Matthew 18 Who Is the Greatest

LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
December 18/2011

Bible Quotation for today/The One Gospel
Galatians 01/01-10: "From Paul, whose call to be an apostle did not come from human beings or by human means, but from Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from death. All the believers who are here join me in sending greetings to the churches of Galatia: May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. In order to set us free from this present evil age, Christ gave himself for our sins, in obedience to the will of our God and Father. To God be the glory forever and ever! Amen. I am surprised at you! In no time at all you are deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ,[a] and are accepting another gospel. Actually, there is no other gospel, but I say this because there are some people who are upsetting you and trying to change the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel that is different from the one we preached to you, may he be condemned to hell! We have said it before, and now I say it again: if anyone preaches to you a gospel that is different from the one you accepted, may he be condemned to hell! Does this sound as if I am trying to win human approval? No indeed! What I want is God's approval! Am I trying to be popular with people? If I were still trying to do so, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
Syria: Al-Assad's flight from reality/By Amir Taheri/December 17/11
The issue of military intervention in Syria/By Adel Al Toraifi/December 17/11

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for December 17/11
Obama to U.S. Jews: My administration has done more than any other to support Israel
U.N.: More than 4,500 Syrians Sheltered in N. Lebanon
Syrians protest against Assad after Russia UN move
Israel announces new 'depth' command for long-range military operations
West Demands Changes to Russia's Syria U.N. Resolution
Source to NOWLebanon: Shara’s Russia visit ‘cancelled’
Eight dead, 299 wounded in Egyptian clashes
Iraq Team has 'Positive' Talks with Syria's Assad
Arab League to Consider Taking Syria Plan to U.N. Security Council
Syrian Farmer Killed in Mine Explosion at Lebanon Border
Nearly 600 Dead and Missing in Philippines Storm
Salehi: Iran Prepared for 'Worst' on Sanctions
Hizbullah Operative, the Last Iraqi Prisoner, Handed over by U.S.
Iraqi team has “positive” talks with Syria's Assad
Lebanese Forces bloc MP Antoine Zahra says Orthodox plan “best solution” to ease sectarian tensions
MP Ammar Houri : We will continue to call for disarming Beirut
Kataeb bloc MP Fadi Haber describes Hezbollah’s arms as “weapons of terrorism”
Alain Aoun says Orthodox plan motivated by sectarianism
Future bloc leader MP Fouad Siniora commends private banks’ move to finance STL
Pietton Meets Hizbullah as Juppe Renews Accusation that Party behind UNIFIL Attack
Lebanon Files Complaint to U.N. over Israeli Spy Device in South
Abu Zainab Relays Nasrallah's Season's Greetings to al-Rahi
Gunmen Briefly Deploy in Zaidaniyeh after AMAL Member Wounded
French Foreign Ministry Official in Beirut Monday to Deliver Decision on Reducing UNIFIL Troops
Aoun Meets with Suleiman to Discuss Latest Developments
"Animals Lebanon" Drafts Law to Protect Animals
Canada Deplores West Bank Mosque Attack

Hizbullah Operative, the Last Iraqi Prisoner, Handed over by U.S.
Naharnet /The United States on Friday handed its last prisoner in Iraq, a Hizbullah operative accused of plotting the killing of five U.S. soldiers, to Iraqi authorities, sparking a political furor in Washington.
A complicated legal drama surrounded the fate of Ali Mousa Daqdouq, who confessed to training Iraqi extremists in Iran, as U.S. troops end their mission and prepare to finally leave Iraq by the end of the month. Some Republicans had called for Daqdouq to be taken out of Iraq by U.S. forces and sent to the U.S. war on terror camp at Guantanamo Bay, which President Barack Obama has promised to close, and reacted angrily to his handover. "We are continuing to discuss this case with the Iraqis, and as of this morning, he has been transferred to Iraqi custody," said National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor. "We take this case very seriously, and for that reason have sought and received assurances that he will be tried for his crimes.
"We have worked this at the highest levels of the U.S. and Iraqi governments, and we continue to discuss with the Iraqis the best way to ensure that he faces justice."
It is understood that Obama raised the case of Daqdouq directly with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki when he welcomed him to the White House this week.
Some Republicans had called for leaving U.S. forces to simply bring Daqdouq, a Lebanese national, with them as they left Iraq.
But officials said that would be illegal, under security agreements between the two governments, and would have fractured the new and "enduring" relationship with Iraq that Obama vowed this week to build.
But Obama's critics in Congress reacted angrily to news of the transfer of Daqdouq. Senator John McCain called the move "disgraceful."
"The real test regarding Daqdouq was not whether the United States should violate our security agreement with Iraq in order to maintain custody of him outside of the country," McCain said.
"The real test was whether the United States could exercise our influence effectively with the Iraqi government to ensure that a committed killer of Americans would be held accountable for his crimes in the U.S. system of justice." Daqdouq had been held by U.S. forces, but under the authority of the Iraqi government, under an agreement reached between the Iraqi government and the former U.S. administration of president George W. Bush. U.S.-led forces captured Daqdouq in 2007 and showed documents and names of 21 Iranian-backed militants who had been captured or killed while operating throughout Iraq.
Source Agence France Presse

Arab League to Consider Taking Syria Plan to U.N. Security Council
Naharnet /The Arab League on Saturday threatened to take Syria to the U.N. over its deadly crackdown on dissent but an Iraqi mediator said he had "positive" talks in Syria aimed at defusing the nine-month crisis. The Qatari prime minister warned that the Arab League would take Syria to the U.N. Security Council if it persisted in refusing to allow observers into the country to monitor the protection of civilians.
Arab foreign ministers will meet on Wednesday in Cairo to discuss taking the Arab peace plan to the U.N., said Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani at the end of a meeting in Doha on the Syria crisis.
"As Russia has gone to the Security Council, a proposal will be presented in the (Arab ministers') meeting on December 21 that the Arab League goes to the Security Council to present the Arab initiative," Sheikh Hamad said. The 22-member Arab bloc has been trying to persuade Syria to receive observers to monitor the situation as part of a plan to end the bloodshed.
“We are not talking about a military intervention, but we want the Security Council to adopt the Arab initiative,” stressed Sheikh Hamad.
On sanctions against Syria, he said: “We are not seeking to harm the Syrian people or destroy their country.” On November 27, the Arab bloc approved a raft of sanctions against the Syrian authorities to punish their failure to heed an ultimatum to admit observers. Earlier this month Syria finally said it would allow the mission, but set a number of conditions, namely the lifting of sanctions.
Ahead of Saturday's meeting in Doha, Arab League number two Ahmed Ben Helli had sounded hopeful that Damascus would sign the protocol and allow in observers.
"There are positive signs... I expect the signing will happen soon," he told Agence France Presse. But he quickly added: "It will not be today." The United Nations estimates that more than 5,000 people have been killed in a government crackdown on pro-democracy protests which first erupted in the Middle East's most autocratic country in mid-March. On Friday 19 more civilians were killed across Syria, activists said, amid mass rallies to criticize the Arab League's failure to take tougher action. Meanwhile some 200 members of the opposition Syrian National Council were meeting for the second consecutive day in Tunis for talks behind closed doors aimed at honing a strategy to topple Assad's regime.
In the meantime, Western nations said Russia's surprise draft resolution should contain stronger condemnation of rights violations by the Assad government and stronger support for Arab League action.
The proposed resolution strongly condemns violence by "all parties, including disproportionate use of force by Syrian authorities." It also raises concern over "the illegal supply of weapons to the armed groups in Syria," according to a copy obtained by AFP. Russia said it would not be calling for negotiations in the UN Security Council before Monday.
On Friday, security forces shot dead 19 civilians, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, as hundreds of thousands of people rallied against the Arab League. "The Arab League is killing us -- enough deadlines," was the protesters' slogan. The Observatory said more than 200,000 protested in the besieged central city of Homs alone, venting their frustration at the Arab League, with rallies in other parts of the country. It also reported violent clashes between regular army troops and deserters on Saturday in the northwestern Idlib region. Across the border in Lebanon a farmer was killed on Friday when a landmine exploded as he drove his truck across an illegal border crossing. Syria has laced the region with landmines to stem the flow of weapons and prevent refugees and defectors from fleeing.
Source Agence France Presse/Naharnet

