LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِAugust 03/2011

Bible Quotation for today
Paul’s Letter to the Romans Chapter 1/18-32: " For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known of God is revealed in them, for God revealed it to them.  For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse. Because, knowing God, they didn’t glorify him as God, neither gave thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened.  Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and traded the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.  For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. For their women changed the natural function into that which is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural function of the woman, burned in their lust toward one another, men doing what is inappropriate with men, and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error. Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, malice; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil habits, secret slanderers,  backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, unforgiving, unmerciful;  who, knowing the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them."

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
Moscow defends Assad, seeks nuclear deal with Iran by freezing sanctions/DEBKAfile/August 02/11
Der Spiegel: Mossad behind Iran hit/Ynetnews/August 02/11
A managed Syrian transition has failed/By: Hussein Ibish/August 02/11
Syria: Closing mosques and launching satellite television channels/By Tariq Alhomayed/August 02/11

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for August 02/11
Rights group: 24 killed in Syria as Ramadan starts/AP
Son of Hezbollah's Mughniyeh target of Beirut blast: report/The Daily Star
EU Adds Syria Defense Minister to Blacklist/Naharnet
U.N. Meets again on Deadly Syria Crackdown, 24 Killed Overnight/Naharnet
No plans for military intervention in Syria, France says/Now Lebanon
European ambassador to remain in Syria despite Italy recall plea/Now Lebanon
Italy Recalls Ambassador from Syria/Naharnet
Williams: It's Imperative that Lebanese Govt. Take Firm Action on Recent UNIFIL Attack/Naharnet
Miqati Urges U.N. to End Israeli Violations, Says Lebanon Will Defend its Rights/Naharnet
Assad's tanks blast all of northern Syria day after 150 die in two cities/DEBKAfile
Hama under heavy barrage /The Daily Star
Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai says weapons in the hands of non-state actors cause concern/The Daily Star
Qabalan, al-Rahi Discuss Lassa Land Dispute/Naharnet
Al-Rahi Seeking to Hold Meeting Among Top Maronite Leaders on Electoral Law/Naharnet
U.S. Mulls More Sanctions on Syria, Hopes for Strong U.N. Signal/Naharnet
Seven Dead in Syria as Army Shells Several Hama Neighborhoods/Naharnet
Hizbullah: Attack against Any Element of Army, People, Resistance Equation is an Assault against Lebanon/Naharnet
Army: Israeli, Lebanese Troops Exchange Fire in Wazzani Area/Naharnet
Vehicles with Tinted Windows Confront Lassa Police over Construction Work/Naharnet
Sleiman calls on rival parties to soften their sharp rhetoric /The Daily Star
Lebanese Parliamentary Committee OKs draft law on maritime border/The Daily Star
Hezbollah's deputy secretary-general Naim Qassem: Hezbollah offered billions to disarm/The Daily Star
Tripoli MP Mohammad Kabbara urges Lebanese to support Syrian opposition /The Daily Star
Norway Gunman Wants Japanese Psychiatrist/Naharnet
$8 Million Worth Cocaine Seized from 4 Foreigners in Kaslik/Naharnet
Israel Erects Earth Mounds in Wazzani Area Amid Warning Against ‘Calculated Incursion/Naharnet
Lebanese belly dancer in France under fire for sympathizing with Israel/The Daily Star

Der Spiegel: Mossad behind Iran hit
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4103182,00.html
Assaf Uni Published: 08.02.11, /Ynetnews
German newspaper quotes Israeli intelligence source saying that Iranian nuclear scientist's assassination was Mossad chief Tamir Pardo's first major operation. Report claims Mossad opposed to IAF calls to strike Iran nuke sites /Naharnet
BERLIN – The assassination of the Iranian nuclear scientist in Tehran last week was the first major operation of Mossad director Tamir Pardo, the Der Spiegel website reported Monday. The article, which quotes an Israeli intelligence source, surveys the series of assassination attempts involving Iranian scientists in the past 18 months and points to the Mossad as the organization at the forefront of Israel's campaign against an Iranian nuclear bomb. According to reports, the scientist was shot to death last Saturday while taking his daughter to kindergarten. "It was the first public operation by new Mossad chief Tamir Pardo," an unnamed Israeli intelligence source told Der Spiegel's correspondent in Beirut.
It was later revealed that the victim was involved in the development of switches for a nuclear bomb and had worked in a research center in northern Tehran.
The days after the hit saw many conflicting reports regarding the victim's identity. Iran's State-run media initially identified him as Darioush Rezaei, a physics professor and expert in neutron transport, but backtracked within hours, with officials subsequently naming him as Darioush Rezaeinejad, an electronics student. According to the Der Spiegel report, the victim is Professor Rezaei, who was not seen in public since the hit. In January 2010, Iranian nuclear scientist Mohammed Ali Masoudi was assassinated in Tehran. In November of that year physics professor Majid Shahriari was also killed. According to Der Spiegel's source, many Israel Air Force officers are pushing for an aerial attack on Iranian nuclear sites, a plan the Mossad is against.
"It's also a matter of prestige between the organizations," the source said. "As long as the Mossad is leading the campaign against the Iranian nuclear program it continues to get the big budgets." Iran has submitted a letter to the UN's Human Rights Council demanding an investigation into the assassination of Daryoush Rezayeenejad last week.
Javad Larijani, the secretary general of Iran's High Council of Human Rights, accused Israel and the West of assassinating an electrical engineering graduate student.

Son of Hezbollah's Mughniyeh target of Beirut blast: report
August 02, 2011/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: An explosion in Beirut’s southern suburbs Friday was aimed at Mustafa Mughniyeh, the son of slain Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh, some Lebanese media outlets, quoting Israel television, reported. Quoting Israel’s Channel 10, the reports said Mustafa Mughniyeh, a member of Hezbollah’s “operations apparatus,” had left the building five minutes before the explosion went off. It said one of his bodyguards was killed in the explosion. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said Friday that one person had been seriously wounded when a gas cylinder blew up in the Rweiss neighborhood of Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold. The NNA said the explosion reverberated across the southern suburbs, prompting ambulances and Civil Defense unites to rush to the scene of the incident. Imad Mughniyeh, a top military commander in Hezbollah, was killed in a car bomb explosion in Syria in 2008. According to Israeli reports, the building targeted was Mustapha Mughniyeh’s office and not his place of residence.

