LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِMay 30/2011

Biblical Event Of The Day
The Letter from James 3/11: "Let not many of you be teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive heavier judgment. 3:2 For in many things we all stumble. If anyone doesn’t stumble in word, the same is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also. 3:3 Indeed, we put bits into the horses’ mouths so that they may obey us, and we guide their whole body. 3:4 Behold, the ships also, though they are so big and are driven by fierce winds, are yet guided by a very small rudder, wherever the pilot desires. 3:5 So the tongue is also a little member, and boasts great things. See how a small fire can spread to a large forest! 3:6 And the tongue is a fire. The world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire by Gehenna. 3:7 For every kind of animal, bird, creeping thing, and thing in the sea, is tamed, and has been tamed by mankind. 3:8 But nobody can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 3:9 With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who are made in the image of God. 3:10 Out of the same mouth comes forth blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. 3:11 Does a spring send out from the same opening fresh and bitter water? 3:12 Can a fig tree, my brothers, yield olives, or a vine figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh water."

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
Should Syrian Christians be afraid?/Aline Sara/May 29/11
The Syrian Foreign Minister at the Qatari embassy/By Tariq Alhomayed/May 29/11
'One, one, one, the Syrian people are one'/By: Mohja Kahf/May 29/11  

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for May 29/11
Report: Syrian soldiers shot by fellow comrades/Al-Jazeera/Ynetnews
Cairo opens Gaza crossing, prepares to halt gas to Israel/DEBKAfile
Syria forces kill 5 as Assad tanks attack protests in central towns/AP/Haaretz
Syria Activists Protested on Saturday after Security Forces 'Killed Boy in Custody/Agencies/Naharnet
Suspected Qaida Gunmen Seize South Yemen City/Agencies/Naharnet
Hundreds in Lebanon Demand Government to Free Detained Syrians/Naharnet
Jumblat: Are We Supposed to Believe that Aoun’s Demands are Behind Delay in Govt/Naharnet
Suleiman, Baroud Inclined to Refer Rifi to Judiciary/Naharnet
March 14, Hizbullah Rattle Sabers over ‘Militia Practices’ in Telecom Building/Naharnet
Lebanese Parliament to Discuss Monday Telecom Issue, Heated Debate Expected between March 8/Naharnet
Report: Hezbollah forces helping Syria in crackdown on protesters/Haaretz
Syria's army is loyal, but not fail-safe: analysts/Zawya
Syrian troops encircle Rastan town, kill 2: witness/Reuters
'Several hurt' as Syria tanks encircle towns/AFP
Libya, Syria, Côte d'Ivoire to dominate UN rights council session/EG
Lebanese call upon their government to release detained Syrians/M&C
Aoun: Baroud may be prevented from taking measures against Rifi/Now Lebanon
March 8 members win in Doctors Syndicate elections/Now Lebanon

Report: Syrian soldiers shot by fellow comrades
Al-Jazeera TV airs video showing Syrian soldiers bleeding after reportedly refusing to fire at protestors
Roee Nahmias Published: 05.29.11,
Ynetnews/Al-Jazeera TV aired video footage on Sunday which shows Syrian soldiers bleeding. According to the report, which could not be confirmed, the soldiers were shot by their comrades after refusing to open fire at protestors in the city of Daraa. Al-Jazeera reported that soldiers from Syria's 4th Division under Maher Assad's command shot their friends.
Video footage showing wounded soldiers  It was also claimed that the injured soldiers were taken to a house in the city, where locals tried to treat them. There have been numerous reports about the Syrian army executing soldiers who refuse orders in the last few weeks.  Meanwhile, human rights activists and eye witnesses reported Sunday that Syrian forces backed by tanks and helicopters entered the city of Rastan and killed two people. An activist said at least three people were killed in Tabliseh.  It was also reported that soldiers broke into houses in the two towns and began performing mass arrests. Gunfire was heard across the towns and helicopters were seen circling the skies. AP contributed to this report

