LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِMarch 28/2011

Biblical Event Of The Day
The Lost  (prodigal) Son's parable:  Luke15/11-32: He said, “A certain man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of your property.’ He divided his livelihood between them.  Not many days after, the younger son gathered all of this together and traveled into a far country. There he wasted his property with riotous living. When he had spent all of it, there arose a severe famine in that country, and he began to be in need.  He went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed pigs.  He wanted to fill his belly with the husks that the pigs ate, but no one gave him any. 15:17 But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough to spare, and I’m dying with hunger!  I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight.  I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants .”’ “He arose, and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.  The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe, and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.  Bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat, and celebrate;  for this, my son, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.’ They began to celebrate.  “Now his elder son was in the field. As he came near to the house, he heard music and dancing.  He called one of the servants to him, and asked what was going on. He said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and healthy.’  But he was angry, and would not go in. Therefore his father came out, and begged him.  But he answered his father, ‘Behold, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed a commandment of yours, but you never gave me a goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. 15:30 But when this, your son, came, who has devoured your living with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.’  “He said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But it was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
Arab regimes and the question of timing/By Tariq Alhomayed/ March 27/11
To survive, Assad must contain majority Sunni unrest before it infects army/DEBKAfile/March 27/11

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for March 27/11
Bomb blast outside church in eastern Lebanon - no injuries/Monsters and Critics.com
Lebanon/Pro, Anti-Assad Demos in Lebanon: Clashes in Tariq Jedideh, Shooting in Nabaa/Naharnet
'Iran, Hezbollah assisting in Syria protest suppression'/J.Post
Al-Rai: Nobody can dispense Baroud/Now Lebanon
Clinton: No US military action planned on Syria for now/Ynetnews
Six dead in port city as Syrian crisis grows/Reuters
Shaaban: Decision Already Made to Lift Emergency Law, Assad to Address Nation Very Soon/Naharnet
Lieberman Suggests No-Fly Zone an Option in Syria if Violence Escalates/Fox News
Clinton: No military action in Syria for now/CBN
US senator raises possibility of military action in Syria/Now Lebanon
Syria: Emergency law to be lifted some day/UPI
Kuwait stands with Syria: Emir/Xinhua
Syria's rally crackdown condemned/CBC
Syria army beefs up presence in city at heart of protests/Haaretz
12 die in Syria in violent protests/Press Association
Protesters march again in Syria/Los Angeles Times
Syria deploys more soldiers at flashpoint town Deraa/Reuters
Syria accuses Egyptian blogger of spying for Israel/Al-Masry Al-Youm
Libyan Rebels Retake Ajdabiya as Unrest Continues Across Middle East/VOA
Chavez throws support to Assad, calling him a 'humanist' and 'brother'/Haaretz
Missing student found in Syria/Boston Globe
Aoun: Reform ought to be comprehensive like justice/iloubnan.info
Lebanon watches unrest in neighbouring Syria with concern/Monsters and Critics.com
Riyadh Contributes $10 Million to Tribunal /Naharnet
March 14 MPs Warn Against Return to Era of Hegemony  /Naharnet
PSP Rejects Use of Arms Locally, Jumblat Warns Against Vacuum/Naharnet
Sources: Miqati to Announce Cabinet Lineup Based on Own Vision /Naharnet
Report: Hariri Asked March 14 Not to Target Jumblat /Naharnet
March 14 MPs Warn Against Return to Era of Hegemony /Naharnet
Riyadh Contributes $10 Million to Tribunal /Naharnet
Report: Syrian Collaboration with Gadhafi Over Sadr's Disappearance /Naharnet
Fatah Member Badly Injured in Ain el-Hilweh Shooting /Naharnet
Geagea: Abduction of Estonians Will Lead to Erosion of the State /Naharnet


Bomb Causes Heavy Damage to Church in Zahle /Naharnet
Naharnet/A bomb targeted a Syriac Orthodox church in the eastern city of Zahle's industrial district at dawn Sunday, causing heavy material damage. The National News Agency said the 2-kilogram TNT explosives were planted outside the church's doorstep and controlled by a mobile phone. Media reports said the device went off at 4:15 am blowing up St Mary church's door and damaging benches. Shrapnel reached the altar, they added. The incident took place in the same area where seven Estonian tourists were kidnapped on Wednesday.
MP Elie Marouni told Voice of Lebanon radio station that the two incidents are interlinked and are aimed at creating instability in the Central Bekaa. Joseph Maalouf, another MP from Zahle, said Sunday's incident as well as the kidnappings were clearly aimed at sowing unrest in the region. "This is part of efforts to undermine civil peace and security, especially as Lebanon has been without a government for more than two months," Maalouf told Agence France Presse. "Security forces must quickly stop these kinds of attacks and reveal any information they have on these incidents," he added. Zahle's Syriac archbishop, Boulos Safar, who inspected the damage accused "faithless people" of being behind the blast. "The explosion targets Lebanon and its security stability."Safar held Sunday mass outside the church despite the attack.(Naharnet-AFP) Beirut, 27 Mar 11, 10:11

