LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
November 27/2011
Bible Quotation for today/Love
1 Corinthians 13/01-13: "1 I may be able to speak the
languages of human beings and even of angels, but if I have no love, my speech
is no more than a noisy gong or a clanging bell. may have the gift of inspired
preaching; I may have all knowledge and understand all secrets; I may have all
the faith needed to move mountains—but if I have no love, I am nothing. may give
away everything I have, and even give up my body to be burned but if I have no
love, this does me no good. Love is patient and kind; it is not jealous or
conceited or proud; love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable; love does
not keep a record of wrongs; love is not happy with evil, but is happy
with the truth. Love never gives up; and its faith, hope, and patience never
fail. Love is eternal. There are inspired messages, but they are
temporary; there are gifts of speaking in strange tongues, but they will cease;
there is knowledge, but it will pass. For our gifts of knowledge and of inspired
messages are only partial; but when what is perfect comes, then what is partial
will disappear. When I was a child, my speech, feelings, and thinking were all
those of a child; now that I am an adult, I have no more use for childish ways.
What we see now is like a dim image in a mirror; then we shall see face-to-face.
What I know now is only partial; then it will be complete as complete as God's
knowledge of me. Meanwhile these three remain: faith, hope, and love; and
the greatest of these is love.
Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from
miscellaneous sources
The
cleaning after the revolution/Now Lebanon/November 26, 2011
What Do Totalitarians Do When They Gain Power Democratically?/by
Barry Rubin/November 25/11
The
women of Tahrir Square
Raphael
Thelen/November 26/11
Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for
November 26/11
US carrier strike force enters
Syrian waters. Russian carrier en route
Prosecutor charges Salateen with premediated murder
Arabs
ready sanctions to punish Syria’s defiance
Iran general threatens retaliation against Israel nuclear sites
Israel, Jordan on alert
over threatened Syrian revenge for 6 pilots' deaths
Geagea: No Stability Amid Disagreements, Only March 14 Capable of Establishing
Strong State
March 14
MP Marwan Hamadeh: Aoun willing to destroy everything for presidency
Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc leader MP Mohammad Raad : If not for Syria,
Lebanon would not have persisted
Report: France Mulling to Downsize UNIFIL Troops
Miqati in Rome for Talks with Pope, Says he’ll Return before Wednesday
Mikati hits back at Change and Reform bloc ministers
Berri Urges Dialogue, Rejects Cabinet’s Resignation as Solution to End Crisis
Ogassapian: Cabinet resignation in Hezbollah’s hands, not Mikati’s
Aoun:Those Worried Over Their Foreign Interests Let Them Leave the Government
Aoun’s Ministers Send First Warning to Miqati after Refusing to Attend Cabinet
Session
Miqati: Premiership Will not Be aTarget, Authority Will Not Be Reduced
Cabinet boycott adds to
Mikati woes
GLC and private sector
fail to reach deal on salary packages
Guide aims to outline
rules for ISF, judiciary conduct
Lebanon begins landmark
reforestation campaign
Arms smugglers thrive on Syrian uprising
Truth behind disappearances will be revealed: Rifi
North protests Assad while Syrian workers in
south march for regime
Cabinet formation may be impossible if Mikati
resigns
Poverty drives deforestation in northern Bekaa Valley
MP Michel
Aoun: Syria’s uprising serves external interests
UN rights
chief working with Arab League on Syria case
Syrian Observatory: Troops Killed in Clashes with Deserters
Pakistan: ‘Unprovoked’ NATO Air Attack Kills 26 Troops
Prosecutor charges Salateen with premediated murder
November 26, 2011/By Youssef Diab The Daily Star
BEIRUT: A Syrian man was formally charged Friday with the brutal murder of a
woman in Kesrouan last Monday. The Mount Lebanon public prosecutor, Claude Karam,
charged Fathi Jabr Salateen with the premeditated murder of Myriam al-Ashkar in
Sahel Alma earlier this week, a charge that usually carries a death penalty. The
body of Ashkar was found covered in blood Tuesday on the outskirts of Our Lady
of the Annunciation monastery in Sahel Alma. Salateen, who worked as a janitor
at the monastery, told police he raped Ashkar before killing her by cutting her
throat Monday afternoon. According to a security source, however, the medical
results indicated that Salateen did not rape Ashkar, and the accusation did not
appear in the official charge sheet. Karam had Salateen transferred to the
custody of investigative judge in Mount Lebanon, Ziad Makanna, who interrogated
Salateen and issued an formal arrest warrant against him. Jounieh police had
handed Salateen over to Karam after questioning the suspect for three days under
Karam’s supervision. According to sources close to the investigation, Salateen
committed the crime alone after having planned it in advance, and no accomplices
were involved.
A judicial source said that Salateen was conscripted in a Syrian Intelligence
unit in the Bekaa from 2001 to 2003, when he was discharged. Judicial sources
denied rumors of a deal that would see Salateen handed over to the Syrian
embassy in Lebanon to try him in his home country. “There is no such request and
even if it were, it would rejected immediately as the authority to try him
belongs to the Lebanese judiciary only, given that the crime was committed on
Lebanese land and that the victim was Lebanese,” the source said. Metn MP Sami
Gemayel voiced Friday his party’s rejection of extraditing Salateen.
“The crime took place in Sahel Alma in broad daylight and we will not be
satisfied unless the perpetrator is tried by the Lebanese judiciary according to
the country’s laws,” Gemayel said, also promising the victim’s family that he
will follow up on all developments connected to the crime. For his part,
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea telephoned Myriam’s brother, Tony Ashkar,
and offered his condolences to the victim’s family and relatives as well as
Sahel Alma residents, and asserted that the Lebanese Forces would support
Ashkar’s family in their search for justice.The Municipality of Jounieh issued a
statement in which it offered condolences to Ashkar’s family and the residents
of Sahel Alma, and condemned the “ugly” crime.The statement also called on
judicial authorities to hand down the harshest possible punishment to the
perpetrator, and asked that the relevant authorities crack down on illegal
foreign workers in Jounieh and across the country. The Beirut Bar Association
also condemned Ashkar’s murder and reminded officials of their duty to confront
crime in the country by arresting the perpetrators and trying them without
delay.
US carrier strike force enters
Syrian waters. Russian carrier en route
DEBKAfile Special Report/November 26, 2011/The Syrian crisis aassumed a big
power dimension this week with the build-up of rival United States and Russia
naval air carrier armadas in Syrian waters, debkafile's military sources report.
The USS George H.W. Bush arrived Wednesday, Nov. 23, in the wake of the three
Russian warships anchored earlier opposite Tartus which established a command
post in the Syrian port. They will be augmented by Russia's only air carrier the
Admiral Kuznetsov, which is due in mid-week.
By deploying 70 ship-borne fighter-bombers plus three heavy guided missile
cruisers and five guided missile destroyers opposite Syria, Washington has laid
down military support for any intervention the Arab League in conjunction with
Turkey may decide on. Bashar Assad can see for himself
that Washington has hoisted a nuclear aerial umbrella to protect its allies,
Israel, Turkey, and Jordan, against the retaliation his armed forces high
command pledged Friday for the deaths of six Syrian air force elite pilots in an
ambush Thursday.
