LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِJuly 08/2011

Bible Quotation for today
ProverbsChapter 27/1-12: "Boast not of tomorrow, for you know not what any day may bring forth.  Let another praise you--not your own mouth; Someone else--not your own lips.  Stone is heavy, and sand a burden, but a fool's provocation is heavier than both.  Anger is relentless, and wrath overwhelming-- but before jealousy who can stand?  Better is an open rebuke than a love that remains hidden. Wounds from a friend may be accepted as well meant, but the greetings of an enemy one prays against. One who is full, tramples on virgin honey; but to the man who is hungry, any bitter thing is sweet. Like a bird that is far from its nest is a man who is far from his home. Perfume and incense gladden the heart, but by grief the soul is torn asunder. Your own friend and your father's friend forsake not; but if ruin befalls you, enter not a kinsman's house. Better is a neighbor near at hand than a brother far away. If you are wise, my son, you will gladden my heart, and I will be able to rebut him who taunts me. The shrewd man perceives evil and hides; simpletons continue on and suffer the penalty.

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
Najib Mikati, our own dead man walking//By Michael Young/ July 07/11
Lebanon cannot sleep soundly next to the Syrian elephant/By: Karim Emile/July 07/11

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for July 07/11
Hezbollah in Latin America: prioritizing the threat/Christian Science Monitor
U.S. Arrests Man Who Killed Woman as Part of Odd Plot to Kill Obama/Naharnet
Geagea: Syria, Hizbullah Benefit from Fueling Regional Tensions/Naharnet
FBI adds Canadian citizen to list of most wanted terrorists/The Detroit News
Excerpts from day 2 of MP speeches on policy statement/The Daily Star
Bkirki urges Parliament to grant Cabinet confidence vote/The Daily Star
Lebanon's Arabic press digest forJuly 06, 2011 /The Daily Star
Gloves come off in Parliament/The Daily Star
MPs quarrel in Lebanon Parliament/The Daily Star
Pain persists for families of the other victims/The Daily Star
Hizbullah MPs Walk Out, Moussawi Slams Mashnouq as Spy/Naharnet
Berri: We Won’t Allow Parliament Tensions to Spill Onto Streets/Naharnet
Dogfight’ or MPs Fight? Qanso, al-Daher Clash in Parliament/Naharnet
Saad Hariri Will Reportedly Make Surprise Appearance during Policy Statement Discussions/Naharnet
Turkey's PM Announces New Cabinet/Naharnet
March 8 and 14 Criticize Jumblat’s Position on STL/Naharnet
Sami Gemayel: Where is the ‘false witnesses’ file/Now Lebanon
Lebanon's Arabic press digest - July 7, 2011/Daily Star
MP Ali Ammar: responds to Sami Gemayel/Now Lebanon
Al-Moussawi Accuses Wissam al-Hassan of Leaking Names of Indictment Suspects to Media/Naharnet
Head of Mustaqbal Bloc MP Fouad Saniora during Parliament Session/Naharnet
Raad: We Seek Justice, But STL is Politicized and it Won’t Uncover the Truth/Naharnet
Harb Says Miqati to Suffer as State Would Turn into Dictatorship/Naharnet
Shehayeb: We Had Reservations on Use of ‘in Principle’ in STL Clause/Naharnet
French Boat to Gaza Blocked in Crete/Naharnet
Gemayel’s Statement on Hizbullah’s Stance from STL Provokes Ammar/Naharnet
Adwan Urges Miqati to Decide between Legitimacy of Force or Power of Legitimacy/Naharnet
Sources Rule Out Verbal Attacks between MPs to Have Repercussions on Political Life/Naharnet
Al-Jazeera Reporter Says Parliament Guards Beat him/Naharnet
Erdogan again shuts the door on Israel when UN affirms Gaza blockade legal/DEBKAfile

MP Ali Ammar: responds to Sami Gemayel
July 7, 2011 /Loyalty to the Resistance bloc MP Ali Ammar during Thursday’s parliamentary session on the subject of the new cabinet’s ministerial statement responded to Kataeb bloc MP Sami Gemayel’s comments regarding the evidence shown by Hezbollah General Secretary Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah concerning the work of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL).
“If Gemayel would have worked harder he would have noticed that the video shown had a specific date and time,” Ammar said. He added that Hezbollah still has a lot of evidence and at the right time, the party is ready to present the MPs with these pieces of evidence. Ammar also called on Gemayel and all the families of the martyrs and reassured them that his party will keep working to find the murderers of their kin. Gemayel said on Thursday that the evidence shown by Nasrallah is outdated and some of it misleading. Lebanese deputies kicked off on Tuesday a three-day parliamentary session to address the political program of the newly-formed government. Last week the STL handed Attorney General Said Mirza arrest warrants for four members of the Iranian-and Syrian-backed Hezbollah in connection to the 2005 assassination of Rafik Hariri. However, Nasrallah said on Saturday that his party will never hand over the four adding that the Netherlands-based court was heading for a trial in absentia.-NOW Lebanon

Sami Gemayel: Where is the ‘false witnesses’ file
July 7, 2011 /Kataeb bloc leader MP Sami Gemayel held a speech during the third parliamentary session on the subject of the ministerial statement. At the beginning of his speech, Gemayel asked the MPs to remember the parliament’s martyrs and all the other martyrs and to also remember the Lebanese detainees in the Syrian prisons. He added that the “issue [of the Lebanese imprisoned in Syria] was never brought up by Lebanese officials when communicating with the Syrian authorities.” Gemayel brought up the false witnesses issue which was the reason behind toppling Saad Hariri’s cabinet. “Where is the ‘false witnesses’ file? Since this is not mentioned in the ministerial statement, then we will not give our vote of confidence to the cabinet” he said. Concerning the cabinet formation, Gemayel said that “in Lebanon, whenever we have a majority cabinet, we have one sect outside the cabinet, and every national unity cabinet is a violation of the constitution because democracy is not achieved,” adding that “the problem is with the political system in Lebanon, and not with the cabinets.” The MP also said that “this cabinet made us choose between stability and justice… and we are now choosing between justice and capitulation.” As for the evidence that Hezbollah’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah had presented, Gemayel said that “this evidence has been refuted.” Gemayel accused Hezbollah of having to many liberties like their own telecommunications network or he right to detain people and investigate them. Lebanese deputies kicked off on Tuesday a three-day parliamentary session to address the political program of the newly-formed government.
Last week, the STL handed Lebanon’s prosecutor general Said Mirza arrest warrants for four members of the Iranian- and Syrian-backed group in connection with the February 14, 2005 bombing that killed Hariri and 21 others in Beirut.  However, Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Saturday said he would never hand over the four, adding that the Netherlands-based court was heading for a trial in absentia. The whereabouts of the four remain unknown. -NOW Lebanon

Al-Moussawi Accuses Wissam al-Hassan of Leaking Names of Indictment Suspects to Media
Naharnet/Hizbullah MP Nawwaf al-Moussawi accused Police Intelligence chief Col. Wissam al-Hassan on Thursday of providing the information about the indictment in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s Feb. 2005 assassination to a media outlet.“The security agency that distributed the copies and résumés of the accused before it becomes public is known. Col. Wissam al-Hassan delivered the leaks to a single media outlet,” al-Moussawi said at the parliament. The sealed indictment was delivered to Lebanese General Prosecutor Saeed Mirza by the international tribunal last Thursday. But media reports said arrest warrants were issued against four Hizbullah members. They are Mustafa Badreddine, Salim Ayyash, Hassan Aneissy and Assad Sabra.
Following MP Bahia Hariri’s address on the third and last day of discussions of the cabinet’s policy statement, al-Moussawi demanded to make comments to refute March 14 lawmakers’ comments about Hizbullah’s involvement in Hariri’s murder. Al-Moussawi justified Hizbullah’s non-cooperation with the court after alleged evidence that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon is cooperating with experts that have been Mossad officers or members of the U.S. and French intelligence. “The memory of some has failed them, particularly when they have a selective memory. They choose what to hear and what to see,” he said, adding that the party at first cooperated with the STL and the commission investigating Hariri’s murder “visited our offices and homes.” The MP unveiled that Hizbullah also provided U.N. investigators with names, including that of women. “We carried out our national responsibilities because we were keen on refuting any doubt by any partner in the nation that (Hizbullah was involved) in the crime” against Hariri. But he stressed that the tribunal proved to be politicized after it failed to prosecute false witnesses that allegedly misled the investigation for four years.

