LCCC
ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِJUNE
11/2011
Biblical Event Of The
Day
Peter's First Letter 3/1-7: "In the
same way, wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; so that, even if any
don’t obey the Word, they may be won by the behavior of their wives without a
word; 3:2 seeing your pure behavior in fear. 3:3 Let your beauty be not just the
outward adorning of braiding the hair, and of wearing jewels of gold, or of
putting on fine clothing; 3:4 but in the hidden person of the heart, in the
incorruptible adornment of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of
God very precious. 3:5 For this is how the holy women before, who hoped in God
also adorned themselves, being in subjection to their own husbands: 3:6 as Sarah
obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, whose children you now are, if you do well,
and are not put in fear by any terror. 3:7 You husbands, in the same way, live
with your wives according to knowledge, giving honor to the woman, as to the
weaker vessel, as being also joint heirs of the grace of life; that your prayers
may not be hindered."
Latest
analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases
from
miscellaneous
sources
Israeli Army
identifies thousands of Hezbollah sites in Lebanon/ y
YAAKOV KATZ /J.Post/June
10/11
Hezbollah and Iran: Who pays the
price?/By:
Amir Taheri/ June
10/11
Syria…Have the false witnesses
returned?/By:
Tariq Alhomayed/June
10/11
Canada Condemns Violence in
Syria and Supports Nuclear Agency’s Findings/June
10/11
The Syrian regime: A sitting
duck/By: Abdul Rahman Al-Rashid/June
10/11
UN discord will be measured in
Syrian dead/By:
Michael Young/June 10/11
Latest News Reports From
Miscellaneous Sources for June 10/11
Gates Questions Assad Legitimacy
after Syria 'Slaughter'/Naharnet
Syrian army launches raid in
flashpoint town of Jisr al-Shughur/Now Lebanon
Turkish PM accuses Syrian regime of
“atrocity”/Now Lebanon
Iran
caught 10 times trying to send arms to terrorists/J.Post
Moscow opposes Western anti-Syrian
motions because of Tripoli bombing/DEBKAfile
IDF identifies thousands of
Hezbollah sites in Lebanon/J.post
Fearful Syrians Continue Pressing
Into Turkey/VOA
Syrian Forces Begin Push Against
Dissidents on Turkish Border/NYT
UK, France build case for UN
resolution against SyriaCSM
Turkey's shift on Syria gives
West room to get tougher on Assad/CSM
France 24 files complaint over
its own Syria story/CNN
Syria
accused of torturing a second teenager to death/Telegraph
Israel rocket victims fail in bid
to sue Al Jazeera/Reuters
Hezbollah
tightens security in Beirut suburbs/Daily Star
Houri: The new majority is fake/Ya
Libnan
Geagea: The cabinet should have
been formed 4 months ago/Ya Libnan
Lebanon's
Mikati Discusses Middle East Economic Outlook/Washington Post
Jumblatt brought the green light from Syria for cabinet formation/Ya Libnan
Syria: Suleiman’s Role in Govt.
Formation Will Not Be Weakened/Naharnet
Miqati Slams Geagea, Says the
Cabinet is for All Lebanese/Naharnet
Obama Appoints Lebanese Woman to
Commission on International Religious Freedom/Naharnet
Miqati Slams Geagea,
Says the Cabinet is for All Lebanese/Naharnet
Suleiman Upset by Aoun’s
Conditions, Says he Would Name his Ministers Only when Lineup is Ready/Naharnet
Miqati ‘Liberates’ Telecom Ministry
from ‘Troublemaker’ Nahhas
/Naharnet
Geagea for Technocrat Cabinet, Says
March 8 Rejects to Consolidate the State/Naharnet
French TV Sues over On-Air Syrian
Ambassador Hoax/Naharnet
March 8 Says it Overcame 95% of
Obstacles as Draft Lineup Makes the Rounds/Naharnet
ICRC Calls for Immediate Access to
Violence-Stricken Areas in Syria/Naharnet
Germany Extends its UNIFIL
Contingent Mandate for a Year
Naharnet Newsdesk
The German parliament has overwhelmingly extended for another year the mandate
of its peacekeeping force operating as part of the United Nations Interim Force
in Lebanon.
The German embassy said in a statement on Friday that the parliament decided to
keep the number of its troops at the current level of 300. The decision came out
of the German government’s keenness “to support the sovereignty of Lebanon and
the entire region’s stability,” the statement said. The European country
believes that its participation in UNIFIL “is still necessary,” it said. Since
last year, the German contingent is working on developing the capabilities of
the Lebanese navy to take a step-by-step responsibility to protect the Lebanese
coast.
Obama Appoints Lebanese
Woman to Commission on International Religious Freedom
/Naharnet Newsdesk/U.S. President
Barack Obama has appointed a woman of Lebanese origin to the U.S. Commission on
International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).
Dr. Azizah al-Hibri, who is the founder and chair of KARAMAH: Muslim Women
Lawyers for Human Rights, was appointed to the two-year term earlier in the
week.
The Chair of USCIRF, Leonard Leo, said after the appointment that al-Hibri
“comes with a distinguished record of service as a human rights advocate devoted
to the protection of freedom of religion for people of all faiths.”USCIRF is an
independent and bipartisan U.S. federal government commission whose primary
responsibility is to review the facts and circumstances of violations of
religious freedom internationally and to make policy recommendations to the
President, the Secretary of State, and Congress. KARAMAH is a non-profit
organization dedicated to contributing to the understanding and promotion of
human rights worldwide through education, legal outreach, and advocacy.
Miqati Slams Geagea, Says the
Cabinet is for All Lebanese
Naharnet Newsdesk
Sources close to Premier-designate Najib Miqati snapped back at Lebanese Forces
leader Samir Geagea on Friday saying the new cabinet will be a government for
all the Lebanese.
Miqati “waited for the March 14 team around two months to participate in the
cabinet and he still calls for the participation of everyone,” the sources told
An Nahar daily.
“It is not permissible for a team that voluntarily decided not to participate to
say that it’s a one-sided government,” they said. “Surely, this cabinet will be
able to follow-up ongoing challenges and solve many problems in the
country.”Geagea warned on Thursday against the formation of a one-sided
government and said a technocrat cabinet is the only solution to end the
impasse.
The sources stressed that “the cabinet will be for all the Lebanese and not a
single team.”On reports that Miqati’s phone conversation with Suleiman on
Wednesday did not end well, the sources said: “This is not true, Miqati informed
the president about the result of his consultations and the atmosphere is
positive.”
Gates Questions Assad Legitimacy after Syria 'Slaughter'
Naharnet Newsdesk
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates piled pressure on Syrian President Bashar
Assad on Friday, saying his very legitimacy was on the line after the "slaughter
of innocent lives".
"The slaughter of innocent lives in Syria should be a problem and concern for
everybody," Gates said after a speech in Brussels. "And whether Assad still has
the legitimacy to govern in his own country after this kind of a slaughter I
think is a question everybody has to consider," he said. Referring to the wave
of revolts against dictators across the Arab world, Gates added: "There clearly
is a dividing line in the Middle East between the rulers who are prepared to
slaughter their own people to stay in power and those who are prepared to
transition (out of power)." The United States threw its weight Wednesday behind
a U.N. Security Council resolution proposed by Britain and France that condemns
Syria for its brutal crackdown on opposition protesters.But Russia, one of five
veto-wielding members of the council, said Thursday it was opposed to any
resolution on Syria. Assad's regime has come under mounting international
pressure over accusations of massacres of pro-democracy protesters and rights
activists. His army launched Friday a crackdown on what the regime described as
"armed gangs" in the flashpoint town of Jisr al-Shughur, where authorities say
120 police and troops were massacred earlier in the week. Opposition activists
and various witnesses, however, say the deaths resulted from a mutiny by troops
who refused orders to crack down on protesters. Pro-democracy activists vowed
more countrywide protests on Friday. Anti-government demonstrations erupted in
March and more than 1,100 civilians, including dozens of children, have been
killed in the ensuing crackdown, human rights groups say.
Source Agence France Presse
Syrian army launches raid in flashpoint town of Jisr al-Shughur
June 10, 2011
Syria's army on Friday launched a crackdown on "armed gangs" in the flashpoint
town of Jisr al-Shughur, where authorities say 120 police and troops were
massacred earlier in the week.
