LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِNovember 24/2010

Bible Of The Day
Matthew 11/25-30: "At that time, Jesus answered, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to infants. 11:26 Yes, Father, for so it was well-pleasing in your sight. 11:27 All things have been delivered to me by my Father. No one knows the Son, except the Father; neither does anyone know the Father, except the Son, and he to whom the Son desires to reveal him. 11:28 “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. 11:29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. 11:30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Free Opinions, Releases, letters, Interviews & Special Reports
Anti-Christian Sentiment in Egypt Heats Up/AINA/November 23/10
Christian Copts, Egyptian Security Standoff Over Church Construction/AINA/November 23/10
The UN’s Inspector Clouseau in Lebanon/National Post/November 23/10
The Iranians fates/By: Hazem Saghiyeh/November 23/10

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for November 23/10
Wissam Eid's Big Discovery: Everything Connected to Landlines inside Hizbullah's Great Prophet Hospital, Report/Naharnet
CBC: Evidence Implicates Hizbullah, UN Hariri Probe Ignored Doubts on Wissam Hasan/Naharnet
Wissam al-Hasan's Alibi in Hariri Murder Case 'Weak', Phone Records Told Another Story Entirely, Report/Naharnet
UN Investigators Identify Some Names in Hariri Assassination Squad, Report/Naharnet
Hariri: Leaked Information Doesn't Serve Justice/Naharnet
Wissam al-Hasan's Alibi in Hariri Murder Case 'Weak', Phone Records Told Another Story Entirely, Report/Naharnet
Hizbullah Circles: CBC Report Does Not Concern Us/Naharnet
UN 'Concerned' over STL Media Leaks/Naharnet
EU Voices Support for STL, National Unity Government under Hariri/Naharnet
Aoun: CBC Report was a Big Surprise, Investigation Must Look into Hasan's Possible Involvement in the Crime/Naharnet
Haaretz: Hizbullah Could Resort to War with Israel Over Indictment/Naharnet
Netanyahu: Israel will not let Hezbollah take over Ghajar/Haaretz
Expected Hezbollah Indictments Have Lebanese on Edge/Voice of America
Tribunal's Beirut Office Mum on CBC Report/Naharnet
CBC: Evidence Implicates Hizbullah, UN Hariri Probe Ignored Doubts on Wissam Hasan/Naharnet
Hizbullah Circles: CBC Report Does Not Concern Us/Naharnet
Pietton after Meeting Aoun: Choosing between STL and Stability is Out of the Question/Naharnet
Israel to Put System to Prevent Hizbullah from Taking over Ghajar, Netanyahu/Naharnet
Obama Committed to Keeping Lebanon Free of 'Terrorism'/Naharnet
Moussa: Lebanon Situation Dangerous and Fragile/Naharnet
Mottaki: Hariri Visit to Tehran Step Forward in Iranian-Lebanese Cooperation/Naharnet
Egypt, Turkey Have Same Viewpoints on Lebanon/Naharnet
Nahhas: Lebanon is Facing One of the Most Advanced Countries in the Telecommunications Protection Field/Naharnet
 

Obama Committed to Keeping Lebanon Free of 'Terrorism' /Naharnet
Naharnet/U.S. President Barack Obama, in a markedly personal statement, said Monday he was committed to keeping Lebanon free of "terrorism" as tensions and fears of violence rose sharply in Beirut. Obama marked Lebanon's Independence Day by firmly backing a special tribunal into the murder of former premier Rafik Hariri, amid media reports the probe will directly link Hizbullah to the 2005 killing. "I am committed to doing everything I can to support Lebanon and ensure it remains free from foreign interference, terrorism, and war," Obama said in the written statement. "Lebanon deserves peace and prosperity, and those who believe otherwise are no friend to Lebanon," Obama said in the message to all citizens of Lebanon, using more personal language than is often the case in such statements. "I hope you will carry this message to your friends and family. Lebanon has fought enough fights. "The only way ahead is for all Lebanese to work together, not against each other, for a sovereign and independent Lebanon that enjoys both justice and stability." Obama said the United States was grateful to the Lebanese government for its "steadfast leadership" in difficult circumstances.
"We continue to support the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which will end the era of political assassinations with impunity in Lebanon," he said. "Lebanon and its children need a future where they can fulfill their dreams free of fear and intimidation." Tensions are rising in Lebanon amid reports that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) is set to issue an indictment soon that will implicate high-ranking members of Hizbullah in Hariri's murder. Hizbullah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, has denied involvement in the killing.
The group's leader, Hasan Nasrallah, warned last week that Hizbullah would "cut off the hand" of anyone who tried to arrest its members over the probe. But the current prime minister, Saad Hariri, the son of Rafik Hariri, has vowed to see the investigation through. Canadian CBC broadcaster said Monday it had evidence from the U.N. inquiry strongly linking Hizbullah to the massive car bomb which killed Hariri and 22 others in February 2005. The United Nations, meanwhile, expressed concern that leaks of the special tribunal on Lebanon's inquiries could influence its work on the bomb blast. As well as CBC, other media organizations have said the Netherlands-based U.N. tribunal is close to announcing indictments against Hizbullah members for the killing. Earlier on Monday, Qatar's premier Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr al-Thani flew to Beirut on a surprise visit in a bid to contain rising tensions in Lebanon.