European ambassador to remain in Syria despite Italy recall plea
August 2, 2011 /The European Union ambassador to Syria is to remain in Damascus despite an Italian proposal Tuesday to recall all ambassadors from the 27 EU nations.
"Our ambassador will remain in Damascus to observe what's happening on the ground," said Michael Mann, spokesperson for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.
The EU delegation in Syria is headed by Greek-born Ambassador Vassilis Bontosoglou, a longtime EU official specialized in trade and Asian affairs who was accredited to the Damascus office in 2007. Italy earlier Tuesday announced the recall of its ambassador for consultation due to the "horrible repression" and proposed that "all ambassadors from countries within the European Union be recalled", the foreign ministry said in Rome. Ashton's spokesperson said however "that we have not heard of this being taken any wider".
- AFP/NOWLebanon

No plans for military intervention in Syria, France says
August 2, 2011 /The international community's position on Syria's deadly crackdown on anti-regime protesters does not include any plans for a Libya-style military intervention to halt the bloodshed, France said Tuesday. "The situations in Libya and Syria are not similar" and "no option of a military nature is planned," French Foreign Ministry spokesperson Christine Fages told reporters, without elaborating on how the situations differed. She was responding to a question about whether the situation in Libya, where NATO is conducting air strikes against Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi's forces as part of a United Nations mandate to protect civilians, might be repeated in Syria.
Britain, France, Germany and Portugal were hoping to revive their push for a formal resolution from the UN Security Council when it meets Tuesday for a second day of talks on Syria.
They want the council to condemn Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's crackdown. But diplomats said that it was more likely the council would instead agree on a simple statement, with no warning of UN action. Russia and China have threatened to veto any formal resolution against Assad. A top UN official said Monday that on top of 140 people reported killed in a military offensive on Sunday, 3,000 people have gone missing and 12,000 been taken prisoner since the anti-regime protests erupted in mid-March. More than 1,600 civilians and 369 members of the army and security forces have been killed since March 15 in Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. -AFP/NOW Lebanon

U.N. Meets again on Deadly Syria Crackdown, 24 Killed Overnight
Naharnet /The U.N. Security Council was to hold a second day of talks on Syria Tuesday after President Bashar Assad's tanks shelled the protest hub of Hama on the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. At least 24 civilians were reported killed across Syria on Monday, an activist said, among them 10 during protests after special evening prayers.
"Ten martyrs fell and several people were wounded by gunfire from security forces during protests in several Syrian towns after the 'taraweeh' evening prayers," Syrian Observatory for Human Rights chief Rami Abdel Rahman said. He added that the day's death toll on the first day of the fasting month was 24, and that more than 150 people were taken in for questioning on Monday evening. The protests came as the U.N. Security Council held a first session of emergency talks on the deadly crackdown, with Western powers again demanding a condemnation of the violence, but the closed session ended with no agreement.
A top U.N. official told the meeting that on top of 140 people reported killed in a military offensive on Sunday, 3,000 people have gone missing and 12,000 been taken prisoner since the anti-regime protests erupted in mid-March, diplomats said. Britain, France, Germany and Portugal hope to revive a formal resolution condemning Assad's crackdown, a move which will be discussed on Tuesday.
Diplomats said, however, that it was more likely the Security Council would agree a statement, with no warning of U.N. action.
The U.N. meeting came after Assad showered praise on his troops to mark Army Day, saying in a speech that the army had "proved its loyalty to its people, country and creed."
"Its efforts and sacrifices will be admired. These sacrifices succeeded in foiling the enemies of the country and ending sedition, preserving Syria."
The embattled president also visited wounded soldiers in a Damascus hospital and said "all Syrians appreciate the army," state news agency SANA reported.
Russia and China, two of the five permanent U.N. Security Council members with veto powers, had threatened to block past attempts to pass a resolution on Syria.
Brazil, India and South Africa had also spoken out against a resolution or statement.
But diplomats said all countries expressed concern about the intensifying crackdown and there was now wider acceptance that the Security Council must act.
U.S. ambassador Susan Rice said an "alarming" briefing on events in Syria had been given by U.N. assistant secretary general Oscar Fernandez-Taranco.
"There was pretty widespread expression of concern, or expression of condemnation," she told reporters after the meeting.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked the holdouts to reconsider.
"We call on those members of the United Nations Security Council who have opposed any Security Council action that would call on Assad to stop the killing to reconsider their positions," she said in a statement.
"And we call on the international community to come together behind the people of Syria in this critical time."
Moscow, meanwhile, urged Damascus on Monday to stop using force and repression against civilian protesters.
On Sunday, Syrian forces killed around 140 people across the country, including more than 100 in Hama, scene of an Islamist revolt in 1982 that was crushed at the cost of an estimated 20,000 lives.
Abdel Rahman called Sunday "one of the deadliest days" since the anti-regime protests broke out in mid-March.
The head of the Syrian League for the Defense of Human Rights, Abdel Karim Rihawi, told Agence France Presse that "intense shooting" was heard across Hama late on Monday.
The official SANA news agency said troops were locked in clashes with "saboteurs" in the city.
"The army is pursuing its mission in Hama and is removing barricades erected by groups of saboteurs at the entrances of the city," SANA said.
More than 1,60O civilians and 369 members of the army and security forces have been killed since mid-March in Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory.
Abdel Rahman also reported that tanks rumbled Monday into al-Bukamal, on the border with Iraq, two weeks after troops surrounded the town which official media said was used to smuggle in weapons and money.
Reinforcements were dispatched further north to the eastern oil hub of Deir al-Zour, another rallying point of anti-regime protests where troops deployed on Saturday.
"More than 80 tanks are heading there, in what appears to be the prelude to a vast military operation," said Abdel Rahman, quoting residents.
Troops backed by tanks also stormed al-Hulla, northwest of Syria's third city Homs, where residents reported heavy gunfire and said 15 people were wounded and 18 arrested, according to the Observatory. EU foreign policy Chief Catherine Ashton confirmed that a new set of sanctions would be imposed from Tuesday on five Syrians "involved in or associated with the violence" and urged the U.N. to take a "clear stand." **Source Agence France Presse

Qabalan, al-Rahi Discuss Lassa Land Dispute
Naharnet/The Vice President of the Higher Islamic Shiite Council Abdul Amir Qabalan telephoned on Tuesday Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi to discuss the land dispute at the town of Lassa and the nearby areas and ways to end the problem. On Sunday, three vehicles with tinted car windows forced a police patrol from turning back after trying to end construction work in Lassa in the Jbeil district, An Nahar daily reported Monday. Last month, locals from the predominantly Shiite village confronted a delegation from the Maronite patriarchate, accompanied by topographical experts, who were surveying lands belonging to the church in line with a judicial order. The delegation’s visit came following news that illegal structures were being built on archdiocese property. Following a meeting chaired by al-Rahi in Bkirki, church officials, lawmakers and a delegation from Hizbullah agreed to put an end to construction on disputed land and ask the Internal Security Forces to follow-up on the implementation of the resolution. The conferees reached an agreement under which the committee tasked with surveying lands would resume its work in two months.