"Army units have started their mission to control Jisr al-Shughur and
neighboring villages and arrest the armed gangs," state television said, adding
that the raid had been launched "at the request of residents.” Rights activists
said that most of the 50,000 inhabitants of Jisr al-Shughur had fled – many to
neighboring Turkey – when tanks and troops began midweek converging on the
northwestern town and that it was largely deserted. Syrian state television
blamed "armed terrorist gangs" on Wednesday as it ran images of the "massacres"
in Jisr al-Shughur which it said had resulted in the deaths of 120 police and
troops. But opposition activists say the deaths resulted from a mutiny by troops
who refused orders to crack down on protesters.
Anti-government protests erupted in March and more than 1,100 civilians,
including dozens of children, have been killed in the ensuing crackdown, human
rights groups say.
Damascus blames the unrest on the same "armed terrorist gangs" which it says are
backed by Islamists and foreign agitators. The latest crackdown comes as
President Bashar al-Assad's regime comes under mounting international pressure
over accusations of massacres of pro-democracy protesters and rights
activists.-AFP/NOW Lebanon
Turkish PM accuses Syrian regime of “atrocity”
June 10, 2011 /Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the Syrian
regime of perpetrating an "atrocity" against anti-government demonstrators, the
Anatolia news agency reported Friday. "I talked to Mr. Assad [Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad] four or five days ago. ... But they underestimate the
situation," Erdogan told Anatolia.
"Unfortunately they do not behave humanely," Erdogan said, describing the
treatment of the bodies of women slain by the security forces as an "atrocity.”
He also said the brutal crackdown on protesters was "unacceptable" and leads the
UN Security Council to step in "necessarily." "Upon all these we cannot insist
on [defending] Syria," Anatolia quoted him as saying. Erdogan has piled pressure
on Assad, a personal friend, to initiate reform but stopped short of calling for
his departure.
Erdogan reiterated that his country would keep the doors open for refugee waves
from Syria, but asked, "How far this will continue?" Anatolia reported. The
number of Syrians who have fled to Turkey fearing bloodshed in their country
increased to 2,500 on Thursday, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said.
Another 495 more refugees arrived in Karbeyaz town in the border province of
Hatay later Thursday, Anatolia reported.
The arrivals have sharply increased since Tuesday, with most refugees fleeing
the flashpoint town of Jisr al-Shughur, some 40 kilometers from the Turkish
border, where tensions have flared amid accusations by Damascus that protesters
killed 120 policemen. More than 1,100 civilians have been killed and at least
10,000 arrested in a brutal crackdown on almost daily anti-regime demonstrations
in Syria since March 15, rights organizations say.-AFP/NOW Lebanon
Syria: Suleiman’s Role in Govt. Formation Will Not Be Weakened Naharnet Newsdesk
The Syrian leadership stressed to President Michel Suleiman that no side will in
no way attempt to weaken his position or his pivotal role in forming a
government, reported al-Liwa newspaper on Friday. This message was delivered by
caretaker minister Wael Abu Faour to the president from Progressives Socialist
Party leader MP Walid Jumblat who met with Syrian President Bashar Assad on
Thursday. Syria’s state-run news agency SANA said on Thursday that Assad hoped
during his talks with the MP that the Lebanese would succeed in overcoming their
disputes and form a new government soon for the country’s greater good. The
talks also addressed the latest security developments in Syria, according to
SANA.
IDF identifies thousands of
Hezbollah sites in Lebanon
By YAAKOV KATZ /J.Post
06/10/2011 02:18
Senior officer tells 'Post' that "target bank" many times larger than on eve of
Second Lebanon War; says Hezbollah has some 50,000 missiles.
The IDF has identified thousands of Hezbollah sites throughout Lebanon, making
its “target bank” many times larger than it was in 2006 on the eve of the Second
Lebanon War, a senior IDF officer told The Jerusalem Post ahead of the fifth
anniversary of the start of the conflict.
According to the officer, the IDF had approximately 200 pre-designated targets
on July 12, 2006, when Hezbollah set off the war by abducting reservists Eldad
Regev and Ehud Goldwasser. Those targets included close to 100 homes and other
storage sites where the Islamist group had deployed long-range missiles it
received from Iran. The targets were destroyed on the first night of the war.
Today the bank has thousands more sites throughout Lebanon that would constitute
legitimate targets in the event of a future war with Hezbollah, the officer told
the Post. Earlier this year, the IDF released a map showing 950 locations
scattered across the country – a majority of them bunkers and surveillance
sites. According to the officer, Hezbollah is also believed to have passed the
50,000 mark in the number of rockets and missiles it has obtained. Most of these
weapons are stored in some 100 villages around southern Lebanon.
“Our intelligence is much better today than it was five years ago,” the officer
said of the growing target bank.
In recent months, OC Northern Command Maj.-Gen. Gadi Eizenkot and Col. Assaf
Orayun, head of the Planning Directorate’s Strategic Planning Division, have
briefed senior diplomats as part of an effort to convince the United Nations to
strengthen UNIFIL’s mandate, and enable it to operate independently within
southern Lebanese villages.
UNIFIL’s mandate will be up for extension in August, and the IDF is hoping that
by raising awareness of Hezbollah’s growing presence in these villages it might
succeed in getting the UN to enforce a tougher mandate.
Currently, peacekeeping troops who want to enter villages need to coordinate
their moves with the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), which in many cases warns
Hezbollah.
“UNIFIL is doing an effective job in open areas, and for that reason we don’t
really see Hezbollah positions there,” the officer said. “Instead, Hezbollah is
based inside villages, since UNIFIL cannot go there freely.”
An investigation into a bomb attack against Italian UNIFIL soldiers last month
is continuing. Hezbollah and a Palestinian group affiliated with al- Qaida have
blamed each other for the attack, which injured six peacekeepers.
On Thursday, the Beirut-based Daily Star reported that Hezbollah had uncovered
two car bombs in southern Beirut.
Meanwhile, two months after warnings were received of a Hezbollah plan to strike
at an Israeli target overseas, the attack appears to have been foiled – for the
time being.
Hezbollah’s desire to lash out at Israel was sparked by the 2008 assassination
of Imad Mughniyeh, the group’s military commander in Damascus.
Hezbollah blames the Mossad, and reportedly has tried to carry out revenge
attacks several times.
According to foreign reports, such attacks were thwarted by security services in
Azerbaijan, Thailand and Sinai in 2008, and in Turkey in 2009.
In April, ahead of the Pessah holiday, security officials took the rare step of
revealing the names of senior Hezbollah operatives planning another attack.
For now, the moves seem to have deterred Hezbollah from carrying it out.
Defense officials said that Hezbollah would prefer to attack an overseas Israeli
target – an embassy, an El Al plane or a consulate – as opposed to a border
attack, as it would afford a level of deniability.
The security sources named Hezbollah operative Talal Hamia as commander of the
small but well-organized unit, which also includes his bodyguard, Ahmed Faid,
and Hezbollah’s top bomb expert, Ali Najan al-Din. Hamia was allegedly involved
in the 1992 and 1994 bombings in Buenos Aires that targeted the Israeli Embassy
and the AMIA Jewish community center.
Another member of the cell, Majd al-Zakur, is referred to as “the forger” and is
responsible for preparing fake passports.
The cell is being aided by businessmen, among them a Lebanese cellphone salesman
and a Turkish national.
‘Iran caught 10 times trying to send arms to terrorists'
By YAAKOV KATZ /J.Post
06/10/2011 01:47
'The Jerusalem Post' obtains report submitted to UN Security Council detailing
Islamic Republic's illegal arms smuggling to Hamas, Taliban; further reveals
regime's clandestine missile tests in February.
Iran has been caught red-handed in 10 different attempts in recent years to
transfer weaponry to terrorists throughout the Middle East, including a recent
case, in April, when a shipment of advanced missiles was caught en-route to
Taliban forces in Afghanistan, according to a United Nations report obtained
Thursday by The Jerusalem Post.
The report was submitted three weeks ago to the Security Council by a UN group
of experts that monitors compliance with UN sanctions imposed on Iran. The
report was leaked to the Internet and obtained by a number of leading Israeli
defense analysts
The report documents all 10 cases of arms smuggling, including the case of the
Victoria cargo ship, which was stopped by the Israel Navy earlier this year
carrying arms for Hamas. In the most recent case cited, British forces in
Afghanistan found a weapons shipment of advanced Iranian-made anti-ship missiles
and 122 mm. rockets en route to Taliban forces in Afghanistan.