Lebanon Files Complaint to U.N. over Israeli Spy Device in South
Naharnet /The Foreign Ministry has filed a complaint to the United Nations on Saturday over the Israeli spy device that was discovered in southern Lebanon a few weeks ago, reported the National News Agency. The device was discovered in the outskirts of the southern towns of Deir Kifa and Srifa. Lebanon deemed the find as a “blatant violation of the country’s sovereignty and Security Council resolution 1701 and a threat to international peace and security,” said the complaint. On December 2, Hizbullah announced that it had foiled an attempt by Israel to spy on its telecommunications network that is installed between Deir Kifa and Srifa. This prompted the Jewish state to detonate the device through which it tried to infiltrate the group’s network. Army intelligence, in collaboration with Hizbullah, had uncovered a number of Israeli espionage devices, including one in Sannine in 2010 and another in the southern town of Shamaa in March 2011.

Syrian Farmer Killed in Mine Explosion at Lebanon Border
Naharnet/ A Syrian farmer was killed on Friday when a landmine exploded as he was driving his truck across an illegal border crossing into Lebanon, a medical source said. "The man was transferred to a hospital in Akkar in critical condition and he died shortly thereafter of his wounds," the source said, referring to a district in northern Lebanon where several wounded refugees have received medical care. Syrian troops on October 27 laced the northern Lebanese border with landmines in a bid to stop arms smuggling and prevent refugees and army defectors from fleeing President Bashar Assad's brutal crackdown on anti-regime protesters, according to Lebanese officials. Lebanon's eastern border with Syria has also since been planted with mines. Friday's victim, who hailed from the Syrian border town of Heet, was making his way through an unofficial crossing into the northern Lebanese village of Kneissi in the Wadi Khaled district on his truck when the mine exploded, the medical source said, requesting anonymity. He said two Lebanese villagers in Kneissi apparently heard the explosion and found the man lying on the dirt path that serves as an illegal crossing frequented by smugglers and, more recently, refugees fleeing the violence back home. Syrian troops have regularly staged incursions into neighboring Lebanon in recent weeks, killing at least three people when they opened fire on border villages, according to local officials. Lebanon and Syria share a 330-kilometer (205-mile) border but have yet to agree on official demarcation. The United Nations on Friday reported more than 4,500 Syrians have fled to Lebanon since the anti-Assad revolt erupted in March, with hundreds crossing the border in the last two weeks.
Source Agence France Presse

Abu Zainab Relays Nasrallah's Season's Greetings to al-Rahi
Naharnet /Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi met Friday in Bkirki with Hizbullah politburo member Ghaleb Abu Zainab, who passed on Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s season’s greetings to the patriarch, state-run National News Agency reported. The agency did not elaborate on the topics discussed during the meeting. The visit by Nasrallah’s envoy comes after al-Rahi on Sunday called on officials in Lebanon to “exert serious efforts to collect weapons and limit their possession to the legitimate Lebanese Armed Forces.” “It is totally unacceptable any longer that the country’s security remain a hostage under anyone’s mercy,” the patriarch said. “All defense and security missions should be placed under the jurisdiction of the political authority and security should not remain a hostage in anyone’s hands under any slogan or claim,” said al-Rahi. In October, the patriarch noted that “resolving the issue of Hizbullah’s arms is not in the hands of the Lebanese alone,” emphasizing the international community’s role in this regard. “I have said that it will be a major feast in Lebanon when the Resistance hands over its weapons, but what’s more important is that I have said the international community must play a role to solve this Lebanese-international issue.”

Gunmen Briefly Deploy in Zaidaniyeh after AMAL Member Wounded
Naharnet /A member of Speaker Nabih Berri’s AMAL Movement was wounded on Friday when a personal dispute erupted into gunfire in the Beirut district of Zaidaniyeh.“One AMAL member was wounded in the Zaidaniyeh clash and AMAL gunmen have left the area after a brief deployment,” an AMAL official told Naharnet, requesting anonymity.While the official did not reveal the identity of the other party, Future News television reported that “the clash in Zaidaniyeh erupted after a dispute between two Hizbullah and AMAL supporters.” LBC television said army troops deployed to the area in a bid to contain the clash which erupted in “al-Itani street in the Zaidaniyeh-Aisha Bakkar area.” MTV, for its part, said gunmen deployed in Zaidaniyeh “after two people were wounded in an exchange of gunfire.”

Iraqi team has “positive” talks with Syria's Assad
December 17, 2011 /An Iraqi team held "positive" talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday in a bid to end the deadlock over an Arab League plan to end ten months of bloodshed, its leader told AFP."I am on my way to Cairo for a meeting with the Arab League after holding positive talks with President Assad," National Security Adviser Falah al-Fayadh said. The Iraqi initiative is aimed at opening a dialogue between the opposition and the Syrian government to reach a result that satisfies both sides, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said in an interview with AFP on Thursday. "America and Europe are afraid of the phase after Bashar al-Assad. That is why they understand the initiative" from Iraq, Maliki said. The United Nations this week estimated that more than 5,000 people have been killed in the Syrian government's crackdown on dissent, now in its 10th month.Shia-led Iraq has so far shied away from punitive measures against Assad's Alawite Shiite regime, abstaining from both a vote to suspend Syria from the Arab League, and another to impose sanctions on Damascus.There are fears among officials in Iraq, which has a substantial Sunni minority, that instability in neighboring Sunni-majority Syria could spill over the border.-AFP/NOW Lebanon

Kataeb bloc MP Fadi Haber describes Hezbollah’s arms as “weapons of terrorism”
December 17, 2011 /Kataeb bloc MP Fadi Haber told Future News television on Saturday that Hezbollah’s arms “are weapons of terrorism, because they terrorize Lebanese inside Lebanon.”
Commenting on the recent parliamentary spat between Kataeb MP Sami Gemayel and Hezbollah MP Nawwaf Moussawi, Haber told Future News that Hezbollah adopts a “condescending attitude” when dealing with other parties because of the arms it possesses, which are not under the control of the Lebanese state. A war of words erupted at parliament on Wednesday when Gemayel objected to Hezbollah’s expansion of its telecommunications network on Lebanese soil. According to the report, the Hezbollah MP then lashed out at Gemayel, saying “the Resistance does not protect agents [of foreign governments].”-NOW Lebanon

