weapon is our word, and some are driving us towards abandoning it," he said. Beirut, 10 Jul 10,

Body found on airplane wheels in Saudi Arabia
(AP) BEIRUT — The remains of a body were found on the rear wheels of an airplane that landed in the Saudi capital of Riyadh from Beirut, Lebanon's transportation minister said Saturday. Minister Ghazi Aridi confirmed that the remains were found on an Airbus 320 jet from the Saudi Nasair company that landed in Riyadh just after midnight with 130 people on board. The remains were discovered shortly after the plane landed while maintenance was being done. Aridi said the body has not been identified and no further details were immediately available, pending investigation. "I have given orders to Lebanese civil aviation authorities to be in contact with their counterparts in Riyadh and Nasair officials to follow up on details of the incident and investigation," he told The Associated Press. Aridi declined to give details, but a report by Lebanon's state-run news agency said earlier that a number of passengers reported seeing a man wearing a cap with a backpack running toward the plane before it took off. They said he stumbled to the ground, got up and continued heading toward the plane just before it took off. The report said the passengers and crew informed the plane's pilot about the man but he went ahead with the take off.The report could not be independently confirmed.

Human Remains Found on the Tires of a Plane that Landed in Riyadh Flying from Beirut
Naharnet/Human remains of an unknown individual have been discovered on the rear tires of a Nas Air passenger plane that landed in Riyadh shortly after midnight on Friday after flying from Beirut, according to information from the Saudi capital. Saudi authorities immediately informed the administration at Beirut Rafik Hariri International Airport and an investigation was launched. The routine procedures prior to any takeoff were performed before the plane took flight and nothing unusual was discovered. "A man who has not yet been identified somehow managed to grab hold of a (wheel) of the jet in Beirut without the control tower noticing before takeoff," a Lebanon airport official told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) said passengers on the plane reported seeing a man in a baseball cap with a backpack make a dash for plane as it prepared to taxi. He stumbled once and then continued towards the plane. "The passengers and flight attendants informed the pilot, but he did not take any action and continued takeoff without informing the Beirut control tower" that anything was amiss, according to the NNA. A Nas Air official in Riyadh said they were waiting for an official report on the incident from the Saudi General Authority of Civil Aviation before commenting or providing any details. Beirut, 10 Jul 10,

Raad: Latest Developments in Lebanon and Region
are Aimed at Taking Initiative Away from Resistance
Naharnet/Hizbullah MP Mohammed Raad noted Saturday that the latest developments in Lebanon and the region have caused an "unusual" movement that promotes the West's policies for the purpose of removing the initiative from the Resistance's hands. He stressed that the Resistance has thwarted the western agenda in the region, which uses Israel to achieve its expansionist agenda, adding: "We have reached a stage that cannot be overcome except with more attachment to our cultural identity and monitoring the enemy's activity." Beirut, 10 Jul 10, 14:10

Hizbullah: They Have Something in Store for us, But We Will Be Ready for it
Naharnet/Sources from Hizbullah stated that the recent clashes with UNIFIL, French calls to change the international troops' rules of engagement, and Israel's allegations that it has maps to Hizbullah military bases are all connected. They told the daily Asharq al-Awsat Saturday: "They are preparing something for us but we will be ready for it and we will exercise the greatest calm against it."They added: "We want to avoid heated political debates because we want the summer season to be perfect for the Lebanese despite Israeli attempts to execute what it failed to achieve in 2006.""We are sensing suspicious international activity, especially after Israeli chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi's recent statements, all aimed at pressuring the Resistance," the sources stressed. Beirut, 10 Jul 10,

U.N. Calls for Free Movement of Lebanon Peacekeepers
The U.N. Security Council reaffirmed support Friday for its peacekeeping mission in Lebanon and called on "all parties" in the country to allow the forces to move freely.
A statement approved unanimously by the 15-member Security Council came in response to incidents in recent weeks in which the blue-helmeted forces were targeted and attacked in Lebanon.
The statement said council members "strongly deplore the recent incidents involving UNIFIL peacekeepers which took place in southern Lebanon on June 29, July 3 and July 4."
The Security Council members said they "call on all parties to ensure that the freedom of movement of UNIFIL remains respected in conformity with its mandate and its rules of engagement.""The members of the Security Council also call on all parties to abide scrupulously by their obligation to respect the safety of UNIFIL and other United Nations personnel," the statement added. In one of the incidents, villagers disarmed a French patrol of U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon and attacked them with sticks, rocks and eggs, in the latest in a string of such incidents. France called for a specific meeting on the matter at the United Nations to reaffirm the freedom of movement of the peacekeepers.
The Security Council statement reaffirmed Resolution 1701, which ended the Hizbullah-Israel war in 2006 and expanded the mandate of the mission known as UNIFIL, which was originally formed in 1978 after the outbreak of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war. French Ambassador Gerard Araud said the action was a "clear statement" that showed that "we cannot accept the obstacles to the freedom of movement of UNIFIL." Araud said that some had the impression that the incidents "were not isolated" and that "we wanted to emphasize... the seriousness of these incidents."(AFP) Beirut, 10 Jul 10,

UN calls for free movement of Lebanon peacekeepers
(AFP) – UNITED NATIONS — The UN Security Council reaffirmed support Friday for its peacekeeping mission in Lebanon and called on "all parties" in the country to allow the forces to move freely. A statement approved unanimously by the 15-member Security Council came in response to incidents in recent weeks in which the blue-helmeted forces were targeted and attacked in Lebanon. The statement said council members "strongly deplore the recent incidents involving UNIFIL peacekeepers which took place in southern Lebanon on June 29, July 3 and July 4." The Security Council members said they "call on all parties to ensure that the freedom of movement of UNIFIL remains respected in conformity with its mandate and its rules of engagement." "The members of the Security Council also call on all parties to abide scrupulously by their obligation to respect the safety of UNIFIL and other United Nations personnel," the statement added. In one of the incidents, villagers disarmed a French patrol of UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon and attacked them with sticks, rocks and eggs, in the latest in a string of such incidents. France called for a specific meeting on the matter at the United Nations to reaffirm the freedom of movement of the peacekeepers.
The Security Council statement reaffirmed Resolution 1701, which ended the Hezbollah-Israel war in 2006 and expanded the mandate of the mission known as UNIFIL, which was originally formed in 1978 after the outbreak of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war. French Ambassador Gerard Araud said the action was a "clear statement" that showed that "we cannot accept the obstacles to the freedom of movement of UNIFIL." Araud said that some had the impression that the incidents "were not isolated" and that "we wanted to emphasize... the seriousness of these incidents."