In March, Turkish authorities stopped an Iranian cargo plane bound for Syria. At
the time, Turkey tried to downplay the news, but the UN report reveals that
authorities discovered dozens of AK-47 assault rifles and close to 2,000 mortar
shells. The report confirms that the arms originated in Iran and were supplied
by the Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The report further reveals that Iran test fired two of its most advanced
long-range missiles – the Shihab 3 and the Sajil – in February.
The tests were not reported at the time by the Iranians, or by the United States
or Israel, both of which track such missile launches.
Tal Inbar, head of the Space Research Center at the Fisher Institute for Air and
Space Strategic Studies, analyzed the UN report and said the missile tests were
significant since Iran was making efforts to hide its ballistic missile program,
something that raises suspicions about the nature of the program and its
connection to the Islamic Republic’s illicit nuclear drive.
“For a number of years, they have been trying to display shorter-range rockets
like the Qiyam and the Fateh 110,” Inbar said. “In the most recent military
parade, they did not even did not even show the Shihab.”
The report, which also discusses the regular exchange of ballistic missile
technology between Iran and North Korea, said financial sanctions appeared to be
having an effect on Tehran, as demonstrated by “the range of measures taken by
Iran to circumvent them.”
“These measures are expensive and time-consuming to set up and administer. They
include arrangements to enable sanctioned Iranian banks to maintain access to
the international financial sector through normal business conducted by
non-sanctioned Iranian banks,” the report said. “Nevertheless, despite financial
restrictions, Iran appears able to continue to pay for procurement from abroad
for its prohibited nuclear and ballistic missile programs.”
Moscow opposes Western anti-Syrian motions because of
Tripoli bombing
DEBKAfile Special Report June 9, 2011,
Russia is opposed to any UN Security Council resolution on Syria," Russian
Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told journalists at a briefing
in Moscow Thursday, June 29, after the UK, France, Germany and Portugal moved to
condemn Syria's violent crackdown on anti-government protesters
and demand humanitarian access to the situation there.
The new resolution demands that President Bashar Assad end the violence and
lifts the siege of protest cities. It also calls for an arms embargo on Syria.US
Ambassador Susan Rice, who did not co-sponsor the draft, dismissed the
comparison between Syria and Libya.
Wednesday, June 8, the NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels failed to
agree on the expansion of operations against Muammar Qaddafi or persuade more
alliance members to join.
debkafile's military sources add:
The cost of the war in Libya is constantly rising and beginning to weigh heavily
on the defense outlay and state budgets of the US, Britain and France, all of
which are battling deep economic crises. Our sources learn that the three
governments are contemplating dipping into the frozen funds of Muammar Qaddafi's
regime estimated at over $45 billion - possibly $34 billion in American banks
alone – to defray some of the costs.
The relentless air strikes over Tripoli alone cost about $25 million per day.
The use of those funds will be presented as necessary to relieve the hardships
of the Libyan population living under rebel rule and suffering attacks from
Qaddafi's forces.
In a statement issued on Thursday morning, June 9 (Wednesday night in the US),
Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee Tim Johnson said, "The ongoing violence
in Libya has disrupted the economy and left far too many innocent Libyan
citizens struggling to simply put food on the table."
debkafile's military and intelligence sources say the coalition ran into
financial difficulties because they missed realistically evaluating Qaddafi's
financial, military and political strength before launching operations against
him in March. They are therefore running out of steam after four months without
removing him from power. Some Western capitals and NATO circles are talking
about prolonging the war until the end of 2011 or the beginning of 2012.
In March, we reported that the Libyan ruler had stashed most of his financial
assets in cash, estimated at nearly $1 trillion, in underground hiding-places in
the Libyan desert. The war's planners, especially in London and Paris, declined
to take this into account because they were sure they could topple him in days
or, at most, weeks. His private fortune would then have been invested in
building the New Libya.
This plan has faded from view.
Even now, under the continuous pressure of NATO bombardments, Qaddafi has a
plentiful cash flow to fund his operations. The tribal chiefs in areas where his
money is hidden remain loyal to the Libyan ruler and take good care of his money
because it keeps them in funds and buttresses their own tribal power.
The West, in contrast, is struggling against a shortage of funds which has
become one of the main obstacles to sustaining the war effort against him.
Wednesday, June 8, NATO tried ratcheting up the war effort in two ways:
Air assaults on the government compound in Bab Al Aziziya, Tripoli, were
intensified to some 80 strikes in two days, a pitch unprecedented so far. Its
object was to trigger a mutiny in the army units still loyal to Qaddafi and an
uprising among the capital's more than 3 million inhabitants.
This did not happen: The rockets landed mainly on empty buildings and bunkers,
long evacuated after the first bombardments. The people who paid with their
lives, therefore, were a few guards and passersby.
The thunderous assault on Tripoli formed the background to the NATO defense
ministers meeting in Brussels Wednesday.
The twenty member-governments which have stayed out of the military action so
far refused to be drawn in, in the face of the strong pitch made by NATO
Secretary Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Sweden, a non-NATO participant, announced it
was scaling down its involvement.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in his last appearance at an alliance
meeting, pointed to five countries that Washington would like to see play a
greater part in the war: Germany, Poland, Turkey, Holland and Spain. But their
defense ministers turned him down too.
Diplomats who took part in the meeting said that some of the participants openly
admitted a "certain fatigue" beginning to set in among the eight NATO states
committed to the war. Yet the Brussels meeting left those eight governments, led
by Britain, France and Italy, to soldier on unaided in the drive to overthrow
Qaddafi.
Despite US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's confident assertion that
Qaddafi's days were numbered, the downbeat atmosphere in Brussels infected the
meeting in Abu Dhabi Thursday, June 10, when coalition foreign ministers
committed to the Libyan operation met to discuss the fate of post-Qaddafi Libya.
While the participants were voluble in their support for the rebel cause, very
little financial aid was put on the table.
Egypt was invited to join the group but declined: Cairo has its hands too full
with grave domestic difficulties to be available for any role in the war on
Qaddafi.
All the same, debkafile's military sources report that this week saw a
noticeable decline in Qaddafi's military and political situation. Heavy NATO
bombardments are managing to knock out some of his armies' military and
logistical supplies, while Russia and the countries of the African Union which
backed him until now are now saying openly that it is time for him to go. They
have embarked on diplomacy for ending the conflict and removing him from power.
Moscow has its own fish to fry: it is in the process of teaching the West a
lesson that it will not be allowed to go off on its own and bomb an Arab capital
like Tripoli without a UN Security Council mandate, which Russia says NATO has
long overstepped. As holder of a Security Council veto, Russia has cited NATO's
"inclusive bombing of Tripoli" as grounds for blocking the new Western draft
resolution condemning another Arab government, Syria, and any Western
intervention against the Assad regime – even through the International Atomic
Energy Agency which Thursday referred the dossier on the plutonium plant Israel
bombed four years ago before it was finished
The Syrian regime: A sitting duck
09/06/2011
By Abdul Rahman Al-Rashid
Asharqalawsat/Did it ever cross the mind of the Syrian regime when it was at the
peak of its power (prior to the assassination of the late Lebanese Prime
Minister Rafik al-Hariri) that it will find itself one day on the run on the
international level and besieged on the internal level, as it is today?
Misfortunes from every side are pummeling this regime in a way that nobody could
have imagined.
The Syrian regime is being dealt one blow after another. As soon as one ends, it
is beset by another. The most serious blow is the latest: The fate of this
regime is under threat on the international level. The Security Council will
begin debating the regime's legitimacy as it drafts a resolution condemning its
practices against its own people and denouncing the murders it is committing
against peaceful protesters. This blow was preceded by another direct one when
the European Union approved a number of sanctions against it in the wake of the
report of the European human rights organization. These sanctions were
accompanied by others in which President Bashar al-Assad was mentioned by name.
The European group placed his name on the list of those banned from travel and
froze his assets. It will be dealt another blow this summer when the
international tribunal declares the charges against the killers of Prime
Minister Al-Hariri. This criminal case has exhausted the Damascus regime over
the past three years as it tries to obstruct it. Moreover, the International
Criminal Court [ICC] - better known by the name of its star prosecutor Luis
Moreno Ocambo, who has become famous in cases against leaders like Sudanese
President Omar al-Bashir and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi - has begun hearing
the charges against the Syrian regime. Another almost forgotten blow will come
from the IAEA that will file its report against the Syrian regime for violations
of building a nuclear reactor that was bombed by Israel.