For some time, Ankara has been weighing the creation of a protected haven for
rebels and refugees inside Syria. France has proposed slicing "humanitarian
corridors" through Syria for them to flee safely from military tank and gunfire
and secure supply of food, medicines and other essential supplies to the cities
under army siege. Both plans would depend on being
safeguarded by substantial ground and air strength inside Syria which would
certainly face fierce resistance from Assad's military.
The Arab League has scheduled weekend meetings to decide how to proceed
after Damascus ignored its Friday deadline for accepting hundreds of monitors.
Saturday, Nov. 26, AL finance ministers will discuss economic sanctions. In the
past 48 hours, at least 70 people were reported killed as the Syrian army
continued its crackdown in the face of spreading armed opposition.
The Russian Kuznetzov carrier and its
accompanying strike vessels will join the three Russian warships parked opposite
Tartus for more than a week. It will enter the same Syrian offshore waters as
the USS Bush and the US Sixth Fleet, which is permanently posted in the
Mediterranean.
The Syrian crisis is therefore building up to a superpower face-off unparalleled
since the Cold War between America and the Soviet Union ended in the nineties,
debkafile's military sources note.
While Washington clearly stands ready to back operations against the Assad
regime, Moscow is drawing a red line around his presidential palace in Damascus.
The Kremlin is warning the US, NATO and the Arab League that they will not be
allowed to repeat their feat in Libya of overthrowing Muammar Qaddafi against
Assad. In the face of this escalating big power
standoff and the high possibility of the Syrian ruler deciding to lash out
against his country's neighbors, the Israeli, Jordanian and Turkey armies have
declared a high state of war preparedness.
Arabs ready sanctions to punish Syria’s defiance
November 26, 2011
Arab ministers gathered in Cairo Saturday to draw up sanctions against Syria to
punish President Bashar al-Assad's regime for defying an ultimatum to allow in
observers and pressing a deadly crackdown.
The finance ministers were to thrash out a package - expected to include the
suspension of flights and freezing of government assets - which will then be put
to foreign ministers on Sunday.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said he would join Sunday's meeting to
harmonize his government's own measures with those of the Arab League, saying
that Ankara's former ally had missed its "last chance" by failing to heed the
Arab ultimatum. But Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar
Zebari, whose country has close economic ties with Syria and a large refugee
community in its western neighbor, said it was "not possible" to impose
sanctions on the Assad regime. The Arab League had set
a Friday deadline for the regime to agree to the details of the observers'
mission, part of a reform deal that Damascus had previously said it accepted.
Davutoglu, whose government has expressed outrage at the mounting
bloodshed in its southern neighbor that saw at least 16 people killed just
Friday, said the Damascus regime's refusal to allow in observers could only mean
it had something to conceal. "Syria was expected to
say yes to the observers...unless there is a reality it hides about the
situation in Syrian cities," Davutoglu said after the deadline's expiry.
"As it said no, it increased...the concerns on the humanitarian
situation," he said, in the wake of UN estimates that the crackdown has cost
more than 3,500 lives since March. Ankara already has
some measures in hand against Damascus, including a suspension of joint oil
exploration and a threat to halt power exports.
Syria depends on its Arab neighbors for half of its exports and a quarter of its
imports. Were the 22-nation bloc to impose serious
economic sanctions, the impact would be crippling for a country already a facing
a raft of punitive measures from the European Union and the United States.
Lebanon’s government, dominated by Damascus ally Hezbollah, has already
made clear that it will not enforce any economic sanctions against its larger
neighbor. In this month's vote at the Arab League,
Lebanon joined Yemen and Syria itself in voting against the threat of sanctions.
The pan-Arab bloc now says that it wants UN help in its showdown with
Assad after previously shying away from internationalizing the crisis.-AFP/NOW
Lebanon
March 14 MP Marwan Hamadeh: Aoun willing to destroy everything for presidency
November 26, 2011 ظMarch 14 MP Marwan Hamadeh said on
Saturday that “[Change and Reform bloc leader MP] Michel Aoun is willing to
destroy everything to achieve his goal and become president.”
Hamadeh also said during an interview with As-Sharq radio station that “there
will be no military intervention in Syria.”He also said that “Hezbollah and the
Amal Movement have started to seriously reconsider the possibility of the fall
of the Syrian regime and the repercussions of the fall on Lebanon.”He also
stressed “the importance of committing to the international community’s
obligations, because it is the main engine for the Lebanese economy.”Lebanon's
political scene is split between supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s
regime, led by Hezbollah, and the pro-Western March 14 camp.
The United Nations says more than 3,500 people have died in the lethal crackdown
on dissent, mostly civilians.-NOW Lebanon
Geagea: No Stability Amid Disagreements, Only March 14 Capable of Establishing
Strong State
Naharnet /Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea stressed on Saturday that Lebanon
would not enjoy stability as long as its citizens are in disagreement. “The
authority in Lebanon is practically lost,” Geagea told a delegation of
businessmen visiting him at his residence in Maarab. “Where would stability come
from if the country doesn’t have a demarcated border and known authority and
lacks citizens that agree on the concept of nation?” he wondered. The LF leader
said that stability requires a country with demarcated borders and an authority
that can protect it. “How would we have an economy and an economic cycle” if the
authority is lost?, he asked. He urged the Lebanese to start reforming politics
before anything else. “We have to fight till the end. We should start by fixing
politics and then we could fix everything else.” Geagea stressed that Lebanon
would have a strong and capable state only if the March 14 forces come back to
power.“We should always work on achieving this objective,” he said.
Report: France Mulling to Downsize UNIFIL Troops Naharnet /France is mulling to
downsize its troops in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon early next
year, informed French sources told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Saturday.The
sources said the reduction in the number of French soldiers from the current
12,000 would come when UNIFIL Commander Maj. Gen. Alberto Asarta’s mandate
expires. An Italian is expected to take charge after him. The French leadership
has decided to make the decrease to pave way for the Lebanese army to gradually
take more charge of the monitoring of the ceasefire in accordance with Security
Council resolution 1701 that ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hizbullah,
the sources told al-Hayat. The number of troops that will be withdrawn from
UNIFIL is not known yet, they said, stressing that the French move is linked to
a U.N. decision on the size of peacekeepers that the world body wants to keep in
southern Lebanon. A French U.N. patrol was attacked on July 26 and Italian
peacekeepers were targeted on May 27.In August, the Security Council strongly
condemned attacks on U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon as it renewed the key force's
mandate for another year.
Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc leader MP Mohammad Raad : If not for Syria,
Lebanon would not have persisted
November 26, 2011 /Loyalty to the Resistance bloc leader MP Mohammad Raad on
Saturday said that “had it not been for Syria and its strategic vision, Lebanon
would not have persisted.”
Raad also reiterated “Hezbollah’s support for Syria and its people who embraced
the people of the resistance during the Israeli aggression against Lebanon.”
