LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِOctober 14/2011

Bible Quotation for todayThe Would-Be Followers of Jesus
Matthew 08/18-20: "When Jesus noticed the crowd around him, he ordered his disciples to go to the other side of the lake.  A teacher of the Law came to him. Teacher, he said, I am ready to go with you wherever you go.  Jesus answered him, Foxes have holes, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lie down and rest. Another man, who was a disciple, said, Sir, first let me go back and bury my father. Follow me, Jesus answered, and let the dead bury their own dead.

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
Iran: The real enemy/By Tariq Alhomayed/October 13/11
Ignoring the Iranian threat/Tony Badran/October 13/11
The Hariri assassination needs a motive/By Michael Young/October 13/11
Latest resignation threatens STL reputation/By: Shane Farrell/October 13/11

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for October 13/11
Journalist Ali Hamadeh Receives Death Threat
Future Movement official Mustafa Allouch : Iran and Syria back terrorists
U.S. Urges Citizens to Monitor Developments Linked to STL over Civil Unrest Fears
Canada Condemns Assassination Attempt in United States
UK: U.S. Plot a 'Major Escalation' in Iran Terror Sponsorship
Alleged assassination plot heightens Iran-Saudi tension
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC): Saudi Envoy 'Plot' Harms Relations with Iran
Saudi Arabia Condemns 'Abhorrent' Plot to Kill Envoy
Iran's Revolutionary Guards Deny Involved in U.S. 'Plot'
Michael Oren: Israel taking Iranian assassination plot seriously
U.S. Sanctions Iran Airline for Quds Force, Hizbullah Transport, Calls for International Condemnation
U.S. accuses Syrian-born man of spying on anti-Assad dissidents
Syrian 'Agent' Charged with Spying on Protesters in U.S., Embassy Denies
Egypt defies Sinai peace terms, hosts Hamas in Cairo before Shalit's release
Egypt FM: Israel Apologizes for Border Deaths
Gilad Shalit to be returned to Israel within a week
'We have no choice', Netanyahu told ministers of Shalit deal
Syrian Troops Enter Wadi Anjar, Set up Base on Lebanese Soil
Metn residents slam Aoun’s remarks on power lines
commander Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi’s remarks during a parliamentary committee meeting kidnapping remarks spark calls for probes
March 14: Syria’s Violation of Lebanese Territory Must Be Presented at International Forums
Lebanon: Economic Bodies Urge Private Sector against Applying Govt. Decision on Wage Hike
President Gemayel: Syrian Violations of Lebanese Territory Disturbing
Sami Gemayel: The Syrian Embassy Kidnaps Opposition Members in Lebanon
STL: Lebanon has 30 days to pay funding
Syria revolt brings hope for families of missing Lebanese
Lebanon more important than international community: Nasrallah
Lebanese Civil Coalition launch demands rule of law
Jumblat Holds Banquet for Old Allies, Stresses Importance of Funding STL
President Gemayel: Syrian Violations of Lebanese Territory Disturbing

Journalist Ali Hamadeh Receives Death Threat
Naharnet/Prominent journalist Ali Hamadeh, who is the brother of MP Marwan Hamadeh, has informed Lebanese authorities that he received an assassination threat on his website.
Hamadeh told security forces and the General Secretariat of the March 14 coalition that he received the death threat last Wednesday, media reports said. The person who wrote the threat told Hamadeh that he was planning to kill the journalist while going out of Future TV building but he lost his opportunity after receiving a phone call. Hamadeh has a political talk show on Future and writes a daily column for An Nahar newspaper. His brother Marwan was the first politician to be targeted in a series of bombing attacks in the past years. He escaped an assassination attempt in October 2004.

Iran: The real enemy
By Tariq AlhomayedظAsharq Al-Awsat
Iran’s attempt to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador to Washington, Adel al-Jubeir, which was announced by official US authorities, needs to be read carefully by everyone; Saudis, Arabs and even the West. The news of the Iranian terrorist plot against the Saudi Ambassador must be read as follows:
The Quds Force, affiliated to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, planned to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador to Washington via Mexican drug barons. These are the facts, and thus they must be read according to official statements and not the media. Interpreting the news in accordance with this formula should help the reader see the bigger picture. This is – in all simplicity – that the Iranian Quds Force in Iraq, accused of a series of assassinations against politicians, pilots and professors since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, is the same corps under the leadership of Qassem Suleimani, who seeks to control Lebanon through Hezbollah. Furthermore, Suleimani is currently operating the crackdown today in Syria in defense of Bashar al-Assad. The man in charge, i.e. Suleimani, is also in communication and coordination with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, and even Iran. The Quds Force allied with drugs barons in Mexico to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador, and target Riyadh’s Embassy in Washington.
This means, as I said the day before yesterday on the “al-Arabiya” channel, that Iran has come to depend on assassinations as one of its fundamental tools to exhaust and weaken its enemies, most notably Saudi Arabia of course, as it has done in Iraq and Lebanon. Had the planned assassination of the Saudi Ambassador succeeded – God forbid – we would have seen a statement issued by al-Qaeda claiming that the operation was in retaliation to the killing of Osama bin Laden, and the real story would be lost as usual. On a side note, there is intelligence information indicating that death squads trained in Iran have moved from Iraq to Syria in order to kill internal Syrian opposition figures, and revolution sympathizers, which is what we are seeing today in Syria. There is no need for any more evidence to declare that Iran is exercising state terrorism.
Iran targeting Saudi Arabia, for example, is not a new phenomenon, though it has escalated recently since the Khomeini revolution. More importantly, Tehran wants to target the only high-rise building in our region, namely Saudi Arabia, more than ever before. With the consecutive impact of the Arab political earthquake upon most principal Arab states, only one Arab edifice remains intact; Saudi Arabia, with its religious, economic and political weight. Of course, the taller the building the easier target it is, and this is what Iran is doing today, especially as its most significant ally, Bashar al-Assad, is staggering, having used to facilitate Iran’s mission penetrating the region and its states, whether in Lebanon or Iraq.
Iran’s loss of the al-Assad regime means that its dream of exporting its revolution is over, which in turn means that Tehran is now facing its historical obligation to pay bills that are long overdue. Iran’s mullahs felt this in the form of a resounding slap from Saudi Arabia in Bahrain, which has made Tehran lose its mind. Now the Iranian regime will not even hesitate to target Saudi figures, after targeting internal Saudi locations such as al-Awamiyah, and likewise through targeting Saudi allies like Bahrain, as well as affiliated states and politicians.
The question here is: do the deceived now understand that Iran is the real enemy? I hope so.

