LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِJUNE 09/2011

Biblical Event Of The Day
Peter's First Letter 2/11-17: "Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; 2:12 having good behavior among the nations, so in that of which they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they see, glorify God in the day of visitation. 2:13 Therefore subject yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether to the king, as supreme; 2:14 or to governors, as sent by him for vengeance on evildoers and for praise to those who do well. 2:15 For this is the will of God, that by well-doing you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: 2:16 as free, and not using your freedom for a cloak of wickedness, but as bondservants of God. 2:17 Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.
 

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
The Palestinians: The single currency for crises/By: Tariq Alhomayed/ June 08/11
Heikal: A witness who saw nothing/By: Dr. Amal Al-Hazzani/June 08/11
Syria’s Kurds and the uprising/By: Ana Maria Luca/June 08/11
Why it’s no longer Hafez Assad’s Syria/By: Radwan Ziadeh

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for June 08/11
Syrian town awaits attack as pressure piles on Assad/AFP
Heavy fighting heard in Syrian border town/Daily Star
Erdogan: Turkey will not 'close its doors' to Syrian refugees/Reuters/Haaretz
Legislative session collapses, Berri blames March 14/Daily Star
Mikati: Meeting with Aoun icebreaker/Daily Star
Lebanon's Arabic press digest/Daily Star
Bahrain to resume flights to Lebanon/Daily Star
Resignation claim a hoax: Syria's France envoy/AFP & Daily Star
Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for June 08/11
William Hague calls for UN security council to act against Syrian regime/The Guardian
Violence at Palestinian camp funerals in Syria leaves 20 dead/Los Angeles Times
Iranian subs to the Red Sea – a riposte to UN nuclear watchdog's indictment/DEBKAfile
Syrians Turn Against Hezbollah and Iran/COFR
Did Syria's ambassador to France just quit?/CSM
Bracing for impact of regional turmoil/Financial Times
Syria at the core of the 'great struggle'/Today Zaman
Syrian border city playing pivotal role in conflict/CNN
Why YouTube Took Down US Torture Video Right After It Restored One About Syria./Forbes
Aoun: The MOU with Hezbollah is against Israel not Sunnis/Ya Libnan
Hezbollah, Hamas praise 'Naksa Day' unrest/J.Post
Bahrain's Gulf Air to resume flights to Lebanon/Now Lebanon
Lebanese bank freezes Libya regime assets: reports/Daily  Star
Tug-of-war moves to Lebanon's Parliament/Daily Star

Violence at Palestinian camp funerals in Syria leaves 20 dead
Mourners clash with members of a Syrian-backed militant faction at the Yarmouk refugee camp. The faction is accused of having persuaded the Palestinians' relatives to join protests at the Golan Heights border that turned deadly.
By Roula Hajjar,
Los Angeles Times
June 7, 2011, .
Reporting from Beirut— Funerals in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp near the Syrian capital of Damascus turned violent late Monday as clashes erupted between camp residents and a Syrian-backed Palestinian faction, leading to the deaths of as many as 20 people, according to Palestinian sources and amateur video posted to the Internet.
Tensions rose during a funeral procession when mourners in the camp denounced the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, General Command, alleging that the faction had persuaded the mourners' relatives to participate in Sunday's deadly demonstrations near the Syrian-Israeli border, said an official of the Palestine Liberation Organization and Palestinian news outlets.
Sunday's violence, in which dozens died in the border clash, coincided with the 44th anniversary of Israel's capture of the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 Middle East War. The demonstration was the second such protest along the typically quiet border in less than a month. The militant Palestinian faction is backed by Syria and based in Damascus.
Holding the faction responsible for Sunday's deaths, angry demonstrators attacked the group's headquarters and burned two cars, the reports said. In retaliation, the faction's gunmen opened fire on the mourners, killing between 14 and 20 people, the Palestinian sources said. Video footage showed terrified young men scurrying for shelter amid a hail of gunfire.
A faction official in Beirut who was reached by telephone refused to comment. But other Palestinians said Monday's events, details of which emerged Tuesday, raised questions about Syria's long-stated support for the Palestinian cause.
The repeated mobilization of Palestinian protesters, who were given unprecedented freedom to approach the Syrian border with the Israeli-occupied Golan, has fueled speculation that the regime in Damascus is fomenting chaos in order to take international focus off the ongoing crackdowns against protests across Syria. Some Palestinian refugees share that view.
"They are bargaining with the blood of Palestinians to suit the Syrian regime," said the PLO official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Once again, the Palestinian struggle has fallen victim to the agenda of an Arab regime."
The official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported Tuesday that the Palestinian Authority "condemned the work of armed groups belonging to the PFLP-GC, who used live ammunition to shoot at young protesters in Yarmouk camp as they were participating in a funeral procession for Palestinians who had fallen during protests in the Golan Heights on Sunday."
**Hajjar is a special correspondent.

William Hague calls for UN security council to act against Syrian regime
Foreign secretary says draft resolution is in circulation among council members following crackdown on protesters
guardian.co.uk, /Wednesday 8 June 2011
William Hague said the UN security council had a 'responsibility to speak out' against President Assad's crackdown. Britain is to push for a UN security council resolution condemning a crackdown on anti-government protesters in Syria. The foreign secretary, William Hague, told parliament that the security council had a "responsibility to speak out" and warned of new European Union sanctions unless demands were met.Hague said diplomats were circulating a draft resolution to secure the necessary support from the nine council members.
He said the proposals would bring action taken against Syria in line with measures imposed on other countries in the region facing political upheaval. However, they fell short of the no-fly zone mandated against Libya under a resolution passed earlier this year that launched a Nato bombing campaign against Muammar Gaddafi's forces.
"We must show the same resolve and purpose in supporting change and democratic development elsewhere in the region," Hague said.
The draft calls on Syria's president Bashar al-Assad and his government to capitulate to the demands of pro-democracy protesters, free "prisoners of conscience", lift internet restrictions and co-operate with UN human rights officials. It does not detail or threaten any UN sanctions.
"We are working to persuade other countries that the security council has a responsibility to speak out," he said. "President Assad is losing legitimacy and should reform or step aside."
Hague said an EU arms embargo, asset freeze and visa ban on 13 officials imposed against Syria last month had proved successful, but tougher measures could follow.
"We must show the same resolve and purpose in supporting change and democratic development elsewhere in the region, for example using the economic appeal of the EU to act as a magnet for positive change in the region.
"Since my last statement our efforts to agree EU sanctions against President Assad and other individuals responsible for the violence and repression in Syria have been successful. We are exploring with our European partners the potential for further sanctions if the violence continues."
Human rights groups claim that more than 1,000 people have been killed in more than three months of demonstrations in Syria.

Aoun defends MoU with Hezbollah
Now Lebanon/Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun defended the movement’s alliance with Hezbollah on Tuesday evening during an FPM event in Jbeil.
The Memorandum of Understanding with Hezbollah was considered a Maronite-Shia agreement against the Sunnis, Aoun said, adding that he reached an understanding with the Shia, in reference to Hezbollah, against Israel and not against the Sunnis. There is no longer a hierarchy of authority in the state because the constitution is not respected, he also said.
“Authority has lost all moral standards…This is what we are fighting against.” The FPM leader also criticized March 14 parties for accepting the parliament’s decision to grant amnesty to Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea in 2005 when the cabinet had already resigned. They are currently saying that a parliament session amid cabinet vacuum would be unconstitutional.
Aoun also said that US Ambassador to Lebanon Maura Connelly “visits employees, and issues threats on how the [next] cabinet should be formed.”
On events in Syria, the MP said that Syria is “targeted.”“All those who are not obedient are targeted. It is true that the party which is submissive to the US has become weak, but it is still active,” Aoun said in a possible reference to the March 14 coalition. “[We] are targeted by Israel. I do not believe that the US and Israel want democracy in the Middle east.”
Aoun added that if he were to choose between his conscious and interest, he would choose his conscious. Speaker Nabih Berri called for a parliament session on June 8 despite some parties’ apprehension of such a move amid a cabinet vacuum. Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati, who was appointed to the premiership in January with the backing of the Hezbollah-led March 8 coalition, has been working since January to form a government. Geagea was released from prison in 2005 after parliament voted for an amnesty law.
Rights groups say more than 1,100 civilians have been killed and at least 10,000 arrested in Syria since protests erupted in mid-March.
-NOW Lebanon

