LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِOctober 02/2011

Bible Quotation for today/Teaching about Charity
Matthew 6/1-4: "1 Make certain you do not perform your religious duties in public so that people will see what you do. If you do these things publicly, you will not have any reward from your Father in heaven.  So when you give something to a needy person, do not make a big show of it, as the hypocrites do in the houses of worship and on the streets. They do it so that people will praise them. I assure you, they have already been paid in full. But when you help a needy person, do it in such a way that even your closest friend will not know about it.  Then it will be a private matter. And your Father, who sees what you do in private, will reward you.

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
Their own worst enemy /By: Michael Young/October 1/11
Syria: We said “expel” the ambassador, not throw eggs at him!/By Tariq Alhomayed/October 01/11

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for October 01/11
Al Qaeda infighting led to Awkali killing in Yemen. Ayman Zawhiri is in Yemen
Senior U.S. Official Confirms Radical Qaida Cleric Awlaqi Dead
Obama praises killing of American-born al-Qaida leader in Yemen
U.S. Drone Kills 2 Militants in Pakistan
UN won’t advance Palestinian statehood bid until diplomacy option exhausted
Germany reprimands Israel over new Jerusalem construction
Iran’s bazaar culture suffering under Ahmadinejad
Syria dissidents meet as crackdown claims more lives
27 Killed in Protests in Syria as Army Defectors Clash with Security Forces
Syrian army deserters battle state forces
U.S. berates Syrian ambassador
Al-Rahi Travels to U.S: I am Not a Man of Politics
Al-Rahi Meets Suleiman on Eve of U.S. Visit
Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai reiterated his controversial position on Syria and Hezbollah’s arms
Franjieh: Assad’s Assessment of Situation Helped Save our Arab Identity
Hizbullah Forms Committee to Study Amending STL Cooperation Protocol
Members of U.S. Congress say many challenges lie ahead for Lebanon

Former STL investigator strikes back at Hezbollah
Nasrallah risks alienating Syrians, Iranian expert warns
Australian court prevents girl leaving to forced marriage in Lebanon
Security Fears Shut Down Roads Near ESCWA
Aoun Undergoes Routine Checkup at Hotel Dieu Hospital
Armed Men Break into al-Mustaqbal Official’s Home in North
Lebanon: Blast Near Bab Al-Tebbaneh Wounds 3
Berri from Iran: Resistance Deterring Israel from Exploiting Arab Situation to Harm Lebanon
March 14 Preparing for Christian Summit
Lebanese Higher Sunni Legal Council: Fear on Christians' Future Causes Sedition
Slienan neets with Hezbollah's Nasrallah
Miqati: Deterioration of Situation in Syria Will Place Lebanon in a Risky Position

Armed Men Break into al-Mustaqbal Official’s Home in North
Naharnet /Seven masked gunmen broke into the home of al-Mustaqbal official Amer al-Mohammed in the region of Wadi Khaled in Akkar on Thursday night with the intention of abducting him, the National News Agency reported. But when the men entered the home in the town of al-Amayer, they realized that al-Mohammed was not there, NNA said.
The gunmen later fled the town, it added. The incident created tension and fear among al-Amayer residents.

Blast Near Bab Al-Tebbaneh Wounds 3
Naharnet/A woman and her two daughters were wounded Saturday near Al-Nasiri mosque in Tripoli’s Bab Al-Tebbaneh neighborhood due to a hand grenade explosion, the National News agency reported.The Agency added that the security forces arrived at the scene and started investigating, adding that the wounded were taken to Al-Khairi hospital in Tripoli for medical treatment. The city has been shaken by the uprising in mainly Sunni Syria against President Bashar al-Assad, an Alawite.
In April, six people were killed in clashes sparked by an anti-Assad rally in Tripoli

