LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِSeptember 14/2010

Bible Of The Day
Matthew 5/43-48: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor,* and hate your enemy.*’ 5:44 But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you, 5:45 that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. 5:46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? 5:47 If you only greet your friends, what more do you do than others? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? 5:48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect."
Psalm 37:4/Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Today's Inspiring Thought: Your Heart's Desires
When I was a brand new believer, here's what I thought this verse meant: If I delight myself in the Lord, he'll give me whatever I desire ... such as a new car and a handsome husband. Then, as I matured in my Christian walk, I began to understand what this verse truly means. As we delight ourselves in the Lord, he give us his desires. He creates and places within our hearts new and holy desires so that we begin to delight in the things that he delights in. We start to want what he wants. The more we delight ourselves in the Lord, the more heartfelt satisfaction we experience. Following him becomes an effortless joy.

Free Opinions, Releases, letters, Interviews & Special Reports
New Opinion: The double game/Now Lebanon/September 13/10

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for September 13/10
IAEA: Iran crosses critical line for nuclear-arming missiles/DEBKAfile Special Report
Assad: Turkey must mediate Israel-Syria peace talks/JPOST
Israeli Navy Tests New Missile Defense Systems to Counter Hizbullah Capability /Naharnet
Bellemare Does Not 'Seriously' Take Nasrallah's Revelations, Report /Naharnet
Franjieh Meets Sfeir: I will Not Criticize Suleiman, Aoun Has Own Reasons for Criticizing Him /Naharnet
Police Strike Back at Sayyed: If you Step on Our Foot, We Shall Step on Your Neck /Naharnet
Oqab Saqr Hits Back at Sayyed: He Tried to Blackmail Hariri for $15 Million /Naharnet
Qahwaji: People Now Trust the Army after it Confronted the Enemy and those Disrupting the Peace /Naharnet
Geagea: The Cedar Revolution is Still Solid because it Stands on the Shoulders of Millions /Naharnet
Michel Khoury: Sayyed attacked Hariri after meeting with Assad/Now Lebanon
Qahwaji: People Now Trust the Army after it Confronted the Enemy and those Disrupting the Peace /Naharnet
New U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Arrives in Beirut /Naharnet
Assad Meets Bassil /Naharnet
Jihadists, Including Lebanese, 'Planned Maximum Casualties' at Australian Base /Naharnet
Intelligence Bureau, False Witnesses Threaten Cabinet Session /Naharnet
Aoun, Bassil, Jumblat, Geagea Back in Beirut /Naharnet
Jumblat Cannot Make Hamadeh Change his Mind over Tribunal /Naharnet
Kenaan: Finance and Budget Committee Postponement to Sept. 20 Decided 1 Week Ago /Naharnet
Najjar Mum on Bickering over False Witnesses: Up to Cabinet to Decide /Naharnet
Watchdog: 52 Journalists, Including Lebanese, Killed Through August /Naharnet
Sayyed's Son: Saqr Claims about Mediator 'False' /Naharnet
Fadlallah: We Want to Dismantle Political-Media-Security Group that Fabricated False Witnesses /Naharnet
Nasrallah will Hold Press Conference Soon /Naharnet

Assad: Turkey must mediate Israel-Syria peace talks
By JPOST.COM STAFF /09/13/2010/Syrian president meets French ME peace envoy Cousseran in Damascus; says he hopes peace process can move forward despite Israeli policies which he sees as inimical to reaching an agreement. Syrian President Bashar Assad met with French Middle East peace envoy Jean Claude Cousseran in Damascus on Monday, assuring him of Syria's commitment to peace, Syrian news agency SANA reported. Assad stressed the importance of Turkey being involved in Israeli-Syrian peace talks as mediator, in order that the two sides can continue where they left off in previous negotiations mediated by Turkey in 2008

