LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
December 07/2011

Bible Quotation for today/The Great Commandment
Matthew 22/34-40: " When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they came together, and one of them, a teacher of the Law, tried to trap him with a question. Teacher, he asked, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?  Jesus answered, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the most important commandment. The second most important commandment is like it: Love your neighbor as you love yourself. The whole Law of Moses and the teachings of the prophets depend on these two commandments.

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
Sabra and Chatila Massacres of 1982: Revisiting a Massacre in Lebanon's Civil War—Were Lebanese Christians Responsible?/By Franck Salameh/November 06/11
Syria and the Arab deadline/By Tariq Alhomayed/November 06/11

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for November 06/11
Nasrallah Makes Rare Appearance, Says Party’s Arsenal Growing in Numbers
U.S. Says Ambassador to Return to Syria Tuesday Evening
Iran's Guards on war footing – London. Spy drone capture is US, Israel setback
Iran Revolutionary Guard raises alert ahead of possible strike, report says
Bombs hit Shiite pilgrims in Iraq, kill at least 32
No judicial file on record for false witnesses in Hariri assassination: source
Minister’s Bodyguards Assault Two Youths on Nahr al-Mot-Zalka Road
Aoun: We Haven’t Decided if We Will Participate in Wednesday’s Cabinet Session
Druze, Christian figures urge calm before Ashura
Unknown parties wipe evidence of third GSM network activity
Iran threatening to cut Hamas funds, arms supply if it flees Syria
Report: Indictment in Hamadeh’s Murder Attempt to be Issued in Dec.
Bassil: We Will Not Remain Silent over Zahrani Power Plant Shutdown
Report: STL Delegation in Lebanon ‘Soon’ to Inquire about Suspects
STL Registrar to Answer Questions Live on Twitter on Wednesday
Qaida-Linked Group Denies Israel Rocket Attack, Blames Hizbullah
Moody's Downgrades Lebanon Banking Outlook
Gemayel Urges Unity to Prevent Lebanon from Becoming Victim of Regional Changes
Sehnaoui: Unauthorized Activity Detected on OGERO Mobile Network
Muallem: Syria Wants Arab Sanctions Lifted upon Signing Protocol
Syria sets new conditions to admit observers
Beirut complains to U.N. over Israel attack
Ivory Coast's Gbagbo Slams Paris in 1st ICC Appearance
7 Syrians Killed as Activists Say 34 Abductees Found Dead
Iraqi Jihadists Call for Aid, Arms for Syria Opposition
Brotherhood seeks further gains in Egypt
Activists Say Dozens Of Bodies Dumped In Syria
Syrian crisis forces Hamas to relocate
Israel says Syrian rocket tests show regime's fear
ABC News Exclusive: Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad Speaks with Barbara Walters
Barak: Israel tracking Hezbollah arms transfers
Syrian opposition leader warns Iran
Emir of Kuwait Dissolves National Assembly


Nasrallah Comes Out of Hiding, Asks to be Martyred
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu/Arutz Sheva
Hizbullah leader Nasrallah, who stays in hiding so Israel won’t target him, made a rare public appearance Tuesday and asked to be martyred.
He showed up in public for the first in more than three years, in the southern suburbs of Beirut Tuesday at a mourning ceremony on Ashura, when Shiite Muslims mark the anniversary of the death of the Prophet Mohammed's grandson Imam Hussein. He remained in a public for only a few minutes but long enough to preach for death in the name of Jihad. “It is the dream of every single one of us to join the master martyrs of the entire resistance,” Nasrallah intoned. “We do not ask for anything in return for our Jihad, seeking reward and payment merely from God,” he added. “We do not seek roles in government, and if we have picked up arms and resorted to resistance it is because God has ordered us to do so.“We will not depart from our sacred land so that the occupiers would capture it, and God has ordered us not to remain silent when it would lead to being humiliated and not to permit the enemy to set foot in our land. “We do not possess arms in order to exert our hegemony over the country, or to secure a position in the government. We attach no importance to governance, or to becoming a sultan, and we do not aim for them. “Some people say they do not need our defense of them, which is because they do not consider Israel as an enemy so that it would pose any threat against them; but those who consider Israel as an enemy must also defend the weapons of the resistance.”

Dubai Sheikh: If Iran Attacks, Israel Will Wipe It Off the Map
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu/Arutz Sheva
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has threatened to wipe Israel off the map but will discover his own cities may disappear if he attacks Israel, the United Arab Emirate’s prime minister told CNN.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who also serves as vice president of the Emirates, also said he doubts that Iran would use a nuclear bomb or even build one. "What can Iran do with a nuclear weapon?" he asked rhetorically. "For example, will they hit Israel? How many Palestinians will die? And you think if Iran hits Israel, their cities will be safe? They will be gone the next day."The UAE, like Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, are dead-set against Shi’ite Muslim Iran’s bold desire to head an Islamic empire, based on Sharia law, in every Muslim country.
The UAE probably would provide key bases and air space in the event of a Western or Israeli attack on Iran. It also is a prime target for Iran, which is separated from the UAE by only 50 miles via the Persian Gulf. Furthermore, several Gulf State islands are claimed by Iran. However, al Maktoum spoke in diplomatic language with CNN. "Iran is our neighbor," he said. "They are Muslim, and we lived next to each other for thousands and thousands of years. I don't believe that Iran will develop a nuclear weapon."