Syrians Turn Against Hezbollah and Iran
Posted on Tuesday, June 7, 2011
by Elliott Abrams/Council on Foreign Relations
What kind of Syria might follow the fall of the Assad regime? For many years, a significant percentage of American and Israeli military officers thought things would get worse. A new regime would be dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood, many said—including some of the highest-ranking American generals.
I have always thought this was a foolish position, given what Assad’s Syria was actually doing. How much worse could things get than a regime that was Iran’s only Arab ally, gave Iran a port on the Mediterranean and a border with Israel (through Hezbollah in Lebanon), helped Iran arm Hezbollah to the teeth, built a nuclear reactor with North Korean help, brought jihadis to Iraq to kill American soldiers, and viciously repressed the Syrian people. Moreover, the notion that the Muslim Brotherhood would rule after Assad was just that, a notion, never supported with hard evidence about their level of internal support.
The strategic argument for getting Assad out is powerful: it would be a huge defeat for Iran and Hezbollah, and indeed the greatest defeat we could administer to Iran short of ending its nuclear program. As to the argument that the successor regime may follow worse policies, recent reports suggest that in fact Syrians hate the Assad/Hezbollah/Iran alliance and will end it once he is gone. France 24 reports as follows:
“Syrian opposition protesters are not just calling for the fall of President Bashar al-Assad: they have recently begun directing their anger against his regional allies, Iran and Hezbollah. Our Observer says this is a new and unexpected turn of events.
“Videos of recent protests in Syria show demonstrators chanting slogans against Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of Iran’s Islamic revolution, as well as the Hezbollah, an Islamist political party from Lebanon with a powerful armed wing. Even more surprising has been footage of protesters burning posters of Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s secretary-general and a widely respected figure throughout the Middle East.
“Their anger is a result of Tehran’s and Hezbollah’s unwavering support for the Syrian government, even as it ruthlessly crushes its own people’s calls for more democracy.”
The alliance with Iran and Hezbollah is seen by increasing numbers of Syrians, then, as one of the characteristics of the hated Assad regime. When Syrians get the chance, they will end both the regime and that alliance. The sooner Assad falls, the better—from every moral, political, and strategic point of view.

Lebanese bank freezes Libya regime assets: reports June 07, 2011
By Dana Khraiche The Daily Star BEIRUT: Lebanon's North Africa Commercial Bank (NACB) froze an undisclosed amount of assets belonging to the Libyan regime, according to local media reports Tuesday. Speaking to The Daily Star, the bank would not deny or confirm that they carried out the measures mentioned in the reports
An Nahar newspaper said at the behest of the United Nations the Central Bank instructed NACB to freeze any assets belonging to the Libyan government, pursuant to United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1970 and 1973.
The two resolutions stipulate that member states should freeze funds, other financial assets and economic resources on their territories which are owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by the Libyan regime. “I can’t tell you whether we have [frozen accounts] or not,” Naji al-Halabi, assistant to the general manager at NACB told The Daily Star, adding that revealing such information would violate banking secrecy policy. “Whether this is true or not, there is a special investigative commission that can freeze accounts of people that might [even] have nothing to do with Libya … If there is a decision to freeze any account, we would, but that does not affect the bank,” Halabi said. The news comes a week after reports that the Lebanese-Canadian Bank froze assets of former Tunisian first lady Leila Trabolsi and some of her relatives in an apparent bid to seize cash belonging to recently deposed Arab rulers.  In the An Nahar report, the paper also said that the bank had ceased its commercial activities.  Halabi denied that the bank’s activities had been frozen since February when the first resolution was passed and ridiculed the news report by An Nahar. “We have normal operations in terms of our credits, money transfer, accounts, clients and everything else. [The news reports] is baseless,” Halabi said. Sources told An Nahar that a further investigation was under way to see whether there were any remaining accounts for the Libyan regime in banks in Lebanon.
Founded in Beirut in 1973, "North Africa Commercial Bank S.A.L" was formerly named "The Arab Libyan Tunisian Bank SAL" due to the fact that the two main shareholders were Libyan Foreign Bank-Libya and Société Tunisienne de banque - Tunisia. The bank's name was changed in December 1989 as above, after the Tunisian shares were sold to Libyan Arab Foreign Bank and to Lebanese shareholders. NACB was first established in 1973 under the name The Arab Libyan Tunisian Bank SAL when the two main shareholders were Libyan Foreign Bank-Libya and Société Tunisienne de banque - Tunisia. After the Tunisian shares were sold to Libyan Arab Foreign Bank and to Lebanese shareholders, the bank became NACB in 1989, with 99.54 percent of the shares belonging to Tripoli-based Libyan Foreign Bank, 0.45 percent to Beirut-based Demoreco Holding S.A.L and 0.01 percent to member of the board of directors. NACB has a total paid-up capital LBP 128,599,170,000, according to the NACB website and operates as a commercial bank offering retail and commercial services and products.

Bahrain's Gulf Air to resume flights to Lebanon
June 7, 2011 /Bahrain's national carrier, Gulf Air, said on Tuesday it will resume flights to Lebanon suspended in March after Lebanon's Hezbollah slammed the kingdom's crackdown on mainly Shia protesters. The carrier said flights will resume on Sunday as the peak season of travel from the desert Gulf region to Lebanon starts.
"We are delighted to be able to resume our flights to Beirut. This is great news for our customers. Beirut has always been a popular destination on our network," said Gulf Air chief executive officer Samer Majali in a statement. Bahrain's two carriers, Gulf Air and Bahrain Air, suspended flights to Iran, Iraq and Lebanon as Shia communities condemned the Sunni-ruled kingdom's crackdown on protesters demanding democratic reforms. Bahrain also accused Shia militant party Hezbollah of having links to the month-long protests that rocked the kingdom.
In addition to cancelling flights from Bahrain to Lebanon, the Gulf kingdom advised its citizens not to travel to the fellow Arab state, a popular destination for wealthy Gulf Arabs.
-AFP/NOW Lebanon

Why it’s no longer Hafez Assad’s Syria June 07, 2011
By Radwan Ziadeh The Daily Star
In a much-publicized interview with The New York Times on May 10, Rami Makhlouf, the influential cousin of Syrian President Bashar Assad, acted as the spokesperson for the Syrian regime, and for its ruling family.
He announced that the regime would fight until the end against the protests taking place throughout in the country. “We will sit here. We call it a fight until the end,” Makhlouf declared.
The regime in Damascus is facing a major crisis today, and it is behaving much in the same repressive way that the regime of the late Hafez Assad did during the 1980s, when it fought the Muslim Brotherhood. At the time Assad ran political affairs, while his brother Rifaat was in charge of leading the bloody military crackdown. Today, those roles are being played by Bashar Assad and his younger brother Maher. Similar to then, institutions such as Parliament and the Cabinet effectively have no authority, with all power concentrated in the hands of the inner circle around the president.
However, there are four differences today in Syria when compared to what happened three decades ago. These involve fundamental transformations that are preventing the same outcome as then.
First, there is the breadth and multiplication of demonstrations. The demonstrations today are not focused in one or two cities as during the 1980s. Instead, they have spread to many dozens of towns and cities throughout Syria. As a consequence, the regime’s ability to crush the discontent has grown increasingly limited.
Second, the demonstrations have been largely peaceful since they started on March 15. The protesters have carefully avoided resorting to violence, in spite of the enormous amount of violence that that has been visited on them by the army and the security forces. Indeed, according to estimates by activists, some 1,200 people are believed to have been killed in just two months of demonstrations.
Third, the role of media is very different than what it was previously. Media is one reason why we know more or less the number of casualties in the ongoing protests. In contrast, to this day we don’t have an official count for those killed in Hama in 1982, with estimates varying between 20,000 and 30,000. At the time access to information was restricted, which is no longer possible. Today, events can be documented immediately. The revolution in technology and communications, like Internet sites and social networks such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, is critical in disclosing what is going on, and in allowing protesters to communicate between themselves.
And fourth, the behavior of the international community has changed. During the 1980s the Syrian regime benefited from the protection of the Soviet Union. While the United States condemned the massacre in Hama, it was very difficult then to know precisely what had happened. And when Hafez Assad joined the coalition against Iraq in 1990, this improved Syria’s relations with Washington and other countries. Today, in contrast, global condemnation of the Assads is rising, particularly in light of the international community’s outrage with the brutality of Moammar Gadhafi’s regime in Libya.
The international community also pushed recently for an important decision by the Human Rights Council of the United Nations, which sent an international commission of inquiry to investigate human rights violations by the Syrian authorities. Until now, Damascus has refused to allow the commission to do its job.
More is needed. It is necessary for the Security Council to pass a resolution condemning the violence used by the Syrian army and security services against the demonstrators. The U.N. must impose sanctions against individuals and institutions responsible for the violent repression of the protests. These sanctions should be similar to those adopted by the European Union and the United States, and action should be taken by the Security Council to place the Syrian file before the International Criminal Court, as was done in Libya.
The four basic differences, when compared to the events in the 1980s, must convince Bashar Assad that a reliance on violence cannot succeed in the way that it did under his father. The world is a different place today. Daily, the Syrian people are becoming more powerful.
**Radwan Ziadeh is director of Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies and a visiting scholar at George Washington University. His most recent book is “Power and Policy in Syria: Intelligence Services, Foreign Relations and Democracy in the Modern Middle East” (I.B. Tauris, 2011). He wrote this commentary for THE DAILY STAR.