Syria forces kill 5 as Assad tanks attack protests in central towns
By The Associated Press/Haaretz
Syrian government troops backed by tanks attacked three central towns Sunday in an attempt to stop round-the-clock protests there against President Bashar Assad's regime, killing at least five people and wounding scores of others, activists and a rights group said. Activists said a school employee was killed and several students hurt, four seriously, when a shell exploded near a school bus. In this April 29, 2011 citizen journalism photo, Syrians gather after Friday prayers during an anti-government protest in the city of Banias, Syria.
Security forces in several other parts of the country fired on crowds holding overnight demonstrations, causing casualties, activists said. The new attack using military forces pointed to Assad's determination to crush the two-month-old revolt, despite U.S. and European sanctions, including an EU assets freeze and a visa ban on Assad and nine members of his regime. The uprising, which began in mid-March, is posing the most serious challenge to his family's 40-year rule. What began as a disparate movement demanding reforms has grown into a resilient uprising seeking Assad's ouster. Human rights groups say more than 1,000 people have been killed in the crackdown. Sunday's military attacks targeted the towns of Rastan, Talbiseh and Teir Maaleh in the central province of Homs. Authorities had sealed off and isolated the towns by closing roads and cutting phone service, the activists said.
"The towns are under siege," one of the activists said. The activists spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing government reprisals.
Residents of the towns have held anti-regime protests since the start of the uprising. Those protests have increased recently, with crowds taking to the streets day and night to call for the fall of Assad's regime, an activist said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said two people were killed in Rastan and four were wounded in Talbiseh. There were no immediate reports of casualties in Teir Maaleh. An activist said at least three people were killed in Tabliseh. The activist said that nearly 100 wounded people were taken to hospitals in the central city of Homs.
The Local Coordination Committees in Syria, which help organize the protests, said security forces were detaining men in Talbiseh. They said people were blindfolded before being loaded to buses that took them to detention centers. Also Sunday, human rights activist Mustafa Osso said security forces opened fire at about 8,000 protesters in the northeastern town of Deir el-Zour, wounding several people. He said there were protests overnight in several parts of Syria, including the Damascus suburbs of Zabadani and Douma.
In recent days, many Assad opponents have been holding protests and candlelight vigils at times of the night when the security presence has thinned out.
Osso said armed forces were also conducting operations in the southern village of Hirak, near the city of Daraa, where the uprising began.
Tanks have been used against Syrian cities and towns in the past weeks and major military operations were conducted in areas such as Daraa, the coastal town of Banias and the western town of Talkalakh near the border with Lebanon. Al-Jazeera TV aired an amateur video from Daraa showing five wounded Syrian soldiers lying on the floor of what appeared to be a hospital. It quoted activists as saying the five soldiers were shot by some of their comrades after they refused to open fire at protesters.
The authenticity of the footage could not be verified, and the network did not say when it was recorded. Syria has prevented journalists from operating freely in the country and has banned entry to many foreign reporters, including from The Associated Press.

Cairo opens Gaza crossing, prepares to halt gas to Israel
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report /May 28, 2011
Egyptian authorities plan to follow up on the permanent opening of the Gaza Strip Rafah crossing - so ending its four-year siege - by liquidating EMG (the East Mediterranean Gas Company which is under contract to deliver Egyptian gas to Israel and supplied 40 percent of its needs in 2010. debkafile's Cairo sources report that Egypt's Oil Minister Abdallah Ghorab is taking advice from the ministry's legal advisers on ways to break the 2009 contract on order to halt gas deliveries to Israel.
This move is consistent with the policy of the military junta now ruling Egypt to distance themselves from Israel with all its ramifications. The Netanyahu government has not addressed this radical policy shift in the four months since Cairo ignored Israel's request to deny two Iranian freighters permission to sail through the through the Suez Canal on Feb. 22 although the ships were laden with arms and could have been legally stopped.
Saturday, May 28, Cairo opened the Rafah crossing to the transit to Sinai of Gaza Strip persons – though not yet goods - without coordinating this step with Israel, although this violated the 2005 Egyptian-Israeli accords for the Gaza crossings to be manned with European monitors and supervised by Israel which were signed just before Israel completed its withdrawal from the Palestinian enclave. An Egyptian passport control station which will be open daily catered to hundreds of Palestinians passing through on the first day.
Cairo chose the same day to cut off natural gas supplies to Israel in response to pressure from Gaza's Hamas rulers. The pipeline, built by EMG from El Arish in Sinai to Ashkelon at a cost of $460 million, was blow up near El Arish up twice this year by Hamas activists.
Officials in Cairo claimed that shutting EMG down is predicated by the corruption probe underway against the deposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his sons Gemal and Alaa who, say those officials, had confessed to taking a regular commission on Egyptian gas sales and sold it at below-market prices.
Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation, a stockholder in EMG, is to file for its liquidation and ask for information on the funds allegedly transferred to the Mubaraks. Those officials declined to say whether EMG faced charges.
Cairo sources reported that efforts had been stepped up to detain the Egyptian businessman Hussein Salem who was close to the ruling family and suspected by the Egyptian prosecutor general of managing transactions for lining their pockets including the gas deal with Israel. He is reported hiding in Switzerland or Israel. Interpol has not caught up with him. Salem is said to have sold his holdings as an EMG stockholder o Jewish-American financial interests, while continuing to act as the middleman between the Israeli and American group of investors and the Mubaraks. Last week, debkafile's sources report, Cairo informed Israel that although the damage caused the gas pipeline by the April 27 explosion had been repaired, deliveries would not resume because EMG had refused to renegotiate prices with the Egyptian suppliers.
EMG accuses Cairo of breaking an international contract to maintain the current price level until 2013. The Egyptian side replies that investigations against the former president provide grounds for renegotiating the contracts immediately and adjusting prices sharply upward. Cairo may be using the EMG liquidation threat and a total halt on gas supplies to Israel as leverage for getting a better price for Egyptian gas. However, debkafile's sources report that, as the affair drags on and meshes with the probes against the Mubaraks, the military junta appears to be maneuvering itself into a corner from which it cannot avoid sustaining the stoppage as an integral part of its campaign to prove to the Egyptian street how seriously it is fighting the former regime and its web of corruption. Saturday, the Cairo court fined Hosni Mubarak the equivalent of $33 million for cutting off telephone and internet connections during protest rallies against his regime. That is only the first count of the massive case the prosecution is building up against the former president which includes opening fire on those protesters.
In Cairo's overheated climate, the decline of Egyptian-Israeli relations - or even pressure from Washington on behalf of American businessmen involved in the gas deal with Israel – are unlikely to influence Cairo's new rulers who are bent anyway on cooling Egypt's peace ties with Israel.
Although they pledged to honor all of Egypt's international contacts and treaties they are now backing out of two commitments – posting a third-nation party to monitor the Gaza crossings against terrorist traffic and the commercial gas transaction with Israel.