Paris Committed to Implementation of 1701, Wants Lebanon to Assume Responsibility towards UNIFIL
Naharnet/France has voiced its satisfaction with the official statement issued by Cabinet on Wednesday that stated Lebanon's commitment to U.N. Security Council resolution 1701.
Official French sources told the daily Asharq al-Awsat Saturday before Friday's U.N. Security Council meeting that Paris is expecting the Lebanese government "to assume its responsibilities towards UNIFIL and deploy its army sufficiently in the South to facilitate the international troops' mission." The sources said in a letter directed to the Lebanese authorities that the recent unrest in the South "should stop", stressing that the French troops in the international force have been sent there to maintain the peace and protect Lebanon's sovereignty "and there is no other purpose for UNIFIL" besides the mission assigned to it by the Security Council. They stressed the need for the troops to be able to exercise their duties through being granted a freedom of movement, noting that it is important for all sides concerned to help the troops maintain the peace in the South. Beirut, 10 Jul 10,

Suleiman Signs 2010 State Budget Plan
Naharnet/President Michel Suleiman signed on Saturday the 2010 state budget plan that he received from Cabinet's general-secretariat. He then immediately referred it to parliament. The president also held talks with Minister of the Displaced Akram Chehayeb on current affairs. Beirut, 10 Jul 10,

Army Arrests Two of Makassed Hospital Attackers
Naharnet/After the attack on the emergency ward of the Islamic Makassed Hospital in Beirut on the night of July 7/8 by unidentified assailants, the intelligence directory conducted a series of investigations and inquiries through which it was able to identify the identity of the attackers, and to arrest two of them after observation, the Army Command - Orientation Directorate announced Friday. The army identified the two detainees only by their initials -- H. M., Palestinian, and M. N., Lebanese. The detainees are being interrogated in order to unveil whether they were involved in other crimes, the army added. President of the Private Hospitals Association Suleiman Haroun has threatened to shutdown emergency rooms across Lebanon unless immediate action is taken to protect hospitals. "If action was not taken within two or three days to protect hospitals, we will order the closure of all emergency departments," Haroun warned. His remarks came a day after gunmen attacked Makassed hospital in Beirut and began spraying gunfire randomly. None of the hospital staff was hurt in Thursday's 6:00 am attack, but the hospital sustained damage. The assault also forced the hospital to close the emergency ward pending appropriate security protection.

The attackers, who apparently were relatives of the man with an arm injury, had demanded immediate care for him.
A hospital statement said the gunmen began shooting and breaking glass inside rooms after the patient was given "appropriate" medical care. An-Nahar newspaper on Friday said police arrested a man suspected of involvement in the shooting while search continued for the remaining attackers. Health Minister Mohammed Jawad Khalife on Friday discussed ways to curb hospital attacks with Haroun, president of the Doctors Association Sharaf Abu Sharaf and head of the North Lebanon Hospitals Association Fawaz Baba. "There can be several reasons behind this phenomenon, mainly the absence of security and accountability," Khalife said at the end of the meeting. Beirut, 09 Jul 10,

Rahaf Abdullah Crowned Miss Lebanon 2010
Naharnet/Rahaf Abdallah, a 22-year old business management student, beat 15 other contestants to be crowned Miss Lebanon 2010 during the pageant that was held Friday night and organized by LBC. Daniella Garious and Nabila Awad were crowned first and second runners up respectively. In addition to the crown, Abdallah, who is 174 cm tall and enjoys singing, dancing, and sports, won a L.L. 70 million prize, a diamond encrusted jewelry set, a car, a year's supply of cosmetics, a living room and bedroom set, electric appliances, and a camera.
The pageant was attended by Tourism Minister Fadi Abboud, Interior Minister Ziad Baroud, Culture Minister Salim Wardeh, and a number of political, media, and social figures, and witnessed performances by singers Haifa Wehbe and Ragheb Alameh. Abdallah is now eligible to participate in Miss World 2010 and Miss Universe 2010, which was won by Lebanon's Georgina Rizk in 1971. Beirut, 10 Jul 10,

Farhat: Hezbollah protecting UNIFIL’s security in South Lebanon
Naharnet/In an interview with the LBCI television on Saturday, Loyalty to the Resistance bloc MP Bilal Farhat said that Hezbollah was protecting the security of UNIFIL in its areas of operations.He criticized the staging of maneuvers inside populated areas in South Lebanon. “Are the search of houses in the South and anxiety over security in residential neighborhoods part of UNIFIL’s mandate?” Farhat asked. He added that UNIFIL’s mission should concentrate on protecting the people.Farhat’s remarks come after a series of anti-UNIFIL demonstrations in the South began on June 29 during a UNIFIL deployment exercise. Several French soldiers were reportedly injured in the protests. A reconciliation meeting on Thursday between UNIFIL, the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and municipality heads helped defuse tension. The UN Security Council reaffirmed support Friday for its peacekeeping mission in Lebanon and called on all parties in the country to allow UNIFIL forces to move freely.
-NOW Lebanon

Sakr: Protesters in South acting like “Hezbollah’s mouthpiece”
July 10, 2010 /Lebanon First bloc MP Okab Sakr told OTV on Saturday that residents in South Lebanon who recently protested against UNIFIL troops were acting like “Hezbollah’s mouthpiece.”Anti-UNIFIL protests began on June 29 during a maximum deployment exercise by the peacekeeping force. Residents also blocked a road and disarmed a French UNIFIL patrol last Saturday, reportedly leaving several French soldiers injured. “We must protect UNIFIL, implement UN Security Council Resolution 1701and boost UNIFIL’s coordination with the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF),” Sakr said. He also commented on Hezbollah’s accusations that US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffry Feltman said the US is paying Lebanese figures to verbally attack Hezbollah. Sakr said Feltman did not say money was paid to distort Hezbollah’s image, but to lessen its influence.
“I am not surprised [by Feltman’s statement] because the US considers Hezbollah a terrorist organization,” Sakr added. “I am against any US intervention in Lebanon and I am not with the US against Hezbollah, but I am against Hezbollah’s policies domestically,” the MP said. “Those who have evidence I am being funded by the US, let them reveal it,” he challenged.
Hezbollah claims US officials used $500 million to bribe Lebanese figures into verbally bashing the party. -NOW Lebanon

Ghazi Aridi
July 9, 2010
On July 8, the Lebanese National News Agency carried the following report:
Minister of Transportation and Public Works Ghazi al-Aridi indicated that “any escalation with UNIFIL troops in South Lebanon and any mismanagement of this file will have negative repercussions on Lebanon. He stated: “Things are heading toward total agreement and full coordination between the army and UNIFIL,” holding “the Israeli enemy primarily responsible for what is happening in the South due to its non-commitment to Resolution 1701… Israel is a terrorist state which is eluding its commitments and since 2006 has never wished to implement Resolution 1701 since. Moreover, it is proceeding with its violations, attacks, breaches, occupation of the Shebaa Farms, Al-Ghajar and the Kfar Shouba hills while threatening and kidnapping citizens on a daily basis, violating Lebanese airspace, planting espionage and assassination cells inside Lebanese territories, threatening Lebanese citizens and the head of the Lebanese government to strike facilities and infrastructure. Now, it wants to violate our territorial waters and the oil wealth in our sea.
“In addition to that, the Israeli enemy neither wants international troops in the South nor Resolution 1701 because it was counting on the success of its attack in 2006 with clear support from the United States. Resolution 1701 related to the presence of international forces in the South is in our own interest and we should know how to deal with it so that the picture is not toppled and so that Israel does not appear to be right and Lebanon wrong; especially since Israel has now restored the best relations with the current American administration which announced its full support to it and protection on the nuclear issue.”
Asked whether or not the works were causing the traffic crisis, Al-Aridi assured: “The traffic crisis must be handled but until now no solution has been reached,” indicating that “in some regions, there is traffic but there are no works. This crisis has several causes, namely in regard to the ways drivers’ licenses are being issued, the quality of cars, chaos and indiscipline, non-respect of laws, road signals and parking places and the multitude of buses and mini-vans that do not stay in the zones allocated for them.
“Moreover, there is overall chaos due to the lack of education and absence of a civil culture. We also have problems related to the state of the roads and the absence of planning, in addition to reluctance on the political level. Today for example, the Arab Highway works are ongoing from the Sayyad roundabout to Masnah. This project was drawn up at the beginning of the nineties. Small parts of it were implemented while the rest was left out for intertwining political and financial reasons and disputes. The implementation cost of the remaining part today equals the cost of the entire project had it been implemented at the time. Therefore, there must be a comprehensive vision starting with the handling of management issues.
“There is also another problem causing traffic jams related to a very positive factor, i.e. the Beirut Port which is considered to be among the most active in the region. Growth is multiplying and containers are up to seven-storey high. We have already launched a project to expand it and work on this $130 million project has started. However, the unloading of the cargos and their transportation to the different regions in hundreds of trucks exiting the port will definitely cause a crisis… the railway project between Tripoli and Al-Aboudiya [Lebanese northern border with Syria] is also frozen, at a time when it could have limited traffic between Beirut and Tripoli by securing the transfer of the cargos from the Tripoli port – transit - toward the Arab countries. The project’s cost is of around $35 million and there is nothing more important or vital than it in regard to the traffic crisis...
“There are possible solutions but there should firstly be an initiative respected by everyone to handle this situation in a new way, in order to discuss all the proposals and ideas and come up with a strategic vision for traffic and transportation in Lebanon.”