Ignoring the Iranian threat
Tony Badran, October 13, 2011 /Now Lebanon
The Saudi Embassy in Washington, which was the target of a foiled attack by an Iranian agent this week.The US is not doing enough to rein in Iran. (AFP photo/Jewel Samad)
The alleged Iranian plot to murder the Saudi ambassador to the United States, and to target the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Washington, has left casual observers, analysts and regional experts shocked. They see this prospective Iranian campaign as an unprecedented escalation in Tehran’s war against the US and its allies. In reality, the Iranians have been building toward something like this for months. Recognizing the strategic designs behind Iran's brazenness should spur the Obama administration to reassert its leadership in the region and refocus US priorities in the Middle East.
Some of the analysis immediately following the official disclosure of the plot’s details has tended to focus primarily on the plausibility of the US charge that the plot was “conceived, sponsored and directed” from Iran. However, when read through the prism of the regional balance of power, particularly against the backdrop of the US posture of retrenchment, Iran’s power play appears less surprising.
It is worth revisiting the context of the plot. The published complaint states that that the conspiracy began “at least in or about the spring of 2011,” and according to US officials who spoke to The Daily Beast, President Barack Obama first learned of the plot in June. In other words, the operation was set in motion at a critical time in the region: The Saudis had displayed willingness to interfere militarily in order to block what they perceived as an Iranian attempt to undermine them in Bahrain. In addition, Tehran’s strategic Arab ally, the Assad regime in Syria, was being challenged by a popular uprising, which the Iranians blamed on the US and its regional allies.
By June, Iran was already making threats against US allies, namely Turkey and Saudi Arabia, over both Syria and Bahrain. These threats recently intensified and expanded to include other regional actors as well as US interests in the region.
Last week, the Iranian Fars News Agency website published a curious item relaying a threat allegedly made by Syria’s Bashar al-Assad to Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu during the latter’s visit to Damascus in early August. Aside from the expected warning of targeting Israel, Assad reportedly threatened that, in the event of a NATO attack against Syria, “Iran will attack the US warships in the Persian Gulf, and the US and European interests will be targeted simultaneously.” In a direct reference to Saudi Arabia, Assad also reportedly said that Gulf Shia would be activated as suicide attack units.
That this threat involving Iranian intervention on behalf of its ally was reproduced on an official Iranian outlet is itself revealing. It was reinforced by a simultaneous report about the meeting between Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister and the Qatari Crown Prince in which the Iranian diplomat warned Doha that foreign interference in Syria “will push the whole region into crisis.”
Tehran’s belligerent posture is directly related to the regional developments in which Iran sees a challenge to its plans for regional hegemony. In issuing these public threats to rival regional actors, the Iranians are announcing their willingness to use force to safeguard their alliance system and ensure that the regional balance of power remains in their favor and decidedly against the US.
What has been the US reaction to these public threats? Ironically, the Iranian effort has been largely effective in deterring the Obama administration, especially in Syria. For example, as The New York Times reported last month, administration officials have said that they do not want to give the Iranian government “an excuse to intervene” by appearing to be “orchestrating the outcome” in Syria.
This US posture of disinclination and reluctance has not been lost on anyone in the region. It is highly possible, therefore, that the Iranians wagered that they could push the envelope further—all the way to Washington. As some analysts have noted, it is reasonable to assume that the Iranians calculated that there would not be serious repercussions to their plan in DC. Specifically, the Iranians probably believed that there would be no military response, and therefore made a calculated risk to go on the offensive, putting to use the assets and networks the Qods Force and its Hezbollah surrogate have been developing for quite a while.
By targeting Saudi Arabia on US soil, the Iranians would be dealing a double blow. They would be striking at Washington’s primary Arab ally (especially as question marks currently surround Egypt), all while highlighting US weakness as a patron state, both in terms of its inability to protect its clients, and also in what Iran believes will be an impotent retaliation.
Iran is viewing the developments in the Arab world, including their own loss of power and prestige, in the stark terms of pure power politics. Accordingly, their response is raw force and terror. In contrast, the Obama administration has yet to account for the critical regional shifts and retailor its strategic framework to fit them. Furthermore, the White House has failed to press its strategic interests and objectives—which include destroying Iran’s alliance system and neutralizing Tehran's ability to project power.
It is now time for the US to make this clear to friend and foe alike.
**Tony Badran is a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He tweets @AcrossTheBay.

Future Movement official Mustafa Allouch : Iran and Syria back terrorists
October 13, 2011 /Future Movement official Mustafa Allouch said on Thursday that the Iranian regime is not far from orchestrating a terrorist act, in a reference to an alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the US. “I am not surprised that the Iranian regime will commit an act of terrorism just as the Syrian regime [does],” he told LBC television.
US officials on Tuesday said they had charged two Iranians, one of them a dual US citizen, with preparing to carry out a bomb attack on the Saudi ambassador under a plan "conceived, sponsored and directed from Iran." “These decisions [to assassinate people] can’t be taken unless approved by the [Iranian supreme leader],” Allouch added.
The Future Movement official also condemned the Syrian incursions into Lebanon and the Lebanese cabinet’s response to it. “At least the cabinet should summon the Syrian ambassador to Lebanon, and if no result is reached, the case should be submitted to the United Nations because this is a violation of [Lebanon’s] sovereignty.” Last week, Syrian army tanks crossed the Lebanese border near the town of Aarsal and fired several gunshots within Lebanese territory, and later Syrian troops shot and killed a farmer near Aarsal. The United Nations says the Syrian regime’s campaign to clamp down on anti-regime protests has resulted in more than 2,900 death since March.
-NOW Lebanon

Sami Gemayel: The Syrian Embassy Kidnaps Opposition Members in Lebanon
Naharnet/ Lebanese police have information implicating Damascus' embassy in Beirut in the disappearance of a Syrian opposition figure last seen in May, an MP Sami Gemayel said on Wednesday. Police chief Ashraf Rifi told a parliamentary committee on human rights that he had collected "dangerous information" pointing to the embassy in the disappearance of Shebli al-Aysami, Gemayel told Agence France Presse. Rifi "provided dangerous information concerning the implication of the Syrian embassy in the kidnapping of Shebli Aysami," Gemayel told AFP. Aysami's daughter, who attended the meeting in parliament, also confirmed the news. "According to Rifi's investigations, information clearly points to the Syrian embassy in my father's disappearance," Raja Sharafeddine told AFP. Syria's ambassador to Lebanon could not immediately be reached for comment. Aysami, 86, is a co-founder of Syria's ruling Baath party but fled his native Syria in 1966 over political differences with the group. He was last seen in the eastern Lebanese region of Aley. Amnesty International on October 3 said Syrian authorities were cracking down on activists and opposition figures in eight countries, but did not include Lebanon on the list. *Source Agence France Presse

Lebanon more important than threats against it: Nasrallah
October 13, 2011/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah said Lebanon’s interests are more important than threats by the international community, sources who had met with Nasrallah quoted him as saying in Thursday’s Al Liwaa newspaper. “Some are voicing threats that the international community might sanction Lebanon if the funding [for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon] does not go through, but the international community is not more important than the interest of Lebanon and Lebanese,” Nasrallah was quoted as saying.
Prime Minister Najib Mikati and other ministers have said that refusing to pay Lebanon’s share of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s budget would place the country in confrontation with the international community, something that Lebanon cannot afford.
Others have hinted at the possibility of sanctions if Lebanon does not commit to international resolutions, especially U.N. Security Council Resolution 1757, which established the tribunal.
Those who met with Nasrallah also quoted him as saying that the international community has a positive view of the government but that still depends on its commitment to international resolutions, referring to the STL.
Nasrallah, however, assured his visitors that the rift within the government regarding the STL funding would not affect the Cabinet, despite the fact that Hezbollah and its allies, who form the majority in the government, have vowed to block any attempt to pay the country’s $32 million share. “He also affirmed the need to provide Mikati with the necessary support to address any pressing issues and allow the government to continue its work until the upcoming parliamentary elections,” the newspaper reported.
Nasrallah also touched upon the situation in Syria, saying that President Bashar Assad’s government has overcome the crisis and that the situation is improving.
“Assad’ seriousness about implementing reforms, the unity of the Syrian army, and the people’s awareness of the extent of the plan to divide [the country] helped overcome the crisis,” he was quoted as saying, adding that reforms require time.
Tens of thousands of pro-Assad supporters went onto the streets of Damascus Wednesday to show support for the Syrian president in response to mounting international backing for the Syrian opposition. However, anti government protests, demanding reform and an end to Assad’s rule, have not backed down despite the violent crackdown by Syrian authorities.