Al-Rahi Travels to U.S: I am Not a Man of Politics
Naharnet /Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi stressed on Saturday that his visit to the United States is simply a pastoral one. He said: “I am not a man of politics or a man of state.”
He made his statements from the airport ahead of traveling to the United States where he is scheduled to visit a number of American cities, including New York and Los Angeles, where he will meet with members of the Maronite diaspora. Asked about his call to hold a regional spiritual summit, al-Rahi replied: “The summit plays a major role in breaking the ice in the region and reinforcing Christian and Muslim principles.” On whether he may visit Syria, he said: “It is my duty as patriarch to visit all parishes in Jordan, the holy land, Syria, and Arab world. I am obligated to visit all Maronites in the Arab world.” Al-Rahi held talks on Friday with President Michel Suleiman ahead of his trip “out of his keenness on the role of the president as he precedes any foreign visit by holding talks with Suleiman,” a source monitoring the situation told As Safir newspaper in remarks published on Saturday.
The two sides noted that Lebanon is facing several dangers, the first is the danger against the Christians in the East, the second is the plan to divide the Middle East into sectarian “statelets,” the third is the Israeli threat against the region, and the last is the danger of plans to naturalize Palestinians in Lebanon.
“The patriarch is convinced that the Christians in Syria will face the same fate as those in Iraq,” it added. It also revealed that al-Rahi will visit Iraq regardless of the security dangers in the country. “His desire to visit Iraq stems from his loyalty towards the Christians who remain there,” it stressed. “The trip is aimed at helping those who emigrated from Iraq return to their country,” it stated. Al-Rahi reiterated these fears during a recent visit to France where he voiced a concern that extremists may assume power in Syria should anti-regime protests succeed in toppling the leadership. The trip to Iraq will serve as a precursor to staging a spiritual summit in the Middle East, added As Safir. The patriarch is expected to visit the Vatican after his trips to the United States and Iraq. This last trip will demonstrate the extent of the current coordination between the patriarch and Vatican, reported the newspaper.

Rai upholds stances on Syria, Hezbollah’s arms
October 01, 2011 /By Antoine Ghattas Saab /The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai reiterated his controversial position on Syria and Hezbollah’s arms during a meeting Friday with President Michel Sleiman who is planning to renew his call for rival leaders to engage in national dialogue to end their deep political divisions, sources said.Rai met Sleiman at Baabda Palace on the eve of his 19-day pastoral visit to the United States which begins on Oct. 4.
Discussions dealt with latest developments on the local and Arab scenes and Rai’s scheduled visit to America, the sources said.
Sleiman and Rai reviewed a wide range of topics, including divisive issues between the March 8 and March 14 parties, last week’s meeting of Maronite leaders in Bkirki, and this week’s spiritual summit held at Dar al-Fatwa – the seat of the Sunni Mufti whose reverberations are still resonating on the Lebanese political scene over Rai’s remarks which were leaked to the media by mistake and in which he upheld his controversial statements in Paris, the sources said.
According to the sources, Rai reiterated his statements in front of Sleiman who showed full understanding with the concerns of the head of the powerful Maronite Church.
In statements during a five-day visit to France early in September, Rai tied the issue of Hezbollah’s disarmament to an overall Middle East peace settlement and called for giving embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad a chance to implement political reforms. He also warned that the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood to power in Syria would threaten the presence of Christians there. Tuesday’s spiritual summit, attended by Lebanon’s top Muslim and Christian religious leaders, was overshadowed by leaks of Rai’s remarks, in which he upheld his stances on Syria and Hezbollah’s arms.
“We have asked for France’s help in removing the pretexts that justify the presence of [Hezbollah’s arms] and to help in strengthening the [Lebanese] army. Only then can we tell Hezbollah that there is no need to keep its arms,” Rai was quoted by Dar al-Fatwa’s radio station as saying. Rai also warned that if a civil war erupted in Syria, it would pit Sunnis against Alawites, which would result in the killing of innocent people, including Christians.
During the Baabda meeting, Rai praised Sleiman’s role in this critical stage through which the region is passing and his attempts to restore links among the Lebanese through a resumption of dialogue, the sources said. According to the sources, Sleiman disclosed to Rai that he intends to revive the national dialogue conference with a different approach and a change in its agenda, which was previously confined to the issue of a defense strategy, by adding issues of mutual concern for the political parties. Sleiman and Rai also discussed an election law, currently a contentious issue between the rival factions. They agreed to continue consultations with the aim of reaching the best formula that can ensure a real representation of the Christians, namely the Maronites, the sources said

Al-Rahi Meets Suleiman on Eve of U.S. Visit
Naharnet /Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi held talks with President Michel Suleiman at Baabda palace on Friday ahead of his three-week visit to the U.S.Al-Rahi left the presidential palace after the one-hour meeting without making any statement. The patriarch kicks off his trip to the U.S. on Saturday. His first stop will be the city of Saint Louis in Missouri.
The patriarch’s trip will include stops in Maronite parishes in the states of Illinois, Ohio, Texas, California, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and others.
He is scheduled to hold talks with U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon in New York. No meetings with U.S. officials are on his agenda. Al-Rahi’s statements on Hizbullah’s arms and the Syrian situation have drawn criticism. He has linked the fate of the Shiite party’s weapons to the liberation of Israeli occupied Lebanese territories and said Syrian President Bashar Assad should be given the chance to introduce his promised reforms.