The Western Press and Hezbollah
Lee Smith , weeklystandard.com, July 10, 2010 share
Even after Octavia Nasr apologized for her ill-advised “tweet” over the July 4 holiday expressing her “respect” for the recently deceased Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, CNN fired its senior editor for Middle East affairs. And now bloggers and journalists are up in arms. Some are blaming the job action on “neoconservatives,” which presumably includes THE WEEKLY STANDARD’s Daniel Halper who commented on Nasr’s “tweet” here. Israel Lobby author Stephen Walt writes that CNN’s “spineless response” is “one more reason why mainstream journalism is increasingly seen as morally bankrupt.”
Walt and some of the others have half a point--why is Nasr being singled out for openly expressing the U.S. media’s default position on Hezbollah, Fadlallah’s one-time colleagues? For instance, does anyone doubt that the New Yorker’s Seymour Hersh “respects” the late cleric’s even more vicious rival, Hezbollah General Secretary Hassan Nasrallah, whom he interviewed in the pages of the New Yorker?
The Western press delights in rattling the bourgeois sensibilities of its audience by showing the multifaceted aspects of Hezbollah--it’s not just a militia with an appetite for slaughtering Jews, it’s also a social welfare outfit that provides educational opportunities!--and even collaborates with the Party of God by publishing doctored photographs of Israeli “war crimes.” The op-ed pages of America’s dailies are replete with articles promoting Hezbollah’s “pragmatism” and “moderation” (which also happens to be the position of the president’s counter-terrorism czar John Brennan, and a recent CENTCOM analytical exercise), while reported pieces from Lebanon pass along Party of God press releases as objective analysis. If every U.S. journalist who quoted Hezbollah mouthpiece Amal Saad Ghorayeb as a respected “scholar” was fired, the bars of East Beirut would lose 25 percent of their business.
In Beirut, it’s well understood that the U.S. press corps is at least deftly managed by Hezbollah and its pro-Syrian lapdogs, if not actively in the party’s corner. First stop for most is Michel Samaha, Lebanon’s former minister of Information, an apparatchik of the Damascus regime, who arranges interviews with Hezbollah higher-ups and other friends of the Islamic resistance. The only people who don’t understand how the game is played in Lebanon are American media consumers, because the foreign desk editors back in the U.S. surely know what’s up.
**Lee Smith is the author of The Strong Horse: Power, Politics, and the Clash of Arab Civilizations.