Raad: We Seek Justice, But STL is Politicized and it Won’t Uncover the Truth
Naharnet/ The head of the Loyalty to the Resistance bloc MP Mohammed Raad stated on Thursday that the government and opposition should work together to maintain Lebanon’s national principles, despite their political differences. He said during the parliament session aimed at discussing the cabinet policy statement: “The government is concerned with implementing the constitution and abiding by the law to resolve political disputes and address the people’s needs.”“This is the first Lebanese government that was formed without foreign intervention and it is not a one-sided cabinet,” he stressed. “It will be capable of presenting a national productive performance,” he declared.
“Whoever announced his boycott of the cabinet is conspiring against Lebanon,” he announced. Addressing the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, Raad said: “It has become a tool in the hands of American-Zionist imperialism aimed at destroying the Resistance.” “The greatest deception is linking justice to the tribunal. Whoever wants justice does not want this tribunal,” the MP stated. “We all seek the truth, justice, and stability, but the STL will not uncover the truth and it will not achieve justice in Lebanon,” he emphasized.
“The Resistance is ready to defend the nation and wage any possible war,” Raad added. “The equation of the army, people, and resistance fortified Lebanon’s unity and thwarted plans to take over the country,” he stressed. Moreover, Lebanon’s diversity allows it to overcome crises and maintain national principles that are at the heart of the Lebanese system, he noted.
The MP ended his statement by granting the cabinet confidence on behalf of his parliamentary bloc.

Harb Says Miqati to Suffer as State Would Turn into Dictatorship
Naharnet/ March 14 MP Butros Harb lamented on Thursday that the state would turn into a dictatorship during the tenure of the new government but wished Premier Najib Miqati success despite becoming a captive of the parliamentary majority. “You will suffer during every cabinet session and during the discussion of every issue and you will regret accepting to become a captive of (a government) capable of imposing its view on you,” he told Miqati. “The country will pay the price because it will turn into a dictatorship.”
He described the Hizbullah-led parliamentary majority which was a minority in former Premier Saad Hariri’s cabinet as “greedy” that is not pleased by anything.
“Let God be with you because you will be the captive of the parliamentary majority,” the lawmaker told Miqati during the fifth session of discussions of the cabinet’s policy statement.
He said he was embarrassed by the fact that he would withhold his confidence from the cabinet because it includes friends. “But the issue is linked to the future of Lebanon and its civil peace.”The lawmaker stressed, however, that one side can’t remain in power for eternity. Rotation of power is the essence of democratic life, he said.
While expressing hope that the allegedly “harmonious” cabinet would be capable of implementing a single agenda, Harb said: “There is no sign that you are capable of running the people’s lives” with such an agenda. “We don’t accept that Lebanon turns into a party in the Arab conflicts,” he said in reference to Syria. Harb said he was surprised by the removal of “Lebanon’s independence” from the clause on Syrian-Lebanese relations in the policy statement. He also expressed surprise at the removal of “the control of the border between Lebanon and Syria” from the statement. But turning to his March 8 foes, he said: “Let us work together to build national unity and stop trading accusations.”

Shehayeb: We Had Reservations on Use of ‘in Principle’ in STL Clause 3
Naharnet/National Struggle Front MP Akram Shehayeb stated on Thursday that the new majority proved many sides wrong when it formed a government. He said during the parliament session to discuss the cabinet policy statement: “We question the release of the indictment in the Special Tribunal for Lebanon simultaneously with the release of the policy statement.”“We did have reservations on the term ‘in principle’ in the STL clause, but we still want to achieve justice and exit the vicious circle we’ve been running in for years,” he declared.“This is a government for all Lebanese,” he stated. “We should put an end to accusations of treasons and others of spite and vengeance,” the MP said. “We called for dialogue to address the people’s concerns, maintain peace, and avert strife and we should all work on maintaining Lebanon’s historic path of freedom and equality,” Shehayeb said. “We have stressed the importance of stability and justice and that civil peace is more important than all else,” the MP added. Furthermore, he stressed that National Struggle Front leader MP Walid Jumblat’s positions helped save Lebanon from several dangers. He concluded by granting the cabinet confidence.

Gemayel’s Statement on Hizbullah’s Stance from STL Provokes Ammar
Naharnet/ Phalange MP Sami Gemayel said on Thursday that Lebanon is facing two major problems; the first is related to justice while the second is related to equality. “We’re facing a systematic crisis mainly not a governmental crisis,” he said during the fifth session of the three-day discussions of the cabinet’s policy statement.
Gemayel stressed that he won’t grant his vote of confidence because the policy statement failed to mention the false witnesses issue. “The cabinet is not taking its responsibilities and decided to overstep justice in favor of civil peace,” he said. Concerning the Special Tribunal for Lebanon indictment in the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri and his companions, the MP said that there’s a campaign intended to ruin its reputation.He said that “Hizbullah’s way of dealing with the STL is dangerous. We demand the cabinet formed by the Shiite party to arrest the members named in the indictment. Gemayel stressed that Hizbullah committed a fatal mistake when it rejected the possibility that some of its members were involved in Hariri’s assassination. “There’s always the possibility that it was infiltrated by spies.”Gemayel noted that the “aerial footage that was presented by (Hizbullah chief) Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah belongs to the year 1997.” “There is a party in Lebanon that thinks it is entitled to do things that are not entitled to others,” he added.
The MP stressed that the government can’t include any minister from Hizbullah while the STL accuses members affiliated with it and the party doesn’t want to hand them over.
Meanwhile, Loyalty to the Resistance bloc MP Ali Ammar addressed Gemayel after his statement noting that he hoped if Gemayel demanded some clarifications about the documents that were presented by Nasrallah. “Every picture has above it a specific date,” Ammar said. He stressed that “the problem isn’t with unveiling the truth and reaching justice… Our problem is with the STL.”“We will provide the MPs with the compelling evidence. Wait so that the blood of the martyrs doesn’t go to waste,” the MP said.

Adwan Urges Miqati to Decide between Legitimacy of Force or Power of Legitimacy
Naharnet/ Lebanese Forces MP George Adwan said on Thursday that granting the cabinet the vote of confidence will not affect any clause in the policy statement. Adwan, during the fifth session of the three-day discussions of the cabinet’s policy statement, addressed PM Najib Miqati by saying: “We don’t envy you because no one wants to be in your place. No one envies the role that the government has to play amid the national crisis.”“We’re relieved because we are not in the government,” he stressed. He remarked that there are two directions followed in the country, the first is “trying to rise with the state while the second wants to abduct it.” Adwan wondered if the policy statement really reflects Miqati’s vision. The MP urged the Prime Minister to choose between the legitimacy of the force and the power of legitimacy. “You might be participating in covering up the legitimacy of force instead of representing it,” he noted. Concerning Lebanon’s relations with the international community, Adwan said that there’s no room to be “selective”. “One of the factors that make Lebanon strong is its international ties. We care about Lebanon’s interests not what this cabinet wants from Lebanon,” he stressed. He said that the different parties that were gathered at the national dialogue agreed on most issues except the issue of Hizbullah’s arms that was supposed to be discussed within the defense strategy, which “regretfully” was an incomplete step.
The MP stated: “We don’t have to choose whether to grant this cabinet our vote of confidence or not because we already chose between the legitimacy of force and the power of legitimacy.”“What good is it for a human if he won the whole world and the cabinet and lost himself?” Adwan wondered.

Sources Rule Out Verbal Attacks between MPs to Have Repercussions on Political Life
Naharnet/High-ranking parliamentary sources ruled out that the verbal clashes that took place at parliament on Wednesday would be reflected on the political life after the cabinet receives its vote of confidence.The sources told An Nahar daily published Thursday that the situation would remain within the boundaries of the political conflict, hinting that the dispute between pro- and anti-government MPs would not spill over to the street. Among the verbal clashes that took place was a dispute between al-Mustaqbal bloc MP Nohad al-Mashnouq on one side and Hizbullah MP Nawwaf al-Moussawi and Minister and MP Ali Hassan Khalil on the other. March 14 parliamentary sources told An Nahar that al-Mashnouq requested to make a statement only half an hour before his speech. But when Hizbullah and Amal MPs knew about the address, they held a meeting and readied themselves to confront the Mustaqbal lawmaker.
Khalil then moved from the seats allotted for ministers to the seat of MPs in order to give himself the right to respond to Mashnouq. While al-Mustaqbal parliamentary sources denied to al-Liwaa newspaper that they explicitly sought to stir the verbal clashes, al-Mashnouq told al-Mustaqbal daily that he would not respond to accusations by March 8 MPs against him. “Such bickering does not serve anyone. It is neither in the interest of the country nor in the interest of civil peace and stability,” he said. The dispute erupted when Moussawi described al-Mashnouq as an agent for foreign intelligence after the Mustaqbal MP lashed out at Hizbullah. Khalil also interrupted al-Mashnouq, who said cabinet was formed under the pressure of the Shiite party’s arms. “This remark is unacceptable, I reached my post thanks to the will of the people,” he stressed.