Syrian opposition leader warns Iran, HezbollahFrom Rima Maktabi, CNN
December 6, 2011
Paris (CNN) -- Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah movement are risking their future ties with Syria by supporting embattled Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad now, the head of a leading Syrian opposition group says. Burhan Ghalioun, the chairman of the Syrian National Council, told CNN in an interview airing Tuesday that Iran is "participating in suppressing the Syrian people" by backing al-Assad, whose family's 40-year regime has been a longtime Iranian ally. He also warned that the crackdown could lead to international military intervention.
"I hope that Iranians realize the importance of not compromising the Syrian-Iranian relationship by defending a regime whose own people clearly reject it and has become a regime of torture to its own people," Ghalioun said. Tehran must understand "that this is the last chance to avoid an unwanted fate to the Syrian-Iranian relationship," he said.
As for Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia that was allied with Syria during the years that Damascus dominated its smaller neighbor, Ghalioun said, "The Syrian people stood completely by Hezbollah once. But today, they are surprised that Hezbollah did not return the favor and support the Syrian's people struggle for freedom." The United Nations estimates more than 4,000 people have been killed in Syria since February, when al-Assad began attempting to put down anti-government protests with police and troops. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 34 civilians died in Homs, the scene of the heaviest recent fighting, on Monday. CNN is unable to verify the reports because Syrian officials have restricted access to the country by reporters.
Syrian officials say they are battling "armed terrorist gangs" that prey on civilians. But the crackdown has led to widespread criticism throughout the region and economic sanctions by the Arab League and neighboring Turkey. Syrian blogger Razan Ghazzawi arrested Monday, Syria agreed to Arab League demands that it allow observers into the country -- but on the condition that the league immediately drop sanctions and agree to amendments that league officials have previously rejected.
Lebanon's position on Syria sanctions Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi told reporters that Syria is committed to reforms to end the crisis, pointing to decisions to pull back some troops and release some prisoners as evidence. Syria's 'graphic' video misleading Arab League Secretary General Nabil el-Arabi told CNN that the group's foreign ministers will have to consider the proposal before any decisions are made -- but he added, "The Syrians' acceptance of the protocol does not mean that we will suspend the sanctions." PM of UAE: Syria needs to change Syria is among the Middle Eastern and North African countries wracked by the "Arab Spring" demonstrations that arose after the revolt that toppled Tunisia's longtime strongman in January. Subsequent uprisings toppled two of the region's longtime autocrats, Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and Moammar Gadhafi in Libya, while Yemen's Ali Abdullah Saleh has signed an agreement to step down by February in the face of widespread unrest there.
Libya's revolt was backed by NATO airstrikes, authorized under a U.N. mandate to protect civilians from reprisals by government troops. Ghalioun told CNN that international humanitarian intervention may be needed to protect Syrians from the ongoing clampdown, "even if we have to use some force.""The topic of foreign military intervention is a dangerous and critical topic and should be taken seriously," Ghalioun said. "But unfortunately, this regime is pushing people to seek foreign military intervention. Some are demanding foreign military intervention without knowing the consequences."

Barak: Israel tracking Hezbollah arms transfers
By YAAKOV KATZ /12/06/2011 12:51
Shi'ite organization trying to move advanced weaponry from Syria to Lebanon to prevent its capture by Assad opposition.
Israel is taking precautions and is tracking the transfer of arms from Syria to Lebanon, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Tuesday, amid concern that Hezbollah is trying to move advanced weaponry out of Syria. Touring the Golan Heights, Barak said that the Syrian missile test on Sunday was conducted out of fear and that Bashar Assad’s regime would fall in the near future. Israel is concerned that Hezbollah is planning to move advanced weaponry it has been storing in Syria to Lebanon to prevent it from being captured by opposition groups which are fighting against Assad.
It is now quiet here but a few days ago just a few hundred kilometers northeast of here we saw the launching of different rockets,” Barak said on the sidelines of an exercise of the Golani Brigade which he attended together with IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz. “It could be that the fire was part of a demonstration of capabilities but it is more about fear and distress than about confidence.”
On Sunday, the Syrian military test fired a Scud-B ballistic missile and other short range rockets. Syria is believed to have several hundred Scud missiles as well as a number of Scud-D models, the longest-range ballistic missile in its arsenal. Barak said that while he hoped the border would remain quiet, the IDF, he said, was prepared for any development on the Syrian and Lebanese fronts

ABC News Exclusive: Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad Speaks with Barbara Walters
AN ABC NEWS EXCLUSIVE
SYRIAN PRESIDENT BASHAR AL-ASSAD SPEAKS FOR FIRST TIME TO AMERICAN MEDIA SINCE UPRISING BEGAN 10 MONTHS AGO. BARBARA WALTERS TRAVELS TO DAMASCUS, SYRIA FOR EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH CONTROVERSIAL WORLD LEADER
To Air Across ABC News Platforms on Wednesday, December 7 Including “Good Morning America” and “World News”
“Nightline” to air a Special Edition: ”Barbara Walters in Syria: Assad Speaks” Devoting Full Program to Walters’ Report from Inside Syria
To Run First as Part of the Newsmakers Series on ABCNews.com and Yahoo! News
Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad sat down with ABC News Anchor Barbara Walters for his first exclusive on-camera interview with an American journalist since the uprising in Syria began last March. Walters’ no-holds-barred interview with President Al-Assad in Damascus comes as he is under unprecedented international pressure to step down and stands accused by the Arab League, the United Nations (UN), and human rights groups of gross and systematic human rights violations.
The interview will air across ABC platforms on Wednesday, December 7, first on ABCNews.com and Yahoo! News’ Newsmakers series (6:00 am ET), then on “Good Morning America” (7:00 am ET), “The View” (11:00 am ET) and “World News with Diane Sawyer” (6:30 pm ET). “Nightline” will air a Special Edition: ”Barbara Walters in Syria: Assad Speaks” devoting full program to Walters’ report from inside Syria (11:35 pm ET). Portions of the interview will also be available on ABC News Radio and ABC NewsOne.
Walters questioned the controversial Syrian leader about the November 25th UN report, which recorded the human rights violations including the detention and torture of children in his country, and recommended for Syria to be referred to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. Walters also pressed President Al-Assad on his government’s violent crackdown on protestors, the impact of economic and travel sanctions against his country, calls for the President to step down, and whether he will allow Arab League monitors and foreign press free and unrestricted access to Syria.
Walters also met off-camera, but on-the-record, with Mrs. Asma Al-Assad, the British-born First Lady of Syria.
Walter’s interview with President Al-Assad continues ABC News’ year of unprecedented exclusives with world leaders, including former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and former Libyan Dictator Col. Moammar Gadhafi.

