LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِJanuary 28/2010

Bible Of The Day
The Good News According to Matthew 11/28-30: "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.”

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
*An open letter to Walid Junblatt/Lebanon could go the Sudan way unless leaders of all factions work together in national interest/
By Joseph A. Kechichian/Gulf News/January 27/11
*Iraq's Christians Consumed By Fear/By Tracey Shelton/ January 27/11 
*Pentagon Monitors Situation in Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon/Xinhua/January 27/11 
Barak, or inconsequence/By:Michael Young/January 27/11

Watch & Act, Lebanon is in dire danger of losing its entity and independence
Rick Moran show.
Rich Baehr, Tony Badran, and Tom Harb look at the virtual takeover of Lebanon By Hezbollah/27.1.11/Click Here
Fox News
Dr. Walid Phares the dangers of Hezbollah dominated Lebanese government/Fox News/January 27/11/Click Here

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for January 27/11
President’s envoy relays message to Sfeir/Now Lebanon
Connelly Assures Miqati she will Convey to Obama Administration his Point of View on Ties with U.S/Naharnet
LBC: Feltman says we’re waiting for Lebanese cabinet’s course of action/Now Lebanon
Ashkenazi: Israel Won't Interfere in Lebanon/Naharnet
Germany: Mikati’s cabinet should behave responsibly toward STL/Now Lebanon
Miqati Launches Efforts to Form New Government amid Hariri Boycott Insistence, Unclear March 14 Stance/Naharnet
Mikati launches cabinet formation talks/Now Lebanon
Hariri-Mikati meeting was cold/Now Lebanon
Analysis: US stuck between support and concern in the Middle East/CNN International
Security tight and US condemns Hezbollah 'intimidation'/Ahram Online
MP Gemayel calls for early parliamentary elections/iloubnan.info
Syrian daily supports Lebanon PM-designate/Zawya
US targets Lebanon-based drug smuggling network/Reuters
Siniora: Mikati is Hezbollah's candidate/iloubnan.info
Hezbollah vs. the World/Huffington Post (blog)
After day of rage, Lebanon ready to form Hezbollah-dominated/Ha'aretz
Next Premier of Lebanon Tries to Set His Own Course/New York Times
Congress mulls aid cut if Hizbullah controls gov't/Jerusalem Post
Saudi Arabia issues travel warning for Lebanon/Ynetnews
MP Sami Gemayel calls for early elections to end crisis/Ya Libnan
U.S. Cracks Down on Lebanese Cocaine Ring/Naharnet
Britain's FM in Syria to Discuss Lebanon, ME Peace/Naharnet
Miqati Likely to Fulfill Hizbullah Wishes to Cut Lebanon Ties with STL/Naharnet
March 14 Rejects Cabinet that Tolerates Arms, Aims at Abolishing Tribunal/Naharnet
Karami after Meeting Miqati: Nasrallah Lamented Me, But I'll Serve This Country Till Last Breath/Naharnet
Clinton, Judeh Hope Lebanese Will Sustain Independence, Sovereignty/Naharnet
Syrian Semi-Official Daily Voices Support for Miqati/Naharnet
Syria urges 'all Lebanon parties' to join unity government/Reuters
After riots and rage, Lebanon is ready to move on/Haaretz
Mubarak's defense minister bids for US backing in Washington/DEBKAfile

Pentagon Monitors Situation in Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon
 1-27-2011 /WASHINGTON (Xinhua) -- U.S. Defense Department on Wednesday said Defense officials are closely watching protests that have flared up in Egypt, Tunisia and Lebanon, as Pentagon hosts senior Egyptian military leaders for talks this week. The Defense Department is "monitoring closely" events in Tunisia, Egypt and Lebanon "as they evolve," Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said during a regular briefing. Morrell said the United States has no military-to-military relationship with Tunisia, but has a long-standing military-to-military relationship with Egypt and an evolving military-to-military relationship with Lebanon. Defense officials are hosting senior Egyptian military leaders this week for their annual bilateral defense talks, Morrell said. "That's just an example of how engaged we are with the Egyptians, even as these developments have taken place on the streets of Cairo, and elsewhere," he said.
© 2011, Assyrian International News Agency. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use.

LBC: Feltman says we’re waiting for Lebanese cabinet’s course of action
January 27, 2011 /“We are waiting for the upcoming cabinet’s course of action and its ministerial statement pertaining to its international commitments,” US Deputy Secretary of State for Middle Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman said on Thursday from Paris. LBC reported that Feltman and French officials are concerned about the upcoming cabinet’s commitments toward UN Security Council resolutions, noting that Lebanon is a member of the Security Council. Also, according to LBC, French President Nicolas Sarkozy contacted outgoing Prime Minister Saad Hariri to voice his support and commitment to Lebanon’s independence and sovereignty. Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati, who was March 8’s candidate for the premiership, began consultations on cabinet formation Thursday following his Tuesday appointment. -NOW Lebanon

Connelly Assures Miqati she will Convey to Obama Administration his Point of View on Ties with U.S.
Naharnet/Premier-designate Najib Miqati met U.S. Ambassador Maura Connelly on Wednesday to underline his commitment to maintain good ties with Washington, a statement from his office said. "During the meeting, Miqati stressed the importance of ties between Lebanon and the United States and outlined recent developments in Lebanon and circumstances surrounding his candidacy for the premiership and his designation by members of parliament," the statement said. It added that the American diplomat assured him she would convey his point of view to U.S. officials when she travels to Washington in the coming days to attend a conference there. Miqati is a Sunni, but supporters of ex-premier Saad Hariri, backed by Saudi Arabia and the United States, view his appointment as a bid by Hizbullah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, to gain more political clout.(AFP-Naharnet) Beirut, 27 Jan 11, 11:28