Analysts warn the growing tension could lead to a repeat of the crisis of May 2008, when an 18-month political deadlock culminated in a week of deadly gunfights between Hariri supporters and those of Hizbullah. Qatar played a key role in ending the 2008 crisis, brokering a deal for the formation of a national unity government in which Hizbullah and its allies were granted veto powers over major decisions.(AFP) Beirut, 23 Nov 10, 06:53

Tribunal's Beirut Office Mum on CBC Report
Naharnet/Head of the international tribunal bureau in Beirut Wajd Ramadan said her office did not have any authority to respond to the Canadian public broadcaster CBC News report. Ramadan told pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat in remarks published Tuesday that Special Tribunal for Lebanon Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare is only entitled to respond to the report.However, she ruled out a response anytime soon because details of the investigation into ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's assassination remain confidential. Beirut, 23 Nov 10, 09:08

Wissam Eid's Big Discovery: Everything Connected to Landlines inside Hizbullah's Great Prophet Hospital, Report
An investigative report by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) has revealed that Capt. Wissam Eid's discovery showed that "everything" in the assassination of ex-PM Rafik Hariri was connected to landlines inside Hizbullah's Great Prophet Hospital south of Beirut. It gave a detailed report about Eid, saying that before his violent death in 2008, he was an unusual figure in the murky, often corrupt world of Arab policing. Eid had never actually wanted to be a policeman, or an intelligence officer, CBC wrote. In authoritarian Arab society, he had no interest in becoming an authority figure. And yet, he'd had no choice. When he was doing his military service in the 1990s, the Internal Security Forces (ISF) noticed Eid's degree in computer engineering. The security service was then trying to build an information technology department. And that was that.
By the time Hariri was killed in 2005, Eid was a captain in the ISF. His boss, Lt. Col. Samer Shehadeh, brought him into the investigation.
It was a Lebanese investigation, Eid was told, but it was also a U.N. one. Eid was to co-operate with the foreigners working out of the old abandoned hotel in the hills above Beirut, CBC went on to say. It said Eid reasoned that finding the first traces of the killers was a process of limination.
From Lebanon's phone companies, he obtained the call records of all the cellphones that had registered with the cell towers in the immediate vicinity of the Hotel St. George, where the massive blast had torn a deep crater.
Once Eid had those records, he began thinning out the hundreds of phones in the area that morning, subtracting those held by each of the 22 dead, then those in Hariri's entourage, then those of people nearby who had been interviewed and had alibis. Soon enough, he had found the phones the Hariri hit team had used, the CBC report added. The U.N. would eventually dub it the "red" network. But he didn't stop there, it said. Exhaustively tracking which towers the red phones had "shaken hands with" in the days before the assassination, and comparing those records to Hariri's schedule, Eid discovered that this network had been shadowing the former Premier.
The red-phone carriers were clearly a disciplined group. They communicated with one another and almost never with an outside phone. And directly after the assassination, the red network went dead forever. But Eid, according to the report, had found another connection. He eventually identified eight other phones that had for months simultaneously used the same cell towers as the red phones. Signals intelligence professionals call these "co-location" phones. What Capt. Eid had discovered was that everyone on the hit team had carried a second phone, and that the team members had used their second phones to communicate with a much larger support network that had been in existence for at least a year.
Eventually, the U.N. would label that group the "blue" network. CBC said the blue network also exercised considerable discipline. It, too, remained a "closed" network. Not once did any blue-network member make the sort of slip that telecom sleuths look for. But these people also carried co-location phones and Eid kept following the ever-widening trail of crumbs, it said.
The big break came when the blue network was closed down and the phones were collected by a minor electronics specialist who worked for Hizbullah, Abd al Majid al Ghamloush, the report said. It said Ghamloush was, in the words of one former UN investigator, "an idiot."
Given the job of collecting and disposing of the blue phones, he noticed some still had time remaining on them and used one to call his girlfriend, Sawan, in the process basically identifying himself to Capt. Eid. He might as well have written his name on a whiteboard and held it up outside ISF headquarters. Ghamloush's "stupidity" eventually led Eid to a pair of brothers named Hussein and Mouin Khreis, both Hizbullah operatives. One of them had actually been at the site of the blast. Capt. Eid kept going, identifying more and more phones directly or indirectly associated with the hit team. He found the core of a third network, a longer-term surveillance team that would eventually be dubbed the "yellows."
Eid's work would also lead to another discovery: Everything connected, however elliptically, to land lines inside Hizbullah's Great Prophet Hospital in South Beirut, a sector of the city entirely controlled by Hizbullah, CBC added.
It has long been said that the fundamentalist fighters operate a command centre in the hospital.
Eventually, telecom sleuths would identify another network of four so-called "pink phones" that had been communicating both with the hospital and, indirectly, with the other networks.
These phones turned out to be tremendously important. It turned out they had been issued by the Lebanese government itself and when the ministry of communications was queried about who they had been issued to, the answer came back in the form of a bland government record.
CBC has obtained a copy of this record provided to the commission. On it, someone has highlighted four entries in a long column of six-digit numbers. Beside the highlighted numbers, in Arabic, was the word "Hizbullah."
Finally, Eid was handed a clue from the best source possible: He was contacted by Hizbullah itself and told that some of the phones he was chasing were being used by Hizbullah agents conducting a counter-espionage operation against Israel's Mossad spy agency and that he needed to back off.