Israel says Syrian rocket tests show regime's fear
December 06, 2011
REUTERS/JERUSALEM: Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak said on Tuesday that Syrian long-range missile tests detected in Israel show that the embattled regime of Bashar al-Assad fears for its future.
"Just a few days ago, just a few hundred kilometres northeast of this spot, we saw the firing of all sorts of rockets," Barak's office quoted him as saying during a tour of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.
Israeli media have reported that the country's missile defence radar picked up test launches of long-range missiles "recently" without giving further details.
Syrian state news agency SANA said that rockets and tanks were tested in manoeuvres on Sunday night "as part of a 2011 training programme ... to deter any enemy attack."
"It is possible that there may be further such demonstrations of (Syria's) ability, but this is an incident which happened more as a result of fear and distress than as a result of confidence," Barak said.
"The Assad family is losing its grip and Bashar al-Assad is doomed to fall," Barak added. "I don't know if it will take weeks or months but there is no redemption for that family which today is slaughtering its own people. "There is no doubt that the Assad family and Bashar al-Assad are coming to the end of their reign," he went on. "There is no way of knowing what day that will happen."
A Syrian analyst said the exercises were "a show of force designed to intimidate."
Another Syrian analyst, who also declined to be named, said the war games aimed to deter "any (Western) impulse to intervene militarily in Syria by showing that it is prepared to declare a regional war."
Syria has come under US, EU and Arab sanctions over its suppression of anti-regime protests in which the United Nations says more than 4,000 people have been killed since mid-March.

Syrian crisis forces Hamas to relocate out of Damascus
by: Sheera Frenkel,/Jerusalem From: The Times
December 07, 2011 /GROWING violence in Syria is forcing Hamas to begin moving its headquarters out of Damascus, diplomats and Palestinian officials said yesterday.
The Palestinian militant movement, which controls the Gaza Strip, moved its exiled leadership from Jordan to Syria in 1999 but is now looking for a new base while moving many of its officials back to the coastal Gaza Strip. It is partly motivated by security reasons but also because it no longer wants to be associated with the host government of President Bashar al-Assad, whose regime is becoming increasingly isolated in the Arab world. "They are looking to re-establish themselves somewhere with stability, yes, but where they will be protected, diplomatically and militarily, from Israel. Egypt could be that, but the truth is that they are waiting to see," one Palestinian official said. Hamas has angered Syria by refusing to hold rallies in support of the Assad regime or sign a statement backed by other Palestinian groups, in support of the President. Human rights groups say 4000 people have died in the uprising against Mr Assad. Last month, the Arab League announced it was suspending Syria's membership of the organisation. In Gaza, Hamas officials denied they were looking to leave Syria. "There is no change," spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said. However, diplomats in Syria have reported that dozens of Hamas operatives have left the country in recent months. "The top-level guys will remain until the (very end) of Syria, because they must. But they see the writing on the wall," said one Hamas official in Egypt.
Hamas activists on the move were those responsible for raising funds and for the political structure, he said. Many have moved back to Gaza, Sudan and Doha.
Khaled Meshaal, the Hamas leader in exile, has remained in Damascus where he has been based since a dispute with Jordan in 1999, when it accused the Palestinian group of carrying out illegal activities on its soil. Iran has joined Syria in applying pressure on Hamas not to leave the country, including threats to cut off financial support and arms, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported..

Activists Say Dozens Of Bodies Dumped In Syria
December 06, 2011/| Associated Press
BEIRUT – A surge in violence in the restive Syrian city of Homs has killed up to 50 people in the past 24 hours, leaving dozens of bodies in the streets, activists said Tuesday.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights cited witnesses as saying 34 bodies were dumped in the streets of Homs on Monday night. Homs-based activist Mohammed Saleh said there was a spate of kidnappings and killings in the city earlier Monday.
The activists' reports could not be independently confirmed. Syria has banned most foreign journalists and prevents the work of independent media.
For nearly nine months, the Syrian government has been trying to crush an uprising against President Bashar Assad. But there are growing signs of an armed insurgency and mounting sectarian tensions that could push the country toward civil war.
Homs has emerged as the epicenter of the uprising, and the government has laid siege to the city for months.
On Monday, Syria said it would agree to allow Arab League observers into the country as part of a plan to end the bloodshed, but placed a number of conditions, including the cancellation of deeply embarrassing economic sanctions by the 22-member organization.
Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby swiftly rebuffed Damascus' demands, and the Syrian opposition accused Assad's regime of wasting time and trying to trick Arab leaders into reversing punitive measures against Damascus. "Any announcements made by the Syrian regime while the military crackdown continues has for us zero credibility," said Bassma Kodmani, a spokeswoman for the Syrian National Council, an opposition umbrella group. Syria has already failed to meet several Arab League ultimatums to end the crackdown which the U.N. says has killed more than 4,000 people since the uprising against Assad erupted in March.
Damascus' failure to meet a Nov. 25 deadline to allow in observers drew Arab League sanctions, including a ban on dealings with the country's central bank and a freeze on government assets. The bloc also imposed a travel ban on 19 Syrian officials, including Assad's younger brother Maher, who is believed to be in command of much of the crackdown, as well as Cabinet ministers, intelligence chiefs and security officers. The sanctions dealt a big blow to a regime that sees itself as a powerhouse of Arab nationalism.
Combined with sanctions from the United States, the European Union and Turkey, the Arab League's penalties are expected to inflict significant damage on Syria's economy and may undercut the regime's authority. Damascus remains defiant, however, and has shown few signs of easing its crackdown.