Al-Rahi Seeking to Hold Meeting Among Top Maronite Leaders on Electoral Law
Naharnet /Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi has invited Lebanon’s top Maronite leaders to Bkirki on August 25 for talks on the new electoral law, An Nahar daily reported Tuesday.
The newspaper said that the expected event would be the second meeting between Phalange leader Amin Gemayel, Free Patriotic Movement chief Michel Aoun, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea and Marada movement head Suleiman Franjieh since the talks they held in Bkirki in April. Through the August meeting, al-Rahi seeks to find common ground among the March 8 and 14 officials amid renewed tension mainly between Aoun and Geagea, An Nahar reported. The patriarch is also seeking to put the country’s inter-Christian relations under a single umbrella and guarantee a common viewpoint on diminishing the size of the electoral district. The first positive answer came from Franjieh, who during his visit to Bkirki on Friday, said he backs any draft law proposed by Bkirki. But it remains to be seen if Aoun, who has the largest Christian bloc in parliament and a big number of ministers in cabinet, would agree to such a proposal.

EU Adds Syria Defense Minister to Blacklist
Naharnet /The European Union on Tuesday added Syrian Defense Minister Ali Habib Mahmoud and four others to its blacklist of individuals and businesses associated with the ongoing repression there.The EU's official journal also showed that the extended lists includes Mohammed Moufleh, head of Syrian military intelligence in Hama, the scene of a bloody crackdown by the army which activists say has left more than 100 dead. Also among the five, who are now subject to an asset freeze and visa ban, were Major General Tawfiq Yunis, head of 'internal security' in the General Intelligence Directorate and Mohammed Makhlouf, also known as Abu Rami, an uncle of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Completing the list is Ayman Jabir who was "directly involved in repression and violence against the civilian population."
Last month, Europe had warned Syria that would increase pressure in the absence of a halt to violence and any progress in moves towards a political transition.
To date, the 27-nation bloc has slapped an asset freeze and visa ban on some 30 businesses and individuals linked to Assad, including members of his family and three commanders of Iran's Revolutionary Guard accused of aiding the crackdown. The new measures come amid strong international condemnation of the use of force and repression against civilian Syrian protesters this weekend. The U.N. Security Council has not yet been able to agree even on a statement on Assad's crackdown, and Russia and China have threatened to veto any formal resolution.
However Moscow on Monday urged Damascus to stop the repression in its strongest criticism yet of the Syrian crackdown.
The Security Council will hold a second day of talks on Syria Tuesday. **Source Agence France Presse

Italy Recalls Ambassador from Syria
Naharnet /Italy has recalled its ambassador in Syria for consultation given the "horrible repression against the civilian population," the foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
"The Foreign Minister Franco Frattini has given instructions for our ambassador in Damascus, Achille Amerio, to return to Italy for consultations," the ministry said in a statement.
"Italy has also proposed that all ambassadors from countries within the European Union be recalled from Damascus," it added. On Sunday, Italy called for an urgent meeting of the U.N. Security Council to condemn the Syrian military's attack on protests. "We request that the United Nations Security Council hold an urgent meeting and adopt a very firm position," Frattini said, adding that Italy called for "an immediate cessation of hostilities."

Williams: It's Imperative that Lebanese Govt. Take Firm Action on Recent UNIFIL Attack
Naharnet /United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Michael Williams, voiced on Tuesday his concern over the July 26 attack against French soldiers in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, revealing that it “generated very considerable concern in France and all the troop contributing countries.” He said after holding talks with Prime Minister Najib Miqati: “It is imperative that the Lebanese government take concrete and firm action on this.” “The culprits for this attack and the previous attack on the Italians on May 27 must be found and detained and tried,” he stressed. In addition, he expressed concern to Miqati that the movement of UNIFIL convoys needs to be closely coordinated with the Lebanese army and with the Internal Security Forces to prevent any further attacks of this nature.French UNIFIL troops were targeted in a roadside bomb near the southern town of Sidon on July 26.
A similar attack targeted an Italian troop patrol at Rmeileh in May. The talks between Williams and the premier also addressed the former’s recent visit to New York and the discussions on the Security Council with regard to Lebanon. Asked about Monday’s clash at Wazzani between the Lebanese and Israeli armies, Williams said: “This was a very disturbing incident.”
“The good thing is that nobody was injured it seems on either side,” he added. “We cannot afford any incidents like this. You can go from an incident like this to war within a few hours,” he stated. Williams revealed that he will soon be meeting with General Santi Bonfanti, the deputy force commander of UNIFIL, to find out his conclusions on the Wazzani incident and how similar events can be prevented in the future. Furthermore, he congratulated Miqati and the Lebanese on the occasion of the month of Ramadan. “It is a matter of some sadness that this month, the holiest of months for Muslims, finds many in the Arab world suffering at the hands of governments that do not listen to their people,” he remarked.

Miqati Urges U.N. to End Israeli Violations, Says Lebanon Will Defend its Rights
Naharnet /Prime Minister Najib Miqati expressed fear on Tuesday over the ongoing Israeli violations of Lebanese sovereignty, urging the United Nations to demand Israel to implement Security Council resolution 1701.Miqati stressed after meeting with U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams that Lebanon will defend its rights and protect its sovereignty with all the available means. Israeli and Lebanese troops exchanged fire near the border on Monday morning, with the two armies trading accusations on why the shooting happened.
Miqati informed the U.N. diplomat that the cabinet accomplished in cooperation with the parliament a draft law that identifies the Lebanese maritime borders in order to preserve its rights. The U.N. will be informed about it after its publication in the official gazette. The PM renewed his condemnation of the attack on the French contingent in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in the southern city of Sidon last week

$8 Million Worth Cocaine Seized from 4 Foreigners in Kaslik
Naharnet /A unit from the Drug Enforcement Bureau seized 53 kilograms of cocaine worth an estimated $8 Million from two vehicles driven by foreigners in the coastal town of Kaslik, the National News Agency reported Tuesday. NNA said that the unit seized the drugs from a Range Rover and a Mercedes. Two of its occupants were Palestinians and the other two were Irish and Dutch. The 53 kilograms of cocaine were “stashed in secret places inside the two vehicles,” NNA said. The four men were taken to the Hobeish police station in Beirut for questioning. Investigators are now trying to find out how the big quantity of drugs was smuggled to Lebanon.