The Syrian Foreign Minister at the Qatari embassy
29/05/2011
By Tariq Alhomayed/ Asharq Al-Awsat
It is amazing that the Syrian Foreign Minister blamed the Arab "brothers", whilst at the house of the Qatari ambassador in Damascus, for not standing with Syria. Walid al-Muallem scolded the Arabs for not condemning the Western sanctions on the Syrian regime and its key figures.
When I say amazing here, it is because the opposite is true, because the Syrians today are collectively punishing the Arabs. They have not said a snigle word against what their regime is doing, in terms of brutal repression, killing and arrests. There are now thousands of detainees, not to mention the Syrians who are missing, and the death toll has surpassed 1000, including children such as Hamza, whose story bleeds the heart. What is the difference between this child victim Hamza, and the Palestinian child Mohammed al-Dura?
Arab ambassadors should have condemned al-Muallem, and even protested against him, regarding what he said about the Arabs not standing with the Syrians, and trying to lodge false accusations against the Arab countries, claiming that they are conspiring against Syria. The Syrian President has acknowledged the legitimate demands of the protesters, and even admitted that security errors have occurred. Why then do the Syrian media say at times that Jordan is behind the Syrian uprising, and at other times blame Prince Bandar bin Sultan, or Saad Hariri? Syrian television recently interviewed a traumatized, helpless Sheikh, who [reverted from his opposition stance] to condemn his people in a farcical scene, and claimed that he had been in communication with Riyadh. This man is Sheikh Ahmed al-Siasana, Imam of the Omari mosque in Daraa, and his case alone tells the whole story, and more.
One of Sheikh al-Siasana's sons was killed by Syrian security forces, because he did not disclose the location of his father. Is it conceivable now that the Sheikh would come out on national television to tamely claim he was wrong? What is this injustice and oppression? This is not all, a Syrian anchor for the Qatar-based al-Jazeera channel recently refused to resign, in response to pressure from the Syrian regime. Subsequently, her family came out in Syria to disown her, and declare their support for "The Leader". Are we now facing the same scenes of the Iraqi Baath party, but this time a Syrian version? During the reign of Saddam Hussein, tribes were forced to kill their own people, in order for Saddam's regime to come out and say that they had cleansed their honor with blood. "Honor is not safe from harm…until its blood is shed" as the Arab poet said, in a bygone moment of our history.
So, the Arab ambassadors, including those from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Lebanon, should be the ones opposing al-Muallem and demanding that the Syrian regime stop its abusive acts, instead of al-Muallem blaming his Arab "brothers". The Arab ambassadors should remember that this presidential advisor once said that the Egyptians spoke when they overthrew the Mubarak regime, so why, when the Syrians are currently speaking, have they become agents, even though the "Hama al-Diyar" protest movement has unanimously agreed on one slogan, with varied expressions, and that is the overthrow of the regime? Thus, the question today for the Arabs, which has long been due and repeated, especially after the "Hama al-Diyar" protests, is: how long will you remain silent?