The warning could not have been more clear, CBC said.
As though to underscore it, Eid's boss, Lt. Col. Shehadeh, was targeted by bombers in September 2006. The blast killed four of his bodyguards and nearly killed Shehadeh, who was sent to Quebec for medical treatment and resettlement.
By that time, Capt. Eid had sent his report to the U.N. inquiry and moved on to another operation.
The Eid report, according to CBC was entered into the U.N.'s database by someone who either didn't understand it or didn't care enough to bring it forward. It disappeared.
A year and a half later, in December 2007, when the Eid report finally resurfaced, the immediate reaction of the U.N. telecom team was embarrassment. And then suspicion.
Eid claimed to have performed his analysis using nothing but Excel spreadsheets and that, said the British specialist, was impossible.
No one, he declared, could accomplish such a thing without powerful computer assistance and the requisite training. No amateur, which is how the specialists regarded Eid, could possibly have waded through the millions of possible permutations posed by the phone records and extracted individual networks.
The most recent outbreak of large-scale sectarian violence was in January and February 2008 when armed militias fought in the streets of Tripoli and other large centers, the report said.
This Capt. Eid must have had help, it said, thought the telecom experts. Someone must have given him this information. Perhaps he was involved somehow?
By now it was January 2008. A new U.N. commissioner was in charge, Daniel Bellemare. Investigators were finally beginning to believe they were getting somewhere.
A deputation of telecom experts was dispatched to meet Eid. They questioned him and returned convinced that, somehow, he had indeed identified the networks himself.
Eid appeared to be one of those people who could intuit mathematical patterns, the sort who thinks several moves ahead in chess. Even better, he was willing to help directly. He wanted Hariri's killers to face justice, Hizbullah's warning be damned. It was an exciting prospect for the U.N. team. Here was an actual Lebanese investigator, with insights and contacts the UN foreigners could never match. A week later, a larger U.N. team met with Capt. Eid and, again, all went well. Then, the next day, Jan. 25, 2008, eight days after his first meeting with the UN investigators, Capt. Wissam Eid met precisely the same fate as Hariri. The bomb that ripped apart his four-wheel-drive vehicle also killed his bodyguard and three innocent bystanders. Because there was no doubt in the mind of any member of the telecom team why Eid had died: Hizbullah, they deduced, had found out that Capt. Eid's report had been discovered, that he'd met with the U.N. investigators and that he had agreed to work with them. Immediately, the telecom team had the records of the cell towers near the Eid blast site collected, reasoning the killers might once again have left digital footprints they could follow. Not this time, though. There was nothing. This time the killers did what they should have been doing all along: They'd used radios, not cellphones. Radios don't leave a trace. That left the U.N. team with the obvious problem. Their adversary obviously knew not only what the U.N. investigators were doing, but knew in considerable detail. And the more the U.N. investigators thought about it, CBC said, the more they focused on one man: Col. Wissam al-Hassan, the new head of Lebanese police intelligence. Beirut, 23 Nov 10, 07:53

Aoun: CBC Report was a Big Surprise, Investigation Must Look into Hasan's Possible Involvement in the Crime
Naharnet/Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun stated on Tuesday that the CBC report on the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri came as a "big surprise".
He said after the FPM's weekly meeting: "The investigation should look into police intelligence chief Col. Wissam al-Hasan's possible involvement in the crime.""All sides should wait for Hasan's reply to the report," he added. "All options are open if the situation in the country remains as it is, but we are working to contain it to avoid an explosion," the MP said. Addressing the arrest of senior FPM official Fayez Karam on suspicion of spying for Israel, Aoun said that investigations with him have violated criminal law, which makes them illegal and which grants Karam the right to file a lawsuit in this matter. Commenting on his recent trip to France, he described it as "very beneficial and we clarified our position on developments in Lebanon." Regarding matters at the Finance Ministry, Aoun stated: "The assassination of a prime minister is very important for a nation, but it does not wreak havoc in it the same way as failure to approve the state budget." "We cannot abandon public funds because they belong to everyone," he stressed. He demanded that an investigation committee be formed in order to look into the ministry's missing funds. Beirut, 23 Nov 10, 18:31

Pietton after Meeting Aoun: Choosing between STL and Stability is Out of the Question
Naharnet/French Ambassador to Lebanon Denis Pietton stressed on Tuesday his country's support for Lebanon's stability and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. He said after holding talks with Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun: "Choosing between the STL and stability is out of the question. We seek justice and stability in Lebanon." He added that France is following up on the matter through various contacts. Asked if he believes that Lebanon is in danger, the ambassador replied: "There are concerns, but they have subsided in recent days, but we are still interested in Lebanon." Pietton also said that his visit to Aoun was aimed at inquiring about the results of his recent trip to Paris and how "we can practically build on them." Beirut, 23 Nov 10, 17:17

Israel to Put System to Prevent Hizbullah from Taking over Ghajar, Netanyahu
Naharnet/Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel plans to put a system that would prevent Hizbullah from taking over Ghajar following an Israeli withdrawal.
Netanyahu's comments came during a meeting with Italy's foreign minister. He said Italian mediation had been key to Israel's acceptance of a plan to withdraw its forces from Ghajar.