 Israel Erects Earth Mounds in Wazzani Area Amid Warning Against ‘Calculated Incursion’
Naharnet /Israeli troops deployed 10 tanks and bulldozers before midnight Monday and began erecting earth mounds at the technical fence in the Wazzani area where they clashed with Lebanese troops the same day. Media reports said Tuesday that the move led to a state of alert among Lebanese and UNIFIL troops on Army Day.
The 10 Israeli vehicles included three Merkava tanks, they said, adding that the patrols pointed their floodlights at parks on the banks of the Wazzani river.
On Monday morning, the Lebanese and Israeli armies exchanged fire after a Jewish state patrol crossed the U.N.-drawn Blue Line, the Lebanese military said.
Both sides reported no casualties but each blamed the other for the clash.
The Lebanese army command said the incident occurred at around 5:50 am when a 15-member Israeli patrol in the Wazzani area crossed the technical fence and went beyond it about 70 meters. “Forces stationed in the area confronted it and an exchange of fire occurred,” the communiqué said. The Israeli patrol withdrew from the area at around 7:25 am, it added.
However, an Israeli military spokeswoman told Agence France Presse that an Israeli military force “carrying out a routine patrol within Israeli territory near the Israel-Lebanon border was fired upon from the direction of Lebanon."Two Lebanese soldiers, a Lebanese journalist and a senior Israeli officer were killed in a rare cross-border clash in Adaisseh in August last year, the worst such violence since the 2006 war between Israel and Hizbullah. Involved Lebanese sources told An Nahar daily on Tuesday that the “army confronted the Israeli incursion yesterday as it did in the Adaisseh confrontation to stress Lebanon’s right in having reservations in the area of the violation.”
They said the “calculated incursion” was a message against Lebanon’s attempts to claim its rights over the natural resources in its Exclusive Economic Zone and demarcate its maritime borders. The sources warned that Lebanon should be ready for a “difficult battle” with the Jewish state.

A managed Syrian transition has failed
Hussein Ibish,/August 2, 2011
US Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford has been leading the push for a managed transition, a strategy that appears to have failed so far. (AFP photo/ Jewel Samad)
The massacre of over 100 protesters in the Syrian city of Hama on Sunday not only shocked the conscience of the world, it has created something of a crisis for American policy toward Syria. In recent weeks, the Obama administration’s approach to Syria could be summed up in two words: managed transition. The preferred solution to the Syrian crisis was to try to reach out to members of both the opposition and the power structure simultaneously to try to begin a real dialogue about Syria’s future. That now looks increasingly unlikely, and the prospect of what Washington fears most—sectarian civil war—is increasingly possible.
For many months, Washington tossed lifelines to the regime of Bashar al-Assad, calling on him to lead the transition and begin the process of reform. Although most informed observers were convinced from the outset that the regime was, literally, incapable of reform for a myriad of unsavory reasons, the United States had profound and reasonable concerns about chaos and civil conflict in Syria.
In particular, the American concern has been that a raging, and especially sectarian, civil conflict in Syria could spill over into neighboring Lebanon and Iraq, and possibly even be the tipping point for a wider regional conflict. Israel’s and Turkey’s anxieties have also figured prominently in American thinking. A particular concern is Turkey’s apparent inclination, at a minimum, to militarily create a buffer zone in northern Syria, especially in Alawite and above all Kurdish areas, in the event of a civil war or sustained anarchy.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton came under particular criticism after a March 27 statement in which she declared that “[m]any of the members of Congress of both parties who have gone to Syria in recent months have said they believe [Assad] is a reformer.” However, as the regime’s brutality escalated, Washington was unable to sustain this tone and imposed limited sanctions in April and May. The administration essentially abandoned the idea that Assad himself could institute reforms, with President Barack Obama bluntly stating that if he could not do so, he should “get out of the way.”
American efforts to try to avoid Syrian civil conflict have been led by the ambassador in Damascus, Robert Ford, whose credibility was greatly enhanced by his controversial July 8 “unauthorized” visit to Hama. Calls to pull the US diplomatic presence in Damascus were rejected on the implicit grounds that Ford was leading the quest for “managed transition” by keeping lines of communication open to figures in both the Syrian opposition and ruling elite.
That strategy, however, appears to have borne little if any fruit so far. Even before the Hama massacre, Ford was recalled to Washington for consultations. American concerns remain the same, but the approach to achieving regime change or transition in Damascus without all-out civil conflict plainly needs considerable and urgent revision.
Hama prompted the strongest words by far from Obama: “al-Assad is ensuring that he and his regime will be left in the past.” Yet American options remain limited, and a Libya-style military intervention is out of the question. Increased sanctions, particularly in the energy sector, are overdue. So is pressure through the International Atomic Energy Agency, which has referred the Syria file to the Security Council.
After last weekend’s massacre, the prospect of a referral of Syrian officials to the International Criminal Court or the creation of a special tribunal on Syria has received renewed attention. Syria is not a party to the Statute of Rome, meaning the Security Council would have to authorize an ICC investigation, as it did in Sudan. However, Russian and Chinese opposition to such a move may not be easily overcome at this stage.
Even though American options are limited, the Obama administration now has no choice but to significantly and publicly increase the pressure on the Assad regime. Concerns about stability are understandable, but it’s impossible not to recognize that the Assad regime itself is now the greatest source of instability. Indeed, it is undoubtedly dragging Syria toward civil war, quite possibly on a sectarian basis, and is most probably doing so deliberately.
This means that the calculation has to change immediately. The United States and its allies might not be able to prevent the Assad regime from forcing a brutal and probably sectarian conflict on its own country, but the best hope for avoiding this is moving away from a policy based on cautiously managed transition to one based on bolder actions aimed at regime change. Such steps can also help ensure that the pitched battle, if it must come, is quicker and more decisive, and that its destabilization of the region is better contained.
**Hussein Ibish is a senior research fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine and blogs at www.Ibishblog.com.

