LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
January 06/2012
Bible Quotation for today/Jesus
Chooses the Twelve Apostles
Luke 06/12-16: "At that time Jesus went up a
hill to pray and spent the whole night there praying to God. When day came, he
called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he named apostles:
Simon (whom he named Peter) and his brother Andrew; James and John, Philip and
Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon (who was
called the Patriot), Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became the
traitor.
Latest
analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous
sources
End of Arab Christianity/By: Giulio Meotti/January 05/12
Birds of a Syrian feather don’t flock together/By: Tony
Badran/January 05/12
Washing away the sins of the Syrian regime/By Hamad
Al-Majid/January 05/12
Revolutions and the military/By
Osman Mirghani/January 05/12
Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for
January 05/12
Saudis, Gulf
states on war alert for early US-Iran clash
Arab League seeks UN help in Syria
One year on, no answers to Egypt church bombing
Egyptian prosecutors ask for death by hanging for Ex
president Husni Mubarak
Canada police search for Jamal Hazime, a Lebanese man
accused of fraud
U.S. Counterterror Official: There Have Been Sympathetic
Groups to al-Qaida in Lebanon for Years
France urges Arab league to strengthen Syria mission
Iraq, Iran funding Syrian crackdown, former official says
Syria Frees 552 Prisoners without 'Blood on Hands'
Free Syrian Army Calls for Pullout of Arab Mission
Former Syrian Official: Iraq, Iran Funding Crackdown on
Protestors
High-ranking Syrian official announces defection
Report: Ban to Discuss with Officials in Beirut
Lebanese-Syrian Border Demarcation
Israel Preparing for Possible Hizbullah Attack on Dimona
Reactor
Israeli army conducts maneuver inside Lebanon's Ghajar
March 8 Asks Aoun to Accept Shura Council Decision as FPM
Refuses ‘Side Agreement’
Lebanese Forces bloc MP Elie Keyrouz requests inquiry into
Ghosn statements, Syrian border incident
Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri says ready for dialogue
that honors Taif Accord
Future bloc MP Mouin Merhebi accuses Hezbollah of
interfering in Egyptian affairs
President Michel Sleiman voices importance of countering
terrorism
Future bloc leader MP Fouad Siniora: Al-Qaeda warnings aim
to ‘defame’ Lebanon
Miqati Meets Asarta: UNIFIL Mission Will Be Complete when
Army Takes over Full Security of South
Report: Jordanian Mossad Man Involved in Ethiopian Plane
'Blast'
Lebanon: Bomb Threat Evacuates Barja School
Berri and Bassil Hail Approval of Oil Decree, Urge Swift
Implementation of Law
Lebanon: Masked Gunmen Rob Byblos Bank in Shouaifat
Lebanon:Army Detonates Bomb Found at Quds Square in Sidon
Lebanon's Central Bank 2011 foreign assets up 5%
Lebanon aims for gas drilling tenders within 3 mths
Turkey may step up moves against Paris on genocide,
diplomat says
End
of Arab Christianity
Giulio Meotti/ 01.05.12/Ynetnews
Op-ed: In new, Islamic Middle East,
Christianity quickly becoming a thing of the past /Welcome to a Christians-free
Middle East. Arab Christianity is near its extinction everywhere. “Christianity
in Iraq could be eradicated in our lifetime, partially as a result of the US
troop withdrawal,” declared Leonard Leo, chairman of the US Commission on
International Religious Freedom.
Up to 900,000 Christians already fled the country since 2003, according to a
recent study by Minority Rights Group International. Benjamin Sleiman,
archbishop of Baghdad, also spoke of “the extinction of Christianity in the
Middle East.”In Egypt, 100,000 Christians already left the country after Hosni
Mubarak’s fall earlier this year. The Egyptian Union of Human Rights is
denouncing this “mass exodus.” This week Egyptian authorities arrested Gamal
Massoud, a Coptic Christian student accused of posting a drawing of Islam’s
prophet on Facebook that triggered two days of violence in southern Egypt;
meanwhile, Muslims were attacking Massoud’s house and chanting “Allahu akbar” or
“God is Great.”