Netanyahu singled out the role of Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, who was in Israel on a four-day tour of the region aimed at pushing forward the stalled Middle East peace process.
"We would not have managed to reach a solution on the problem without the involvement of Italy and you personally overseeing the issue," Netanyahu's office quoted the premier as telling Frattini in a meeting. Israel's cabinet last week accepted a plan to withdraw Israeli soldiers from the northern part of the village of Ghajar and to hand over control to United Nations peacekeepers. If the plan goes ahead, the troops, who have been in Ghajar since the 2006 war between Israel and Hizbullah, would redeploy south of the "blue line" unofficial frontier between Israel and Lebanon. Following the pullback decision, responsibility for the sector will be handed to UNIFIL (U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon), whose troops will redeploy around the village's northern perimeter but not inside it. Italy plays a leading role in UNIFIL, with the largest contingent of ground troops. Beirut, 23 Nov 10, 12:08

Nahhas: Lebanon is Facing One of the Most Advanced Countries in the Telecommunications Protection Field
Naharnet/Telecommunications Minister Charbel Nahhas stressed on Tuesday that Lebanon is facing the aggression of a country that is one of the most advanced in the world in the telecommunications protection field. He said during a press conference aimed at demonstrating Israel's infiltration of Lebanon's telecommunications sector that the sector's modern capabilities are also subject to infiltration, where the mechanisms to protect it can easily be used to infiltrate it. The minister added that there is a responsibility to ensure that proper telecommunications services are provided to the Lebanese, while simultaneously being fortified against foreign interference in order to protect personal and national liberties. "The state is working with the institutions of the private sector and it should monitor their progress in order that they reach the desired level of fortification that was not available earlier," Nahhas continued. Beirut, 23 Nov 10, 16:50

Geagea Says Lebanese Situation Stabilizing, Army Split Unlikely
Naharnet/Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Monday reassured that "the current situation is leaning towards stability, despite all the political tensions we're witnessing."
Geagea lauded President Michel Suleiman's Independence Day speech, describing it as "a speech by a statesman."The LF leader stressed the importance of the things Suleiman called for, such as "respecting the Constitution and legitimate state institutions and the need for the Lebanese to hold onto dialogue." Geagea also lauded the performance of Prime Minister Saad Hariri and the parliamentary majority in cabinet. He saluted the stern role of the Army Command, "which will not allow the current political disputes to turn into security incidents."
Geagea criticized those who say that the army might split should it intervene to contain any possible security disturbances, describing such remarks as "irrational."
In the same context, Geagea expressed his satisfaction over the reassurances of Defense Minister Elias Murr and Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji about the army's intervention in the event of any unrest in the country. Beirut, 22 Nov 10, 19:55

Christian Copts, Egyptian Security Standoff Over Church Construction
http://www.aina.org/news/20101122192540.htm  /Naharnet
GMT 11-23-2010
Assyrian International News Agency
(AINA) -- A Standoff took place on November 22 between Copts and security forces, which stormed the Church of St. Mary and St. Michael, in Talbiya, Giza to stop the construction of the church. It was the second time in less than 10 days that security forces stormed the church premises to seal it off.
The siege began at midnight and lasted until six AM. Priests and parishioners had anticipated the visit from security. "All priests were inside the premises, and a great number of the parishioners were inside the church since 9.00 PM, praying," a witness said.
Security forces surrounded the church and prevented the builders from working, and confiscated four concrete mixing vehicles containing ready-mixed concrete, which were on their way to church. The concrete was spoiled, being kept for over 10 hours, costing a loss of 400.000 Egyptian pounds, reported Wagih Yacoub.
Nearly two thousand Copts came to the church as soon as they heard that security forces had stormed the church and are continuing their sit-ins and demonstrations in front of the church until the matter is resolved (video).
Protestors are adamant that they have all necessary construction permits, condemning the decision of the chief of the local authorities in Omraniya to stop work on the church, which is nearly complete except for the domes.
One of the building contractors told Ms. Hekmat Hanna, a reporter at the scene, that every now and then security comes to hamper our work because they do not want the church to "show." Also "for the police officers and district officials to come so late at night, shows that what they are doing is wrong."
Dr. Naguib Ghobrial, President of the Egyptian Union of Human Rights, issued a statement today calling for the dismissal of the chief of the local authorities in Omraniya, who issued the order. "The church has all the permits, and by this behavior the chief of the local authority is encouraging Islamists to fight with the Christians because of the Church and therefore causing sedition."
The crisis started on November 11 as the church was in its final finishing stages and the builders were completing the roof, when security forces stormed the church and wanted to close it down, under the pretext that the building is not in accordance with the drawings presented. Three days earlier, the authorities at Omraniya came under the pretext of completing the papers for the construction work and found that builders were building a second staircase, as well as toilets, which they considered to be in violation of the permit granted.
According to church authorities, it was the Civil Defense authorities who asked the church to erect a second staircase to relieve congestion inside the church in case of emergencies, and the necessary permit amendments were made (AINA 11-13-2010).
More than one million Copts live in the Talbiya area, without a single church to serve them, having to travel for miles every Sunday with their children to the nearest church. Until now the building of the new church came to more than 7 million Egyptian pounds, all collected from donations of the local Copts.
Samira Ibrahim Shehata a volunteer worker at the church, who had been keeping guard at the Church premises since November 11, said, "I want to know why a hundred mosques can be built, and not one church can be built. I believe that State Security is the root of all evil."