Scholar: Assad regime behind the Sabra and Chatila Massacres of 1982
A short intro/Breaking a barrier in historical studies, Boston College History Professor Frank Salameh advanced the argument that while it was armed men in Lebanese Forces militia uniforms, as stated by the Israeli Kahane commission, it was the Syrian regime of the Assads that gave the order for the shootings to Elie Hobeika, a security official then, but who was also a Syrian collaborator. This revelation, confirmed by Hobeika's deputy in a book published in Paris, will open the door to reevaluate the events, as well as other events and may open another door to investigate the current Assad regime for massacres that killed Palestinians physically and harmed the international image of the Lebanese Christians for years
Editor
http://hnn.us/articles/revisiting-massacre-lebanons-civil-war%E2%80%94were-lebanese-christians-responsible

Sabra and Chatila Massacres of 1982: Revisiting a Massacre in Lebanon's Civil War—Were Lebanese Christians Responsible?
By Franck Salameh
12-5-11
Franck Salameh is assistant professor of Slavic and Eastern Languages at Boston College. He received his PhD in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies from Brandeis University in 2004.
This past September marked the twenty-ninth anniversary of the assassination of Lebanon’s president-elect Bashir Gemayel. Like its most recent clone, the 2005 murder of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, memories of the 1982 crime continue to haunt many Lebanese, some of whom are still persuaded its perpetrators to have been Syrian operatives bent on scuttling end-of-conflict prospects for Lebanon. Today, as Syria’s “Alawite era” teeters on the edge of its twilight, and as the international community prepares to indict it for ongoing crimes against its own people, the regime’s shady gruesome past is coming back to assail its tattered present days.
Although few Westerners today might remember Bashir Gemayel (or his assassination), and fewer still might be tempted to consider the motivations of those who commissioned his murder, rare are those who would not readily recall the massacres at Beirut’s Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps, and rarer still are those who would not attribute those crimes to “right-wing” Lebanese-Christian militiamen—ostensibly bent on avenging their fallen leader. Never mind that Gemayel’s elimination and the ensuing massacres of Palestinian civilians hardly served the cause of Lebanon’s Christians. Indeed, the events in question plunged Lebanon into another eight years of bloodshed, tightened Syria’s grip over the country, turned it into a Syrian “satellite state” wholly bound to the whims and will of Damascus, and reduced the status of Lebanon’s Christians to a state of subservience and political insignificance. Yet, the narrative that attributes Gemayel’s killing to Israeli agents, and the Sabra and Shatila massacres to Israel’s Lebanese Christian allies—getting Syria off scot free—still has its defenders, and still defines a significant chapter in Lebanon’s modern history.
Today, as Syria veers toward civil war, as its military occupation of Lebanon seems to be a thing of the past, and as the international “Special Tribunal for Lebanon” readies to finger Syrian officials (beginning with the recent indictment of their Hezbollah foot-soldiers) for a string of political assassinations that have shook Lebanon since 2005, a revision of the pleasing narrative of an Israeli and (a “right-wing”)Lebanese Christian involvement in Sabra and Shatila seems fitting.
Besides the Kahan Commission's mention of armed elements dressed in Lebanese Forces uniforms entering Sabra and Shatila between
September 16 and the morning of September 18, 1982, there is no hard usable evidence to support the scenario of murderous Lebanese Christians itching to mete out revenge on Palestinian refugees for the assassination of President-elect Bashir Gemayel; that is to say there is no concrete usable evidence besides eyewitness reports of "men dressed in LF uniforms"—knowing full well that "uniforms" of every stripe were a dime a dozen in civil-war-era Lebanon.
Of course a scenario such as this remains tempting, and in the context of Lebanon's war—and its cycles of tit-for-tat massacres and counter massacres—it would have made plenty of sense for Christian militias to exact revenge on Palestinians for the killing of their leader. However, there is no evidence to bear this out beyond the circumstantial. Of course, an argument could be made—and indeed one was made—that rogue elements of the Lebanese Forces, without knowledge or express directives from the LF's leadership, entered the camps with the intent of killing Palestinian civilians. The question that begs being asked in this case would be, "why would LF members commit these crimes, flaunting easily identifiable insignia and uniforms, incriminating themselves and their community, at a time when Lebanon's Christians had been hard at work for reconciliation with other constitutive elements of Lebanese society?"
It should be noted here that Bashir Gemayel's first official act as President-elect of the Lebanese Republic in 1982 was not—as many at that time might have predicted—dismissing Lebanon's Muslims, suing for partition, or signing a peace treaty with Israel without the endorsement of Lebanon's Muslims. To the contrary, his first official act was to reach out to Lebanon's Muslims and attempt to build a national unity government
that would have eventually signed a peace treaty reflecting national consensus, not Christian communal interests.
Incidentally, throughout their troubled twentieth-century history, Lebanon's Maronites always opted for reconciliation, power-sharing, and a "multi-ethnic," rather than a purely Maronite or a Maronite-dominated state. To wit, when the French warned the Maronites about the "demographic time bomb" that Grand Liban of 1920 would become in twenty years’ time and advised them to construct a smaller "Christian homeland" instead, the Maronites opted for a "larger Lebanon" as a model of multi-ethnic (Christian-Muslim) coexistence. When another such opportunity for a smaller, culturally homogenous, Christian Lebanon offered itself in 1926, the Maronites still opted for "coexistence" with Lebanon’s Muslims. They did so time and again in 1936, in 1958, in 1976, and most importantly, at the height of their political and military power, in 1982. What's more, Bashir Gemayel's assassination dashed the hopes and snuffed the exuberance of a wide cross-section of Lebanese society—Muslims and Christians alike—and in the aftermath of his death the LF were scrambling to deal with the trauma, the disarray, the mass popular despondency, and the political vacuum that his sudden disappearance had left. It is, therefore, more than dubious that in a moment of national trauma such as this, the LF leadership would be plotting and executing a massacre that not only would have tarnished their image among the Muslims they'd been courting, but one that would have impugned their very legitimacy in the wider Arab world—which Bashir had been visiting for years prior, promoting his presidential platform and his national salvation and reconciliation project, and hawking his intent on hammering out an eventual “end-of-conflict” agreement with Israel.
The missing link in this drama is Elie Hobeika, a former LF member and senior officer long suspected of being a Syrian agent. In January 2002 Hobeika was assassinated in a car bomb plot reminiscent of the one that killed former prime minister Rafiq Hariri in 2005. Lebanese officials (then still under Syrian occupation) immediately blamed Israel for the Hobeika assassination given that the latter had allegedly been preparing to testify in a Belgian court case believed to be on the verge of implicating then Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon in the Sabra and Shatila massacres. However, close Hobeika associates and family members recently revealed that, at that time, Hobeika had been more concerned with clearing his own name than with implicating Sharon in the massacres. Indeed, a Belgian senator who had met with Hobeika shortly before the latter's assassination revealed to al-Jazeera on January 26, 2002 (two days after Hobeika's assassination) that Hobeika had no intention of identifying Sharon (or Israel for that matter) as the responsible party in the Sabra and Shatila massacres. This leaves (as only remaining "person of interest") Baathist Syria; a notoriously murderous regime that is showing its mettle in today’s Syria, and that had mastered to the hilt the skills of "arsonist-fireman" in Lebanon these past forty years.
Syria stood to gain most from the assassination of Bashir Gemayel, as well as from the Sabra and Shatila massacres. Among other payoffs reaped, this “cold case” stunted all attempts at Lebanese national reconciliation, it scuttled the prospects of peace with Israel, it extended the Lebanese war for another decade, it maintained Syria’s occupation of the country for another twenty-three years, it tightened its grip over the functioning of the Lebanese state, it continued using Lebanon as a launching pad for Syria’s regional settling of scores, and it provided the Alawites with a bottomless private piggy-bank bankrolling their wars-by-proxy. Murder, mayhem, arson, and intrigue have indeed defined the Alawite era in the modern Levant, and have kept Syria’s Alawites firmly ensconced in power. The world’s powers that be ignored (or condoned) Syria’s bad behavior. They did so mainly for fear that what may be lurking in a post-Alawite state might prove much worse than the inconvenient present: “it is us or chaos” went an ominous forewarning that the Assads conveyed to credulous visiting dignitaries—among them America’s seasoned Clintons and Kerrys. But has the Alawite “Us” been anything but “Chaos” these past forty years? Isn’t it time the world considered the “chaotic” alternative? Isn’t it time inhumed “cold cases” got lain open again?