Al-Rai: Nobody can dispense Baroud
March 27, 2011 /Maronite Patriarch Beshara Boutros Al-Rai on Sunday said that Interior Minister Ziad Baroud “is a national minister and the hope for every Lebanese person,” adding that “nobody can dispense him.”His comments came after he met with Baroud, the National News Agency reported. The formation of a new Lebanese cabinet headed by Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati is reportedly being delayed due to a dispute between President Michel Sleiman and Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun over the Interior Ministry portfolio.Al-Rai, 71, was elected to succeed the 91-year-old Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir, who resigned recently after serving for 25 years as Patriarch of Antioch and the Levant for the Maronites. -NOW Lebanon

Clinton: No US military action planned on Syria for now
AFP Published: 03.27.11, 18:59 / Israel News
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Sunday said the United States currently has no intention of launching a military intervention in Syria, despite its brutal crackdown that has left dozens of protesters dead
Asked on CBS television's "Face the Nation" program if Washington is planning military action similar to that launched in Libya, Clinton answered that it is not.
"No, each of these situations is unique," she responded
"Certainly we deplore the violence in Syria," she said. "We call as we have on all of these governments during this period of the Arab awakening, as some have called it, to be responding to their people's needs - not to engage in violence, permit peaceful protests and begin a process of economic and political reform."
She said, however, that if an international coalition, with the authority of a UN Security Council resolution, offered "universal" condemnation of Syria, military intervention would be possible.
"But that is not going to happen because I don't think it is yet clear what will occur, what will unfold," she said, noting differences between Syria's suppression of protests and the crackdown in Libya. "What's been happening there the last few weeks is deeply concerning, but there's a difference between calling out aircraft and indiscriminately strafing and bombing your own cities, than police actions which frankly have exceeded the use of force that any of us would want to see," she said.
Reaching out
Her remarks came after more than 30 people were confirmed killed in a spiral of violence that has gripped Syria since a wave of protests broke out on March 15, with demonstrators demanding reform. Meanwhile, the New York Times reported Sunday that the United States, despite historically frosty relations with Damascus, behind the scenes has been quietly reaching out to Syrian President Bashar-al-Assad urging him to stop firing on his people.
The daily reports that the new US ambassador in Damascus, Robert Ford, has urged the Syrian leader to show greater restraint, as Washington tries to prevent greater upheaval in an already unstable region.
In her CBS interview, Clinton was optimistic. "There is a different leader in Syria now, many of the members of Congress of both parties who have gone to Syria in recent months have said they believe he's a reformer," she said.

US senator raises possibility of military action in Syria
March 27, 2011 /US Senator Joe Lieberman on Sunday voiced support for military intervention in Syria if the regime “resorts to the kind of violent tactics used by Libyan [leader] Moammar Qaddafi,” Fox News reported on Sunday. "There's a precedent now that the world community has set in Libya, and it's the right one," the station quoted him as saying.
His comments follow US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s statement earlier in the day that the US is not planning for any intervention in Syria as it has in Libya.-NOW Lebanon

Riyadh Contributes $10 Million to Tribunal
Naharnet/Saudi Arabia has decided to contribute 10 million dollars to the budget of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, western diplomatic sources said. The sources told the Central News Agency and several other agencies that Riyadh informed tribunal officials about its decision. The news came after Canada decided to grant an additional 1 million dollars to the STL which is probing the 2005 assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri. The total of Canadian contributions to the STL reached 3.7 million dollars, al-Mustaqbal daily remarked.
Beirut, 27 Mar 11, 13:10

Pro, Anti-Assad Demos in Lebanon: ashes in Tariq Jedideh, Shooting in Nabaa
Around 200 Syrian expats rallied in front of the Syrian embassy in Beirut on Sunday, shouting slogans in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is facing unprecedented domestic pressure as protests and clashes erupt across Syria, Agence France Presse reported. Demonstrators in front of the embassy in the Beirut area of Hamra held pictures of Assad, chanting "With our souls, with our blood, we will sacrifice for you, Bashar" as Lebanese security forces and army troops cordoned off the area and started checking IDs.
Meanwhile, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported that around 50 anti-Assad protesters also staged a rally in front of the embassy. In the neighborhood of Nabaa, east of Beirut, gunmen in a speeding car opened fire on dozens of Syrian demonstrators, wounding one and sparking panic among the protesters who dispersed after the incident, a security source told AFP. The relevant authorities opened an investigation into the shooting, the source added. Witnesses told AFP that Syrian demonstrators had entered "by mistake" the Beirut neighborhood of Tariq Jedideh, a Mustaqbal Movement stronghold. Young men from the area beat up several of the protesters before the army intervened and dispersed the crowd. More than 30 people have been confirmed killed in a spiral of violence that has gripped Syria since a wave of protest broke out on March 15, with demonstrators demanding major reforms. Beirut, 27 Mar 11, 16:34