Iran’s Global Terrorist Reach
By Dr. Walid Phares
Friday, July 9, 2010
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/25180
The United States became painfully aware of the threat posed by global jihadism after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. Until that day, Iranian-backed terrorist networks, such as Hezbollah, were responsible for killing more American citizens than al-Qaeda. In the years since, the balance has been gradually tilting back towards Iran. In the words of former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, al-Qaeda may be the ‘B’ team of international terrorism, but Hezbollah is the ‘A’ team. Indeed, Iran’s Khomeinists began their war on the U.S. and other democracies years before Osama bin Laden began his jihad.
The takeover of Iran’s government in 1979 by radical Islamist forces faithful to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was the breakthrough after which the so-called Islamic Revolution spread throughout the Middle East and beyond. The Khomeinist revolution is ideologically rooted in a radical Islamist doctrine that stands in opposition to the more traditional “Quietist” school of thought among Shia clerics. In a sense, the Khomeinists are the Shia world’s equivalent of the Salafists within the Sunni world. The Islamist Shias are also jihadists, in the sense that they call for the establishment of a future Imamate, a Shia form of Islamic Caliphate, by any means necessarily, including what they coin as “Jihad,” which practically means war.
Because it cannot project much conventional military power, Iran threatens the United States, Israel and other democracies by unconventional means. Through the use of its terrorist surrogates—such as Hezbollah—Tehran’s reach extends around the world.
Hezbollah
The formation of the Iranian-Syrian alliance in 1980 allowed Tehran to penetrate Lebanon’s Shi’ite communities and build a militia that enabled it to extend its influence to the Mediterranean. Through Hezbollah, Iran controls the resources of a large religious community in Lebanon and has established itself as a dominant force inside the country. Iran is therefore able to develop networks overseas more easily and engage Israel in direct confrontation from across the border. Furthermore, the alliance has granted greater access to U.S., European, and other interests on behalf of the Khomeinist regime.
Hezbollah was an Iranian project designed to export its revolution globally and it fast became the single most dangerous terrorist network. Since the 1979 revolution, the ayatollahs have invited radical Shia clerics from Lebanon to Iran for theological training. They also recruited militants, including Imad Mughniyeh, who became the central figure in the terror nexus for decades. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (Pasdaran) established its first bases in the northern Bekaa valley in 1980. From there, it connected with “Islamic Amal,” an offshoot of the Amal Movement, and with radical religious scholars who studied at the holy cities of Qom in Iran and Najaf in Iraq.
Hezbollah was born in a gradual process under the auspices of the Pasdaran and launched from the Bekaa towards South Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs. It took part in limited clashes against Lebanon’s Christian enclave in early 1982, and as the Israeli invasion destroyed the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) infrastructure in the South in June, Iran sent Hezbollah into the fray. Its first strikes were directed at the U.S. embassy and Marines, and French troops. Throughout the 1980s, Hezbollah took U.S. and European hostages and engaged in operations against Israeli forces and their local allies in the South Lebanon Army (SLA).
In 1990, Syria invaded East Beirut, seizing the central government and conferring a mantle of state legitimacy on Hezbollah. Iran consequently gained a third ally in the region, the Syrian-controlled Lebanese Republic. After a decade of attacks, including suicide bombings, the Iranian-funded organization won another victory when Israel withdrew from the security zone in southern Lebanon and the SLA was disbanded.
In May 2000, Hezbollah was poised along the international border with the “Zionist enemy.” Through Lebanon’s institutions, ports of entry, and security apparatus, Iran has expanded its base inside the country, obtained additional funding, and penetrated many countries around the world, from Africa to Latin America. In 2005, the organization intimidated members of Lebanon’s Cedar Revolution, using terrorism to put down a democratic uprising against Khomeinist-Baathist domination.
Connection with Hamas
In the early 1990s, Iran finally connected with Hamas through Hezbollah. The hundreds of jihadists exiled by Israel into Lebanon were absorbed by the Khomeinist organization in various training camps. The encounter between Hezbollah (a Shia Islamist organization) and Hamas (an offshoot of the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood) created the first hybrid of Sunni extremists acting in alliance with Shia fundamentalists. Iranian funding further strengthened Hamas.
The new strategic partnership gave Iran influence inside the Palestinian communities, particularly in Gaza. As a jihadist organization, Hamas rejects the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, as it does not recognize the existence of a Jewish state. Initially, its Muslim Brotherhood training and Wahhabi funding directed its efforts against the PLO negotiations with Israel, but when Hamas entered an alliance with Hezbollah and Iran, it became part of a regional axis commanded from Tehran, and thus became part of the ayatollahs’ strategy to expand across the region and topple moderate Arab governments. Hamas’s 2007 coup d’etat against the Palestinian Authority signaled that Hamas had become another Iranian tentacle in the region.
Iran’s stooges in Iraq and Afghanistan
The Iranian plan for Iraq is nothing new. Since the first days of the 1979 revolution, Iranian intelligence fomented trouble in the Shia areas of Iraq. Its long-term goal would see the Shia majority in Iraq sympathetic to the regime in Tehran and provide a land bridge to Syria and Lebanon in the west – from Tehran to the Mediterranean Sea. With southern Iraq dominated by Iran, it would change the nature of the confrontation with Israel and threaten the oil-rich states of the Arabian Gulf.
The Shia Hizb al-Dawa of Iraq had struggled to establish an Islamist state in Mesopotamia since the 1960s. During the Iraq-Iran War, Khomeini planned to seize Basra and Iraq’s southern provinces and declare an Islamic Republic there. After Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and was routed, thousands of Shi’ites fled to Iran, where they were trained by the Pasdaran. The Badr Brigade, Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, and other Iraqi factions were born in exile in Iran.
With the collapse of Iraq’s ruling Baath party at the hands of the U.S.-led coalition in 2003, Iran began another secret invasion of Iraq, dispatching operatives, special forces and Hezbollah trainers throughout the Shia areas of the country. Iran penetrated most political parties with Islamist (Shia) inclination, and organized a bold pro-Khomeinist force: the Mahdi Army. Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah worked in unison to establish a “pro-axis” force inside Iraq.
In Afghanistan, Iran’s strategists were undeterred by the presence of NATO troops after 2001. Despite the collapse of the Taliban regime that year, Tehran infiltrated Afghanistan’s Shi’ite Hazara community in the center of the country and provided logistical support to the Taliban insurgency. Evidently the Iranian regime is interested in driving out the U.S.-led effort, weakening the Karzai government in Kabul, and carving out its own influence in the Central Asian country. And Tehran’s reach in Afghanistan will only increase as Pakistan becomes increasingly unstable.
Infiltrating Arabia: Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf
Over the past few years, Tehran has widened its subversive activities in the Arabian Peninsula, quarreling with the Gulf Arab states of Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. Although the UAE claims the island of Abu Musa as part of its sovereign territory, Iranian forces have occupied it, and reject calls to withdraw. Recent statements by Khomeinist clerics assert that Bahrain, too, is an Iranian possession under the name of Mishmahig Island, and it has triggered a severe diplomatic crisis with the small kingdom.
Behind these historical disputes lay greater geopolitical ambitions. Iran has been investing large amounts of oil money in the UAE with the aim of expanding its political and military influence in the Gulf. Iranian intelligence has also been expanding its cells and cadres in the large Shia community of Bahrain.
In the majority-Sunni Yemen, the Pasdaran’s networks have hooked up with the Houthis, who are waging an armed insurrection in the northern tip of the country. Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh has accused Iran and Hezbollah of training the insurgents, who have battled government forces and attacked Saudi positions across the border. By 2009, the Khomeinists had practically established a military enclave in the southern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, threatening Saudi Arabia and its most sensitive province, the Hejaz, home to Islam’s holiest shrines Mecca and Medina.
Targeting North Africa
Although North Africa has been home almost exclusively to Salafi jihadists, it has witnessed increased activity by Tehran’s Shi’ite operatives. According to Moroccan authorities, Iran has funded religious institutions whose first mission is to convert Sunnis to Shia, in what is coined as “Tashyeeh.” In 2009 and 2010, the Rabat government shut down a number of these entities and arrested people involved in them.
Moreover, Moroccan and Algerian opposition sources believe Iran is attempting to convince Algiers to proceed with cooperation agreements similar to the Iranian-Syrian treaties or the latest Syrian-Turkish accords. If this thrust were to bear fruit, the benefits for Tehran would be incalculable. Not only would the Khomeinists have a solid base south of the Mediterranean, but they would also gain a wide gate into the weak states of Central Africa and beyond.
Meanwhile, last year in Egypt, Hosni Mubarak’s government accused Hezbollah of creating cells inside the country and planning attacks against Egyptian and Western targets. Egypt, the most populous and powerful Arab country with a Sunni majority, has been targeted significantly by Sunni Salafi terror networks. The new addition of Hezbollah cells acting on the inside dramatically raises the threat Egypt faces from jihadists.
Egyptian courts have sentenced a number of Lebanese Hezbollah members as well as Egyptian citizens working with them. From Beirut, Hezbollah’s secretary general sent veiled threats to President Mubarak’s government, claiming that Hezbollah and the “Islamic resistance” have the right to operate from any Arab and Islamic land against their enemies, principally Israel. Hassan Nasrallah had previously threatened Cairo when he exhorted the Egyptian military to rebel against its government.
But the Iranian strategy to build terror networks along the Nile Valley by way of Hezbollah has not been limited to Egypt. Sudan, whose regime has been both Islamist and jihadist since 1989, has undergone a rapprochement with Tehran. This convergence of interests between the elites of the two rogue states has only increased since the International Criminal Court indicted Sudanese dictator Omar al Bashir for the genocide in Darfur. In the weeks and months following the indictments, Hezbollah delegations followed by Iranian delegates supported Bashir against the West, and thus against the African uprisings in the south, west and east of the troubled country.
Iran’s access to Sudan also brought strategic advantages to the Pasdaran: Hezbollah and Iranian intelligence benefit from the immense land mass by building military bases and training regime militias for potential confrontations to come. By linking up with Sudan, Hezbollah and its Iranian sponsors now have a host south of Egypt, where they can access the Red Sea via Port Sudan and use paths to Eritrea and Chad.
Facilities in East and West Africa
Towards the end of 2008 and 2009, intense contacts between Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s representatives and Eritrean officials culminated in the signing of an agreement granting Iran’s navy facilities along the coasts of the Eritrea. This strategically significant development provided the Khomeinists with hundreds of miles of access in the Red Sea. While U.S. and allied naval forces deter Iran in the Persian Gulf, Iranian assets—though not as sophisticated as the Western forces in the region—can now operate in the Red Sea. Indeed, where the Iranian regime goes, Hezbollah follows. Israel is thus surrounded by Iranian proxies and the Horn of Africa is under the increasing risk posed by the axis of resistance.
Iran has also worked to penetrate West Africa since the 1980s. Taking advantage of the substantial size of the Lebanese communities in Senegal, Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Ivory Coast, Benin, and Nigeria, Hezbollah has developed financial and intelligence networks that span the entire region. This increase of Iranian-backed activities in West Africa could have negative effects on security coordination between these countries and the West, including the U.S. and Europe.
Iran in Europe
Since the so-called “Islamic revolution,” Iran has undertaken sinister intelligence activities throughout Europe, intimidating and occasionally assassinating opposition figures and dissidents. But Tehran’s most dangerous presence in Europe comes in the form of active Hezbollah cells. Since 9/11, a number of European governments have detected Hezbollah activities on their soil. Indeed, Germany has arrested and tried members of the organization who were planning illegal activities.
Iran has extended its strategic reach into European countries, penetrating them with intelligence and terrorist networks, and weakening their resolve to join forces with the U.S. in sanctions or other punitive measures against Tehran.
Stretching into the Americas
Iran’s longest arm stretches into Latin America. As of the early 1990s, Hezbollah had established a presence in the tri-border area between Brazil, Argentinaand Paraguay. This lawless zone enables the Khomeinist network to develop illegal financial activities and train and plan for terrorist attacks in the region. The 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires and the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center there are prime examples of Tehran’s terrorist activities and global reach.
With the rise of the Hugo Chavez regime, Iran’s Latin American presence expanded even further. The Venezuelan strongman has signed several agreements with Ahmadinejad’s regime, including an April 2009 defense treaty that provides for military and intelligence cooperation. Venezuela has granted Hezbollah operatives permission to organize their presence under the protection of Iran’s Pasdaran and local intelligence, and according to U.S. Department of Defense reports, the Venezuelans are providing Iranian units with Spanish language instruction with the aim of inserting them in a Latin American context. One of the most dangerous aspects of Iran’s presence in Venezuela is the increasing ability to install Iranian missiles aimed at the United States and other countries in the region.
As of now, Iran’s reach within the United States is principally—but not entirely—in the hands of Hezbollah’s networks, which have been trying to recruit new agents since they established their own foundations in Lebanon in the 1980s. Working naturally through Lebanese communities, beginning with its bases in the home country, Hezbollah established groups and cells inside the U.S. in states such as Michigan, New York and North Carolina.
The main activities detected by U.S. law enforcement organizations have centered on smuggling, fundraising, and providing material support to the mother organization in Lebanon. But Hezbollah has gained valuable experience in penetrating Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq, Yemen and the countries of northern Africa, which enables Iran to do considerable damage to the U.S. in case of open conflict. American authorities have also been monitoring Iran’s financial presence in the U.S., with recent discoveries showing Iranian front companies even holding assets in Manhattan.
Facilitators: Turkey’s AKP and Qatar
Over the past few years, two additional Middle Eastern governments—supposedly close U.S. allies—have been aiding Iran in its attempts to emerge from international isolation. Since 2002, Turkey, led by the Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP), has slowly become more supportive of Iran’s policies, including Tehran’s nuclear program. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently endorsed Ahmadinejad’s controversial reelection despite the massive democratic opposition inside Iran. Ankara’s Islamists also rejected UN sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program.
According to several Arab governments, Qatar, which has been funding the Al-Jazeera network since the late 1990s, has also made life easier for the Iranian regime in the region. Qatar’s emir made diplomatic maneuvers to prevent the UN from implementing Security Council Resolution 1559, which provides for the disarming of Hezbollah in Lebanon. Instead, Qatar held a counter-conference in Doha in 2008 to help bring Hezbollah into the fold of the Lebanese government, at the expense of the democratic Cedar Revolution.
The Iranian Threat
The threat from Iran goes far beyond its pursuit of nuclear weapons. Its use of terrorist proxies and its creation of global terror networks has been one the longest-standing bones of contention with the West. Despite the current focus on the Taliban and al-Qaeda, no group has had more practice in global terrorism than Hezbollah, and no state has proved a better and more consistent patron than Iran.
From a U.S. counterterrorism perspective, the threats posed by Iran, Hezbollah, and its global terrorist network are considerable. But the addition of nuclear weapons into this global network of Khomeinists may well prove as dangerous if not more so than nuclear weapons in the hands of al-Qaeda.