“Those who are conspiring today against Syria are the same people who
[collaborated] with Israel and the United States during the 2006 July war led by
Israel,” The National News Agency quoted him as saying. “We will not forget the
money that those people paid to [provide] the enemy with cluster bombs and we
will not forget that they stole the money of the nation.” “Thanks to Syria’s
resistance…their projects failed,” he added. Lebanon's political scene is split
between supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, led by
Hezbollah, and the pro-Western March 14 camp. The United Nations says more than
3,500 people have died in the lethal crackdown on dissent, mostly civilians.-NOW
Lebanon
MP Michel Aoun: Syria’s uprising serves external interests
November 26, 2011 /Change and Reform bloc leader MP Michel Aoun said on Saturday
that “what is happening in Syria serves [external] interests and the plans to
divide [the region].”
“I do not believe that the international community, which is supporting the
violence movement in Syria, wants to realize human rights,” Aoun said during his
meeting with a delegation of Syrian women.
Aoun also called on the Syrian people "to resort to dialogue instead of
weapons."He also called for “respecting the freedom of religious and political
belief, freedom of expression and freedom of difference.”
Lebanon's political scene is split between supporters of Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad’s regime, led by Hezbollah, and the pro-Western March 14 camp. The
Syrian authorities blame "armed terrorist gangs" for the violence which has
swept the country in the eight months since the security forces launched a
crackdown on protests that erupted in March. The United Nations says more than
3,500 people have died in the lethal crackdown on dissent, mostly civilians.-NOW
Lebanon
Miqati in Rome for Talks with Pope, Says he’ll Return before Wednesday
Naharnet /Premier Najib Miqati arrived in Rome on Saturday and is scheduled to
hold talks with Pope Benedict XVI on Monday, he announced on twitter. “Just
landed in Rome, Italy on a sunny day with 18C temp,” he said. He tweeted that he
had a fairly busy schedule and a meeting with the pope on Monday. Miqati also
extended his greetings to the Lebanese on the occasion of the Islamic New Year,
hoping that Lebanon would always enjoy stability. “I already miss Lebanon
and hope our beloved country will always be blessed with peace, tranquility,
stability and advancement,” he said.
A cabinet session on the funding of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon is
scheduled to be held on Wednesday after Miqati’s return from Rome. The premier
has hinted that he would resign if the government failed to approve the payment
of 49 percent of Lebanon’s share to the tribunal that is set to try ex-Premier
Rafik Hariri’s suspected assassins. Miqati confirmed he would be back to Beirut
before Wednesday, saying “Anyway, I'll always be there for YOU, beloved Lebanese
people, no matter what.”
Syrian Observatory: Troops Killed in Clashes with Deserters
Naharnet/At least 10 troops and security service agents were killed in clashes
with mutinous soldiers in the east of the country, a human rights group said on
Saturday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the deaths occurred late
Friday in Deir Ezzor while early Saturday a civilian was also killed in the
eastern city. The clashes "killed at least 10 regular army troops and security
service agents, while three deserters were wounded, one of them critically," the
Britain-based watchdog said in a statement to Agence France Presse. The civilian
died when he was hit by gunfire as security forces launched raids in Deir Ezzor
and carried out arrests, it said. On Friday, the military confirmed that six
elite pilots and four others were killed in an attack the previous day, accusing
foreign powers of supporting acts of terror within Syria. "An armed terrorist
gang murdered six pilots, an officer and three junior officers working for the
military air base," on Thursday, the army said in a statement quoted by the
state news agency SANA. The ambush "took place on the Palmyra-Homs road
yesterday afternoon," it said. The attack was claimed on Thursday by the rebel
Free Syrian Army who said seven military pilots were killed in an ambush on a
bus. The rebel army has stepped up attacks on regime targets in recent weeks in
a bid to topple the government of President Bashar Assad who has waged a bloody
crackdown on pro-democracy protesters since mid-March. At least six people were
killed on Friday as protesters flooded the streets in support of the Free Syrian
Army, activists said.
The latest violence came as Arab ministers gathered in Cairo to draw up a
package of crippling sanctions against Syria after Assad's regime ignored a
Friday deadline to accept an observers' mission to monitor the violence.Source
Agence France Presse
New Opinion: The cleaning after the revolution
November 26, 2011/Now Lebanon
Overturning a dictator is not enough. It is just a first step in a long process
of change. Nobody understands what the Arab Spring means better than the Eastern
Europeans. In 1989 they overturned the oppressive Communist regimes that had
ruled their countries for half a century and went through a two-decade
transition from dictatorship to democracy.
They know revolution doesn’t stop with ousting a dictator. The change goes on
with cleaning the entire state system of the regime’s loyalists, human rights
abusers, corrupt policemen and vicious secret police. The Arab states need only
look carefully at how Eastern Europe dealt with its transition and started its
own deep cleaning.
Egypt and Tunisia started the process immediately after they overturned Hosni
Moubarak and Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. Protesters stormed the secret police
headquarters in Cairo in search of proof that torture had been taking place,
while the first decision of the interim government in Tunis was to dismantle the
State Security Department, the former regime’s most feared institution. This is
what the people in Eastern Europe did in 1989, and this is what the Syrian
protesters enraged by the crimes of their merciless regime’s loyalists are
likely to do when Bashar al-Assad is ousted.
But that is still not enough. The institutions of oppression might be gone, but
the people who ran them will still be there. Cleaning is not just change but
also the transformation of the people’s mentality from obedience and fear to the
embrace of justice, human rights and law. And the process takes time. How do you
make sure the old regime’s people stay out of the new government’s institutions?
Eastern Europe had lustration, which was very well implemented in the Czech
Republic and Poland, but less successful in the rest of the former Communist
countries. Lustration—which comes from the Latin lustrum, meaning
purification—was a process meant to regulate the degree of participation in new
political and civil service positions of former Communist dignitaries and
informants for the Communist intelligence services.
The Czech Republic’s new government blacklisted former Communist Secret Police (STB)
collaborators from holding public office—including in the civil service, the
judiciary, the security services, the army, state-owned enterprises, academia
and public media.
Poland had a more organized “purification” process. The Lustration Law was
adopted in 1997, almost a decade after the fall of the Communist regime, and the
government in Warsaw had a difficult job finding the former secret service
informants who had already attempted to cover their tracks and destroy
compromising evidence. The government created the Public Interest Spokesperson,
an institution that investigated the files of Communist secret police
collaborators and referred them to courts in order to determine if there was
enough proof to blacklist the person. It was replaced a decade later with the
Institute of National Remembrance, which makes sure newly appointed officials
born before 1972 and holding positions of significant public
responsibility—including lawyers, public notaries, attorneys, journalists and
academic workers—prove they never collaborated with the Communist secret police.
In the Arab countries that overturned their dictatorships, it is not too late
for lustration. Egypt is the only country that adopted a lustration law. The
bill was announced four days ago, a bit too late to be effective in the
elections set for next week. But looking at Poland’s example, there is still
hope for Egyptians, Tunisians, Syrians and Yemenis.