The Syrian regime is like a sitting duck easy to shoot. If it is saved from
Security Council sanctions for the crime of killing the Syrian people - by
virtue of the expected Russian veto - it may not be able to escape the report of
international tribunal investigating Al-Hariri's assassination. Even if the
protracted prosecution and the slowness of court proceedings save it, Ocambo's
report on crimes of genocide will be ready. If the Syrian regime escapers from
this charge as well, it will have to face sanctions related to the nuclear
issue. If it escapes from all these blows, it will have to face the growing
internal Syrian revolt that it has failed to quell and distort by accusing armed
men and Salafists. This revolt in scores of towns and that has been raging for
more than three months has turned into the biggest Arab revolt in contemporary
history. Where are the friends of this regime? Its attempts to seek the help of
Hezbollah, Iran, and Ahmad Jibril's group have raised the hatred and anger of
the populace against it. Moreover, the Iranian regime is ailing like it and
cannot go to excesses in rescuing it except with more arms. Like Iran,
Hezbollah's contributions are futile as it faces a nation of 25 million people.
Hezbollah - that has thrived on political propaganda over the past 10 years -
cannot brag about or openly proclaim that it is confronting the Syrian people
except by organizing a few processions in the Al-Dahiyah al-Junubiyah [Hezbollah
stronghold] of Beirut that embarrass the Shias as they see demonstrations
against their neighbors.
The regime in Syria is yet to understand that it is suffering from
fast-spreading from of cancer . Despite all its failed violent efforts, it does
not yet realize that it cannot rely on security forces and the antiquated use of
the media. It has to reconcile with its people. This is its only solution.
Hezbollah and Iran: Who pays the
price?
10/06/2011
By Amir Taheri/Asharq Alawsat
For years, the Lebanese branch of Hezbollah has celebrated its "victory against
the Zionist enemy." Festivities marking the occasion were held last week in
parts of Lebanon controlled by Hezbollah. What was new was an account given by a
senior Hezbollah leader of how the conflict was triggered and who was in charge
of the group's operations.
The man in question is Sayyed Hashem Safieddin, The Head of Hezbollah's
Executive Council, described by the Iranian newspaper Kayhan as the party's
second-in-command. Lebanese sources tell me that Safieddin, a mullah in his 40s,
is regarded as Nasrallah's heir-apparent. In its issue dated 31 May, Kayhan
reported a meeting between Safieddin and a delegation of the Baseej, the Iranian
paramilitary set up to protect the Khomeinist regime. The group had gone to
Lebanon to participate in celebrations. According to Kayhan, Safieddin told the
Iranian paramilitaries that all credit for the "victory" in question went to
Iranian "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenei. "Without the direct, minute by minute,
command and supervision of Grand Ayatollah Khamenei, Hezbollah would not have
achieved its great victory against Zionism and America, "Safieddin was quoted as
saying. The Hezbollah leader went on to say: "For us, Ayatollah Khamenei is not
a simple leader. He is our model for life, a symbol of steadfastness, and our
master." Safieddin insisted that, from start to finish, the conflict had taken
place under Khomeini's "direct command and supervision". This means that
Khamenei also gave the order for the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers that
triggered the conflict.
Khomeinist leaders in Tehran have always used kidnapping and hostage-taking as a
method for pursuing political aims at home and abroad. Safieddin's flattery
towards Khamenei is neither new nor surprising. Nasrallah himself has praised
the Iranian mullah to the skies, running out of superlatives. Safieddin's
account recalls what many have known for long, that Hezbollah is, in fact, a
branch of the Khomeinist regime in Lebanon. Hezbollah was founded in Tehran in
1975, four years before the mullahs seized power in Iran. Two mullahs, Hadi
Ghaffari and Ali-Akbar Mohtashami-Pour, and two bazaar "tough guys" Abbas
Douzdouzani and Abbas Zamani were among its founders. After the mullahs had come
to power, they decided to open its branches outside Iran.
In 1982, Mohtashami-Pour, appointed Khomeini's Ambassador to Damascus, was
ordered to open Hezbollah branches in Syria and Lebanon. President Hafez
al-Assad made it clear that he would not tolerate a Hezbollah branch in Syria.
However, he promised to help Iran set up one in Lebanon. From 1984, the Iranian
government budget has included an item for "promoting revolutions abroad", in
other words for financing Hezbollah branches in 17 countries alongside other
foreign groups working for Tehran. Until 1998, the Iranian Foreign Ministry had
an office, headed by a Director-General, for "exporting the Islamic Revolution."
What is new is Safieddin's claim that Khamenei exercised "minute-by-minute"
control over Hezbollah, at least during the conflict with Israel. This means
that the leader of a foreign country was able to plunge Lebanon into war, with
all the dangers that it entailed, without any consultation with Lebanon's legal
government. The Lebanese mullah's account gives credence to those who claim that
the 2006 conflict was, in fact, a proxy war launched by Iran against Israel.
Lebanon was used as an operational base, although its people ended up paying the
price in blood and treasure.
Lebanon's history is full of examples of political parties whose umbilical cord
was linked to foreign powers. Egypt under Nasser, Iraq under Saddam Hussein,
Libya under Muammar Gaddafi, and, of course, Israel and Syria are among many
foreign powers that have had proxies in Lebanon. However, in none of those cases
was the proxy under "direct, minute-by-minute control" of a foreign power. For
years, Iran under the Shah exercised influence in Lebanon through the Shiite
community. A charismatic mullah, Imam Moussa Sadr was dispatched by the Shah's
government to organize the Shiite community, stem the tide of the Left sweeping
the under - privileged community, and help it resist pressure from Palestinians
led by Yasser Arafat.
However, at no time was Sadr, or Harekat al-Mahroomin (Movement of the
Dispossessed), the organization he created, under Tehran's direct control. Once
he had established himself, Sadr even stopped submitting reports to Tehran.
Later, he ended up as an opponent of the Shah and formed an alliance with
Libya's Muammar Gaddafi- an alliance that ended in Sadr's tragic assassination
by the Libyans.
Lebanon "experts" claim that it is inevitable that Lebanese political parties
seek powerful foreign backers. They add that, as a small, weak and vulnerable
country surrounded by hostile powers, Lebanon does not have an identity of its
own. As a result its "communities" owe their survival to the support of their
religious kith-and-kin in larger countries.
I reject that definition.
I have known Lebanon and followed its developments since 1969 when I first
interviewed some of its leaders including Moussa Sadr, Charles Hellou, Omar
Karame, Pierre Gemayel, Takieddin Solh, Kamal Junblatt and Camille Chamoun. I
was convinced then that a Lebanese identity does exist, and have become more
convinced of it since. My impression is that a majority of Lebanese Shi'ites
know that Hezbollah is more reflective of Iran's interests than those of the
community, let alone Lebanon as a whole. The Shiite community accepts Hezbollah
for three reasons.
First, Hezbollah has enough guns and money to impose itself and prevent the
emergence of alternatives within the Shiite community.
Secondly, channeling funds from Iran, Hezbollah is providing services that the
Lebanese government cannot offer.
Finally, Lebanese Shiites have always regarded Iran as the ultimate guarantor of
their safety and do not wish to burn their bridges with Tehran, regardless of
who is in power there.
Paradoxically, Safieddin may be telling the Lebanese that, if they suffered more
than 2000 deaths and billions of dollars of losses for nothing, that was not
Hezbollah's fault but a result of Khamenehi's adventurist strategy.
U.N. Nuclear Watchdog
Presses Case Against Syria
By DAN BILEFSKY/W/P
Published: June 9, 2011
UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations nuclear watchdog voted Thursday to report
Syria to the Security Council, citing Syria’s construction of a covert nuclear
reactor and its failure to cooperate with investigators, diplomats said.
Ahead of Crackdown, More Syrians Flee to Turkey (June 10, 2011) The vote,
supported by the United States and its European allies, coincided with growing
pressure for the international community to condemn the violent crackdown by the
Syrian government against pro-democracy protesters. United Nations human rights
officials say reports suggest that more than 1,100 have been killed since March.