Former General: We'll Have to Bulldoze Gaza
by Gavriel Queenann/Arutz Sheva
Major General Yoav Galant (Ret.) said Monday Israel's refusal to take decisive action in Gaza will only serve to force Israel to make a massive incursion into the Hamas-run enclave. Galant told attendees of a speech at Tel Aviv University that Israel's concerted efforts to dismantle against terror infrastructures in Judea and Samaria caused terror levels to plummet, while Gaza terrorists were being allowed to thrive and build."A lack of action, negligence by military officials, has resulted in a situation in the West Bank where we took care to tend the lawn, but in Gaza - since we didn't - thorns grew into tree trunks.""In the end we'll have to go in with bulldozers," Galant added. Galant, a former contender for IDF chief of staff, added that Gaza is "something belonging to the Islamic bloc. That's a reality no one knows how to solve." He also dismissed efforts by Hamas and Fatah to form a unity government saying the differences between the factions could not "be resolved with words." Galant joins former IDF chiefs of staff Shaul Mofaz, Moshe Yaalon, Dan Halutz, and Gabi Ashkenazi in calling for major operations to root out Gaza's terror infrastructure. Minister of Internal Security Yitzhak Aharonovitch has also publicly called for a Gaza incursion. Israel's strategic paradigm of airstrikes-for-rockets has largely been seen as maintaining the poor security situation of its Gaza belt communities - which have had over 12,000 rockets fired at them from Gaza since 2001. The timing of Galant's remarks come as Hamas' leadership finds itself in a tenuous position in Damascus as the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad comes under increasing domestic and international pressure for him to step down. Hamas has been openly looking for a new country to host its foreign headquarters for several months, but has reportedly been given an ultimatum by Iran to remain or face losing funding, training, and armaments from Tehran. Iran has long used terror factions like Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in Syria and Lebanon as proxies against Israel - and pro-Western elements in Lebanon. Analysts say Israel could potentially use the chaos a future Assad ouster would create for Hamas' foreign leadership and support networks as a window for moving against the terror infrastructures in its Gaza stronghold.

Iran's Guards on war footing – London. Spy drone capture is US, Israel setback
DEBKAfile Special Report/ December 6, 2011/ Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has placed the Revolutionary Guards on a war footing amid fears that the West and Israel are about to attack their nuclear program, the London Telegraph, which has good ties with British intelligence, reported early Tuesday, Dec. 6.
Monday, debkafile reported increasing indications that the Middle East is set for war, including an attack on Iran, between mid-December 2011 and mid-January 2012.
In obedience to Khamenei's directive to take all necessary measures to protect the regime, the Guards chief Gen. Mohammed Ali Jaafari has raised the operational readiness status of the country's forces in preparation for external strikes and covert attacks. He ordered Iran's arsenal of long-range Shahab missiles redistributed to secret sites around the country where they would be safe from enemy attack and could be used to launch retaliatory strikes; Guards units scattered to preset defense lines and air force "rapid reaction units" deployed after carrying out extensive exercises for responding to an enemy air attack on nuclear and strategic military targets.
Saturday, Dec. 3, Israel's defense minister Ehud Barak, when asked about a covert war against Iran, denied it was taking place. Twenty-hours later, this clandestine war peaked in a major coup for Iran, its capture of the sophisticated US RQ-170 Sentinel stealth reconnaissance drone. Tehran reported that, apart from slight damage, the aircraft was shot down complete with all its top-secret electronic systems in working condition. An American military source confirmed that Iran had the RQ-170, but added there was "absolutely no indication the drone was shot down."
This leads to the conclusion that the Iranians were able to control the drone from a distance (over Afghanistan) and guide it across the border to land to Iran, say debkafile's military sources. The slight damage would then apply to the wings and may have been caused when it was brought in to land by an Iranian crew unused to handling an electronic warfare craft.
Our sources add that possession of the drone is more than just a major intelligence coup for Tehran; it has acquired an important military edge before any overt military operation has been launched. Western and Israeli war planners now have cause to fear that Iran has penetrated the heart of their most secret intelligence and electronic technological hardware for striking its nuclear infrastructure. If Tehran is capable of reaching out and guiding an American stealth drone into landing from a distance, it may also be able to control the systems of other aircraft, manned or unmanned.
This feat recalls Hizballah's surprise attack on an Israeli missile boat in the 2006 Lebanon war when its Chinese-made shore-to-ship C-802 missile was able to override the ship's advanced electronic defense systems and so put the Israeli Navy out of action within range of the Lebanese coast. According to an expert quoted by the Telegraph's senior military commentator Con Coughlin, the campaign of assassinations, cyber war and sabotage of recent weeks "looks like the 21st century form of war