South Lebanon people wary of French peacekeepers
By Mariam Karouny
KABRIKHA | Fri Jul 9, 2010
KABRIKHA Lebanon (Reuters) - Villagers in south Lebanon blamed French U.N. peacekeepers on Friday for recent tension and clashes near the border region with Israel, saying their patrols had become provocative and intrusive.
The last two weeks have seen an increase in standoffs in the border area, a bastion of the Shi'ite militant Hezbollah group. Last week, residents in Kabrikha village attacked French UNIFIL peacekeepers, seizing their weapons and wounding their leader.
Tension has been high since Israel accused Syria in April of transferring long-range Scud missiles to Hezbollah. Lebanon and Syria denied the charge, but it fueled security concerns.
UNIFIL says its units respect the rights of Lebanon's civilians but residents of Kabrikha and five other villages in south Lebanon's border region said that in the past three months the French unit's behavior had became "provocative" and raised questions over their neutrality as a peacekeeping force.
"Recently they started to go ...between the houses and take pictures in the village. Once they took a picture of an old woman inside her house," said Ahmed Zahwi, a man in his 70s from Kabrikha.
"This is not acceptable here and our traditions do not allow that and we do not accept that. We told them once, twice and a third time and they never listened," he said angrily.
The United Nations Security Council is due to meet on Friday, at France's request, to discuss the confrontations. The Lebanese army will send an additional brigade to the south of the country following the skirmishes, a newspaper reported on Friday.
UNIFIL commander Major-General Alberto Asarta Cuevas said his force respected the villagers' culture, privacy and property. Problems should be resolved by discussion "not by obstructing the work of the peacekeepers or by beating them."
In an open letter to the people of south Lebanon which was published on Thursday, the Spanish major-general added: "Our soldiers have received clear orders not to take pictures unless absolutely necessary for operation reasons."
HEZBOLLAH "DOESN'T WANT ESCALATION"
Some villagers said they were worried that Israel might be exerting pressure on France to spy on its behalf on Hezbollah, which is highly respected in the south and is considered the driving force behind Israel's withdrawal from south Lebanon in 2000 after more than 22 years of occupation.
Washington labels Hezbollah a terrorist group.
"We do not know why they are doing this. Maybe Israel is behind them," said Mohamad Hmood from the village of Tebnin.
"If they continue like this we will ask their country to pull them out. This time people threw stones at them, next they might shoot at them," he said.
UNIFIL, which was set up in 1978 and expanded in 2006 to monitor the end of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, has insisted it must have freedom of movement.
Israel has criticized the U.N. peacekeeping operation in Lebanon for not stopping weapons it says are still flowing to Hezbollah guerrillas in the south. The United Nations says that is the responsibility of Lebanese authorities.
U.N. special coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams said last week that there had been several confrontations in southern Lebanon and some were "clearly organized." Some Western diplomats say Hezbollah members have encouraged and taken part in the incidents, a charge the group and the villagers deny.
"When there is an attack on south Lebanon we are all Hezbollah and will all defend our land," said Ali Sofan from Joweya village.
"If Hezbollah did not want them here they wouldn't have lasted this long, and Hezbollah does not want this escalation," he said. His views are echoed by many people in south Lebanon.
Many in south Lebanon said they did not want UNIFIL to leave and that the problems would be over once the French unit changed its attitude toward them.
"There are Belgians, Italians, Spanish and others. They all run patrols in the villages and we welcome them. I do not know what happened to them (the French). They are very suspicious," said another local man, Abdullah Hajjar.
"They are focused on searching the villages. What for? We do not have anything and they say they are here to protect us -- OK fine, let them protect our skies, our seas and our land.
"Don't they see the Israeli daily flights over Lebanon?"
(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