With 17 votes in favor and six against, the 35-nation board of the Vienna-based
International Atomic Energy Agency adopted a resolution rebuking Syria for
failing to cooperate over the past three years with an investigation into Dair
Alzour, a remote site in the Syrian desert which was bombed by Israel in 2007.
American intelligence reports contend it was a covert reactor designed by North
Korea and intended to produce plutonium for atomic bombs. Citing a lack of
confidence that Syria’s nuclear program is for peaceful purposes and pointing to
a history of concealment by Damascus, the I.A.E.A. resolution says that the
destroyed Dair Alzour site was “very likely a nuclear reactor and should have
been declared by Syria.”
The 15-member Security Council has the power to rebuke Syria by urging it to
cooperate with the I.A.E.A. and imposing sanctions against the country, as it
has done in the case of Iran’s nuclear program. But Russia and China, two
veto-wielding members of the Security Council, voted against the resolution,
underlining international divisions over how to approach Damascus and signaling
that punitive measures against the Syrian government were unlikely. Syria has
said the Dair Alzour site was a non-nuclear facility and has denied having a
secret nuclear program. It has urged the I.A.E.A. to focus on Israel and
allegations about its own covert nuclear activities. On Thursday, diplomats
continued to debate a separate resolution against Syria, circulated at the
Security Council by France and Britain on Wednesday, which condemns the regime
of President Bashar al-Assad for using force against Syrian civilians. Both
efforts faced stiff resistance from China and Russia, which maintain that the
council should not interfere in the domestic affairs of sovereign states.
Russia, an ally of Syria, has been especially adamant that the country should
not be singled out for criticism. Ahead of the vote in Vienna, Russian officials
said the referral of Syria to the Security Council was based on hypothetical
evidence and was not objective, The Associated Press reported. On Thursday, a
spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Alexander Lukashevich, said the
country opposed any Security Council resolution on Syria. “The situation in this
country, in our view, does not present a threat to international peace and
security,” he told reporters in Moscow. Diplomats said Russia was using the
situation in Libya as a pretext to oppose United Nations action in Syria,
arguing that NATO’s intervention in Libya, under a United Nations mandate to
protect civilians, had spiraled out of control. Brazil, South Africa, and India
have also expressed reservations about a resolution against Syria. The United
States insisted Thursday that the condemnation of Syria’s covert nuclear
activities was separate from the effort to condemn Syria for its violent
crackdown on demonstrators.
Canada Condemns Violence in Syria and Supports Nuclear Agency’s Findings
(No. 157 - June 9, 2011 - 5:10 p.m. ET) John Baird, Canada’s Foreign Affairs
Minister, today issued the following statement: “Canada is outraged by the
continuing crackdown by the current Syrian regime against Syrian citizens. The
killing and torture of Syrians, including young children, is deplorable and
abhorrent. All allegations of serious human rights violations should be
investigated and those responsible should be held accountable. “Canada is
strongly supportive of efforts within the United Nations Security Council to
address the situation in Syria.
“Also today, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors
found Syria to be in non-compliance with its Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
safeguards agreement and will refer the matter to the UN Security Council.
Canada co-sponsored the IAEA resolution and strongly supports the IAEA’s
decision. “On June 3, foreign affairs officials, at my request, called in the
Syrian chargé d’affaires to again raise Canada’s concerns, and called on Syrian
officials to end the violent civilian oppression and to implement genuine
democratic reforms. Given today’s finding by the IAEA, I am asking that the
chargé be called in again. “Canada strongly supports the people of Syria in
their peaceful efforts to push for democratic development and human rights, and
finds the Syrian regime’s attempts to divert attention away from its serious
shortcomings to be absolutely unacceptable. “We continue to advise against
travel to Syria, and sanctions against the regime remain in effect.”
Syria…Have the false witnesses
returned?
Thursday, 09 June 2011
By Tariq Alhomayed
The Syrian media is fighting a fierce battle against all other media, of all
types and nationalities. This comes amidst the backdrop of the popular uprising
in Syria. This battle becomes clear simply by monitoring some of the Syrian
media outlets, or the phenomenon of "analysts" that we are witnessing today. Yet
what is most striking in this media battle, was the news aired on the French
satellite station "France 24" the day before yesterday, when it broadcasted a
telephone interview with a lady claiming to be the Syrian Ambassador to France,
who went on to announce her resignation live on air, as a result of the
repression suffered by the Syrian people. Following the news the world stood up,
and has not sat down since. Indeed, I think people will not rest until the facts
emerge. The Syrian Ambassador rushed to deny news of her resignation through
Syrian state television, and Arab satellite channels. The Ambassador claimed
that a woman had pretended to be her, and threatened to sue the French channel.
This is the story, but the details are even stranger. In a statement, The French
station said it may be a victim of "manipulation". France 24 said that it had
obtained the private mobile phone number of the Syrian Ambassador in Paris, via
the Syrian media attaché in France. Furthermore, on Tuesday evening the news
agency "Reuters" issued a news item in Arabic, and then reissued it yesterday in
English, saying that "Reuters had checked with the Syrian embassy in Paris
before reporting the initial resignation statement aired on France 24. An e-mail
response from the embassy, sent via its website, confirmed that Ambassador
Chakkour had resigned"! Of course, as I said, the Syrian Ambassador strongly
denied her resignation, and that is not the subject of the discussion here.
Rather, the point is: has the Syrian battle with the media, of all types and
nationalities, reached this level of ferocity, just so Syria can say it has been
exposed to a foreign plot? Or are we today facing a new story of "false
witnesses", like what happened with the international tribunal investigating the
assassination of Rafik Hariri, where false witnesses were used to undermine the
credibility of the court, and show that it had become politicized?
For an unknown woman to impersonate the ambassador and announce her resignation
on a well-known television channel is not easy, especially in France. Worse than
all that is the fact that France 24 asserts that it obtained the phone number of
the ambassador from the Syrian media attaché, whilst Reuters also claims that it
had received an e-mail from the embassy confirming the resignation. So, either
someone wants to implicate the Syrian Ambassador from inside her embassy, or
someone wants to deal a blow to the media, along the lines of the false
witnesses used in the Hariri Tribunal, yet this time only to confirm that Syria
is being exposed to a foreign plot. With the Syrian regime preventing the
media from entering Syria and covering what is going on there, and with all the
regime's stories which are broadcasted by its media, but do not fool anyone
inside Syria itself or abroad, perhaps France 24 is the victim of new false
witnesses! (Published in the London-based Asharq Alawsat on June 9.)
France 24
files complaint over its own Syria story
By the CNN Wire Staff
June 9, 2011
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Syria's ambassador denies having made call to France 24 saying she was resigning
France 24 alleges identity theft and impersonation related to the interview
France 24 commissioned an analysis that shows the two voices are different
Resignation was also reported by Reuters, which cited Syrian Embassy as its
source
Paris (CNN) -- A French television network said Thursday it has filed a
complaint with the Paris public prosecutor alleging identity theft and
impersonation related to an interview it broadcast Tuesday with a woman the
network identified as Ambassador Lamia Shakkour, Syria's ambassador to France.
During the telephone interview, the woman said she was resigning her post
because of the ongoing violence in Syria. "I cannot support the cycle of extreme
violence ... ignore the young men, women and children who have died," she said.
Shortly afterward, Shakkour denied to CNN affiliate BFM-TV that she had made any
such statement, alleging in an on-camera interview that she had been
impersonated.
In its statement Thursday, France 24 said it had invited Shakkour to participate
in its debate program. "This invitation was made via the embassy, which, when
contacted by telephone and e-mail, provided a telephone number said to be that
of the ambassador, together with a photograph of the ambassador," the network
said in a statement.
"It was using this number that the exchange took place, in which the declaration
of the ambassador's resignation was made. That resignation was then confirmed in
a wire published by the Reuters press agency, quoting the Syrian Embassy as its
source."
But France 24 said it "has no option but to take Ms. Shakkour's denials
seriously." It said it had commissioned comparative analyses that show the voice
on France 24 differs from the voice that later issued the denial broadcast on
BFM TV.
"France 24 has no doubt that Ambassador Shakkour and the Embassy of the Syrian
Arab Republic in France, who were swift to report the manipulation of which
they, like France 24, appear to have been the victims, will give their total
support to this complaint and collaborate fully in the ensuing investigations,"
the network said.