IAEA: Iran crosses critical line for nuclear-arming missiles
DEBKAfile Special Report /September 13, 2010,Iranhas crossed the critical nuclear threshold taking it nearer to being able to arm ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads, weapons inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency reported last week. When this finding failed to elicit any response from the US or Israel, debkafile’s military sources report, NATO secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen hurried over to Washington Sunday, Sept. 12 with a call to action for President Barack Obama: “Based on their (Iranian) public statements we know that Iran already has missiles with a range sufficient to hit targets in Europe, and they don't hide the fact that they want to further develop their capability.”He came away with a pledge of 200 million euros as American in creating a missile shield for Europe against the Iranian threat. While even Europe has roused itself to the menace from Iran, the fast encroaching threat to Israel remains unaddressed by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and defense minister Ehud Barak. They appear unmoved even in the face of the coming visit to Lebanon on Oct. 13-14 by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He is coming specifically to clinch Iran’s grip on Lebanon and its buildup as Iran’s forward front for retaliation should Israel venture to strike its nuclear facilities. This buildup crossed every possible red line some time ago without an Israeli response. The Iranian president will exploit this vacuum by paying a visit to the South Lebanese-Israeli border village of Edeissa, from which on Aug. 3, Lebanese army snipers soldiers were put up by Hizballah to ambush Israeli troops and shoot dead Col. Dov Harari.
(Israel’s only response was to knock out two Lebanese APCs klling three Lebanese troops, and issuing warnings relayed by US intermediaries that the IDF would meet further incidents by wiping out the entire Lebanese military system in the space of four hours.) Lebanese President Gen. Michel Suleiman phoned Ahmadinejad Sept. 11 to say that the Lebanese people was “eagerly awaiting” his coming and stress that henceforth the Lebanese national army would fight Israel shoulder to shoulder with its comrades in Hizballah. Will the Lebanese president accompany Ahmadinejad’s on his symbolic visit to Edeissa? Or Lebanese army chief Gen. Jean Kahwaji? Or will Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah venture to leave his bunker-hideout to honor the guest? This decision matters greatly. The Israeli government’s silence with regard to the provocative nature of the event matters even more. Tehranwill be using it to uphold the Lebanese army’s “heroic act” in attacking Israel. It will be welcomed as an honored member of the Iranian-Syrian-Palestinian “resistance front” against Israel alongside Hizballah. Iranhas thus gained a new strategic acquisition operating at its behest for tying Israel’s hands not only against striking Tehran but defending itself against aggressive acts by its Lebanese neighbor. Ahmadiinejad is planning to use his visit to celebrate an Iranian-Lebanese defense pact coupled with a large-scale transaction to supply the Lebanese armed forces with the weapons needed to take on the IDF. These deals will kick off the merger and standardization of Lebanese and Hizballah weapons systems.
The next time Lebanese troops attack Israel they are likely to be using Iranian arms.

Bellemare Does Not 'Seriously' Take Nasrallah's Revelations, Report
Naharnet/Special Tribunal for Lebanon Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare does not seriously take revelations made by Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in the assassination case of ex-PM Rafik Hariri, Ad-Diyar newspaper reported Monday. "Nothing suggests that the International Tribunal and officials working for it may reconsider the wrong path of international investigation" into Hariri's assassination, Ad-Diyar said. It owed this to U.S. and Israel "who did not abandon the game of using politics in the Tribunal." "Bellemare does not seem to seriously take what Nasrallah disclosed regarding evidence and data accusing Israel of assassinating Hariri," Ad-Diyar wrote. Beirut, 13 Sep 10, 06:36