Al-Jazeera Reporter Says Parliament Guards Beat him
Naharnet Newsdesk 6 hours agoThe reporter of the Arabic satellite TV network al-Jazeera was beaten by parliamentary guards and thrown out of Nejmeh Square, al-Jazeera said Wednesday. It said Journalist Ali Hashem was covering the parliamentary session in Beirut from a café where the statements of MPs were being shown on a television screen when a chief guard asked him to leave. But when Hashem refused to do, he was beaten by the guards and kicked out of the area. “It seems that the tense parliamentary session moved to the outside and reflected on us as journalists,” Hashem said. “The words ‘respect yourself’ seem to be harsh for security personnel,” he added.

Lebanon's Arabic press digest - July 7,
July 07, 2011/ The Daily Star /Naharnet
Following are summaries of some of the main stories in a selection of Lebanese newspapers Thursday. The Daily Star cannot vouch for the accuracy of these reports.
Al-Akhbar: A long provocative day
Government will gain a vote of confidence Thursday afternoon as a parliamentary session [to discuss the government’s policy statement ahead of a vote of confidence] is likely to be less provocative since those who requested to speak are “top shots.”
How did the opposition manage to rise up against itself and its opponents, and who instigated March 14 MPs? The answer is simple: Among those “top shots” who will speak Thursday are former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, MP Bahia Hariri, and perhaps Free Patriotic Movement leader Gen. Michel Aoun. Stirring up trouble while they speak is not possible, particularly since other heavyweight MPs - mainly Mohammad Raad, Nawaf Mousawi and Sami Gemayel - are on the list of speakers. It may be a golden opportunity for the minority [March 14] to make empathetic remarks which are expected by MP Bahia Hariri - perhaps she will succeed like she did in 2005 with former Prime Minister Omar Karami. Will she be able to repeat that?
Al-Mustaqbal: 'Party of arms' tries [adopting] 'May 7-' [style] in Parliament
Bullying in Parliament
Keenness on the Syrian regime, not the government of Lebanon headed by Najib Mikati, brought to mind the [ancient Indian collection of] "Panchatantra" animal fables which have stirred the calm waters on the second day of parliamentary sessions to discuss the government’s policy statement.
March 8 angrily interrupted March 14 lawmakers as they spoke, defending the Syrian regime and illegitimate weapons, rather than defending the government and its prime minister, Mikati, who was attacked inspeeches by March 14 politicians, particularly on the issue of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and negligence toward the blood of martyrs.
An-Nahar: Tension explodes into brawl between March 8 and opposition
Emotions and tensions exploded on the second day of parliamentary discussions in a series of quarells dominated by verbal abuse with one of them almost leading to a fistfight, identical to the scenes witnessed in Asian parliaments.
Prominent parliamentary sources told An-Nahar that they believed these quarells would not impact the post-vote phase and that the situation would remain confined withing the framework of the current political conflict. On the other hand, the sources did not underestimate the extent of ongoing tensions that was translated in the exchange of hostile words and strong emotions against the backdrop of the political escalation that accompanied the formation of the government and the issuing of the STL indictments and the highly controversial stances on these two developments.
A total of 50 MPs have so far addressed the general assembly and eight more remain on the list of speakers, most notably former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, head of the Change and Reform bloc Gen. Michel Aoun and head of the Loyalty to the Resistance bloc Mohammad Raad as well as MPs Boutros Harb and Bahia Hariri. Mikati will then respond to lawmakers before Speaker Nabih Berri asks Parliament to vote on the Cabinet's ministerial statement.
As-Safir: Ban criticizes Maroun al-Ras shooting … Israel protests
'Ambush' does not strike at confidence [vote], will not shake Mikati
Whatever reasons were behind the heated war of words in Parliament, the place where the Lebanese witnessed the arts [of a quarelling], it will not change the reality – primarily that the government will gain a vote confidence Thursday and the head of the government, Mikati, will become the legitamate prime minister of the country as of Thursday afternoon.
But what helped contain the quarrels in Parliament was Speaker Nabih Berri's expertise in the management of the parliamentary game and his ability to absorb the made-up tensions.

Bkirki urges Parliament to grant Cabinet confidence vote
July 06, 2011/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Parliamentarians should give the Cabinet of Prime Minister Najib Mikati the vote of confidence for it to carry out its duties, a statement released by the seat of the Maronite Patriarchate said Wednesday, warning of deepened divisions among Lebanon’s political factions. “We hope the government can begin its work with the confidence of the Parliament to resolve people’s issues and bear the responsibilities in this dangerous stage in Lebanon’s history, work on uniting Lebanese, commit to international resolutions and preserve Lebanon’s position among civilized countries,” the statement said. Read by Secretary to the Maronite Patriarchy Monsignor Youssef Tawk, the statement added that the release of the U.N.-backed court’s indictment against four Hezbollah members at a time when the Cabinet was finalizing a draft of its policy statement deepened the divide between the country’s main political parties.
“Therefore, the [bishops] call on political officials to preserve the democratic dispute, find commonalities among them and work on discovering the truth and achieving justice that can put an end to the series of assassinations,” the statement added. Following the release of the indictment, the Hezbollah-backed March 8 alliance, which holds a majority in the new Cabinet, reiterated that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) was politicized. The article dealing with the STL in the policy statement of Mikati’s Cabinet does not explicitly commit the government to the court. The March 14 coalition announced last week that it would not grant Mikati’s Cabinet the vote of confidence, escalating the dispute over the contentious issue of the tribunal probing the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
The statement also warned Lebanese to be vigilant on any sectarian strife and to safeguard Lebanon’s unity and coexistence, amid the unsettling situation in the region.
The bishops also expressed their concerns of the unrest engulfing the region asked God to spread peace and stability in countries in the region

Hezbollah in Latin America: prioritizing the threat
The Congressional subcommittee hearing Thursday on Hezbollah's presence in Latin America distracts from other, bigger regional threats, warns guest blogger James Bosworth.
By James Bosworth, Guest blogger / July 6, 2011
On Thursday of this week, a US Congressional subcommittee will hold a hearing on Hezbollah in Latin America and its impact on US homeland security.
Too often, analysis on the issue of Hezbollah in Latin America comes only at the extremes of "Ignore" and "Everybody Panic" and this subcommittee hearing is certain to bring out the panicked crowd. It's hard to find nuance in the analysis. Rarely does anyone try to place the threat of Hezbollah within the wider question security in Latin America.
The threat of Hezbollah in this hemisphere exists. Over 15 years ago, they were responsible for two of the worst terrorist attacks this hemisphere has ever experienced that left hundreds of casualties. Today, they still operate various finance and logistics cells involved in money laundering and illicit trafficking. They maintain links to other illegal groups operating in this hemisphere and back to certain factions in the Iranian government. That said, I'd argue the threat is small, less important than at least a dozen other security-related topics, and mostly containable.
If we're going to hold hearings on individual non-state groups that are threats in the hemisphere, lets start with Sinaloa, the FARC, and the Zetas; work our way through the second tier of Los Rastrojos, PCC, Betran Leyva, etc.; and then maybe after a few days or weeks of hearings we could get to the third tier that includes Hezbollah, the Russian mafia, and the Triads.
I'm sure if Congress called for a hearing on the threat of radical Buddhist terrorists obtaining biological weapons in Peru, they'd find three expert witnesses ready to testify. I don't mean to mock the threat of Hezbollah, but I say that to point out that when Congress holds hearings, it creates attention to specific topics and sets priorities that perhaps don't match the reality of what the priorities should be. A low probability threat suddenly gets attention at the expense of bigger issues.
Due to their actions in the past and their potential capabilities today, Hezbollah certainly deserves to be on the list of bad guys who are monitored, investigated, and hopefully arrested by the security and police forces in this hemisphere. I don't believe it should be ignored. But it's only one group on that list and far from the most threatening or destabilizing security issue this hemisphere faces.
On Friday morning, once the hearing is over, I'm sure I'll read an article in the media about Congress holding the hearing on the Hezbollah threat. Then I'll go on to the next article about a beheading in Mexico or a mayoral candidate murdered in Guatemala or a journalist killed in Honduras or a massacre in Colombia or a new military siege in a favela in Rio.
Forty thousand people are dead in Mexico from the ongoing conflict there. The murder rates in the Northern Triangle of Central America, Jamaica, and Venezuela are higher than many war zones. Colombia continues to fight a complex and changing conflict against a mix of terrorists, insurgents, and criminals. Every time over the last four years that Congress has asked someone from the US military or intelligence community what the biggest threat is in Latin America, the answer is transnational crime and illicit trafficking. None of the current instability or insecurity is caused by Hezbollah or Iran.
Perhaps one useful hearing Congress could hold right now would be on prioritizing security threats in this hemisphere. There should be an open debate over what are the first-, second-, and third-tier threats. We should discuss what are the big threats today (the Zetas), what are the low probability but potentially dangerous issues lurking out there (Hezbollah, dirty bombs) and what are the threats on the horizon (cyber-attacks, non-state UAVs, etc.). Congress should ask a wide range of experts what the threat priorities are rather than try to dictate them hearing topic by hearing topic. It would be a better use of our limited time, attention and resources in this hemisphere.
--- James Bosworth is a freelance writer and consultant based in Managua, Nicaragua, who runs Bloggings by Boz.