Assad is a terrorist; bring him to justice
Hanin Ghaddar, August 2, 2011
http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=296513
Is Bashar al-Assad that foolish? Doesn’t he know that the brutality he has unleashed for almost five months against peaceful protesters will only lead them to demonstrate more and escalate their demands? Can’t he see that killing, torturing and humiliating the Syrians made them realize that the only thing they want is dignity and freedom? Is it sheer stupidity, or is he playing a dirty game?After Sunday’s massacre in Hama and other towns in Syria, it has become clear that August will be a bloody month.
The Muslim holy month of Ramadan also falls in August, but in Syria this month has gained a different meaning. It is now the month of toppling the regime, as every night will witness vast demonstrations after the Ramadan prayers, which take place in mosques, the only natural gathering place left in the country.
As of this morning, tanks are deployed in the streets of towns and villages where large demonstrations have taken place. Assad wants to make sure the people will not be able to demonstrate. But he seems to have forgotten Daraa.
The first spark of the revolution started in Daraa, and the regime sent security forces to besiege the town in order to stop the demonstrations. Gradually, and despite the ongoing crackdown there, the people of Daraa managed to defy the security forces, risking their lives by going back out onto the streets.
Each time a town comes under attack and its people are killed, arrested and humiliated, more people in other towns join the movement. It has become very obvious that they are ready to pay the highest price for their dignity. And the price has already become too high for anyone to remain silent. Almost 3,000 people have died and 30,000 been arrested, not counting those tens of thousands who have disappeared without a trace.
But instead of retreating, the protesters keep returning to the streets. So why does Assad keep upping the ante, pushing himself further toward his own fall?
According to Syrian activists, there are two reasons: because he cannot act otherwise, and because he is playing a dirty game.
Assad inherited power from his father, who taught him that the Syrian people can only be controlled with an iron fist. He got used to not sharing his wealth or power with the people, despite the fact the Baath regime calls itself a socialist entity.
He came to believe that he, like his father before him, should be treated like a god and that the Baath party is a scared body that cannot be challenged. He was spoiled by other regional dictators, who, whether they agreed with his politics or not, accepted the fact that he is the sole decision maker in the country.
When a group of Muslim Brotherhood activists rose up against the regime in 1982, his father ordered one of the bloodiest crackdowns the Middle East has ever seen, and the world said nothing. Assad is betting the same will happen today. And so far, the international community hasn’t done anything significant enough to push him to change his brutal strategy.
This is all part of Assad’s dirty game. He is betting that the more he pushes the protesters, the more blood he spills, the more demonstrators who disappear, the people who have been taking to the streets will eventually resort to violence themselves. In that case, the story Assad has been trying to sell the world for the past five months will turn out to be true; the protesters will end up a security threat, nothing more than armed gangs sowing strife in the country. This would be ideal for Assad, who will be able to garner the world’s sympathy and crush them without reprimand. Apparently, Assad does not know his own people. He thought they would resort to revenge, something commonly sanctioned among tribal cultures. He thought they could never last under his iron fist. The Syrian people have impressed the world with their courage and determination. They have taught all of us the true meaning of freedom and dignity. They have seen their loved ones gunned down in front of them. They could have resorted to violence long ago if they wanted to. However, they have defied their own traditions that permit taking revenge and decided on the mature political strategy of peaceful protests.The Syrian people are more politically aware than he thought they are, and that’s why Assad has no chance.
Now it is just a matter of time before he officially loses his throne and receives his sentence. *Hanin Ghaddar is managing editor of NOW Lebanon

Vehicles with Tinted Windows Confront Lassa Police over Construction Work
Naharnet/Three vehicles with tinted car windows have forced a police patrol from turning back after trying to end construction work in the town of Lassa in the Jbeil district, An Nahar daily reported Monday. It said a police patrol was dispatched to the construction site of Yasser al-Moqdad on Sunday for violating the Bkirki agreement to stop construction work on disputed land for a period of two months. Al-Moqdad showed the police officers permits issued by the Lassa Municipality and the Confederation of Jbeil Municipalities allowing him to continue with his job. But the patrol was forced to leave by the occupants of the three vehicles. The report did not say who was inside the cars.
An Nahar said that the man continued with his construction work, forcing a committee of residents in Jbeil to contact Bishop Munjed al-Hashem to inform the Council of Maronite Bishops about their concerns. The Council is scheduled to hold its monthly meeting on Wednesday. Last month, locals from the predominantly Shiite village confronted a delegation from the Maronite patriarchate, accompanied by topographical experts, who were surveying lands belonging to the church in line with a judicial order.
The delegation’s visit came following news that illegal structures were being built on archdiocese property. Following a meeting chaired by Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi in Bkirki, church officials, lawmakers and a delegation from Hizbullah agreed to put an end to construction on disputed land and ask the Internal Security Forces to follow-up on the implementation of the resolution. The conferees reached an agreement under which the committee tasked with surveying lands would resume its work in two months.
But the committee of Jbeil residents told Bishop al-Hashem on Sunday that the patriarchate should disregard the two-month period and continue with surveying the lands.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai says weapons in the hands of non-state actors cause concern
August 02, 2011/The Daily Star /BEIRUT: Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai said Monday that weapons in the hands of non-state actors cause concern among the Lebanese, voicing hope that arms would be restricted to security institutions and the state. “We look forward to seeing the army and security forces as the only forces that defend the right[s] of all Lebanese, and we hope that the constitutional political power comes to be in charge of all weapons in Lebanon,” Rai said in a speech on Army Day, marking the 66th anniversary of the Lebanese Army.
“There is no guarantee [of stability] for the people except through constitutional institutions as well as security and military forces, particularly the army under political authority,” he added before a delegation of Maronite Cypriots, who were visiting the seat of the patriarchate. Upon his election last March, Rai revived talks with Hezbollah after nearly two years of severed ties between the party and his predecessor, Cardinal Nasrallah Butros Sfeir. The former patriarch has criticized Hezbollah’s weapons in line with a campaign by March 14 parties calling on Hezbollah to surrender its arms to the state. March 8 Christian leaders, allied to Hezbollah and the party’s regional backer, Syria, have criticized Sfeir, saying he was too biased toward March 14 Christian parties. Sfeir has also been a staunch critic of Syrian intervention in Lebanese affairs. The Council of Maronite Bishops issued a firm call for the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon in 2000