In Syria, the major Christian leaders are supporting Bashar Assad’s bloodbath,
fearing an Islamic takeover by the Muslim Brotherhood. The Catholic Patriarch of
Lebanon, Bechara Rai, blessed Assad as a “reformer” while Greek-Orthodox Bishop
Louqa al-Khouri organized ecumenical shows to support the regime. For the first
time in Syrian history, the current Minister of Defense, Dawud Rajha, is a
Christian. Yet this is not a sign of power, but rather, of desperation. Adnan
al-Aroor, the Syrian sheikh who has become the religious voice of the uprising
against Assad, is urging his followers to “tear apart, chop up and feed” the
meat of Christian supporters of the regime “to the dogs.” The Syrian puppets in
Lebanon waged a campaign of terror against Lebanon’s Christians starting in
2005. Christian politicians and journalists were assassinated and bombs
detonated in Christian areas. Elsewhere, in Gaza, the 3,000 Christians who
remain are subjected to persecution and death. Meanwhile, every year some 1,000
Palestinian Christians are leaving their citadel Bethlehem. In a recent
Christmas celebration hosted by the Fatah movement, Mohammad Shtayyeh, a central
committee member, appealed to Christians to “remain in the land.” Tiger
devouring the lamb:The process of eradication began immediately after Yasser
Arafat assumed control of the Palestinian Authority. Christian sites and
cemeteries were desecrated by Muslims. Slogans like “Islam will win” and “First
the Saturday people then the Sunday People” have been painted on walls, and PLO
flags were draped over Jesus crosses. Now that the Nasserite mixture of
socialism and secularism is outclassed by the Islamist travesty of “Arab
Spring,” Christians are vanishing from their cradle. Christians are paying the
anti-Israel appeasing choice: they feed the Islamic crocodile hoping it would
eat them last. Many ministers in all the anti-Zionist regimes of the Fertile
Crescent were Christian: For example, Tariq Aziz, former Iraq’s deputy prime
minister, and Michel Aflaq, the cofounder of the Ba’ath Party who played a
pivotal role in the history of both Iraq and Syria. Moreover, Arab Christians
like George Habash and Nayef Hawatmeh emerged as the most effective terrorist
commanders. There is also the head of the Coptic Church, Pope Shenouda III, is a
fierce anti-Semitic figure. Meanwhile, in Lebanon’ the Christian movements of
General Michel Aoun and Sleiman Frangieh are allied with Hizbollah. Christians
have also been part of municipal councils headed by Hamas. Nonetheless, the
Islamic tiger is now devouring the Christian lamb. Indeed, the Christian era in
the Middle East is coming to an end.
*Giulio Meotti, a journalist with Il Foglio, is the author of the book “A New
Shoah: The Untold Story of Israel's Victims of Terrorism”
Egyptian prosecutors ask for death by hanging for Mubarak
By REUTERS /01/05/2012
Mubarak facing charges of ordering the killing of protesters during the
demonstrations which swept him from power last February; prosecution demands
"maximum penalty"; trial adjourned until January 9. CAIRO - The prosecution in
the case against Hosni Mubarak on Thursday demanded the death sentence for the
former Egyptian president and other defendants including his two sons and the
former interior minister.Mubarak is facing charges of ordering the killing of
protesters during the demonstrations which swept him from power last February.
The judge adjourned the trial until Jan. 9. "The prosecution demands the maximum
penalty against Mubarak and the rest of the accused which is death by hanging,"
Mustafa Khater, a member of the prosecution team said during a court session.
The ex-president, 83, his two sons, the former interior minister Habib el-Adly
and six senior police officers face charges ranging from corruption to
involvement in the deaths of around 850 protesters during the uprising that
ended Mubarak's three decades in power.
Mubarak appeared in a courtroom cage reserved for the accused. On Wednesday,
Chief Prosecutor Mustafa Suleiman said Mubarak and the other defendants were not
directly linked to the deaths but were charged with being "participants"
implicated in the decision to use force.
"The defendants you see in the cage gave the orders to use force and violence to
prevent protesters from reaching Tahrir Square," Suleiman said, adding that the
decision to use force was taken on Jan. 27, the day before the most violent
clashes of the uprising. Mubarak and the other defendants deny any
responsibility for the deaths.
Suleiman said the prosecutor had gathered evidence from doctors, protesters and
police officers. "We listened to over 2,000 witness accounts ... The defendants
did not have a direct role in the crime scene but are referred to trial for
being ... participants in it, and inciting the killers, whose individual
identities are unknown, to shoot protesters," he said.
"The state agencies, including the National Security Authority and Egyptian
intelligence, have deliberately not cooperated with the prosecutors in the
investigation."