President’s envoy relays message to Sfeir
January 27, 2011 /Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir met Thursday with an engineer, Wissam Baroudi, whom President Michel Sleiman had dispatched to relay regret over Sfeir’s intent to resign. Baroudi told the patriarch that the president supports him in “his national and ecclesiastic career,” NOW Lebanon’s correspondent reported. “We also discussed the consultations on cabinet formation,” said Baroudi, adding that “the president will not allow any room for trickery or revenge in cabinet formation.”Sfeir submitted a request to be relieved of his post to the Vatican months ago, saying that “he had reached an age at which he should resign.”Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati, who was March 8’s candidate for the premiership, began consultations on cabinet formation Thursday following his Tuesday appointment. His appointment gave Hezbollah and its allies increased leverage in the country and provoked widespread protests.March 8 brought down outgoing PM Saad Hariri's government on January 12 after a long-running dispute over the Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s investigation of former PM Rafik Hariri’s 2005 assassination, which Hezbollah fears will implicate some of its members.-NOW Lebanon

Germany: Mikati’s cabinet should behave responsibly toward STL
January 27, 2011 /The German government expects that Lebanon’s “new government will be conscious of its responsibility toward the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL),” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Andreas Peschke said in remarks published Thursday. “[Prime Minister-designate Najib] Mikati’s appointment to form a cabinet is not any easy situation” and Germany is closely following events in Lebanon, Peschke told Al-Hayat newspaper. Mikati, who was March 8’s candidate for the premiership, began consultations on cabinet formation Thursday following his Tuesday appointment. His appointment gave Hezbollah and its allies increased leverage in the country and provoked widespread protests.
March 8 brought down outgoing PM Saad Hariri's government on January 12 after a long-running dispute over the Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s investigation of former PM Rafik Hariri’s 2005 assassination, which Hezbollah fears will implicate some of its members.-NOW Lebanon

Hariri-Mikati meeting was cold
January 27, 2011 /The Wednesday meeting between Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati and outgoing PM Saad Hariri was “extremely cold” and limited to the exchange of a few words and the taking of a few photographs, As-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper reported on Thursday. The daily quoted an anonymous source close to Hariri as saying that “PM Hariri is not obliged to flatter anyone.”“Whoever calls himself a centrist consensus PM should have consulted the side that nominated him on its list in the parliamentary elections […] and should not have made an agreement with Hezbollah,” the source said. Al-Hayat newspaper’s Thursday edition also reported that the meeting was very short. According to the report, Hariri told Mikati, “I always dealt with you honestly, frankly, and openly in everything. As for you, you were not sincere with me.” Mikati told Al-Hayat that his meeting with Hariri had been limited to the requirements of protocol.  The new premier-designate won his Tripoli parliamentary seat in 2009 while running on an electoral list backed by Hariri. He was appointed to the premiership on Tuesday after he and Druze MPs defected from Hariri's bloc, leaving it in a minority in parliamentary consultations on the nomination. Mikati, whom March 8 backed for the premiership, began consultations on cabinet formation Thursday. His appointment gave Hezbollah and its allies increased leverage in the country and provoked widespread protests.-NOW Lebanon

Mikati launches cabinet formation talks
January 27, 2011
Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati on Wednesday launched talks on forming a government as rivals urged daily sit-ins against the mounting power of Hezbollah. Hezbollah-backed Mikati made protocol visits to five of his predecessors, including outgoing premier Saad Hariri whom Hezbollah and its allies deprived of a parliamentary majority to the fury of many Sunnis. The meeting with Hariri lasted just five minutes and the two men made no statements afterwards. Mikati has urged his predecessor's Western- and Saudi-backed March 14 bloc to join his government but Hariri has flatly rejected joining a cabinet headed by a man he regards as imposed by Hezbollah. Mikati describes himself as a centrist without any obligations to the Shia militia, which has accused Hariri of preventing the formation of a consensus government that might quell mounting sectarian tensions. But Hariri's allies were in no mood for compromise after losing their grip on power, despite calls from newspapers close to both their regional ally Saudi Arabia and Hezbollah's sponsor Syria for a new unity government.
"Hezbollah is empowered by its weapons and as such was able to carry out a coup," said Fares Soueid, a senior March 14 official. He accused Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah of using its military might to impose its choice for the premiership and urged supporters to hold daily sit-ins in Beirut. Some 200 people, many of them carrying Lebanese flags, gathered peacefully on Wednesday evening in downtown Beirut in answer to his call. Mikati was tasked with forming a new government on Tuesday after he and Druze MPs defected from Hariri's bloc, leaving it in a minority in parliament amid a row with Hezbollah and its allies over a UN probe into the 2005 assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri, Saad's father.
Hariri's bloc said it would focus its efforts now on two objectives -- support for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon probing Rafik Hariri's murder and the disarmament of all parties, in reference to Hezbollah and Palestinian arms.
The Netherlands-based STL is reportedly readying to indict Hezbollah members in connection with the Hariri murder, a move the group has warned against. Meanwhile, two more people died and hundreds were arrested as the biggest uprising against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule widened. Incensed demonstrators appeared set for further protests despite a crackdown that saw hundreds detained and left six people dead over two days. A policeman and a protester died in Cairo in a shower of rock-throwing between the two sides on Wednesday. Police fired tear gas at hundreds of demonstrators and chased them through the streets of a popular commercial district, witnesses said. Protesters responded by throwing rocks at police, damaging several shop fronts in an area near the information ministry.
There were also clashes as demonstrators pushed their way through a gate into the compound of the foreign ministry before being driven out with tear gas.
Protesters in the northeastern port city of Suez threw Molotov cocktails at a government building, setting parts of it on fire, witnesses said.
Others firebombed and occupied the headquarters there of the ruling National Democratic Party.
In clashes with police, who fired tear gas and rubber bullets at the crowds, 55 protesters and 15 police were injured, medics said on Wednesday.
Dozens were arrested in Egypt's second city of Alexandria as they tried to reach a sea-front square to demonstrate, witnesses said.
The protests in the Arab world's most populous nation, inspired by the groundbreaking "Jasmine Revolution" in Tunisia, sent shockwaves across the region and Egypt's interior ministry banned further demonstrations.Despite the ban and a threat to arrest those who disobeyed, members of the pro-democracy youth group April 6 Movement, the driving force behind the unrest, said they would take to the streets.
-AFP/NOW Lebanon