It was also reported that the Governor of Giza is going to the church premises to negotiate with the thousands of Copts from Talbiya and Giza who are still continuing their sit-in in front of the church.
By Mary Abdelmassih

Anti-Christian Sentiment in Egypt Heats Up
11-23-2010 4:27:51
http://www.aina.org/news/20101122222751.htm
Assyrian International News Agency
CAIRO, Egypt -- As bombings and other attacks continue against Christians in Iraq, Christians in Egypt have gathered to pray and plan for their own safety.
When a group of Islamic extremists on Oct. 31 burst into Our Lady of Salvation church in Baghdad during evening mass and began spraying the sanctuary with gunfire, the militant organization that took responsibility said Christians in Egypt also would be targeted if its demands were not met. Taking more than 100 congregants hostage, the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) called a television station and stated that the assault came in response to the Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt allegedly holding two Coptic women against their will who, the ISI and some others believe, converted to Islam.
The group issued a 48-hour deadline for the release of the women, and when the deadline passed it issued a statement that, "All Christian centers, organizations and institutions, leaders and followers are legitimate targets for the muhajedeen [Muslim fighters] wherever they can reach them." The statement later added ominously, "We will open upon them the doors of destruction and rivers of blood."
In the attack and rescue attempt that followed, 58 people were reportedly killed. A week and a half later, Islamic extremists killed four people in a series of coordinated attacks against Christians in Baghdad and its surrounding suburbs. The attackers launched mortar rounds and planted makeshift bombs outside Christian homes and one church. At least one attack was made against the family members of one of the victims of the original attack.
On Nov. 15, gunmen entered two Christian homes in Mosul and killed two men in the house. The next day, a Christian and his 6-year-old daughter were killed in a car bombing. At the same time, another bomb exploded outside the home of a Christian, damaging the house but leaving the residents uninjured, according to CNN.
The threats against Christians caused a flurry of activity at churches in Egypt. A 35-year-old Protestant who declined to give her name said Christians in Cairo have unified in prayer meetings about the threats. An SMS text message was sent out through prayer networks asking people to meet, she said.
"I know people are praying now," she said. "We have times for our people to pray, so all of us are praying."
Security has increased at churches throughout Egypt. In Cairo, where the presence of white-uniformed security police is ubiquitous, the number of uniformed and plain-clothes officers has doubled at churches. High-ranking police officers shuffle from one house of worship to another monitoring subordinates and enforcing new security rules. At times, parking on the same side of the street as a church building, or even driving by one, has been forbidden.
On Nov. 8, leaders from the Anglican, Catholic and Orthodox churches gathered to discuss how to improve security at churches. According to the leaders of several churches, the government asked pastors to cancel unessential large-scale public meetings. Pope Shenouda III canceled a celebration to commemorate the 39th anniversary of his installment as the leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church. Guests at a recent outdoor Christmas bazaar and a subsequent festival at the All-Saints Cathedral in Zamalek were greeted with pat-downs, metal detectors and bomb-sniffing dogs.
Some church leaders, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the security improvements are haphazard, while others say they are genuine efforts to ensure the safety of Christians.
Most Christians in Cairo avoided answering any questions about the attacks in Iraq or the threats made against Christians in Egypt. But Deliah el-Sowkary, a Coptic Orthodox woman in her 20s, said she hoped no attacks would happen in her country. Noting the security present at all churches, still she said she is not that worried.
"I think it's different in Egypt than in Baghdad, it's more safe here," El-Sowkary said.
Almost a week after the bombings, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak issued a statement through the state-run MENA news agency that the Copts would be protected from attacks.
"The president affirmed his extensive solicitude for the protection of the nation's sons, Muslims and Copts, from the forces of terrorism and extremism," the agency stated.
Pressure Cooker
The security concerns came against a backdrop of heightened tensions between the Muslim majority and the Coptic Christian minority over the past few months, with weeks of protests against Christians in general and against Shenouda specifically. The protests, held mostly in Alexandria, ended two weeks ago.
The tension started after the wife of a Coptic bishop, Camilia Zakher, disappeared in July. According to government sources and published media reports, Zakher left her home after a heated argument with her husband. But Coptic protestors, who started gathering to protest at churches after Zakher disappeared, claimed she had been kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam.
Soon after, Egypt's State Security Intelligence (SSI) officers found her at the home of a friend. Despite stating she had left of her own free will, authorities brought Zakher back to her husband. Since then, Zakher has been in seclusion. It is unclear where she is or if she remains there of her own free will.
Unconfirmed rumors began spreading that Zakher had converted to Islam and was being held against her will to force her to return to Christianity. Protests outside mosques after Friday prayers became weekly events. Protestors produced a photo of unknown origin of a woman in Islamic covering whom they claimed was Zakher. In response, Coptic authorities released a video in which the bishop's wife stated that she wasn't a Muslim nor ever had been.
Another rumor began circulating that Zakher went to Al-Azhar University, one of the primary centers of Islamic learning in the world, to convert to Islam. But Al-Azhar, located in Cairo, released a statement that no such thing ever happened.