Mohamed El Gendi, former interior minister Adly's lawyer, took copious notes as
the prosecutors made their case. "We will respond to these allegations with
evidence and documents. The evidence presented today is not new and does not
prove the crime," he said. Mubarak is the only one of the leaders toppled in the
wave of protests that have swept the Arab world to stand trial in person. In a
country in political and economic disarray, many Egyptians say national renewal
will be impossible unless those killed receive justice.
Arab League seeks UN help in Syria
05/01/2012/DAMASCUS, (AFP) — The Arab League has turned to the United Nations
for help after admitting "mistakes" in its Syria monitoring mission, which has
come in for withering criticism for its failure to stem bloodletting. Meanwhile,
Jeffrey Feltman, the US assistant secretary of state for Near East Affairs, was
Thursday to hold talks in Cairo with the Arab League about the Syrian crisis,
amid mounting frustration over the unrelenting violence.
His meeting comes as President Bashar al-Assad's regime, which accuses the
United States of "gross interference" in Arab affairs, said it freed 552 people
detained for involvement in unrest and who have "no blood on their hands."
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani, who heads an Arab League
task force on Syria, on Wednesday discussed the deadly protest crackdown with UN
leader Ban Ki-moon in New York, Kuwait's KUNA news agency reported.
"We are coming here for technical help and to see the experience the UN has,
because this is the first time the Arab League is involved in sending monitors,
and there are some mistakes," said Sheikh Hamad, quoted by KUNA. A UN spokesman
said only that Ban and the sheikh "discussed practical measures by which the
United Nations could support the observer mission of the Arab League in Syria."
The sheikh would not say what mistakes had been made. Syrian opposition groups
say the monitors have been kept under too tight a rein in the country and that
hundreds of people have been killed despite the presence of the observers.
"This is the first experience for us. I said we have to evaluate what sorts of
mistakes" have been made, said the Qatari prime minister."There is no doubt for
me. I can see there are mistakes, but we went there not to stop the killing but
to monitor." The prime minister said it was President Assad's job to stop the
killings, which the United Nations last month put at more than 5,000 since
March. The monitors had done their best, Sheikh Hamad was quoted as saying, but
they do not have enough experience.
That is why "we need the experience from the UN and we need to see how we can
evaluate if they go back, how they will work." Sheikh Hamad said that if the
observer mission goes back, the Syrian government must keep its "commitments"
under the accord made with the 22-member Arab bloc. Arab League ministers are to
discuss the mission at a meeting on Saturday.
Sheikh Hamad said ministers would evaluate the crisis and "we will see whether
we can continue the mission or not and how we can continue the mission. But we
need to hear the reports of the people who have been on the ground first."Arab
League observers have been in Syria since December 26 trying to assess the Assad
regime's implementation of a peace agreement aimed at ending the violence. The
mission has come in for scathing criticism from Syrian democracy activists who
denounced it as "unprofessional" after the Arab League chief admitted snipers
remained active in the country despite its presence.
The criticism came from the Local Coordination Committees, which also added that
the Syrian regime was finding it easy to deceive the Arab observer mission.
"Soldiers wear police uniforms, drive repainted military vehicles and change the
names of places, but this does not mean the army withdrew from cities and
streets, or that the regime is applying the provisions of the Arab protocol,"
the committees said in a statement. The LCC estimate at least 390 people have
been killed since the observers began their mission.
The White House has said it is "past time" for the UN Security Council to act,
as "sniper fire, torture and murder" were continuing in Syria and the Arab
League conditions for the regime have been dishonoured. "We want to see the
international community stand together united in support of the legitimate
aspirations of the Syrian people," said White House spokesman Jay Carney. But
the Assad regime denounced the United States for "gross interference" in Arab
League affairs and "an unjustified attempt to internationalise" the issue.
And, in bid to show it was implementing the Arab peace roadmap, it on Thursday
announced the release of 552 prisoners, taking to almost 4,000 the number freed
since the start of November.
The official SANA news agency said "552 prisoners involved in the latest events
in Syria and who have no blood on their hands were released."
"The released persons are not involved in terrorist bloody acts of killings and
explosions against Syrians," it said, adding 775 were freed last week and 2,645
during November.
Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi has acknowledged that "there are still snipers"
in Syria, but defended the monitors' mission for securing prisoner releases and
removing tanks from the streets. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights reported the deaths of 10 more civilians on Wednesday.