It remains to be seen if the new political leadership to emerge from the Arab
Spring can face the more serious challenges of finding qualified people to
replace the thousands of blacklisted collaborators, investigate their cases and
bring them to justice. These are also good questions for the Syrian opposition,
which is still trying to brace up, unite and overthrow the Assad regime.
Israel, Jordan on alert over threatened Syrian revenge for 6 pilots' deaths
DEBKAfile Special Report /November 25, 2011/Israel Jordan Free Syrian Army on
attackIsraeli and Jordanian armed forces declared a state of preparedness
Friday, Nov. 25, after the Syrian General Command accused an "armed terrorist"
group of an ambush killing 10 airmen including 6 elite pilots on the Homs-Palmyra
road Thursday, "with the involvement of foreign parties, the foremost of which
is Israel."debkafile's military and intelligence sources report the ambush was
another of the major operations against Assad regime's most sensitive targets
executed by the Free Syrian Army this week.
It took place at a point on the highway east of Palmyra on the fringe of the
Syrian Desert and close to the Syrian Air Force base at Tiyas.
The official statement aired on Syrian state TV said the attack claimed the
lives of six elite pilots, one technical officer and three technical
sub-officers of the airbase.
Our sources add that the rebel army must have penetrated the highest levels of
Syria's military intelligence command for the attack and was clearly receiving
targeting data from inside the armed forces.
The attack took place two days after the Free Syrian Army using rocket grenade
launchers and heavy machine guns smashed into the Air Force Intelligence base of
Harasta near Damascus, killing at least 10 Syrian troops. The ruling Baath party
headquarters in Damascus was also attacked on Thursday.
The official statement broadcast Friday described the pilots as "qualitatively
trained in piloting modern military aircraft" and "prepared to carry out "the
sacred duty of liberating the land and restoring the usurped rights."It went on
to say: "The General Command… considers that the beneficiaries of this terrorist
act are the enemies of the homeland and the nation, foremost being Israel."
The Syrian military vowed "to cut every evil hand that targets Syrian blood, and
decisively confront all who threaten the homeland's security and stability."
The 24-hour lapse between the attack and the official statement indicated the
level of dismay and confusion in Damascus over the sudden assault on the most
stalwart buttress of the Assad dynasty in the nine-month crisis and a body blow
to his regime.
Bashar Assad cannot afford to avoid retaliating. If he does, it will be an
admission that the backbone of his armed forces is falling apart and out of
control.
Since there is no knowing what form his revenge will take, Israel, Jordan and
most likely Turkey too were braced Friday for trouble.
Assad no doubt took into account that bombing Free Syrian Army training bases
across the border in Turkey would bring forth a Turkish military strike. So for
now, he decided to point the finger at Israel, a reliable standby when the
regime has its back to the wall. Jordan, through which large arms supplies reach
the Syrian opposition, may seem to Damascus to be easy prey for the bombardment
or raid of bases hosting Syrian rebels. In the heat of the crisis, the Syrian
ruler allowed the deadline set by the Arab League of his acceptance of hundreds
of monitors go by Friday without an answer. "It is a last chance, a new chance
for Syria,” Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters in Istanbul
at a joint news conference with his Jordanian counterpart Nasser Judeh. By
missing the deadline, Damascus faces possible economic sanctions spearheaded by
the Arab League, which earlier this month suspended Syrian membership, amid
growing international isolation
UN rights chief working with Arab League on Syria case
November 25, 2011
The UN's human rights chief is in contact with the Arab League over its efforts
to end the deadly crackdown on protests in Syria, a UN spokesperson said Friday.
The League said Thursday it wants UN help in its showdown with President Bashar
al-Assad, and diplomats said the League may want a UN contribution to an
international observer mission that Syria is refusing to let in. UN Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon is "extremely concerned at the escalating crisis and
mounting death toll in Syria" and is ready to help the Arab League, said UN
spokesperson Martin Nesirky, without giving details of what the Arab body is
asking for. Nesirky told reporters however that the office of UN Human Rights
Commissioner Navi Pillay "is in contact with the secretariat of the League of
Arab States" over the request. Ban backs "the Arab League's proposal to send an
observer mission to protect civilians in Syria and strongly urges the Syrian
authorities to give their consent and full cooperation as demanded by the
League." On top of the Arab League request, the UN General Assembly's human
rights committee passed a resolution this week calling on Ban to provide support
to the Arab League."The Secretary-General is ready to provide the support needed
in accordance with his functions and within the framework of the UN's
cooperation with the League of Arab States," said the spokesman. Diplomats said
it was likely the Arab League wanted UN experts involved in any international
observer mission. The UN Human Rights Council has already set up an
investigation into the Syrian crackdown, which the UN says has left at least
3,500 dead. The Syrian government has refused to give access to UN rights
monitors but the investigation is to release a preliminary report on Monday.The
Arab League gave Syria until Friday to agree to let in an observer mission, but
Assad's government has not responded. Arab League foreign ministers will now
meet in Cairo Sunday to discuss possible sanctions. -AFP/NOW Lebanon
Britain, Qatar to press Syrian rebel links
November 25, 2011 /The prime ministers of Britain and Qatar pledged at a meeting
Friday to keep up talks with Syrian opposition groups in a bid to support a
transition to a stable democracy, Downing Street said. Britain's David Cameron
met Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani for lunch in his Witney constituency in
Oxfordshire, southern England, a spokesperson said. "Discussion covered current
international issues, in particular the situation in Syria," she said. "The
leaders agreed that the brutal repression of the [Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s]
regime was a dangerous and increasingly grave concern.” "They were clear on the
importance of the Syrian regime accepting the Arab League's initiative to end
the violence and they agreed on the need to continue talking to the Syrian
opposition movements to support the transition to an inclusive and stable
democracy." Britain has called for Assad to stand down after a crackdown on
opposition protesters that has cost at least 3,500 lives, according to the
United Nations. -AFP/NOW Lebanon
Mikati hits back at Change and
Reform bloc ministers
November 25, 2011/Prime Minister Najib Mikati retorted on Friday to statements
issued by certain Change and Reform bloc ministers regarding their absence from
Friday’s cabinet session.