Jihadists, Including Lebanese, 'Planned Maximum Casualties' at Australian Base
Naharnet/Five men, including Lebanese, plotted to storm an Australian army base in Sydney with high-powered weapons and shoot as many people as possible to further the cause of Islam, a court heard on Monday. Melbourne's Supreme Court heard that the men, who have been linked with Islamic extremists in Somalia, planned to continue their rampage at Sydney's Holsworthy army barracks until they were killed or captured. The men are Australian citizens with Somali and Lebanese background.
Crown prosecutor Nick Robinson said the plot was hatched between February and August 4 last year, when the five were arrested in a swoop involving hundreds of police in Melbourne.
He said one of the accused visited Somalia to seek a fatwa, or religious decree, for the attack, adding they had condemned Australia's involvement in the war in Afghanistan and believed the country was oppressing Muslims. Robinson said the men believed Islam was under attack from several countries, including Australia, and wanted to advance their religion. "If I find way to kill the army, I swear to Allah the great I'm going to do it," one of the men, Wissam Mahmoud Fattal, told undercover police, according to a transcript read to the court. Fattal, 34, Saney Edow Aweys, 27, Yacqub Khayre, 23, Abdirahmin Mohamud Ahmed, 26 and Nayef El Sayed, 26, have all pleaded not guilty to conspiring to do acts in preparation for, or planning, a terrorist act. Fattal had visited Holsworthy and described it as an easy target, according to Robinson, while another of the men was covertly recorded laying out their plans. "There are about six guys... 20 minutes will be enough for us to take out five, six, 10... I don't know. Until they will use up their weapons. Is that permissible?" Aweys said, according to transcript of secret telephone intercepts read to the court and reported by the AAP news agency. Aweys praised last year's devastating Black Saturday firestorm in another intercepted call, saying "Thanks to Allah... Allah bring them calamity," about the disaster which claimed 173 lives. Justice Betty King told the jury that the trial was not about the religion of Islam, but whether the accused had committed any offences. The arrests highlighted security standards at army bases, and police said the alleged attack would have been the worst in Australian history. It also prompted Canberra to list Somalia's al-Qaida-inspired Shebab group as a terrorist organization, although the outfit has denied any link to the alleged plot.(AFP-Naharnet) Beirut, 13 Sep 10, 12:26

Franjieh Meets Sfeir: I will Not Criticize Suleiman, Aoun Has Own Reasons for Criticizing Him
Naharnet/Marada Movement leader Suleiman Franjieh on Monday said he will not criticize President Michel Suleiman. "Aoun, however, has his own reasons for criticizing him (Suleiman)," Franjieh told reporters after meeting Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir. He described the meeting with Sfeir as the "beginning of a new political road with Bkirki," adding that "we need ears to listen to us." "Each one of us has his own views with regards to Lebanon's independence and sovereignty," Franjieh said from Diman, the patriarch's summer residence. Franjieh said talks with Sfeir focused on inter-Christian reconciliation. As-Safir on Monday said the Franjieh-Sfeir meeting will not touch on "sensitive political issues."Franjieh arrived at the lunch meeting in Diman, north Lebanon, at midday. Sfeir sent the invitation to Franjieh through Bishop Samir Mazloum. Franjieh accepted it. Relations between Sfeir and Franjieh have been tense after the Marada leader accused the patriarch of bias and of favoring one Christian group against another. Beirut, 13 Sep 10, 13:23