Hezbollah, Hamas praise ‘Naksa Day’ unrest
By OREN KESSLER/J.Post
06/07/2011 06:58
Nasrallah says protests show “the efforts of the US administration to hijack the Arab revolutions"; denounces "American hypocrisy."
Hezbollah and Hamas on Monday praised Syrian protesters’ attempts the day before to breach Israel’s border. Meanwhile, Internet organizers called for marches in Jerusalem on Tuesday, the anniversary of the day the IDF took control of the city’s eastern portion in 1967.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said demonstrators on the “occupied Syrian Golan formed a clear picture of the aims of the [Syrian] nation,” according to Al-Manar, a television channel operated by the Shi’ite group.
Speaking at a conference titled “Imam Khameini the Intellectual,” Nasrallah said the protests demonstrated “the efforts of the US administration to hijack the Arab revolutions” and denounced what he called American hypocrisy over the region’s anti-government movements.
“This event proves Washington’s commitment to Israel’s absolute security, while the same Washington speaks to us about human rights and freedoms,” he said.
Meanwhile, a man wounded during last month’s “Nakba Day” protests in south Lebanon said Hezbollah gave him $50 to march on the border and $900 to have his wounds treated by doctors, Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported on Sunday. The man said he had been planning to return to Lebanon’s border area on Sunday for “Naksa Day” rallies, but those demonstrations were ultimately canceled by Lebanese authorities. Hamas on Monday also praised the Golan border march, and called on demonstrators to continue their efforts, Israel Radio reported. The Hamas government running the Gaza Strip declared three days of mourning for those killed on Sunday.
Azzam Ahmed, a top aide to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, accused Israel of “brutality” for firing on Palestinians “who have the right to return to their homes and land.”
Meanwhile, Internet organizers are continuing efforts to bring Palestinians and their supporters to the streets on Tuesday, the end of a three-day “Naksa Day” commemoration that began on Friday and ran through Sunday. “Third Palestinian Intifada” – the website that organized much of the previous days’ rallies – featured a clock on its Facebook page counting down the days, hours, minutes and seconds until June 7 “June 7 – Day of Allegiance to Jerusalem,” the banner reads in Arabic. “Our uprising continues, and we will pray, God willing, in the mosques of Jerusalem and in its churches,” reads the underlying text. “We declare with all our strength and with our loudest voice that the seventh of June, which marks the anniversary of the rape of Jerusalem, ‘flower of all cities,’ is a day of allegiance to Jerusalem in all countries of the world.”
The page – which has amassed 379,000 followers or “likes” – features a profile picture of a map of Mandate-era Palestine with the Muslim declaration of faith superimposed and an image of the Al-Aksa Mosque. Fighter jets and naval ships converge on the area below the heading “Liberation Intifada.”
The group’s homepage calls on Palestinians in the West Bank and “in Jerusalem or the Zionist borders” to march on the city’s Al-Aksa Mosque and declare an “oath of allegiance” to Jerusalem. It remained uncertain whether the plans would come to fruition. Both Arab and left-wing activists said they were unaware of any protests planned in Jerusalem on Tuesday.
Activists had similar plans on Sunday, but marchers trying to enter Jerusalem from north of the city were turned back just meters past the Kalandiya checkpoint, and the procession quickly degenerated into skirmishes between troops and some 250 Palestinians along the Jerusalem-Ramallah highway. One police officer and 40 protesters were injured. Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said a march from Kalandiya to the capital was not likely to succeed on Tuesday or on any other day. “We have the army in front of us, and the army certainly knows how to deal with this situation,” he said on Monday. “So far, [‘Naksa’ demonstrations] haven’t caught on in Jerusalem. If they do develop here, we will do everything necessary to contain them.” **Melanie Lidman contributed to this report.

Syrian border city playing pivotal role in conflict
By Moni Basu, CNN
June 7, 2011 --CNN) -- A small city near the Turkish border has become the latest thorn in the side of Syria's regime and events there this week could become pivotal in that nation's crisis.
Jisr Al-Shugur is no stranger to uprising. It paid a price for an Islamic revolt three decades ago and has in the past few days become a bloody focus of the current conflict.
Former Syrian President Hafez al-Assad ordered the bombing of Jisr Al-Shugur in 1980 to put down an uprising. The attack was later dwarfed by the notorious massacre in the much larger city of Hama two years later. Up to 30,000 people were killed in Hama, an event so brutal that it prompted New York Times reporter Thomas Friedman to coin the phrase, "Hama Rules," meaning that in the Middle East, the only rule is there are no rules.
Now Bashar al-Assad, who took the Baathist reins of Syria after his father's death in 2000, stands ready to exhibit the same sort of brutality, say dissidents and longtime observers of Syria.
Al-Assad has vowed retaliation for the deaths of security forces in Jisr Al-Shugur. Much could depend on the loyalty of his armed forces and security apparatus. Details of what happened in Jisr Al-Shugur on a third consecutive day of violence are murky. But the videos of the dead, now on YouTube, are grisly. After the killings, residents braced for a government crackdown amid reports that the military was on the way. Human rights activist Wissam Tarif said witnesses reported tanks, helicopters and heavy weaponry.
Since Friday, Jisr Al-Shugur's people have survived without electricity, fuel and bread, Some people had already fled their homes in anticipation of the military, a resident told CNN.
Amnesty International said it has the names of 54 people reported to have been shot dead by the security forces in the town over the weekend.
CNN has not been granted permission to report from Syria and cannot independently verify reports of violence. The official account of the bloodshed was that 120 security forces members were killed. The state-run SANA news agency blamed "armed groups" wielding machine guns and hand grenades for the attacks and said residents were appealing for the army to intervene.
But Tarif and other Syrian opposition members said the government's claim is a ruse to justify a crackdown. More likely, they said, what happened was an indication of a rift within the security forces. Amr Al Azm, a Syrian dissident and associate professor at Shawnee State University in Ohio, said the dead in Jisr Al-Shugur may have been soldiers who refused to follow orders to shoot civilians. The real significance of Jisr Al-Shugur, Al Azm said, is that it shows a split within the military has the potential to widen.
"This shows stress fractures that are already there and are beginning to crack," he said. "It's very localized and it's not significant in terms of numbers yet, but if it spreads through the ranks, the regime could be in serious trouble." In Egypt and Tunisia, the militaries refused to defend the autocratic regimes. Al-Assad's survival depends on the army's continued loyalty and the effectiveness of a large internal security apparatus, according to the U.S. State Department.
The army rank-and-file is composed of conscripts but the leadership is formed largely of members of al-Assad's own Alawi sect, a minority offshoot of Shiite Islam in Sunni-dominated Syria. The Alawaite officers may have been ordered to get rid of disobedient conscripts in order to maintain control, Al Azm said. "Every time a protest breaks out, every time people chant on the streets, it is a direct blow to the government's credibility," Al Azm said. "A minority government cannot afford a war of attrition against a majority. They will lose." Radwan Ziadeh, director of the Damascus Center for Human Rights, agreed with Al Azm that the divisions within the armed forces are becoming apparent, with more soldiers -- including some officers -- refusing to open fire. He said Jisr Al-Shugur and the rest of the Idlib region, like Hama, once was a stronghold for the Muslim Brotherhood before it was crushed and banned by the regime. It's a conservative, Sunni town, which has the potential to explode in a nation with ethnic and religious divisions.
Mohamad Bazzi of the Council on Foreign Relations said that if reports of mutiny are true, al-Assad's regime will have to employ an even greater level of violence. "If you have units of military defecting, you are facing a different scale of rebellion," Bazzi said. "If this is the beginning, the turning point, this would bring ... Syria closer to a potential civil war."More than 1,000 people have been killed since the Syrian uprising erupted in March, according to the United Nations. On Friday, at least 69 people were killed in Hama when security forces fired on "Children's Friday" protests, which were called in honor of the dozens of children killed in the recent unrest. It was part of 200 such demonstrations nationwide that may have drawn the largest numbers of protesters to date. "Scores of people were killed in Syria over the weekend after demonstrations involving tens of thousands of people," British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Tuesday. "There have been reports overnight that a number of security force personnel have been killed in the town of Jisr Al-Shugur close to the Turkish border, and we call for restraint from all sides in response to this incident," he said. Despite those calls, Al Azm said he fears more blood will spill on the streets of Jisr Al-Shugur and other Syrian cities.
One thing has become clear, he said: "The genie is not going to go back into the bottle."