Geagea: Syria, Hizbullah Benefit from Fueling Regional Tensions
Naharnet /Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea slammed the new government on Wednesday, saying that it has reached an “unacceptable” point because of its handling of the indictment in the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. He told CNN Arabic that Syria and Hizbullah have an interest in fueling tensions in the region “because that will change the course of developments in Syria and Lebanon.” On the STL, he said: “The opposition will employ all its power to topple the government.” He did not rule out the possibility of resorting to street action to achieve this goal. “Should the opposition be forced to take to the street, it would do so within legal limits,” Geagea stressed. On the developments in Syria, he noted that it is difficult to predict whether its protests will topple the regime of President Bashar Assad, pointing out that no cracks in the regime have yet emerged. Asked if Hizbullah would maintain its power if the regime is overthrown, he responded: “It will definitely grow weaker than it already is now.” The LF leader also ruled out the possibility that the party would lay down its arms and change into a political party. “Sometimes weapons become a burden on those wielding them,” Geagea remarked. “Ever since the liberation of southern Lebanon in 2000, Hizbullah’s arms have grown to become a burden on it,” he said.

Saad Hariri Will Reportedly Make Surprise Appearance during Policy Statement Discussions
Naharnet /March 14 circles did not rule out on Wednesday the return of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri to Lebanon to make a surprise appearance at the parliament sessions aimed at discussing the government policy statement. They told the Central News Agency that his attendance will grant the opposition political support during the session to grant cabinet confidence.
Hariri has been residing in Paris for the passed few weeks after reports that he was under threat of assassination. Meanwhile, Speaker Nabih Berri’s circles told the news agency that the speaker is exerting efforts to allow the parliament sessions to pass without incident by immediately putting an end to heated political debates between the MPs similar to what happened earlier on Wednesday between MPs Khaled Daher and Assem Qanso.

Hizbullah MPs Walk Out, Moussawi Slams Mashnouq as 'Spy'
Naharnet /Hizbullah’s Loyalty to Resistance bloc MPs on Wednesday walked out en masse of the parliamentary debate session on the new government’s Policy Statement, as bloc MP Nawwaf al-Moussawi slammed as “spy” his colleague Nohad al-Mashnouq, member of the Mustaqbal bloc. The lawmakers walked out while Phalange bloc MP Nadim Gemayel was addressing parliament. Following the verbal clash during the morning session between MPs Assem Qanso and Khaled al-Daher, who called each other “dog” and almost engaged in a fistfight, the afternoon session went in the same fashion. Hizbullah’s Moussawi interrupted the speech of Mustaqbal’s Mashnouq, lashing out at his colleague.
“You are an intelligence agent and your price is well-known,” Moussawi said, addressing Mashnouq.
Moussawi’s accusation came in response to Mashnouq’s remarks on the arrest warrants issued recently by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon for four Hizbullah members in the case of ex-PM Rafik Hariri’s 2005 assassination. “Aren’t these accused resistance fighters members of the same party that has recently discovered (CIA) agents among its ranks? Everyone errs, but this is a sin,” Mashnouq said, prompting the angry reaction by Moussawi. Mashnouq’s speech was also interrupted by Hizbullah’s Agriculture Minister Hussein Hajj Hassan and MP Ali Ammar. “These are major insults, we cannot remain silent,” Hajj Hassan shouted. The heated exchange prompted the intervention of Speaker Nabih Berri, who told Mashnouq that the session was dedicated to discussing the ministerial Policy Statement rather than attacking a certain political party. The speech of Phalange Party bloc MP Samer Saade also drew a response from Moussawi. “How do you want us to grant confidence to a government that does not want to hang those who committed the (Hariri) crime and are being protected by a party that does not want to hand them over, not even after 300 years,” said Saade, prompting Moussawi to say: “Let them talk, we will not listen.” “The same as we had rejected to live under the authority of Palestinian arms … we will not be frightened today from (Hizbullah chief) Sayyed (Hassan Nasrallah), nor from his weapons and rockets,” Saade added, drawing angry responses from several Hizbullah ministers and MPs.

Berri: We Won’t Allow Parliament Tensions to Spill Onto Streets
Naharnet /During the fourth parliamentary debate session on the new government’s Policy Statement, Speaker Nabih Berri voiced alarm over the angry exchanges among some lawmakers.
Addressing MPs, Berri said: “The remarks we have been hearing highlight the fact that this country needs a real reconciliation and you are responsible about this reconciliation before the public opinion.” “There are bets that the tensions in parliament will spillover onto the streets, and this is what we will not allow,” Berri stressed. The house speaker struggled all through the session to pacify the heated debate. “Either you keep silent or I’ll expel you from the session,” Berri told MP Ali Hassan Khalil, his political advisor, who interrupted Mustaqbal bloc MP Nohad al-Mashnouq’s statement several times. Addressing the members of his Development and Liberation bloc and Hizbullah’s Loyalty to Resistance bloc, Berri shouted: “I’m the one running this session, not you!” Three days of parliamentary talks that began Tuesday will end on Thursday with a vote of confidence on Prime Minister Najib Miqati's government in which Hizbullah and its allies control the majority of seats. The Hizbullah-led alliance also holds a slight majority in parliament. The vote comes days after the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon issued an indictment in the 2005 assassination of ex-PM Rafik Hariri, implicating four Hizbullah operatives in the murder.

March 8 and 14 Criticize Jumblat’s Position on STL
Naharnet /Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat has ordered his MPs and members of his party not to issue statements on the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and simply abide by his recent comments on the matter during his press conference on Friday, reported the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa newspaper on Wednesday. March 8 camp sources said that the MP’s warning against falling for the trap of international agendas is inapplicable for the current government as it is a cohesive cabinet, adding: “There is no room for dialogue with a new minority that decided to lead Lebanon against the Resistance’s arms.” March 14 camp sources meanwhile announced their reservations on Jumblat’s cautious tone regarding the STL, noting that he was the leading figure responsible for the formation of the international tribunal even visiting his father’s grave upon the tribunal’s establishment. They criticized the MP’s statements that it was suspicious that the indictment in the STL was released soon after the formation of the cabinet. “These suspicions are a major favor to the March 8 camp similar to his turning against his former allies, the March 14 forces,” they said. Jumblat had stated during the press conference that the decision to release the indictment was political. “Justice requires us to avoid falling into the trap of international agendas, similar to what happened in the past,” he warned. As much as justice is the only retribution for all martyrs and victims, civil peace is more important than all other matters, the MP declared. “Civil peace is more important than all other matters and dialogue is the only way to avert strife and tensions,” Jumblat remarked. “I believe that the government policy statement called for dialogue and there can be no escaping it,” the MP concluded.

MPs quarrel in Lebanon Parliament
 July 06, 2011/The Daily Star /BEIRUT: A quarrel erupted in Parliament Wednesday between Future Movement MP Khaled Daher and MP Assem Qanso, after Daher accused the March 8 member of insulting him during his speech to the chamber. Daher delivered his speech as part of discussions on the ministerial statemnt of Prime Minister Najib Mikati's government. During his address, while touching on the situation in Syria, he was interrupted by Qanso. Speaker Nabih Berri, however, stepped in asking Qanso to let Daher finish his speech.  After Daher returned to his seat, he was told by an MP that Qanso described him as a “dog,” considered an insult in Lebanon.  Who’s that dog that is speaking?” Qanso reportedly said of Daher. “You are the dog,” Daher told Qanso, drawing ire from the Baalbek lawmaker, who is the former leader of the Lebanon branch of the Baath Party. Qanso got out of his chair in an attempt to go after Daher, only to be stopped by fellow legislators.