In her interview Tuesday night with BFM, Shakkour had threatened to sue the
network. "I am filing a complaint to the French tribunal and also to the
international tribunal, and there will probably be some measures against France
24," she said.
Shakkour accused the network of following an agenda. "It's part of a campaign of
misinformation by France 24, since the beginning of March, in which it gives
voice only to dissidents of Syria and it falsifies videos."
In an interview with CNN carried out Tuesday night, after the two dueling
telephone interviews but before the BFM on-camera interview, France 24's deputy
editorial director, Renee Kaplan, called the situation "very puzzling."
"She has been a guest on our network before," said Kaplan, who added that
station personnel reached Shakkour on a cell phone number that she had answered
in the past. Kaplan added, "We are confident that the person we addressed on air
was she. There is no other reason to believe that anyone else would have
answered on the number."
The below piece of lies and
fabrications is an example of the Syrian Iranian evil media campaign targeting
the western readers
America's Next War Theater: Syria and Lebanon?
Washington's War against the Resistance Bloc
by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25000
Global Research, June 10, 2011
Washington and its allies, Israel and the Al-Sauds, are taking advantage of the
upheavals in the Arab World. They are now working to dismantle the Resistance
Bloc and weaken any drive for democracy in the Arab World. The geo-political
chessboard is now being prepared for a broader confrontation that will target
Tehran and include Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and the Palestinians.
Tying Hezbollah’s Hands through External and Internal Pressure
In Lebanon, there is a deadlock in regards to the formation of a Lebanese
government. Michel Sleiman, who holds the presidency and the new Lebanese prime
minister have been delaying the formation of the cabinet in a political row with
Michel Aoun, the leader of the Free Patriotic Movement.
It may be possible that the formation of a new Lebanese cabinet is being delayed
deliberately to keep Lebanon neutralized on the foreign policy front.
The U.N. Security Council and several U.N. bodies are all being used by the U.S.
and the E.U. to put pressure on Lebanon. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is
taking his orders fom Washington. He has contributed to providiing legitimacy to
the U.S. and NATO wars. Moscow has openly accused Ban Ki-moon of treachery for
his 2008 secret dealings with NATO.
It is in this context that the U.N. is being used as a forum for insidious
attempts to internationalize the issue of weapons held by the Lebanese
Resistance, with a view to disarming it. Despite the fact that U.N. Resolution
1559 is no longer relevant, the Special Representative for the Implementation of
Resolution 1559, Terje Roed-Larsen, still remains active and issues reports
against Hezbollah.
The envoys of the U.N. to Lebanon resemble colonial figures making uninvited
edicts in Beirut and working as agents of Washington, Brussels, and Tel Aviv.
The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), which has an entire division in the U.S.
State Department, is also a loaded political weapon that Washington is planning
on using against Lebanon and Syria.
An international tribunal was formed pertaining to the circumstances of the the
assassination of Rafic Al-Hariri. Hariri at the time of his murder had no
official state position, but an international tribunal has been created for his
case alone. On the other hand the so-called international community has taken no
interest in forming any type of tribunals to investigate the assassination of
thousands of people killed in Lebanon. What does this say about the STL and the
justice being sought?
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has also been complicit in
Israeli violations against Lebanon. Even the United Nations Relief and Works
Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRAW) has been infiltrated
with officials that are supportive of Israeli crimes against Palestinians and
Lebanese. This was demonstrated by Christopher Gunness, the spokesperson of
UNRAW, in a May 15, 2011 interview with the Israeli military. While Israel’s IDF
was firing on unarmed civilian protesters during Nakba Day 2011, Gunness
reaffirmed that UNRAW was working in the interest of Israel’s national security,
while also accusing the Palestinians of committing terrorist acts against
Israel. Even the Israeli siege of the Gaza Strip was whitewashed by the UNRAW
spokesperson.
The absence of a new cabinet in Lebanon has also allowed Saad Hariri and the
March 14 Alliance to continue having an ominous hand in managing Lebanon’s
affairs. This also buys time for the STL, which can move forward without being
challenged by a Lebanese government in Beirut that would be hostile to the STL.
In this regard, a new government in Beirut would most certainly question to
legitmacy of the STL.
Moreover, the Internal Security Forces (ISF) of Lebanon is also being used by
Saad Hariri against Hezbollah and the political opponents of Hariri family. The
ISF may even have a hand in working against Damascus and helping promote
violence in Syria. The ISF takes its orders directly from the Hariri family.
Because of the free hand given to Saad Hariri and his cronies (largely due to
the absence of a functioning cabinet in Beirut), Ziad Baroud, the acting
interior minister of Lebanon, has refused to sign any more papers from his
ministry. Baroud has taken this position, because he believes that the ISF is
acting covertly and without his approval or supervision. In this regard, the ISF
has refused to follow the orders of Ziad Baroud to allow Charbel Al-Nahhas, the
acting telecommunications minister of Lebanon, to enter ISF headquarters for a
routine check. The ISF was clearly trying to hide its operations and was acting
to prevent Al-Nahhas and his team from going to certain floors at ISF
headquarters.
It is also no secret that Lebanon is a nest of intelligence agents and
operatives from the U.S., the E.U., Israel, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. Their
objective is to confront and dismantle Hezbollah and its coalition.
In 2006, during the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon the embassies of E.U. members
were also collecting data against Hezbollah. The Al-Sauds have helped facilitate
the links between Israel and the network of spies in Lebanon. This is
demonstrated by the clear link between Sheikh Mohammed Ali Hussein, the Shiite
cleric caught working for Israel, and the Al-Sauds.
In tune with all this, Hezbollah is constantly accused of being an instrument of
Iran. Recently, Hezbollah was blamed alongside Iran for stirring protests in the
Persian Gulf, specifically in Bahrain and the Shiite-dominated areas of Saudi
Arabia. In this regard Lebanese citizens, regardless of their faith in many
cases, have also been singled out by the Khaliji regimes and expelled from the
Persian Gulf. This is part of a sectarian card to create regional divisions and
hate. Within Lebanon it has been used by the Saad Hariri faction to target
Hezbollah and its allies. Hariri has ironically accused Iran of interfering in
Bahrain at the very moment the Saudi military invaded the island-state to keep
the Al-Khalifas in power.
The petro-sheikhdoms of the Persian Gulf are now systematically preventing
Lebanese, Syrian, Iraqi, Iranian, and Pakistani citizens from entering their
borders. Kuwait has justified this by saying that there could be trouble within
Kuwait due to political instability in these countries.
Destabilizing Syria
Damascus has been under pressure to capitulate to the edicts of Washington and
the European Union. This has been part of a longstanding project. Regime change
or voluntary subordination by the Syrian regime are the goals. This includes
subordinating Syrian foreign policy and de-linking Syrian from its strategic
alliance with Iran and its membership within the Resistance Bloc.
Syria is run by an authoritarian oligarchy which has used brute force in dealing
with its citizens. The riots in Syria, however, are complex. They cannot be
viewed as a straighforward quest for liberty and democracy. There has been an
attempt by the U.S. and the E.U. to use the riots in Syria to pressure and
intimidate the Syrian leadership. Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, and the March 14
Alliance have all played a role in supporting an armed insurrection.
The Al-Sauds have also helped drown out any authentic calls for democratic
reform and marginalized the democratic elements in the Syrian opposition during
the protests and riots. In this regard the Al-Sauds have supported both
sectarian factions as well as terrorist elements, which question the foundations
of religious tolerance in Syria. These elements are mostly Salafist extremists,
like Fatah Al-Islam and the new extremist political movements being organized in
Egypt. They have also been rallying against the Alawites, the Druze, and Syrian
Christians.
The violence in Syria has been supported from the outside with a view of taking
advantage of the internal tensions and the anger in Syria. Aside from the
violent reaction of the Syrian Army, media lies have been used and bogus footage
has been aired. Money and weapons have also been funnelled to elements of the
Syrian opposition by the U.S., the E.U., the March 14 Alliance, Jordan, and the
Khalijis. Funding has also been provided to ominous and unpopular foreign-based
Syrian opposition figures, while weapons caches were smuggled from Jordan and
Lebanon into Syria.