Civilian clashes with UN soldiers rise in Lebanon's Hezbollah heartland
.By Nicholas Blanford, Correspondent /
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2010/0709/Civilian-clashes-with-UN-soldiers-rise-in-Lebanon-s-Hezbollah-heartland
Civilians in the southern Lebanese town of Qabrikha, where many support Hezbollah, attacked French soldiers with the UNIFIL peacekeeping mission last weekend. The UN Security Council is expected to discuss the rising tensions today.
Lebanese soldiers secure a French UN vehicle after it was attacked by civilians in Toulin, southern Lebanon, July 3. Villagers seized weapons from U.N. peacekeepers and hurled stones and eggs at their patrol on Saturday, security sources said, the latest in a series of confrontations near the Israeli border.
Qabrikha, south Lebanon
A violent clash between Lebanese civilians and French United Nations peacekeepers last weekend has cast into doubt the durability of a key UN peacekeeping mission even as the war drums continue to beat between Israel and Lebanon’s militant Shiite Hezbollah.
.The UN Security Council is expected to convene Friday at the request of France to discuss rising tensions in the past two months between the peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL, and residents of southern Lebanese villages. The southerners accuse the French UNIFIL contingent in particular of exceeding its mandate and “snooping” on Hezbollah in their villages.
Briefing: What are Hezbollah's true colors?
“They [UNIFIL] have to understand that Qabrikha from one end to the other is with the Resistance," says Ali Zahwi, the mayor of Qabrikha village, referring to Hezbollah. "This is the land of the Resistance. Everyone you see here, whether walking along the road or riding a tractor, is with the Resistance."
Israeli accusations fuel tensions
However, analysts say that the civilian protests are being manipulated by Hezbollah to send messages to the international community warning of UNIFIL’s potential vulnerability should the actions of the peacekeepers threaten the Iran-backed party.
In a possibly related move, the Israeli army on Wednesday made public previously classified intelligence on Hezbollah’s alleged military preparations in the town of Khiam, which lies in the UNIFIL-patrolled zone. The release of the data comes after months of repeated allegations by Israel that Hezbollah has turned southern villages into military encampments in preparation for another war with Israel. The allegations have contributed to the rising tensions between local Lebanese and UNIFIL.
“Of course, the protests are Hezbollah-motivated, we all know that. But in this atmosphere, when the Israelis say the villages are targets and then UNIFIL enters the villages in force, what do you expect the residents to do?” asks Timur Goksel, a university lecturer in Beirut who served as spokesman and senior adviser with UNIFIL between 1979 and 2003.
Why UNIFIL is here, and why its mission expanded in 2006
UNIFIL has been present in Lebanon since 1978, following an Israeli invasion of south Lebanon. After the month-long war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006, the force was expanded from some 2,000 peacekeepers to a present strength of 11,500, including contributions from leading European countries such as France, Italy, and Spain.
UNIFIL’s mission is to oversee the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which helped end the 2006 war. The resolution, in part, calls on UNIFIL to assist the Lebanese army in making the southern Lebanon border district a weapons-free zone.
Since March, relations have steadily soured between residents of some staunch Hezbollah-supporting villages and the 1,420-strong French battalion, the second-largest contingent in UNIFIL.
The latest incident occurred on July 3 when a French soldiers were surrounded by an angry crowd after the UNIFIL patrol attempted to drive their armored vehicle down a narrow street. One French soldier was lightly hurt, aerials were torn off two UNIFIL vehicles, and a weapon was stolen, prompting the peacekeepers to fire warning shots in the air. The situation was diffused with the arrival of Lebanese troops.
In other recent incidents, UNIFIL soldiers had their paths blocked by unarmed civilians, vehicles searched and equipment seized, including cameras, laptop computers, and GPS instruments.
Is France pursuing a separate agenda?
Zahwi, the mayor of Qabrikha, accuses the soldiers of gathering intelligence on Hezbollah. “The French UNIFIL have stopped exercising Resolution 1701 and are now working with the French government,” he says.
Neeraj Singh, UNIFIL’s spokesman, says such allegations are “totally unfounded.”
There is no hidden agenda or separate national agenda,” he says.
Nonetheless, some UNIFIL officers privately voice doubts that the Lebanese army is a reliable partner in fulfilling Resolution 1701, suspecting that it is too sensitive to the interests of the powerful Hezbollah. The French contingent lately has been pushing to adopt a more robust attitude in carrying out the mandate, including greater freedom to conduct weapons searches in populated areas. Not everyone in UNIFIL welcomes such assertive behavior, given the politically sensitive environment of south Lebanon.
“Unfortunately, this is going to cause trouble,” says one UNIFIL official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Local appreciation for French troops
Qabrikha is perched on the lip of Wadi Salouqi, a deep valley system with precipitous slopes covered in dense evergreen oaks that was a Hezbollah stronghold in the 2006 war. The dusty streets are lined with portraits of “martyrs,” Hezbollah fighters killed fighting Israel – a testimony to the high level of support in the village for the group.
Still, UNIFIL and the residents of south Lebanon have been living with each other for more than three, often violent decades. Although contingents come and go and mandates change, most southerners remain deeply appreciative of the international presence.
“We like them and we’re still friends with them. The French have done a lot of good things in the village,” says Hassan Fahs in Tulin village, a neighbor to Qabrikha. “The problems started when they stopped cooperating with the Lebanese army.”
UNIFIL commander clarifies purpose
Singh says that the peacekeepers maintain constant coordination with the Lebanese army but, given that UNIFIL performs 350 patrols a day, it would be a “logistical nightmare” to have the peacekeepers and Lebanese troops patrolling together all the time.
On Thursday, Major General Alberto Asarta Cuevas, the UNIFIL commander, took the unusual step of issuing an open letter to the people of south Lebanon to explain the force’s mission.
“Our presence in Lebanon, far from our homes, has no other purpose than helping you to live in peace, contributing with all our means to your protection and the stability of the area,” he wrote.
Similar tensions with Spanish soldiers in '07
In June 2007, six soldiers of the Spanish UNIFIL battalion were killed by a sophisticated car bomb in an unclaimed and still unresolved attack. The ambush occurred after several months of tension between the Spanish contingent and local civilians, similar to the current friction with the French peacekeepers. Goksel, the retired UNIFIL veteran, says that the mission’s success is largely dependent on the peacekeeping force's ability to personally engage with the local population to overcome misunderstandings and to build levels of trust.
“UNIFIL has to do their own communications with the local people, not rely on the Lebanese army to transmit messages on its behalf,” he says, adding that a failure to resolve the situation would be “very dangerous and could affect UNIFIL’s operations in the long term.”

Hezbollah smuggling people into U.S. through Mexico
Examiner.com
July 8/10/Paul Kujawsky
http://www.examiner.com/x-4814-LA-Middle-Eastern-Policy-Examiner~y2010m7d8-Hezbollah-smuggling-people-into-US-through-Mexico
Mexico has arrested Jameel Nasr, a Mexican national, Tijuana resident and graphic designer accused of trying to set up a South American Hezbollah network. Jameel reportedly traveled frequently to Lebanon to receive instructions from Hezbollah. He also traveled extensively around South America, including two months in 2008 in Hugo Chavez’s Venezuelan workers’ paradise.
There are a significant number of Shia Muslims in South America, many of them with family connections in Lebanon. It is this Lebanese community in South America that was targeted as potential local Hezbollah agents.
Hezbollah has made common cause with the drug cartels: In exchange for lending its tunnel-building prowess, Hezbollah gets a share of the drug-smuggling profits. In recent Congressional testimony, assistant administrator for intelligence at the Drug Enforcement Administration Anthony Placido said: “There are numerous reports of cocaine proceeds entering the coffers of Islamic Radical Groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas.”
Further, in 2009 Admiral James Stavridis testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee about Hezbollah’s drug-related activities in Colombia: "We have seen . . . an increase in a wide level of activity by the Iranian government in this region. That is a concern principally because of the connections between the government of Iran, which is a state sponsor of terrorism, and Hezbollah.”
And former assistant administrator and chief of operations at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Michael Braun says that Hezbollah uses “the same criminal weapons smugglers, document traffickers and transportation experts as the drug cartels. They work together. They rely on the same shadow facilitators. One way or another, they are all connected.”
Islamist terrorists in South America is not a new problem. MSNBC reported over three years ago:
The Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia has taken root in South America, fostering a well-financed force of Islamist radicals boiling with hatred for the United States and ready to die to prove it, according to militia members, U.S. officials and police agencies across the continent.
From its Western base in a remote region divided by the borders of Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina known as the Tri-border, or the Triple Frontier, Hezbollah has mined the frustrations of many Muslims among about 25,000 Arab residents whose families immigrated mainly from Lebanon in two waves, after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and after the 1985 Lebanese civil war.
What may be new is Hezbollah’s coming to sit on the doorstep of the United States. But it was foreseeable. As long ago as 2004 the CIA Counter Terrorism Center warned: “Many alien smuggling networks that facilitate the movement of non-Mexicans have established links to Muslim communities in Mexico. Non-Mexicans often are more difficult to intercept because they typically pay high-end smugglers a large sum of money to efficiently assist them across the border, rather than haphazardly traverse it on their own.”
And in fact there are documented instances of Hezbollah-niks sneaking into the United States:
· In 2001, Mahmoud Youssef Kourani drove from Mexico to Dearborn, Michigan. He was later convicted of providing material support to Hezbollah.
· In 2009 Mexico convicted Salim Boughader Mucharrafille of smuggling 200 people, including Hezbollah supporters, into the U.S.
Thus, any claim that, as far as we know, there are no Hezbollah terrorist cells in the U.S. has to be properly understood. It is a statement about our ignorance. Based on what we do actually know, though, it would be foolish to discount the possibility.
One consequence of this possibility is to recognize that if there were military action against Iranian nuclear facilities, there could be significant terrorist reprisals in the U.S. It is possible that the plans and infrastructure for such attacks are already in place. Or if not in place today, Hezbollah and other Iranian agents are probably trying to create them.
So the demand to “secure our borders” (north and south—there are Islamists in Canada, too) is not simply a racist reflex. The demand to stop illegal immigration even before dealing with other aspects of the problem is not irrational. It is not illiberal. There is a genuine, urgent issue of national security at stake.
More About: Iran · Islam and Islamism · Terrorism · Politics