Oqab Saqr Hits Back at Sayyed: He Tried to Blackmail Hariri for $15 Million
Naharnet/MP Oqab Saqr hit back at former head of the General Security Department Maj. Gen. Jamil Sayyed, accusing him of trying to blackmail Prime Minister Saad Hariri over cash-for dropping case. He said Sayyed dispatched a "person" to Hariri asking for $15 million in return for giving up his case. Saqr, in remarks published Monday, said the meeting was attended -- besides Hariri and the mediator -- by five other people. He said when Hariri rejected Sayyed's offer, the envoy returned to reduce the blackmail by half.
"That person came back asking for $7.5 million. But Hariri, again, told him "I reject this kind of cheap settlement,'" Saqr said. Sayyed, who was placed in temporary detention in Lebanon in 2005 for his alleged involvement in Hariri's assassination and released in 2009 due to lack of evidence, has asked the STL to release his secret case file on the 2005 assassination to learn why he had been jailed for nearly four years without charge. Saqr said Sayyed offended Syria and distorted the truth for personal gains. "He (Sayyed) is a false witness," Saqr claimed, adding that the former officer's accusations will have no impact on the internal truce in Lebanon. Saqr was responding to Sayyed, who held a press conference on Sunday to discuss the issue of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and Hariri's stance on the so-called "false witnesses" case.
Sayyed's "claims are empty because he has lost some of his memory and his psychological state is worsening," Saqr said.
Sayyed is "currently trying to transform his personal problem into a public crisis," added Saqr, who is a member of the Hariri-led Lebanon First parliamentary bloc.
Saqr ruled out that Sayyed's remarks had "any political significance," saying that he did not believe that "these remarks reflect the stances of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad or Hizbullah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah." "Jamil Sayyed is suffering a complicated mental state and a certain psychological condition after the man lost his authority to find himself now outside power," Saqr said, calling on Sayyed "to solve his psychological problem, but not at the expense of the honorable Lebanese and their dignities."
Saqr stressed that the Lebanese Judiciary must deal with Sayyed's remarks, "especially comments against judges and death threats against some Lebanese (political) leaders and public officials." "Jamil Sayyed in a pillar of corruption," Saqr concluded. "Corruption became clear, including Sayyed's palace, which he boasts that it even appears on Google Earth," Saqr uncovered. "Sayyed built his palace on the skulls of many Lebanese who were humiliated, robbed of their money and probably killed," he added. "If there were a State in Lebanon, Sayyed would have been put in jail a long time ago," before Hariri's 2005 assassination "in cases that were proven against him," Saqr stated. Sayyed on Sunday attacked Hariri, accusing him of being behind false witnesses in Hariri's assassination. Sayyed said Hariri along with his "political, media, judicial and security team" joined forces with former head of the U.N. investigation committee Detlev Mehlis to use the murder as a plot aimed against Syria and to grab power in Lebanon. "That is why we see Saad Hariri desperate to defend false witnesses and stand against holding them accountable; because if they fall, this authority will fall from top to bottom," Sayyed said He even threatened to take justice into his own hands if Hariri did not act to put false witnesses on trial. "I vow upon my honor that if you (Hariri) do not give me my right, I will take it with my own hands some day," Sayyed vowed. "Jail me," he said, calling on Hariri to undertake a polygraph lie detector test to prove that he did not support or fund false witnesses.. Beirut, 13 Sep 10, 08:32

Fadlallah: We Want to Dismantle Political-Media-Security Group that Fabricated False Witnesses
Naharnet/Hizbullah MP Hasan Fadlallah on Sunday warned that "the Israeli war machine has started to take new security and media faces in a bid to ignite civil strife in Lebanon through the machinations the enemy depends on after it became incompetent in the battlefield before the Resistance's might.""We're concerned with facing this attempt through steadfastness and a clear stance that would end the bid of the Israeli enemy," Fadlallah stressed.As to the so-called false witnesses controversy, Fadlallah said: "When we talk about this issue, we don't only refer to four or five people who gave false testimonies during the investigations in the murder of (former) premier (Rafik) Hariri.""These are only one ring of the rings of false witnesses, and maybe the weakest and smallest ring in this dossier," Fadlallah added. "When we raise this issue and insist on it, seeking to reach conclusive results, we are rather speaking of a political-media-security group," Fadlallah said, noting that some members of the aforementioned group are Lebanese officials and "the others are affiliated with political figures and factions."Hizbullah's lawmaker said that the alleged group "fabricated false witnesses to distract the truth and achieve other political ends.""We want this group dismantled, the heads of this group unveiled and the case followed up at the judicial, legal and political levels in Lebanon, so that it (the group) faces trial and accountability." Beirut, 12 Sep 10, 22:52