The events in Syria are also tied to Iran, the longstanding strategic ally of
Damascus. It is not by chance that Senator Lieberman was demanding publicly that
the Obama Administration and NATO attack Syria and Iran like Libya. It is also
not coincidental that Iran was included in the sanctions against Syria. The
hands of the Syrian military and government have now been tied internally as a
new and broader offensive is being prepared that will target both Syria and
Iran.
Syria and the Levantine Gas Fields in the Eastern Mediterranean
Syria is the central piece of two important energy corridors. The first links
Turkey and the Caspian to Israel and the Red Sea and the second links Iraq to
the Mediterranean. The surrender of Syria would mean that Washington and its
allies would control these energy routes. It would also mean that the large
natural gas fields off the Lebanese and Syrian coastline in the Eastern
Mediterranean would be out of reach for China and would instead go to the E.U.,
Israel, and the U.S.
The Eastern Mediterranean gas fields have been the subject of negotiations
between the E.U., Turkey, Iran, Syria, and Lebanon. Aside from the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan
(BTC) Pipeline, the existence of the Levantine natural gas fields is also the
reason why the Kremlin has created a military foothold in Syria for the Russian
Federation. This has been done by upgrading Soviet-era naval facilities in
Syria. Moreover, it has been Iran that has agreed to explore and help develop
these natural gas fields off the Levantine coast for Beirut and Damascus.
Hamas-Fatah Rapprochement
There is a strong correlation between war in Southwest Asia and increased talk
at the official level about Palestinian statehood. Hopes of Palestinian
statehood have been used twice to discharge pressure in the Arab World built
from rising tensions from war preparations against Iraq. The first time was by
George H.W. Bush Sr. and the second time by George W. Bush Jr., who was praised
for being the first U.S. president to seriously talk about a Palestinian state.
Even as he flip-flops on his position, Obama is also now talking about a
Palestinian state. Moreover, rapprochement between Hamas and Fatah has taken
place as the count-down towards international recognition of Palestinian
statehood begins. The Israelis have also released frozen funds to the
Palestinians, which they refused to do before due to Hamas.
The rapprochement between Fatah and Hamas has also served to tie the hands of
Hamas. Hamas will have to be careful not to effectively become a junior partner
in governing Palestine under Israeli occupation. Hamas must effectively now
modify its stance in its partnership in a unity government with Fatah. In all
likelihood Tel Aviv and Washington will seek to impose Fatah as the senior
partner of the Palestinian Authority. In a manner of speaking, Hamas is being
domesticated indirectly by Israel and Washington.
Instability in Pakistan
The announcement that Osama bin Laden has been killed by U.S. forces has
contributed to a process of covert political destabilization within Pakistan.
There has been a calculated effort to present Osama bin Laden as a popular and
venerated figure for Muslims. This is with a view of supporting the so-called
“Clash of Civilizations.”
At the same time the U.S. government is starting a media campaign against
Pakistan. Islamabad has been portrayed as harbouring Osama bin Laden and his
Al-Qaeda network. In reality any Pakistani involvement with terrorists has been
ordered and directed by Washington. There is a much more complicated story to
all this, but what is happening in reality is that Pakistan as a nation is being
targeted for dismantlement.
The dismantlement and destabilization of Pakistan would serve three objectives:
1. Promoting a scenario of a war with Iran: Pakistan would not be under threat
of a takeover by revolutionaries that would side with Iran and its allies.
2. The targetting of Chinese interests in Pakistan, including the energy
corridor from Iran to China (and the Chinese port in Gwadar), which transits
through Pakistan.
3. Regional destabilization in a key area of Eurasia where Southwest Asia,
Central Asia and the Indian sub-continent meet. This area extends from Iran and
Afghanistan to Pakistan, India, and Western China. At the same time Washington
also wants to neutralize the Pakistani nuclear program.
The U.S. has also announced that it has the right to violate the national
boundaries of countries which harbour terrorists as well as send troops to these
countries as part of the “war on terrorism.” Hillary Clinton has justified
Washington’s stance by saying that U.S. forces would be assassinating
terrorists. This is merely an opening door for creating a pretext for military
intervention in countries such as Iran, where the the Revolutionary Guards have
been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S., or Syria, where several
exiled Palestinian groups have been designated as terrorist organizations by
Washington.
** Global Research Articles by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya
Syrian Forces Begin Push Against Dissidents on Turkish Border
By SEBNEM ARSU and LIAM STACK
Published: June 10, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/11/world/middleeast/11syria.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2
KARBEYAZ, Turkey — Security forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria
began military operations in the country’s restive northwest on Friday, Syrian
state television reported, heightening fears of a widening crackdown on dissent.
A spokesperson for the Local Coordinating Committees in Syria, an activist
coalition that organizes protests and documents the government crackdown, said
on Friday morning that there was heavy gunfire in al-Sarmaneyah, a village five
miles from the flashpoint town of Jisr al-Shoughour, but that people had fled
from both towns and much of the surrounding countryside. Residents of al-Sarmaneyah
burned tires in the street to slow the advance of Syrian troops into Jisr al-Shoughour,
said the spokesperson. “The town is under siege by the army and security
forces,” the committee said in a statement.
The Syrian state news agency, SANA, reported that troops were arresting members
of “organized armed groups” as the operation got under way.
A 60-year-old Syrian man at the refugee camp in Yayladagi on the Turkish side of
the border said other refugees in the camp had spoken by telephone with
relatives near Jisr al-Shoughour who reported that a violent attack had begun.
“They are talking about the army moving with all kinds of armed vehicles and
shooting randomly” with tanks and heavy weapons, he said. “They are also burning
the harvest and livestock on the streets. The army passed through al-Sarmaneyah
and troops are shooting everyone who comes along their way. It is terrible
there.”
Speaking to reporters Friday at the Yayladagi camp, the Turkish justice
minister, Sadullah Ergin, repeated a call for Syria to stop violence against
civilians. Asked if Turkey would participate in an international military
intervention in Syria, Mr. Ergin said: “We don’t even want to consider that
possibility.”
The Syrian security forces had massed around the town of Jisr al-Shoughour on
Thursday after clashes last weekend made the area the new focus of the
pro-democracy demonstrations that have swept across Syria since March. The
protests present the gravest threat yet to four decades of rule by the Assad
family.
The unrest in Jisr al-Shoughour has taken on critical importance for both the
Syrian government and its opponents: reports say that soldiers there have
defected to the opposition, refused to fire on civilian demonstrators and turned
their guns on loyalist army units. While many of the soldiers who defected have
apparently fled the town, some civilians remain. And although the Syrian
government blamed armed gangs and terrorists for the violence, it appears
determined to punish the residents still in Jisr al-Shoughour.
Tanks and armored personnel carriers moved to the edge of the town on Thursday
night, and soldiers appeared to be pitching tents, said one resident reached by
telephone. Many women and children had fled but those residents who remained,
another said, were being stopped at checkpoints ringing the town. A few thousand
men were holed up, awaiting what appeared to be an imminent assault.
“They are going to raid the city but we don’t know when,” said Ahmad, a
28-year-old resident reached by phone who estimated that 100 tanks were among
the forces camped at the city’s doorstep. “Most of us are not armed. We will be
completely exterminated.”
The violence in Jisr al-Shoughour has driven more than a thousand people across
the border into Turkey, raising the pressure on Syria’s embattled government as
Turkey, an important economic partner, is forced to confront a flow of refugees
that could grow in the coming days.
The Turkish government authorized the construction of two refugee camps on
Thursday, according to Turkey’s semiofficial Anatolian News Agency. The new
camps can accommodate more than 5,000 refugees. The violence has provoked fresh
international condemnation. On Thursday, the United Nations Security Council
continued debate on a resolution, circulated by France and Britain, condemning
the Syrian government for using force against civilians, though the measure
faced stiff resistance from China and Russia.
In Geneva, Navi Pillay, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights,
called on Syria to stop the “assault on its own people.”
Reports suggested that more than 1,100 people had been killed, and “10,000 or
more” detained in the weeks since the unrest began, Ms. Pillay said. The massing
of Syrian security forces in the northwest added to concerns that the toll would
rise.
A spokesman for the Local Coordinating Committee in Syria, an umbrella group
organizing protests and documenting the crackdown, said there was also a heavy
security presence in the provincial capital, Idlib City, which was also
surrounded by checkpoints.