Saudis, Gulf states on war alert for early US-Iran clash
http://www.debka.com/article/21620/
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report January 5, 2012,
The armies of Saudi Arabia and fellow Gulf Cooperation Council states stood
ready Thursday Jan. 5, for Washington to stand up to Iranian threats and send an
aircraft carrier or several warships through the Strait of Hormuz into the
Persian Gulf. Riyadh has been leaning hard on the Obama administration not to
let Tehran get away with its warning to react with "full force" if the USS
Stennis aircraft carrier tried to reenter the Gulf or Iran's pretensions to
control the traffic transiting the world's most important oil route. Wednesday
night, the Iranian parliament began drafting a bill prohibiting foreign warships
from entering the Gulf without Tehran's permission.
debkafile's Washington sources report that Saudi Arabia has warned the Obama
administration that Iranian leaders mean what they say; their leaders are bent
on provoking a military clash with the United States at a time and place of
their choosing, rather than leaving the initiative to Washington. To this end,
Iranian officials are ratcheting up their belligerence day after day.
Notwithstanding their military inferiority, the Iranians believe they can snatch
a measure of success from a military confrontation, just as the Lebanese
Hizballah did in the 2006 war against Israel. In any case, they expect any clash
to be limited – at least at first. The two sides will begin by feeling for the
opposite side's weaknesses while endeavoring to hold the line against a
full-blown war.
America's failure to rise to Iran's challenge will confirm its rulers in the
conviction that the US is a paper tiger and encourage them to press their
advantage for new gains.
The assessment of British military experts Thursday, Jan. 5, was that the
question now is: Who will blink first? Will the US follow through on the
Pentagon's assertion that the deployment of US military assets in the Persian
Gulf will continue as it has for decades? Or will Iran act on its warnings and
block those waters to the entry of American warships?
President Barack Obama can't afford to cave in to Iran, especially while
campaigning for reelection in Nov. 2012; Tehran, for its part, has made too many
threats to easily back down.
The entire region is now on tenterhooks for the next move, with US, Iranian and
Gulf armies on the highest war alert. American and Iranian war planners both
accept that their advantage lies in surprising the enemy – without, however,
catapulting the Persian Gulf into a full-dress war.
US Navy publications as of Wednesday, Jan. 4 showed a sign of the times: One ran
a series of photos of F-18 Super Hornet fighter-bombers standing on the runways
of the USS Stennis aircraft carrier ready for takeoff at any moment. Another
depicted for the first time ever row upon row of huge bombs in the carrier's
hold to show the Iranians what they are taking on. In the view of debkafile’s
military sources, the fact that the US has deployed only one large aircraft
carrier in the region does not signify any reluctance on Washington's part to
preserve the freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf.
There is no longer a need to rush more carriers to a flashpoint in these
strategic waters. The US maintains five huge air bases in the Gulf region – two,
the Ali Al Salem and Ahmed Al Jaber bases, in Kuwait; the Al Dhafra base in the
UAE; and the largest air bases outside the US – Al Adid in Qatar and the
Thumrait in Oman. The concentration of aircraft carriers at any given location
is no longer treated as the marker of an imminent US military operation.
U.S. Counterterror Official: There Have Been Sympathetic
Groups to al-Qaida in Lebanon for Years
by Naharnet /A top U.S. counterterrorism official has admitted that there are
“sympathetic groups to al-Qaida in Lebanon” but refused to comment on
allegations made by the Lebanese defense minister about the operations of
militants in the eastern border town of Arsal. “We’ve seen the reports, and I
don’t have any further comment on them,” said Daniel Benjamin, Coordinator for
Counterterrorism at the Department of State, in a special briefing on Wednesday.
“We certainly know that there have been sympathetic groups to al-Qaida in
Lebanon for many years,” he added. He recalled that the Lebanese army had
clashed with al-Qaida-linked Fatah al-Islam militants in the northern
Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared in 2007. Controversy erupted in
Lebanon last month after Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn said al-Qaida members were
operating in Arsal and had been crossing the Lebanese-Syrian border. “It is
certainly true that there have been elements like that in Lebanon over the
years,” Benjamin said, adding: “Whether that had anything to do with what’s
going on in Syria is another matter entirely.”Asked if he thought that al-Qaida
was behind twin explosions in Damascus last month, he said: “I don't know. We
don’t have anything conclusive on that.”