Qahwaji: People Now Trust the Army after it Confronted the Enemy and those Disrupting the Peace
Naharnet/Army Commander Jean Qahwaji stated Monday that the people have now placed their trust in the army after "it proved its constant readiness in protecting the nation."
"This institution has presented scores of martyrs in confrontations with terrorism, the Israeli enemy, and those disrupting the peace," he said. Beirut, 13 Sep 10, 15:55

Geagea: The Cedar Revolution is Still Solid because it Stands on the Shoulders of Millions
Naharnet/Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea stressed that the Cedar Revolution is still ongoing despite all the current chaos. "The revolution is solid as it stands on the shoulders of millions of Lebanese in Lebanon and abroad," he said during a phone call before the annual commemoration ceremony for martyrs of the Lebanese resistance that was held in Germany. Beirut, 13 Sep 10, 16:16

New U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Arrives in Beirut
Naharnet/Maura Connelly, the new U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon, arrived in Beirut Monday afternoon to assume her new position. A former charge d'affaires in Damascus, she had previously served as Minister Counselor for Political Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in London between 2005 and 2008 and as a diplomat in Iraq in 2003. Connelly also served as the head of the political section in the American consulate in Jerusalem between 1993 and 1996 where she won an award for her diplomatic efforts in covering the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. During the 1980s, she served as the head of the political section in the U.S. embassy in Algeria. Beirut, 13 Sep 10, 15:29

Assad Meets Bassil
Naharnet/Syrian President Bashar Assad on Monday met Energy and Water Minister Jebran Bassil, the Syrian Arab News Agency said.SANA said the meeting was held before noon Monday at al-Shaab, or People's, Palace in Damascus. It said talks tackled the Lebanon situation and ways to enhance ties between Beirut and Damascus. Beirut, 13 Sep 10, 14:30

Jumblat Cannot Make Hamadeh Change his Mind over Tribunal
Naharnet/Druze leader Walid Jumblat said he does not have sufficient influence over PSP official Marwan Hamadeh to make him change his position over the International Tribunal or back down on his testimony before the court. "All contacts I made with Hamadeh have failed," Jumblat said in remarks published Monday by Ad-Diyar newspaper. "Hamadeh still sees the image of the political situation different to what I personally see," Jumblat said, adding that Hamadeh is "closer in his positions to March 14 forces." Beirut, 13 Sep 10, 10:06

Najjar Mum on Bickering over False Witnesses: Up to Cabinet to Decide
Naharnet/Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar rejected to comment on the ongoing bickering among politicians over false witnesses, saying it was up to the cabinet to decide what steps should be taken. Last month, the cabinet tasked Najjar with following up on the issue of false witnesses in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's assassination case. The cabinet's decision came as a compromise after Hizbullah-loyal ministers demanded the formation of a Lebanese committee to probe false witnesses, a move the parliamentary majority continues to reject. "Professionalism and politics require me not to discuss the issue through the media and for cabinet alone to decide the nature of the steps that we should take in terms of false witnesses," Najjar told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat in remarks published Monday. Beirut, 13 Sep 10, 09:02

Aoun, Bassil, Jumblat, Geagea Back in Beirut
Naharnet/Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun and his son-in-law returned home aboard a private jet after a European tour, the state-run National News Agency said.
It said Druze leader Walid Jumblat also arrived in Beirut late Sunday on board a private plane that brought him from Paris. MP Strida Geagea, too, returned overnight from Paris after a visit that lasted several days. Beirut, 13 Sep 10, 11:15