March 14 Preparing for Christian Summit
Naharnet /The Christian members of the March 14 camp are preparing to hold a Christian summit in the Fataa region in Keserouan, the camp’s circles informed As Safir newspaper in remarks published on Saturday. The gathering will be entitled “The Role of the Lebanese in the Arab Spring.” So far, 600 Christian figures have been invited to attend the meeting.
Muslim “auditors”, mainly from the March 14 camp, have also been invited, reported As Safir.

Miqati: Deterioration of Situation in Syria Will Place Lebanon in a Risky Position

Naharnet /Prime Minister Najib Miqati voiced fears that the deterioration of the situation in Syria will have dangerous repercussions in the region, reported As Safir newspaper on Saturday from the Wall Street Journal. He added that such a deterioration will also place Lebanon in a precarious position. “There is no point in Lebanon taking an official stand on the violence in Syria as any position may destabilize our country’s fragile stability,” he stressed. “I don’t know what or who may succeed Syrian President Bashar Assad in power, but the road will be long,” he noted. “I know him well even though I haven’t contacted him in a few months,” said the premier. “I hope the Syrian people get what they want,” Miqati stated.
The premier is expected to return to Beirut on Saturday from New York City where he chaired the United Nations Security Council.

Hizbullah Forms Committee to Study Amending STL Cooperation Protocol
Naharnet /Hizbullah has recently formed a committee of legal experts to carefully examine the cooperation protocol signed between Lebanon and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, opposition political sources told al-Liwaa newspaper in remarks published on Saturday.The committee will then seek to introduce a number of amendments to this agreement, they revealed.
These amendments will include Prime Minister Najib Miqati’s observations over the tribunal that he discussed with U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon during his U.S. trip, they continued.
The changes will be based on assertions that the tribunal is politicized and Hizbullah has reservations over its purposes because it believes it to be an American-Israeli product bent on destroying the party, added the sources. They stressed that efforts are being made to ratify these amendments before the STL’s tenure is renewed for another year.
A legal source told al-Liwaa however that the extension of the STL’s term for another three years is not related to the tribunal’s protocol. Only Ban has the authority to renew the tribunal’s functioning seeing as it was formed under chapter seven of the U.N. charter, it explained. The March 8 camp’s belief that the cooperation protocol violates the Lebanese constitution does not alter the fact that the STL has become a reality, it stressed. Meanwhile, March 8 ministerial sources told al-Liwaa that the government will be held accountable for whatever decision it takes regarding the STL. They revealed that Miqati and Minister Mohammed Safadi will present the discussions they had with American officials over the STL before cabinet.
The premier and minister had traveled to New York City recently where Miqati chaired the United Nations Security Council. The sources added that Miqati and Safadi will demand that a decision that does not jeopardize Lebanon’s economy be taken over the STL. Parliamentary majority sources meanwhile told the newspaper that the case of the funding of the tribunal will be set aside for the moment. OTV reported on Friday that a decision was made to prevent the funding of the tribunal through cabinet at all costs.

Syria: We said “expel” the ambassador, not throw eggs at him!

By Tariq Alhomayed/Asharq Al-Awsat
Last Wednesday, I wrote an editorial entitled “Syria: Too weak to expel the envoys”, commenting on the criticisms being made by the American and British ambassadors to Syria against the al-Assad regime, in what represents a clear break of diplomatic protocol. However despite all this, the Damascus regime has not moved to expel these foreign ambassadors, nor has it even threatened to do so. The day after this editorial was published, a group affiliated to the al-Assad regime pelted US Ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, with tomatoes and eggs as he met an opposition figure in Damascus. This resulted in a diplomatic altercation breaking out in the media between the Syrian Foreign Ministry, the US State Department, and even the White House. This dispute reached the point that the Syrian Foreign Ministry – whose head, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, had previously restricted the movement of foreign ambassadors in Syria, and also stated that Damascus will forget that Europe exists on the map – issued a statement claiming that the US is encouraging “armed groups” to attack the “Syrian army”. However, despite these traded accusations, the al-Assad regime still did not ask the US ambassador to immediately leave Syria , and this, of course, represents new confirmation that the Syrian regime is too weak to expel even one foreign ambassador, even if he is accused of inciting a revolution!
Therefore, rather than the Damascus regime expelling US ambassador Robert Ford, they instead mobilized more than 200 affiliates, probably members of the pro-regime Shabiha militia, to attack him. This was in order to send a message to Washington that there are some Syrians who still support Bashar al-Assad, and they reject the actions being undertaken by the US ambassador. This, of course, represents a clear soap opera performance on the part of the al-Assad regime. Such action is not unexpected from the Damascus regime, and will not fool those who know the character of this regime, whether we are talking about those in Lebanon or Iraq, particularly as one Syrian official – during a stormy meeting at the United Nations – said that so long as no protests against the regime break out in Damascus and Aleppo, then the al-Assad regime will remain steadfast and fight until the end. This is the message that the al-Assad regime wants to send to the West, namely that it has supporters in Damascus and Aleppo. This is despite the fact that the Syrian capital is currently divided into different security sectors, and anybody and everybody who dares to take to the street against the regime there is being suppressed, whilst all signs indicate that the situation in Aleppo is reaching boiling point.
However, because one thing reminds us of another, if the al-Assad regime claims that the US is inciting the Syrian rebels via its ambassador to Damascus, why is his punishment nothing more than being pelted with tomatoes and eggs? In this case, shouldn’t the al-Assad regime – and its security forces and Shabiha militia –respond to the Syrian revolutionaries, in Homs, Deraa, Hama, Rastan, and elsewhere, with the same softness and gentleness, i.e. pelt them with tomatoes and eggs, rather than attacking and killing them with every type of weapon and arms, and mutilating their bodies, regardless of whether they are women or children?
There can be no doubt that a regime like the al-Assad regime, which continues to kill its own citizens, but responds to a foreign ambassador it claims is inciting revolution by merely pelting him with tomatoes and eggs, is nothing more than a regime that is too weak to expel even one ambassador!