Lebanon cannot sleep soundly next to the Syrian elephant
The Daily Star/By Karim Emile/ Bitar The Daily Star
Speaking to an American audience in 1969, amid tensions between Canada and the U.S., Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, arguably one of the 20th century’s most remarkable Western statesmen, half-jokingly said: “Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly or temperate the beast, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.”
Trudeau’s quote is a good allegory of the Lebanese-Syrian relationship and is ominous in today’s context. If Lebanon is bound to be affected by every Syrian twitch and grunt, one wonders how it can weather a full-fledged and unprecedented Syrian revolution that might end in sectarian strife or in regime change.
Fostering stability and helping Lebanon avoid the potential subverting impact of the Syrian revolution is but one of the Herculean tasks the Cabinet of Prime Minister Najib Mikati has to confront, alongside the indictment of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which is bound to reinforce communal tensions and restart fierce polemics.
With these two existential problems playing themselves out, the Mikati government will have to start dealing with the country’s devastating socio-economic woes, at a time when analysts are considerably lowering the forecasts for economic growth (the IMF is predicting feeble 2.5 percent growth for 2011 while the Economist Intelligence Unit’s estimate is only 1.3 percent, significantly less than the 2009 and 2010 figures).
The new government will also have to conduct a series of delicate structural reforms, including overhauling the telecom industry and restructuring the National Social Security Fund. It must also rapidly generate a minimum confidence so as to encourage tourism and foreign investments, which have taken a bad turn. Finally, it should devise a modern electoral law for the 2013 polls.
Does Cabinet have the political wherewithal to meet these challenges? The answer is a resounding “no.” Too many storms to weather, too frail an embarkation – Mikati is facing a mission impossible if there ever was one.
Mikati is unquestionably a man of many talents. His business acumen has been highly praised. His brand of centrism appeals to those Lebanese who are tired of the constant political tug-of-war. In 2005, Mikati came to power under a difficult, albeit more consensual, situation yet managed to conduct the transition in an orderly fashion, gaining the respect of both sides of the aisle.
During the long months of political vacuum that preceded the formation of his government, Mikati remained eerily calm and optimistic despite being harshly attacked. He was accused of being a Hezbollah stooge, a traitor to his own Sunni community, a mere extension of the crumbling Syrian regime. He kept his cool during the sectarian incitement campaign, never hitting back. But he did send clear messages stating the prime minister’s post was nobody’s private domain, and that he was just as entitled as anyone else to hold the job.
Mikati appealed to the Lebanese people to give him the benefit of the doubt and to hold him accountable later, on the basis of his government’s accomplishments. The Maronite patriarch backed him, suggesting that Lebanese should deal positively with the new government. Mikati felt he could succeed, and he has a reasonable measure of Western and Gulf support, otherwise he would not have accepted the job. But large segments of the Lebanese population will not forget what they consider an original sin: the conditions under which this government was formed.
In any other country, MPs switching sides to bring down Cabinet would have been a perfectly legitimate part of the democratic game. In Lebanon’s explosive sectarian configuration, amid a raging debate on Hezbollah’s arsenal, the move was perceived as foul play.
The March 14 coalition, already at loggerheads with Mikati, blames his government for returning Lebanon to a bygone era and has not hidden its willingness to bring down the new government. Mikati’s own allies might soon prove to be an even bigger problem. For the first time, Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement holds the lion’s share of Cabinet seats, among them several major portfolios. Will the Aounists be able to bring about their long-promised “change and reform”? Or will they hit a stone wall and be forced to engage in bitter polemics while raising their voice louder and louder?
As for Lebanon’s independents and civil society activists, they’re not pinning any hopes on the new government. They were shocked by the conspicuous absence of women, which they perceived as an expression of disdain. Women’s rights activists heard the message loud and clear. It was as if Lebanon’s entire political class was telling them: “We don’t care, we’re not even trying. Don’t bother us with silly issues; we have bigger fish to fry. Get on with the program or get lost.”
This Cabinet is one of the few post-Taif governments that is not one of national unity. Counter-intuitively, this is not necessarily a bad thing; rather than being consensus-builders, past national unity governments were promoters of paralysis, preventing accountability and the transfer of power. On the other hand, one could argue that, more than ever, the present circumstances beg for unity.
In Lebanon’s seven decades of so-called independence, it is difficult to recall a single instance when a government started with such low expectations and ratings. Lebanese governments usually enjoy a significant grace period. People are initially overenthusiastic and pin all their hopes on the new prime minister. It is only later that they grow skeptical and disenchanted. This was the case in 1992 when Rafik Hariri became prime minister for the first time amid sky-high expectations. It was also the case in 1998 when Hariri’s old nemesis, Salim al-Hoss, promised to restore integrity and accountability.
Ironically, the morose climate and the low expectations could help Mikati. Savvy businessmen often argue that it is a smart strategy to under-promise and over-deliver. If Mikati can apply the maxim to Lebanese politics, it would certainly be a refreshing surprise.
*Karim Emile Bitar is a fellow at the Institute for International and Strategic Relations, the editor of ENA Magazine and the author of “Regards sur la France.” This commentary first appeared at bitterlemons-international.org, an online newsletter.