Barak, or inconsequence
Michael Young, January 26, 2011
Ehud Barak’s recent departure from Israel’s Labor Party to form his own faction offered an instructive moment in Israeli politics. It’s hardly the merits of the man that make it so. Rather, the transition was the latest confirmation that Israel’s so-called “peace camp” is a thing of the past in terms of political effectiveness, as the consensus in the country on relations with the Palestinians moves politically rightward.
The mediocrity of Barak’s record has reflected that change. It wasn’t always that way. In 1999, when he became prime minister, Barak was seen as the inheritor of Yitzhak Rabin, someone who would inject life into the moribund peace negotiations that had languished under the tenure of Benjamin Netanyahu. We were reminded that Barak was brainy and could be both gentle and rough: He could play the piano skillfully, and skillfully assassinate Palestinian leaders, as he did Khalil al-Wazir in Tunis. This helped earn him, with a colleague, the status of most decorated soldier in Israeli history.
Barak’s only term as prime minister, between 1999 and 2001, was defeated by hubris. He entered office ambitiously promising success on the Palestinian, Syrian and Lebanese tracks, yet left having achieved almost nothing. Barak did pull his soldiers out of South Lebanon in May 2000, but Israel received nothing in exchange. In light of the prime minister’s failures elsewhere, that exit, which was soon perceived, rightly or wrongly, as a defeat, took on added importance and became a yardstick for Israeli vulnerabilities.
With Syria, Barak’s vulnerabilities came to full light. He told his American interlocutors upon arriving in Washington in December 1999 for the Shepherdstown talks with Syria’s foreign minister, Farouk al-Sharaa, that he did not have a mandate to surrender the Golan Heights down to the shores of Lake Tiberias. This represented a step backward from what Rabin had promised the Syrian leader, Hafez al-Assad – showing, not for the last time, that Barak frequently promised what he could not deliver. The Shepherdstown talks collapsed and the prime minister’s reluctance to take risks on the Golan helped push the Syrian-Israeli track into a dead end after Assad held an abortive meeting with Bill Clinton in Geneva.
Barak’s legacy may be safer when it comes to the climactic moment of negotiations with the Palestinians: the Camp David talks of July 2000. The general opinion is that Israel offered the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, major concessions, but that an agreement was derailed by Arafat’s refusal to accept Israeli conditions on Jerusalem. However, that interpretation has been disputed, thanks largely to the publication by Robert Malley, a Clinton administration staffer who was present at the talks, and Hussein Agha of an article in The New York Review of Books questioning the orthodoxy. The “blame Arafat” line, they wrote, “fails to capture why what so many viewed as a generous Israeli offer, the Palestinians viewed as neither generous, nor Israeli, nor, indeed, as an offer.”
Their perspective was challenged by other officials who had been at Camp David, but Barak’s proposals did him no good at home. Once the Palestinians embarked upon a new intifada, the prime minister became a sitting duck. By then the high hopes of the years before had evaporated. Barak had struck out everywhere because he had too confidently imagined he could succeed everywhere. He was defeated by Ariel Sharon in the elections of 2001, resigned as leader of the Labor Party and for years worked outside politics.
The comeback was no more impressive. Only in 2007 did Barak regain leadership of Labor, and then by a narrow margin. In the 2009 elections Labor won a mere 13 seats in the Knesset. Despite initially saying the party would not join the government, Barak reversed course to become defense minister. Other party members were unhappy with this, and the ongoing tension between Barak and his colleagues over peace negotiations with the Palestinians pushed him to go his own way this week.
Perhaps Barak thinks he can do what Sharon did when he left Likud to form Kadima. If so, that, too, would be a sign of an over-adventurous ego. The Israeli defense minister has increasingly seemed little more than a good resume wrapped around a core of inconsequence. He has failed to stake out a position that anyone might readily identify as his. Barak’s compromises with Netanyahu, his refusal to push hard in favor of his declared positions on peace with the Arabs, even the fact that he appears to have misled the Obama administration over his effectiveness in swaying the prime minister, all suggest he is far closer to being an opportunist than the near redeemer he was portrayed as more than a decade ago.
If Barak has become so elastic, that’s because he is adapting to an Israel much different, at least to the outside world, than the one that elected him in 1999. The old parameters, those of an Israeli peace camp squaring off against a pro-settlement camp, were undermined by Sharon, who evacuated Gaza to better consolidate Israeli control over other Palestinian areas. This strategy, of offering absorbable concessions to enhance Israel’s long-term territorial domination, has been imitated by Netanyahu, and poses no problems for most Israeli voters. It’s a testament to Labor’s futility that Israel’s government is made stronger by its ministers’ walk-out. Barak may have dealt a harsh blow to Labor, but this won’t hasten his own political renaissance. His repositioning makes a good headline, but is not overly meaningful. Perhaps that’s because Israel itself is finding meaningful politics more and more elusive.
**Michael Young is opinion editor of the Daily Star newspaper in Beirut and author of the recent The Ghosts of Martyrs Square: An Eyewitness Account of Lebanon’s Life Struggle (Simon & Schuster).