Saeb Jamil, 34, a Jisr al-Shoughour resident reached by phone, said people were
being stopped at the checkpoints in Idlib and other cities and detained for
questioning. “All residents of Jisr al-Shoughour are now wanted,” he said. “We
are not allowed to pass or leave to any province.”
Many people from the town have also fled to other cities in Syria. Mohamed, 19,
fled with his family to Hama, itself the site of a crackdown on protesters that
killed dozens last Friday. His family left without money, food or a change of
clothes, he said, and had to rely on donations from poor farmers in the
countryside as they ran. The unrest in Jisr al-Shoughour began with a military
operation launched last Saturday after large antigovernment protests on Friday,
but both state television and residents reached by phone said that the security
forces soon lost control of the situation on the ground.
Syria’s state broadcaster said that more than 120 security officers were killed
by “armed gangs.” Local residents dispute that account and say that fighting
erupted on Sunday between army units loyal to the Assad government and a group
of soldiers who defected and refused to fire on civilians. “A big number of
soldiers and officers refused to shoot at civilians,” said Sami, a 25-year-old
protester in Damascus whose two uncles and grandmother fled there from Jisr al-Shoughour
on Wednesday. He said his relatives “confirmed to me that some soldiers began to
fight each other in groups and that there are no ‘armed gangs.’ “
Only a few thousands people remained in the town on Wednesday night, most of
them men who stayed to defend against the anticipated military assault, said
residents reached by phone. “When you look around the town, all you see are
animals and men,” said Ahmad, the 28-year-old resident. “No families.”
Almost everything in the town was shut. Schools were closed and the national
year-end exams were canceled. Stones were piled to barricade the streets, and
local men carried out patrols.
“The men here are playing the role of security,” Mr. Jamil said. “I could be
killed at any time.” Most of the soldiers who defected fled the town along with
the civilians, said Mr. Jamil, who added that he got to know three of the men,
two 19-year-olds and a sergeant. The men told him their commanding officer said
the protesters in Jisr al-Shoughour were “terrorists” and that if they did not
open fire, they themselves would be shot. The three defected Sunday and fled to
their hometowns the next day.
“They were very scared,” Mr. Jamil said. “They changed out of their military
clothes and were given civilian clothes so they would not be arrested on the
road. But when they left they kept their weapons with them.” The threat of
violence has driven many Syrians across the border, with hundreds more ready to
follow should the crackdown widen. Some have sought shelter at the new refugee
camp, in Yayladagi, Turkey.
“It is really very bad in Jisr al-Shoughour,” said a man who looked to be in his
50s, standing by the camp’s fence. “There are many security forces, heavy army,
tanks — they are all around.” One Syrian man who left, Ali, in his late 40s, lay
in a bed at Hatay Public Research Hospital, where he was recuperating after
being shot in both legs during a demonstration at a mosque in Idlib City about
two weeks ago. “Some of the people in the group were chanting ‘God is one,’ and
‘Freedom,’ when the police showed up,” he recounted. The protesters started
throwing stones at the security forces, he said.
“One of the senior security officers ordered a young army boy, as young as 18 or
19 years old, to shoot on the crowd,” he said. “I heard him — his name was
Hassan — refusing it, and the officer in uniform shot him right in front of my
eyes. All happened right beside me.” “As soon as he fell dead, the protest got
out of control,” he continued. “People were throwing anything they could find at
the security forces, and the police, in return, fired back on us.”
UN discord will be measured in Syrian dead
Michael Young, June 10, 2011
Now Lebanon
The lead role played by France and the United Kingdom in presenting a draft
resolution to the UN Security Council condemning the brutality of the Syrian
regime is laudable. This comes not long after the two countries led the pack in
preventing Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi’s forces from overrunning Benghazi.
Such advocacy has been in refreshing contrast to the Obama administration’s
lethargy.
It is a coincidence, but a revealing one, that the Europeans are again showing
nerve soon after the arrest of the Bosnian Serb war criminal Ratko Mladic.
Bosnia was a watershed for Europe, a test the continent ignominiously failed. It
was the military intervention of the United States that tilted the balance
against the Serbs, leading to the signing of the Dayton Accords. For a time
afterward the Europeans went through a crisis of confidence, but what makes
French and British foreign policy activism today so intriguing (and that may
explain why such activism is on display) is that it comes as the European
unification project is moving through considerable turbulence.
In Washington, meanwhile, a glum Barack Obama is watching the polls. Americans
are expressing displeasure with the president’s economic performance, while the
brief bounce he earned from Osama bin Laden’s assassination has evaporated. With
money on everyone’s mind, and so little to go around in the United States, Obama
may be contemplating a rapid drawdown in Afghanistan. Even as the French and
British are in an expansive mood, the Americans appear to be in shopkeeper mode:
counting their dollars and cents and complimenting their dearth of funds with a
dearth of ambition.
That has been most unfortunate for the Syrian people. Washington was compelled
to follow the European lead in Libya, but it has been more or less standoffish
in Syria. In a May 19 speech at the State Department, Obama declared that
President Bashar al-Assad had a choice of leading a transition to democracy in
Syria or leaving. But he has yet to ask Assad to step down, even though, since
then, the Syrian regime has pursued its violent campaign of repression, showing
no inclination to embrace democracy. According to anti-regime activists, roughly
1,300 people have been killed. The real figure is probably much higher, since
thousands have gone missing and are presumed dead. Some 10,000 Syrians are said
to have been arrested.
The Europeans, notably British Foreign Secretary William Hague, have echoed
Obama’s phrasing. However, American and European diffidence has become
increasingly embarrassing in light of the Syrian carnage. That’s why France and
the United Kingdom have again pressed for a Security Council resolution. A few
weeks ago the Russian and Chinese refused to endorse one. This time around,
however, the French and British appear willing to confront the two naysayers,
even if it means the resolution will be vetoed.
The Obama administration has backed Paris and London. However, the intentional
weakness of the draft resolution, even if it exhibits a desire to co-opt Russia
and China, also may take into consideration continued American reluctance to
advance too quickly on Syria. The text condemns the behavior of the Syrian
regime, demands that it put an end to the crackdown, and warns that the “attacks
currently taking place in Syria by the authorities against its people may amount
to crimes against humanity.” It also calls for a lifting of the siege of Daraa
and Jisr al-Shoughour by the army and the security forces.
However, the resolution fails to impose sanctions, and repeats the absurd logic
of Barack Obama in presuming that the Assad regime might yet lead a democratic
makeover. The draft reads that the “only solution to the current crisis in Syria
is through an inclusive and Syrian-led political process,” one taking into
consideration “the stated intention of the Government of Syria to take steps for
reform.”
No one, certainly not British and French diplomats at the United Nations, are
under any illusion that this will happen. The problem is that, given the Libya
precedent, no one wants to make a push in Syria that might ensnare the
international community in a new conflict it cannot manage. That’s
understandable. But this approach ignores that the Arab states and the
international community don’t have the luxury of wasting more time over Syria,
where the breakdown may soon affect the Middle East in especially dangerous
ways.
The new resolution is designed to be a wedge, one that commits the Security
Council to future action. If the document is passed and the Syrian regime
refuses to implement its clauses, as we can expect, there will have to be a
follow-up resolution imposing penalties on Damascus. The problem is that this
will buy the Assad regime weeks of international vacillation, during which it
will kill more Syrians.
The Assad regime has been its own worst enemy. It is plausible that it will
escalate the butchery at home in the coming days and weeks, virtually begging
the Security Council to accelerate, and escalate, its response to developments
in Syria. Already, Turkey is facing thousands of Syrian refugees crossing the
border. The draft resolution states that the Syrian crisis represents a threat
to international peace and security. If the Russians and Chinese admit to this
by voting in favor, it would be a major concession. Until now they have insisted
that international peace and security are not in jeopardy.
Most disappointing has been Barack Obama. In his State Department address, the
president vowed that the United States would henceforth bolster democracy in the
Middle East. But Obama is worried about his re-election. He doesn’t want to take
on overseas tasks that detract from the economy. When he does come around on
Syria, as he had to on Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen, the president will once
again appear tardy and unconvinced, therefore unconvincing.
**Michael Young is opinion editor of the Daily Star newspaper in Beirut and
author of The Ghosts of Martyrs Square: An Eyewitness Account of Lebanon’s Life
Struggle, which the Wall Street Journal listed as one of its 10 standout books
for 2010. He tweets @BeirutCalling.