Aoun: Baroud may be prevented from taking measures against Rifi
May 29, 2011 /Now Lebanon/Change and Reform bloc leader MP Michel Aoun said on Sunday that there might have been an authority preventing Interior Minister Ziad Baroud from carrying out disciplinary measures against Internal Security Forces (ISF) Director General Achraf Rifi. “Baroud should clarify if someone prevented him from taking certain measures against Rifi or if he abdicated his ministerial duties before taking certain measures,” Aoun said following the bloc’s special meeting. “Military laws apply [for those who] do not abide by the interior minister’s directions,” he said in reference to Thursday’s incident in the Telecommunications Ministry building in Adliyeh, when security forces did not leave the building despite Baroud’s order. What is required is to continue the investigation with Rifi and Ogero’s Director General Abdel Monem Youssef, Aoun also said, adding that Rifi should be transferred to the relevant judiciary. Ogero has trespassed its jurisdictions, and Youssef traveled and fled the country, the MP also said, voicing doubt that the former will return to the country. A warrant to summon him or arrest him must be issued, he said in reference to Youssef. Aoun also said that there have been many complaints against Youssef, adding that central inspection must justify why it did not look into the complaints. “I am not embarrassing President [Michel Sleiman, but he] should ask who gave the order to security forces to head to the [Telecommunications Ministry] building [in Adliyeh].” Regarding cabinet formation, the Change and Reform bloc leader said “We are not paralyzing Prime Minister-designate [Najib Mikati’s work]... The responsibility falls on who will form a cabinet.”On Thursday, Telecommunications Minister Charbel Nahhas said in a press conference that ISF units had illegally occupied a building owned by his ministry in Adliyeh.  Baroud abdicated his ministerial duties after the ISF members did not withdraw from the building upon his request. The building was handed to the Lebanese army on Friday.
Mikati was appointed in January with the March 8 coalition’s backing and has not yet formed his cabinet. -NOW Lebanon

March 8 members win in Doctors Syndicate elections
May 29, 2011 /Jean Joseph Mouawad, Hesham Gharyzi, Hassan Abdullah, Fayez Durgham who belong to the March 8 coalition won the four vacant seats in the board of the Doctors Syndicate, the National News Agency reported on Sunday. Ali Hassan Ismael Fawaz who also belongs to March 8 and Elias Jamil Shlala, an independent, won the two vacant seats in the syndicate’s disciplinary board. -NOW Lebanon

'One, one, one, the Syrian people are one'
Mohja Kahf , guardian.co.uk, /May 28, 2011
President Bashar al-Assad and many of the senior figures in his regime belong to Syria's minority Alawite sect, but that does not mean Assad or his regime represent the Alawites. The government is playing a dangerous sectarian game, pointedly targeting Sunni areas and practices for attack while shackling traditionally Alawite villages against joining the protesters. Meanwhile, it is trying to ignite Alawite fears and manipulate Alawite communities to act on those fears. Given this, any instance of Alawite silence is difficult to interpret; it may indicate a lack of support for the revolution, though, on the other hand, it may even signify defiance of the regime. Yet Alawites have by no means been silent – many have been active in the opposition – and the pro-democracy movement as a whole rejects claims by Syria's state-run television that it consists of religious fundamentalists seeking to replace the regime's ostensible secularism with an Islamist state.
The protesters' chants consciously emphasise national unity, such as: "One, one, one, the Syrian people are one." Now is the time for Sunni Syrians opposing the regime to step up to even greater solidarity with the Alawites. I mentioned the regime's sectarian strategy to a cousin of mine inside Syria who is active in the pro-democracy protests. Knowing that he comes from a strongly Sunni area of old Damascus, I held my breath for his response.
"We are all Syrians," he said. "We hugged each other, Sunnis and Alawites, at an activists' meeting yesterday."
But others still miss the point. "The Muslims are finally standing up to those Alawites," an elderly relative who left Syria in the 1980s told me on the phone.
"Bashar is Pol Pot, period," I replied. "He doesn't give a crap about Alawite anything. Most Alawites are impoverished and as oppressed as the rest of the population. The regime is only pretending to be defenders of Alawites, while shoving them out as camouflage."
Yet it's not just my elderly relative; mainstream media still repeats the tired formula of an "Alawite-minority regime". It is a formula that fits the regime's agenda.
By contrast, inside Syria, protesters are savvy to the regime's ugly game. A new generation of Sunnis and Alawites in Syria sees no difference: they are all suffering under brutal authoritarianism. Prominent dissidents, such as Dr Tamadur Abdullah and Wahed Saker in the UK, are publicly declaring that they are Alawites who stand against the power-monopolising ruling cartel. Some prominent contributors to the cause of Syrian freedom, such as Dr Aref Dalila of Aleppo and mother-of-two Tahama Maruf, happen to be Alawite. On 16 March, Alawites participated in the vigil for families of prisoners of conscience, one of the trigger events of the revolution – and some of them were imprisoned for it.
Wahed Saker says in a TV interview that the regime has barricaded the traditionally Alawite coastal villages with multiple checkpoints barring anyone trying to protest, and that these communities are threatened with dire reprisals against joining the activism.
Worse still, the regime has forced Alawites to be bussed to pro-regime demonstrations, such as the one in Salamia on 20 May. Four of seven major Alawite clans (Nuwaliya, Kalbiya, Haddadiya, Khayyatiya), nonetheless issued statements dissociating themselves from the Assads. On 18 March, when more than 300,000 nonviolent protesters took to the streets in the country of my birth, a dam broke inside me. Like many Syrians abroad, I had long ago come to terms with my despair that Syria and its peoples would not emerge from under this dictatorship during my lifetime. Whenever a friend travelled there, I would say: "Give Syria my love," shaking my head if they suggested I might one day be able to go myself.
When I saw videos showing tens of thousands of Syrians pouring into the street that day, dubbed "Dignity Friday", I don't know where the sobs came from, but I wept so loudly. Desperately needing to talk to another Syrian, I phoned one who cared as much as I did about the news.
I could only gasp, "Syria! Syria! Syria!" over and over, but Rana understood it, all of it. We cried in each other's arms later, tears that I struggle to describe: neither joy nor anguish, but both; tears of release. Rana is Alawite; I am Sunni. Her folks and mine are miles apart, each behind their barricades of suspicion and historical resentment, but for the two of us, those barricades no longer exist. And if anyone in the free Syria that is coming ever tries to target the Alawite community, I will bar them with my body and soul. That goes for Christians, Kurds, and any other ethnic or religious minority in Syria. "The test of courage comes when we are in the minority," Ralph Sockman says. "The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority."
I have not lived as part of a religious minority and an ethnic minority in the US for 39 years, slugging through the Federalist Papers on how to protect minority rights in a democracy, and learning the lessons of the civil rights movement the hard way as a Muslim American and an Arab American, to see any minority hurt in democratic Syria.
Civis Syrianus sum – I am a Syrian citizen.