Lebanese Forces bloc MP Antoine Zahra says Orthodox plan “best solution” to ease sectarian tensions
December 17, 2011 /Lebanese Forces bloc MP Antoine Zahra said that the Orthodox plan pertaining to the electoral law is the “best” solution for easing sectarian tensions in the country.
“This is the best way to reduce sectarian tensions, which is to allow each sect to feel that it is being properly represented,” Zahra told the Free Lebanon radio station in a reference to the plan, which states that citizens should vote for candidates from their own sect. The MP also said that a Lebanese government that does not follow “the path of March 14 would be a catastrophe” for the country.
During a Christian gathering held at Bkriki on Friday, Christian leaders and MPs assigned a commission to consult with all “national components” to draft a parliamentary electoral law based on the Orthodox proposal. -NOW Lebanon

Alain Aoun says Orthodox plan motivated by sectarianism
December 17, 2011 /Change and Reform bloc MP Alain Aoun said that the Orthodox plan on electoral law is a proposal motivated by sectarianism. “How can we, Christians, be represented appropriately in such a sectarian system [in Lebanon]?” Aoun asked during an interview with New TV television. During a Christian gathering held at Bkriki on Friday, Christian leaders and MPs assigned a commission to consult with all “national components” to draft a parliamentary electoral law based on the Orthodox proposal. Asked about his opinion of the statement made by the Deputy Head of Future Movement, Antoine Andraous, that the Christian leaders' gathering in Bkirki was “a kind of folklore,” Aoun said: “Do you expect a clown like him to say something other than this remark?”Aoun said that Andraous “has no right to target the gathering which brought together [Maronite leaders at the Maronite patriarchate].”
He added: “A person like him cannot treat this serious issue frivolously.”Regarding the cabinet’s plan to raise the minimum wage, Aoun said: “There are powers in the cabinet and the privileges of the relevant minister cannot be disregarded when a proposal concerns his ministry,” in reference to Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas. On December 7, the cabinet rejected the proposal on wage increase submitted by Nahhas, and instead approved another bill introduced by Prime Minister Najib Mikati. Commenting on the recent parliamentary spat between Kataeb MP Sami Gemayel and Hezbollah MP Nawwaf Moussawi, Aoun said: “I say to Moussawi and others that it is time to stop targeting the past experience of any group. Parties need to respect each other and judge one another” without having to reopening old issues.Aoun added that attempts to “target some Christians are harmful and we reject” them. A war of words erupted at parliament on Wednesday when Gemayel objected to Hezbollah’s expansion of its telecommunications network on Lebanese soil. According to the report, the Hezbollah MP then lashed out at Gemayel and said that “the Resistance does not protect agents [of foreign governments].”
-NOW Lebanon

MP Ammar Houri : We will continue to call for disarming Beirut
December 17, 2011 /Future bloc MP Ammar Houri commented Saturday on the security incident in Beirut’s Zaidaniyeh on Friday night saying, “We will incessantly keep on calling for disarming Beirut,” the National News Agency reported. “Once again, illegitimate weapons intimidate Lebanese and attack their security, dignity and their right to live [amidst stable conditions],” Houri said.
A “personal dispute” that escalated into gunfire injured one person in Zaidaniyeh, near Aisha Bakkar on Friday night. Future television also reported that the dispute took place between a Hezbollah and Amal member, adding that the dispute escalated into gunfire that injured two people in the area.-NOW Lebanon

Future bloc leader MP Fouad Siniora commends private banks’ move to finance STL
December 17, 2011 /Future bloc leader MP Fouad Siniora on Saturday praised Lebanon’s private banks’ move to reimburse the government for its share of funding to the UN-backed court probing ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s murder. “This is a positive step that will be registered for Prime Minister Najib Mikati,” Siniora said according to a statement issued by his office.He added that if he were in Mikati’s position, he would have “sought the help of civil society to bear the costs…and help out the Lebanese treasury.”Lebanon's $32 million share of funding for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) had sparked a political debate that threatened to bring down the Mikati’s Hezbollah-dominated government. Siniora also denied a report by a Syrian television channel Al-Ekhbariya, which said that the Future Movement “is training Iranians to send them to Syria.” “Such report is a big lie…it is baseless,” Siniora said, adding that his party “does not interfere in the affairs of any Arab state.”
However, he said that his party “sympathizes with the Syrian people.”Lebanon’s political scene is split between supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, led by Hezbollah, and the pro-Western March 14 camp.Assad’s troops have cracked down on protests against almost five decades of Baath rule which broke out mid-March, killing over 5,000 people and triggering a torrent of international condemnation.-NOW Lebanon

Eight dead, 299 wounded in Egyptian clashes
December 17, 2011
New violence rocked the administrative heart of Cairo on Saturday as troops and police deployed after clashes with protesters against continued military rule left eight people dead and 299 wounded.
Caretaker Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzuri further raised tensions by accusing the protesters of being counter-revolutionaries and denying that security forces had opened fire as they broke up the sit-in launched against his nomination last month. Troops and police moved to retake control of the area around the cabinet offices early on Saturday, erecting razor-wire barriers on access roads, an AFP correspondent reported. But after a few hours of calm, new clashes erupted between demonstrators and security forces, overshadowing the count in the second phase of the first general election since the ouster of president Hosni Mubarak in February. Protesters hurled stones and petrol bombs, the correspondent said.
Adel Adawi, an aide to the health minister, told state news agency MENA on Saturday that the casualty toll had reached eight dead and 299 wounded.
One of the dead was Emad Effat, a senior cleric in the government-run Dar al-Ifta, the official interpreter of Islamic law, the institution said in a statement published by MENA.
Dar al-Ifta "considers him a martyr, with God the exalted," the statement said.
Footage posted on Youtube showed the bloodied cleric lying prone on the street before protesters carried him away.
"The people demand the execution of the field marshal," the demonstrators chanted in reference to Hussein Tantawi, the head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), which took over following Mubarak's ouster.
Pictures of a military policeman grabbing a women by her hair, and of another looming over a sobbing elderly lady with his truncheon quickly circulated on the social networking site Twitter, enraging activists.
But in a press conference on Saturday, Prime Minister Ganzuri accused the protesters of being counter-revolutionaries and denied that security forces had opened fire.
"Those who are in Tahrir Square [epicenter of the revolution that overthrew Mubarak in February] are not the youth of the revolution," Ganzuri said.
"This is not a revolution, but a counter-revolution," added the man who first served as premier under Mubarak from 1996 to 1999.
He said 18 people had been wounded by gunfire on Friday and, without elaborating, blamed "infiltrators," who he said "do not want the best for Egypt."
It was the SCAF's nomination of Ganzuri as prime minister on November 27 that prompted the protesters to launch their sit-in outside the cabinet's offices. They continued it after his interim government was sworn in on December 7. The demonstrators want the military to hand power immediately to a civilian administration with full powers.
The military has said it will only step down once a president has been elected by the end of June in the final stage of a protracted transition.
-AFP/NOW Lebanon