Miqati Launches Efforts to Form New Government amid Hariri Boycott Insistence, Unclear March 14 Stance
Naharnet/Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati on Thursday launched efforts to form a new government amid outgoing PM Saad Hariri's insistence on an all-out boycott of his al-Mustaqbal bloc in the new Cabinet and March 14 forces' unclear stance. Miqati began his consultations at Parliament by meeting Speaker Nabih Berri. He then met Hariri for barely a couple of minutes. Hariri, whose government was toppled by Hizbullah and its allies Jan. 12, did not make any statements. However, he said jokingly: "What is the benefit of participating" in the new government? Mustaqbal bloc held an extraordinary meeting earlier Thursday ahead of consultations with parliamentary blocs aimed at forming a new government. The Daily Star quoted a March 14 source as saying that Al-Mustaqbal Movement will inform Miqati on Thursday that it will not take part in the next Cabinet. The source said Hariri's Mustaqbal Movement, the largest member of the March 14 alliance, will move to lead the new opposition. Miqati is scheduled to hold talks throughout the day with representatives of the various parliamentary blocs before wrapping up his consultations on Friday, when he would report back to President Michel Suleiman. Miqati, a moderate lawmaker with good ties to Syria and Saudi Arabia, was backed by Hizbullah and its allies to head the new government. He has said he would seek to form a Cabinet that includes all parties, but Hariri's Western-backed coalition has flatly rejected joining a government headed by a candidate they deem was imposed by Hizbullah. Miqati said that should he fail in his efforts to convince his rivals to join his Cabinet, he would form a government of technocrats.(Naharnet-AFP) Beirut, 27 Jan 11, 12:32

Ashkenazi: Israel Won't Interfere in Lebanon
Israeli Army Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi
Naharnet/Ashkenazi has reportedly said that the Jewish state will not interfere in Lebanon's developments although the situation is worrying. Ashkenazi made the comment as he addressed a group of NATO military chiefs in Brussels on Wednesday. He warned of the proliferation of non-conventional weapons and ballistic missiles throughout the Middle East.
"Cooperation with NATO will continue to be of extreme importance for Israel, particularly in the face of countries that are trying to obtain nuclear and non-conventional weapons," Ashkenazi said. "Extremist regimes and terrorist organizations have introduced high and low quality weapons, while exploiting civilians on the current battlefield," he said.
Ashkenazi held a series of meetings with his foreign counterparts including chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen. He spoke to them about the developments in Lebanon and warned them about the consequences of a Hizbullah takeover after the Shiite party's backed candidate, Najib Miqati, was nominated prime minister.
Israeli vice-prime minister Silvan Shalom said on Wednesday that Lebanon was being taken "hostage" by Iran and Hizbullah. "The international community must do everything to stop Hizbullah and Iran from taking Lebanon hostage," Shalom told Israeli public radio. "Hizbullah is not simply a terrorist organization, it's a terrorist organization controlled by the Iranian state," he said. Beirut, 27 Jan 11, 08:20