March 14 MPs Warn Against Return to Era of Hegemony
Naharnet/March 14 lawmakers Ammar Houri and Oqab Saqr warned that Syrian meddling in the Lebanese government formation process would take back the country to the era of hegemony. Al-Mustaqbal bloc MP Houri told pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat in remarks published Sunday that he rejects interfering in the internal affairs of any country just as he is against the meddling of any side in Lebanon's affairs. He expressed regret at visits carried out by MPs Michel Aoun and Walid Jumblat and the assistants of the Hizbullah leader and the speaker, Ali Hassan Khalil and Hussein Khalil, to Damascus. "This is not comforting and take us backwards," Houri said in reference to the period of Damascus' hegemony over Lebanon that ended with the pullout of Syrian troops from the country in 2005. Now Lebanon bloc MP Saqr, in his turn, said "the unilateral formation of the Lebanese government reflects negatively on the situation in Lebanon and Syria." "Any provocative government would create a problem for Syria internally and on its international ties," he stressed.
"It is not acceptable to abort what we have achieved since 2005," Saqr added. Beirut, 27 Mar 11, 11:32

PSP Rejects Use of Arms Locally, Jumblat Warns Against Vacuum
Naharnet/The Progressive Socialist Party on Sunday rejected the use of weapons locally and called for a defense strategy that protects Lebanon from Israeli attacks.During its yearly general assembly meeting, the PSP said the use of weapons locally "would destroy all national achievements." However, the party rejected to keep the country weak amid continued Israeli threats.It believed that "achieving a national defense strategy that guarantees the protection of Lebanon against Israeli attacks and violations" and resorting to dialogue were the best solutions.The PSP called for "rational dialogue" on Hizbullah's arms after the formation of the new government. Addressing the party members, PSP chief Walid Jumblat also called for dialogue. Jumblat warned in remarks published Sunday against a political vacuum. In remarks to An Nahar daily, Jumblat said: "I back the quick formation of the government and reject details over shares because the presence of the cabinet guarantees stability and protects institutions." While warning against the dangers of vacuum, he said there is "no magical solution" to the country's problems unless politicians resort to "dialogue." Asked about the obstacles facing the cabinet formation process, the Druze leader said: "There are local and personal obstacles."
He stressed that the formation of the government was an "internal issue" when An Nahar asked him if he discussed the matter with Syrian President Bashar Assad in his latest visit to Damascus. Jumblat said the Taef agreement should be implemented for drawing a line between the two countries that says the security of Syria and Lebanon are interlinked.
Beirut, 27 Mar 11, 09:43

Report: Hariri Asked March 14 Not to Target Jumblat
Naharnet/Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri has reportedly told March 14 officials not to target Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat who has fallen out of the alliance. "I don't want anyone to target Walid Jumblat ever," Hariri has said, according to the Kuwaiti daily al-Anbaa. "From February 14 till March 14, 2005, the man launched the March 14 (movement) … We should remain loyal to him," Hariri reportedly said about the Druze leader. About Hariri's ties with Speaker Nabih Berri, the newspaper said that the caretaker premier believes relations are stagnant but he doesn't want to cut his ties with the Amal movement leader for fears that such a move would affect the general situation in the country amid a regional turmoil. Beirut, 27 Mar 11, 12:42

Geagea: Abduction of Estonians Will Lead to Erosion of the State
Naharnet/Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea condemned on Friday the abduction of the seven Estonian tourists earlier this week saying that it "tarnishes Lebanon's image and it will gradually erode the state's authority."Addressing the inauguration of Beshara al-Rahi as the new Maronite Patriarch, he stated that former Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir witnessed the end of Syria's hegemony over Lebanon, as well as the end of the Lebanese civil war. Regarding Hizbullah's possession of arms, he noted: "The rise of the state is impossible with the existence of weapons outside its authority." Beirut, 26 Mar 11, 12:34

Nawwaf Moussawi: Confrontation Lies with a Corrupt Camp that Has Subjected Lebanon to U.S. Control
Naharnet/Loyalty to the Resistance bloc MP Nawwaf Moussawi stated that the dispute in Lebanon lies between those seeking to liberate Lebanon from tutelage, aggression, and occupation and those who want to subject Lebanon to colonialism and foreign hegemony. He added: "The confrontation lies between those who want Lebanon to be the example of sociopolitical life based on unity and diversity and those who only see only see Lebanese as a number of sects." "Such a confrontation requires a government that is capable of enduring such a mission … The other camp has decided to overthrow Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati and any other premier because they don't favor it," he said. "It has decided to topple the government even before it has been formed" because it seeks power and obstructing state functioning, the MP stressed. Moussawi noted: "The March 14 camp traded its control of the country with a U.S. mandate under the guise of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon." Beirut, 26 Mar 11, 16:32