Watchdog: 52 Journalists, Including Lebanese, Killed Through August
Naharnet/Fifty-two journalists lost their lives in the first eight months of this year because of their jobs — four fewer than during the same period of 2009, a global media watchdog said Sunday. Mexico led the so-called Death Watch with 10 fatalities through the end of August, followed by Honduras with nine and Pakistan with six, the International Press Institute said.
"Journalists continue to systematically lose their lives to conflict, militants, paid thugs, governments, drug dealers, corrupt politicians, unscrupulous security officers, and others," the group's interim director, Alison Bethel McKenzie, said at an IPI meeting in Vienna that has drawn more than 300 media staff from around the globe.
The Vienna-based institute's list includes journalists killed on the job or targeted because of what they did for a living. During all of last year, 110 journalists perished due to their profession, IPI said. So far this year the Americas have represented the most dangerous region for reporters, with 20 deaths including one in Colombia in addition to those in Mexico and Honduras. IPI considers the region to include North, South and Central America, and tracks the Caribbean separately. Asia came in second with 18 deaths. Aside from the six killed in Pakistan, three reporters were fatally shot in the Philippines. Two others were killed in Afghanistan — Rupert Hamer, a reporter for Britain's Sunday Mirror, and James P. Hunter, a staff sergeant and journalist in the U.S. Army. Other deaths were recorded in Thailand, Indonesia, Japan and India. In the Middle East, two reporters were killed in Iraq — both after being abducted. In Lebanon, a reporter died as he covered clashes between Israeli and Lebanese forces in the border town of Adeisseh in August. The reporter was al-Akhbar daily's journalist Assaf Abu Rahhal. Another reporter was shot dead in Yemen in February. Africa saw eight fatalities in the first two-thirds of the year: two each in Somalia and Nigeria, and one each in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Cameroon and Angola. Europe saw two killings. One of the victims was a Greek radio director who was gunned down outside his home and the other was the director of a Russian television station who died in May on his way to fix equipment damaged by militants.(AP-Naharnet) Beirut, 13 Sep 10, 07:51

Michel Khoury: Sayyed attacked Hariri after meeting with Assad
September 13, 2010 /Former head of General Security Jamil as-Sayyed’s Sunday press conference may have been postponed after being originally scheduled for August 31, because he was waiting to meet with Syrian President Bashar Assad, Kataeb Party political bureau member Michel Khoury told NOW Lebanon’s correspondent on Monday. Sayyed’s “morally and politically unrestrained” tone on Sunday was puzzling given Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s efforts to build bilateral relations with Syria, Khoury added. During Sunday’s press conference, Sayyed said that “[PM Saad] Hariri should take a lie detector test to prove that he did not support or fund false witnesses [in the investigation of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s 2005 assassination] and should admit that he sold his father’s blood for four years in order to implement the New Middle East project,” a reference to US policy in the region. March 8 forces have devised a “roadmap … to overthrow the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) at any cost,” Khoury said, adding that such efforts would ultimately prove futile.-NOW Lebanon