Iraq's Christians Consumed By Fear
 1-27-2011 /By Tracey Shelton/www.atimes.com
QARAQOSH, Iraq -- Each day before she leaves for work, Ekhlas Elia Bawood covers her head with the traditional hijab. She does this not because she is a Muslim, but because she lives in fear. Christians in Iraq are increasingly targeted for their beliefs. A lifelong resident of Mosul, the most dangerous city in Iraq, Bawood said Christian homes in her neighborhood are attacked by bomb explosions at least two or three times each week. With dwindling numbers and little support, the few remaining Christians living in Mosul are careful to conceal their faith.
"We always must be careful who we talk to and suspicious of anyone we pass on the street," said Bawood.
The escalating violence against Christians has called religious leaders to act. A Copenhagen summit discussing these attacks was headed by the High Council of Religious Leaders in Iraq and attended by Iraq's most influential Sunni, Shi'ite and Christian leaders. The result was a fatwa, or religious edict, calling all Iraqi Muslims to end the violence.
The fatwa, which was announced in mosques across the country, "prohibits any assault on believers of religions that co-exist in Muslim countries, whether by killing, displacement, bloodshed or violation of the sanctity of homes and assets."
Even so, Sunni mullah Tahir Bamoky of the Omar Bin Khatab mosque in Halabja said many Sunnis, particularly in central Iraq, have rejected the fatwa issued by their religious leaders.
"The fatwa will have a greater influence in certain areas of Iraq," he said. "The Shi'ite Muslims have a deep respect for the fatwa, but the Sunni's of Iraq are divided and not all follow the fatwa."Bamoky called for greater cooperation between Muslim leaders and a joint committee to issue united fatwas to deal with the sectarian problems in Iraq.
This call for peace follows the most deadly attack against Christians since the US-led invasion of 2003. Gunmen stormed the Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad during a Sunday mass on October 31, killing 52 worshippers and wounding more than 100. The gunmen, wearing suicide vests packed with explosives, terrorized those inside, shooting men, women and children including two priests and a three-year-old boy, before detonating the explosives.
Since then, the violence has escalated with spikes in home invasions, robberies, bombings and kidnappings. The wave of anti-Christian violence has caused most of Bawood's friends and family to flee the country; she said that 50 of the 60 families in her neighborhood are now gone.
Amnesty International reported last month that threats and attacks against Christian families increased countrywide after the church attack. According to the report, in addition to threatening letters and text messages, methods included "dead birds being nailed to the door in warning, extortion, and offensive graffiti on houses".
Since 2003, Amnesty International reports have recorded over 70 attacks on Christian churches in Iraq. Around 1,000 Christian civilians have been killed by terrorist attacks, bombings, and assassinations, while many more have suffered harassment, numerous abductions and death threats.
Even amid the mass exodus of Christians, Bawood sat this week in the Mar Behnam Church in Qaraqosh, a Christian town on the outskirts of Mosul, and expressed her conviction to stay in her homeland. Just one day before, a bomb exploded at the front of her home. Bawood said the explosion was one of seven bombs detonated in her area within the past few days.
"In the past year, I lost a lot of my friends and relatives. Many were killed by al-Qaeda," she said, adding that around 25 close friends and relatives have been murdered and many more have fled after receiving threatening letters from hardline Islamic insurgents.
So far, the perpetrators have mostly escaped justice. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees report for 2010 on International Religious Freedom claimed, "Very few of the perpetrators of violence committed against Christians and other religious minorities in the country were punished; arrests following a murder or other crimes were rare."
Archbishop Georges Casmoussa, head of the Syriac Catholic church in Mosul, said around 1,000 families have fled to his and other parishes in Qaraqosh because of the violence and lack of action against the perpetrators. The Baghdad church attack has caused many to question the ability and will of Iraqi authorities, and even the United States, to protect them.
"Americans came here to bring us democracy. What democracy? To be allowed to kill without any responsibility?" said Casmoussa. "Freedom is not to do what we have in mind. Now it is a jungle. Whoever is toughest, he will kill the other."
Casmoussa, who has himself was been kidnapped in 2005 and had a knife held to his throat "in the name of God," said since 2003, the situation for Christians in Iraq has dramatically deteriorated. In 2008, the Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Mosul was kidnapped and murdered. That same year, an Assyrian orthodox priest was shot dead by unknown gunmen.
"We didn't have rights more than now, but we had security," said Casmoussa, while in the shadow of the six heavily armed guards who protect his home and office. "When you are a minority you have to accept some hard situations, but when you are faced with death or killing you start to ask, why? How can I tell families to stay when there is no security?"
At St John's Church in Suliemaniyah, in the relatively peaceful region of Iraqi Kurdistan, 120 families have taken shelter following the Baghdad church attack. Most were among the congregation gathered on Sunday to partake of the Holy Communion and commemorate those who died.
"I had family inside the church [in Baghdad on October 31] that were taken hostage," said a mother of two who was afraid to be named. "They called me from inside the church. 'They are killing us,' they screamed. I could hear the gunfire."All four of the woman's family members were shot dead during the siege. Ten days later, after further attacks and threats on Christian homes, the remaining family members fled their comfortable home in Baghdad to the refuge of a packed dormitory at St John's. Thousands more have fled the country altogether.
Christian leaders estimate that the population of Iraqi Christians has halved from around 800,000 in 2003, to under 400,000 today. By all accounts, Christians are leaving the country in droves. Archbishop Louis Sako, head of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Kirkuk, and one of Iraq's most prominent non-Muslim religious scholars, is not optimistic about the future.
"The future is unknown. The church has no clear vision. Christians are divided. They are leaving. If there is no security, no stable future for them, I think, little by little Christians will leave and there will be no more Christians in Iraq and this is a pity. With their departure, their history and their heritage will go with them," said Sako, in an interview at the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Kirkuk. "I don't see a real future for Christians because the whole country is boiling," he added.
The majority of Iraqi Christians are ethnic Chaldeans, Assyrians or Syriacs with a history dating back to the 1st century AD. Despite this legacy, as the violence continues to rage and hundreds continue to flee, the future for Iraq's Christians looks grim. "Christianity was here before Islam by 600 years. We are recognized as one of the builders of this society, but we have been pushed into a corner. We feel we are not desired here," said Casmoussa. "What future is left here for our children?"

Canadian Muslim population to reach 6.5 per cent of population by 2030
 The Canadian Press .....WASHINGTON - Canada's Muslim community is expected to grow to 6.6 per cent of the population by the year 2030, compared to 2.8 per cent last year.
That's according to a report released today by the U.S.-based Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion and Public Life. It says Muslims in Canada numbered 313,000 in 1990, or 1.1 per cent of the population. Last year, the number had grown to 940,000, or 2.8 per cent. The Centre says by 2030, Canada will be home to more than 2.6 million Muslims. It also says the world's Muslim population is expected to grow by about 35 per cent by 2030, rising from 1.6 billion in 2010 to 2.2 billion. Over the next two decades, the worldwide Muslim population is forecast to grow at about twice the rate of the non-Muslim population — an average annual growth rate of 1.5 per cent for Muslims compared with 0.7 per cent for non-Muslims. If current trends continue, says the Centre, Muslims will make up 26.4 per cent of the world's total projected population of 8.3 billion in 2030, up from 23.4 per cent of the estimated 2010 world population of 6.9 billion. The full report, which includes an executive summary, interactive maps and sortable data tables, is available on the Pew Forum's website.http://pewforum.org...