3 Dead, 33 Hurt as Syrian Tanks Encircle Homs Towns
Naharnet Newsdesk
Three people were killed and 33 others wounded on Sunday at the hands of Syrian security forces in the central towns of Rastan and Talbisa, which were encircled by tanks at dawn, the opposition said. The Syrian Revolution 2011, a Facebook group spurring the anti-regime protests, reported that two people were killed at military checkpoints on the outskirts of the Homs town of Rastan, adding that another citizen it identified as Ahmed al-Dheik was killed at the hands of security forces in the Homs town of Talbisa. At least 33 other people were shot and wounded by security forces in the two towns, the group reported.  Meanwhile, a human rights activist told Agence France Presse that several people were wounded when security forces unleashed "intense gunfire" in Rastan and Talbisa, which were encircled by tanks at dawn. "Dozens of tanks at dawn encircled the towns of Rastan and Talbisa, as well as the village of Deir Maaleh," the activist told AFP by telephone. The three centers are all situated between Homs and Hama in central Syria. Tanks also blocked the highway linking Homs -- Syria's third-largest city and a flashpoint of pro-democracy protests -- to Hama, he said. "There was intense gunfire by Syrian security forces at Rastan and Talbisa that wounded several people," the source said. Security forces killed at least 12 protesters on Friday in dispersing demonstrations against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, activists said.
More than 1,000 people have been killed and 10,000 others arrested since the revolt began, according to rights groups. Syrian authorities say 143 soldiers, security forces and police have been killed. Foreign journalists are barred from travelling inside Syria, making it difficult to report on the unrest and verify witness accounts. The government insists the unrest is the work of "armed terrorist gangs" backed by Islamists and foreign agitators. It initially responded to the revolt by offering some concessions, including lifting the state of emergency in place for nearly five decades, but coupled this with a fierce crackdown. The opposition has dismissed calls for dialogue, saying that could only take place once the violence ends, political prisoners are freed and reforms adopted. Source Agence France Presse

Syria Activists Protest after Security Forces 'Killed Boy in Custody'
Naharnet Newsdesk YesterdayPro-democracy activists in Syria called for fresh protests on Saturday after the alleged torture and killing of a 13-year-old boy by security forces in the flashpoint region of Daraa. The body of Hamza al-Khatib was returned to his family on Wednesday, following his disappearance after a demonstration on April 29, activists said on their Facebook site, Syrian Revolution 2011. "We will go out from every home, from every district to express our anger" over the killing, they wrote on the page which carries a picture of the boy. "A month had passed by with his family not knowing where he is, or if or when will he be released. He was released to his family as a dead body. Upon examining his body, the signs of torture are very clear," they said. "There were a few bullets in his body used as a way of torture rather than to kill him with. Clear signs of severe physical abuse appeared on the body such as marks done with hands, sticks, and shoes. Hamza’s penis was also cut off." Other activists said Hamza al-Khatib decided after police had killed his cousin to take part in the anti-regime protests sweeping the country since mid-March, with their epicentre in the Daraa region of southern Syria.
His father, Ali al-Khatib, has also been arrested, they said. On Friday, at least 12 people were shot dead as security forces dispersed protests across Syria, activists said, updating an earlier toll of eight dead. Four protesters were killed in Daraa, another four in a Damascus suburb, three in Homs, central Syria, and one in Latakia on the coast, said the London-based National Organization for the Defense of Human Rights. Since the revolt in Syria erupted, Friday protests following weekly Muslim prayers are widely seen as a barometer of whether activists are able to maintain momentum despite a heavy handed repression. More than 1,000 people have been killed and 10,000 others arrested since the revolt began, according to rights groups. Syrian authorities say 143 soldiers, security forces and police have been killed. Foreign journalists are barred from travelling inside Syria, making it difficult to report on the unrest and verify witness accounts. The government insists the unrest is the work of "armed terrorist gangs" backed by Islamists and foreign agitators. It initially responded to the revolt by offering some concessions, including lifting the state of emergency in place for nearly five decades, but coupled this with a fierce crackdown. The opposition has dismissed calls for dialogue, saying that could only take place once the violence ends, political prisoners are freed and reforms adopted. Source Agence France Presse