Berri from Iran: Resistance Deterring Israel from Exploiting Arab Situation to Harm Lebanon
Naharnet/Speaker Nabih Berri noted on Saturday that Lebanon remains Israel’s main enemy because it is its major competitor in the region, adding that the Jewish state is seeking to fragment Lebanon. He said during the opening of the international conference in support of the Palestinian intifada held in Iran: “The Resistance is the main deterrent power against Israel and given the current circumstances, it is a necessity to prevent Israeli exploitation of the situation in the Arab world to harm Lebanon.” “Israel does not seek peace because it is not qualified to achieve it,” he said. Furthermore, he stated that Israel can no longer claim that it is the sole democracy in the region in light of the democratic revolt that took place in Egypt.
Addressing the situation in Palestine, Berri remarked: “Should the Palestinian state be recognized, Palestinian arms must be unified to end the occupation.”
“Why are Arab states boycotting Syria instead of Israel?” the speaker wondered. “Why are Arab funds being employed to finance Syria’s demonstrations instead of the Palestinian people?” he asked. “Is it because Syria, like Iran, supports the Resistance and is demanding fair and comprehensive peace?” he wondered.

Their own worst enemy

Michael Young, /Now Lebanon
It is unfortunate that at a moment when the head of the Lebanese Forces, Samir Geagea, has made one of the better public presentations in recent years, his allies have come across as increasingly irrelevant. The opposition is adrift, a view shared by many inside the house.
March 14 parties met this week at Saad Hariri’s residence to “coordinate their stances.” They should have considered defining a clearer national role for themselves, because the coalition seems gripped by confusion. Hariri has been abroad for months, an affront to those who elected him. His money problems are genuine and have not yet been resolved, taking a toll on his patronage network and political authority. The former prime minister is not out yet, however if his occultation lasts much longer, his leadership will melt.
Many sympathizers wonder what Hariri actually stands for. Who did they mobilize to elect in the 2009 elections? No answer has come from the Future Movement, which has morphed into something of an annoying jack-in-the-box—popping its head up episodically to deliver some statement or barb against Prime Minister Najib Mikati.
In the March 14 firmament these days, Geagea is an exception. His speech on Saturday was, in its own right, highly significant in the context of current Maronite history. Here was the leader of an organization once described as “isolationist” during Lebanon’s war years, saying that the salvation of Christians lies in their affirmation in the Middle East and the spread of freedom. This was, in part, a response to the foolishness of Patriarch Bechara al-Rai, who has sought protection for his community under the wing of the depraved rule of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. But it was also more than that: an alternative framework for how Arab Christians all over might interpret the momentous transformations in their political environment, and an enlightened one at that.
One nuisance the Future Movement has faced is that it has based much of its strategy in the past months on bolstering the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. The expectation among the Hariri camp and its allies was that Mikati would formally break Beirut’s ties with the institution, at the insistence of Hezbollah. In fact the prime minister has not done so. The matter of Lebanese funding has yet to be finalized, but Mikati is in favor of payment, meaning that he appears willing to fight for his money. To the dismay of March 14, the prime minister has neutralized their main argument against him—and he even garnered international legitimacy on his trip to New York.
But that’s not all. As important as the tribunal is, most Lebanese have other priorities. With the economy in a dark patch and many people worried, rightly so, about the country’s future finances, for March 14 to give inordinate weight to the Special Tribunal is awkward. Whether the population likes the government or not, or embraces Mikati or not, it will always look toward the state to defend the much broader range of concerns that it has. Unless March 14 can offer an alternative governance project of its own, one as comprehensive as the government’s, it will come across as a single-issue interest group.
March 14 has been equally insubstantial on the question of Hezbollah’s weapons. These weapons are at the heart of the political crisis in Lebanon today. As parliamentarian Sami Gemayel astutely pointed out in a NOW Lebanon interview this week, until the issue is settled, it will impede national dialogue over reform. “If there are to be negotiations about developing institutions, you’d be sitting at the same table as someone who has an arsenal,” Gemayel said.
But what has the opposition done to advance a serious discussion of weapons? Saad Hariri made Hezbollah’s disarmament a cornerstone of his address at the March 14 rally this year. However, he did so in the most inflexible of ways, by throwing it down as a gauntlet. The former prime minister did not integrate discussion of the weapons into a broader political package, one that might involve a quid pro quo that eventually appeals to the Shia community. The demand was there to be accepted or rejected. Hezbollah—no surprise—rejected it.
Since then, Hezbollah has found a very useful friend in Bechara al-Rai, who gave the party until the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict to hold on to its guns. The blank check issued by the patriarch further destabilized March 14, while doing something else: It precipitated a quarrel between the opposition and Rai, who has evidently decided to transform himself into a sandbag for the parliamentary majority, behind which Hezbollah can now comfortably shelter itself.
An opposition parliamentarian put it succinctly to me: “March 14’s trouble is that it doesn’t know whether it is a loyal opposition or a coalition that must block what it has described as a Hezbollah coup.” Quite true. March 14 has principally behaved in the second way, which is why its interventions have tended to be shrill and disruptive, losing it the esteem that constructive oppositions generally enjoy.
You have to wonder if Najib Mikati didn’t get lucky when he stood against Hariri for the post of prime minister. Yes, he did join in a Syrian- and Hezbollah-led constitutional coup of sorts, and yes, Saad Hariri was always the Sunnis’ first choice. But since then March 14 has done virtually nothing to make us regret its absence in government. And this is fortifying Mikati day after day.
*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. He tweets @BeirutCalling.