New Opinion: The double game
September 13, 2010
Former head of General Security Jamil as-Sayyed gave a press conference Sunday in which he accused the PM of perverting the course of justice and called for an uprising against the government. (AFP photo)
Comments made on Sunday by disgraced security czar Jamil as-Sayyed are a sad indictment on how the level of debate surrounding the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) has descended to new lows, and show how those who would undermine Lebanese sovereignty and the institutions of state, namely the judiciary, are currently plying their trade.
Sayyed is one of four generals detained in Lebanon from 2005 to 2009 for their alleged involvement in the 2005 assassination of former PM Rafik Hariri. In April 2009, the STL ordered their release without charges due to an apparent lack of evidence. Technically, Sayyed and the other generals can still be recalled if such evidence subsequently surfaces.
In the meantime, Sayyed has been given free rein to rant, and we must not underestimate his influence if the media panders to his whims. Even if he has been tarred with the brush of state-sponsored terror and appears to be losing his grip on reality, in the eyes of a sizeable portion of the country he is a man more sinned against than sinning, the victim of a gross miscarriage of justice returning to wreak vengeance on those he believes framed him.
Clearly Sayyed has been allowed his time at the microphone. It is no coincidence that last week he met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and it is likely that, while he was in Damascus, the former head of General Security was instructed to further muddy the tribunal waters, while at the same time keeping the heat on the government of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri.
For Syria is playing a complex double game. Damascus today appears to be supporting Hariri, especially while it tries to tame Hezbollah, and in doing so is keeping its part of the deal struck at the July 30 mini-summit in Beirut with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. However, at the same time it is using local pit-bulls like Sayyed and the pro-Syrian Druze politician Wiam Wahhab to undermine the government’s overall credibility as well as that of the judiciary, and to create an atmosphere of fear around the STL, so that any witnesses who might have considered testifying will now think twice.
And so it began. At Sunday’s press conference, Sayyed said that Hariri should take a lie-detector test to prove that he sought to pervert the course of justice by engineering the false testimonies that landed him in jail, while also accusing him of selling “his father’s blood” to further US foreign policy in the region. He didn’t stop there. In other comments, Sayyed demanded personal recompense from Hariri, called for a popular uprising to topple the government and even made the macabre suggestion that the body of Rafik Hariri (and presumably the bodies of his companions) be exhumed because they rest on “stolen land.”
If the words weren’t those of a man with such a disgraceful past, and if Lebanon’s political atmosphere wasn’t so charged with suspicion and paranoia, they would be laughable. But it is, so they aren’t, and the fact that people will listen to Sayyed at all is a sorry reflection of the mass panic that has gripped a Lebanese society eager to buy into anything or anyone that can convince it that any misfortune that befalls it is the fault of others.
It is important for us not to forget with whom we are dealing. For from 1998 to 2005, Sayyed ruled Lebanon on behalf of foreign masters. He was a man whose name was a byword for fear and intimidation. It was Sayyed who stalked and harassed the late writer and political activist Samir Kassir, a man whom many believe was chosen for death, not just because he wrote for the pro-independence An-Nahar, but because, with the advent of the Independence Intifada and the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon, he had seemingly had the last laugh on Syria’s local henchmen.
Jamil as-Sayyed represents a shameful era in Lebanese history, the departure from which came at a heavy cost. To ensure we do not return to those dark days, we should ignore the words of Sayyed and his ilk. Without the oxygen the media provides, they will just go away.