Sources: Miqati to Announce Cabinet Lineup Based on Own Vision
Naharnet/Premier-designate Najib Miqati's sources remained mum over the weekend on the consultations between him and Michel Aoun's Change and Reform Bloc over the controversial interior ministry portfolio.Bloc member MP Farid al-Khazen said however that the cabinet would not be formed soon and the size of the government hasn't been settled yet.
Sources following up the cabinet formation process told An Nahar daily in remarks published Sunday that Miqati is keen on satisfying all parties. However, "this doesn't mean they would be fully satisfied" with his decisions. They stressed that the prime minister-designate has reached a stage where he would announce a government based on his own vision. The sources hinted that Miqati would bow out if the new cabinet doesn't receive the parliament's vote of confidence. Meanwhile, other sources denied to pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat that demonstrations against the Assad regime in several Syrian cities had a "negative impact" on the formation of the Lebanese government. They stressed that the cabinet would be formed early next week.
Asked about the demands of parliamentary blocs, the sources said: "The blocs have a say but (eventually) the prime minister settles the issue and proposes a harmonious cabinet lineup" in coordination with President Michel Suleiman. Beirut, 27 Mar 11, 10:45

Shaaban: Decision Already Made to Lift Emergency Law, Assad to Address Nation Very Soon
Naharnet/Syrian authorities have decided to lift emergency rule, a presidential adviser told Agence France Presse on Sunday as residents of the northern city of Latakia buried victims of a wave of unrest that has put President Bashar al-Assad under unprecedented pressure. Troops have deployed in Latakia, a religiously diverse port city 350 kilometers northwest of Damascus, where at least 12 people have been killed by gunfire involving snipers since Friday. Two of the victims were buried Sunday. "The official death toll in Latakia is 10 people -- citizens and members of the security forces -- and two gunmen," presidential adviser Buthaina Shaaban told AFP in Damascus Sunday.
More than 30 people have been officially confirmed killed in a spiral of violence that has gripped Syria since a wave of protest broke out on March 15, with demonstrators demanding major reforms in the country which has been ruled by the Baath party for close to 50 years. Activists say more than 126 people have died, with upwards of 100 killed on Wednesday alone in a bloody crackdown on protests in Daraa, the southern tribal town that has become the symbol of the dissent. The state has announced a string of reforms in a bid to reach out to protesters, including the release of detainees and plans to form new laws on the media and licensing political parties. Syria has also decided to lift the country's emergency law, which was written in December 1962 and has been in place since the Baath party rose to power in March 1963. "The decision to lift the emergency law has already been made. But I do not know about the timeframe," Shaaban told AFP. Syria's emergency law imposes restrictions on public gatherings and movement and authorizes the arrest of "suspects or persons who threaten security."
The law also authorizes interrogation of any individual and the surveillance of personal communication as well as official control of the content of newspapers and other media before publication. London-based rights group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights welcomed the decision and said some 2,000 people should be freed from prison should the law be lifted.
"All those indicted by the Supreme State Security Court should be freed as the court operates under the state of emergency," said Rami Abdul Rahman, who heads the organization.
The unrest has put enormous pressure on President Bashar al-Assad, who rose to power after the death of his father Hafez al-Assad. The 45-year-old president is expected to make a public address in the days to come. Shaaban accused Palestinian refugees from a nearby camp of wanting to fuel sectarian strife in Latakia, home to some 450,000 of Christians, Sunni Muslims and Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
Ahmed Jibril, head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, denied any Palestinian involvement in Saturday's violence, in a statement published in Al-Watan.
Deadly violence has also gripped cities in southern Syria for 13 days now, and protesters have vowed to keep taking to the streets until their demands for more freedom are met.
On Saturday, demonstrators torched the Baath party's local headquarters in the southern town of Tafas. In nearby Daraa, at the Jordanian border, some 300 bare-chested young men climbed Saturday on the rubble of a statue of Hafez al-Assad, which had been torn down the day before, shouting anti-regime slogans, witnesses said. The tribal town of Daraa has emerged as the hub of the protests and has sustained the most casualties as residents repeatedly come out to demonstrate. Authorities have accused "armed gangs" and extremist Muslims of pushing peaceful rallies into violence.(AFP) Beirut, 27 Mar 11, 18:09