Senior MP Invites Lebanon's Christian Leader Aoun to Visit Iran
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8904180184
TEHRAN (FNA)- The Iranian delegation, which attended the funeral procession of the late Allameh Seyed Mohammad Hossein Fadlallah in Lebanon, invited the Christian Leader of the country's Free Patriotic Movement, Michel Naim Aoun, to pay a visit to Iran. Head of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi submitted Iran's invitation to the Lebanese leader in a meeting with him in Beirut. Boroujerdi and his delegation were in Beirut to attend the funeral procession of Grand Ayatollah Fadlallah, 75, who died in a Beirut hospital where he was admitted on Friday for internal bleeding. During his visit, Boroujerdi also conferred with Lebanese Foreign Minister Ali al-Shami on ways to promote mutual cooperation.

Hizbullah warns Israel on Syrian TV
By JPOST.COM STAFF
07/09/2010 23:04
Deputy says Israel will suffer high losses in next war.
Israel will suffer tremendous casualties in another war, Hizbullah's deputy Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem said on Friday in an interview with Syrian television cited by Press TV.
"If the result of the July [2006] war was a failure to the Israelis, then Israel would suffer a big loss in its next aggression," Qassem was quoted as saying.
Qassem's remarks came on the fourth anniversary of Israel's Second Lebanon War and were considered a response to the IDF's recent declassification and release of high-quality intelligence of Hizbullah positions in southern Lebanon. Many interpreted the IDF's publicizing of the intelligence as an attempt both to deter Hizbullah attacks and to prepare the Israeli public for a future war should it be deemed necessary.
On Wednesday, top IDF officers revealed that the air force today has thousands of designated targets it can bomb if war were to break out. Some of them, like those that appear on the maps of the southern Lebanese village of el-Khiam that were declassified on Wednesday, are of arms caches, command-and-control centers and rocket launchers; others are likely long-range rockets, like the highly accurate M600 or Scuds, which Syria recently transferred to Lebanon.
In the four years that have passed since the Second Lebanon War, both the IDF and Hizbullah have been busy studying their mistakes and implementing the necessary lessons. The IDF, for example, significantly increased training regimens, developed and procured active-protection systems for tanks and armored personnel carriers and is investing in building new urban warfare training centers due to an understanding that the next conflict would be fought in the narrow streets of southern Lebanese villages.
**Yaakov Katz contributed to this report.