Analysis: U.S. stuck between support and concern in the Middle East
By Elise Labott, CNN's Senior State Department Producer
January 26, 2011
Washington (CNN) -- Two weeks ago in Qatar, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Arab leaders that if they failed to address the desperation, poverty and lack of political freedoms in their countries and build a better future for their people, their regimes would sink into the sand.  Now, across the region, Arab populations are beginning to voice social and economic frustrations and assert their democratic rights. It puts the United States in the unenviable position of wanting and needing to support those yearnings at the same time the regimes they have long relied on for security in the region are the targets. The United States was completely caught off guard and absent from the scene in Tunisia. Washington remained silent as the events unfolded, only to speak out after President Ben Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali had fled the country. In a carefully crafted statement, Clinton urged the caretaker government to respect the rights of the people assembling in the streets and to heed their call for political, social and economic reform.
Egyptians, emboldened by the success of their Tunisian brothers, followed on the streets of Cairo Tuesday to protest the corruption and failed economic policies of President Hosni Mubarak. Once again, Clinton measured her words Tuesday morning. But she offered at least tepid support of the Egyptian government, calling it "stable" and "looking for ways to respond to the legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people."While the chances of an overnight "revolution," is far less likely in Egypt than in Tunisia, the consequences for the United States would be far more dire should that happen in Egypt. Ben Ali provided significant cooperation to the United States in its campaign against terrorism, but his ouster is relatively inconsequential to U.S. national security interests. Mubarak, however, is a key U.S. ally whose help is critical in maintaining security in the region on every issue from helping to forge peace between Israelis and Palestinians to continuing to keep pressure on Iran to stabilizing Lebanon and Iraq. His continued failure to heed the calls of his people could ultimately become a national security issue for the United States. Today the United States has less control over events in the Middle East than ever before. At last weekend's talks in Istanbul, Iran showed the United States and its allies it remains defiant on its nuclear program in the face of tough sanctions. Lebanon is in the throes of a dangerous game of brinksmanship that threatens to send the country back into civil war after Hezbollah, supported by Syria and Iran, brought down the U.S.-backed government of Prime Minister Saad Hariri and installed billionaire businessman Najib Mikati as its choice for the job.
And neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians seem willing to give an inch to restart peace talks anytime soon, effectively leaving the peace process in neutral.
This troubled region has always looked to the United States to help in times of crisis. Now countries like Turkey and Qatar, whose interests don't always align with Washington's, are front and center. While its influence on these big-ticket issues in the region is declining, the United States has redoubled efforts to tackle their root causes, such as poverty, hunger and disenfranchisement of women: some of the same ills that prompted Tunisians to take to the streets, with publics in the neighborhood nipping at their heels.
Clinton told Arab leaders in Qatar that the United States stood ready to assist them in addressing the needs of their people. What she didn't say is that once they start to sink into the sand, the United States may be powerless to help.

Lebanon's new PM is not Hezbollah and not Iran
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/lebanon-s-new-pm-is-not-hezbollah-and-not-iran-1.339218
Latest update 03:39 26.01.11
By Zvi Bar'el /Haaretz
The incoming Lebanese prime minister, Najib Mikati, is not a representative of Hezbollah and certainly not of Iran. He is a close personal friend of Syrian President Bashar Assad, and even Saudi Arabia - the patron of the outgoing prime minister - hasn't spoken out against Mikati, a 55-year-old Sunni native of Tripoli.
France also proposed Mikati for the premiership, after it became clear that the compromise prime minister suggested by Saudi Arabia and Syria had been rejected. If Mikati has the support of Saudi Arabia, Syria and France, the United States will have a hard time opposing him. Mikati served in the government of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, in which he was responsible for public service and transportation, and was asked to briefly serve as interim prime minister following Hariri's assassination in 2005. Associates of Saad Hariri, the outgoing prime minister and Rafik Hariri's son, can also be expected to make their own political calculations and decide - perhaps with some Syrian and Saudi pressure - to join Mikati's government so as not to lose all their centers of power in the country. He will have to be everyone's prime minister, a job description Mikati should not find too difficult. With a fortune estimated at $2.5 billion, Mikati showed his ability to identify business opportunities when he invested in African countries, created (with his brother ) the massive communications company Investcom - during the height of the Lebanese civil war, when he was just 27 - and later sold it to a South African investor.
Other business ventures of Mikati's include opening a chain of luxury goods, which has its own elite fashion line; founding the Geneva-based Baboo Airline; and establishing a family foundation that helps Middle Eastern students who want to study at the Harris School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago.
There is virtually no large business in Lebanon that Mikati, a former chairman of the Lebanese trade bureau, does not have some connection with. And at the same time, he has managed to maintain the good name of a clean politician. Mikati, who studied at the American University of Beirut, the international business school INSEAD and Harvard University, is not a good friend of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and is far removed from the Iranian government. "I am a moderate politician, I am always at an equal distance from everybody," Mikati told the BBC yesterday after he was designated to form the next government. But he knows why he was tapped for the job: He must remove the threat of the international tribunal investigating Rafik Hariri's assassination, or at least sever any connection between the Lebanese government and the panel's expected indictment of Hezbollah activists. That means halting Lebanon's funding of the tribunal and returning the Lebanese judges to the panel. If Mikati does that - though he has not yet publicly committed to doing so - he will be able to argue, and justifiably so, that even Saad Hariri was willing to ignore the international tribunal, under certain conditions. Hezbollah doesn't need Mikati to demonstrate its control over Lebanese politics. Any prime minister that meets its demands - including Saad Hariri - is good from its perspective. Lebanon will not suddenly become more Iranian or more "Hezbollian" than it was two days ago. It will primarily be more Syrian, and that is a major difference, as Syria - which seeks to move closer to the United States and, thanks to France, sees itself as close to Europe - does not want Iran to seize control in its traditional sphere of influence.