Hezbollah's deputy secretary-general Naim Qassem: Hezbollah offered billions to disarm
August 01, 2011 The Daily Star /BEIRUT: Hezbollah has rejected billions of dollars offered to the party in exchange for the surrender of its arsenal, deputy secretary-general Naim Qassem said Monday. "Billions of dollars have been offered to us to rebuild the deprived south Lebanon and in return to surrender our arms and stop the work of the resistance,"Qassem said during a ceremony for the eighth edition of his book “Hezbollah.” "But we told them we're not in need [of their money] and the resistance will go on regardless of the consequences,” he added.
During his speech, the secretary-general also said that the price the country pays for resistance is less than the cost of Israeli occupation. “Israel has at different times initiated aggression against Lebanon and if we compare the cost of occupation and aggression with the results of liberation and independence, we would find that we have regained our land and freedom with liberation, making the cost of occupation higher than the cost of liberation,” Qassem said. Lawmakers of the March 14 coalition have repeatedly called for Hezbollah to surrender its arms to the Lebanese state and have described them as illegitimate. However, Hezbollah and its allies in the March 8 alliance have responded by saying the “people, army, resistance” formula is the only way to defend the country. Qassem also described the resistance as way to achieve liberation.
“If it wasn't for the July war, Israel would be regularly assassinating people, entering villages and arresting a great number of people and it would be preparing for naturalization and the political solution that suits it best … but the resistance has deterred Israel and it has brought victory and liberation in 2000 and created a real, tough deterrence in the face of the Israeli project,” Qassem said, adding that the “victory” in the 2006 July war proved that Hezbollah was a necessity. Qassem also responded to allegations from rival political leaders who have accused Hezbollah of using their weapons internally against Lebanese citizens and as a tool of political pressure. “We have created a balance between the resistance and our work in internal politics. We consider that the resistance's arms are directed at Israel and that internally we work according to an organized mechanism … Therefore, the theory that the resistance uses its arsenal as a pressure tactic has been refuted by the resistance and Hezbollah’s performance which are harmonious with respecting constitutional institutions and the rule of the Lebanese system.”

Tripoli MP Mohammad Kabbara urges Lebanese to support Syrian opposition
August 02, 2011 /The Daily Star /BEIRUT: Tripoli MP Mohammad Kabbara urged the Lebanese to support the Syrian people against President Bashar Assad’s regime and to call on Arab leaders for action and not just talk. According to the National News Agency, Kabbara received visitors in Tripoli Monday, and said “Ramadan is ashamed of the Arabs … ashamed of their ambiguous indifference, ashamed of their silence over the massacres committed against the Syrian people.” Kabbara called on the Lebanese to support the Syrian people against “the great tyrant in Syria and his small tyrants in Lebanon,” in reference to Syrian president Bashar Assad. He also urged Arab leaders to take action “and not just talk.” “Let’s act, all of us, for Arabs to boycott Assad’s regime … and so we can tell the international community that we will not be silent,” Kabbara said. “Yes we are with the heroic Syrian people against the tyrant; we are the heroic Lebanese people who challenge all tyrants,” he added.

Assad's tanks blast all of northern Syria day after 150 die in two cities
DEBKAfile Special Report August 1, 2011,  Early Monday Aug. 1, undeterred by international condemnation, President Bashar Assad broadened his bloody tank assault to all of northern Syria – a 20,000 square kilometer area almost the size of Israel. He is now waging war on the 3.5 million inhabitants of Hama, Deir al-Zour, Homs, Idlib and Ar-Raqqah, followed by Abu Kemal on the Iraqi border, after inflicting a one-day death toll Sunday of 150 – 120 in Hama, 30 in Deir el-Zur - and leaving more than 1,000 injured.
Syrian armored forces shooting at random are now running into heavy resistance: Awaiting them are anti-tank traps and fortified barriers manned by protesters armed with heavy machine guns.
In Hama Sunday, the 4th and 11th Syrian army divisions kept to the southern and western districts and were still fighting their way to the barricaded center early Monday. debkafile's military sources estimate it will take the Syrian army at least ten more days to conquer this key town of a million inhabitants – provided the army holds up.
However, signs of extensive disintegration emerged Sunday night and early Monday: A Syrian armored division ordered to set out for Damascus from its base in Qatana southwest of the capital broke up when most of its officers and men deserted, taking with them their armored vehicles and weapons.
This was the first time in the five-month conflict that an entire armored column has fallen back from an operational mission.
Our military sources report urgent White House requests Sunday night to Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to send into northern Syria the Turkish units held ready on the border for two months to establish a protected zone for refugees and the growing number of Syrian army deserters seeking asylum. Operational plans for this incursion had been in place for some weeks, ready for execution as soon Assad launched a general offensive against the opposition.
The plan is now up in the air, placed in doubt by the grave crisis between the prime minister and the Turkish command, which peaked last Thursday (July 28) when the entire Turkish high command, including the chief of staff resigned in a body.
This development certainly helped Assad decide now on his crushing offensive in northern Syria.
Monday night, his crackdown is the subject of an urgent UN Security Council session called by Germany.
debkafile reported Sunday:
No Arab ruler before him has gone to the bloody lengths Syrian President Bashar Assad went Sunday, July 31, on the eve of Ramadan on Aug. 1, to snuff out the five month-long protest against his regime. Before dawn, troops and tanks, indiscriminately blasting city streets with cannon, rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns, stormed the two most active centers of resistance. By evening, the 4th division had killed 130 people and left 1,000 injured in Hama in the north, while the 7th division had left 20 dead and more than 100 injured in Deir al-Zour. Hundreds were arrested.
US President Barack Obama said he is appalled by the Syrian government's use of violence and brutality against its own people. While Obama still avoided calling on Assad to step down, an official at the US embassy in Damascus said the Syrian military's deadly attack on the flashpoint protest city of Hama on Sunday amounted to "full-on warfare" and was a "last act of utter desperation".
JJ Harder, the press attache at the embassy, told the BBC World Service that "there is one big armed gang in Syria, and it's named the Syrian government." He said: "I think we can safely say it's full-on warfare by the Syrian government on its own people."
Syrian troops encountered armed resistance in both towns, where in the last month both had formed local committees and erected makeshift anti-tank barriers. Since many army deserters, including officers, have joined the protesters in facing the troops, and there is no shortage of arms, the battles are not expected to die down before the end of the week.
debkafile's intelligence sources report that Assad chose to turn his army loose on the two cities with no holds barred to pre-empt what he regards as his Ramadan test: He had hoped to avert the nightly processions from the mosques after the Taraweeh prayer marking the end of each day's fasting and win a 30-day lull in the bloody clashes. The regime had pinned its hopes on calming the charged anti-regime climate in the country on a huge public event in Aleppo Thursday July 29, complete with Syria's top performing artists, as a show of self-assurance.
This did not work - any more than an appeal from the authorities to the 30 most senior clerics for help to keep the crowds off the streets. They were asked to issue a collective fatwa (religious edict) excusing the faithful from attending the mosques for Taraweeh and permitting them to recite the prayer at home - in consideration of the exceptionally hot summer weather.
Twenty-nine clerics declined to cooperate with this transparent tactic for suppressing the protest. The thirtieth, Sheikh Al Bouti, Syria's foremost scholar, world Muslim eminence and head of the Theology Department in the faculty of Islamic Law at Damascus University, agreed to issue the dispensation.
Its circulation was widely accompanied by the burning of his books on Islamic law in one town after another.
When Assad realized there was no way he could use Ramadan for a respite from the revolt against his regime, he turned to a horrendous outburst of violence.