Sending Hizbullah a message: Israel is ready
By YAAKOV KATZ /JPost.com
07/09/2010
http://www.jpost.com/Home/Article.aspx?id=180890
Intel on Hizbullah declassified this week makes clear: Israel may not have prevented huge amounts of missiles from reaching the group, but it can still destroy them should another war break out. Four years ago, on the eve of the Second Lebanon War, the IDF had just a few hundred designated Hizbullah targets throughout Lebanon. About 90 of them were long range missiles that had been stored in the homes of top Hizbullah operatives and these were destroyed by the air force within 36 minutes on the first night of the war.
While by the end of the war, the air force had bombed close to 8,000 targets, the fact that it knew about only a few hundred before the war partially led to the failure to stop the rocket fire and fatally hurt the guerrilla group.
On Wednesday, top IDF officers revealed that the air force today has thousands of designated targets it can bomb if war were to break out.
Some of them, like those that appear on the maps of the southern Lebanese village of el-Khiam that were declassified on Wednesday, are of arms caches, command-and-control centers and rocket launchers; others are likely long range rockets, like the highly accurate M600 or Scuds, which Syria recently transferred to Lebanon.
In the four years that have passed since the Second Lebanon War, both the IDF and Hizbullah have been busy studying their mistakes and implementing the necessary lessons. The IDF, for example, significantly increased training regimens, developed and procured active-protection systems for tanks and armored personnel carriers and is investing in building new urban warfare training centers due to an understanding that the next conflict would be fought in the narrow streets of southern Lebanese villages.
Hizbullah, senior officers said this week, mostly consists of a lot more of the same encountered in 2006, except today its command posts, rocket launchers and guerrilla forces are deployed inside villages and not in the notorious “nature reserves” it had created in the forests of southern Lebanon before 2006.
THERE ARE two main reasons for Hizbullah’s change in strategy. The first is the presence of UNIFIL, which immediately following the war was beefed up to some 13,000 soldiers, throughout the open areas in southern Lebanon. These soldiers operate throughout southern Lebanon, but only in open areas, claiming that their mandate does not allow them to independently enter villages.
To enter a village, even after receiving intelligence regarding a Hizbullah arms cache, the peacekeeping force needs to coordinate ahead of time with the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), which Israel suspects in previous cases of having tipped off Hizbullah. In other cases, LAF simply does not want to clash with the more powerful Hizbullah.
The second reason is Hizbullah’s desire to draw IDF troops into the 160 or so densely populated villages in southern Lebanon. This is a similar strategy to the one employed by Hamas in the Gaza Strip during Operation Cast Lead, which resulted in the Goldstone report and the continued international criticism which has caused far greater damage than any Kassam rocket fired from Gaza.
In a 2008 newspaper interview, OC Northern Command Maj.-Gen. Gadi Eizenkot explained what will happen in a new conflict.
The IDF’s plan for a future war, he said, would be based on the “Dahiya doctrine” – in reference to Hizbullah’s stronghold in Beirut which was flattened by IAF smart bombs during the war.
“What happened in the Dahiya neighborhood of Beirut in 2006 will happen in every village from which Israel is fired on,” Eizenkot said. “We will apply disproportionate force on it and cause great damage and destruction there. From our standpoint, these are not civilian villages, they are military bases.”
More recently, at a conference in Tel Aviv, Eizenkot explained that the IDF will first attack immediate threats, and will then begin warning the civilian population throughout southern Lebanon to vacate their homes ahead of a ground offensive and aerial bombardment.
“I am convinced that this mode of operations is moral and is the right way to operate,” he said. “Hizbullah is the one that is turning these hundreds of villages into war zones.”
The heavy deployment inside the villages serves as a major challenge, but some in the IDF hope it could also deter Hizbullah from launching another offensive. In 2006, Hizbullah came under harsh domestic criticism for provoking a war which ruined Lebanon’s usually profitable summer tourist season.
This is even truer today when Lebanon’s economy grew by 8 percent over the past year and more than 2 million tourists, mostly from Arab countries, visited.
Either way, the IDF’s decision to declassify intelligence information on Hizbullah should be viewed as the opening shot in a public relations campaign ahead of the next war. The village chosen to present to the media was el-Khiam, which should more appropriately be called a town – it has a population of close to 25,000.
Predominantly Shi’ite, el-Khiam was, before the IDF’s withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000, home to a detention center where Hizbullah operatives were interrogated. It is located about 4 kilometers from the border.
The maps and videos declassified by the IDF show the homes that Hizbullah has taken over and used to store weapons and establish bunkers and command-and-control centers. It also revealed the location of improvised explosive devices, some of them weighing up to half a ton, mostly at the entrance to the village.
The declassification is aimed at deterring Hizbullah from attacking by demonstrating the IDF’s deep penetration of its most carefully- guarded secrets. The IDF is also hoping to achieve a diplomatic victory. It recently sent a delegation of top officers to UN headquarters in New York to present the evidence to foreign diplomats. Northern Command also presented the evidence to UNIFIL commander Maj.-Gen. Alberto Asarta Cuevas.
The release of the information also results from the lessons learned from the Goldstone report and the handling of the Gaza-bound flotilla in late May. In both cases, Israel felt that it was justified in taking action, but was genuinely frustrated by the world’s decision to ignore its case. As a result, it is now preparing the world for what will happen in the event of a new war. By showing the public the Hizbullah positions in villages, they will likely better understand why there will be so much devastation throughout Lebanon.
Israel’s main problem with Hizbullah continues to be its unprecedented military buildup. In 2006, Hizbullah had 14,000 fighters compared to 30,000 today; it had 15,000 rockets compared to 40,000 today.
And in 2006, just 10,000 of them were in southern Lebanon compared to 30,000 today.
It also has long-range missiles, such as the Fateh-110, 220 mm. and 320 mm. Katyushas and the Syrian-made M600 – which has a solid propellant and has a range of 250 km., a 500 kg. warhead and is equipped with a sophisticated guidance system. Hizbullah also recently received Scud missiles with a range of about 300 km.
Israel’s hands are pretty much tied when it comes to stopping the rearmament. Several months ago, when the government debated the possible bombing of a weapons convoy from Syria to Lebanon, the plan was nixed due to the fear that war would erupt – this according to foreign reports.
In closed-door meetings, Eizenkot has said a number of times that it is almost impossible to deter a state or terror organization from building up its military. “It is however possible to deter that state or organization from using it,” he said.
That is exactly what Israel is hoping for.
While it continues to prepare for war, it is no secret that the past four years have been the quietest in decades along the northern border.
During Operation Defensive Shield in 2002 – when the IDF took up positions in all major cities in the West Bank – Hizbullah fired 600 rockets and mortar shells and 300 anti-tank missiles into Israel. Fourteen people were wounded. During Operation Cast Lead, Hizbullah did not fire a single rocket.
While deterrence can temporarily postpone a conflict, it ultimately wears off. That is why Israel continues to take action against Hizbullah. On the one hand, Israeli officials speak publicly about the destruction expected in Lebanon but the IDF also operates openly along the border, sometimes even beyond the border fence but within the Blue Line border which does not always correspond with the physical barrier.
These crossings of the fence take place almost every day and are meant to send Hizbullah a clear message – Israel is ready.

William Hague must sack British ambassador over Hizbollah tribute
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100046841/william-hague-must-sack-british-ambassador-over-hizbollah-tribute/
By Nile Gardiner
World Last updated: July 9th, 2010
The Foreign Secretary should take swift action over British Ambassador to Lebanon Frances Guy’s disgraceful eulogy for Hizbollah terrorist mastermind Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah. Fadlallah was no saint, as some of his supporters have claimed. As Con Coughlin noted in his excellent post earlier this week:
“Don’t be fooled by all the tributes that are pouring out following the death in Beirut at the weekend of Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, the so-called spiritual leader of the radical Shi’ite Muslim militia Hizbollah. The U.S. State Department’s classification of Fadlallah as a terrorist was spot on, and when you look back at his track record you can see he was right up there with other infamous terror masterminds, such as Abu Nidal and Carlos the Jackal.”
The Ambassador’s post on the official Foreign Office blog lauding Fadlallah, a prominent supporter of suicide bombing, was removed following disquiet in Whitehall, but Melanie Phillips has recorded it here. This is what the Ambassador actually wrote in her tribute, “The Passing of a Decent Man”:
“One of the privileges of being a diplomat is the people you meet; great and small, passionate and furious. People in Lebanon like to ask me which politician I admire most. It is an unfair question, obviously, and many are seeking to make a political response of their own. I usually avoid answering by referring to those I enjoy meeting the most and those that impress me the most. Until yesterday my preferred answer was to refer to Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, head of the Shia clergy in Lebanon and much admired leader of many Shia muslims throughout the world. When you visited him you could be sure of a real debate, a respectful argument and you knew you would leave his presence feeling a better person. That for me is the real effect of a true man of religion; leaving an impact on everyone he meets, no matter what their faith. Sheikh Fadlallah passed away yesterday. Lebanon is a lesser place the day after but his absence will be felt well beyond Lebanon’s shores. I remember well when I was nominated ambassador to Beirut, a muslim acquaintance sought me out to tell me how lucky I was because I would get a chance to meet Sheikh Fadlallah. Truly he was right. If I was sad to hear the news I know other peoples’ lives will be truly blighted. The world needs more men like him willing to reach out across faiths, acknowledging the reality of the modern world and daring to confront old constraints. May he rest in peace.”
You can also read her less than convincing, half-hearted retraction here.
It is important that William Hague sends a clear message that the new British government will not appease terrorism in any way or form, not least in the midst of a global war against Islamist terrorism. Frances Guy’s remarks praising a key Hizbollah leader are a stain on the reputation of the Foreign Office, and her views are incompatible with that of the British government and the British national interest. It is impossible to see how she can continue to conduct her duties after making fawning remarks about a brutal terrorist with blood on his hands, including that of 299 American and French servicemen murdered in the Beirut barracks bombing in October 1983. The Foreign Secretary must show clear leadership on the matter by removing Ambassador Guy from her post, and by condemning her remarks unequivocally.

Question: "Who created God? Where did God come from?"
Answer: A common argument from atheists and skeptics is that if all things need a cause, then God must also need a cause. The conclusion is that if God needed a cause, then God is not God (and if God is not God, then of course there is no God). This is a slightly more sophisticated form of the basic question “Who made God?” Everyone knows that something does not come from nothing. So, if God is a “something,” then He must have a cause, right?
The question is tricky because it sneaks in the false assumption that God came from somewhere and then asks where that might be. The answer is that the question does not even make sense. It is like asking, “What does blue smell like?” Blue is not in the category of things that have a smell, so the question itself is flawed. In the same way, God is not in the category of things that are created or caused. God is uncaused and uncreated—He simply exists.
How do we know this? We know that from nothing, nothing comes. So, if there were ever a time when there was absolutely nothing in existence, then nothing would have ever come into existence. But things do exist. Therefore, since there could never have been absolutely nothing, something had to have always been in existence. That ever-existing thing is what we call God. God is the uncaused Being that caused everything else to come into existence. God is the uncreated Creator who created the universe and everything in it.
http://www.gotquestions.org/