Jamil as-Sayyed
September 13, 2010
On September 12, the Lebanese National News Agency carried the following report:
He said: “It is known that this conference should have been held a week ago, but in light of the developments in Beirut, we postponed it. During that period, developments were seen at the level of the investigation into the assassination of martyred Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, as a storm of positions and statements invaded the country in regard to the international tribunal, the false witnesses and the indictment. Analyses emerged from all sides, some of which were true, others wrong, some legal and others politicized to the point where the public was almost lost in the political and media maze. Seeing how since our political and arbitrary arrest until our liberation on April 29 of last year I was the first to raise the issue of the false witnesses, the politicization of the international investigation and the arrest of the four officers to accuse Syria, I will stir the wound today to show the public right from wrong and all that is surrounding this case… “On April 30, 2009 I held a press conference in which I fiercely attacked the role of the judges and officials in the judiciary, the security apparatuses, the media and the political arena, among those who were partners in the case of the false witnesses. I said at the end of the conference that in order to create trust in the international tribunal, this tribunal should open the files of the last four years and expose the falsification and false witnesses conspiracy to exercise accountability… After the international tribunal closes the falsification dossier and puts those responsible in its prisons, at the head of whom are Detlev Mehlis, Gerhard Lehmann, Said Mirza, Sakr Sakr, Elias Eid, Ashraf Rifi and Wissam al-Hassan, we can say that the tribunal is not politicized. I added that day: “Mr. President, Saad al-Hariri (he was not the prime minister at the time), you are responsible for the implementation of immediate accountability. If the falsifiers of truth and justice are not held accountable, the search for the truth at the level of the assassination will be in vain...
“The presence of false witnesses in the investigation into the assassination of Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri is an undeniable crime. So please close that page. At the beginning, we did not call them witnesses and this was done by the choir of Future Television and the media outlets of the future movement who carried them on their shoulders – key witness Muhammad Zuheir al-Siddiq and witness Hussam Hussam – saying they were they reason behind the arrest of the officers. For his part, the falsifying judge Mehlis said when he came to my house with a paper in his hand: “Based on witnesses who were heard by the committee – Mehlis called them witnesses and not me – we believe that Jamil al-Sayyed was involved... Mehlis issued his first and second report and mentioned this or that witness over 200 times. Brammertz then arrived and gave Mirza a 70-page report on December 8, 2006 saying that the assessment of the witnesses during Mehlis’ term proved they were all liars, asking [Mirza] to adopt a decision to release the four officers. Mirza responded by saying that the political considerations of the government and the Lebanese state prevented the release of the four officers… assuring: “I am Sunni from Beirut and Saad al-Hariri would ‘annihilate me.’ Nothing forces me to release Jamil al-Sayyed and the officers and create hostility with the Hariri family…
“So, the international commission was the one that talked about the witnesses and not us, and all those who lied in an official investigation are false witnesses, whether or not they swore. However, in Saad al-Hariri’s team and the eastern branch of the Future Movement, i.e. the Lebanese Forces, the false witnesses are non- existent. I am not the one who has a position vis-à-vis this file, rather those lying, fabricating, receiving money and protecting their political team…” Al-Sayyed stated: “Therefore, the issue of the false witnesses is primordial and everyone knows about it. Let them reveal the identity of Ahmad Merhi who is currently imprisoned in Roumieh and belongs to Fatah al-Islam. He was subjected to a lie detector and I ask Mirza to subject Saad al-Hariri to this machine and have him say he did not support or sponsor the false witnesses. He would not dare to do so…”
He then addressed Prime Minister Al-Hariri by saying: “You, those who are with you and Siniora know that you have been exercising falsification since the beginning. You came to my house via the Germans telling me to ask President Al-Assad to present a victim. When I said I will not go to Damascus unless you had proof, you asked me to present a victim. I thus ask Saad al-Hariri today: Had the false witnesses managed to cheat the court and had you accepted that, would you be apologizing today or would you be dancing in Damascus with the new leader you installed.” He also asked Prime Minister Al-Hariri to move his father’s grave from downtown Beirut “since I know how the business district was taken from Lebanese citizens, how it was bought and in what circumstances, the role played by Abdul Halim Khaddam, how the deputies were bribed, how Speaker Hussein al-Husseini was dismissed from his post at the time, how you bought Solidere and whom you appointed as judges. This is a violated land and you cannot bury your father in a violated land…
“Where is the state? We have no electricity, no water and no roads although you spent all this money. Where is the state outside of Solidere and where are the services? They divided the Lebanese people into sects to prevent a rebellion or a coup against them. Therefore, I call on the Lebanese people to unite against this formula and to topple it even if by force and on the street. It is a crime for the country to remain without a state. Saad al-Hariri claims there is a state so that no one takes what is rightfully his with his own hands… But one day, I will take what is rightfully mine with my own hands if you do not give it to me, and you can imprison me…” Asked about the offer made by Saad al-Hariri to Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, he said: “There was a meeting between the secretary general of Hezbollah and Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, during which the latter talked about rogue elements in Hezbollah involved in the assassination of martyred Prime Minister Rafik al- Hariri. He assured that in case this turned out to be true, he will defend the Shia and the resistance, to which Sayyed Nasrallah responded adequately.
“When Sayyed Nasrallah asked me about this issue, I advised him to publish it in the media, reminding him of the offer [Al- Hariri] made to me in the past via the Germans. This was on May 10. I thus contacted my lawyer in Paris and asked him to relate what happened to Judge Bellemare and to assure him there was an attempt to transfer this issue from Syria to Hezbollah. Sayyed Nasrallah does not yet know that I delivered this message to Bellemare. On May 24, Der Spiegel accused Hezbollah. I thus call on Saad al-Hariri’s team to ask Bellemare whom they trust about all the details, because he knows about Al-Hariri’s offer to Nasrallah. I wonder however what gave him the right to make the same offer he made me to Sayyed Nasrallah…”