Mikati said in a statement issued by his press office: “The [Change and Reform
bloc] ministers say that ‘it is not possible for the prime minister to prepare
the [cabinet’s] agenda and force the ministers to discuss it' However, [these
claims] are unacceptable.” The PM recalled Article 64 in the constitution which
states that the “prime minister calls on the cabinet to convene, prepares its
agenda and informs the president ahead of the cabinet meeting about the talking
points.”In an interview with New TV, Change and Reform bloc Minister Gebran
Bassil said that “[Change and Reform ministers] do not approve of the cabinet’s
agenda,” adding that “it is widely known that the agenda is put together by
President Michel Sleiman and Prime Minister Najib Mikati.” “It is not normal to
ignore important matters like the state budget then suddenly add on the agenda
[the issue of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon],” the energy minister also told
New TV. Information Minister Walid al-Daouq said the cabinet session scheduled
for Friday at the Baabda Presidential Palace was postponed because the quorum
was not reached. OTV television said that the ministers who did not attend the
cabinet session were members of the Change and Reform bloc, in addition to two
others, members of the National Struggle Front. -NOW Lebanon
Ogassapian: Cabinet resignation
in Hezbollah’s hands, not Mikati’s
November 25, 2011 /Future bloc MP Jean Ogassapian told Future
News television on Friday that Hezbollah decides whether the cabinet resigns or
not. “The resignation of the government is in the hands of Hezbollah, not in the
hands of Prime Minister Najib Mikati,” Ogassapian said. Ogassapian told
Future News television station that he has anticipated two different scenarios
for Wednesday’s cabinet session: either a quorum will not be reached due to the
possible absence of the Change and Reform bloc ministers, or the cabinet will
convene but will not reach a decision regarding the funding for the Special
Tribunal for Lebanon (STL). The second scenario will lead to “Mikati’s
resignation, in which case Hezbollah will turn out victorious because there will
no longer be a government” to decide on the issue of paying Lebanon’s share of
STL funding, the Future bloc MP said. Information Minister Walid al-Daouq said
the cabinet session scheduled for Friday at the Baabda Presidential Palace was
postponed until Wednesday because the quorum was not reached. OTV television
said that the ministers who did not attend the cabinet session were members of
the Change and Reform bloc, in addition to two others, members of the National
Struggle Front. Four Hezbollah members have been indicted by the UN-backed
court for the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. However,
the Shia group strongly denies the charges and refuses to cooperate with the
court. Lebanon contributes 49 percent of the STL’s annual funding. Mikati’s
government is dominated by Hezbollah and its allies, which are insisting that
the country cease all cooperation with the Netherlands-based court.-NOW Lebanon
Truth behind disappearances will
be revealed: Rifi
November 26, 2011/The Daily Star /BEIRUT: The truth behind the
kidnappings of Syrian dissidents in the country will be uncovered, Internal
Security Forces commander Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi pledged Friday.“The people
should know that truth behind kidnappings,” Rifi told The Daily Star. “No
incident will remain out of reach of investigations by the Internal Security
Forces.”Rifi voiced hope that new leads discovered in the course of
investigations would help the ISF explain the circumstances of several
disappearances that have been reported this year.“We are working on all the
cases, including Aisamy and others who were kidnapped in Beirut,” said Rifi in
reference to the kidnapping of Syrian dissident Shibli Aisamy in May.Several
media reports over the past several months have said that some of the Syrian
dissidents kidnapped in Lebanon have been taken to Syria. “Even if they are no
longer on Lebanese territory, it is our duty to explain and detail how and when
the kidnapped individuals were taken out of the country,” Rifi added.
Arms smugglers thrive on Syrian uprising
November 25, 2011/By Afif Diab/Daily Star
BAALBEK, Lebanon: Weapons dealer Abu Wael has traded guns in Lebanon's Bekaa
valley since the last days of his country's civil war, nearly a quarter of a
century ago. This has been his busiest year ever.Unrest in neighbouring syria
has sent demand for weapons soaring, doubling prices for Kalashnikov assault
rifles and other weapons and helping supply the increasingly well armed
insurrection challenging President Bashar al-Assad. In the first six months of
the protests, Abu Wael sold 2,000 Kalashnikovs and M16 rifles, the highest
turnover of his long years in an underground arms business that has operated for
decades across porous Middle East borders.
Prices for Kalashnikovs have risen 75 percent to as much as $2,000 each, while
M16s doubled to $2,500, reflecting the surge in demand for arms. The biggest
jump was in the price of rocket-propelled grenades, which together with a
launcher now cost $2,500 compared with $400 before, when demand was minimal."I
buy weapons from Lebanese people and sell them to traders who in turn pass them
on to syrian merchants," said 63-year-old Abu Wael, who declined to give his
full name. He spoke to Reuters with his face covered by an Arab keffiyeh
headdress, clutching one of his rifles. He said he deliberately dressed in the
scruffy clothes of a Bekaa farmer to avoid attracting attention, never spoke by
telephone, and declined to be identified by his full name. "There is an
organized network between Lebanon and syria dealing with the purchase and sale
of weapons of various kinds, especially rifles," he said.
The emergence of anti-Assad fighters calling themselves the Free syrian Army,
attacking syrian troops, tanks, and even an intelligence building on the
outskirts of Damascus, has led syria to revive accusations of foreign arms
trafficking. Damascus says it has thwarted many attempts to smuggle in weapons.
Shortly after protests broke out in March, authorities accused an anti-syrian
Lebanese politician of funding arms traffickers to supply Assad's opponents, and
earlier this month Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem accused northern neighbour
Turkey of failing to cut the flow of guns.
But dealers, diplomats and analysts say that weapons coming across syria's
borders with Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and Iraq may form only a small part of a
rebel arsenal that is also supplied by army deserters who bring weapons when
they defect, and by raids on, or even purchases from, army depots.Activists play
down the role of arms trafficking, possibly to emphasise the peaceful side of
the syrian uprising.
"NO GUNS, BUT MONEY"
syrian army deserters on the Turkish side of the border insist arms smuggling
into the country is negligible, but they say expatriate syrians who support the
uprising have sent electronic equipment to help communications as well as cash
used to bribe security officers to hand over weapons.
"Turkey is not allowing us the opportunity to send weapons inside," Captain
Ayham al-Kurdi, who heads the Abu Fida brigade of the syrian Free Army, told
Reuters.
Another defector who declined to reveal his identity said $2 million was
recently sent across the border "to help our brothers set up better
communication links".
Several defectors involved in what they insist is a small-scale arms trail say
most weapons that do reach syria are brought across from northern Lebanon, where
the remote, undemarcated frontier has for decades been a haven for smugglers
ferrying subsidised goods from syria and weapons from Lebanon.
They say there has also been an increasing flow of guns and RPGs into syria from
the Sunni Muslim tribes of Iraq's Western Anbar province, who have close ties
with their brethren in eastern syria, hundreds of miles (kilometres) from
Damascus.
"Due to the inter-tribal ties across the border, Iraqi tribes are helping
defecting groups in the Deir al-Zor area. But the quantities remain small and
the long distances make it difficult to transport many arms," Kurdi added.
A tribal figure from the eastern syrian province of Deir al-Zor, who identified
himself as Sheikh Abu Ismail, said more weapons might be supplied in future
"depending on developments on the ground and what turn the revolution takes."
"The borders are not sealed... so arms flows would accelerate in the future if
the regime continues its repression and killings," he told Reuters by telephone.
The United Nations says more than 3,500 people have been killed in Assad's
crackdown on protests. Authorities have since the start of the unrest blamed
armed groups for the bloodshed, saying they have killed 1,100 soldiers and
police.
Sheikh Abu Ismail said money to finance the trafficking was coming from Sunni
Muslim Gulf countries, particularly Saudi Arabia, which sees Assad's alliance
with Shi'ite Iran as a challenge to its regional clout.
INSIDE SUPPLIES
Western diplomats say there is no proof of any state role in directly financing
or arming the rebels, suggesting they have so far been able to rely primarily on
guns already in the country.