U.S. Urges Citizens to Monitor Developments Linked to STL over Civil Unrest Fears
Naharnet /The U.S. State Department urged U.S. citizens to avoid all travel to Lebanon due to current safety and security concerns and warned from civil unrest over the indictment issued by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. “U.S. citizens living and working in Lebanon should understand that they accept risks in remaining and should carefully consider those risks,” the Department said in an updated travel warning issued on Wednesday.. “The potential in Lebanon for a spontaneous upsurge in violence remains,” it said, adding that “Lebanese government authorities are not able to guarantee protection for citizens or visitors to the country should violence erupt suddenly.” It warned that sporadic violence involving Hizbullah or other armed groups remains a possibility in many areas of Lebanon. Recounting the kidnapping of seven Estonian tourists in March and their ultimate release in July, the travel warning said: “Although the U.S. government places the highest priority on the safe recovery of kidnapped U.S. citizens, it is U.S. policy not to pay ransom.”
“U.S. citizens in Lebanon should monitor ongoing political developments, particularly in relation to the STL, as Lebanese political leaders have warned publicly that the tribunal's findings could spark civil unrest,” the Department said. In June, the STL issued indictments against four Hizbullah members in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s Feb. 2005 assassination.
The Department also warned that skirmishes between the Lebanese and Israeli armies as well as protesters and civilians along Lebanon's border with Israel may occur with no warning.  It said several demonstrators were killed and several others, including a U.S. citizen, were severely wounded near the southern border town of Maroun al-Ras after Israel opened fire on them in May. The previous travel warning for Lebanon was issued in April 4 this year. U.S. regulation requires that travel warnings be reviewed continually and updated at least every six months to ensure that the most current safety and security information is shared with the American public.

Syria Revolt Brings Hope for Families of Missing Lebanese
Naharnet /The seven-month-old revolt in neighboring Syria has given hope to Lebanese families trying to find what happened to thousands of loved ones who disappeared during their country's civil war and are believed dead or held in Syrian jails. "For the first time in many, many years, it's a win-win situation for us -- for all the families of the victims," said Ghazi Aad, head of SOLIDE, a group that for years has been lobbying for Lebanese political prisoners in Syrian jails. "If the regime falls, detainees will be released and archives and records will no longer be under that regime's control," he told Agence France Presse. "And even if President Bashar Assad stays, he will be under massive pressure to clean up his human rights record."
For over 20 years, more than 600 families -- Lebanese and Palestinian, Muslim and Christian -- have demanded authorities reveal the fate of thousands of political prisoners believed to have disappeared at the hands of Syrian troops who entered Lebanon shortly after the outbreak of the 1975-1990 civil war.
Successive Lebanese governments have made apparent attempts to address the issue, even including it in cabinet programs. But families of the victims say their appeals have been met with apathy from authorities. In a bid to draw attention to their plight, the mothers, wives and daughters of those missing for six years have held a sit-in in downtown Beirut, where a tent is permanently set up outside U.N. headquarters. "I have no hope that Ahmad will turn up alive, and I know in my heart that he is dead," said Amneh Sharkawi, 78, whose son went missing in 1976 aged 19. "But I want closure," she added, sitting on a makeshift bed in the tent. "I want my son back, even if they give me his bones in a plastic bag. I want to bury my son near his father." Rights groups say thousands of men, women and children disappeared at the hands of Hafez Assad, Bashar's predecessor and late father, during the civil war, a spiraling bloodbath which tore Lebanon apart on confessional lines.
Syria withdrew from its smaller neighbor in 2005 under massive international pressure over the assassination of billionaire former premier Rafik Hariri.
The Assad dynasty has long denied holding any prisoners of conscience, but on four different occasions between 1976 and 2000 has released Lebanese who had been held in Syrian prisons. While Syria declared it no longer had any Lebanese detainees after the prisoner release in 2000, Foreign Minister Walid Muallem made a statement to the contrary during a fence-mending trip to Lebanon in 2008. "Those who have waited more than 30 years since the start of the (Lebanese) civil war can wait another few weeks," Muallem said at the time.
Today, for Amneh and hundreds of others in her situation, the revolt may prove the key to uncovering the fate of their missing loved ones at long last. "If the regime falls, many secrets held tightly by security services also become uncovered, either by defectors or because the archives are opened and so forth," said Nadim Houry, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. "There is no doubt that the odds of getting answers would be much higher in a post-Assad Syria, if what we've seen in Libya or Egypt is any indication." Jihad Georges Eid was a 20-year-old soldier in the Lebanese army when Syrian troops took him away on October 13, 1990 -- the day of the last battle in the civil war. His mother Sonia said she subsequently received conflicting reports on his whereabouts. "The state ignored all my appeals and it turned its back on a member of its own army," she said. "All these years, I never gave up hope and now, more than ever, I know he's coming back."Source Agence France Presse

STL: Lebanon has 30 days to pay funding
October 13, 11/Daily Star
BEIRUT: Lebanon has 30 days to pay its $32 million share of the budget for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, the court’s registrar has said, according to Thursday’s An-Nahar newspaper.
The newspaper also reported that Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare would release additional indictments in the coming months.
“Lebanon has 30 days to pay its share,” the paper quoted Herman von Hebel as saying Wednesday night during a meeting with reporters in New York, adding that he believes the country will pay its share before the end of the month.
Funding the tribunal has been one of the most contentious issues in Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s Cabinet. Hezbollah and its allies, who hold a majority in the Cabinet, reject the funding outright. Mikati and President Michel Sleiman have vowed to pay Lebanon’s share.
Mikati and Sleiman, along with the March 14 alliance, fear that neglecting to pay Lebanon’s 49 percent share would place the country in confrontation with the international community, something Mikati has said Lebanon cannot afford to do.
Mikati has not yet revealed how he would finance the tribunal. Some politicians suggested that Mikati could pay for the tribunal from his own pocket.Hezbollah has described the tribunal as a U.S. and Israeli tool to target the party and sow sectarian strife in Lebanon. Hezbollah Chief Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah has repeatedly questioned the credibility of investigators and judges within the U.N.-backed court.
In late June, the court indicted four Hezbollah members of involvement in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005. The suspects are Mustafa Badreddine, Salim Ayyash, Asad Sabra, and Hasan Ainessi.
Hebel defended the court against Hezbollah’s allegations during the meeting Wednesday, An-Nahar reported.
“If this court is American and Israel, I do not understand why there are more than 25 [countries] from all five continents paying for this tribunal,” he said. “Shouldn't the U.S. and Israel be the only ones who pay?”
Hebel also said that Bellemare would release additional indictments at the end of the year or the beginning of next year in the cases of MP Marwan Hamadeh, former Defense Minister Elias Murr, and slain former Lebanese Communist Party leader George Hawi
Hawi was murdered in a car explosion as he made his way through the Beirut neighborhood of Wata Moseitbeh on June 21, 2005, while Murr was wounded in a bomb attack in Antelias, north of Beirut, on July 15, 2005. Hamade was wounded in a similar attack on Oct. 1. 2004.
Hebel also said that the decision to extend the agreement between the U.N. and Lebanon which established the tribunal, which expires in May 2012, ultimately lies with U.N. secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon.
Article 21 of U.N. Security Council 1757 stipulates that the Lebanese government in consultation with the Security Council should extend the three-year-agreement between the two if the work of the tribunal has not been completed. The extension should come after the government and the Security Council review the tribunal’s work after three years of its establishment in March 2009.