Clinton Rules Out Libya-Style Military Intervention in Syria
Naharnet/U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Sunday said the United States currently has no intention of launching a military intervention in Syria, despite a violent crackdown that has left dozens of protesters dead. Asked on CBS television's "Face the Nation" program if Washington is planning military action similar to that launched in Libya, Clinton answered that it is not. "No, each of these situations is unique," she responded. "Certainly we deplore the violence in Syria," she said. "We call as we have on all of these governments during this period of the Arab awakening, as some have called it, to be responding to their people's needs -- not to engage in violence, permit peaceful protests and begin a process of economic and political reform." She said, however, that if an international coalition, with the authority of a U.N. Security Council resolution, offered "universal" condemnation of Syria, military intervention would be possible. "But that is not going to happen because I don't think it is yet clear what will occur, what will unfold," she said, noting differences between Syria's suppression of protests and the crackdown in Libya. "What's been happening there the last few weeks is deeply concerning, but there's a difference between calling out aircraft and indiscriminately strafing and bombing your own cities, than police actions which frankly have exceeded the use of force that any of us would want to see," she said. Her remarks came after more than 30 people were confirmed killed in a spiral of violence that has gripped Syria since a wave of protests broke out on March 15, with demonstrators demanding reform. Meanwhile, the New York Times reported Sunday that the United States, despite historically frosty relations with Damascus, behind the scenes has been quietly reaching out to Syrian President Bashar-al-Assad urging him to stop firing on his people. The daily reports that the new U.S. ambassador in Damascus, Robert Ford, has urged the Syrian leader to show greater restraint, as Washington tries to prevent greater upheaval in an already unstable region. In her CBS interview, Clinton was optimistic. "There is a different leader in Syria now, many of the members of Congress of both parties who have gone to Syria in recent months have said they believe he's a reformer," she said.(AFP) Beirut, 27 Mar 11, 19:18

Report: Syrian Collaboration with Gadhafi Over Sadr's Disappearance
Naharnet/A delegation from Syrian intelligence services was recently dispatched to Tripoli to scrub the Libyan intelligence archives clean of all the records detailing past projects that the two countries had collaborated on, the 'Weekly Standard' U.S. magazine reported. It said one Arabic-language website claimed that former Syrian vice president Abdel-Halim Khaddam was involved in the disappearance of Imam Moussa al-Sadr, the Iranian-born Lebanese cleric who went missing in Libya in 1978. A discovery that Syria really was complicit in Sadr's death could cause Bashar Assad's regime some trouble with Lebanon's Shiite community, which revered the cleric, the report said. Syria can hardly afford to alienate the Shiites, it added. A Khaddam associate who worked in the Syrian regime at high levels, Bassam Bitar, told the magazine that Khaddam warned Sadr not to go to Libya. "Khaddam always thought (Moammar) Gadhafi was crazy and thought something could go wrong, but Sadr went anyway because he needed Gadhafi's money for his projects." The point of contention between Gadhafi and Sadr was that the Libyan leader wanted the cleric to use Libyan funds to support the Palestinian resistance against Israel, but Sadr was using it instead to build up the impoverished Shiite community in southern Lebanon. "The two started to argue and it got out of hand," says Bitar. "Gadhafi told his officers to 'take him away,' which they interpreted as an order to kill him and his two associates." When Gadhafi asked the next day where Sadr was and discovered he had been killed, he had his officer killed. "Gadhafi didn't want to have any troubles coming from killing Sadr," says Bitar. "He called the Syrians in a panic to ask for advice, and it was Damascus that told him to concoct the story that he (Sadr) was last seen leaving Libya for Italy, where he supposedly disappeared." Beirut, 27 Mar 11, 13:39

Fatah Member Badly Injured in Ain el-Hilweh Shooting
Naharnet/A Fatah member was badly wounded after he was shot at in the southern refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh on Saturday night, An Nahar newspaper reported. A Fatah official in the shantytown, Maher Shbayta, identified the wounded militant as Ayman al-Dajjani. He unveiled that Jund al-Sham member Ahmed Aa, opened fire on the man while he was driving in his vehicle in al-Fouqani street. An Nahar said that al-Dajjani suffered wounds in his abdomen, chest and thighs and was taken to the Labib Medical Center in the port city of Sidon. The incident led to tension in Ain el-Hilweh, it said. A joint Palestinian committee opened an investigation into the incident, the daily added. Later in the day, a woman's body was taken to the same center after the Civil Defense Department and the Red Cross retrieved it from the sea off the coastal town of al-Rmaileh in the Shouf. Beirut, 27 Mar 11, 09:44