"It's not unreasonable to assume that a lot of the stuff they get is from
inside," a Damascus-based diplomat said.
"I don't think there has been mass, coordinated gun-running. But I suspect that
if there are tribal members across the border asking for help, they will get
it," he said, citing the Jordanian and Iraqi frontiers with southern syria.
"There's no sense yet that governments have been (involved). There's been sabre-rattling
- saying this is what we could do - but we haven't seen that yet".
Jordan says smuggling across its border took place before the uprising and has
continued, but only in very limited cases. "Authorities have always had an iron
grip on the borders," Information Minister Rakan al-Majali told Reuters.
A syrian man involved in arming the deserters said the main source for weapons
"is the syrian army itself".
"With the corruption that has infested the country, you can buy a lot from the
army," he said. "I heard of one case where a whole arms depot was being offered
to be cleared but there were no takers because it was feared it could be a trap.
Efforts to play down the role of arms trafficking may be a deliberate policy by
activists who have relentlessly sought to accentuate the peaceful side of the
syrian uprising.
"I think there is an effort by activists helping the defectors to cover up the
fact they are smuggling weapons," said one Assad opponent from the central city
of Homs.
"They want to keep the media focused on the peaceful revolution happening, not
on the armed rebels fighting the army. They are definitely smuggling weapons,
I'm sure of it." In Baalbek, Abu Wael complains that business has dried up in
the last two months, as Lebanese authorities clamped down on the trade and syria
started planting mines on the border. "The arms market in Lebanon today is
frozen. Buying and selling has almost stopped." (Additional reporting by
Suleiman al-Khalidi in Hatay, Turky, Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman and Dominic
Evans and Erika Solomon in Beirut.)
The women of Tahrir Square
Raphael Thelen, November 25, 2011
Cairo – The conflict between protesters and security forces around Cairo’s
Tahrir Square has settled into an uneasy routine of attacks and counterattacks.
The security forces are aggressively using tear gas, seriously injuring many
protesters. Despite the dangers, more and more women are showing up to protest
and tend to injured demonstrators.
The protesters are demanding the ruling military regime hand over power to a
civilian government. Rana pushes her way down Mohammed Mahmoud Street toward the
Interior Ministry building, the epicenter of the violence in the recent clashes.
Rana makes her way past piles of rubble and burned-out cars to the front line to
support her fellow protesters. “We are doing our first aid here to help the
people,” she says.
Protesters with red, swollen eyes and faces stream in from the front line. Many
of them are desperately gasping for breath. This scene has been playing out
since last weekend, when protests erupted after the ruling military council, the
SCAF, published a proposal for the future constitution that gives itself
ultimate say in all major political decisions and keeps its budget out of
parliamentary control.
Rana stops time and again to rub a treatment for the tear gas on the protesters’
faces. The tear gas used by the security forces in this bout of protests is ten
times stronger than the more common tear gas used during the January uprising
that led to the ouster of then-President Hosni Mubarak. Protesters have been
picking up empty tear gas canisters that show expiration dates from five years
ago. Human rights groups say that the tear gas being used, especially the
expired doses, can cause damage to the lungs, liver and heart and even kill in
high concentrations.
“On Saturday and Sunday it was almost only men on Tahrir Square. There were
girls but not a lot of women. But now there are a lot of women,” says Basima
Jazeery. The 18-year-old has been spending as much time as she can volunteering.
“There are doctors and pharmacists helping the injured. Some girls demonstrate.
Others come and bring things or help people, and when they need anything they
take their car, go and buy it. And some girls were sleeping here in the Tahrir
Square,” the high school student says, beaming with pride.
Basima and other women and girls have organized themselves into groups. They sit
on thick woolen blankets and mix a treatment for tear gas made of stomach
antacid and water and fill it into spray bottles. The liquid helps against the
immediate burning pain caused by the tear gas. “The people come here, take the
spray bottles and then they go back,” Basima says.
Protester Rana got halfway down to the Interior Ministry, clenching one of the
bottles in her hand. “From this line on they say it is very dangerous,” she
says. Like many other protesters she tries to protect herself with inexpensive
face masks, sold for two dollars on the square. Their effectiveness is doubtful.
Rana moves on down the street, as the security forces have momentarily stopped
their barrage of tear gas grenades. Protesters inch forward to within a stone’s
throw of the police. “They are standing over there, waiting for us to come over
and over again. And then they shoot us. That is the way they’re doing it,” Rana
says, nestling her nose into her face mask. “There are always many injuries, but
we are ready to be injured. We want a civilian regime,” she says as the
protesters suddenly launch a hail of stones at the security forces.
The security forces respond with a bombardment of tear gas, immediately drowning
the street in white clouds. The grenades hit the ground and burst into a ball of
fire. The protesters on the front lines flee toward the square, calling out
toward the crowd, “Don’t breathe! Don’t breathe! Close your eyes!” The
protesters have to run through the gas for 500 meters, coughing and stumbling.
Some collapse.
Only seconds later motorcycle ambulances race down the now empty, rubble-strewn
street to pick up the injured. Rana is one of them. Two other protesters hold
her before she is hurled onto a motorcycle and rushed to one of the makeshift
hospitals.
Maurice Vellacott, MP/Saskatoon-Wanuskewin/Vellacott
commends court decision upholding ban on polygamy
For Immediate Release November 25, 2011
OTTAWA – Member of Parliament Maurice Vellacott (Saskatoon-Wanuskewin) today in
the House of Commons commended this week’s B.C. court decision upholding the ban
on polygamy. He said:
Mr. Speaker, Canadians are rightfully concerned when the practice of polygamy is
exposed in this country.
Polygamy has been linked to a consistent set of harms, including: physical and
sexual abuse; physical, reproductive and mental health harms; economic
deprivation; lower levels of education; inequality (including both gender
inequality and marginalization of young men); decreased political rights and
civil liberties; and the commodification and objectification of women. The
harmful effects of polygamy justify the criminal law ban.
This is why our Government has vigorously defended the prohibition against
polygamy in the Criminal Code.
It is a practice which inevitably leads to the exploitation of women and young
girls. This is unacceptable to our Party and to our Government. We’ve already
acted to raise the age of sexual consent from 14 to 16 and currently have
legislation before this house which will crack down on a wide variety of child
sexual offences. I would like to assure all Canadians that they can count on our
Government to stand up for these important values.
For further comment, call (613) 992-1966 or (613) 297-2249
Question: "If I am saved and all of my sins are forgiven,
why not continue to sin?"
GotQuestions.org?
Answer: The apostle Paul answered a very similar question in Romans 6:1-2, “What
shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no
means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” The idea that a person
could “trust in Jesus Christ” for salvation and then go on living just as he/she
lived before, is absolutely foreign to the Bible. Believers in Christ are new
creations (2 Corinthians 5:17). The Holy Spirit changes us from producing the
acts of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21) to producing the fruit of the Spirit
(Galatians 5:22-23). The Christian life is a changed life because the Christian
is changed.