Why YouTube Took Down U.S. Torture Video Right After Restoring One About Syria
Jun. 7 2011
By CRAIG SILVER
http://blogs.forbes.com/craigsilver/2011/06/07/why-youtube-took-down-u-s-torture-video-right-after-it-restored-one-about-syria/
[Bulletin: Soon after I posted the following column, I received word from YouTube that upon review it had restored the video in question about U.S. torture. In explaining why it had been taken down, the YouTube spokesperson said “sometimes we make the wrong call” and pointed to the sheer volume of material they must review. I was told that the video had been flagged by a viewer, which precipitated the removal. I thank and commend YouTube for its quick response.]
You may have seen the news story about YouTube restoring to its site a video showing the brutalized body of a 13-year-old Syrian boy who was tortured and killed by Syrian security forces. YouTube had originally removed the video from its site but put it back at the behest of human rights activists.
Strangely, only a day or two after restoring the Syrian video, YouTube suppressed my anti-torture video, which was a protest song I’d written called “In The Torture Room” accompanied with a visual montage showing victims of American torture at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The video was first posted on YouTube in 2008—it had gotten over 35,500 views, not a small number as these things go. The viewership had more than doubled recently. Why after two and a half years did YouTube suddenly determine that it was “in violation of YouTube community standards”?
It’s utterly inconsistent and leaves YouTube open to charges of being politically biased, hypocritical and antithetical to free expression. One can’t argue that such a video is no longer relevant, that the Abu Ghraib torture incidents are “yesterday’s news”: The very Bush Administration officials who had helped implement and later defend U.S. torture policy have been all over the media since the death of Osama bin Laden in May, self-servingly claiming that torture was crucial in locating the world’s number one terrorist mastermind.
That claim was instantly disputed by the CIA and others in the government such as Republican Senator John McCain. But with U.S. torture policy again in the news, it becomes all the more suspicious that a video like mine was suppressed. Why now, YouTube?
I do not in any way mean to place my video on the level of importance as the video made by the grieving father of the 13-year-old Syrian boy. The father has since disappeared himself—possibly arrested, tortured and murdered by the fiends of the Syrian government. His video has already become historic—sparking renewed protests against the Syrian regime. This is an instance of a video—and the use of a social networking tool—with the power to shake the world. It shows that YouTube is vitally important for political expression and must not and cannot play favorites, play dumb or play censor in regards to political speech.
In explaining why the Syrian video was restored after originally being removed for, like my video, “violating community standards,” Olivia Ma, YouTube’s Manager of News, told Beet.TV, as quoted by the Washington Post:
“Normally, this type of violence would actually violate our community guidelines and our terms of service and we would remove them. But we have a clause in our community guidelines that makes an exception for videos that are educational, documentary or scientific in nature…. In these cases, we actually make an exception and say we understand that these videos have real news value.”
I happen to agree that images of violence should not be presented without what YouTube calls, in official guidelines, “context.” But I demand that YouTube live up to its own policy and take the time to distinguish between a sincere political statement as my video is and videos presumably designed for perverse amusement. The policy’s exact wording is:
“If a video is particularly graphic or disturbing, it should be balanced with additional context and information.”
The words to my song did create a context for the images that accompanied it—it’s sung from the point of view of an innocent person of no particular nationality, age or gender who has been taken to secret cell to be beaten, electrically shocked, hung upside down and otherwise abused, exactly as those in Abu Ghraib had been. Innocent or not, the prisoners in Abu Ghraib and elsewhere were not treated in accordance with the Geneva Conventions, let alone by America’s purported standards of justice and decency. The revelations about U.S. torture has made it all the more difficult for the U.S. to demand human rights be honored in China, the Middle East or anywhere else in the world they’re routinely violated.
The comments section of my video showed that viewers responded to the political issue of torture, were not gratuitously looking at violence for titillation and entertainment. The pictures in my video, with one exception, were actually mild compared with more grisly pictures available. All had been released in the news media around the time of the original revelations about Abu Ghraib. One (shown at the top of this page) was merely a stock illustration.
I’ve been writing topical songs for over 25 years, in, Billboard magazine once said, “the best Phil Ochs tradition.” I don’t believe my lyrics unintentionally or naively played on people’s baser instincts. They were meant to empathetically cast the listener in the position of a torture victim.
With U.S. torture practice again in the news, my video offers a valid and serious-minded input into the political discussion. YouTube has absolutely no excuse for removing it. I demand that it immediately be restored.
My song can be heard—sans video imagery—by clicking here.
[After being removed for a week, the video in question, "In The Torture Room," can now be seen on YouTube. Here is the site's official statement about the matter: "With the massive volume of videos on our site, sometimes we make the wrong call. When it's brought to our attention that a video has been removed mistakenly, we act quickly to reinstate it." ]

Did Syria's ambassador to France just quit?
If she did, it could spell trouble for President Bashir al-Assad.
By Dan Murphy, Staff writer / June 7, 2011
Christian Science Monitor
Syria's Ambassador to France Lamia Chakkour apparently resigned in an interview with France 24 today to protest the widening and brutal crackdown against democracy protesters.
To be sure, Syria immediately denied that Ms. Chakkour resigned, and released an audio tape of its own that it claimed was Ms. Chakkour promising to sue France 24. An editor at France 24 told the Associated Press the network had reached Chakkour on a phone number they had used for her in the past.
Since protests erupted on March 18, at least 1,000 Syrian demonstrators, inspired by the examples of Egypt and Tunisia, have been killed by regime security forces. Last week, a 13-year-old boy was tortured to death in police custody. The Baathist state, led by Bashar al-Assad, has followed the failed Egyptian and Tunisian playbook of shutting down the Internet and cell phones.
If Chakkour did indeed resign, she is following an example of her own: That of the Libyan diplomats who abandoned Muammar Qaddafi in February, as his security forces started to shoot growing numbers of unarmed democracy protesters.
"I can no longer continue to support the cycle of extreme violence against unarmed civilians. I can no longer ignore all those young men, women, and children who have died," she told France 24 in a phone interview, speaking in English. "I recognize the legitimacy of the people's demands for more democracy and freedom ... in the face of these protests, the government response has been wrong."
Whether Chakkour's apparent resignation ends up being an outlier, or a moment when major cracks in the regime first burst into the open, is hard to say. After hundreds of democracy protesters were killed by Qaddafi's forces in mid-February, a slew of ambassadors resigned globally, weakening that regime diplomatically but not stopping Libya's descent into civil war.
What's certain is that her decision comes after weeks of horrific reports trickling out of Syria that probably have lots of Syrian officials asking themselves how much violence they're willing to be associated with. Earlier today, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said that Assad was no longer the legitimate ruler of Syria, and that's a position an increasing number of Syrians seem to be taking.
There have been worrying signs that the democracy protesters are arming up and the country is lurching towards a civil war of its own. In Lebanon, there are rumors of arms starting to flow to Assad's opponents. The Syrian government's own propaganda machine claims security forces have come under unprovoked attack by demonstrators.
The Monitor doesn't have anyone on the ground in Syria at the moment, but judging by the videos and eyewitness reports that continue to trickle out of the country, I believe most deaths have been at the government's hands. But it's also clear that the opponents of the Assad regime are being pushed hard, and a greater measure of violence in response to the government's behavior seems likely.
In an ominous move, the government moved tanks into the city of Hama last weekend. Hama is the canonic example of how the Assads (Bashar, succeeded his father Hafez upon his death in 2000, after 29 years of rule) deals with challenges to their authority. In 1982, Hama was gripped by an Islamist uprising. After fierce fighting, forces led by Hafez's brother Rifaat one back the town, and carried out mass executions of regime opponents after their victory. Human Rights Watch says the most credible estimates of those killed at Hama range between 5,000 and 10,000.
What comes next for the international community is hard to say. Syria is a much more complicated place than Libya, particularly given its proximity to Israel and conflicts with that country. The Assad family and some of their supporters are Alawites, a small sect far outside of the mainstream that would be unlikely to ever gain power again under a more democratic system. And the country's flirtations with Iran and ties to both Hamas and Hezbollah would make any sort of international involvement a much more complicated question.