West Demands Changes to Russia's Syria U.N. Resolution
Naharnet /France on Friday attacked Russia's proposed U.N. Security Council resolution on the Syrian crisis as "totally unbalanced" and no immediate talks were called on the measure.
Russia, having blocked U.N. action on Syria for months, surprised other members of the 15-nation council on Thursday by putting forward a draft resolution which condemns the violence by all sides in Syria.
The U.N. says President Bashar al-Assad's crackdown on opposition protests has left 5,000 dead. Russia and China vetoed a European resolution on Syria in October. Western nations say the new Russia text is not tough enough on the Damascus government, but they are ready to negotiate with Russia. France's U.N. envoy Gerard Araud called the Russian text a "maneuver."
Russia "gives the appearance of movement while presenting a text which is totally unbalanced and which is empty," he said in a live internet chat session with French newspaper Le Monde.
But he stressed that France and other European nations wanted negotiations. Russia called hasty Security Council on Thursday to discuss the resolution which strongly condemns violence by "all parties, including disproportionate use of force by Syrian authorities." It also raises concern over "the illegal supply of weapons to the armed groups in Syria," according to a copy obtained by Agence France Presse.
European diplomats said there has to be stronger condemnation of rights violations by the Assad government and stronger support for Arab League action against Syria, including its sanctions.
Western nations said they were waiting for follow up talks, but Russia's U.N. envoy Vitaly Churkin said his delegation would not be calling for negotiations before Monday.
"It will take time for (western nations) to absorb the significance of the developments," Churkin told reporters, referring to the initial negative comments on the Russian text. "It is perhaps telling that the Russians have not called follow up talks if this is such an important move," one western diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Araud said it was uncertain how long negotiations could take. "Negotiations on a resolution can take a few hours or a few months. Everything depends on the desire of the Russians to accept our amendments," he said.Source Agence France Presse

Source to NOWLebanon: Shara’s Russia visit ‘cancelled’
December 16, 2011 /A “well-informed” source from the Russian Foreign Ministry told NOWLebanon on Friday that Syrian Vice President Faruq al-Shara’s visit to Moscow has been cancelled.
“Shara’s visit was cancelled after his request to meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was rejected and was informed that he is to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov,” the source said. “After the efforts Moscow made to help the Syrian regime, it seems that divorce has begun to take its path due to Syria’s lack of seriousness regarding the suggestions that Russia helped crystalize to resolve the Syrian crisis.” According to AFP, the Syrian VP is to hold talks with Russian officials in Moscow in a bid to defuse the crisis in his country, Russian news agencies quoted a Kremlin source as saying Friday. The announcement of the talks comes after Russia on Thursday took fellow UN Security Council members by surprise when it suddenly proposed a draft resolution condemning the violence by both the opposition and regime in Syria. The United Nations this week estimated that more than 5,000 people have been killed in the Syrian government's crackdown on dissent. -NOW Lebanon

U.N.: More than 4,500 Syrians Sheltered in N. Lebanon
Naharnet/More than 4,500 Syrians fleeing a deadly crackdown on a revolt against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad have found shelter in Lebanon, with hundreds crossing the border in the last two weeks, the United Nations said Friday. A report released by the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said 4,510 Syrians, including women and children, had registered in northern Lebanon, up from 3,798 at the beginning of December. The majority of those who fled to Lebanon this month hail from the central Homs region and nearby Tal Kalakh, where regime forces have sought to crush massive protests demanding Assad step down. Most of them had settled with host families "in difficult circumstances" in villages near the border as well as in the Akkar district, located between the Lebanese-Syrian border and the coastal city of Tripoli, the report said. Nineteen wounded Syrians, including an 11-year-old girl, were also hospitalized in the north this week alone, according to UNHCR.
"Several were in coma when they reached the hospitals and one person reportedly died from his injuries," read the report. Syria has planted landmines along its border with Lebanon in a bid to prevent weapons smuggling and dissidents from fleeing the fierce crackdown by the regime in Damascus against a nine-month revolt, Lebanese officials in the north have said.
Lebanon and Syria share a 330-kilometer border but have yet to agree on official demarcation. Syrian troops have regularly staged incursions into Lebanon in recent weeks, killing at least three people when they opened fire on border villages, according to Lebanese officials. There have been growing fears in Lebanon that the bloodshed in Syria could spill over the border.
The Lebanese opposition, Washington and the United Nations have condemned the incursions. But the Hizbullah-led Lebanese government has for the most part stayed silent on the issue.
Source Agence France Presse