What differentiates Christianity from every other religion is that Christianity
is based on what God has done for us through Jesus Christ—divine accomplishment.
Every other world religion is based on what we must do to earn God's favor and
forgiveness—human achievement. Every other religion teaches that we must do
certain things and stop doing certain other things in order to earn God's love
and mercy. Christianity, faith in Christ, teaches that we do certain things and
stop doing certain things because of what Christ has done for us.
How could anyone, having been delivered from sin's penalty, eternity in hell, go
back to living the same life that had him on the path to hell in the first
place? How could anyone, having been cleansed from the defilement of sin, desire
to go back to the same cesspool of depravity? How could anyone, knowing what
Jesus Christ did on our behalf, go on living as if He were not important? How
could anyone, realizing how much Christ suffered for our sins, continue sinning
as if those sufferings were meaningless?
Romans 6:11-15 declares, “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but
alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body
so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin,
as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who
have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as
instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are
not under law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under
law but under grace? By no means!”
For the truly converted, then, continuing to live sinfully is not an option.
Because our conversion resulted in a completely new nature, our desire is to no
longer live in sin. Yes, we still sin, but instead of wallowing in it as we once
did, we now hate it and wish to be delivered from it. The idea of “taking
advantage” of Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf by continuing to live sinfully is
unthinkable. If a person believes himself to be a Christian and still desires to
live the old, sinful life, he has reason to doubt his salvation. “Examine
yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not
realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?” (2
Corinthians 13:5).
What Do Totalitarians Do When They Gain Power
Democratically?
by Barry Rubin on Friday, November 25, 2011
http://pjmedia.com/barryrubin/2011/11/25/what-do-totalitarians-do-when-they-gain-power-democratically/
In the last scene of the film “The Candidate,” about a U.S. Senate election, the
victorious candidate expresses American cynicism about politics by asking, “What
do we do now?” The idea is that politicians just want to get into power but have
no idea of how to deal with problems or even a coherent worldview. Soon deadlock
will set in and nothing is really going to change. It is the sarcasm fit for an
open, non-ideological system where individual ambition prevails. But as long as
there’s always another election, we know that things will be all right and life
will be tolerable.
Not so in the Arabic-speaking Middle East. These politicians know precisely
what they want to do: seize state power (albeit by peaceful means, if possible),
fundamentally transform their societies, and hold onto state power forever. And
they are capable of changing things a lot.
Naïve Western officials, journalists, and “experts” think that an electoral
victory for the Islamists is just fine and dandy. They will obey the rules; be
worn down by the necessary compromises of democratic politics; have to focus
their effortson collecting garbage, running schools, and fixing roads; and then
another election will come along and things will always be all right.
They come close to saying: Ha, ha, ha! They’re in power? So what can they
possibly do with control over the state and all of its resources to change
anything significantly? There are democratic rules after all!
That’s not how it works.
Is this anything new? Consider these quotations from a Middle East leader:
Before taking power: “The foundation of our Islamic government is based on
freedom of dialogue and we will fight against any kind of censorship.”
Before taking power: “Personal desire, age and my health do not allow me to
personally have a role in running the country after the fall of the current
system.”
After taking power: “Those who are trying to bring corruption and destruction to
our country in the name of democracy will be oppressed. They are worse than
Jews, and they must be hanged.”
Who said these things? Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Back to 2011. The media-expert-journalist complex has messed every element of
this year’s big Middle East story until it was painfully obvious and too late to
do anything about it:
--Islamists are strong not weak.
--Moderate “Facebook kid” democrats can’t compete with them.
---Islamists are radical not moderate
Now we are on to the fourth point. When totalitarians take power, by election or
other means, they proceed to consolidate power. There are ways to do this other
than lining up all of your opponents and shooting them or chopping off their
heads. The strategy is to take control of national institutions, transform the
national debate, use the amount of repression that’s necessary, and pursue
populist policies (both economic and demagogic) to win mass support.
This is what the Turkish model is all about. After several years you get
reelected; or, in Iran’s case, steal the election; or, in the Palestinian
Authority’s and Hamas’s case, stop holding elections altogether.
Let’s look at some of the details. For two centuries we’ve seen how
non-democratic revolutions work. At the moment when the old regime is
overthrown, one hundred flowers bloom and one hundred schools of thought
contend. It is a moment of euphoria when anything seems possible. Nobody could
possibly believe that a repressive society could possibly return. In the words
of Wordsworth on the French Revolution,
“Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive/
But to be young was very heaven!”
Nature, however, (that's human nature) abhors a political vacuum. This outburst
of freedom is due to the fact that there is no government, no political system,
and that whatever authorities exist are letting people blow off steam.
Then comes the new regime. In this case it is a regime led by people who
believe to the depths of their being that the master of the universe has
ordained precisely what the laws of the land should be, how society is
conducted, and that no human mind can formulate proper legislation to the
contrary. Of course, they are interpreting the will of the divine being to their
own specifications but they don’t know that and won’t believe you if you tell
them that.The question is not what is to be done but how much they can get away
with doing at any given moment. Such is “moderate Islamism.”And hence they begin
the short march through the institutions:--Education. Textbooks to be rewritten;
the principle that Islam is the only proper religion to be made as central as
possible; all teaching of Islam according to their interpretation. Christians
and Jews are evil; non-Muslims are enemies; Israel is demonic and must be
destroyed. Teachers and administrators who reject their program of
indoctrination to be fired; opportunists and careerists will go
along.--Government bureaucracies. The hiring of as many ideological supporters
as possible; those who go along will be promoted; those who don’t will be fired
or pushed aside. Requirements to be altered so that religious educational
certificates will be made equal to academic education degrees in qualifying for
high posts. If your wife doesn't wear a hijab forget about being
promoted.--Media. Government control over state-run media will be renewed and
strengthened. Licenses, censorship, subsidies, the whole panoply of government
powers will be applied to reward flatterers and punish critics. If necessary,
riots will be organized, threats made, fines imposed on those who don’t toe the
line, though some margin of freedom will be permitted as long as it threatens
nothing.--Constitution. A new constitution will be written by a commission
dominated by Islamists. In some cases they will do what they want—Sharia as the
“main source” or “the source” of law—while in others they will hold back and be
patient—promises that everyone will have equal rights. The new constitution,
however, will provide the basis for Islamizing Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Turkey,
etc.--Religion. The ministry of religion will be under Brotherhood control. That
means it can decide which mosques can be built or not built; who gets hired as
imam in each mosque; what the sermons say; which preachers get on state
television and radio, etc. Normative Islam will be Muslim Brotherhood Islam.