Suspected Qaida Gunmen Seize South Yemen City
Naharnet Newsdesk 4 hours agoSuspected al-Qaida gunmen have taken control of the south Yemen city of Zinjibar, capital of Abyan province, after heavy fighting with security forces that left 16 dead, an official said on Sunday. The fighters "were able to gain control of the city of Zinjibar ... and took over all government facilities," except for the headquarters of the 25th mechanized brigade, which is besieged by militants, the security official said. Two other security officials said that fighting raged in the city on Friday and Saturday. Five soldiers and a civilian were killed on Friday, they said, while residents of Zinjibar said they found the bodies of 10 soldiers, bringing the toll from the fighting there to at least 16. One of the officials said that another two soldiers were killed Friday in clashes with suspected al-Qaida fighters in the town of Loder, also in Abyan province. Source Agence France Pres

Hundreds Demand Government to Free Detained Syrians
Naharnet Newsdesk YesterdayHundreds of protesters gathered in north Lebanon on Saturday to demand caretaker government release Syrian refugees who are reportedly being held by the army. Some 500 people gathered in the Bab al-Tebbaneh neighborhood of Tripoli in the north to voice support for anti-government protesters in Syria and demand the release of any refugees who could be held in Lebanon. Gathered outside a mosque, the protesters -- who included dozens of Syrian refugees who fled to Lebanon this month -- chanted support for Daraa and Banias, two mainly Sunni regions in Syria that have witnessed deadly violence. "With our souls, with our blood, we are loyal to Daraa and Banias," and "Down with the Syrian regime," they chanted. "We stand against the Syrian regime, the regime of Bashar Assad, and we stand behind protesters in Syria," said Sheikh Mazen al-Mohammed, imam of the mosque outside which the rally was held. "We give the Lebanese government until Friday to release all Syrians it is holding or else we will organize a massive popular rally."
International rights group Human Rights Watch has documented the detention of nine Syrian men and one child since May 15 by Lebanon's security forces, allegedly for crossing illegally into Lebanon. Unconfirmed reports, however, indicate the number may be much higher. Human Rights Watch has urged Lebanon to release the refugees and to refrain from handing them over to Syrian authorities for fear they risk torture. Thousands of Syrians, mainly women and children, have fled violence in their hometowns and sought refuge in north Lebanon since April, risking gunfire as they make their way across illegal border crossings. More than 1,000 people have been killed in Syria, according to rights groups, as security forces crack down on anti-regime protests that broke out 10 weeks ago. Lebanon has been the scene of several face-offs between rival rallies both for and against Assad, with security forces regularly dispersing the demonstrations. Tripoli, Lebanon's second-largest city after the capital Beirut, has witnessed mainly Islamic demonstrations in support of anti-Assad protesters in Damascus.
The city has in the past few years also been the scene of intense clashes between Sunni Hariri supporters and Alawite Muslims loyal to a Hizbullah-led alliance backed by Iran and Syria.