Nasrallah risks alienating Syrians, Iranian expert warns
October 01, 2011 /By Kristin Dailey The Daily Star
TEHRAN: Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah risks alienating Syrians in the same way that he drove away many of his supporters in Iran by interfering in their domestic affairs, an Iranian professor told The Daily Star during a joint interview in Tehran with two analysts from opposite sides of the political spectrum.
Sadegh Zibakalam, a political science professor at Tehran University who backed Mir Hossein Mousavi in the last presidential election, said many Iranians who had previously supported Hezbollah and its leader are still put off by Nasrallah’s comments in the aftermath of the contested 2009 vote.
“It appears that he’s repeating the same thing on Syria. If I were a Syrian I wouldn’t like very much his tacit support for [President] Bashar Assad,” Zibakalam said.
Abdolhosein Allahkaram, the founder and former leader of Ansar-e Hezbollah and a retired brigadier general of the Revolutionary Guards, countered Zibakalam’s remarks, saying that support for Nasrallah remained strong and was a constitutional duty for Iranians.
“This is within the Iranian constitution to defend all Muslims of the world. And I’m surprised that Zibakalam is saying something which is against the very constitution which he himself has voted for,” Allahkaram said, referring to the Iranian charter, which was put to national referendums in 1979 and 1989.
“I think that the function of Hezbollah is so clear that after the leadership of Iran they can have the leadership of all the Islamic world,” he added.
The two analysts were speaking during a joint interview with The Daily Star that touched on Lebanon, Iran and the Arab uprisings.
Zibakalam said Nasrallah’s open support for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose June 2009 re-election was disputed by Mousavi’s supporters, had diminished the Hezbollah leader’s popularity in Iran.
Protests erupted across Iran in the aftermath of the June 2009 presidential election, which the Iranian opposition claimed was rigged, a charge the government denies.
Within one week of the Iranian election, Nasrallah, along with Lebanese President Michel Sleiman and then-Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, was among the first foreign leaders to congratulate Ahmadinejad on his victory in the poll.
Nasrallah and other Lebanese leaders also warmly welcomed Ahmadinejad during the Iranian president’s visit to the country in October 2010.
Zibakalam said such displays of support had angered Mousavi’s supporters in Iran.
“Whereas in the past Hezbollah was very much liked by many Iranians, I think his support is getting narrower and narrower and is limited to the Islamic regime and Islamic establishment and people who tend to support the Islamic regime. And this is unfortunate because it wasn’t necessary,” Zibakalam said.
“He has tied his fortune with one specific political current in Iran – which he didn’t have to. It’s stupid I think. No one was forcing you to identify with one particular segment, even if you genuinely believed in that current you should have been wise enough not to say things that antagonize the opponent of that line, that thinking.”
Allahkaram argued, however, that support for Hezbollah remained high, not only in Iran, but also across the Arab region, especially since the resistance group had “defeated the fifth greatest military in the world.”
“All Arab countries and all Arab people understood and learned [from Hezbollah] how they should deal with Israel and how they could push Israel out of their countries. So they taught the Jordanians, Syrians and Palestinian groups that the only option is to defend their land against Israel,” he said.