Excerpts from day 2 of MP speeches on policy statement
July 06, 2011/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: The following are excerpts taken from speeches given by MPs during the vote of confidence at Wednesday’s parliamentary session.
Nadim Gemayel (Kataeb Party)
“[Prime Minister Najib] Mikati’s Cabinet … came to assassinate the international tribunal, meaning yet another assassination for [former Prime Minister] Rafik Hariri … we will not allow this Cabinet composed of people of weapons and traces of the Syrian regime to assassinate the tribunal,” Kataeb Party MP Nadim Gemayel said.
Nohad Mashnouk (Future Movement)
“The power of weapons has violated constitutional institutions and brought this Cabinet into power… Everyone who is now [in a ministerial post] is here as a result of [this violation],” Mashnouk, who was interrupted by Health Minister Ali Hasan Khalil, said. Khalil considered Mashnouk's statements offensive to the resistance.
Mashnouk also criticized Mikati and MP Walid Jumblatt for claiming to be centrists, adding that both lawmakers had betrayed those who elected them when the two abandoned their support for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
Hezbollah lawmakers attending the session voiced several complaints with Mashnouk's speech, interrupting him throughout, and urged Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri not to allow the Future Movement lawmaker to continue.
Kamel Rifai (The Loyalty to the Resistance)
“Since when have we expected any justice from the international community? … It was established to serve the interest of dominant countries,” MP Kamel Rifai said, adding that the tribunal was not legitimate and its principles were not compatible with Lebanon.
The politician also criticized March 14 lawmakers for attacking the Cabinet’s intentions, rather than its work.
Rifai raised his concern over many challenges facing the area of Baalbek, including its deteriorating education and economic conditions, urging the government to pay attention the region.
Antoine Zahra (Lebanese Forces)
"Our response to fear and pressure … will always be addressed from this Parliament. We will only use words [against the majority] because our words will be stronger than the use of weapons," Lebanese Forces MP Zahra told members of Parliament.
"Concerning the Cabinet formation, I would like to congratulate women for not being part of this Cabinet … I see women bigger than all of these positions in the Cabinet," he added.
Addressing Mikati directly, Zahra said: “We will will be watching every move you make and we will oppose every thing we do not agree with."
“The prime minister and his team could not take out the word ‘in principle’ from the policy statement so that it could be less provocative for those who are waiting to discover the truth regarding the series of allegations,” Zahra said, adding that he was holding Mikati and the Cabinet responsible for including such a controversial word.
Ziyad Aswad (Free Patriotic Movement)
“This government was not formed through a coup … but it was formed to bring an end to the lack of security and to halt the waste of public funds,” MP Ziad Aswad said.
Aswad called on the new Cabinet to reform Lebanon’s judiciary, adding that a state cannot survive without an independent legal body.
He also defended the Special Tribunal for Lebanon clause in the policy statement which stipulates that the Cabinet will follow the progress of the international court that was "in principle" established to probe the assassination of former statesman Rafik Hariri, saying: “This court is corrupt and is not legitimate.”
Simon Abi Ramia (Free Patriotic Movement)
“The new opposition wants to play a destructive role, rather than a constructive one,” MP Simon Abi Ramia said, adding that the new majority would hold all ministers accountable when it comes to building state institutions.
“I ask the opposition to stop the lies and the misleading slogans and return to the country … I say this after I have heard you calling on [the international and regional communities] to punish Lebanon,” Abi Ramia said.
He also criticized the previous “dominant power” which he said had isolated the FPM and the “Christian majority from government.”
“If we agree with you then we become your allies, but if we disagree, then we are the source of all evil,” Abi Ramia said, referring the March 14 movement.
Nabil Nkoula (Free Patriotic Movement)
MP Nabil Nkoula criticized the March 14 coalition’s calls for the international and regional community to bring down the Cabinet, describing this position as a “betrayal to Lebanon.”
“[March 14’s] position is a national betrayal and they should be sanctioned, condemned and tried for this treachery,” Nkoula said.
Jamal Jarrah (Future Movement)
MP Jamal Jarrah said that those who assassinated Hariri and all the martyrs after him were “not bigger than their country” and their prosecution would lead to justice.
“You are biased at all levels … biased and ambiguous. This is not real centrism, but a Mikati-style centrism,” Jarrah said.
He also accused the March 8 alliance and Mikati of inciting a civil war by adopting the current policy statement and urged Mikati not to bring back the Syrian tutelage over Lebanon and to commit to the STL
Ali Fayyad (Loyalty to the Resistance bloc)
“Plans by the March 14 movement to incite the international community to sanction and isolate Lebanon if it does not support the tribunal is unprecedented and presents a serious danger to Lebanon,” Loyalty to the Resistance MP Ali Fayyad said.
“When it comes to Lebanon, international justice is not impartial. The real dispute is in the belief [by some] that the tribunal is credible,” Fayyad said.
Khaled Daher (Future Movement)
Future Movement MP Khaled Daher said that the resistance should not be monopolized by one group and was the right for all Lebanese.
“Resistance against the [Israeli] enemy is a national duty and a legitimate resistance is one that enjoys the confidence of all Lebanese," he said.
“Why is it when the [new] government committed to the slogan ‘the people, the army and the resistance,’ there was no commitment by [Mikati’s Cabinet] toward the international tribunal,” Daher asked.
Alain Aoun (Free Patriotic Movement)
Change and Reform Bloc MP Alain Aoun said that he had hoped the podium would be used to discuss important issues that were of concern to the Lebanese citizen, but instead “the opposition is not interested in addressing these pressing issues,” Aoun said.
“Does losing power allow you to incite the international and regional community against Lebanon?” Aoun asked, questioning the ability of Lebanon’s various political factions to even come together.
Aoun also addressed former Prime Minister Saad Hariri and the March 14 coalition, urging them to reconsider their policies and ideology to prevent any further division in the country.
He warned that the mechanism of rule that the March 14 alliance had adopted would not work in ruling Lebanon, adding that Lebanon would witness a transfer of power in an organized political system.
“Let us strengthen Lebanon as we stand on the threshold of a new Middle East, ” Aoun said.
Elie Marouni (Kataeb Party)
Talking about the new Cabinet, Kataeb (Phalange) MP Elie Marouni asked “what nation are we looking for and what system do we want to achieve?”
"We hoped to come here today to discuss issues that concern Lebanon and the Lebanese, especially to answer essential questions including what country we want to build and what system needs to be developed. But instead we are here to discuss a clause that is already out of question,” Marouni said.
He criticized Mikati’s Cabinet slogan – “Everyone for the nation, everyone for work” – and said it should be replaced with “Everyone against the nation and everyone against one party.”
“We were the first resistance against all instances of occupation in Lebanon … We will not allow for our martyrs to be killed again,” he said.
“[The policy statement] did not assure those who are targeted that the Cabinet will continue to look for the killers,” Marouni said, adding that those who demanded justice and supported the tribunal were turned into traitors.
"If [the Cabinet] is incapable of providing justice and committing to the truth … then it should relieve itself of its duties … the people will not tolerate such actions,” he said.
Addressing the March 8 alliance, Marouni said: “Why don’t you turn your attention toward Syria, the country you love so much. It has occupied territories but it does not have a resistance. It has an army that defends and protects it,” Marouni said, referring to the Israeli occupied Golan Heights.
“What kind of confidence are they asking for?” Marouni asked, adding that the Kataeb party would proudly abstain from voting for the Cabinet.
Hassan Fadlallah (Loyalty to the Resistance bloc)
Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah blasted Wednesday the STL and accused the March 14 coalition of endangering the resistance by providing the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon information on its activities and lawmakers.
“We have repeatedly tried to stretch a hand [to march 14], only to be stabbed in the back for external and authoritative considerations,” Fadlallah said.
“The main goal of the March 14 coalition is to hold on to power,” he said.
“No to the [STL] court, no to funding for the court.”
“Yes, we are the armed resistance party,” Fadlallah said, adding later: “Had it not been for the resistance, Mr. [former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon would have been dancing at Baabda Palace now,” Fadallah said as he defended Hezbollah weapons.
“We call for the removal of weapons from the hands of the people,” Fadlallah said. “All weapons should be used to defend Lebanon against Israel.”
Jean Hogassapian (March 14)
MP Jean Hogassapian defended the STL, accusing Mikati’s Cabinet of having been formed on the back of Hezbollah’s weapons.
“This government threatens Lebanon becoming one of the rogue states,” Hogassapian warned.
“The tribunal is not anybody’s enemy and we are not advocates of revenge, but we believe in partnership, pluralism, and fear for the future of Lebanon’s identity.”
“The tribunal is not the enemy of anyone … but it exists to provide justice,” Hogassapian told Parliament Wednesday, stressing that his party believed in national dialogue.
“The government today is now running under the culture of force and the use of weapons,” he said.
“I reject that weapons be used in everyday politics … We don’t want a culture of fear in political life.”
Mohammad Hajjar (Future Movement)
Future Movement bloc MP Mohammad Hajjar accused Mikati’s government of having been formed through the use of force and that it was seeking to topple the STL.
“The Cabinet was achieved through the use of force and not through democratic means, nothing else,” Hajjar said.
“The government’s aim is to topple the tribunal.”
March 14 lawmakers launched scathing attacks on Mikati’s Cabinet Tuesday, setting the tone for what they promised would be a “fierce opposition” to a government that they consider to be controlled by Hezbollah and Syria.

FBI adds Canadian citizen to list of most wanted terrorists
Robert Snell/The Detroit News
DETROIT—The FBI added a former Dearborn, Mich., resident to its most wanted terrorists list Wednesday, a move that puts Faouzi Ayoub among some of the most hunted and dangerous men in the world.
The move coincided with federal prosecutors unsealing an indictment against the 44-year-old Lebanese man, who has remained hidden for almost two years.
The indictment accuses Ayoub, who is also a Canadian citizen, of using a phony passport to try to travel to Israel to detonate a bomb on behalf of the terrorist group Hezbollah.
Federal court records and published reports chronicle alleged terrorism ties, Ayoub’s brief detention in Israel and how he was freed in a controversial swap involving prisoners, a businessman and dead soldiers.
Little is known about Ayoub’s time in Dearborn, however, and federal officials weren’t saying whether they think he is living in the area.
“I’ve never heard of him,” said Dawud Walid, executive director of the Council of American-Islamic Relations’ Michigan chapter.
Ayoub faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted of passport fraud — providing the FBI can find him. His whereabouts were unclear Wednesday.
The United States does not have an extradition treaty with Lebanon if Ayoub has returned to his native land.
Public records indicate a man named Faouzi Ayoub lived at six different locations in Dearborn — including an apartment on West Warren Ave. — and worked at a management company in Detroit. It is unclear whether Ayoub has family or acquaintances in Dearborn.
The FBI’s most wanted list Wednesday included a photo of Ayoub, a host of aliases and a physical description. Ayoub, who is 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighs 169 pounds, was born in Beirut and is considered armed and dangerous.
Prosecutors say on Oct. 8, 2000, Ayoub tried to use a fake passport that carried the phony name Frank Mariano Boschi. He allegedly tried to enter Israel to conduct a bombing on behalf of the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah.
Ayoub’s profile joins 31 other alleged terrorists being hunted by the FBI. The list includes Ayman al-Zawahiri, the late Osama bin Laden’s longtime second-in-command, who has taken control of Al Qaeda.
Al-Zawahiri is accused of helping plan the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks

Lebanon's Arabic press digest - July 6, 2011
July 06, 2011 /The Daily Star
Following are summaries of some of the main stories in a selection of Lebanese newspapers Wednesday. The Daily Star cannot vouch for the accuracy of these reports.
Ad-Diyar: Confidence [vote] debate acceptable, Nasrallah says tribunal retaliation for resistance victories
Tribunal to demand list of places raided and [inquire about] why police patrols did not enter Dahiyeh
Saudi Arabia has intervened on the issue of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) when Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal announced his support for the tribunal in an indirect response to remarks made by Iran’s Ali Larijani.
We are now faced with two positions: an Iranian stance that has dubbed the STL as “invalid” against a Saudi stance that supports the STL and consider it a means to justice.
As for the STL indictments and arrest warrants issued against four Hezbollah members, the tribunal will send a memo to the Lebanese judiciary asking them to reveal the places that have already been raided in the pursuit of the wanted men ahead of the 30-day deadline.
Under the STL’s rules, Lebanese authorities have to report to the court on the measures they have taken to arrest the accused within 30 days of the issuing of the indictment.
Much of the STL work is now focused on whether Lebanese police patrols will raid places in the [Hezbollah-controlled] southern suburbs of Beirut and why they have not entered [the area] yet.
Western and European ambassadors seem to be following up on a pledge made by Interior Minister Marwan Charbel that Internal Security Forces will raid places to arrest the wanted men. They were secretly inquiring about the reason that ISF patrols have not entered the southern suburbs as if they were coordinating with the tribunal, or that they had been asked to do so by their governments.
In return, several March 14 MPs who returned from a visit to Paris said the issue was a matter of time, saying the indictments were based on strong evidence. Following investigative reporting, Ad-Diyar has learned that the probe was based on [recordings of] mobile telephone calls.
Meanwhile, according to judicial information, international investigators are likely to visit Lebanon on July 15 to hand over a list of 12 Hezbollah members accused in the Hariri assassination.
Al-Mustaqbal: March 14 MPs launch their campaign against the coup government
A session to discuss the policy statement of Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s government did not come out as expected since opposition [March 14] MPs did not raise the level of their rhetoric beyond the statement made after their Sunday meeting at Beirut’s Bristol hotel. The debate was particularly focused on two points: the coup government and the way it is dealing with the STL and illegal weapons, while majority [March 8] MPs went as far as to demand the withdrawal of Lebanese judges from the STL and ending funding for the tribunal.
It was significant how discipline prevailed during the session with a calm tone despite the heightened positions made by both opposition and pro-government MPs alike.
As-Safir: Parliament debates tribunal six years late… Faisal calls for wisdom
A session Tuesday to discuss the policy statement turned into a debate over the STL and how to deal with its decisions, a discussion that was delayed nearly six years after a protocol agreement was signed between the government of Lebanon (under Prime Minister Fouad Siniora at the time) and the tribunal.
Contrary to expectations, which suggested a verbal battle or even a fistfight, the parliamentary session passed off peacefully.
A decision made by Jamaa Islamiya, via its MP Imad Hout, was stunning as he announced his party would refrain from voting, a stance that carries signs at the Sunni arena level. It indicates that the “Jamaa” has taken up a position similar to the "fierce opposition" adopted by the Future Movement.
Meanwhile, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal called on all parties in Lebanon to "deal with the international court's decision calmly and rationally away from tension and to avoid any escalation or confrontation with the international community."
He said now that the indictments had been issued, Saudi hopes the Lebanese parties would seek to achieve justice and resort to wisdom by not allowing this incident to destabilize Lebanon, particularly since everyone had voted in favor of the STL, including political groups that oppose the of tribunal’s decision.
An-Nahar: March 14 prosecutes the government: [Hariri’s] assassination was not 'in principle'
A high-ranking source in the opposition told An-Nahar at the end of the first day of parliamentary meetings to discuss the government’s police statement ahead of a vote of confidence: "We did not hear from Mr. Mikati an explicit commitment to the implementation of Resolution 1757 on the STL, and so our response will be a no-confidence vote and end of cooperation with the government pending further steps to be adopted in the near future."

Najib Mikati, our own dead man walking
 July 07, 2011/By Michael Young The Daily Star
Last Saturday, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s secretary general, did more to discredit Prime Minister Najib Mikati than did all the sour statements issued by March 14. In rejecting any cooperation with the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, Nasrallah undermined Mikati’s acrobatic efforts to reassure the international community that Lebanon would fulfill its international obligations.
Rather than react to this humiliation by responding to his alleged political comrade, Mikati instead warned March 14 last Monday, on the eve of the parliamentary session preceding a vote of confidence, that “sabotaging the nation is a crime.” Such an act would indeed be a crime, one the former majority should stray away from. But one has to be serious: If anything will sabotage the nation, it’s a statement to the effect that the special tribunal, and implicitly the Lebanese authorities, will never arrest the four suspects in the assassination of Rafik Hariri. “They cannot find them or arrest them in 30 days or 60 days, or in a year, two years, 30 years or 300 years,” Nasrallah told his audience, explaining most transparently that he bows to no nation, least of all the nation in whose government he has two ministers.
Mikati must feel himself being sucked into a maelstrom he cannot withstand. Things looked simpler in January, when he took a political risk in standing against Saad Hariri and getting the nod as prime minister. Mikati thought that he could embody a Saudi-Syrian understanding over Lebanon, which had escaped Hariri. He also believed that he enjoyed support from France and Qatar, and no opposition from the United States. Perhaps he even imagined that these advantages would compel March 14 to enter a national-unity government.
These were more or less defensible calculations to make, except for two things: The Saudis and Syrians had explored ways to break off altogether Lebanon’s relationship with the special tribunal. Mikati, in contrast, has never publicly shown a willingness to go that far. And he knew that foreign endorsement of his team, as well as acceptance by March 14, would hinge on displaying clarity toward U.N. resolutions.
Mikati’s fortunes took a slide immediately after his appointment. Syrian friends, the Turks and the Qataris were more unhappy with Hariri’s ouster than it initially appeared, and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed this to President Bashar Assad at a February meeting in Aleppo. Damascus paused, as it did again when demonstrations began against President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. Why impose a hasty outcome in Beirut, the Syrians seemed think, amid so much regional volatility? Better to wait and see.
So, Mikati waited and what we saw was the outbreak of an emancipation movement in Syria. Suddenly, the prime minister-designate’s world started unraveling. Mikati had counted on his good rapport with Assad to provide a counterweight to his new and troublesome political associates, Hezbollah and Michel Aoun. The Syrians were, at least for the moment, out of the picture, focusing on repression at home. Mikati realized that a poorly balanced Cabinet could mean his utter marginalization. His Sunni base in the north was surveying events in Syria with growing discontent. And so Mikati had no choice but to delay putting a government together.
Shrewdly, Aoun read Mikati’s motives correctly and pursued his maximalist demands on ministerial portfolios, sensing there was no point in conceding anything if a government was deferred. Like Hezbollah he waited for the situation to change, and it did once the Assads realized that they had a full-blown insurrection on their hands, one with existential implications. Lebanon had initially been viewed by the Syrian regime as a hostage which it could destabilize to warn outside countries against weakening the Syrian regime. Then Bashar Assad and his acolytes reconsidered, sensing that the country would be more useful as a pliable weapon in Syria’s hands.
After Walid Jumblatt met with Assad on June 9, word came down that the Lebanese had to reach an agreement quickly on forming a government. Mikati managed to get two more Sunnis than Shiites, and with Jumblatt and President Michel Sleiman has 11 ministers. This provides the three, who make up a so-called “centralist bloc,” with veto power over government decisions. However, the numbers are symbolic. The prime minister knows perfectly well that Jumblatt’s and Sleiman’s margin of maneuver, like his own, is almost nil.
Then Nasrallah put everything into perspective Saturday night. What should Mikati do about it? It’s probably too late for him to salvage his political career. The prime minister is the prisoner of partners whose priorities can only sink him and his agenda. With the tribunal indictment out, Mikati will find himself protecting Hezbollah against a widespread perception among Sunnis that the party helped murder their pre-eminent communal representative.
As the carnage continues in Syria, Mikati can prepare for more headaches. His electorate fears for Syria’s Sunnis against an Assad-led military onslaught. As for the prime minister’s latitude to resign against Syria’s wishes and bring down the government, it is very narrow indeed. Such a move would not only spell an end to Mikati’s brief political audition, it would probably come with a financial price, since Mikati’s M1 Group owns the largest single share in a South African company operating one of the mobile networks in Syria.
Now, with Nasrallah renewing his condemnation of the special tribunal, Mikati’s government is on a collision course with the U.N. and the international community. The prime minister pitiably articulated that Lebanon, even if it was not quite committed to international resolutions, nonetheless would “respect” them. But in just a few sentences Nasrallah affirmed that the government could employ whatever language it desired, but the reality was that Hezbollah defined the red lines of the government’s actions, not Najib Mikati.
The prime minister’s fate is now tied to Bashar Assad’s. If the Syrian regime goes, Mikati will follow. The problem is that if Assad stays, Mikati will remain a cipher, even less consequential than was Salim al-Hoss when he headed the first government under President Emile Lahoud. Mikati’s foes want to see him politically debilitated; but the prime minister’s problem is that most of his colleagues in government want that too, for it ensures that he remains their man.
**Michael Young is opinion editor of THE DAILY STAR and author of “The Ghosts of Martyrs Square: An Eyewitness Account of Lebanon’s Life Struggle” (Simon & Schuster), listed as one of the 10 notable books of 2010 by The Wall Street Journal. He tweets BeirutCalling.