March 14, Hizbullah Rattle Sabers over ‘Militia Practices’ in Telecom Building
Naharnet Newsdesk /The March 14 forces and Hizbullah have engaged in a war of words over the “militia practices” in the facility affiliated with the telecommunications ministry in Beirut’s Adliyeh area on Thursday. The March 14 general-secretariat said in a statement on Saturday in reference to Hizbullah that “the militia” which turned its arms against the Lebanese during the May 7, 2008 events and carried out a “coup” against Caretaker Premier Saad Hariri’s government in January this year “does not have the right to accuse anyone of making a coup against the state and its institutions.”  Hizbullah wondered on Friday whether a third GSM network which was behind the dispute between Caretaker Telecom Minister Charbel Nahhas and the Internal Security Forces “belonged to the March 14 camp or security forces functioning independently from the state.”Given these “militia practices,” the Lebanese have the right to know the truth behind what happened at the facility, the Shiite party stressed. The clash between Nahhas and the security forces “with the support of the militia of Hizbullah is a militia act,” said the general-secretariat. “It is an attempt to target a constitutional decision of the council of ministers and to cover up the scandal of corruption.”
“March 14 backs the ISF in its attempt to implement the law in the protection of state institutions and properties,” said the statement. It also condemned the campaign against the general directorate of the ISF. On the bombing that targeted a UNIFIL convoy in the south on Friday, the March 14 general-secretariat condemned the attack and said that it comes at a time when G8 countries announced they would resort to U.N. Security Council action against Syria if it doesn’t halt the violent repression of its people. The statement warned against turning southern Lebanon into a front for “regional sides that are in crisis” and reiterated the March 14’s commitment to Security Council resolution 1701.

Jumblat: Are We Supposed to Believe that Aoun’s Demands are Behind Delay in Govt
Naharnet Newsdesk /Druze leader MP Walid Jumblat has informed the leadership of the Progressive Socialist Party that he cannot stand idly by in the face of the cabinet formation impasse, wondering whether he was supposed to believe that Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun’s insistence on getting one or two portfolios was the real reason behind the delay, sources close to Jumblat said. “An ordinary citizen would not believe that, so how is Jumblat supposed to believe it,” the sources told pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat in remarks published Sunday.
Jumblat was responding to his party members’ questions concerning his latest stance voiced in an interview with Al-Akhbar daily that “Hizbullah doesn’t want the new cabinet to be formed”.
“The PSP leader is a partner in this (new parliamentary) majority and he bears the consequences that ensue accordingly. He believes that it would not be reasonable to address General Aoun’s obstructive demands at the expense of the country,” the sources added. Asked about how much Hizbullah is willing to try to convince Aoun of reducing his demands, the sources said: “If Hizbullah does not want to abandon Aoun as its leadership is saying, no one is calling for abandoning him, but can anyone say that the cabinet formation process is flawless?”
“If it is true that U.S. and Israeli pressures are behind the cabinet formation impasse, as Hizbullah and General Aoun are claiming, shouldn’t they respond by forming a new cabinet in order to frustrate these pressures?” the sources wondered. “If the reason of the delay is (premier-designate Najib) Miqati’s submission to these pressures, as General Aoun and Hizbullah are claiming, is it reasonable that Miqati is defying the collective will of Aoun, Hizbullah, Jumblat, the other new majority factions, Syria and Iran? This makes no sense,” the sources added.

Suleiman, Baroud Inclined to Refer Rifi to Judiciary
Naharnet Newsdesk/President Michel Suleiman and caretaker Interior Minister Ziad Baroud, who on Thursday absolved himself from his duties at the ministry, are reportedly “inclined to refer Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi to a judicial inquiry for repeatedly disobeying their orders to pull out the ISF Intelligence Bureau personnel of the second floor of the building affiliated with the telecom ministry, where OGERO Telecom is in charge of the installations of the third mobile network donated by China to Lebanon according to a cabinet resolution.” Sources following up on this issue told An Nahar daily in remarks published Sunday that state prosecutor Saeed Mirza has asked Suleiman and Baroud to “file a lawsuit so that the judiciary can act accordingly.” On Saturday, Suleiman, Baroud, Mirza and caretaker Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar discussed at the Baabda Palace “the judicial, legal and administrative measures pertaining to the implementation of the interior minister’s resolution on the withdrawal of the ISF personnel from the telecom ministry building” in al-Adliyeh district, according to An Nahar.

Parliament to Discuss Monday Telecom Issue, Heated Debate Expected between March 8,
Naharnet Newsdesk 6 hours agoThe telecom parliamentary committee headed by Loyalty to Resistance bloc MP Hassan Fadlallah is scheduled to hold a session at parliament on Monday to follow up on the “telecom ministry issue,” An Nahar daily reported Sunday. Parliamentary sources told the newspaper that they expect a “heated confrontation” between the rival March 8 and March 14 camps during the committee’s meeting. The sources noted that “as the first camp prepares to back (caretaker Telecom Minister Charbel) Nahhas, the second camp is expected to submit documents that prove that the telecom minister has violated a cabinet resolution and the law 431/2002 – the telecommunications law.”
The March 14 forces and Hizbullah have engaged in a war of words over the “militia practices” in the facility affiliated with the telecommunications ministry in Beirut’s Adliyeh area on Thursday. The March 14 general-secretariat said in a statement on Saturday in reference to Hizbullah that “the militia” which turned its arms against the Lebanese during the May 7, 2008 events and carried out a “coup” against caretaker Premier Saad Hariri’s government in January this year “does not have the right to accuse anyone of staging a coup against the state and its institutions.” Hizbullah wondered on Friday whether a third GSM network which was behind the dispute between Nahhas and the Internal Security Forces “belonged to the March 14 camp or security forces functioning independently from the state.” Given these “militia practices,” the Lebanese have the right to know the truth behind what happened at the facility, the Shiite party stressed. The clash between Nahhas and the security forces “with the support of the militia of Hizbullah is a militia act,” said the general-secretariat. “It is an attempt to target a constitutional decision of the council of ministers and to cover up the scandal of corruption.” “March 14 backs the ISF in its attempt to implement the law in the protection of state institutions and properties,” said the statement. It also condemned the campaign against the general directorate of the ISF.