Lebanese belly dancer in France under fire for sympathizing with Israel
August 02, 2011
By Emma Gatten The Daily Star
BEIRUT: A Lebanese activist group has called for the country’s authorities to take action against a Lebanese belly dancer who performed on stage in France with an Israeli band.
“The Lebanese authorities and especially the judicial bodies should take action and hold Joanna Fakhri accountable and punish her,” the Association to Support a Law to Boycott Israel said in a statement Monday.
Last month a video emerged of Fakhri, who reportedly lives in France and holds French citizenship, performing onstage with Israeli heavy metal band Orphaned Land at Hellfest festival in southern France on June 19.
In the video, which prompted outcry on some corners of the Internet, Fakhri and the band’s lead singer, Kobi Farhi, join the Lebanese and Israeli flags. Farhi can be heard saying “This song is about peace.”
Several negative comments were left under a YouTube video of the performance. One user criticized Fakhri for “supporting a country stealing her countries resources.”
Several other commenters, however, praised her move. “What a nice scene for a change,” said one.
Tayyar.org, a news website affiliated with the Free Patriotic Movement, in July reported that the performance had sparked anger among the French-Lebanese community.
Lebanon is technically in a state of war with Israel and under Lebanese law it is a crime to have any dealings with the Jewish state.
In a blogpost purportedly quoting Fakhri last month, the 22-year-old dancer defended her decision.
“I wanted to take this opportunity so rare in history – witnessing on stage an Israeli group and a Lebanese dancer – to say that beyond the artistic exchange and our collaboration for the love of art, we were willing to make it a symbol of peace. And these two flags that we held as high as the fist can rise, transcends all these years of war and suffering.”
In their statement, the association called for the Lebanese public and the Arab world to take action. “It is important not to ignore what Fakhri did because it is considered a clear and frank attempt to normalize relations between the enemy and Lebanon, and remaining silent toward this case is a crime that is considered complicity.”
“We urge the Lebanese public opinion and the Arab world to take action to counter this aggression … in order not to turn this phenomenon into a precedent that can be repeated,” it added.

Rights group: 24 killed in Syria as Ramadan starts
02/08/2011
BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian troops advanced in the central city of Hama on Tuesday, taking up new positions in a residential area a day after government forces killed 24 people throughout the country on the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, activists said.
The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said most of Monday's deaths were in Hama, which has been the target of a heavy military operation since Sunday.
The bloodshed brought a fresh wave of international pressure as Italy recalled its ambassador to Damascus on Tuesday, citing "horrible repression" of citizens.
The top U.S. military officer said Washington wants to pressure the Syrian regime politically and diplomatically. But when asked about the prospect of U.S. involvement in Syria, Joint Chiefs chairman Adm. Mike Mullen said "there's no indication whatsoever that the Americans, that we would get involved directly with respect to this."
The current crackdown appears aimed at preventing protests from swelling during Ramadan, when Muslims throng mosques for the special nightly prayers after breaking their dawn-to-dusk fast. The gatherings could then turn into large protests throughout the country.
About 1,700 civilians have been killed since the largely peaceful protests against President Bashar Assad's regime began in mid-March, according to tallies by activists.
There were minor discrepancies in Monday's death tolls cited by activists, ranging from 19 to 25. The difference could not immediately be reconciled.
The regime disputes the toll and blames a foreign conspiracy for the unrest, saying gangs and religious extremists — not true reform-seekers — are behind it. State-run TV aired video footage Tuesday purportedly filmed in Hama showing men carrying rifles in the streets of the city — an attempt to bolster their claims that thugs are driving the violence.
Syria has banned independent media coverage and has prevented most foreign journalists from entering the country, making it difficult to verify events on the ground.
Hama-based activist Omar Hamawi told The Associated Press that troops advanced about 700 yards (meters) from the western entrance of the city overnight, taking up positions near homes and buildings in an area known as Kazo Square.
He said the force consisted of eight tanks and several armored personnel carriers.
Hamawi, who spoke to the AP over the telephone, added that troops were also reinforced on the eastern side of the city around the Hama Central Prison, an overcrowded jail.
He said residents there saw smoke billowing from the prison overnight and heard sporadic gunfire from inside the premises, leading some to believe that the inmates were rioting. He added that it was impossible to know what was exactly going on in the prison or whether there were casualties inside the tightly controlled facility.
The activist also said that parts of Hama were hit Tuesday morning with heavy machine gun fire after sporadic shelling overnight. He said a shell hit a compound known as the Palace of Justice in the city center, causing a huge fire that burned much of the building, which is home to several courts.
The Syrian Observatory said on Tuesday that Monday's death toll included 10 people in Hama, six in the Damascus suburb of Arbeen and three in the central province of Homs. Two were killed in the eastern town of al-Boukamal, two the coastal city of Latakia and one in Maadamiyah near Damascus, the group said.
Hama has a history of defiance to the Assad family 40-year dynasty in Syria.
In 1982, Assad's father, Hafez Assad, ordered the military to quell a rebellion by Syrian members of the conservative Muslim Brotherhood movement. The city was sealed off and bombs dropped from above smashed swaths of the city and killed between 10,000 and 25,000 people, rights groups say.
The real number may never be known. Then, as now, reporters were not allowed to reach the area.