The Syrian regime has accused elements of al-Qaida of carrying out the bombings
that left 44 people dead.
Future bloc leader MP Fouad Siniora: Al-Qaeda warnings aim to ‘defame’ Lebanon
January 5, 2012 /Future bloc leader MP Fouad Siniora said on Thursday that
allegations that Al-Qaeda members are present in Lebanon aim to “defame” Lebanon
and the Future Movement.Siniora added that such statements also attempt to show
that the Future Movement “harbors Al-Qaeda.”“I firmly think statements on the
presence of Al-Qaeda are false allegations… Such statements aim to make it
appear that events in Syria are [planned] by Al-Qaeda and are not a popular
revolt.”Siniora also called on those “marketing” allegations about the presence
of Al-Qaeda to stop doing so for the sake of Lebanon’s interest. Last month,
Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn warned that Al-Qaeda members were present in
Lebanon’s Aarsal and were infiltrating Syria. A few days after his comments, 44
people were killed in Damascus bombings that the Syrian regime blamed on
terrorist organizations.
However, reports that Al-Qaeda members are present in Lebanon have not been
confirmed. -NOW Lebanon
Army Detonates Bomb Found at Quds Square in Sidon
by Naharnet /The army detonated a bomb that was found in the parking lot of a
building in the southern city of Sidon on Wednesday night. A citizen informed
the security forces of a suspected device found around 11:00 pm in the parking
lot of Hijazi Center in Sidon's Quds Square. The parking space lies near the
building where Sheikh Maher Hammoud resides. The army and security forces
cordoned off the area and explosive experts arrived at the scene. The bomb
weighed around 1 kg wired to a cell phone primed to detonate the device, the
army said in a statement on Thursday. According to al-Joumhouria newspaper
published Thursday, the governor of the south called for a meeting of the
Security Council branch at Sidon Serail to discuss the latest security
situation.
Masked Gunmen Rob Byblos Bank in Shouaifat
by Naharnet /Two masked gunmen robbed Byblos Bank’s Shouaifat branch and fled,
the National News Agency reported Thursday.NNA said the thieves were riding a
silver-colored BMW X5 with tinted windows. The vehicle’s license plate number is
18963 but has no area code, the agency said.It added that security forces have
launched a manhunt for the suspects.
Bomb Threat Evacuates Barja School
by Naharnet /A private school in a coastal town in the Shouf district was
evacuated on Thursday after an SMS bomb threat that turned out to be a
hoax.Security forces searched La Cite Nationale School in Barja, south of
Beirut, after the principal said a secretary received an SMS warning about a
bomb.The school administration immediately evacuated the building after the
threat, Principal Salah Abdul Samad told Voice of Lebanon radio station
(100.5).“We sent the students home,” he said.However, a bomb disposal squad,
backed by sniffer dogs, found no bomb.The incident came a day after explosives
were found in the parking lot of a business center in the southern port city of
Sidon.
Miqati Meets Asarta: UNIFIL Mission Will Be Complete when Army
Takes over Full Security of South
by Naharnet /Prime Minister Najib Miqati stressed on Thursday the important role
the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon has played in maintaining the
security and stability of southern Lebanon. He said after holding talks with
UNIFIL Commander Major General Alberto Asarta at the Grand Serail: “The
international troops’ mission will be complete when the Lebanese army assumes
full responsibility of the security of the South.” “This seems to be advancing
in the right direction as witnessed by the impeccable collaboration between the
UNIFIL troops and our brave soldiers,” he stated. The meeting was held to mark
the end of Asarta’s tenure as the head of UNIFIL. The international force
commander stated that the situation in the South had improved greatly since the
adoption of U.N. Security Council resolution 1701, noting that all sides had
committed to the ceasefire and respected the Blue Line. He highlighted the
improved cooperation between the army and UNIFIL, adding however that the army’s
land and naval capabilities need to be bolstered before it can fully assume its
responsibilities in southern Lebanon. UNIFIL’s peacekeeping mission would not
have been possible without the army’s cooperation, Asarta stressed. Asarta will
end his tenure at the head of the mission on January 28, 2012. He will likely
return to Spain where he will assume a high-ranking official position. The
current commander had assumed his role on January 28, 2010, succeeding Major
General Claudio Graziano of Italy. Asarta had served in UNIFIL since 2008. He is
the force's 12th commander. Prior to his Lebanon posting, he served as the
advisor to the Spanish army's chief of staff.