Iranian subs to the Red Sea – a riposte to UN nuclear watchdog's indictment
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
June 7, 2011,
The deployment of Iranian "military submarines" in the Red Sea, announced Tuesday June 7, was Tehran's response to the latest International Atomic Energy Agency's report accusing Iran of nuclear work with "possible military purposes." It was also a pointed comment on the controversy in Israel over whether or not to go for the military option. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad then delivered his most uncompromising statement yet on Iran's nuclear program, calling it "a train with no brakes or reverse gear."
Iran claimed its submarines had long-range capabilities without specifying how many or what types had been sent to the Red Sea. Our Western military sources estimate that two vessels of the Qaem type defined as "semi-heavy." Information about this submarine is sparse in the West: It is thought to be a multi-task 1,000-ton submarine capable of firing missiles from deep water with room for naval commando units trained to raid strategic targets.
Shortly after Tehran's submarine announcement, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called a news conference in which he presented Iran's nuclear case in exceptionally categorical and inflexible terms. After dismissing the UN watchdog's report as "lacking legal credibility," he declared: "The nuclear issue is like a train which has no brakes and no reverse gear, which means there will be no compromise."
IAEA chief Yukiya Amano also criticized Iran Monday, June 6, for not cooperating with international nuclear experts at the start of a weeklong board meeting in Vienna.
This too was Tehran's reply the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, whose key findings were published by debkafile on June 3: "By April 2011, Iran had accumulated a quantity of U-235 that can be enriched in short order to sufficient 90 percent (weapons grade) uranium for producing four nuclear bombs, steadily stockpiling the material in secret from 2008."
According to our Iranian sources, the Iranians felt bound to respond to the information that the Israeli Navy has taken delivery - or will shortly – of two new Dolphin submarines armed according to foreign sources with nuclear missiles. The arrivals will expand Israel's nuclear-capable sub fleet to five - or a 66 increase.
Ahmadinejad's hardnosed comments were aimed too at Washington, where German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Barack Obama held talks inter alia on the nuclear issue and agreed to pile more sanctions on the Islamic Republic if it continued to forge ahead with its nuclear weapons program.
Israel's Dolphin subs are manufactured in German shipyards. The chancellor agreed to speed up delivery of the last two Israel commissioned and made the gesture of easy terms of payment, despite the economic crisis besetting Europe.
The way Tehran announced the Red Sea deployment of its submarines indicated an intention to push the radius of its defense lines farther from home waters in the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea in case of military attack on its nuclear program.
debkafile's military sources reckon that Iran will next send the submarines through the Suez Canal up to Syria's naval base of Latakia on the Mediterranean.
Five months ago, Iran sent two warships, one of them bearing missiles for its Lebanese proxy Hizballah, along the same route to the same destination. The Egyptian military junta permitted the warships to pass through Suez just a week after Hosni Mubarak was ousted as president, signaling clearly that Cairo was turning a new leaf in relations with Tehran and its Palestinian ally, Hamas, after years of animosity with Mubarak's Egypt.
Six days after those first warships docked in Syria, on Feb. 26, Moscow agreed to sell Syria advanced Yakhont SS-N-26 sea missiles. Every Israeli effort, backed by Washington, to discourage the Russians from letting Syria have those weapons was rebuffed. They may well arrive in Syria at the same time as the Iranian subs.
The interconnection of these steps was underscored two days later, on Feb. 28, when the commander of the Iranian Navy, Adm. Habibollah Sayyari, arrived in Latakia, inspected a guard of honor and declared that Iran had acquired its first Mediterranean base.
Neither the United States nor Israel reacted to these strategic milestones. The second round of Iranian warships, the submarines, heading through the Suez Canal to Syria, may also go without response

Heikal: A witness who saw nothing
07/06/2011
By Dr. Amal Al-Hazzani
AsharqAlawsat
Those who chose to champion the Egyptian revolution, and bore the slogans of impartiality, transparency and justice, should abide by them and not hesitate to implement them. Yet everyone must equally adhere to such principles so that their sins are weighed with the same balance, otherwise the revolution will only serve to enact personal revenge, rather than adopting the inspiring rhetoric written on the banners.
If those who seek change in Egypt wish to have a country based on impartial law, then they should test themselves using the same legal standards with which Mubarak's family and associates have been prosecuted, in order to call to account those have who emerged after the revolution, whether beneficiaries, intruders or propagandists.
Mohamed Hasanain Heikal has narrated precise details about modern Arab history, offering as evidence either witnesses who have died, or documents which he claims to be in his possession of and offers to present in public, something which we are sure will never happen. Recently, during the commotion surrounding the Egyptian revolution, Heikal raised his voice narrating his usual tales, but this time about the Egyptian President's wealth, citing specific figures.
In the developed world, there are two reasons to make us more cautious when speaking of people's honor, integrity or personal secrets; the fear of law and a moral obligation.
The first issue [the fear of the law] is imposed as part of the state's discipline, whereas the second issue of moral restraint is a personal stance that serves as a deterrent to make an individual refrain from falsely claiming to know the absolute truth. According to the mantra of "always has been, always will be", Heikal, for decades and with full confidence, has been accustomed to telling stories drawn from unknown sources, so the audience or listeners do not ask him for evidence to support his claims. Hence, over time and by means of repetition, and because Heikal always met the expectations of his audiences, his stories gained credibility. Therefore, he could easily dare to tarnish the history of an individual, through his stories, without fearing accountability.
The head of the Illicit Gains Authority has recently summoned Heikal to present the documents which he claims to be in his possession of, through which he specified the exact wealth of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. This step confirmed that this apparatus, whose duty it is to fight corruption, is fully aware of the sensitive nature of its work, as well as the fact that there is no room for personal interpretation when it comes to investigations. Most importantly, the apparatus has not allowed Heikal to alter his facts whilst the investigation is still in process, and thus it summoned him, not to punish him, but to silence him and indirectly draw his attention to the fact that the situation now is different, and that the irresponsible freedom he used to enjoy in the time of the former regime is now over. This is simply because head of the Illicit Gains Authority, Essem al-Jourahi, is aware that Heikal's documents have no existence in reality.
When asked during the investigation, Heikal denied knowledge of the size of Mubarak's wealth, pointing out that his frame of reference was the foreign press. By saying so, Heikal acted as if we cannot read foreign newspapers, and needed help to archive them.
Yet, a significant question is now raised: Have foreign newspapers really been the source of information for Heikal's stories over the past 40 years, most prominently his documentation of the Naksa?
After investigations were completed, some observers of Egyptian affairs were unsatisfied, claiming Heikal had evaded punishment for making a false claim, a charge for which he must be penalized by the law. They believed that the punishment would be a deterrent for him as well as well as others. This is correct, yet I think that such an embarrassing public dismantling of Heikal's image is more impressive than any punishment, for this will prevent him from selling his false stories on which he has built his name. The duty of any anti-corruption apparatus in the world is to ask: Where did you get this from? Even if the word "this" relates to mere words, not palaces, yachts or bank accounts. A word is like a bullet in terms of its speed and impact.