Gloves come off in Parliament
July 07, 2011/ The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Intense debate dominated the Parliament session Wednesday, as lawmakers of the rival March 14 and 8 camps traded vicious accusations over the government’s policies on the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
Unlike Tuesday’s parliamentary session, when Hezbollah and its allies seemed to absorb March 14’s verbal attacks, members of March 8 fired back Wednesday at the continuous assault against the “Hezbollah-dominated government” for protecting the suspects indicted by the STL.
While March 14 MPs painted Prime Minister Najib Mikati as helpless, describing his government and the Lebanese state as under the control of Hezbollah and its weapons, March 8 lawmakers accused the March 14 alliance of seeking foreign sanctions against the Cabinet.
Future Movement member and Beirut MP Nouhad Mashnouq upped the ante in his speech, lashing out at Hezbollah’s weapons and describing the alleged actions of the four Hezbollah members as a “great sin.”
“It was bad enough that three of Hezbollah members turned out to be agents for foreign powers but it is a great sin that [four members of the party] were found suspects [by the STL],” Mashnouq said, in reference to Hezbollah’s recent admission that it was infiltrated by the CIA.
Mashnouq’s colleague, Chouf MP Mohammad Hajjar said that the government’s positions threatened Lebanon’s ties with Arab and international communities, which would negatively impact the country’s economy.
Hajjar added that contrary to Mikati’s highly publicized position as a middle ground candidate, the prime minister and his government were subject to blackmail and intimidation from Hezbollah.
“It is a government that protects suspects yet to be convicted … a Cabinet in confrontation with the world and the international community,” Hajjar said.
The March 14 alliance had recently vowed to launch a political campaign to urge Arab governments and the international community not to cooperate with the government if it fails to comply with the requirements of U.N. Resolution 1757, which led to the establishment of the STL.
However, Hezbollah MP Hasan Fadlallah said March 14 groups would fail to overthrow the government by seeking foreign intervention, just as Israel failed to defeat the resistance.
“The dispute is no longer local and the competition is no longer democratic after foreign intervention was sought. It seems that they don’t remember that the fleets were on the shores of Beirut and were defeated as well as Israeli tanks that advanced on the capital before fleeing,” Fadlallah said.
Fadlallah added that Israel and its allies had drafted the indictment on behalf of the STL to track down and arrest members of the resistance, whom Israel failed to hunt down since 1982, when Israel invaded Lebanon and besieged its capital.
Echoing Fadlallah, Loyalty to Resistance parliamentary bloc member Ali Fayyad said that the March 14 plan to besiege the Lebanese Cabinet on the international and Arab levels posed a serious threat to Lebanon as whole, not just the Cabinet.
“Plans by the March 14 movement to incite the international community to bring sanctions and isolate Lebanon if it does not support the tribunal is unprecedented and presents a serious danger to Lebanon,” he said.
However, March 14 MP Jean Hogassapian said it was Mikati’s Cabinet that threatened to put Lebanon into confrontation with the international community since it was formed under the sponsorship of Hezbollah’s weapons in a bid to halt ties with the STL.
“This government could drive Lebanon to become one of the rogue states,” Hogassapian warned.
On another front, Future Movement MP Khaled Daher said the government should support the Syrian people’s freedom and prevent Lebanese groups loyal to the regime in Damascus from oppressing the Syrian people. “We call on the Lebanese Army to tighten its control over the Lebanese-Syrian border to prevent the exploitation of the border by some groups to assault the unarmed Syrian people,” Daher said in reference to reports over the crossing of Lebanese groups to assist Syrian authorities in their crackdown.
The parliamentary session concluded Wednesday night and a total of 50 MPs have addressed the general assembly over the past two days. Parliament is scheduled to convene Thursday at 10:30 a.m. with eight MPs set to make speeches, including Rafik Hariri’s sister, Sidon MP Bahia Hariri, and Future Movement parliamentary bloc leader Fouad Siniora.
Speaker Nabih Berri is scheduled to call for the vote of confidence at 1 p.m.

Pain persists for families of the other victims
July 07, 2011/ By Annie Slemrod/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: When Ihsan Nasser’s husband died, her life “turned around 180 degrees.” Left a single parent to her daughters Sarah and Lynne, she says she “had to become a father and a mother at the same time.”What’s more, she couldn’t mourn in private. She and her kids became known as “the people who it happened to. People would ask us all the time” about her husband’s death, she says.
That’s because her husband Talal died in an oft-discussed event that has become part of the country’s political landscape. One of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s bodyguards, he died in the February 2005 bomb that killed Hariri and 22 others.
Six years later, the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon has accused four Hezbollah members of the attack. There may be more indictments on the way. And so, Ihsan Nasser and the relatives of the other victims find their private losses back in everyday conversation, and their thoughts once again solicited by the press.
Ihsan’s husband worked with Hariri for 23 years, nearly the entire life of another of Hariri’s guards, Mohammad Darwish. Darwish was 24 when he was killed in the attack, and had worked for the former prime minister for five years.
His mother, Umm Mohammad, says the pain of losing her son has only “increased as days go by … at first maybe I didn’t feel the pain like I do now. Now the pain is unbearable.”
As she sits in front of a photograph of her son at home in Al-Tariq al-Jadideh, Umm Mohammad is unashamed to speak about him and cry. She is unfazed by the camera flashing in her face.
She says that Darwish, who had two older sisters and a younger brother, “had his idiosyncrasies.” She notes his “special laugh.” When he died, she says her “life no longer had any meaning or taste.”
Umm Mohammad says now that “the indictment has been released … we pray to God and hope that the truth will reveal itself … Of course we’ve been waiting for [the indictment], so we were very happy [when it was released]. We hope that the STL continues its work.”
But questions about the tribunal’s integrity have not escaped her notice. “To be honest,” she says, “you hear so many rumors and stories that sometimes you have a moment of doubt [about the STL]. But we hope the STL is just, and that justice will prevail.”
Ihsan Nasser says frankly she and the other relatives of those who died simply “can’t look at [the tribunal] objectively … No one can really ask the families of the martyrs what we think of the indictment. Any person who puts himself in our shoes should know that if we find any thread we are going to hold on to it.”
She says her attempts to maintain a sense of normalcy for her daughters have taken their toll on “myself, my life, and my health.” Every February, the anniversary of Talal Nasser’s death “causes a depression in the house for the entire month.”
So after six years of waiting, Nasser says “we were happy when we found out [about the indictment] because we felt that we are starting to get somewhere. There are a lot of people who weren’t happy [with the indictment]. They thought of it politically, they thought that it could destroy the country or tear it apart.
“But we … can’t think like that. The only thing we can think about is that we are starting to get to a place that we have been waiting for years. And we don’t know how much longer we will have to wait.”
Ihsan Nasser and Umm Mohammad are only two of the many relatives of the 23 victims. As Talal Nasser and Mohammed Darwish were both part of Hariri’s entourage, they can’t be said to make up a representative sample of the survivors, if such a thing were to exist.
And it seems Nasser is not the only person who struggles with the constant discussion of the bombing. The relatives of several civilian victims declined to speak to The Daily Star, with one widow saying, simply, “please spare me.”
Regardless of whether the tribunal is “just or if it is not, there is nothing that it can bring back” for any of the survivors, says Nasser.
She says that the indictments have brought her a personal sense of relief, “because you feel that you can access your rights, that justice works. I hope that [the tribunal] will be just, so that at least you know these people didn’t die for nothing, that they didn’t die cheaply. But no matter what the verdicts are, they are not going to bring anything back.” – With additional reporting by Reem Harb

Erdogan again shuts the door on Israel when UN affirms Gaza blockade legal
DEBKAfile Special Report July 6, 2011,
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan applied the brakes to the process of reconciliation with Israel when he learned Wednesday, July 6, that the UN inquiry commission into last year's Turkish-led flotilla had ruled Israel's naval blockade on Gaza legal. Eight Turks and a Turkish-American were killed in a clash with Israeli commandos who boarded the Mavi Marmora.
Law commissioner Sir Geoffrey Palmer which heads the inquiry panel has not released its findings. But this ruling means that Israel was within its rights in boarding the vessel because the expedition which the Erdogan government organized and financed had acted illegally in trying to break the blockade. Ankara therefore has no call to demand an Israeli apology for the incident.
Israel's Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister for Strategic Affairs Moshe Yaalon, headed a delegation to UN Headquarters in New York this to thrash out the issue. But the discussions between the Israeli and Turkish delegations broke down when it became apparent that the Turkish side demanded that the Palmer report be rewritten to clear its prime minister of a faulty policy decision.
To distract from this embarrassment, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmed Davutoglu Wednesday once again demanded an Israeli apology for the incident "as a must to reestablish relations." By this device he moved the question of the Turkish flotilla's legality into the province of Ankara's future ties with Jerusalem, making their improvement contingent on Israel's assumption of guilt.
But this is not going to happen. Earlier Wednesday, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman pledged to a Knesset panel that the government would not apologize to Turkey because it had no reason to bow to humiliation or allow Israeli soldiers to be wrongfully accused.
The Turkish prime minister also fears that resuming security and intelligence ties with the Jewish state will get in the way of the key roles he aspires to in helping Bashar Assad shore up his rule against dissent in Syria and consolidating rebel rule against Muammar Qaddafi in Libya.
A Western official source told debkafile's sources that Erdogan was disappointed in his hopes that the rift-healing with Israel would go forward discreetly. Instead it was trumpeted by Israel and used by its politicians to promote their individual agendas. At the same time, debkafile's sources report the conviction of Middle East observers that the Turkish prime minister will get back to restoring ties with Israel after the Palmer Report storm blows over and it is safely tucked away in UN archives. This is because US President Barack Obama needs Erdogan to have good relations with Israel for him to fill the tasks to be assigned him in Middle East conflicts. Washington will therefore urge Erdogan to put the Palmer Report behind him and move on.
A hint of this eventuality came from the US ambassador to Turkey Francis J. Ricciardone who said Wednesday: "We believe that the two countries will work together again…