Lebanese Forces bloc MP Elie Keyrouz requests inquiry into Ghosn statements,
Syrian border incident
January 5, 2012 /Lebanese Forces bloc MP Elie Keyrouz on Thursday submitted a
request to the cabinet for an inquiry into the statements of Defense Minister
Fayez Ghosn regarding the presence of Al-Qaeda members in the Bekaa town of
Aarsal and an inquiry into the killing of three men in Akkar’s Wadi Khaled by
the Syrian security forces.
The LF MP also questioned whether or not the cabinet intends to take measures
following the incident, and deploy the army along the border.
Three Lebanese shot and wounded by Syrian troops as they were crossing into
northern Lebanon died of their injuries overnight, a medical official said on
December 27.
Last month, Ghosn warned that Al-Qaeda members were present in Lebanon’s Aarsal
and were infiltrating Syria. A few days after his comments, 44 people were
killed in Damascus bombings that the Syrian regime blamed on terrorist
organizations. However, reports that Al-Qaeda members are present in Lebanon
have not been confirmed.
-NOW Lebanon
Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri says ready for dialogue that honors Taif
Accord
January 4, 2012 /Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri said on Wednesday that he is
ready to engage in dialogue with other Lebanese parties “as long as it comes
in-line with the Taif Accord,” which ended the decade-long civil war in the
country. Commenting on the reports of Al-Qaeda presence in Lebanon, Hariri said
that they are “fabricated by the Syrian intelligence.” “The talk about having
Al-Qaeda [cells] in Lebanon is a fabrication made by the Syrian intelligence,”
the Future Movement leader said via the social networking website Twitter.
Hariri also said that “change is inevitable” in Syria, adding that “it will
benefit Lebanon.” Last month, Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn warned of the
presence of Al-Qaeda cells in the town of Aarsal, which is near the Syrian
border. A few days later, 44 people were killed by suicide bombers in Damascus.
President Bashar al-Assad’s regime has blamed the attacks on “terrorist
organizations,” including Al-Qaeda. Assad’s troops have cracked down on protests
against almost five decades of Baath Party rule which broke out mid-March,
killing over 5,000 people and triggering a torrent of international
condemnation.-NOW Lebanon
Future bloc MP Mouin Merhebi accuses Hezbollah of interfering in Egyptian
affairs
January 5, 2012 /Future bloc MP Mouin Merhebi said on Thursday that Hezbollah
has interfered in internal Egyptian affairs by sending members to Cairo to
destabilize the security of “a sovereign, friendly” state. Egypt has witnessed
political unrest after an uprising ousted longtime President Hosni Mubarak in
February. He also told the Voice of Lebanon (93.3) radio station that Hezbollah
is responsible for any possible infiltration “of terrorist members” into Lebanon
considering it is the only party that owns arms and controls certain border
crossings. Merhebi also called on the state to deploy army forces along all
borders to protect the Lebanese people. Commenting on Defense Minister Fayez
Ghosn’s statement on Al-Qaeda, the MP said there is no evidence supporting the
minister’s statements. He also voiced his disappointment over this “repetitive
phenomenon” of bringing accusations against regions with a majority of Sunni
inhabitants. Last month, Ghosn warned that Al-Qaeda members were present in
Lebanon’s Aarsal and were infiltrating Syria. A few days after his comments, 44
people were killed in Damascus bombings that the Syrian regime blamed on
terrorist organizations. However, reports that Al-Qaeda members are present in
Lebanon have not been confirmed. -NOW Lebanon
President Michel Sleiman voices importance of countering terrorism
January 5, 2012 /President Michel Sleiman on Thursday underlined the importance
of preventing attempts to establish “any environment for harboring terrorism [in
Lebanon].”
The National News Agency quoted him as saying that security authorities “are
carrying out their duties.” The president also said that “circumstances are
improving [in a way that would allow] the launching of the [national dialogue],”
the report added. Sleiman said that the Middle East, which was swept by popular
protests in 2011, “is heading toward democracy.” The report said that Sleiman
also met on Thursday with Minister of Foreign Affairs Adnan Mansour and reviewed
the latest local and regional developments. However the report did not elaborate
any further. -NOW Lebanon
Berri and Bassil Hail Approval of Oil Decree, Urge Swift Implementation of Law
by Naharnet/Speaker Nabih Berri and Energy Minister Jebran Bassil expressed
relief on Thursday after the cabinet approved the oil exploration decrees,
according to As Safir newspaper.“Congratulations to Lebanon… We’ve reached the
stage of implementing the work, and we should exert efforts to compensate for
lost time,” Berri told the daily.