Fatah Member Badly Injured in Ain el-Hilweh Shooting
Naharnet/A Fatah member was badly wounded after he was shot at in the southern refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh on Saturday night, An Nahar newspaper reported.
A Fatah official in the shantytown, Maher Shbayta, identified the wounded militant as Ayman al-Dajjani. He unveiled that Jund al-Sham member Ahmed Aa, opened fire on the man while he was driving in his vehicle in al-Fouqani street. An Nahar said that al-Dajjani suffered wounds in his abdomen, chest and thighs and was taken to the Labib Medical Center in the port city of Sidon. The incident led to tension in Ain el-Hilweh, it said. A joint Palestinian committee opened an investigation into the incident, the daily added. Later in the day, a woman's body was taken to the same center after the Civil Defense Department and the Red Cross retrieved it from the sea off the coastal town of al-Rmaileh in the Shouf. Beirut, 27 Mar 11, 09:44

Syria arrests US national for sedition
March 27, 2011 /Syria has arrested an American national for inciting protests against the regime, official media reported Sunday. State-run television ran footage of a young man it said was an Egyptian carrying a United States passport, who had been working in Syria after a secret visit to Israel. The man said on camera that he had "received foreign money for transmitting images and videos about Syria". He said he had been contacted by a Colombian national and had received 100 Egyptian pounds ($17) for each photo sent, and more per video.
He added that he had received "e-mails sent from abroad asking if it was possible to transmit video on the [situation] in Syria," where unprecedented protests against the regime have been spreading across the country since March 15. He further stated he had travelled to Israel via Jordan, visiting Jerusalem before returning to Syria. A source at the US embassy in Damascus told AFP they "were aware of reports concerning the arrest of US citizens" and "had contacted the relevant authorities" in Syria. -AFP/NOW Lebanon

Six dead in port city as Syrian crisis grows
27/03/2011/DERAA, (Reuters) - Syrian security forces have killed six people in two days of anti-government protests in the key port city of Latakia, reformist activists living abroad told Reuters on Saturday. President Bashar al-Assad, facing his deepest crisis in 11 years in power after security forces fired on protesters on Friday in the southern town of Deraa, freed 260 prisoners in an apparent bid to placate a swelling protest movement. But the reports from Latakia, a security hub in the northwest, suggested unrest was still spreading.
There were reports of more than 20 deaths in protests on Friday, mainly in the south, and medical officials say dozens have now been killed over the past week around Deraa alone.
Such demonstrations would have been unthinkable a couple of months ago in this most tightly controlled of Arab countries. Bouthaina Shaaban, a senior adviser to Assad, told the official news agency that Syria was "the target of a project to sow sectarian strife to compromise Syria and (its) unique coexistence model."
Syrian rights activist Ammar Qurabi told Reuters in Cairo: "There have been at least two killed (in Latakia) today after security forces opened fire on protesters trying to torch the Baath party building." "I have been in touch with people in Syria since last night, using three cell phones and constantly sitting online. Events are moving at an extremely fast pace."
Exiled dissident Maamoun al-Homsi told Reuters by telephone from Canada: "I have the name of four martyrs who have fallen in Latakia yesterday."
The state news agency quoted a government source as saying security forces had not fired at protesters but that an armed group had taken over rooftops and fired on citizens and security forces, killing five people since Friday.In Damascus and other cities, thousands of Assad's supporters marched or and drove around, waving flags, to proclaim their allegiance to the Baath party.
GRAFFITI
The unrest in Syria came to a head after police detained more than a dozen schoolchildren for scrawling graffiti inspired by pro-democracy protests across the Arab world.
President Assad made a public pledge on Thursday to look into granting greater freedom and lifting emergency laws dating back to 1963, but failed to dampen the protests.
On Saturday a human rights lawyer said 260 prisoners, mostly Islamists, had been freed after serving at least three-quarters of their sentences.
Amnesty International put the death toll in and around Deraa in the past week at 55 at least. In Sanamein, near Deraa, 20 protesters were shot dead on Friday, a resident told Al Jazeera.
One unidentified doctor told CNN television that snipers had been shooting people in Deraa from atop government buildings.
"We had 30 people got shot in the head and the neck and we had hundreds of people got wounded," he said.
"We put two wounded in an ambulance sending them to the hospital. We had security forces stop the ambulances, get the wounded outside the ambulance and shoot them, and said: 'Now you can take them to the hospital'."
Some of the dead protesters were buried on Saturday in Deraa and nearby villages, residents said.
Several thousand mourners prayed over the body of 13-year-old Seeta al-Akrad in Deraa's Omari mosque, scene of an attack by security forces earlier in the week.
Police were not in evidence when they marched to a cemetery chanting: "The people want the downfall of the regime," a refrain heard in uprisings from Tunisia to Egypt and Yemen.
Emboldened by the lack of security presence, the mourners also chanted: "Strike, strike, until the regime falls!"
Abu Jassem, a Deraa resident, said: "We were under a lot of pressure from the oppressive authority, but now when you pass by (the security forces), nobody utters a word. They don't dare talk to the people. The people have no fear any more."
ALAWITES
In nearby Tafas, mourners in the funeral procession of Kamal Baradan, killed on Friday in Deraa, set fire to Baath party offices and the police station, residents said.
There were also protests on Friday in Damascus and in Hama, a northern city where in 1982 the forces of president Hafez al-Assad, Bashar's father, killed thousands of people and razed much of the old quarter to put down an armed uprising by the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood.
Syria's establishment is dominated by members of the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, a fact that causes resentment among the Sunni Muslims who make up some three-quarters of the population. Latakia is mostly Sunni Muslim but has significant numbers of Alawites.
Edward Walker, a former U.S. ambassador to Egypt, said sectarian friction made many in the establishment wary of giving ground to demands for political freedoms and economic reforms.
"They are a basically reviled minority, the Alawites, and if they lose power, if they succumb to popular revolution, they will be hanging from the lamp posts," he said.
"They have absolutely no incentive to back off."
EXISTENTIAL STRUGGLE
Asked if there could be a crackdown on the scale of Hama, Faysal Itani, deputy head of Middle East and North Africa Forecasting at Exclusive Analysis, said this was a "real risk."
"For a minority regime this is an existential struggle," he said. "If the unrest continues at this pace, the Syrian army is not going to be able to maintain cohesion."
Many believed a tipping point had been reached.
"The Syrian regime is attempting to make promises such as a potential lifting of the state of emergency, which has been in place since 1963, a record in the Arab world," Bitar said.
"But if this happens it will be the end of a whole system, prisoners will have to be released, the press will be free ... when this kind of regime considers relaxing its grip, it also knows that everything could collapse."
Central Bank Governor Adeeb Mayaleh said the central bank was ready to supply the market with foreign currency liquidity, hinting at rising demand for U.S. dollars.
Syria has a close alliance with Iran and links to the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas and the Lebanese Shi'ite political and military group Hezbollah.Its allies in the region have yet to comment on the unrest.
"Syria is Iran's main ally in the Arab world. A fall of the regime would have consequences for Hezbollah and Hamas ... I'm not sure that the region's big powers would allow such a big shock," said Karim Emile Bitar, research fellow at the Institute for International and Strategic Relations in Paris.
Syrian border police were stopping a number of Syrians entering from Lebanon, a Lebanese security source said.