The issue of military intervention in Syria
By Adel Al Toraifi/Asharq Alawsat
When the Lebanese civil war broke out in April 1975, regional and international public opinion was divided over how to put an end to it. Some believed that the Lebanese crisis was an internal and Arab issue, and so international military intervention was unacceptable. Others demanded direct military intervention, or at least the provision of military and logistical aid to the Lebanese army, under the pretext that the central government was incapable of confronting the Lebanese and Palestinian militias, or forcing them to accept a ceasefire, without the presence of an international alliance that was able to deter parties from violating agreements, and able to preserve security in a country fraught with historical grudges and sectarian feuds.
There were two sides leading the debate and directly influencing the options of late Lebanese President Suleiman Frangieh. On the one hand, Syrian President Hafez al-Assad was warning and threatening Frangieh against the internationalization of the crisis, so that Lebanon would not fall under the US and French mandate. On the other hand, some US officials were trying to convince Frangieh of the necessity of resorting to the UN Security Council, or at least to confront the Palestinian militias with force, in return for America providing material and military support. Against his own will, Frangieh accepted Syria's request to intervene in June 1976, and less than two months later, the Arab summit in Riyadh granted Syria the legitimacy to stay on Lebanese soil. Of course, the Syrian occupation of Lebanon continued for over three decades. The Lebanese state's civil identity was destroyed and its sovereignty was violated, as it became a centre for terrorist organizations under the pretext of “resistance”.
In 2005, recalling the historic mistake of passing up the opportunity for international intervention, in order to preserve the sovereignty of the Lebanese state and prevent it from collapsing, Henry Kissinger urged the international powers to intervene in Lebanon to drive out the Syrian troops and disarm Hezbollah. He wrote: "Three times since 1958 – the United States that year, Syria in 1976 and Israel in 1981 – foreign intervention held the ring in Lebanon to prevent collapse into violence and to arbitrate among the Christian, Sunni, Shiite and Druze groups that constitute the Lebanese body politic…The test will be whether the United States and the international community are able to bring about an agreed political framework and whether they can mobilize an international presence to guarantee that the conflicting passions do not once again erupt." (International Herald Tribune, 15th May, 2005).
Today, as we approach the beginning of 2012, Syria is facing the same scenario. Ten months of protests and the state of civil disobedience have divided the country along sectarian and regional lines, and pushed it closer to the brink of civil war. So far, over 5,000 people have been killed, with thousands more displaced or thrown into prison. Every day we hear news of further killings as more defections occur from the army and government positions, and as the dramatic collapse hits the economy and basic services. Amidst this state of crisis in Syria, and the al-Assad regime’s insistence upon spurning all regional and international initiatives, instead giving precedence to the logic of armed violence, the option of direct military intervention – or arming the revolutionaries – has been strongly mooted as the necessary means to preserving the unity of the Syrian state. Otherwise, it may descend into the pit of sectarian and regional warfare, thus transforming Syria into a failed state. It would then be another hot spot for regional destabilization, and a haven for terrorist groups.
Currently, there are two schools of thought dominating the debate about the Syrian crisis: The first one approves of direct military intervention or arming the revolutionaries in a manner similar to Libya, which would have never managed to remove the Gaddafi regime were it not for the assistance of NATO’s air force, as well as NATO's logistic and intelligence support for the volunteer fighters. The other opinion warns against foreign military intervention and the internationalization of the crisis, under the pretext of safeguarding the Syrian revolution from descending into armed violence. There is also a fear that such a step would open the way for Western countries to re-mould Syria's political and economic future, including its position on Israel.
Advocates of military intervention or arming the revolutionaries - whether on the Arab or international level - argue that the heavy human price currently being paid necessitates intervention for the protection of civilians. Hence, their argument justifying intervention is chiefly based on the need to protect human rights and remove the current authoritarian regime, as was the case with other countries like Tunisia and Egypt.
Those warning against internationalizing the crisis in a military fashion argue that intervention would be wrong for several reasons, including the existence of international objection (represented in the Russian or Chinese veto). There is also the anticipated interference of Iran, either directly or through its allies such as Hezbollah and Hamas, in order to support the regime or spread chaos and terror in the event of the regime's collapse. Those who adopt this opinion also warn that the human cost could be huge, along the lines of what happened in Iraq and Afghanistan. Finally, they contend that the results of military intervention cannot be guaranteed. The overthrow of the al-Assad regime might lead to the country fragmenting into armed sectarian cantons, each with no problem finding a financier or an arms supplier from neighbouring countries. Besides, the construction of a new democratic state, with an agreed-upon constitution and a new social contract preserving the rights of minorities, cannot be guaranteed.
This last point is very significant. A change of regime in Syria could lead to the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, a group that is not greatly different to the Baathist party with regards to its history of bloodshed and coups, and its exploitation of the resistance card, just like the rest of the Islamic parties. The Muslim Brotherhood could rule with the same inflammatory behaviour by encouraging violence, backing armed religious militias, and justifying the hijacking of the state under the pretext of liberating the land and confronting Israel.
Of course the Arab countries hold differing views for and against the idea of intervention. Countries like Algeria and Yemen do not want a repetition of the Libyan scenario, as any forced change of governance in Syria might threaten their own regimes. Other countries would love to see the current Syrian regime collapse, for reasons pertaining to its alliance with Iran and its negative intervention in Lebanon and Gaza. Such countries believe that the weakening of the al-Assad regime, and its preoccupation with its own survival, is the least that should come of this. To be fair, I must point out that there are countries which truly believe in the necessity of military intervention for humanitarian reasons. This does not mean however that they don’t have strategic interests which might be served in accompaniment to their “idealistic” moral vision of the crisis.
In my opinion, direct military intervention at this stage is the only real and practical option if the international community and the Arab countries are serious about sparing the Syrian state a complete political meltdown, and a disintegration of the social fabric that binds the Syrian sects and ethnicities together. The last ten months have proved that the Syrian protesters are incapable of overthrowing the al-Assad regime alone. Arming the Syrian civilians would have negative consequences in the long run, because it would lead to the militarization of Syrian society, and the provision of the weapons necessary to prolong a civil war there. Of course I am not playing down the negative impact of direct military intervention, or the international and regional obstacles it would face. Yet it seems that Syria cannot take it anymore. Without a change of regime, it might be impossible to maintain the sovereignty of the Syrian state, and its stability as we know it.
Let us recall how Eisenhower's military intervention in 1958 saved Lebanon from disintegration, and that the failure to intervene in 1975 led to the destruction of the country. The true guarantee that the Arab League and Syria's neighbouring countries should provide is for a change of regime, through international military intervention if necessary. But first they should try and formulate a (secular) civil alternative from the internal and external opposition; something more representative of the entire spectrum of Syrian people than the current Syrian National Council (SNC). This alternative must be committed to effecting a democratic transformation under the auspices of international organizations, and prepared to offer assurances to the Alawite sect and the Christians, so that they are not discriminated against or politically and economically deprived. If the Syrian opposition cannot commit itself to granting an amnesty to the Baathist party members, and does not pledge to preserve the institutions of the state and honour its international commitments, then the chances of Syria being saved will be very slim.
Some might believe that justifying a military intervention in Syria here is selective compared to other examples. Indeed, this is true. However, my call for a military intervention here is not strictly for humanitarian reasons, despite their importance, but rather for strategic ones, so that this terror-sponsoring regime does gain strength again. In his book entitled "This is My Will" (1978), Kamal Jumblatt said: "Damascus played the role of the Arabist, the pan-Arabist, and also adopted the radical Palestinian position. All this contributed to making the Syrian political campaign ineffective in the long run. Unspecified and vague principles…are always bad."