Former STL investigator strikes back at Hezbollah
September 30, 2011/Daily Star
BEIRUT: A former chief investigator for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) has hit back at Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah for accusing him of being a stooge for Israel and the CIA, pointing the finger at Hezbollah for the killing of former statesman Rafik Hariri.
“They’re very, very hurtful, damaging allegations. No evidence whatsoever has been put up by him,” Nick Kaldas, who headed the investigation for a year starting March 2009, said in an interview to be aired Sunday night on SBS ONE dateline with Yaara Bou Melhem.
Nasrallah has repeatedly questioned the credibility of the tribunal, which has accused four members of his group of involvement in the assassination of Hariri in 2005 and has voiced suspicions regarding STL judges and investigators including Kaldas who Nasrallah accused of being an Israeli-CIA stooge.
Hezbollah says the U.N.-backed court is a U.S.-Israeli tool aimed at targeting the resistance group and of seeking to sow sectarian strife in the country. It denies any involvement in the assassination.
“Firstly, there is not a skerrick [shred] of evidence to suggest any involvement from Israel or anybody else who’s been accused by Hezbollah. Secondly, if you look at pure motive, political causes and so on, I’m not sure that Israel or anybody who’s aligned with them has actually gained by the assassination of Mr. Hariri. In fact, the opposite," Kaldas told Dateline.
During the interview, Kaldas, who is now the deputy commissioner of the NSW Police, pointed the finger of blame at Hezbollah for the former Lebanese statesman’s assassination.
“You do get to a point in an investigation where you’re satisfied that a person, or group or individuals are responsible for the murder. You do need to eliminate all the other possibilities and I think that happened in this case, but then you have to focus and become committed to the direction in which you are heading,” Kaldas told Dateline, adding that this direction was ultimately Hezbollah.
Kaldas, who headed the investigation for a year starting March 2009, also rejected Hezbollah’s attack on key telecommunications evidence put forward by the STL, which the party claims was open to manipulation by Israel.
“It’s easy to stand up on a podium and make really spurious, unproven allegations when you’re not being cross examined on them. I think it’s cowardly in many ways.” Kaldas said.
Nasrallah has defended the four men accused in the case, describing them as honorable men who fought gallantly in the resistance against the Israeli occupation of south Lebanon. The Hezbollah chief has said that the four would never be apprehended but tried in absentia instead.
Kaldas also said that the case would move to a trial in absentia for the accused and that evidence presented would include witness testimony. Despite numerous leaks to the media of confidential files relating to the investigation, Kaldas said the case had not been compromised.
“It’s unfortunate that some previous staff member or someone with a grievance has sought to leak some aspect of the information and that’s disappointing, that happens but I don’t think it’s had an impact on the investigation. The evidence is what it is.”
“There is protection for witnesses and I’m sure the office of the prosecutor will do all they can to protect witnesses,” Kaldas says.
Hezbollah reportedly declined several requests for a Dateline interview.
The interview is part of a dateline report on the investigation into the assassination of Hariri.

Members of U.S. Congress say many challenges lie ahead for Lebanon

September 30, 2011/By Olivia Alabaster The Daily Star
BEIRUT: A delegation from the U.S. Congress met with President Michel Sleiman Friday, and said many challenges lie ahead for Lebanon.
The delegation, headed by Representative David Dreier of California, chairman of the House Democracy Partnership (HDP), was also due to hold talks with former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and representatives of Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who is currently out of the country.
At a news conference at Parliament, Dreier said that discussions with Lebanese parliamentarians had included talks on Syria, as the future of that country was a “priority issue.”
Talks with Sleiman, according to a statement from the president’s office, had included the course of democracy in the region and the internal systems of democracy in Lebanon itself, including the work of parliamentary committees. Dreier said that the HDP was committed to the development of new and emerging democracies around the world, but, he said, “I don’t believe one can ever perfect democracy so it is a constant work in progress.”
He admitted that after 222 years as a representative democracy, the U.S. “is trying to figure out how to make democracy work … We’re still learning how to do it right.”
Dreier said that “many changes have taken place in recent years in Lebanon and many challenges lie ahead.” His first visit to Lebanon was a few weeks after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005, before the HDP was established the following year. Since then, he said, “We have seen governments come and go … We hope very much that the relationship we have between the U.S. Congress and the Parliament of Lebanon can play a role in creating some kind of stability which I think everyone wants and the Lebanese people want.” Lebanon is one of 13 that the HDP works with. The delegation has visited Tunisia and Egypt in recent days, and is tomorrow traveling to Iraq.
The HDP work with governments on the issues of corruption, the development of budget structures and the executive branch of government and also on the creation of parliament committees. Earlier Friday, they met with Economy and Trade Minister Nicolas Nahas and Education Minister Hassan Diab