For his part, Bassil stressed that the approval of the law is an important step
in the quest of oil exploration in Lebanese waters after the parliament approved
last year a draft law to allow oil and gas exploration. “The challenge now is in
appointing the committee tasked with administrating the oil sector in a month at
best, where the tenders would kick off in a maximum period of 3 months,” he told
the newspaper. Bassil noted that the appointment of the committee members will
depend on the principle of “efficiency,” which would be binding.
Asked about the amount of oil and gas expected to be recovered from Lebanese
waters, he said: “We will talk about the issue at the right time. The Lebanese
will hear good surprises soon.” Head of the parliamentary public works and
energy committee MP Mohammed Qabbani told As Safir that approving the law is a
“positive and efficient step” that should be followed by appointing the oil
committee members. However, he noted that the exploration of Lebanese waters
will be costly. Qabbani said that going ahead with the exploration will
reinforce the international trust in the country and boost investments.
High-ranking Syrian official announces defection
January 4, 2012 /A high-ranking Syrian official announced on Wednesday his
defection from the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
Mahmoud Sleiman Hajj Hamad, head inspector at the Syrian Defense Ministry and
first inspector at the Monetary Center of the Interior Ministry, told Al-Jazeera
television that he split from the regime. Assad’s troops have cracked down on
protests against almost five decades of Baath Party rule which broke out
mid-March, killing over 5,000 people and triggering a torrent of international
condemnation. -NOW Lebanon
Syria Frees 552 Prisoners without 'Blood on Hands'
by Naharnet /Syria on Thursday released 552 people who were detained over their
involvement in political unrest and who have "no blood on their hands," the
official SANA news agency reported. The news agency said that "552 prisoners
involved in the latest events in Syria and who have no blood on their hands were
released.""The released persons are not involved in terrorist bloody acts of
killings and explosions against Syrians," it added. Releasing prisoners is one
of the key conditions of an Arab League roadmap approved by Syria in November to
end the country's crisis. The accord also calls for an end to repression of
pro-democracy protests. Last week, state television reported that the
authorities released 755 prisoners from jail, as Arab League observers deployed
in anti-regime protest hubs to implement the peace roadmap. SANA said that 2,645
prisoners were also released in November. Rights groups and the United Nations
estimate that several thousand people have been arrested since anti-regime
protests erupted in mid-March, while the U.N. puts the death toll at more than
5,000.Source/Agence France Presse.
Free Syrian Army Calls for Pullout of Arab Mission
by Naharnet /The head of the rebel Free Syrian Army called on Thursday for the
Arab League to withdraw its observers from Syria, qualifying the bloc's
monitoring mission a failure.
"We hope they will announce that their mission was a failure and that they will
be withdrawn," Colonel Riyadh Asaad, who is based in Turkey, told Agence France
Presse.
France urges Arab league to strengthen Syria mission
January 5, 2012 /France on Thursday urged the Arab League to strengthen its
monitoring mission in Syria amid concerns its observers have failed to stem
bloodletting in the country.
The French Foreign Ministry's deputy spokesperson, Romain Nadal, also called on
the Arab grouping to accept help in organizing the mission, in particular from
the United Nations.
"Given the risks of manipulation and concealment, all contributions to
strengthen the effectiveness of the observers' work in Syria are useful,
particularly those of the United Nations," Nadal said."We encourage the Arab
League to use all means possible to strengthen this mission so that observers
can move independently throughout Syrian territory and have all necessary
contact with Syrian civil society," he added. The Arab League has turned to the
UN for help after admitting "mistakes" in its Syria monitoring mission.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani, who heads an Arab League
task force on Syria, on Wednesday discussed obtaining "technical help" for the
mission with UN leader Ban Ki-moon in New York, Kuwait's KUNA news agency
reported. He also admitted "some mistakes" had been made by the mission.
Syrian opposition groups say the monitors have been kept under too tight a rein
in the country and that hundreds of people have been killed despite the presence
of the observers.