Latest resignation threatens STL reputation
Shane Farrell, /Now Lebanon
October 12, 2011
Monday’s resignation of Special Tribunal for Lebanon President Antonio Cassese was unexpected. While Cassese says he resigned for “health reasons,” some are not convinced.
Omar Nashabe wrote in Al-Akhbar that a New York-based UN source told the daily that Cassese resigned “due to differences between Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare and some of the tribunal’s judges.” According to the same source, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon decided that “losing Bellemare or Cassese during ‘this historical stage of the first tribunal on terrorist crimes’ might lead to the erosion of what is left of the tribunal's credibility.” Therefore, the compromise was for Cassese to step down from the presidency, although he will still perform his duties as a judge in the appeals chamber.
As-Safir supports this claim.
Others disagree. An-Nahar journalist Nabil Bou Mounsef said that he does not believe Cassese’s resignation is suspicious, and that claims that his decision to step down was motivated by a personal conflict were concocted by those with a political interest in discrediting the tribunal. “We all know that there are parties that oppose the tribunal in Lebanon, and any development of such sort may be used as a manner of personal benefit to them,” he told NOW Lebanon.
“In my opinion, given that I am aware of how the tribunal functions, they cannot hide information of the sort, and therefore I believe that it is solely a health issue,” he added.
A diplomatic source close to the tribunal told NOW Lebanon that Casesse did in fact have very serious health problems. “You can look for ghosts everywhere, but there are none,” the source said.
According to An-Nahar, Cassese has been in Italy since July seeking treatment. Bellemare, meanwhile, has been uninterruptedly hospitalized for the past two months and is undergoing intensive treatment, according to As-Safir.
Speculations behind the causes of Cassese’s resignation aside, what effect will his decision have on the tribunal?
On the practical level, the answer appears to be very little.
Nidzara Ahmetasevic, a journalist with years of experience covering the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, said, “Maybe I’m completely wrong, but with my experiences in ICTY, the name of the president doesn’t mean a lot.”
Darina Saliba, professor of International Law at Lebanese American University, agrees. “I can’t see that this will change a lot of things. It will continue despite the make-up of the court,” she told NOW Lebanon.
Moreover, Saliba stressed her faith in the ability of Cassese’s replacement, New Zealand Judge David Baragwanath, who has plenty of experience handling tough cases. “I don’t think he is any less competent or qualified [than Cassese],” she said.
However, although she does not believe Cassese’s resignation will have much of a procedural effect, Saliba believes that it may have an impact on the reputation of the tribunal.
Referring to previous resignations—most notably the high-profile ones such as registrars Robin Vincent and David Tolbert, and Judge Howard Morrison—Saliba stated that “For the average person, I think all these resignations have affected the credibility of the STL.” Many of the previous resignations also lacked transparency, she stressed, though she added that some journalists have been guilty of exaggeration and ungrounded speculation.
Bou Mounsef, on the other hand, denies that the court’s reputation has been affected. “There is a UN Security Council [and] there is the international community behind this court,” he said, and it is “made up of international judges who work by international standards.”
“It is not a joke,” he added.

Canada Condemns Assassination Attempt in United States
(No. 299 - October 12, 2011 - 9:10 p.m. ET) Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird today issued the following statement on the plot to assassinate the Ambassador of Saudi Arabia to the United States: "Canada condemns this planned attack on the Saudi ambassador on U.S. soil.
"Indications of the Iranian regime’s involvement are extremely serious. Canada will work with our international partners in considering the consequences for Iran’s actions."
- 30 -
For further information, media representatives may contact:
Foreign Affairs Media Relations Office
Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada
613-995-1874

Alleged assassination plot heightens Iran-Saudi tension
Los Angeles Times
Allegations that Iran sought to kill the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. have given rise to new drama. It comes as the two Mideast powers seek to outmaneuver each other at a time of regional upheaval.
By Jeffrey Fleishman and Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times
October 13, 2011
Reporting from Cairo and Beirut—
The two Middle Eastern powers have been battling for preeminence in the Muslim world for decades but the alleged Iranian plot to assassinate a Saudi Arabian ambassador has heightened the tension between them during a time of intense regional upheaval.
The new drama has arisen as Saudi Arabia and Iran seek to outmaneuver each other in matters such as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the future of Iraq and the bloody political uprisings sweeping much of the region. Their mistrust, fueled in part by sectarian strain, is sharpened by Iran's nuclear development program and Saudi Arabia's long-standing ties to the U.S., Tehran's most potent enemy.
If the assassination scheme is true it would "represent a very serious ratcheting up of what has emerged as one of the most critical … confrontations in the Middle East," said Rami G. Khouri, director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut. "Iran backs a revolutionary political export movement that scares the daylights out of the Saudis."
The animosity between the Sunni Muslim monarchy in Riyadh and the Shiite Muslim theocracy in Tehran has played out for years in diplomatic back channels and in proxy conflicts from Iraq to Lebanon. A 2008 State Department cable quoted the Saudi ambassador to Washington, Adel al-Jubeir, the target of the alleged assassination plot, as saying his country wanted the U.S. to launch military strikes on Iran "to cut the head off the snake."
With their vast oil reserves and ultraconservative schools of Islam, the two countries are now adjusting strategies to address upheavals that have threatened autocrats in nations including Syria and Bahrain, transforming the political calculus of the Arab world. As they recalibrate regional agendas, Saudi King Abdullah and Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also face internal pressure for change.
Since the 1979 revolution that overthrew the U.S.-backed shah, Iran has assumed the mantle of a revolutionary Islamic state thumbing its nose at Washington and its chief regional ally, Israel. The Shiite republic's brash polemics and uncompromising stance toward the West have won admiration and partly inspired young activists across the region.
The Sunni monarchy of Saudi Arabia, guardians of the great shrines of Islam, has often found itself on the defensive, inextricably tied to its unpopular political patron, the United States, and unable to react nimbly to events.
For all their disputes, they are much alike: strongly religious oil powers buttressing their repressive governments against voices of reform. Iran could feel additional strain if the assassination plot allegations draw new international economic sanctions that increase its isolation. Recent statements clearly suggest this is on the minds of Iran's leaders.
"The Americans have launched a stupid mischief," said Ali Larijani, speaker of the Iranian parliament. "Maybe they are after creating an artificial crisis and creating problems among regional countries.... There is no reason for Iran to carry out these childish actions."
Strain between Saudi Arabia and Iran has already grown as a result of the "Arab Spring" movement that unfolded across the region early this year. Riyadh sent hundreds of troops into neighboring Sunni-controlled Bahrain in March to help crush an uprising by the majority Shiite population. Although the protests against Bahrain's royal family erupted over Shiite claims of discrimination, the Saudis said Iran orchestrated the unrest in a ploy to destabilize the Persian Gulf through sectarian strife.
Syria is another crucial test. Syrian President Bashar Assad, a longtime ally of Iran, has for months ordered his security forces to brutally suppress antigovernment protests. The ruling Assad family belongs to the Alawite sect — an offshoot of Shiite Islam — and is pivotal to Iran's influence not only in Syria but also in Lebanon, where Tehran backs the militant group Hezbollah as a counterbalance to Israel.
If Saudi Arabia were to provide financial and weapons support to the protesters in Syria, the majority of whom are Sunnis, it could severely weaken or even topple Assad, leaving Iran without an important proxy. Such a gambit by Saudi Arabia would also suggest that its biggest ally, the U.S., was prepared to be more aggressive in pushing Assad from power and checking Iran's regional ambitions.
"This could break the Syrian-Iranian bridge," said Nabil Abdel Fattah of Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo. "The downfall of Assad's regime would eventually revive Saudi Arabia's role in the region at the expense of Iran."
Hilal Khashan, a political scientist at the American University of Beirut, said the U.S. arrest of an Iranian American suspect in the foiled assassination comes as a Syrian opposition umbrella group, the Syrian National Council, is lobbying for recognition from foreign governments.
"This means that the U.S. is ready now for a more active role in Syrian affairs," he predicted.
Relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran worsened after the 1979 Iranian revolution when the theocracy of Ayatollah Khomeini challenged the legitimacy of the Saudi royal family, underlining centuries of sectarian resentment. The tone spurred a race between the two countries for influence in a Middle East seeking to economically and politically capitalize on petrodollars.
There is no suggestion of imminent military conflict between Riyadh and Tehran, but they have been entangled for years in Shiite and Sunni bloodshed in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq and in the support of opposing Palestinian factions. Iran has been blamed for a number of assassinations and terrorist attacks in the region, including the 1996 bombing of Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 U.S. service members.
Passions have been further inflamed by Iran's nuclear development program, which the West and Saudi Arabia say is aimed at producing nuclear weapons. Tehran says the program is for civilian and medical purposes and says Saudi Arabia is part of a conspiracy to contain Iran. A unified front against Iran would also repair U.S.-Saudi relations, which have been strained by Washington's support for pro-democracy movements across the region.
Political analyst Khouri and others doubt that Iran was behind the latest assassination attempt.
"If the Iranians were involved in this kind of plot, I don't think they'd chose this kind of guy to do it," Khouri said by telephone from the United States. "They're much more professional."
jeffrey.fleishman@latimes.com
patrick.mcdonnell@latimes.com
Fleishman reported from Cairo and McDonnell from Beirut. News assistant Amro Hassan of The Times' Cairo bureau and special correspondent Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran contributed to this report