Australian court prevents girl leaving to forced marriage in Lebanon
September 30, 2011 /The Daily Star
BEIRUT: An Australian court has put a 16-year-old Lebanese girl on the airport watch list to prevent her from being sent to a forced marriage. The girl, identified under a pseudonym by the court as Ms Madley, appealed to the Federal Magistrates Court in order to prevent her parents taking her to Lebanon for an arranged marriage to a man she had met just once, the Sydney Morning Herald reported Friday. Magistrate Joe Harman, who granted the Ms Madley’s application to be put on the watch list, praised her “act of great bravery” in challenging her parents despite her fear of her mother’s reaction, and ordered the parents not to assault, harass, threaten or intimidate her, the newspaper reported. The judge ruled that Ms Madley would be at psychological risk if he did not make the order to prevent her parents from being able to take her from the country. ''It is not the right of any parent to cause their child to be married against their will, whether in accordance with the Australian law or otherwise,'' the newspaper quoted the judge as saying. The judge said that such a marriage was contrary to Australian legal processes and would be rendered void under Australian law, but added that he was not criticizing any culture that engaged in arranged marriages.

U.S. berates Syrian ambassador
October 01, 2011/AM Agencies /Daily Star
WASHINGTON/BEIRUT: The U.S. State Department “read the riot act” to Syria’s ambassador after Thursday’s attack on the U.S. envoy in Damascus, demanding more protection for U.S. diplomats and compensation for damaged U.S. property, officials said Friday. Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman summoned Syrian Ambassador Imad Moustapha to the State Department and “read the riot act about this incident,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.
“He was reminded that Ambassador [Robert] Ford is the personal representative of the president and an attack on Ford is an attack on the United States. He was also asked for compensation for our damaged vehicles,” she said.
In the attack, supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assad reportedly hurled rocks, eggs and tomatoes at Ford and his aides as they visited a prominent opposition figure in Damascus.
Nuland said Ford – who has angered the Syrian government by taking an unusually public stance in support of Syria’s opposition since protests broke out in March – was determined to keep reaching out to figures across the political spectrum.
She said the United States was particularly concerned that it took some two hours for Syrian security forces to intervene to rescue Ford from what she called a “rent-a-mob.”
“We find it incomprehensible that Syrian security authorities are somehow able to arrive on the scene of peaceful opposition demonstrations in Damascus in a matter of minutes and yet it took them almost two hours to come to the aid of Ambassador Ford,” she said.
Ford gave his own account of the incident on the U.S. Embassy’s Facebook page, saying protesters threw concrete blocks at windows and hit embassy cars with iron bars.
“One person jumped on the hood of the car, tried to kick in the windshield and then jumped on the roof. Another person held the roof railing and tried to break the car’s side window,” said Ford, calling demonstrators “intolerant if not worse.” Ford denied his convoy hit a protester on the street, and Nuland said accounts to the contrary were “Syrian disinformation.” The ambassador said he was concerned that brutal government tactics are pushing more people toward taking up arms. “We don’t advocate such violence, but our analysis tells us this is happening on the ground,” he said.
Syrian troops Friday fought intense battles with hundreds of fellow soldiers who have turned their weapons against Assad’s forces, in a sign of the increasingly militarized nature of an uprising started months ago by peaceful protesters. Across the country Friday, tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets. At least 11 protesters were killed and scores were wounded, human rights groups said.Opposition activists and the government detailed a fourth straight day of battles in Rastan, just north of the central city of Homs. The fighting, which began with a government assault Tuesday, is some of the most intense since the uprising began in mid-March. The army defections, as well as reports that once-peaceful protesters are increasingly taking up arms to fight the six-month-old government crackdown have raised concerns of the risk of civil war in a country with a deep sectarian divide.
Around 250 tanks and other army vehicles began entering the town early in the day, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“The army has been trying to push forward in Rastan for the past four days but they have not been able to,” said an activist who spoke on condition of anonymity because the sensitivity of the topic. Damascus has banned foreign journalists and placed heavy restrictions on local media coverage, making it difficult to independently verify events on the ground.
The army defectors involved in battles in the Rastan area and in the Jabal al-Zawiyah region in the northern Idlib province number around 2,000, according to another prominent rights activist who also spoke anonymously. A military official said the days of clashes in Rastan have killed seven soldiers and policemen as government forces conducted a “qualitative” operation Thursday and Friday in an effort to crush “gunmen” holed up inside the town. Thirty-two other troops were wounded, the official said.
The comments by the unidentified official were carried by state-run news agency SANA Friday and were a government acknowledgment of the stiff resistance in Rastan. Many gunmen were also killed or arrested, the official said.