Syria and the Arab deadline
By Tariq Alhomayed/Asharq Al-Awsat
Nothing new came of the Arab League Ministerial Committee’s meeting in Doha to discuss the Syrian issue except that a new Arab deadline was granted to Bashar al-Assad’s regime for it to sign the Arab protocol for sending observers to Syria. A new deadline, despite the fact that the killing machine has not stopped for even one day since the Arabs first mobilized!
Despite all the historic decisions taken by the Arabs against the al-Assad regime, which cannot be underestimated, the problem lies in the fact that the killing machine has not stopped, and continues to intimidate the Syrians, which in turn necessitates the following question: Do the Arabs still expect the al-Assad regime to carry out any of its pledges, or even respect the Arab initiative and sign the observers protocol? The Arabs do not need to send observers to Syria in order to verify that the al-Assad regime’s killing machine and armed fronts have not stopped suppressing the Syrians; the Arabs can watch satellite television broadcasts on Syria, or observe what is posted on “YouTube” from within the country [to confirm this]. The Arabs also do not need to ascertain the precise magnitude of the al-Assad regime’s crimes, particularly as the United Nations [UN] has said that what the regime is doing against the Syrians has reached the level of crimes against humanity. It is interesting that we Arabs were among those to vote in favor of the UN resolution on human rights, so what is preventing the Arabs from transferring the Syrian file to the UN Security Council, and engaging in a long overdue battle with Russia and others, instead of wasting time with pointless meetings? Particularly as the Arabs are aware that even if the al-Assad regime does sign the protocol to send Arab observers to Syria, it will fail to abide by this and drag its feet, and this is a certainty.
The problem is that the Arabs do not seem to care that the killing machine has not stopped. Every day more innocent Syrians die, while the Arabs are preoccupied with the explanations being put forward by the al-Assad regime, and this is sad and depressing. True, some will say that politics does not deal in the language of emotions, but stopping the bloodshed is in fact a religious, moral and finally political duty, otherwise we are simply consenting to the law of the jungle. The reality on the ground in Syria shows that the al-Assad regime is now solely speaking in the language of murder and torture, whilst the sheer volume of demonstrations against Bashar al-Assad confirms that we are past the point of no return. On Friday alone, there were nearly 240 incidents of protest against al-Assad, including the burning of pictures of [Hezbollah chief] Hassan Nasrallah in the heart of the capital, Damascus. This is in addition to the growing divisions within the Syrian army. Indeed, the Syrian demonstrators have outstripped the Arab League’s deliberations on Syria, with Syrian demonstrations last Friday calling for the imposition of a buffer zone.
All of this represents a clear message to the Arabs that their waiting [for the Syrian regime to respond] is unjustified, as is the new deadline granted to the al-Assad regime. The Arabs must take the battle to the UN Security Council in order to protect the Syrian people from the killing machine that has not stopped for one moment over a period of approximately 8 months of the Syrian revolution.

 

Muallem: Syria Wants Arab Sanctions Lifted upon Signing Protocol
Naharnet /Syria said Monday it will accept observers as part of an Arab League plan to end deadly unrest if its conditions are met, in a last-ditch bid to stave off crippling sanctions.
"The Syrian government responded positively to the signing of the protocol" on the dispatch of observers "based on the Syrian understanding of this cooperation," foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Maqdesi told reporters.
Foreign Minister Walid Muallem had sent a message to the Arab League to that effect on Sunday night, as an Arab League deadline was set to expire, paving the way for the signing of the protocol.
“By signing the draft protocol, the Syrian government considers all resolutions issued by the Arab League with the absence of Syria to be null and void, including the suspension of its membership and the sanctions imposed on it,” Muallem told Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi in the letter published by Syria’s official news agency SANA.
“The Syrian government would like to sign the draft protocol in Damascus based on the Arab work plan agreed upon in Doha on October 30, 2011, and the inquiries and clarifications which Syria asked the AL Secretary-General to present, in addition to the positions and observations made by Algeria and statements of head of the Ministerial Committee and al-Arabi on the rejection of foreign interference in Syrian affairs,” Muallem says in his letter.
Muallem’s letter also calls on the League’s General Secretariat to inform U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon of the “the positive results to be reached after the signing of the protocol and ask him to distribute the message to the head and members of the U.N. Security Council as an official document,” SANA reported.
The top Syrian diplomat stressed in his letter that “the good will of all Arab countries including the committee members and Syria, a founding member of the AL, will play an important and effective role in coordinating between the two sides to perform this task.”He added that this will “positively reflect on the joint Arab action.”
Later on Monday, Arabi said he was consulting Arab foreign ministers concerning Muallem’s requests.
Arabi told reporters that Muallem had sent him a letter agreeing to sign off on the monitors "but with conditions and demands."
"We've contacted Arab foreign ministers and they have been apprised of the Syrian letter," he said.
Arabi did not explain Syria's conditions, but said Muallem's letter contained "new demands."
Damascus had until now refused to sign the protocol, arguing that the text contained wording that undermined Syrian sovereignty.
The international community wants monitors to be deployed in Syria to keep a check on forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad who have been accused by the United Nations of rights abuses.
The U.N. estimates that at least 4,000 people have been killed since March in Syria, where regime forces have violently suppressed a popular revolt against Assad's government.
At least another 63 people were killed in violence across the country at the weekend, said human rights activists, who also reported five more deaths on Monday in the flashpoint region of Homs.
Syria has asked in its message to the Arab League for "minor changes which do not touch on the substance of the protocol and for clarifications that are not linked to the nature of the mission," Maqdesi said.
"We asked them for the names and nationalities of the observers" he said. "We hope for a positive reply," Maqdesi added. "The success of this mission depends on Arab intentions."Syria insists on the terms of Article 8 of the Arab League's charter which stipulates that member states must respect the systems of government in other member states and avoid any action to change them, Maqdesi said.
Last month Syria was suspended from the 22-member Arab bloc amid mounting calls from world leaders for Assad to quit for failing to halt the bloodshed in his country.
The deployment of an observer mission is part of the League's proposal to end the violence in Syria, which is raging on despite offers of political reforms by Assad. Sunday's deadline was announced in Doha by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani, who also warned against the internationalization of the Syrian crisis if Damascus did not heed the Arab call.
"As Arabs we fear that if the situation continues things will get out of Arab control," Sheikh Hamad said.
His comments came after an Arab League ministerial panel on Saturday imposed fresh sanctions on Syria, following an initial wave of sweeping measures against the Assad regime adopted on November 27.
The sanctions voted last month included an immediate freeze on transactions with Damascus and its central bank and of Syrian regime assets in Arab countries.
On Saturday in Doha, the Arab panel put 19 Syrian officials on a blacklist banning them from travel to Arab countries and saying their assets would be frozen by those states.
The panel also called for an embargo on the sale of Arab arms to Syria and cut by half the number of Arab flights into and out of Syria -- including its national carrier Syrian Air -- with effect from December 15. Syria has already been hit by a raft of EU and U.S. sanctions and last Friday the U.N. Human Rights Council passed a resolution "strongly condemning the continued widespread, systematic and gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms by the Syrian authorities."
Damascus -- which accuses "armed terrorist groups" of fuelling the unrest -- rejected the resolution as "unjust" and said it was "prepared in advance by parties hostile to Syria."
Iraq said it is opposed to sanctions on Syria, a dominant trading partner, while Jordan said on Monday it does not want to impose trade sanctions and a flight ban on Damascus because they will harm Jordanian interests.Source Agence France Presse