March 14 Rejects Cabinet that Tolerates Arms, Aims at Abolishing Tribunal
The March 14 general-secretariat announced on Wednesday its rejection of a future government that aims at abolishing the international tribunal and tolerating weapons. "We won't accept the cabinet because it will come to abolish the court and tolerate weapons," said general-secretariat coordinator Fares Soaid. Following its weekly meeting, the general-secretariat announced in a statement "the start of the new stage under two headlines: The support of the international tribunal to achieve justice and disarmament … so that the Lebanese would be free and not terrorized by anyone." It expressed pride in lawmakers who named Saad Hariri for the PM's post, saying they "refused to betray the people and kept their March 14 stances in loyalty to their constituents." The statement reiterated that the March 8 forces led by Hizbullah staged a coup against Hariri and brought Najib Miqati to power illegally. March 14 urged supporters to hold sit-ins at ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's grave in downtown Beirut's Martyrs Square every day starting 6:00 pm to revive the movement. Beirut, 26 Jan 11,

An open letter to Walid Junblatt
Lebanon could go the Sudan way unless leaders of all factions work together in national interest
By Joseph A. Kechichian, Special to Gulf News
http://gulfnews.com/opinions/columnists/an-open-letter-to-walid-junblatt-1.752601
Published: 00:00 January 27, 2011
It will be a while before Lebanon has a new government and it seems that you decided to become irrelevant in your country's future. According to several observers, you are apparently a kingmaker though, and with all due respect, you are no such thing. For a kingmaker must either be a potential ruler himself or, at least, espouse impeccable nationalist credentials that withstand the tests of time and circumstances. As one leader in the Druze community, the best you can aspire to is to remain the chief of a challenged fiefdom, although short-term gains may certainly come your way. One wonders what is the meaning of your self-emasculation, and how long will it be before you change your mind again? How are we to evaluate your own words and deeds? Imagine everyone's surprise when you recently declared: "The Progressive Socialist Party will stand firm in support of Syria and the Resistance." While an Omani is expected to love his nation, or an Emirati be devoted to the UAE, likewise a Lebanese must put his country first. One must thus speculate whether your justifiable survival instincts clarify your nationalism given your assertion that you were with Syria. Who do you think your late father shed his blood for?
Inasmuch as you also stated that you were with the resistance, one must further query whether you approve of Hezbollah's long-term objective to transform Lebanon into what it cannot possibly become, a pro-Iranian confrontation state. In the event, Hezbollah denies any role in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, though repeated declarations that the tribunal is serving US and Israeli interests are allegorical. Your own description of the tribunal as "a tool for destruction" highlights confusion, rather than a carefully vetted statement, for you know that no Lebanese Government can cancel Security Council decisions.
Further divisions
Moreover, and this must also be reiterated, Hezbollah is using you to appoint a Sunni candidate for the post of Prime Minister that cannot but further divide the country. Do you have any doubts that Najeeb Mikati will forever carry a noose around his neck, and never be allowed to make a single independent decision?
For a quarter century, Hezbollah claimed that it would not use arms on the domestic front, although it did precisely that in 2008. At the time, the party's significant military losses were recorded at the hands of Druze warriors in the Chouf Mountains.
Inasmuch as that attempted coup d'état failed, because everyone rejected any tinkering with the 1943 National Charter, things are different today. It seems that Michel Aoun cannot abandon his perpetual quest for the presidency.
Still, it may be useful to ponder the Saudi foreign minister's recent affirmation that Lebanon was headed for a Sudan-option. Once your latest decision is translated into an effective political instrument, the opposition will end up controlling both parliament and the premiership, which will only leave the presidency outside of its control.
Regrettably, because Michel Sulaiman is a pro-Syrian product, replacing him through an impeachment will not be difficult. This will allow Aoun to move to Baabda even if that will mean the end of the Republic as we know it.
No one should then be surprised that the country is divided, with Syria permanently reclaiming the Bekaa Valley and Israel swallowing the South, which will require the expulsion of most of its inhabitants a la Palestine in 1948. Therefore, while you saved your own neck, you placed Lebanon and Michel Sulaiman, in clear danger.
Dear Walid Bayk,
Your recent pronouncements reminded me of the famous Burke oratory delivered 226 years ago (on February 28, 1785 to be precise), during the trial of the then Governor-General of India, Warren Hastings. Edmund Burke, the Anglo-Irish statesman and philosopher best known for his unsurpassed Reflections on the Revolution in France, a manifesto that defended conservative ideas and rejected any revolution's divinely-chosen aristocratic powers to a heartless and incompetent elite, argued for impeachment.
Warren Hastings was then charged with oppressing natives and argued in his defence that his actions could not be considered illegal because he had been granted arbitrary powers in India.
Burke, who hated injustice, replied:
"My lords, … Mr. Hastings has declared his opinion that he is a despotic prince; that he is to use arbitrary power. … The East India Company have not arbitrary power to give him; the king has no arbitrary power to give him; your lordships have not; nor the Commons; nor the whole Legislature. We have no arbitrary power to give, because arbitrary power is a thing which neither any man can hold nor any man can give. … This arbitrary power is not to be had by conquest. Nor can any sovereign have it by succession; for no man can succeed to fraud, rapine, and violence. Those who give and those who receive arbitrary power are alike criminal …
You, Dear Walid Bayk, have no arbitrary power to give either, and only time will tell whether your most recent choices will accelerate Prince Saud Al Faisal's prophetic predictions.
*Dr Joseph A. Kechichian is a commentator and author of several books on Gulf affairs