Al Qaeda infighting led to Awkali killing in Yemen. Ayman Zawhiri is in Yemen
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report/ September 30, 2011/
The tip-off which enabled two American drone-borne Hellfire missiles to kill the US-born Anwar al-Awkali by locating his convoy in the Khashef in the Jawf province of Yemen, 140 kilometers east of the capital Sanaa, reached US intelligence as a result of a power struggle within Al Qaeda's leadership in Yemen.
Killed too was a second US-born al Qaeda operative.
debkafile's counter-terror sources disclose that the internal strife which led to their deaths was sharpened by the recent arrival in Yemen of the new Al Qaeda leader Ayman Zuwahiri.
Exactly when he arrived and by what route is not known. Zuwahiri is thought to have come to check out Yemen as his next permanent base in view of his plans for transposing al Qaeda's center of operations from the Pakistani-Afghan arena to the Middle East, North Africa and the Sahara.
In North Africa, the Al Qaeda leader has learned that the Muslim extremists fighting in Libya's National Transitional Council ranks against Muammar Qaddafi have cemented their control not just of Tripoli, the capital, but also of Tobruk near the Egyptian border. debkafile's counter-terror sources report that those Islamists, while pretending to defer to the NTC, in fact deny its officials access to the key Libyan cities under their fists.
This is the first time that military forces linked to Al Qaeda have attained control of major Mediterranean ports and the use of a military airfield.
In Yemen, the situation is not very different from Libya. Al Qaeda has seized large parts of Abyan Province in the south and is fighting in sections of the Red Sea port of Aden.
Tuesday, Sept. 27, an Al Qaeda suicide bomber managed to maneuver a car loaded with explosives right up to the convoy of Yemeni defense minister Mohamed Nasser Ali. The minister survived the blast but several of his bodyguards did not.
If Yemen's central government in Sanaa continues to disintegrate, there will be nothing to stop Al Qaeda from grabbing all of Aden Port as well as Abyan and Hadramauth. Even without control of the big port city, the jihadis are within easy reach of anchorages along the Gulf of Aden coast with free access to the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf.
Intelligence experts suspect Zuwahiri may have been spirited into Yemen through one of those anchorages from a boat which brought him from Pakistan.
He arrived with big plans and new ambitions: One is to expand Al Qaeda's control of South Yemen in conformity with his quest for new strongholds with access to the sea. Its bastions in Afghanistan and Pakistani Waziristan were landlocked and without an airfield. But over and above this strategic push, neither Zawahiri nor Osama Bin Laden, who was killed by US commandos in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on May 2, ever completely trusted Anwar al Awakli.
Although US President Barack Obama lauded the death of "the leader of external operations" of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, AQAP, Bin Laden and his successor never let him have this title – or even command of the Yemen sector - despite his pleas. Neither was ready to countenance an American whom they didn't entirely trust in a position of high command in their organization Awakli made his name in the West as a skilled and powerful spokesman for al Qaeda's cause. He never distinguished himself as an operational commander. Therefore, our counter-terror experts have always been wary of attributing to him personally the failed attempt to blow up a US airliner on Christmas 2009 and the planting of a bomb aboard a cargo plane in October 2010. He was certainly linked to the Palestinian US Major Nidal Malik Hassan's murder of 13 US military and security personnel at Ford Hood in November 2009, although more likely by inspiration than specific directives.
The second American who died in the US drone-borne missile strike Friday was Samir Khan, editor of Al Qaeda's English-language Inspire Magazine.
From the point of view of the West, Al Qaeda has lost two senior operatives. But to hardline Zuwahiri, Al Qaeda in Yemen has been purged of its American module. Therefore, while the US justly celebrates a major victory in its war on the Islamist terrorist organization, its new leader most probably decided to sacrifice his two American assets for the sake of tightening the ranks of AQAP and drawing a denser curtain of secrecy than ever before over his next steps.