Feltman in Beirut on Wednesday, Says U.S. Has Evidence that Hizbullah Helping Assad
Naharnet /U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman has said Washington has evidence that Tehran and its Lebanese ally Hizbullah are bolstering Syria’s Assad regime.
Speaking in Amman, Feltman told reporters that Syrian President Bashar Assad is pegging his ruling Alawite minority against other sects and implementing his "own prophesy, which is moving Syria into more chaos and a civil war."The U.S. has "evidence" that Iran and Hizbullah have agents in Syria to bolster Assad's waning regime, he said. The top diplomat for the Middle East said Assad is responsible for deepening the sectarian division in Syria. Feltman told reporters that Washington has been in touch with Syrian Christians to prod them "not to stand on the side of the attacker," but declined to elaborate.
Many among Syria's Christian and other minorities have sided with Assad's regime, fearing they would be targeted if the Sunni majority takes over.
Feltman is expected to arrive in Beirut on a two-day visit on Wednesday. By Monday, it was not yet clear with whom the diplomat will hold talks. Informed sources told An Nahar daily that he will most likely meet with Premier Najib Miqati and Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour. He could also hold talks with Central Bank governor Riyad Salameh and other officials, they said. However, the sources didn’t confirm whether Feltman will meet with Speaker Nabih Berri who had rejected to have any contact with the U.S. official over WikiLeaks cables.
Source Associated Press/Naharnet

Report: Indictment in Hamadeh’s Murder Attempt to be Issued in Dec.
Naharnet /Special Tribunal for Lebanon Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen is expected to issue an indictment in the assassination attempt of MP Marwan Hamadeh this month, informed sources said.
The sources told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat in remarks published Monday that the indictment will be issued before Christmas. Fransen would later issue the indictments in the assassination attempt of former Minister Elias Murr and the killing of ex-communist party leader George Hawi, they said. The tribunal established jurisdiction over the three attacks in August. According to the tribunal’s statute, a case is connected to the Feb. 2005 assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri if it is of a "similar nature and gravity" and has a number of elements in common with it, such as “the criminal intent (motive), purpose behind the attacks, the nature of the victims targeted, the pattern of the attacks (modus operandi) and the perpetrators.” According to Article 1 of the statute, the tribunal has jurisdiction over attacks that occurred in Lebanon between October 1, 2004 and December 12, 2005 but only if their connectedness to the Hariri attack is determined by the pre-trial judge. Meanwhile, al-Hayat said that the STL sent a letter to General Prosecutor Saeed Mirza asking him about the efforts of Lebanese authorities to find the four Hizbullah suspects indicted in Hariri’s murder. Mirza, in his turn, handed the letter to Interior Minister Marwan Charbel, the newspaper reported.
The four Hizbullah members are Salim Ayyash, Mustafa Badreddine, Hussein Oneissi and Assad Sabra.