Iran's Revolutionary Guards Deny Involved in U.S. 'Plot'
Naharnet /A top commander of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards on Wednesday denied any involvement of the force in the plot alleged by the United States to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington. "America's claims about the involvement of some members of the Guards in the fabricated terror plot (targeting) a diplomat from an Arab country in Washington are ridiculous and baseless," Guards deputy commander Brigadier General Hossein Salami was quoted as saying on the state television website.
"These actions are a threadbare and baseless scenario, and in effect seek to divert public opinion from the anti-Wall Street movement and America's failures in carrying out its policies of oppression in the (Middle East) region and around the world," he said.
Salami was quoted as saying that the U.S. accusations "aim at sowing discord between Shiites and Sunnis and causing divisions within the world of Islam."
He said that "a chain of repeated failures, as well as the failure of American leaders in their foreign policy, has driven them to formulating ridiculous and baseless matters in the hopes of diverting international public opinion from the defeated capitalist system."
Salami said he hoped "by the grace of God, this too will be neutralized like their other conspiracies."
US officials on Tuesday said they had charged two Iranians, one of them a dual U.S. citizen, with preparing to carry out a bomb attack on the Saudi ambassador under a plan "conceived, sponsored and directed from Iran." The US Justice Department accused the Quds Force, a special forces unit incorporated in Iran's Revolutionary Guards, of being involved, based on testimony given by one of the Iranians who was in U.S. custody. The other Iranian, said to be a member of the Quds Force, was at large and believed to have left the United States, according to U.S. authorities.  *Source Agence France Presse

Syrian 'Agent' Charged with Spying on Protesters in U.S., Embassy Denies
Naharnet
A Syrian-born U.S. citizen has been charged with spying on anti-Assad protesters and providing recordings to the regime's intelligence agents in a bid to silence the opposition, U.S. officials said Wednesday, but the Syrian embassy in Washington denied such allegations.
A federal grand jury charged Mohamad Anas Haitham Soueid, 47, on October 5 in a six-count indictment for his efforts against activists in the United States and Syria opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime. He was arrested Tuesday.
The Leesburg, Virginia man was charged with conspiracy and acting as a Syrian government agent in the United States without notifying the US attorney general as required by law. He was also charged on two counts of providing false statements on a firearms purchase form and two counts of providing false statements to federal law enforcement.
The naturalized American, also known as "Alex Soueid" and "Anas Alswaid," was due to make an initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Theresa Buchanan at 2:00 pm (1800 GMT) in Alexandria, Virginia.
The charges came amid escalating tensions between Damascus and Washington over the Syrian government's months-long crackdown on opposition protests seeking to oust Assad.
In July, top State Department officials summoned Syrian Ambassador Imad Mustapha to discuss reports that embassy staff had filmed "peaceful" U.S. protests against the Syrian regime.
As part of his conspiracy, Soueid and others intended to "undermine, silence, intimidate and potentially harm persons in the United States and Syria who protested against the government of Syria and President al-Assad, all at the direction and control of the government of Syria and Syrian officials," the indictment said.
Soueid was said to have ordered individuals to make audio and video recordings of anti-regime protests in both countries and of conversations with activists that he would then pass on to the Syrian mukhabarat, or intelligence agents, and other government officials.
From about April 2 to June 10, Soueid emailed a Syrian intelligence agent about 20 audio and video recordings taped in the United States, according to the indictment. He discussed individual protesters using assigned "product codes" and also provided their contact information.
"We're in his ring now, (very) important details I have for you," Soueid wrote in an April 6 email to a Syrian embassy official that included a link to a website for protesters in the United States.During a late June-early July trip to Syria paid for by the government, Soueid was said to have met with Assad and spoken with him in private.
But when questioned by FBI agents around August 3, Soueid denied he had ever recorded or collected information on people in the United States and or shared any such data with Syrian government officials. Soueid is also accused of lying on his application to purchase a 9mm pistol. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison on the spying charges, 15 years for the firearms charge and 10 years for making false statements to federal investigators. Reacting to the news of Soueid's arrest, the embassy said in a statement: "Neither Mr. Soueid nor any other citizen of the US is an agent of the Syrian government." A federal grand jury charged Soueid on October 5 in a six-count indictment for spying on Syrian opposition activists in the United States and Syria and providing recordings to the regime's intelligence agents.
The Leesburg, Virginia, man was charged with conspiracy and acting as a Syrian government agent in the United States without notifying the US attorney general as required by law.
But the Syrian embassy in Washington said the allegation that a US citizen was working with Damascus "to intimidate US citizens is absolutely baseless and totally unacceptable."
"Contrary to the statement of the Department of Justice, Mr. Soueid is not an agent of any Syrian institution; he never worked under directions or control of any Syrian official," it added.
It also denied that the Syrian government had paid travel expenses or any kinds of funds to Soueid, and rejected the notion that he had met privately with Assad.
Soueid "has never provided any individual at the Syrian embassy in the US with any information regarding US protesters or otherwise. This is a flagrant effort to defame the embassy of Syria based on sheer lies and fabrications," the statement said.
The embassy also challenged the Justice Department to provide evidence to back up the allegations, which it called "a campaign of distortion and fabrications."