To survive, Assad must contain majority Sunni unrest before it infects army
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis March 26,
The protest against Bashar Assad’s regime is swelling. From its first epicenter in the southern town of Deraa it spread Friday, March 25, to new cities, Homs, Aleppo, Latakia and parts of Damascus. It has quickly attained the scale unforeseen by the regime of
a popular uprising by the majority Sunni population (74 percent) against Allawite-dominated (15 percent) rule.
Army troops gunned the protesters down in what witnesses described as a massacre of scores and hundreds injured, raising calls from the opposition for international intervention. The number of dead and injured cannot be reliably determined. debkafile’s intelligence sources report that special Syrian security clean-up units removed the bodies as they fell. The authorities were caught unawares by the upsurge of street rallies that followed preachers’ sermons in hundreds of Sunni mosques calling on their congregations to go out and drive the Assads and the minority Allawite sect from power. The Syrian secret service missed the Muslim Brotherhood’s hand in organizing this mass street eruption. The strongest rallying cry came from the influential radical Egyptian television preacher Yussuf Qaradawi who called on Syria’s Sunni community to stand up for its rights as a majority.
Because the army’s 4th Division commanded by Bashar’s brother Maher Assad, the only unit to be manned by Allawites, is tied down in suppressing riots in the southern town of Deraa and most of the troops in all other units are Sunnis, Assad is short of trusted contingents to defend his regime. He figured that fresh outbreaks in Deraa would inflame the rest of the country and therefore kept the 4th Division in place.
But the outbreaks spread to other key cities anyway under slogans calling for solidarity with the martyrs of Deraa and threatening his power centers in Damascus and beyond.
Neither the conciliatory measures announced on Thursday nor the security crackdown against protesters has succeeded in stifling dissent and defusing the crisis.
Defiancecontinues in Deraa itself even after demonstrators were gunned down with live bullets. The al-Omari mosque, which was stormed by security forces on Tuesday night, was reported to be back in the hands of protesters.The mosque has been the focal point of dissent in Deraa.
The tipping point for the 11-year old Assad regime (which followed the one his father established after a military coup) is therefore not far off unless he makes the right decision or receives outside help.
He can either opt for the Qaddafi option, for instance, or follow the example of the King of Bahrain. From the outset of the Libya revolt in February, Muammar Qaddafi opted for abandoning the east and focusing his military effort on preserving his centers of power in Tripoli and its outlying towns. After stabilizing his rule, he planned to set out and wrest the rest of the country from the rebels opposing his regime. So far, his gamble has succeeded. The rebels backed by international forces have not unseated him.
Will Assad decide after Friday that he has enough loyal military strength to buttress his rule over all of Syria, or choose to pull in his horns and concentrate on saving Damascus?
Since much of his army is unreliable, the Syrian ruler may have to opt for the Bahrain remedy - namely, calling for outside help as did King Hamid al Khalifa who asked Riyadh for Saudi forces to prop up his throne against a Shiite-led uprising. The allies who come to mind in the case of Assad are Iran, the Lebanese Hizballah, pro-Iranian Palestinian groups with bases in Damascus - Hamas, Jihad Islami and Ahmad Jibril’s Popular Palestinian Front-General Command. It would take Tehran no more than a few hours to fly Revolutionary Guards units into Damascus. An Iranian command structure is already positioned at Syrian armed forces headquarters in Damascus. Also available to Tehran is an Iraqi Shiite militia, the Mehdi Army of the radical cleric Moqtada Sadr, a good personal friend both of Hizballah’s Hassan Nasrallah and Assad. Saturday, there was widespread speculation that Tehran would do its utmost to rescue the Syrian ruler who only recently opened the port of Latakia for an Iranian base. Giving Hizballah a foothold in Syria is more complicated given the unstated competition between him and the Syrian ruler and the latter’s reservations about the former’s rising military strength and effective secret and terrorist capabilities. Assad would undoubtedly take into account that once Hizballah gained a foothold in Syria, it would be hard to dislodge. Putting the fate of the Assad regime in the hands of radical Palestinian organizations would be equally imprudent and, worse, a humiliation. It would give Palestinians their second open door to an Arab uprising, the first of which gave Hamas undreamed of leverage in Egypt. Assad may even stage an attack on Israel as a desperate diversionary tactic from his troubles.