Syrians protest against Assad after Russia UN move
BEIRUT, (Reuters) - Syrian forces killed 13 people on Friday during widespread protests against President Bashar al-Assad, activists said, a day after Syria's big power ally Russia sharpened its criticism of Damascus in a draft United Nations resolution. Most of the deaths were in the city of Homs, they said, a hotbed of resistance to a crackdown on nine months of protests which has killed 5,000 people according to the United Nations and provoked Western and Arab League sanctions on Damascus.
State media said there were no deaths or injuries on Friday, despite what they said were attacks by "armed terrorist groups" on security forces. Syriahas barred most independent media, making it hard to verify accounts by activists and authorities. About 200,000 people marched in separate districts of Homs, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, and footage broadcast by Al Jazeera television showed mock gallows where effigies were hanged, including two of Assad and his father, who seized power in Syria four decades ago.
If confirmed, it would be one the biggest turnouts by demonstrators for several weeks.
Russia presented a new, beefed-up draft resolution on the violence to the U.N. Security Council on Thursday, offering a chance for the 15-nation panel to overcome deadlock and deliver its first statement of purpose on Assad's crackdown. The council has been split, with Western countries harshly critical of Syria pitted against Russia,China and non-aligned countries that have avoided blaming Assad for the violence. France, which has led Western rebukes of Assad, welcomed what it said was Moscow's recognition of the deteriorating situation in Syria, but said Russia was wrong to equate Assad's crackdown with violence perpetrated by his opponents.
Assad has denied that Syrian forces have been ordered to kill demonstrators, blaming armed groups for the bloodshed. He said 1,100 soldiers and police have been killed since the uprising erupted in March, inspired by other unrest in the Arab world that has toppled three autocratic leaders this year.
An armed insurgency has begun to eclipse civilian protests, raising fears Syria could descend into civil war. On Thursday army deserters killed 27 soldiers and security personnel in the southern province of Deraa, an activist group said.
State news agency SANA reported that security forces defused several explosives in Damascus and Hama provinces on Friday.
It is the most serious challenge to the 11-year rule of Assad, 46, whose family is from the minority Alawite sect and has ruled majority Sunni Muslim Syria since 1970.
The United States and European Union have imposed sanctions and called on Assad to step down. Neighboring Turkey has taken similar steps and even the Arab League has declared sanctions against Syria, although it has several times extended a deadline for Syria to approve a formula for ending the crisis.
In the latest sign of the heavy economic price Syria is paying for its repression of dissent, Turkey said on Friday that Damascus would lose more than $100 million a year in transport revenue as Ankara bypasses the turbulent country by opening alternative export routes to the Middle East and Gulf.
"ARAB LEAGUE IS KILLING US"
Arab governments called off a foreign ministers' meeting due to discuss a response on Saturday to Assad's iron fist policy towards unrest, Egypt's state news agency MENA reported.
A source at Arab League headquarters in Cairo gave no reason for the cancellation. A lower-level meeting of its ministerial committee on Syria will go ahead in Qatar on Saturday, the source said. The committee includes the foreign ministers of Egypt, Sudan, Oman, Qatar and Algeria.
Friday's protests were held under the slogan of "The Arab League is Killing us," reflecting demonstrators' frustration at what they see as the organization's ineffective response.
At the U.N. Security Council in October, Russia and China vetoed a European draft resolution that threatened sanctions. Russia has circulated its own draft twice but it was criticized by Western nations for blaming the violence equally on the government and opposition.
The draft floated unexpectedly by Russia on Thursday expands and toughens Moscow's previous text, adding a new reference to "disproportionate use of force by Syrian authorities.
Obtained by Reuters, the draft also "urges the Syrian government to put an end to suppression of those exercising their rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association."
Reports by Human Rights Watch and a U.N.-backed independent investigation have concluded that Syrian government forces were given "shoot to kill" orders when confronting demonstrators.
STRONGER TEXT
Russia's U.N. Ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, told reporters that the latest draft resolution "considerably strengthens all aspects of the previous text" and that "clearly the Syrian authorities are singled out in a number of instances." He said Russia did not believe both sides in Syria were equally responsible for violence, but acknowledged the text called on all parties to halt violence and contained no threat of sanctions, which he said Moscow continued to oppose.
Western officials welcomed the move but Paris said the draft "has elements that are not acceptable in their current form."
"For France, it is a positive development that Russia has decided to recognize that the serious deterioration of the situation in Syria merits a Security Council resolution," Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero told a news briefing. Calling the council's inaction scandalous, Valero said a resolution should be swiftly adopted to condemn crimes against humanity in Syria and back a credible political solution.
U.S. Defence Secretary Leon Panetta told reporters in Ankara that the Russian draft showed the international community was increasingly coming together to "say to Syria and to the Assad regime that we can no longer tolerate the kind of killings that have gone on...(and) that Assad needs to step down."

Canada Deplores West Bank Mosque Attack
(No. 380 - December 16, 2011 - 4:40 p.m. ET) Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird today issued the following statement:
“Like all Canadians, I was appalled to hear of the burning and the defacing of the mosque at Burqa. It is entirely without justification and an abhorrent affront to the sanctity of places of worship.
“Such attacks undermine the inalienable right of all people to practise faith freely, in peace and security.
“We hope those responsible will be punished to the fullest extent of the law.
“Canada hopes all in the region will work toward peace and security—in the coming holy days and year-round.”

Syria: Al-Assad's flight from reality
By Amir Taheri/AsharqAlawsat
What do you do when you run out of arguments? For some Arab and Iranian intellectuals the answer is simple: you brand your opponents as “agents” of foreign powers and pawns in a foreign-hatched “conspiracy”. This is what happened in 2009 when millions of Iranians took to the streets to protest against a presidential election that they judged to be fraudulent.
Since there has been no independent investigation of the claim, no one could endorse or reject it. What is certain, however, is that the millions who took to the streets were ordinary Iranian citizens who felt humiliated by massive electoral fraud. They were nobody’s “agents”.
However, the leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei simply wouldn’t, or couldn’t understand, that fact.
More than two years later, he and his entourage have transformed their narrative of events into a sacred text that is beyond question. As prisoners of a dogmatic account, Khamenei and his entourage are no longer able to analyse what happened, let alone devise policies to deal with the consequences.
With the Syrian uprising heading for its ninth month, we are witnessing a similar flight from reality on the part of President Bashar al-Assad and his entourage.
Having run out of arguments, some al-Assad supporters have used the old trick of branding his opponents as “agents” and “conspirators.”
In return, one option would be to brand as “agents of the al-Assad regime” in a “conspiracy hatched in Damascus” all those who brand others as foreign “agents”.
However, that mutual name-calling would get us nowhere.
The reality is that Syria is going through the deepest crisis in its history as an independent country.
There is also no denying the fact that al-Assad cannot or does not want to even contemplate a political solution to the crisis. His latest statements and interviews indicate that he has put all his eggs in the basket of brutal repression. He has decided, or been made to decide, that only force might save his regime.
Paradoxically, al-Assad himself may be paving the way for foreign intervention in Syria just as Muammar Gaddafi did in Libya and Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
Al-Assad is doing that in three ways.
First, by deepening the crisis he is posing a threat to the security of neighbours, notably Jordan and Turkey, while generating instability in the Eastern Mediterranean. Often, instability in one country leads to neighbouring countries being sucked into a conflict that did not concern them initially. This is what happened with South Vietnam from 1950 to 1975 and Afghanistan after the Soviet invasion in 1979.
Next, al-Assad has become increasingly reliant on support from the Islamic Republic in Tehran. This is how the official Iranian news agency IRNA put the situation last week: “Syria under President Bashar al-Assad is part of the Islamic Republic’s defence perimeter against its enemies.” Translated into plain language this means that Iran has already been sucked into the Syrian crisis. Would it be surprising if Iran’s opponents regarded Syria as a battleground?
Third, by promoting the claim that the Syrian crisis is part of a broader struggle among rival foreign powers, al-Assad is making it more difficult for a national dialogue in search of a peaceful outcome.
Having rejected an “Arab solution”, al-Assad is also rejecting a “Syrian solution.” He is left with the hope of a military-security solution based on the calculation that if you kill enough people things would begin to calm down. By encouraging his illusions, al-Assad’s apologists only give him more rope with which to hang himself.
The apologists believe that by branding the pro-democracy leaders as “agents” and the uprising as a “conspiracy” they would persuade the Syrian masses not to rattle their chains. However, they may provoke the opposite effect by persuading more Syrians that foreign help is needed and welcome in getting rid of the oppressor. A people pushed into insurrectionary fervour will not think twice about the provenance of the help needed to obtain liberty. Most revolutions that have succeeded were accompanied by some support from the outside, although whether or not such support was decisive in their victory is hard to establish. Ask the French and they will tell you that the American Revolution, that is to say the emergence of the United States, was the result of France’s strategy to weaken England. Hundreds of French army and intelligence officers took part in the enterprise. Next, ask the English and you would hear how the newly created US helped foment the French Revolution with the help of the pan-European network of the Illuminati. More recently, didn’t the Germans buy Lenin a train ticket and help him return to Russia in secret to foment revolution?
In Iran in 1979, the Shah was persuaded that the revolution was a “conspiracy” hatched by US President Jimmy Carter and carried out by British and Russian “agents.”
More recently, we have heard the words “agent” and “conspiracy” from Gaddafi, Ben Ali, Saleh and Mubarak among others. What al-Assad’s apologists do not understand is the relationship between internal and external factors in shaping events. If you have an egg and apply heat you may end up with a chicken. But if you have a stone and apply heat you will get nothing but a hot stone.
If Syria were not in a revolutionary mood, no outside power would have been able to push it in that direction. The only valid questions are: what forced Syria into revolutionary mood and what can be done to help it emerge from it with minimum damage? The trouble for al-Assad is that Syria is in a revolutionary mood.The trouble for Syria is that al-Assad is in denial.