Syria’s Kurds and the uprising
Ana Maria Luca, June 7, 2011
Now Lebanon
When the Syrians took to the streets following the Tunisian, Egyptian and Libyan uprisings – asking at first for reforms and then for the fall of the Assad regime, which ruled Syria with an iron fist for four decades – the Kurds did not join in.
While the Kurds rebelled against the regime in 2004 in Qamishli, few Syrians joined them, and their revolt was crushed by the authorities. At least 30 people were killed and another 100 wounded in the crackdown.
“It is true that [in 2004] not only did the Arabs not support the Kurdish uprising, but some of them cooperated in the suppression of the Kurdish people by the regime, and in destroying their aspirations for freedom. What happened at that time led to the rift between the Kurdish and Arab communities, and this naturally led to a lack of confidence between the two peoples because of the circumstances in the region,” Kurdish rights activist Khalaf Dahowd told NOW Lebanon in an email exchange.
“At first they were afraid, especially after what happened in 2004, when none of the Arab Syrians cared about what happened to the Kurds,” an activist from the Berlin-based rights watch KurdWatch told NOW Lebanon. “They thought. ‘Why should we go and demonstrate in solidarity with them?’ That was in the beginning.” She said that Kurdish political parties preferred to wait and see if the movement was strong enough to have a chance of bringing down the regime, because they didn’t want to be victims again.
“If Kurdish political parties would choose to mobilize for this uprising, I think more crowds would take to the streets,” said the activist, who preferred not to be named.
But while their political leaders have been relatively silent since the start of the protests, tens of thousands of Kurds have taken to the streets in the northeastern towns of Qamishli, Amudah and Darbasiyah, while hundreds of Kurdish activists from around Syria were arrested for participating in demonstrations.
But for the Kurds, there is more to the Syrian uprising than political rights.
“There is intense popular support among Kurds for the Syrian uprising, as issues of freedom and dignity are a matter of principle for us, and they define us all,” Dahowd said.
There are around 400,000 Kurds in Syria, making up around 10 percent of the population. About half of them are known as ajanib, or foreigners, and they have special ID cards and limited rights. The others are called maktoum, meaning people with no country, and have no proper IDs. Since 1963, when the ruling Baath party came into power, the Syrian authorities have refused to allow Kurds to register their children with Kurdish names, the Kurdish language has been forbidden in schools, Kurdish holidays and political parties have been banned, and shopkeepers have been threatened with closure if they display Kurdish signs in their stores.
On April 7, at the beginning of the uprising, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the most influential Kurdish party in Syria, released a formal statement calling for Kurds and Kurdish parties to join the demonstrations, asking for "democratic Syria and democratic self-management for Western Kurdistan."
When the protests began to spread, “Bashar al-Assad decided to restore citizenship to ajanib Kurds, but not to maktoum. This leaves perhaps 200,000 people without citizenship, if in fact the ajanib people are given the citizenship they have been promised,” Dahowd said.
But although dozens of Kurds have been arrested and tortured for participating in the protests, and some Kurdish soldiers were shot in Daraa because they refused to kill demonstrators, activists say that the Syrian regime’s crackdown in Qamishli and Amudah hasn’t been as fierce as in the rest of the country because the full participation of the Kurdish minority in the uprising might reduce the regime’s chances of survival. The KurdWatch activist said the Syrian regime is seemingly trying to prevent the Kurds from taking to the streets.
“Simply, the Syrian authorities do not want to open another arena of fighting, and would prefer to avoid provoking us. They want a quiet northern front, and have previous experience with us in this regard. They know very well that if they take on the Kurds, the whole Kurdish community will rise up, and we have a presence in the capital Damascus, in Aleppo, Syria's major cities,” Dahowd said

Erdogan: Turkey will not 'close its doors' to Syrian refugees
By Reuters /Turkey will not "close its doors" to refugees fleeing unrest in Syria, Prime Minister Tayyip
Erdogan said on Wednesday after reports of more than 120 Syrians who crossed the border overnight. Erdogan said Ankara was monitoring developments in Syria with concern and called on Damascus to show more tolerance towards its citizens after latest clashes in northwest Syria by the border with Turkey. Syrians have fled the town of Jisr al-Shughour fearing bloodshed as troops with tanks approached, under orders to hit back after the government accused armed bands there of killing scores of security men. "We are monitoring developments in Syria with concern," Erdogan told a news conference ahead of a June 12 parliamentary election which his AK Party is expected to win comfortably."Syria should change its attitude towards civilians and should take its attitude to a more tolerant level as soon as possible." "It is out of the question for Turkey to close its doors to refugees coming from Syria," he added. A total 122 Syrians, including women and children, entered Turkey overnight and were being housed in tents set up by the Red Crescent in the Yayladagi district of southern Turkey's
Hatay province, state-run Anatolian news agency reported. A Turkish foreign ministry official said around 420 people have crossed the border from Syria since the bloody protests started there in March.
Turkish television pictures showed wounded people being taken to hospitals in southern Turkey. Accounts of killing in Jisr al-Shughour range from an official version of gunmen ambushing troops to residents' reports of an army mutiny. It has triggered international alarm that violence may enter a new and bloodier phase after three months of popular unrest that has left over 1,000 dead. Turkey has built strong ties with Syria in recent years and has been exerting growing pressure on Syrian President Bashar Assad, with Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu calling on him to introduce "shock therapy" reforms to end the trouble. Last month, Erdogan said Syrian issues were almost a domestic policy issue for Turkey. But for all Turkey's efforts to persuade Assad to pursue reform the violence in Syria has escalated.

Legislative session collapses, Berri blames March 14
June 08, 2011 10:54
By Rima Aboulmona The Daily Star BEIRUT: A legislative session to discuss urgent issues collapsed Wednesday because of lack of quorum, blamed by Speaker Nabih Berri on the rival March 14 camp. “At a time when democracy is blossoming in the Arab world which has recently culminated with a reform decision by Syria and a Saudi Shura Council measure allowing women to vote [in future municipal elections], we believe that the Cedar Revolution … insists on monopolizing power and tries to foil the parliamentary initiative,” Berri told a news conference after the failure to convene the meeting. Berri adjourned the meeting until 10:00 a.m. local time next Wednesday. Lawmakers trickled into the Parliament building Wednesday before the legislative session, which was called for by Berri in order to discuss pressing matters. There were insufficient MPs for a quorum as only 55 of Parliament’s 128-member showing up. A quorum requires the presence of half of the legislature, plus one, or 65 MPs.  The Hezbollah-led March 8 alliance has 58 lawmakers. Had the seven MPs in Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt’s bloc been in attendance, a quorum would have been achieved. Despite the absence of the MPs from his bloc, Jumblatt, whose attendance had been in doubt beforehand, was among politicians to arrive at Parliament building in Nijmeh Square, Downtown Beirut. He joined a private meeting that was already under way at Berri’s office with Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati, Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun and Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh. The widening row over the legality of the Parliament session, which developed into a political tug-of-war between the rival political camps - March 8 and March 14 - comes as Cabinet formation efforts have been blocked by last-minute snags over the distribution of portfolios in a 30-member draft government.
Berri called for Wednesday’s session to discuss, among other things, the renewal of Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh’s mandate which expires at the end of July. Salameh enjoys both parties’ support for a new six-year mandate. However, Berri’s call triggered a war of words between March 8 and March 14 over the legality of convening Parliament to address vital issues in the absence of a functioning government. Each side has accused the other of exceeding its prerogatives

Bahrain to resume flights to Lebanon
June 08, 2011
By Dana Khraiche The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Gulf Air and Bahrain Air announced they will resume their flights between Bahrain and Lebanon later in June, following a two-month suspension.  “The situation is back to normal,” Amale al-Choueiry, sales manager at Gulf Air’s Beirut offices, told The Daily Star Wednesday, adding that flights will resume June 12. A press release issued by Gulf Air said the airline will restart its daily flight to Beirut and increase the frequency in response to passenger demand. Suzanne Rajabian, manager at Bahrain Air, said the company’s first flight to Beirut will be on June 22. The announcements came after Bahrain on June 1 lifted its emergency law – imposed in mid-March to quell a wave of anti-government protest – after leading opposition figures went on trial in May for plotting against the Gulf state’s monarchy. On March 22, Gulf Air and Bahraini Air, Bahrain's local airlines, suspended flights between Bahrain and Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport after Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah criticized Bahrain’s monarchy for bringing in troops from neighboring Gulf countries to help put down Shiite-led protests there. A statement released by Bahrain’s Foreign Ministry said Nasrallah’s verbal “assault against Bahrain and its people” was aimed at serving foreign interests, a reference to Iran, the party’s major ally.