Arab regimes and the question of timing
27/03/2011/By Tariq Alhomayed/Asharq Al-Awsat
The extent with which mistakes are being repeated by some Arab regimes in their confrontation of the political earthquake that is striking the entire region from all direction is astonishing, regardless of the different manner that this [political earthquake] is affecting different regimes and peoples. The greatest mistake that is being repeated by Arab regimes in dealing with this political earthquake is: killing [protestors], and not being aware of the importance of timing. In Egypt, Mubarak's regime was continually three days late in its response to events, and I wrote an article entitled "Egypt…the time difference" [09/02/2011] commenting on this. The Mubarak regime was acceding to yesterday's demands tomorrow, and so the protestors would continually say "this is not enough, time has run out on these demands." The Mubarak regime acceded to all the protestors' demands, but too late, and this ended with the Mubarak regime facing the grandest demand, for it to step down. Today we are seeing the same thing in Libya, although the Gaddafi regime is not three days late, but rather it is a regime that is out of time altogether, and its nature is to reject any and all rational solutions.
The other such situation is what is happening in Yemen, and in an interview with Al-Arabiya TV we heard the Yemeni President complain that whenever he puts forward an initiative, the opposition raises the ceiling of demands. This is only natural, because solutions always come late, for regimes always lag behind; this is because the regimes do not negotiate [directly] but rather attempt to haggle, as if they are buying or selling goods in a public market. The Yemeni president said that he would not extend his presidential term, he then said that he would leave office at the end of his current presidential term, he then said that he would leave office in January 2012. Following this, President Saleh said that he would be prepared to leave office in 60 days, and then he later told Al-Arabiya TV that he was prepared to leave office within hours so long as this occurred with dignity. The problem here is clear, which is that this is a problem of timing, for all of these proposals were good but were issued too late, not to mention that there is a genuine crisis of confidence, between the ruler and the ruled, not just in Yemen, but in many of our regional states! We have also witnessed the same series of mistakes in Syria. In his famous interview with the Wall Street Journal – which occurred during the Egyptian revolution – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad commented on the relationship between the ruler and the ruled, stressing that Syria is not Egypt. In this interview, al-Assad said that it would be a mistake to make reforms under [public] pressure. However what happened in Syria is that Damascus rushed to offer one concession after another, under pressure from the demonstrations, contrary to what the Syrian president said to the US newspaper. After Damascus attempted to suppress the demonstrations, it offered its condolences, and began to talk about reform and releasing prisoners, so why did they delay in the first place?
Therefore, we are facing a series of mistakes being repeated, from regime's ignoring the importance of timing to continuing the cycle of violence, killing protestors. The ideal solution here would be there, first and foremost, to be an end to the killing, with regimes putting forward a package of genuine solutions that go beyond the demands of the protestors or the opposition. This would ensure that the situation does not became further complicated, with countries slipping into a state of chaos and violence or civil war, ending with the ouster of the regime, which was something that was not initially one of the protestors demands. This is what happened in a number of Arab states, including Tunisia which is where the first spark was lit.
This is not advice to help regimes that are facing genuine trouble to survive, but rather this is an attempt to remind everybody of the reality of the situation in order to avoid further killing and destruction.