Military man
Michael Young, December 16, 2011
http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=343290
Now Lebanon/A few weeks ago, as Army Day and Independence Day approached, someone, no doubt at the instigation of a pushy army officer, decided to hang up a gigantic portrait of the army commander, Jean Kahwaji, above Sassine Square in central Ashrafieh. Regardless of Kahwaji’s merits or demerits, this struck many people as remarkable excess on behalf of an individual who is, after all, a mere employee of the state. Imagine for a moment the absurdity if the director general of the Social Security Fund were to do the same thing; or the governor of the Central Bank. To be fair to Kahwaji, he’s not the first to allow his mug shot to decorate a thoroughfare. The faces of former President Emile Lahoud and current President Michel Suleiman filled our skylines when they led the battalions, and were usually far more invasive than that of the present commander.
Somehow the Egyptians, or at least those who returned to Tahrir Square a few weeks ago, got it right. You cannot have genuine transformation in the Arab world in the overbearing shadow of soldiers. The sacrifices of the military – real or, more often, imagined, given how Arab armies usually plunder the state –do not entitle the institution to a blank check of popular sympathy and obedience.
Jean Kahwaji is no Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi; nor is he even ruling over Lebanon. Indeed, if there is one criticism we can level at our armed forces it’s that they do not hold the monopoly over the use of violence in the country. Rather, the army commander, like his predecessors (and no doubt his successors), simply dreams of becoming president. After all, our last two heads of state have hailed from the military, and Lebanon went through two years of trauma between 1988-1990 because a third army commander sought to exploit the conflicts he ignited to ease himself into the presidency.
Lebanon is a paradox in some ways. Here is the one country that mostly elected civilian leaders during its post-Independence years, unlike a majority of other Arab countries. Until 1998, when Lahoud was appointed by Syria, only one other army commander, Fouad Chehab, had been head of state, and his election was the consequence of a compromise to end the 1958 conflict which had extended beyond Lebanon’s borders. Chehab was an estimable man, refusing to accept an unconstitutional extension of his mandate, but that did not prevent his comrades in arms from abusing their power.
And yet it appears these days that the country can do no better than a beret when it goes in search of new presidents. How demoralizing it is for the Lebanese, who pride themselves on their civil institutions, to have to look no further than an officer as their national representative. How demeaning to know that when a new army chief takes over, a military cabal begins maneuvering to get him elected, hoping that it will ride to Baabda on his coattails.
Kahwaji is as entitled as another Maronite Christian to become president. The problem comes when an army commander uses his position to campaign for the job. Nothing politicizes the army more, raising the probability that security decisions are taken with the presidency firmly in mind. Gone, it seems, are the buff, blunt military men, straight as arrows. Lebanon’s army commanders have become as agile as ballet dancers, able to walk through raindrops without getting wet.
This must end for the good of the country, and the army. Article 49 of the constitution obliges grade-one civil servants and those in equivalent positions aspiring to stand for the presidency to retire from their post two years before an election. In practice, that condition was ignored before the elections of Lahoud and Suleiman. Parliament would do best to amend the article and extend that period to six years, to ensure that officials do not prepare their candidacy while still serving under the president they hope to replace. The article may yet be ignored, but the amendment process will inject seriousness into it, making the rule more difficult to disregard.
A second proposal, and it may not mean much beyond the symbolism, is to cease referring to military figures who have taken on civilian responsibilities as “general”. This should apply as much in media citations as when these individuals are addressed publicly.
Is there any reason why we should still call Sleiman, Lahoud, or Change and Reform bloc leader Michel Aoun, for that matter, by their rank, when they have moved beyond the military establishment and are in positions where they represent, or have represented, the country as a whole? To refer to an individual as “general” is to underline his association with an institution that is, constitutionally, under civilian authority. There is no reason not to recognize that hierarchy by identifying such figures through their non-military titles. Furthermore, to continue giving officials a military rank has intimidating overtones, since the army, among many other things, is an instrument of intimidation.
Finally, it would be very useful if the government prohibited, once and for all, the habit of allowing state representatives to hang up their portraits publicly. You might have trouble forbidding images of the president, parliament speaker, and prime minister (though there is no reason not to do so), but it should be easier to impose such a ban on other functionaries, including the army commander.
It’s not personal. Jean Kahwaji is no worse than anyone else, and may be better than many. But as much as Lebanon tries to behave like a banana republic, there is no reason for our governing institutions to encourage such behavior. As Lebanese, we are entitled to ask that civil servants be more modest. After all, they allegedly work for us.
*Michael Young is opinion editor of the Daily Star newspaper in Beirut and author of The Ghosts of Martyrs Square: An Eyewitness Account of Lebanon’s Life Struggle. He tweets @BeirutCalling.

UNITED STATES ATTORNEY’S OFFICE Southern District of New York
U.S. ATTORNEY PREET BHARARA FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: U.S. ATTORNEY’S OFFICE
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Ellen Davis, Carly Sullivan,