Lebanon's Arabic press digest
June 8, 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.
An-Nahar: New majority is minority … Sleiman, Hariri agree on extraordinary Cabinet session
Was Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri’s call for a general legislative session at Parliament aimed, intentionally or unintentionally, at dispersing the new majority (Hebzollah-led March 8 political camp)?
Whatever answers Berri is going to offer Wednesday at a press conference to be held in Nijmeh Square after failure to provide a quorum for the parliamentary session, the result is that the new majority has become a minority as created by parliamentary elections in 2009.
An-Nahar has learned that a proposal by both President Michel Sleiman and caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri to hold an extraordinary Cabinet meeting to renew Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh’s mandate which expires in July is being developed.
As-Safir: New majority stands test of legislative session quorum … meeting dependent on Jumblatt
A legislative session scheduled for Wednesday has partially shifted attention from the government formation process amid Berri’s insistence to hold the parliamentary meeting and commitment by the March 14 political camp to reject participation. While Jumblatt, once again through his parliamentary bloc votes, is expected to tip the balance which would determine the fate of the session.
While Jumblatt could not be contacted for comment, speculations varied with some suggesting he would abstain from attending Wednesday’s session to avoid fueling tension and the rift in the country. Other sources predicted he would take part in the meeting to secure a quorum thus allowing the extension of Salameh’s mandate.
Al-Mustaqbal: Aoun “forms” government, wants Sleiman, Mikati to sign it
Between a Parliament that functions depending on Berri’s time parameter and government formation, the March 8 camp goes into the unknown.
While March 8 does not seem to have kept room for wisdom or logic, Berri goes ahead with a parliamentary session Wednesday without a quorum to increase the rift and carry out an unprecedented measure by violating the Constitution and principle of coexistence.
Al-Mustaqbal has learned that Mikati received new demands from Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun – demands that he wants both the Energy and Telecoms ministries and the reappointment of caretaker ministers Jibran Bassil and Charbel Nahhas. Aoun also demanded that he get all the Christian ministries, in addition to vetoing the possibility that Sleiman picks his own ministers from the Jbeil-Kesrouan district.
Political sources said Aoun’s move was tantamount to a “Cabinet lineup ready for Sleiman and Mikati’s approval.”
Ad-Diyar: Mikati sources: What remains for the president and the prime minister if Aoun presents Cabinet lineup?
Berri reiterated his position in remarks to Ad-Diyar that he is going ahead with Wednesday’s legislative session.
In response to a question, Berri denied there was a compromise to the controversial legislative meeting.
On the government formation process, each side remained steadfast and unflinching on its position.
Sources close to the prime minister-designate told Ad-Diyar that Aoun wants to put the ball in Mikati’s court. “What will be left for the president and the prime minister if Aoun draws up a Cabinet lineup?” asked the source.
Al-Akhbar: Aoun: Mikati does not want to form a government
A legislative session will convene Wednesday upon Berri’s request, but securing a quorum will be difficult. And if a quorum was secured, it would be a unbalanced, sectarian quorum that will force Berri to adjourn the meeting.
On the Cabinet formation process, Al-Akhbar learned from the Change and Reform bloc that Aoun told his bloc during Tuesday’s meeting that Mikati does not want to form a government.
Al-Joumhouria: Lack of quorum to cancel today’s legislative session
Parliamentary sources told Al-Joumhouria that Berri will call another legislative meeting for June 15 or June 22 and so on in the wake of failure to secure a quorum.

Mikati: Meeting with Aoun icebreaker
June 08, 2011
By Rima Aboulmona
The Daily Star BEIRUT: Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati said a meeting with Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun Wednesday has broken the ice on the stalled Cabinet formation and said he would take speedy measures to form the new government. “The meeting with Gen. Aoun broke the ice,” Mikati told reporters from Parliament building.
“Parliament is home for the entire Lebanese … and I saw it was my duty under the current circumstances and political alignments to plead with the House Speaker to keep Parliament a place to embrace everyone,” Mikati said after a legislative session scheduled for Wednesday collapsed over lack of quorum.
Mikati said that during his visit to Parliament he held private talks with Aoun at one of Parliament’s offices during which the two men reached an understanding on the “next steps” to facilitate the task of the prime minister-designate. Mikati was appointed on Jan. 25 by the Hezbollah led-March 8 alliance to form a new Cabinet, after March 8 ministers resigned from Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s Cabinet, forcing its collapse. Mikati began a new round of consultations this week in an attempt to break the four-month stalemate. But chances were reportedly slim given the differences between Mikati and Aoun over the distribution of portfolios in a 30-member Cabinet makeup.
Last-minute snags over some portfolios have dealt a setback to Cabinet formation efforts. Among the snags is Aoun’s demand that his son-in-law, caretaker Energy Minister Jibran Bassil and caretaker Telecommunications Minister Charbel Nahhas retain their posts. Mikati was reported to have put a veto on Nahhas and also wanted to trade the Education Ministry, currently held by a Sunni, for the Energy Ministry. Another stumbling block was Aoun’s insistence that the candidate for the second Maronite minister, part of Sleiman’s share, should not be from Jbeil or the Christian heartland of Kesrouan for electoral reasons.

Heavy fighting heard in Syrian border town
June 08, 2011 /The Daily Star
Syrian army soldiers stand on their vehicle as they reinforce the village of Arida near the Lebanon-Syria border May 19, 2011.
BEIRUT: Heavy fighting was heard around the Syrian village of Arida near the border with Lebanon Wednesday, a Lebanese security source said.
The source told The Daily Star that crackling gunfire and shelling from tanks echoed through Arida near the Lebanon-Syria border at dawn Wednesday.
Pillars of smoke billowed over the village, the source added. The body of a Syrian soldier shot in the back was found and retrieved from the al-Kabir River along the Lebanon-Syria border. The source said the body was taken to Salam Hospital in Zghorta, north Lebanon. Another Syrian soldier, also with gunshot wounds to his back, made it into Lebanon. He was taken to Rahhal Hospital in the north Lebanon region of Akkar. Syria has banned foreign journalists and prevented coverage of the conflict, making it nearly impossible to independently verify accounts coming out of the country or to gauge the strength of the unprecedented protest movement in one of the most authoritarian regimes in the Middle East.

Resignation claim a hoax: Syria's France envoy
June 08, 2011
Agence France Press
PARIS: Syria's ambassador to France denied Wednesday she was resigning in protest at her government's crackdown on dissent, saying a broadcast of the announcement by a woman claiming to be her was a hoax. Lamia Shakkur appeared on France's BFM television to set the record straight after another channel, France 24, broadcast a telephone interview with a woman posing as her who said she was quitting in protest at the "cycle of violence".  "I accuse France 24 of identity fraud," Shakkur said, appearing on BFM on Wednesday in the Syrian embassy in Paris, in front of a Syrian flag and a portrait of its President Bashar al-Assad. "I will bring a complaint to convict France 24 for these acts of misinformation, which are part of a campaign of false information against Syria since March 2011," she added. The woman who spoke on France 24 on Tuesday said she had offered her resignation to Assad because "I cannot support the cycle of violence."  "I recognise the legitimacy of the people's demands for more democracy and freedom," she added.
France 24 raised the alert over a suspected hoax hours after broadcasting the comments.  "We do not rule out a manipulation or a provocation," it said in a statement. "If that is the case, we will sue any persons, organisations or official agencies that may be behind it." More than 1,100 civilians, including dozens of children, have been killed in a security crackdown against anti-government protests that erupted in Syria in March.
Western powers are putting together a draft UN Security Council resolution condemning the crackdown.