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC): Saudi Envoy 'Plot' Harms Relations with Iran
Naharnet lThe Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) condemned on Wednesday the alleged Iranian plot to kill the Saudi envoy to Washington, saying it harms Gulf-Iranian relations, Saudi state news agency SPA said. Riyadh strongly condemned the "sinful and abhorrent" attempt to assassinate its Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir, applauding U.S. efforts to foil the attempt.
GCC chief Abdullatif al-Zayani said the reported attempt to kill the Saudi envoy was a "flagrant violation of all laws and agreements," adding it was "severely harmful to the relations between GCC member states and Iran," SPA said. Zayani urged Tehran to depart from its "negative way" of dealing with GCC members which also include Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He called on Iran to "rebuild its relations with the council states on the basis of frankness, clarity, constructive cooperation and good neighborly relations, away from its current negative way," SPA reported. An unnamed Saudi official quoted by SPA said the kingdom "strongly condemns the sinful and abhorrent attempt to assassinate the (Saudi) envoy... to the United States." "The government of the kingdom appreciates the efforts exerted by the American authorities, which were followed by the kingdom, in uncovering the plot," the official added. Falling short of following Washington in naming Iran as the culprit, Saudi Arabia "will continue to coordinate with the U.S. authorities over this mean conspiracy and those behind it," the official said. The kingdom is also "looking into measures and decisive steps that it will take in this regard to stop these criminal acts, and to firmly address all attempts to shake the stability of the kingdom and endanger its security and sow sedition between its people," he added. "The kingdom calls on the Arab and Islamic nations and the international community to assume their responsibilities in face of these terrorist acts and the attempts to threaten state stability, and world security and peace." The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday charged two men with conspiring with Iranian officials to assassinate Jubeir. Iran, facing four rounds of U.N. Security Council sanctions over its nuclear program, called the U.S. allegations part of an "evil plot" against it, and wrote to the U.N. Security Council, accusing Washington of "warmongering." Relations between the Sunni-ruled Arab states in the Gulf and non-Arab predominantly Shiite Iran were further strained following a crackdown in March on protests in Bahrain that had been led by the tiny kingdom's Shiite majority. Saudi's interior ministry blamed unrest last week in its Eastern Province, home to most of its Shiite minority, on a "foreign country."Shiite activists in Gulf countries are regularly accused of having links with their co-religionists in Iran.
*Source Agence France Presse

Syrian Troops Enter Wadi Anjar, Set up Base on Lebanese Soil
Naharnet /A Syrian army unit entered Lebanon on Wednesday and headed towards the Wadi Anjar region in the Bekaa where it set up base past the sand barrier which the Lebanese army had set up years ago to mark the borders, reported Voice of Lebanon radio. The coordination and cooperation office between the two armies began their contacts to tackle the matter, with the army command demanding that the Syrian troops withdraw from Lebanon. VDL also reported that Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau Bekaa branch managed to arrest two individuals, a Lebanese and a Syrian, accusing them of purchasing light and medium arms and smuggling them to Syria. The Syrian national confessed that he came to the Bekaa to purchase weapons from Lebanese arms dealers, adding that he was seeking to buy RPGs and machineguns to transport them to Syria. Investigations are underway with them.

.President Gemayel: Syrian Violations of Lebanese Territory Disturbing
Naharnet /Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel expressed his concern over the repeated Syrian violations of the Lebanese territories which have become disturbing on the national, security and sovereign levels. In an interview with Radio "Voice of Lebanon" (100.3-100.5), Gemayel stressed that the government and the security forces should tell the people who " have a right to know what is going on", about these violations. A Syrian army had entered Lebanon on Wednesday and headed towards the Wadi Anjar region in the Bekaa where it set up base past the sand barrier which the Lebanese army had set up years ago to mark the borders. Earlier last week, the Syrian troops entered Arsal region killing a Syrian citizen and assaulting Lebanese inhabitants. Gemayel asserted that March 8 and March 14 politicians should take the necessary positions on this matter. " The issue has nothing to do with internal differences, but about the country's sovereignty and security", Gemayel explained. He added:"Is the Syrian army's entry to Lebanon, and his set up bases acceptable to the March 8 and March 14?"

Sami Gemayel: The Syrian Embassy Kidnaps Opposition Members in Lebanon
Naharnet /Lebanese police have information implicating Damascus' embassy in Beirut in the disappearance of a Syrian opposition figure last seen in May, an MP Sami Gemayel said on Wednesday. Police chief Ashraf Rifi told a parliamentary committee on human rights that he had collected "dangerous information" pointing to the embassy in the disappearance of Shebli al-Aysami, Gemayel told Agence France Presse. Rifi "provided dangerous information concerning the implication of the Syrian embassy in the kidnapping of Shebli Aysami," Gemayel told AFP. Aysami's daughter, who attended the meeting in parliament, also confirmed the news. "According to Rifi's investigations, information clearly points to the Syrian embassy in my father's disappearance," Raja Sharafeddine told AFP. Syria's ambassador to Lebanon could not immediately be reached for comment. Aysami, 86, is a co-founder of Syria's ruling Baath party but fled his native Syria in 1966 over political differences with the group. He was last seen in the eastern Lebanese region of Aley. Amnesty International on October 3 said Syrian authorities were cracking down on activists and opposition figures in eight countries, but did not include Lebanon on the list. *Source Agence France Presse

March 14: Syria’s Violation of Lebanese Territory Must Be Presented at International Forums
Naharnet /The March 14 General Secretariat condemned on Wednesday the Syrian army’s recent incursions into Lebanese territory, demanding that the parliamentary defense council convene with the defense minister and army command to tackle the affair. It said in a statement after its weekly meeting: “Syria’s violations should be brought up before all Arab and international forums.” It also asserted that the Lebanese army alone is responsible for controlling the Lebanese-Syrian border and thwarting any smuggling attempts.
“The Syrian infiltration is a blatant violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty,” it added. Furthermore, it noted: “The violation coincided with complete silence over the issue by the president, government, and army leadership, which they justify with the cooperation and coordination agreement that was signed between Lebanon and Syria in 1991.”
Last week, Syrian troops crossed the border into Lebanon and headed towards the area of Arsal in the Bekaa where they fired at a building.
A few weeks before that, the army infiltrated northern Lebanon where it accidentally opened fire at the Lebanese soldiers whom it mistook for armed individuals who had allegedly fled Syria.  Addressing the clashes that took place in Egypt between Coptic Christians security forces, the March 14 General Secretariat noted: “These unfortunate events took place during a transition period ahead of upcoming elections.” “They are aimed at tarnishing the image of the Arab Spring and attacking Egyptian internal unity at a critical time for the Arab world, it stated.
“The Lebanese who have paid the price of sectarian division urge the Egyptians to unite to ensure the rise of a fair state that believes in guaranteeing the rights of all citizens, whether they are Christians or Muslims,” it stressed. “Resorting to the state is enough to thwart strife and establish the reality that the Egyptian youth have strived for,” it added.