No independent media interviews of Zakher have taken place because, according to the Coptic Church, the SSI has ordered church officials not to allow public access to her. Along with their accusations about Zakher, protestors also claimed, without evidence, that a similar thing happened in 2004 to Wafa Constantine, also the wife of a Coptic Orthodox priest. Constantine was the second woman the ISI demanded the Copts "release." Like Zakher, her location is not public knowledge.
The month after the Zakher incident, Egyptian media reported in error that the SSI had seized a ship from Israel laden with explosives headed for the son of an official of the Coptic Orthodox church. The ship was later found to be carrying fireworks, but another set of Islamic leaders, led in part by Nabih Al-Wahsh, an attorney famous for filling lawsuits designed to damage the church, declared without any evidence that Copts were allied with the Israelis and stockpiling weapons in the basements of their churches with plans to overthrow the Muslim majority.
The claims were echoed on Al-Jazeera by Dr. Muhammad Salim Al-'Awa, the former secretary-general of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, and in a statement issued by the Front of Religious Scholars, a group of academics affiliated with Al-Azhar University.
There was no time for tensions to cool after Al-'Awa and the others leveled their allegations. The next month, Bishop Anba Bishoy, the secretary of the Synod of the Coptic Orthodox Church, told the Egyptian newspaper Al-Masri Al-Yawm that Muslims were "guests" in Egypt, inflaming a Muslim population already up in arms.
"The Copts are the root of the land," the bishop said. "We love the guests who came and settled in our land, and regard them as brothers, but they want to control even our churches? I reject anything that harms the Muslims, but as Christians we will do everything, even die as martyrs, if someone tries to harm our Christian mission."
Around the same time, the Front of Religious Scholars called for a complete boycott of Christians in Egypt. The group called Christians "immoral," labeled them "terrorists" and said Muslims should not patronize their businesses or even say "hello" to them.
The statement by the scholars was followed by a media leak about a lecture Bishoy was scheduled to give at a conference for Orthodox clergy. In his presentation, Bishoy planned on questioning the authorship of a verse in the Quran that calls Christians "blasphemers." Muslims believe that an angel revealed the Quran to Muhammad, Islam's prophet, who transmitted it word-by-word to his followers. Bishoy contended there was a possibility the verse in question was added later.
The mosque protests became even more virulent, and the conference was abruptly cancelled. Bishoy was forced to issue an apology, saying he never meant to cast doubt on Islam and called Muslims "partners" with the Copts in Egypt. Shenouda also issued an apology on national television. By comparison, an Islamic publishing house that rewrote and then issued what it termed the "true Bible" caused barely a stir.
Al-'Awa then blamed the deteriorating state of Muslim-Christian relations on Shenouda and Bishoy. He accused the Coptic Orthodox Church of exploiting the government's "weak stance" toward it and "incarcerating anyone [who] is not to its liking."
The Al-Azhar Academy of Islamic Research issued a statement that declared, "Egypt is a Muslim state." The statement further went on to read that the Christians' rights were contingent on their acceptance of the "Islamic identity" of Egypt. The statement was endorsed by Ali Gum'a, the mufti of Egypt.
The statement also referenced an agreement made between Muhammad and a community of Egyptian Christians in the seventh century as the guiding document on how Christians should be governed in a Muslim-dominated state. If ever codified into Egyptian law as many Muslims in Egypt desire, it would legally cement the status of Christians in the country as second-class citizens.
In 639, seven years after Muhammad died, Muslim armies rode across from Syria and Palestine and invaded Egypt, then controlled by the Byzantines. At first the Muslims, then a new but well-armed minority within Egypt, treated the conquered Christians relatively well by seventh century standards. But within a generation, they began the Islamization of the country, demanding all official business be conducted in Arabic, the language of the Quran, and Coptic and Jewish residents were forced to pay special taxes and obey rules designed to reaffirm their second-class status.
In the centuries since then, the treatment of Christians in Egypt has ebbed and flowed depending on the whim of those in power. After the coup of 1952, in which a group of men known as the Free Officers' Movement took power from a European-backed monarch, Copts have seen their treatment decline.
In 1971, then-President Anwar Sadat introduced a new constitution designating Islamic law as "a principle source of legislation" in Egypt. In 1980, the National Assembly made Islam the official religion of the state.
Estimates of the Coptic population range from 7 to 12 percent of Egypt's 84 million people. They are accepted by some in Egypt and openly discriminated against by others. Violent attacks against Christians -- which the government does little to prevent -- accentuate tensions.
The state also routinely harasses converts to Christianity from Islam. Many have to live in some sort of hiding.
The Protestant woman said she was not sure whether attacks would happen in response to the threats, but whatever happens, she said she expects that Christians in Egypt will continue to endure persecution.
"According to the Bible, we know this is going to happen," she said. "This is not new or novel for us. The Bible said that we will be persecuted. It is expected."
By Wayne King
www.christiannewstoday.com
© 2010, Assyrian International News Agency. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use.
National Post editorial board: The UN’s Inspector Clouseau in LebanonNovember 22, 2010 –
National Post
.http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/11/22/national-post-editorial-board-the-uns-inspector-clouseau-in-lebanon/
Rafik Hariri, the reform-minded Lebanese prime minister died on Valentine’s Day, 2005, when a massive roadside bomb blew up his motorcade outside Beirut’s St. George Hotel. The murder set off the short-lived Cedar Revolution, during which Lebanese popular pressure forced Syria to withdraw its troops from the country for the first time in over two decades. For a few months, Lebanon looked as if it might become a pluralistic, pro-Western democracy. Alas, this spirit of hope proved short-lived: The country has since lapsed into its usual state of sectarian paralysis. While Syrian troops no longer occupy Lebanon, much of the country now is under the effective control of Iran, through its proxy force Hezbollah.