The existing gap may not be wide but it is significant nonetheless. Eventually,
the Brotherhood will get in control of naming the mufti of Egypt and the head of
al-Azhar University. There will be only one interpretation of Islam and it will
prevail through the country and shape the minds and behavior of
Egyptians.--Courts. There are some courageous judges but the Brotherhood will
tame the courts by the power to control who becomes a judge, shaping the law,
intimidation, and just not enforcing any decision they don't like.--Army. The
Brotherhood will be patient. The deal just struck between the Brothers and the
soldiers might be the precedent for arrangements under the new regime. The
Islamists leave the army alone to control its budget and run its business
enterprises; the army does not interfere with the Brotherhood’s governing of the
country. Remember that while the now-broken Turkish army consciously saw itself
as secularist, the Egyptian army holds no such doctrine. Many of the officers
are quite pious.The issue here, then, is not one of doctrine or of power—the
army does not want political power—but related to the officers’ economic
self-interest. Consequently, the Egyptian army can accept an Islamist regime far
easier than observers think.The other potential point of collision is if the
regime wants to do something that the army deems to be creating a mess in which
it would suffer. That would include a war with Israel that the army would have
to fight (and lose) or actions that would alienate the United States to the
point that it cut off aid.I’m not joking when I say that literally nothing the
Egyptian regime would do short of a shooting war with Israel would persuade the
Obama Administration to cut off aid. There are a number of ways the regime
could find to avoid pushing the army to the point of rebellion. And of course
the Islamists would be working steadily to infiltrate the army, propagandize the
soldiers, and work with opportunist officers who want to promote their
career.--The Presidency: This is the other remaining potential roadblock to an
Islamist Egypt. If presidential elections are held, as now currently scheduled,
in June 2012 who will win? The only person who I can conceive on beating the
Islamist candidate is the 75-year-old Amr Musa.A demagogic radical nationalist,
Musa is also somewhat tempered by his diplomatic experience and some pragmatic
impulses. Yet the liberal reformers won’t support him and will divide the vote
to the point where the Brotherhood candidate will probably win.Folks, it doesn’t
look good for Egypt. So when you read articles minimizing the threat if the
“moderate Islamist” Muslim Brotherhood takes over, ask them if they can refute
the above article. Note, too,that the kind of slow, behind-the-scenes takeover
and transformation I discuss above is not the stuff of dramatic headlines. This
trend can and will be ignored and denied.The mass media haven't even gotten
around to reporting and the Western leaders and "experts" haven't properly
analyzed these things in Turkey. Only when the process is far advanced are they
likely to notice.
Intelligence Experts: CIA Penetration by Terrorist Group Is
"Catastrophic"
by W. Thomas Smith Jr.11/25/20112
The recent setback for the U.S. Intelligence Community—specifically CIA—wherein
scores of operators working for the Agency were seized by Iranian security
forces in Iran and Hizballah (Iran’s proxy army) in Lebanon; speak to two
disturbing truths. The first is that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)
and Hizballah, which is both financially and operationally supported by the IRGC,
maintains human intelligence and counterintelligence capabilities that are as
“formidable” as any fielded by the West. Secondly, they are aggressively
operating against us.
According to Reuters, former CIA operations officer Bob Baer says, "Hizballah’s
security is as good as any in the world. It's the best. It's better than that of
the KGB [the former Soviet spy agency]."
And at least one expert refers to Iran and Hizballah’s aggressive
counterintelligence operations and recent success as bordering on war.
Professor Walid Phares—an advisor to the U.S. House Anti-Terrorism Caucus and
the author of several books on Jihadist terror (including Future Jihad:
Terrorist Strategies Against America), tells us, "This latest operation by
Hizballah’s against a major U.S. intelligence agency is bordering on an act of
war. Lebanon is a sovereign country, and a terrorist organization has had the
freedom to wage counter-espionage operations against CIA, and they have detained
individuals they believe were working with that U.S. agency. If the Lebanese
government endorses this operation, it would be responsible for an act of
aggression bordering on an act of war against the United States.”
Phares adds, “If the Lebanese government considers such operations against a
U.S. agency on Lebanese soil as rogue—and conducted without legitimate Lebanese
government authority—then it should demand Hizballah cease its activities
against the U.S.” He says the Lebanese government, which receives military
support from the U.S., may raise the matter of U.S. espionage operations in
Lebanon in bilateral discussions with the U.S. government. But Hizballah has no
legal authority to conduct such counter-espionage operations against what is
considered to be an ally of Lebanon.
Congresswoman Sue Myrick (R.-N.C.), who chairs the U.S. House Intelligence
Subcommittee on Terrorism, Human Intelligence, Analysis and Counter
Intelligence, says both the immediate issue and the threat extends far beyond
Iran and Lebanon.
Wednesday, she said, "This operation alleged by Hizballah against CIA resources
in Lebanon shows
their determination to hurt the United States. This terrorist organization
claims their war efforts are only pursued in their war against Israel. But their
heavy involvement in terror operations against American interests in Iraq and
the Gulf area, and in Latin America all the way to Mexico south of our borders,
shows clearly that they are targeting U.S. national security.”
Recall that my colleagues and I have discussed at length the tri-border area of
Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay that has—according to a 2009 study by the Rand
Institute— “emerged as the most important financing center for Islamic
terrorism outside of the Middle East.”
Myrick says, “This latest claim by Hizballah in Lebanon only adds to their
intentions to target U.S. interests." But it is the effective penetration of a
U.S. intelligence agency by Iran and Hizballah that disturbs most.
“The reality is someone who knew of these names must have leaked them to the
organization [Hizballah],” says Phares. “That person or persons is either a
member of Hizballah or they are working with the terrorist group. The U.S.
Congress should investigate the possible penetration Hizballah may have
developed over the years enabling it to have these kinds of access to names.”
Clare Lopez, deputy director of the U.S. Counterterrorism Advisory Team, says,
“Up against Hizballah on its own turf, it seems that U.S. intelligence is out of
its league. HIzballah's intelligence capabilities, learned from the Iranians,
are highly sophisticated and include the full classical tradecraft skillset as
well as very competent counterintelligence capabilities.”
A former member of the U.S. Intelligence Community who spoke to us on condition
of anonymity, says, “This should come as no surprise to anyone who understands
the sophistication of these jihadist enemies and their professionalism in the
skills of classical clandestine tradecraft. U.S. Intelligence Community failures
to identify, effectively confront, and defeat the Islamic jihadist enemy speak
not only to erosio of that skillset within the CIA, but also to catastrophic
failure to master an understanding of the enemy ideology, the ideology of
Islamic jihad.”
The former operator added, “Intent and motivation are as critical as capability
to the enemy's strategy and absent their accurate assessment, will lead as
surely to defeat as failure to measure capability. America's enemies have
penetrated its Intelligence Community in the past and betrayal of top CIA assets
abroad has been tracked to moles deep inside the system more than once.”
How this plays out is anyone’s guess for the near future. But what we cannot
continue to neglect are the overt threats and activities of Iran and Hizballah,
the developing sophistication of their covert capabilities, their global reach
and obvious intent, and the fact that, as former Homeland Security chief Michael
Chertoff says, Hizballah "makes Al Qaeda look like a minor league team."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Smith is a contributor to Human Events. A former U.S. Marine rifle-squad
leader and counterterrorism instructor, he writes about military/defense issues
and has covered conflict in the Balkans, on the West Bank, in Iraq and Lebanon.
He is the author of six books, and his articles appear in a variety of
publications. E-mail him at marine1@uswriter.com.