Mubarak's defense minister bids for US backing in Washington
DEBKAfile Special Report January 27, 2011,Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has sent his defense minister Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi to Washington with an urgent request for US backing for his embattled regime against the street protest movement which gained in violence on its second day, Wednesday, Jan. 26. debkafile's Washington sources report that in secret meetings, the Egyptian defense minister put the situation before President Barack Obama and a row of top US political, military and intelligence officials. He warned them that by advocating a soft hand with the demonstrators and responsiveness to their demands, American officials were doing more harm than good. Without a crackdown, he said, the regime was doomed. Tantawi also warned that the radical Muslim Brotherhood, which has stood aside from the opposition protests, was merely biding its time for the right moment to step in and take over. He asked the Obama administration for an urgent airlift of advanced riot control equipment.
The American response to the case presented by Tantawi is not known. Disclosure of his trip to Washington might well add fuel to the fires of disaffection burning in cities across Egypt. The protests are spearheaded by a youth opposition coalition whose members are proud of their Arab and Egyptian identity. Evidence of the regime's collaboration with a foreign power may well heighten their resolve to battle the regime and the million security services agents which Mubarak put on the streets Wednesday.
Slogans of "US out" and "Death to the US" have begun to appear on anti-Mubarak placards.
Wednesday night, debkafile reported:
The level of anti-government protest and violence escalated in the streets of Egyptian cities Wednesday night, Jan. 26 even after President Hosni Mubarak ordered a million security officers to back up the police and for the first time open fire on rioters in the town of Suez, leaving scores of dead and wounded. Western sources told debkafile that security forces lost control of the situation in the main Suez Canal port after protesters managed to break through a line of police defending the suburb housing government institutions and set them on fire.
They torched police headquarters and the regional premises of Mubarak's ruling NDP.
The president who has not been seen in public since the outbreaks broke out Tuesday has placed four armored divisions on emergency standby and cancelled all leaves – two on operational preparedness outside Cairo and two near the towns on the banks of the Suez Canal. Officers and men on furlough were ordered back to their bases.
Security forces have made some 2,500 arrests of opposition activists without managing to quell the unrest. debkafile's sources report that the situation in Cairo Wednesday was extremely tense after thousands of demonstrators poured into the streets and made for the Tel Talat Harb Square on the way to Liberation Square city center, where 30,000 protesters gathered Tuesday. A demonstrator and a policeman were killed in clashes, raising the number of fatalities in two days to six, as police failed to stem the advancing tide.
Our sources also report from Western sources in Cairo that some 500 journalists are locked in the building of the press association in the capital, including many foreign correspondents. Security officers burst into the building, collected the journalists in the lower flowers of the building and prevented them from covering events, reporting or taking photos.

Syria urges 'all Lebanon parties' to join unity government
Prime Minister-designate Mikati, who secured backing from Hezbollah and its allies, is expected to begin forming coalition on Thursday.
By Reuters /The Syrian government called on Lebanon's divided political leaders on Thursday to join what it described as a unity government, led by Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati.
"We hope a national unity government will be formed and all Lebanese parties join," Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem told reporters, in the first official reaction from Damascus to Mikati's appointment. Two days after Sunnis took to the streets for a "day of rage" to protest the appointment, which had been secured by Hezbollah and its allies, Mikati was set Thursday to begin the process of forming a new coalition. Hezbollah and its allies toppled the government of the Western-backed Sa'ad Hariri two weeks ago, after he refused to reject an international tribunal into the 2005 assassination of his father, former prime minister Rafik Hariri. The vote caps Hezbollah's steady rise over the past few decades from a resistance group fighting Israel to Lebanon's most powerful military and political force. The events of the past few week drew warnings from the U.S. that its support for Lebanon could be in jeopardy, demonstrating the risks of international isolation if Hezbollah pushes its power too far

After riots and rage, Lebanon is ready to move on
Previously, former Lebanon PM Hariri had said he would not take part in a Hezbollah-dominated coalition, but this resolute stance seemed to be cracking.
By Zvi Bar'el
Ousted Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri must distinguish between this week's demonstrations in Lebanon and those of 2005, Ibrahim al-Amin wrote Wednesday in his column in the pro-Hezbollah daily Al Akhbar. The difference, Amin said, is that in 2005, the crowds represented all Lebanese citizens, united in outrage at the heinous murder of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. But this week, he wrote, the demonstrations were strictly Sunni - a clan, almost a family, affair. Not many Christians were involved. The Lebanese Patriarch Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, a firm Hezbollah opponent, did not urge people to join the demonstrations, while Saudi Arabia, Hariri's patron, did not even denounce the appointment of new Prime Minister Najib Mikati. When Hariri met with his successor Wednesday, as is customary, the defeat was evident on his face. This is a personal and clan defeat, as indicated by the fact that Tuesday's stormy protests did not resume Wednesday. Lebanon as a whole seemed ready for the next stage. This is the stage when Mikati tries to form a government that will at least simulate a national unity government by including Hariri's Al-Mustaqbal Movement. Previously, Hariri had said he would not take part in any Hezbollah-dominated government, but this resolute stance seemed to be cracking yesterday. Al-Mustaqbal MP Ahmed Fatfat, for instance, said yesterday that "everything depends on the new government's agenda." A spokesman for one of Hariri's associates laid down the red lines: "The trial of Rafik Hariri's murderers is not negotiable, nor are Hezbollah's weapons inside Lebanon." But these lines seem flexible. Hariri's supporters will not want to give up their power centers and hand them over to Hezbollah's supporters. If Mikati fails to persuade Al-Mustaqbal to join the government, which would grant him broad public legitimacy, he can still form a "technocratic" government not formally identified with any party or sect.