Hezbollah is, among other things, a terrorist group. Indeed, the group pioneered the use of suicide bombings three decades ago, and continues to threaten Israel with apocalyptic violence. And so many have long suspected that it was some combination of Syrian and Hezbollah agents who were responsible for Mr. Hariri’s death. This week, thanks to Canadian journalists, those suspicions have been strengthened.
In a major investigative report released this week, the CBC’s Neil Macdonald has concluded that the evidence against Hezbollah was obvious from the beginning; but it was overlooked by senior United Nations investigators, either through incompetence or because their operation was compromised by Hezbollah sympathizers.
The UN’s initial investigation, under German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, readily identified Syria’s and Iran’s involvement in the ordering and planning of Mr. Hariri’s death, if not the carrying out of the actual bombing. But a year later, when the investigation was authorized to look at laying charges and was put under former Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz, it seemed more interested in protecting diplomatic sensitivities in the Middle East.
According to the CBC, Mr. Brammertz spent an inordinate amount of time disproving wild conspiracy theories and refusing his staff’s requests to employ modern investigative techniques. During his nearly two-year tenure, he turned down every request from Western detectives assigned to his staff to investigate cellphone records for clues about Mr. Hariri’s murderers.
When a stalwart Lebanese policeman, working on his own, turned over exactly the kind of cellphone traffic analysis the UN was looking for, it was not merely ignored by Mr. Brammertz, it was lost. Then, when it resurfaced in the investigation’s database, it was dismissed as the work of an amateur.
The lurid proof that this Lebanese policeman — Wissam Eid — was barking up the right tree is that assassins saw fit to kill him in 2008, eight days after he first met with UN investigators. Indeed, he emerges as the true hero of this tangled narrative.
Some of Mr. Brammertz’s decision were simply inexplicable. A prime suspect in Mr. Hariri’s killing, the head of Lebanon’s intelligence service, was wilfully exempted from investigation because Mr. Brammertz considered him too valuable a source — when, in all likelihood, it was the intelligence chief who was using the Belgian as a source of information for Hezbollah.
Now under Canadian Daniel Bellemare, the UN investigation has yet to bring a single charge or name even one suspect — though we are told that indictments are coming before the end of the year. The commission has managed to transform into the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, move its headquarters from the Middle East to The Hague, blow through a budget of near $200-million, and hire more than 300 employees from 61 countries. Yet its investigators still are forbidden from using the sort of eavesdropping equipment that ordinary municipal police forces use everyday to bust curb-side drug operations. Had the UN acted more quickly on the leads it had early on, perhaps the discovery that Hezbollah was behind Mr. Hariri’s assassination would have robbed the group of its credibility and appeal before it began to cement its power base.
Nevertheless, after all this time, some good may come out of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STR). While the UN investigation has been beset by delays, incompetence and duplicity, it may yet perform a valuable service by setting out a definitive list of suspects.
As for Hezbollah’s threat to destabilize Lebanon if the STR indicts its members, it is one the international community should ignore. For years, Hezbollah has used threats and extortion to gain a veto on Lebanese politics. It should not be allowed to veto the truth as well.
National Post

The Iranians’ fates
Hazem Saghiyeh, November 22, 2010
Now Lebanon
Two contradicting and conflicting evaluations prevail outside Iran with regard to the sanctions and their effect on Iran’s regime and society:
The first opinion, on the one hand, has it that Iran will inevitably be deeply affected not only because the sanctions are firm and harsh, but also because the Iranian society is alive and demanding. Hence, the Khomeinist regime decided early on to overlook some of this society’s “transgressions” and “deviation”. Areas, such as northern Tehran, thus managed to preserve a lot of its former lifestyle, even if merely inside people’s homes. Youths manage to express in several ways that they are influenced by the American lifestyle, music and leisure. In contrast, minorities living away from Tehran were free to pursue traditions and rites, which – according to the regime’s ideological calculations – are held as heresy and perversity. If we add the essential importance of the bazaar and the traders taking part in it in the Islamic Revolution and its regime, we realize that Iran is a society that will not bear the sanctions and that will confront them sooner or later.
Those in favor of this opinion mention two other elements backing their claim. First, despite the hits it took, the opposition led by Mir-Hussein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi with the support of Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami is capable of exploiting the deteriorating situation and the discontent caused by the sanctions. Second, the regime as such is undermined by contradictions, especially between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his foes, who are being overdeveloped by western media in order to make the opposition’s change mission easier once the effects of sanctions grow worse and people become less capable of shouldering them.
On the other hand, the second opinion believes in the following: Despite all manifestations indicating otherwise, the Iranian regime has managed to adapt the society to it. The Iranian people, which the regime has accustomed to bitter times since 1979, especially following the years of war with Iraq in the 1980s, will bear an additional dose of the misery that has become synonymous with their daily lives. Indeed, the Iranians have turned into a people without expectations and without a tomorrow to look forward to.