Total Suspends Syria Operations in Line with EU Sanctions
Naharnet French oil company Total said Monday it was suspending its operations in Syria in line with EU sanctions, which indirectly target its local partner. "We have informed the Syrian authorities of our decision to halt our operations with GPC (General Petroleum Corporation) in order to comply with sanctions," the company said in a statement. It added the suspension included operations at Deir al-Zour as well as its contract with Tabiyeh Gas. "Our main priority remains the security of its employees," it added. Total, along with Royal Dutch Shell which said Friday it was suspending its operations, are the two leading foreign oil companies operating in Syria. The EU last week tightened sanctions on Syria to add pressure on President Bashar al-Assad to halt months of deadly violence against protesters.
The EU now has sanctions on around 120 Syrian individuals and companies and is already enforcing an arms embargo and a ban on imports of Syrian crude oil, along with import of oil and gas equipment.
Total's main Syrian partner Deir Ez Zor Petroleum Company (DEZPC) is not directly on the EU black list, but the Syrian state-owned company GPC which handles exports owns a 50 percent stake in DEZPC. According to an industry expert in Damascus, Syria's oil output has collapsed from 340,000 barrels per day to 120,000 bpd due to the narrowing of export outlets. Total said its Syrian production averaged 39,000 barrels per day of oil equivalent. Source Agence France Presse

STL Registrar to Answer Questions Live on Twitter on Wednesday
Naharnet /The Registrar of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, Herman von Hebel, will be answering questions from Lebanese citizens and the general public on Wednesday, December 7 from 3 to 5 pm Beirut Time, announced the STL in a statement. Questions directed to the Registrar should contain the hashtag #STLRegistrar, it explained. The Registrar is in effect the Chief Executive of the tribunal and is responsible for all aspects of its administration including the budget, fundraising, relations with states and court management, it continued. His responsibilities also include oversight of the victim participation unit, witness protection and detention facilities, it said. “He will only be able to answer questions which relate to his responsibilities as Registrar,” the statement stressed. “This is an initiative to interact with the people of Lebanon and marks the official launch of the STL Twitter account, which has been operative from November 1, 2011,” the statement concluded.

Qaida-Linked Group Denies Israel Rocket Attack, Blames Hizbullah
Naharnet /An al-Qaida-inspired group has denied claiming responsibility for a recent rocket attack from southern Lebanon against Israel, instead blaming a group linked to Hizbullah, a U.S. monitoring group said Monday. In a statement issued on jihadist forums, the Brigades of Abdullah Azzam said the November 29 attack should be seen as a warning to the West and Israel from embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the SITE Intelligence Group said. "The Brigades declared that the attack ... is to be construed as a message from Assad to Israel and the West, that if his regime is made to fall, then the field will open to the youth of the Sunni people to attack the Jewish state," the statement said. The group gave examples of what it said was Syria's and Hizbullah's "cunning," claiming, for example, that Syrian intelligence was behind the March kidnapping of seven Estonian cyclists in Lebanon’s Bekaa region. The seven were freed unharmed in July. The Brigades in their statement said it was clear that Damascus and its Lebanese ally Hizbullah were keen for political reasons to blame the group for any security incidents in Lebanon, including a July attack on U.N. troops. Abdullah Azzam, the late al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden's mentor, was killed in a 1989 bomb blast.

Ivory Coast's Gbagbo Slams Paris in 1st ICC Appearance
Naharnet /Ivory Coast ex-president Laurent Gbagbo made his first appearance Monday before the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity, and accused France of orchestrating his arrest. Gbagbo, the first former head of state to be brought before the tribunal, faces four counts of crimes against humanity, including murder, rape and inhuman acts, over post-election violence the U.N. said cost about 3,000 lives. The 66-year-old was arrested in April by followers of long-time rival and current president Alassane Ouattara after months of violence triggered by Gbabgo's refusal to accept defeat in a November 2010 vote. He said his capture was the direct result of a bombing campaign by France, Ivory Coast's former colonial ruler.
"I was arrested under French bombs," said a gaunt-looking Gbagbo, who was transferred to The Hague from his northern Ivorian prison on Wednesday. "It was the French army that did the job."
His handover drew a furious reaction from his supporters and set a tense backdrop for a parliamentary poll on Sunday that had been billed as a chance to foster reconciliation in the war-weary country.
Gbagbo's camp described his transfer as a "political kidnapping" and said it would boycott the election and pull out of reconciliation efforts.
Judge Silvia Fernandez de Gurmendi said Gbagbo, who held the reins of power in Ivory Coast for a decade, must reappear on June 18 for a confirmation of charges hearing. He will then learn whether he must stand trial for crimes committed by his troops between December 16, 2010 and April 12, 2011. The former historian-turned-politician told the court how his high-security residence in Abidjan was surrounded and attacked, leading to his capture on April 11. "About 50 French tanks had surrounded the residence, while helicopters were firing bombs. Under these circumstances I was arrested," he said.
"I saw my interior minister killed in front of me, my son, who is still under arrest, was beaten," he told the court in French.
He was taken to the northern town of Korhogo where he was held under house arrest for more than seven months. He was given a bed and two meals a day, but was not allowed outside, Gbagbo said, although he described his conditions as "correct for any human being." The ICC issued a sealed arrest warrant against him on November 23 over the violence that erupted after Gbabgo, who first took power in 2000, refused to accept the results of the 2010 election that gave victory to Ouattara. When ICC judges authorized an investigation into Gbagbo earlier this year, they said there were "reasonable grounds" to believe his camp hired and armed some 4,500 mercenaries, including fighters from neighboring Liberia.
According to figures from the ICC chief prosecutor's office, between 700 and 1,048 people were killed by pro-Gbagbo forces. Gbagbo's advisor Toussaint Alain denounced the case."The presence of president Laurent Gbagbo in the dock is clearly a judicial error, a swindle, a move to liquidate him politically, socially and physically," Alain said in a statement issued in The Hague. Gbagbo supporters see the hand of Ouattara, who took office in May after his forces arrested Gbagbo with U.N. and French military backing, in their leader's transfer and have branded their rival a Western puppet.
A government spokesman in Abidjan had hailed the transfer as an opportunity for closure in the world's largest cocoa exporter, where the last decade has been scarred by conflict.
But rights groups have warned that a prosecution focused only on crimes by Gbagbo forces and not those of Ouattara would lead to an "explosive situation" on the ground.
ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said Gbagbo's appearance was a "continuation of the process for the people in Cote d'Ivoire to move away from the violence."
Reacting to criticism that only one side was subjected to a probe and arrests, Moreno-Ocampo told Agence France Presse: "We agree that all sides have committed crimes and therefore must be prosecuted. We said as well that more cases are being investigated." The Hague-based court, founded in 2002, is the first permanent international criminal tribunal to prosecute perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Its six other cases also relate to crimes in Africa.
Source Agence France Presse