http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys Jerika Richardson
(212) 637-2600
DEA
Dawn Dearden, Rusty Payne
(202) 307-7977
MANHATTAN U.S. ATTORNEY FILES CIVIL MONEY LAUNDERING AND FORFEITURE SUIT SEEKING MORE THAN $480 MILLION DOLLARS FROM ENTITIES INCLUDING LEBANESE FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS THAT FACILITATED A HIZBALLAH-RELATED MONEY LAUNDERING SCHEME
http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/pressreleases/December11/hizballahmoneylaunderingpr.pdf
Lebanese Financial Institutions, Including Institutions Linked to Hizballah, Allegedly Wired Over $300 Million into the United States for the Purchase and Shipment of Used Cars to West Africa as Part of Money Laundering Scheme Proceeds from Car Sales and Narcotics Trafficking Allegedly Were Funneled Back to Lebanon Through Hizballah-Controlled Money Laundering Channels Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Michele M. Leonhart, the Administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”), announced today the filing of a civil money-laundering and in rem forfeiture complaint (the “Complaint”) alleging a massive, international scheme in which Lebanese financial institutions,
including a bank and two exchange houses linked to Hizballah, used the U.S. financial system to launder narcotics trafficking and other criminal proceeds through West Africa and back into Lebanon. As part of the scheme, funds were wired from Lebanon to the United States to buy used cars, which were then transported to West Africa. Cash from the sale of the cars, along with proceeds of narcotics trafficking, were then funneled to Lebanon through Hizballahcontrolled money laundering channels. Substantial portions of the cash were paid to Hizballah, which the U.S. Department of State designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 1997. As alleged in the Complaint, the Hizballah-linked financial institutions involved in the scheme include the Lebanese Canadian Bank (“LCB”) and two Lebanese exchange houses – the Hassan Ayash Exchange Company and Ellissa Holding – and their related subsidiaries and affiliates. The Complaint alleges that the assets of LCB, the Hassan Ayash Exchange, and Ellissa Holding, along with the assets of approximately 30 U.S. car buyers and a U.S. shipping company
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and related entities that facilitated the scheme, are forfeitable as the proceeds of violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (“IEEPA”), together with Executive Orders and U.S. Department of the Treasury regulations, and as property involved in and the proceeds of money laundering offenses. The Complaint also seeks civil money laundering penalties totaling $483,142,568 from these entities, representing the sum of the funds they laundered.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said: “The intricate scheme laid out in today’s complaint reveals the deviously creative ways that terrorist organizations are funding themselves and moving their money, and it puts into stark relief the nexus between narcotics trafficking and terrorism. Today, we are putting a stranglehold on a major source of that funding by disrupting a vast and far-flung network that spanned three continents. Together with our law enforcement partners in the U.S. and around the globe, our commitment to disrupting and dismantling Hizballah and other terrorist organizations is unwavering.”
DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart said: “DEA and its partners have exposed the Lebanese Canadian Bank as a major money laundering source for Hizballah. The connection between drug traffickers and terror networks is evident. By attacking the financial networks of those who wish to harm innocent Americans, DEA is strengthening national security and making our citizens safer.”
According to the Complaint filed today in Manhattan federal court:
Hizballah, the Lebanese Exchanges and the Lebanese Canadian Bank Hizballah, a Lebanon-based terrorist organization formed in approximately 1982, is responsible for some of the deadliest terrorist attacks against the United States in history. Hizballah is designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, a Specially Designated Terrorist and
a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. As a result, pursuant to IEEPA, all assets in the United States in which Hizballah has an interest are blocked, and any transaction or dealing with such property, or providing goods or services to Hizballah, is prohibited in the United States or by U.S. persons without an appropriate license.
On January 26, 2011, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) designated the Hassan Ayash Exchange Company and the Ellissa Exchange Company as Significant Foreign Narcotics Traffickers under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (the “Kingpin Act”), related to their roles in the money laundering activities of Ayman Joumaa, a Lebanese narcotics trafficker linked to Hizballah. Joumaa is also designated as a Significant Foreign Narcotics Trafficker. On November 23, 2011, Joumaa was indicted in the Eastern District of Virginia on charges of conspiracy to distribute narcotics and conspiracy to commit money laundering related to drug trafficking by Mexican and Colombian drug cartels.
On February 10, 2011, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) identified LCB as a financial institution of primary money
laundering concern. As a result, U.S. financial institutions ended their relationships with LCB, precluding LCB from sending money to the United States. The finding was based on FinCEN’s determination that LCB was used by drug traffickers and money launderers around the world, including at least one narco-trafficker who provided financial support to Hizballah. LCB had
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permitted Hizballah-related entities to conduct massive cash transactions, in some cases as much as $260,000 and 200,000,000 Lebanese pounds per day, without disclosing the source or purpose of the money. Hassan Ayash Exchange was LCB’s main source of U.S. currency, and LCB allowed Ellissa companies to conduct large cash transactions through the bank without sufficient oversight or disclosures about the sources and purpose of the cash.
The West African Used Car Trade and Smuggling of Cash to Lebanon From approximately January 1, 2007 to early 2011, at least $329 million was transferred by wire from LCB, the Hassan Ayash Exchange Company, the Ellissa Exchange Company, and other Lebanese financial institutions, including Middle East and Africa Bank, the Federal Bank
of Lebanon, and BLOM Bank, to the United States for the purchase and shipment of used cars. The car buyers in the United States typically had little or no property or assets other than the bank accounts used to receive the overseas wire transfers. The cars were primarily shipped to Cotonou, Benin, where they were housed and sold from large car parks, including one owned by the Ellissa Group, a subsidiary of Ellissa Holding.
A significant portion of the cash proceeds from the car sales was transported to Lebanon by a Hizballah-controlled system of money couriers, cash smugglers, hawaladars, and currency brokers. A network of money couriers controlled by Oussama Salhab, an alleged Hizballah operative living in Togo, transported tens of millions of dollars and Euros from Benin to Lebanon through Togo and Ghana. Salhab and his relatives also own and control Cybamar Swiss GMBH, LCC (“Cybamar”), a transportation company based in Michigan that was frequently used to ship cars to West Africa, as well as other entities involved in the scheme.
Cash transported from West Africa was often received at the Beirut airport, where Hizballah security safeguarded its passage to its final destination. Money Laundering of Narcotics Trafficking Proceeds through Hizballah-Controlled Channels This same used car, Hizballah-controlled money laundering infrastructure is used to conceal and funnel hundreds of millions of dollars in narcotics proceeds from West Africa back to Lebanon. For example, Joumaa’s drug trafficking organization, which operates in Lebanon,
West Africa, Panama and Colombia, launders as much as $200 million in proceeds per month, through various channels, including bulk cash smuggling operations and Lebanese exchange houses. Joumaa’s organization uses Hizballah couriers to transport and launder narcotics proceeds, and pays fees to Hizballah operatives to facilitate the laundering of narcotics proceeds.
Another drug trafficking organization, which is led by Maroun Saade, is also involved in the transportation and distribution of large quantities of narcotics in West Africa. Saade is a member of the Free Patriotic Movement, a Lebanese Christian organization closely allied with Hizballah, and has provided extensive services to Hizballah members engaged in narcotics trafficking and bulk cash smuggling in West Africa. On February 14, 2011, Saade was charged in the Southern District of New York with participating in an international drug conspiracy in West Africa and conspiring to aid the Taliban. Saade is a close associate of Salhab, who relied on Saade to pay bribes to release money couriers arrested for smuggling cash through West Africa.
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In 2007 and 2008, approximately $1.2 billion in declared U.S. currency was transported across the Togo/Ghana border on its way from Benin to the airport in Accra, where the cash could be further shipped.
* * *
The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Richard J. Holwell. Mr. Bharara praised the DEA for its leadership in the investigation, which he noted is ongoing. He also thanked the Federal Bureau of Investigation; OFAC and FinCEN of the U.S. Department of the Treasury; the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection; the Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs; and the New Jersey State Police for their assistance in the case. This action is being handled by the Office’s Asset Forfeiture Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sharon Cohen Levin, Michael Lockard, Jason Cowley, and Alexander Wilson are in charge of the case.
The allegations contained in the Complaint are merely accusations.
11-380 ###