Those in favor of this opinion cite as an example the Iraqi experience during the last years of Saddam’s reign, misery spread amidst the people and the Baath regime exploited this horrendous reality to hold the Iraqi society in an even tighter grip than before. What happened with the totalitarian Iraqi regime can be expected with the quasi-totalitarian Iranian regime, since both of them are eventually characterized by the same contempt with which they hold their respective societies.
This brief report is by no means the appropriate place to compare the two abovementioned opinions. Still, despite the gross contradiction between them, they show how difficult it is to understand and predict the behavior of closed societies. Rather, it accurately depicts the misery of peoples living under such regimes: either the regime caves in to foreign sanctions, in which case its fall will be as resounding and doomful as its existence was, or misery will extend endlessly until it becomes more like an inevitable fate.
This articles is a translation of the original, which appeared on the NOW Arabic site on November 22, 2010.

Gay tourism booms despite social norms
Sarah Lynch, November 23, 2010 /Now Lebanon
Lebanese demonstrators hold signs during a protest in Beirut against violence and discrimination in society on February 22, 2009. (AFP Photo/Joseph Barak)
“The thing we heard most when we came to Lebanon was, ‘Welcome,’” said Harvey Shapiro, who traveled to Lebanon from Ohio with his partner Mike Dagger earlier this year.
The couple booked their trip through LebTours, a travel agency that caters to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. “We were so impressed by Lebanon that we are visiting again next spring with our four gay cousins,” Shapiro said. “That’s how much we loved it.”
Like hundreds of other gay tourists who visit Beirut annually, Shapiro and Dagger, both in their sixties, found the city to be “gay friendly.” Even the author of a recent Jerusalem Post article called it a rival city to Tel Aviv, as the two “battle it out for pink dollars.”
But while Beirut is popular for gay tourism, some activists and members of Lebanon’s LGBT community say there are still a lot of improvements that need to be made when it comes to social tolerance.
Gay tourism is a growing niche in the Lebanese tourism industry in which visitors explore cultural and historical sights by day and gay bars and clubs by night. “It’s like any other tour, but we highlight the LGBT venues,” said Bertho, the owner of LebTours. Last year, his company booked tours for 500 people, up from 100 visitors just five years ago.
Lebanon is one of the few Middle Eastern countries where gay bars and nightclubs exist, drawing increased international attention from tourists like Shapiro and Dagger. “It feels like you’re going to camp and you’re with the other guys, so everything’s okay,” Shapiro said of why they chose to plan their trip with the travel agency.
Yet, Lebanese society is neither entirely accepting of nor understanding toward the LGBT community. Ghassan Makaram, executive director of the gay rights organization Helem, believes the popular perception of Lebanon as a “gay friendly” country can be misleading.
“The problem with this rhetoric is we’re not talking about a country where people are really free to do what they want,” he told NOW Lebanon.
Makaram points to two main concerns. “People are still being prosecuted for their homosexuality,” he said, albeit at a low rate of an estimated ten prosecutions per year. Article 534 of the Lebanese penal code makes “intercourse against nature” punishable by law. “And people still have a lot of problems when it comes to telling their families,” Makaram said.
One Lebanese teenager, who is sexually attracted to both men and women, said most of the people he knows who are gay hide their sexuality from their families.
“Most people avoid telling their parents because they’re afraid of getting kicked out of the house,” he said, requesting that his name not be published for privacy reasons.
While the 19-year-old has never experienced physical violence or discrimination because of his sexuality, some of his friends have. One friend was kicked by a group of strangers on the street when they suspected the young man was gay. In another instance, a gay man was not allowed into a bar in Hamra.
“We don’t let people like you in this place,” the 19-year-old quoted the bartender as saying.
Traces of these societal ills were made evident in recent television programs. Several weeks ago, MTV featured a one-hour documentary during which the presenter referred to homosexuality as a “phenomenon,” upsetting some viewers.
“The rise of Haifa Wehbe and other singers who can’t really sing but find success in the music world is a phenomenon,” wrote a Lebanese blogger who goes by the name Beirut Boy and identifies himself as gay. “I am not a phenomenon.”
Makaram heard similar reactions to the documentary. “People were saying that even though the end was positive, there were a lot of problems with the guests and people who spoke.” Around the same time, Future TV aired a feature story on “gay crime” in Lebanon, which also received criticism.
The programs highlight society’s lack of education on the issues, activists say, which leads to the perpetuation of common stereotypes. “If you tell someone you’re gay, they automatically think feminine, which isn’t necessarily the case,” the 19-year-old Beiruti said.
It also results in a lack of understanding and acceptance, leading many to hide their sexuality. “I don’t tell my parents because I don’t want to tell them something they don’t want to hear,” he said. Still, others believe that Beirut is a great city for homosexuals. Bars and clubs compose a booming gay nightlife, while other, albeit less-assuming venues, act as “sex cruising” areas where men go to meet other men to engage in sexual acts.
“Sex cruising” is common in Beirut’s coastal Raouche neighborhood, Khashayar Safavi, a gay Iranian-American who lives in Beirut, told NOW Lebanon. Sitting inside a kebob shop next to the sea in Raouche, one can see men pick up other men, often after midnight, and go into the nearby bushes, he said.
“It’s wonderful being gay here,” Safavi, 20, told NOW Lebanon. “I can go to a club and have sex, I can go to the street and have sex, and I can go [for a sandwich] and have sex.”