Egypt FM: Israel Apologizes for Border Deaths
Naharnet /Israel has apologized to Egypt for the border killings of six policemen in August that sparked a diplomatic crisis between the two neighbors, Egypt's foreign ministry said on Wednesday. The policemen were killed on August 18, as Israeli troops hunted down militants who had carried out deadly attacks near the border with Israel.
Their deaths prompted infuriated protesters to storm Israel's embassy in Cairo, forcing the ambassador to leave the country. "Egypt has indeed received an official message from Israel's defense ministry in which Israel apologizes and expresses it deep remorse," a statement quoted Foreign Minister Mohammed Amr as saying. The statement said that the apology had satisfied an Egyptian demand. Late on Tuesday, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barack said his government, which had already expressed regret for the deaths, would be willing to apologize.
"Based on the findings of the investigation, Barak decided to apologize to the Egyptians over the death of every Egyptian policeman in the line of duty as the result of Israeli fire," an Israeli statement said.The announcement came as Egypt helped mediate an elusive prisoner swap between Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement that controls Gaza and has held a captured Israeli soldier since 2006. Israel will release more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, including militants it had refused to set free, in exchange for the soldier, Gilad Shalit.
The Egyptian state news agency MENA said Egyptian intelligence chief Murad Muwafi was a key player in helping seal the deal between Israel and Hamas.
Egypt, which signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, has grown more assertive with its neighbor since a popular revolt ousted president Hosni Mubarak in February, leaving the military in control. *Source Agence France Presse

Commander Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi’s remarks during a parliamentary committee meeting kidnapping remarks spark calls for probes
October 13, 2011/By Van Meguerditchian The Daily Star
BEIRUT: ISF commander Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi’s remarks during a parliamentary committee meeting on a string of abductions unleashed a flurry of reactions from political leaders and calls for further investigation Wednesday. During a meeting of the parliamentary human rights committee Monday, Rifi disclosed critical information on several kidnappings that took place over the past two years, according to participants. Among the victims is Joseph Sader, a Middle East Airlines manager who was abducted by unknown individuals two years ago on his way to Rafik Hariri International Airport. During the session, Rifi said the IT manager was taken to Beirut’s southern suburbs. Rifi added that the ISF could not retrieve Sader or arrest his captors because the ISF could not carry out any search and rescue operation in Beirut’s southern suburbs, a statement that drew harsh criticisms from Hezbollah MPs.
The session, which took place in the presence of the kidnapped individuals’ families, turned into a heated debate that pitted politicians from the March 8 camp against Rifi and Metn MP Sami Gemayel. In response to Rifi’s comments, they said, Baalbek-Hermel MP Nawwar Sahli denied that the ISF had no access to the capital’s southern suburbs, saying the area was open to anyone. The Hezbollah bloc MP also asked Rifi whether he was expressing his personal opinion or speaking on behalf of the Interior Ministry.
Rifi briefed the MPs on information on two other high-profile kidnappings that he said had been carried out by the personnel from the Syrian Embassy in Beirut, according to the participants.
Three Syrian brothers from the Jasem family disappeared in February, after two of them went to pick up their brother Jasem Merii Jasem from a police station east of Beirut.
Rifi said a vehicle belonging to the Syrian Embassy in Beirut had been used to kidnap the three Jasem brothers.
In May, Shibli Aisamy, an 86-year-old Syrian dissident, was also abducted in the town of Aley, minutes after leaving his daughter’s home for a walk.
Politicians and members of Aisamy’s family have urged the authorities to investigate the case and identify his kidnappers. Aisamy is a former member of Syria’s Baath Party.
During the session, Rifi expressed his belief that Aisamy, like the three Jasem brothers, had been kidnapped by members of the ISF who work at the Syrian Embassy, according to a meeting participant. In a statement released following its weekly meeting Wednesday, the March 14 Secretariat General urged the authorities to investigate the kidnappings of Syrian opposition figures in Lebanon. For his part, Gemayel said the information disclosed during the parliamentary session was “dangerous” and that it was unacceptable to leave criminals and captors free to do as they like in the country. “The information provided by Gen. Ashraf Rifi [Monday] is very dangerous and the state prosecutor has to make a move to arrest the perpetrators of kidnappings immediately,” Gemayel told the Daily Star Wednesday. “We ask State Prosecutor Saeed Mirza to attend the next meeting of the parliamentary human rights committee and have his say in the matter … because there are people that should be arrested by now,” said Gemayel. Baabda MP Hikmat Deeb agreed with Gemayel and said Mirza should attend the upcoming meeting of the parliamentary committee. “Mirza should attend the meeting and tell the MPs what is causing the delay in the investigation into the kidnappings,” Deeb told The Daily Star. But Deeb rejected Rifi’s comments that 57-year-old Sader had been taken to Beirut’s southern suburbs, adding that it was inappropriate to single out certain areas of the country in making such accusations. “The committee at Parliament agreed to invite Mirza for the next session to look into the reasons the Military Tribunal has failed to uncover the perpetrators,” Deeb added. Separately, Deeb submitted Wednesday a proposal to Parliament to establish an “Independent National Committee for the Kidnapped,” to investigate the cases of 17,000 missing people since 1975.

The Hariri assassination needs a motive
October 13, 2011/ By Michael Young The Daily Star
This time, at least, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon managed to navigate through an official’s resignation by immediately appointing a successor. The tribunal’s president, Antonio Cassese, stepped down this week, to be replaced by Sir David Baragwanath of New Zealand. The smoothness of the transition aside, Cassese’s departure with a trial looming did little to bolster the institution’s credibility.
In recent months, the debate over the special tribunal has been largely defined by those yearning for its failure. Even the prime minister, Najib Mikati, is in a bind. He went far in promising that his government would approve funding for the tribunal, only to see this turned against him by Hezbollah and Michel Aoun. What the outcome will be is anybody’s guess, but Mikati will probably opt to delay the issue indefinitely, averting a showdown in which he is bound to be humiliated. He may be wagering that an international community incapable of approving a Security Council resolution condemning the savagery of Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria, will be equally unlikely to punish Lebanon for failing to honor its financial obligations.
On the side of those who endorse the tribunal, present company included, there has mainly been uncritical acquiescence to whatever the institution does. Some cracks in confidence have started to appear, not least after it became known that the prosecution would not be taking up several bomb attacks committed in 2005, including those against journalists May Chidiac and Samir Kassir. However, the March 14 coalition continues to view the tribunal as its principal weapon against the majority.
Tactically, this is understandable. But for those more interested in whether the special tribunal represents a qualitative judicial achievement that enhances the rule of law in Lebanon, the picture is more blurred. Six years after the assassination of the former prime minister, Rafik Hariri, such an ambition has evaporated. Perhaps that was to be expected, but it has also been facilitated by long, unjustified, and damaging delays in the investigation of the crime.
The indictments issued by the tribunal offer us, bluntly, a crime without an articulated motive. It is embarrassing that after six years of investigation, only four suspects, all active at the operational level, have been named. This may change, indeed it must change if the prosecutor is to strengthen his case. In practical terms this requires indictments of those who ordered Hariri’s elimination, with an explanation for why they did so. And yet something tells us that this may be it for now – with the prosecutor, Daniel Bellemare, hoping to use the initial indictments as a wedge for further indictments.
Motive is the key to most crimes. Detlev Mehlis, the first head of the independent investigative commission of the United Nations, concluded that Hariri had been killed for political reasons. He and his allies were on the verge of winning a parliamentary majority in the summer 2005 elections, a point acknowledged by Syria’s Lebanese allies. The former prime minister himself was telling foreign envoys that he would gain a majority whichever election law was adopted.
When you put this together with what the Syrians were then saying, a hypothesis becomes clearer. A Syrian friend familiar with regime thinking in Damascus informed me in January 2005 that Assad intended to “respond to” Security Council Resolution 1559, which, among other things, called for Syria’s army to be removed from Lebanon. Syrian forces would be redeployed in the direction of the Syrian border, he said. But no one was talking of a full withdrawal.
The Syrians had a good reason for imagining that this ploy would work. In early 2005 the United States was willing to advance in stages on a withdrawal. In the words of the former ambassador in Beirut and current assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, Jeffrey Feltman, Washington sought “to avoid allowing the perfect to be the enemy of the good.” In other words, the Americans considered a partial Syrian pullback preferable to none at all. In his speech before Syria’s parliament in early March 2005, three weeks after Hariri’s murder, Assad behaved precisely according to that playbook. He declared that Syrian troops would soon start moving toward the border, though he did not say that they would actually cross it.
Here is probably what the Syrians were thinking. At some point in late 2004, they concluded that an election victory for Hariri and his comrades represented an existential threat to the Syrian order in Lebanon. Hezbollah concurred, anticipating that a Hariri government would undermine the substantial military and political advantages the party enjoyed under Syrian rule. A decision was taken to get rid of the former prime minister, to be followed by steps suggesting that Syria would implement Resolution 1559 and move all its forces into the Bekaa Valley. This injected a useful ambiguity into the equation, since it could be depicted as falling in line with the Taif Accord (which even Walid Jumblatt preferred to hold up at Syria instead of Resolution 1559). With Hariri gone, the Syrians would win the elections hands down, bring in a friendly government, and under the rubric of Taif negotiate with that government a continued Syrian presence in Lebanon, circumventing Resolution 1559.
What spoiled the scheme? We have to assume growing Arab and international pressure on Syria, but also the mass demonstration of March 14, 2005, which convinced Assad that his plan had backfired. He now faced a united and mobilized Sunni community, working in tandem with a unified Christian community and the Druze. The elections, Assad could plainly see, would lead to the very outcome that the Syrian president had sought to avert. He apparently concluded that it was better to bring his troops home before that happened.
Is this interpretation debatable? Sure, but until now the Special Tribunal for Lebanon has little enriched the conversation. We have suspects, but no hint as to their purpose. Bellemare may propose an explanation by indicting new figures, or he may outline his thinking in court. But without new suspects his case will be weak, and many of us will be even more persuaded that the tribunal has let us down.
**Michael Young is opinion editor of THE DAILY STAR and author of “The Ghosts of Martyrs Square: An Eyewitness Account of Lebanon’s Life Struggle” (Simon & Schuster). He tweets @BeirutCalling.