Syrian town awaits attack as pressure piles on Assad
08/06/2011
DAMASCUS (AFP) – A Syrian town braced for a military assault as international pressure piled on President Bashar al-Assad's regime amid reports his envoy to France had quit in solidarity with protesters.Dissidents warned of a harsh backlash as troops headed for the northwest town of Jisr al-Shughur after the authorities said 120 policemen had been massacred there by "armed gangs."The Syrian Revolution 2011, a Facebook group spurring anti-regime protests, appealed to the army to protect civilians against regime agents.
"Thirteen military vehicles are heading to Jisr al-Shughur," where the alleged massacre took place and which has been the focus of military operations since Saturday, an activist in the town told AFP by telephone.
State television said on Monday the policemen were killed by "armed gangs" who were "committing a real massacre," had "mutilated bodies and thrown others into the Assi river," and burnt public buildings.
It said a total of 120 police were killed, including 80 at Jisr al-Shughur's security headquarters, without specifying when.
But two activists who spoke by telephone to AFP in Nicosia spoke of a mutiny at a local security headquarters on Monday, where shooting was heard the day before.
A statement on Facebook -- signed "residents of Jisr al-Shughur" -- also said "the deaths among soldiers and police were the consequence of defections in the army" and denied state media claims of armed gangs in their region.
Syria's Al-Watan newspaper said a "security operation" will be launched in Jisr al-Shughur after Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim al-Shaar warned that the authorities would hit back.
"The state will act firmly, with force and in line with the law. It will not stay arms folded in the face of armed attacks on the security of the homeland," Shaar said on Monday.
The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria, in a statement issued in London, said that opposition to Assad was peaceful, and accused his regime of looking for a pretext to justify more repression and murders.
"We assure international, Arab and national opinion that the Syrian revolution is both peaceful and countrywide," Brotherhood spokesman Zuheir Salem said.
"Comments by the interior minister about the presence of armed groups terrorising the population of Jisr al-Shughur are a pretext to justify greater repression and murders of innocent citizens," he said.
"The only murderers on Syrian soil are the gangs of the security services."
Jisr al-Shughur was a stronghold of the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1980s and borders Turkey.
Foreign journalists are barred from travelling around Syria, making it difficult to report on the unrest and verify government and witness accounts of the violence.
Assad has responded to the opposition movement by lifting emergency laws, creating a commission on political parties and granting a general amnesty, but security forces continue to pound protest hubs.
"Our revolution is peaceful, we want freedom, dignity and life. We do not endorse any foreign party or organisation," the Syrian Revolution 2011 Facebook group wrote.
"We do not call to battle and refuse to bear arms against our brothers in the Syrian army. We call on them to protect us and defend us against the shootings by agents" of the regime.
Syria's opposition movement keeps swelling despite the regime's repressive measures which have left more than 1,100 people dead, according to rights groups, and sparked worldwide condemnation and sanctions against key regime figures, including Assad.
Western powers are cranking up moves for a UN Security Council vote condemning Syria's crackdown, despite strong opposition from Russia and China.
France, Britain and the United States are considering pressing for a vote by the 15-member Security Council on a resolution that could embarrass Russia and China by forcing them into a veto. "The repression is getting worse, the massacres are on the rise. It is inconceivable that the United Nations remains silent about such a situation," French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said at UN headquarters on Tuesday. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia opposed the idea of a UN Security Council vote.
"The Security Council and the international community have already gotten entangled in the Libyan situation," Lavrov told reporters in Oslo.
"As for examining the Syrian situation at the Security Council, we think the work should have as a goal to solve problems by political means and not to create the conditions for another armed conflict," he said, according to the Itar-Tass news agency. In Paris, Syrian ambassador Lamia Shakkour resigned, saying she recognised "the legitimacy of the people's demands," in a statement to France 24 television. "I cannot support the cycle of violence... ignore that demonstrators have died, that families live in pain," Shakkour said.
"I've informed the private secretary of President Bashar al-Assad of my intention to resign," she said. "I recognise the legitimacy of the people's demands for more democracy and freedom."
However, Syrian state television broadcast a denial by a woman it said was Shakkour speaking by telephone from Paris.
The caller threatened to sue France 24, and said the resignation story was part of a disinformation campaign against Syria.
The website of Dubai-based Al-Arabiya also said Shakkour had contacted the channel to deny she had quit. "In a call to Al-Arabiya, an angry Shakkour said she had not spoken to any station and said she would sue the French channel," Al-Arabiya said.

The Palestinians: The single currency for crises
08/06/2011
By Tariq Alhomayed/Asharq Al-Awsat
Lately, many people came out to say "no to Palestinians being exploited in the crises of some Arab regimes." This was after demonstrations broke out at the Yarmouk Palestinian Refugee Camp in Syria in protest at the Syrian regime sending Palestinian youth to the occupied Golan Heights, which led to them being killed at the hands of the Israeli army.
The reality of the situation in our region is that the Palestinians have become akin to a single currency being used by some Arab regimes – as well as Iran, of course – when facing a crisis. Whenever these regimes find themselves facing crises they settle their internal and external bills, either by sacrificing Palestinians, or by writing a check, or in other words exploiting the Palestinian cause!
The question here is: why did the Syrian regime send Palestinians to the occupied Golan Heights, whether this is to mark the anniversary of the occupation of the Golan Heights, the Naksa [annual Palestinian commemoration for Israel's victory in the 1967 Six Day war], or whatever other reason, without sending any Syrian citizens as well? Indeed, how could Damascus send Palestinians to the occupied Golan Heights when Hamas itself banned Palestinians in the Gaza Strip from taking part [in the commemoration] and traveling to the borders with Israel? Why should it be the Palestinians who are placed under threat and used to settle the bills of some Arab regimes that are trading with the Palestinian cause, most notably Syria? Syria is not alone in this of course, for Saddam Hussein also previously followed this same policy in order to justify the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, as well as to justify his clinging to power and the suppression of his people. This is something that the Iranian regime has also done, and continues to do every day, in order to justify its interference in Arab affairs; and this is this same Iranian regime that has never fired a single bullet in defense of Palestine. Indeed the Palestinians have not forgotten the day that the Iranian Supreme Guide advised the Iranian people not to intervene in Israel's last war against Gaza! Others who utilize this single currency for all crises – the Palestinians – include Hezbollah, and this is something that Hezbollah does on a regular bases. Hezbollah also did not join with the Syrians to protest along the Israeli border, although they did protest along the Israeli border last month [in commemoration of Hezbollah's Resistance Day]; this is perhaps an indication that Hezbollah is now convinced that it is not in its interests to stand with Damascus!
Therefore, we ask ourselves: is there an honest leader amongst the Palestinian leadership who is sympathetic to the plight of his own people and who can tell the Palestinian people not to allow themselves to be used as firewood for those who want to stoke the crises in our region, whether this is Iran or anyone else? Is there nobody among the Palestinians who can say that it is not permissible to cheapen our blood and our cause in order to settle the internal and external bills of some Arab regimes that trade in the Palestinian cause? How can the Palestinians believe, for example, that Iran is concerned with the Palestinian cause when it has not fired a single bullet for its sake? What about our discovery that Israeli ships have been docking in Iranian ports over the past ten years? How can the Palestinians believe that the Syrian regime is concerned with the resistance when they have not resisted the Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights over the period of occupation, except through slogans and the media? How can the Palestinians believe Hezbollah, which did not stand with Gaza when it was burning and facing Israeli aggression?
Some in Hamas, or other Palestinian factions, will say that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and this is true, but the enemy of my enemy is not my partner or my commander; the Palestinian interests must be paramount!
Therefore, what is happening today in the region is that the Palestinians have become the single currency for some regimes in our region, and they use this to settle the bill of their internal and external crises; we need an honest Palestinian leader to come out and say "no more trading on Palestine and the Palestinians."