Ghastly Atrocities Being Committed by The Syrian Regime: Part Two
W. Thomas Smith, Jr.
Yesterday, we reported that Kuwait’s Alseyassah newspaper has been chronicling a series of ghastly atrocities being committed by the Syrian regime – as well as Iran’s Basij and Lebanon’s Hizballah – against the Syrian people.
The reports – based largely on a fact-finding mission by the World Council of the Cedars Revolution’s Human Rights Dept. chief Kamal Batal – have both confirmed and illuminated what has been widely reported in the Western media; that being that Syrian Army and militia forces – including members of Syrian Pres. Bashar Assad’s Alawite community supported by Iranian Basij fighters and Lebanese-based Hizballah terrorists – are not only killing unarmed civilians, but committing unspeakable acts of violence against children and the elderly.
And, as we reported, “Syrian soldiers who refuse to participate in the wanton killings are themselves summarily executed by Assad’s Alawite death squads.”
In part two of its series, Alseyassah is reporting that so-called “Iranian 'death doctors’ are taking over emergency rooms in Syrian state hospitals.”
According to Batal, refugees fleeing into Lebanon from Syria are recounting incidents of wounded protesters seeking medical assistance in hospitals only to be turned over to Persian (Iranian) speaking doctors.
“These doctors' success rates and commitment to their humanitarian mission is close to zero,” says Batal. “Even more terrifying, many witnesses say their injured family members are being ‘buried alive’ in hospital refrigerators.”
Batal also says Syrian special operators are deliberately targeting civilians.
He adds that the Lebanese civilian leadership in the border town of Wadi Khaled has stated that Shia Hizballah (which is supporting the Syrian Alawite regime, and has for years) is attempting to prevent medical supplies from reaching Syrian refugees in Lebanon. And the Iranian-funded, Syrian-supported terrorist group is “pressuring official Lebanese authorities to stop accepting refugees, and to send those who have safely arrived in Lebanon back to Syria.”
Read the first Alseyassah article in Arabic here, and automatically translated here.
Read the second Alseyassah article here, and automatically translated here.
http://familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.9611/pub_detail.asp
May 27, 2011
Leading Kuwaiti Newspaper Reporting Ghastly Atrocities by the Syrian Regime
W. Thomas Smith, Jr.
Kuwait’s Alseyassah newspaper is reporting – in addition to the widely reported mass graves and Syrian army’s killings of unarmed civilians – grisly incidents of torture, including “chopping off the wrists of children so they’d never carry arms against the [Syrian] regime.”
According to Alseyassah, “The World Council of the Cedars Revolution’s Human Rights Dept. chief Kamal Batal visited the border town of Wadi Khaled in northern Lebanon [near the Syrian border] where more than 5,000 Syrians have taken refuge from the death squads and Baath militias… After thorough interviews with the refugees – who are still in contact with their family members displaced to other parts in Syria – Batal gathered horrific details and stories about the massacres committed by the Baath thugs in Syrian towns.”
Batal has learned that regular Syrian army and militia forces – including members of Syrian Pres. Bashar Assad’s Alawite community supported by Iranian Basij fighters and Lebanese-based Hizballah terrorists – are moving from one Sunni village to the next, storming homes and offices, “killing at will whoever defies them and literally emptying entire towns of its civilian population.”
The accounts are not unlike other reports, according to the Kuwaiti paper, from international NGO’s and humanitarian organizations based in Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon, all of which are confirming stories of civilians being machine-gunned by tanks and shot by snipers. Bodies are being mutilated. And Syrian soldiers who refuse to participate in the wanton killings are themselves summarily executed by Assad’s Alawite death squads.
Batal also tells Alseyassah, the militias are planning to establish “a pure Alawite zone along the north coast of Syria. This large carved out zone will serve as a fallback position to Assad and his apparatus if they fail to keep control over the whole country. Sunni villages around that area are looted to the bone, even kitchen tiles and electric lines are not spared.”
He adds, “Unmarked white vans are moving their belongings to newly established Alawite villages in the north coast strategically located on the outskirts of the large Sunni city of Hamah.”
Read the Alseyassah article in Arabic here, and automatically translated here.