Metn residents slam Aoun’s remarks on power lines
October 13, 2011/The Daily Star /BEIRUT: Residents of the Metn towns Mansourieh and Ain Najem condemned Wednesday statements made by the Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on the government’s plan to install high-voltage electricity lines in the region. “We thank you for what you said in your statement and we think that it was simply a declaration of bankruptcy on your part,” said a statement from the Mansourieh and Ain Najem residents committees. Following his weekly meeting with the Change and Reform bloc, Aoun said Tuesday that the Energy Ministry’s committee on high-voltage electricity lines concluded that the project is not a risk to public health. Residents struck back at Aoun, saying that news conferences held Energy Minister Jebran Bassil’s statements to explain the safety of the project were based on false reports that lacked authenticity. “Where is the change and reform that you champion? Is reform carried out by running away from responsibility? Is change made by sticking to mistakes?” the statement added. Earlier this month, residents of Mansourieh, Ain Najm and Ain Saade held a three-day sit-in and prevented the Electricite du Liban employees from installing the high-voltage electricity lines.

Egypt defies Sinai peace terms, hosts Hamas in Cairo before Shalit's release
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report /October 13, 2011/,
Cairo took two steps inimical to Israel. Egyptian Air Force Chief Gen. Reda Hafiz said to the official MENA news agency: "Sinai is our land and we do not need permission to increase our forces on our land" in direct contravention of the 1979 peace treaty signed with Israel which demilitarized Sinai by common consent. He added: "Egyptian planes conduct patrols without Israeli consent to secure Egypt's borders, including the eastern (Israeli) border."
Furthermore, without waiting for Hamas to open the prison doors for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit after five years of captivity in the Gaza Strip, Cairo let his captors cash in on the prisoner exchange deal by providing the first Damascus-based Hamas leaders with a home in Cairo.
debkafile reveals that Wednesday, Oct. 12, Khaled Meshaal's deputy, Mousa Abu Marzuk, won permission from Egyptian intelligence director Maj. Gen. Murad Mowafi to relocate from Damascus to a permanent home in a luxury villa provided him in Cairo.
Meshaal, who arrived in the Egyptian capital Wednesday, was assured of the same privileges along with the staff of his Damascus politburo, if the new round of Palestinian unity talks launched between Hamas and Fatah in Cairo Thursday progressed satisfactorily.
Egypt claims that Meshaal arrived to oversee arrangements for the handover of Gilat Shalit next week in return for the first batch of 450 jailed Palestinians. The remainder will be released at a later stage.
According to our sources, he came to supervise the transfer of his command center from the Syrian capital to Cairo.
Nonetheless, the Shin Bet director Yoram Cohen denied Wednesday that there were any political strings attached to the prisoner swap transaction that were hidden from the Israeli public. The information about the Hamas move to Cairo contradicts this assertion and also puts a question mark over Cohen's statement that the Shin Bet is capable of containing any security threat posed by turning loose 1,027 convicted Palestinian terrorists under the accord for recovering Gilad Shalit.
debkafile reports deep resentment in senior military circles over Defense Minister Ehud Barak's message to Cairo of "apologies and deep regrets" as well as condolences for the families of the six Egyptian security personnel "who were killed by Israeli fire."
He was referring to an incident at the scene of a terrorist attack, launched from Egyptian Sinai, on buses and cars on the Eilat highway which left eight Israelis dead.
No inquiry has ever established who caused the deaths of the six Egyptian police officers. Israel thoroughly investigated the incident in response to American and Egyptian demands and decided in the interests of good relations with Cairo to cover up testimony by witnesses on the spot that the six Egyptian officers died while shooting at the Israeli vehicles alongside the terrorists and were in fact indistinguishable from them.
Furthermore, the terrorists had made all their preparations for the attack on the Sinai side of the border under the eye of an Egyptian police post.
Neither Netanyahu nor Barak checked with Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz before inculpating his troops for the killing of the Egyptian policemen in an official statement to Cairo.
All this backdoor dealing has not been brought to the public notice. All other news items are snowed under the emotionalism and drama of the soldier's imminent return which fill all Israel's TV screens and front pages.
Missing therefore is any disclosure of how the US and Egypt used the Shalit case to legitimize Muslim Brotherhood participation in the Egyptian government, the establishment of ties between the Brotherhood and Washington and the Egyptian Brothers' expanding clout in Ramallah and Gaza.
The Palestinian Authority's ties with the rejectionist Hamas-Gaza were one of the stumbling blocks which held Israel back from negotiating a permanent peace with the Palestinians. By signing the prisoner swap deal, Israel confronts the formidable Muslim Brothers, parents of Hamas, and paved their path into the West Bank.
None of Israel's talking heads has been able to explain what made Hamas suddenly flexible enough on its toughest terms to swing the deal. For instance, the top terrorist guns of both Hamas and Fatah were not included in the prisoner swap and will stay in jail.
The answer is revealed here: It was not Hamas' decision to give way; it was forced to do so by its Egyptian Brotherhood masters. US officials in Cairo for talks with the Brotherhood leaders and Gen Mowafi led them in the real negotiations for the Shalit deal.
They first established its fundamental and left the Israeli prime minister's emissary David Meidan and the head of Hamas' military wing Muhammad Jabari to tie up the technical ends.
The Americans pushed Israel hard to accept the deal, while the Brothers gave Hamas no choice.