Moscow defends Assad, seeks nuclear deal with Iran by freezing sanctions
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report August 2, 2011,
As Moscow prepares to block strong UN Security Council condemnation of Syrian violence against protest, Russian diplomats Monday, Aug. 1, launched a quiet effort to start freezing sanctions imposed on Iran over its military nuclear program in return for Tehran satisfactorily answering of the International nuclear watchdog's "questions and concerns," debkafile's Moscow and Washington sources report.
The Obama administration, while not involved in the Russian initiative, has indicated through contacts between US and Russian officials that if Moscow persuades Iran to go this path and another effort to break the long impasse over its nuclear program, Washington will not interfere and agrees to await results.
Moscow's hands were therefore free to put its proposition to Tehran: Russia will block a strong UN Security Council resolution condemning its ally Syrian President Bashar Assad for his brutal crackdown on dissent, thereby shutting the door to approval of Libya-style outside military intervention. Tehran will reciprocate by cooperating with the Russian plan for solving the nuclear controversy along the lines proposed by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in mid-May: "…each time when Tehran satisfactorily answers the questions or concerns of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it should be encouraged, including some sanctions should be frozen," he suggested.
Until now, Tehran has rejected this Russian overture.
Over the weekend, however, debkafile's Iranian sources disclose that Iranian leaders decided after a stormy session to change course. The Spiritual Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave the order to inform Moscow that Iran is willing to discuss the Lavrov plan while fully reserving its objections. Moscow must also be ready to talk through Iran's counter-proposals.
Accepting Tehran's decision as the starting point for discussing the Lavrov plan, Moscow made two more public moves: An announcement in Moscow and Tehran that Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev would visit Tehran on Aug. 15, followed two days later by the arrival of Iran's foreign Minister Saeed Jalili in Moscow. The latter would sit down with Lavrov to hammer out agreement on the Russian plan.
On Monday, too, Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin commented that the draft European powers had circulated condemning Syria was “somewhat excessive” and Russia would consider a presidential statement from the council “satisfactory.”
Moscow was encouraged to start meeting Tehran halfway after many Western experts came to the conclusion that the UN, US and European sanctions aimed at making Iran abandon its nuclear drive were wasted effort, with not the slightest effect on slowing Tehran's nuclear momentum.
With little chance of a UN move against Syria, State Department Deputy Spokesman Mark Toner said Monday that additional US steps might target Syria’s oil and gas industry, which is the government’s main source of revenue amid the virtual collapse of the rest of the country’s economy.

Syria: Closing mosques and launching satellite television channels
02/08/2011
By Tariq Alhomayed/ Asharq Al-Awsat,
How ironic! The Syrian regime has managed to think up an unprecedented “reformative” step, namely the secular Baathist regime in Damascus has launched a religious satellite television channel [Nour A-Shams TV], and this is at the same time that it has forcibly closed a number of mosques, even turning some of them into military barracks.
The state Syrian Arab News Agency [SANA] issued a statement saying that this Baathist state satellite television channel will broadcast the Friday prayers sermon, in addition to various other religious programs, with the objective of establishing “a true understanding of Islam and Islamic Shariaa law.” Is there anything more ridiculous or absurd than this, namely a regime closing down mosques – which is something that not even occupational forces did – and brutally killing its own citizens, as we saw in Hama last Sunday, and then saying that it wants to establish a correct understanding of Islam and Islamic Shariaa law? What is even worse than this is a man like [Syrian religious scholar] Mohamed Said Ramadan al-Bouti – who is well versed in Islamic Shariaa law – saying that whoever wants to bring down the Bashar al-Assad regime wants “to bring down Islam.” Does Sheikh al-Bouti think that Islam accepts what has happened and is happening in Syria with regards to the brutal killing and suppression of the people? Is it acceptable for Syrian worshippers only to be allowed to enter mosques to pray after they have presented their identification cards to the authorities?
What is funny – although this results in laughter that is closer to tears – is that Bashar al-Assad’s adviser Bouthaina Shaaban is today lecturing the Syrian youth in Aleppo and calling on them to listen to those who claim that the Egyptian revolutionaries received funding from abroad, however during the Egyptian revolution she asserted that the collapse of the Mubarak regime represented the implementation of the people’s will. This is not all, for Bouthaina Shaaban is also claiming that Syria is the envy of the world! The reality is that the Syrian regime is envied only by those dictators who kill their own people and are subject to international pressure [for this], whereas the international community is being shamefully silent towards the al-Assad regime today, especially as the number of unarmed Syrian citizens killed at the hands of the regime is greater than the death-toll of Israel’s Gaza war, or Israel’s last war on Lebanon. I am not talking about verbal condemnation [of the Syrian regime], but rather the international community taking real action against the al-Assad regime via the UN Security Council. This is not to mention the shameful Arab silence on Syria – of both states and organizations – and even the Organization of the Islamic Conference [OIC] has not said a word about the attacks on the unarmed which have been prohibited by God, indeed it has not even condemned the attacks on the mosques in Syria! The Syrian regime is also envied by dictators because nobody outside of Syria issued any objection when it decided to forcibly close mosques; however the international community did not stay silent for a single day when the Mubarak regime shut down the internet and SMS text messaging.
Therefore, there is nothing surprising about the Damascus regime transgressing divine laws, closing down houses of worship, and shedding innocent blood, and then coming out to announce the launch of a religious satellite television channel to establish a “true” understanding of Islam, particularly when the Arabs are committed to their silence, and fail to object to the Syrian regime’s crimes against its people. This regime did not hesitate to fabricate one lie after another, speaking of Salafist groups, armed groups, and more. There is nothing surprising about the Damascus regime pursuing this tact so long as the international community is failing to do anything to stop the regime from carrying out such crimes. This suppressive regime is doing the impossible to remain in power, including killing innocent people, even on the first day of the holy Islamic month of Ramadan!
It is truly tragic when we see a regime killing its own people, closing mosques, and then announcing the launch of a religious satellite television channel to establish a true understanding of Islam and Islamic Shariaa law, and then going even further than this and having this venture blessed by those who claim to be men of God!