The observers have been in Syria since December 26 trying to assess the regime's
implementation of a peace agreement aimed at ending the violence that according
to UN estimates has killed more than 5,000 people since March.-AFP/NOW Lebanon
Iraq, Iran funding Syrian crackdown, former official says
January 5, 2012 /Iraq and Iran are aiding the Syrian regime financially in its
crackdown on protests, a former official in President Bashar al-Assad's regime
alleged Thursday in a report on Al-Jazeera's website.Mahmoud Suleiman Haj Hamad
made the allegations at a press conference in Cairo after announcing his
defection from the regime, according to the satellite network's Arabic-language
website."The Syrian regime receives financial support from Iraq and Iran," said
Hamad, without providing details.
Damascus has spent some two billion Syrian pounds ($40 million) on payments to
local militias to suppress the anti-government protests that the UN says has
left more than 5,000 people dead since March, he added. In a separate statement
to the Al-Arabiya satellite channel, Hamad said many Syrian officials want to
defect but "they are too afraid."
"Everyone wants to defect but they're too worried about their families," he
said. "Syrian government officials live in a kind of prison ... No one can go
anywhere without being accompanied by a member of the security services," he
added.-AFP/NOW Lebanon
Birds of a Syrian feather don’t flock together
Tony Badran, January 5, 2012 /This past week, a public controversy erupted in
the ranks of the Syrian opposition over an aborted attempt at a unified platform
between two of its coalition groups. The spectacle once again shed the spotlight
on the problems in the Obama administration's Syria policy. The agreement
between the Syrian National Council (SNC) and the National Coordination Body for
Democratic Change (NCB) was announced in Cairo last Friday. However, immediately
after the news of the agreement came out it was attacked by a host of SNC
members who rejected it on both procedural as well as substantial grounds, as
well as by the protest movement on the streets in Syria.
In particular, most intolerable to the agreement's critics was its rejection of
foreign military intervention to protect civilians, which went against the SNC's
own position as well as the explicit demands of the protest movement for safe
zones and international protection. With this in mind, it's legitimate to ask
what drove the SNC's President, Burhan Ghalioun, to agree to such a document,
especially with a problematic figure like NCB President Haytham Mannaa.
One member of the SNC, Walid Bunni, may have provided the answer. "The Arab
League and the international community wanted us to have a mutual vision," Bunni
told The Financial Times yesterday. Indeed, the Arab League expected the Syrian
opposition to present a unified platform paving the way for the first "general
Syrian conference," sponsored by the League, which presumably would then lead to
a "national dialogue" under its aegis. Those inside the League who are invested
in the success of its initiative are leaning quite heavily on the SNC to
finalize this unified document.
For its part, the Obama administration has strongly backed the Arab initiative
even as it has deliberately ignored the part about a dialogue with the regime -
which is incompatible with its declared policy that President Bashar al-Assad
must leave power. Furthermore, the administration has strongly encouraged the
SNC to reach out to other dissident groups, and the State Department has
regularly cited this task as a central part of Ambassador Robert Ford's mission
in Damascus. In fact, as recently as Tuesday, spokesperson Victoria Nuland
reiterated the point that the administration was "continuing our message to the
opposition that they need to come forward with a unified platform of
transition." Bunni's comment, it would seem, is rather accurate. It could be
argued that the administration felt it was better to coopt the NCB and have it
subsumed, within a broader framework, with the SNC. The administration likely
figures that the NCB would be a lot noisier outside than inside.
However, things evidently didn't play out that way. If anything, the NCB
benefitted from the pressures to unite, and from the fact that the West has
maintained its distance from the notion of direct intervention to force Ghalioun
to adjust the SNC's position - to the utter fury of the Syrian street. The push
to unify the various strands of the opposition, therefore, resulted in little
more than an embarrassment, especially for Ghalioun. Instead, it accentuated the
perception of division not just among the opposition's ranks, but also within
the Arab League - even as the Syrian protesters have made their preferences and
demands quite clear. These fissures are precisely what the Assad regime and its
Russian and Iranian backers had sought to expand and exploit with the signing of
the League's initiative. Their primary concern was to isolate and neutralize
those Arab states that were pushing for a more muscular approach by the
international community. Similarly, the Paris-based Mannaa has been rather
explicit in his repeated attacks on Qatar and the Gulf states considered part of
the Arab camp pushing for further international action. In that sense, Mannaa's
position objectively suits Assad and the Kremlin.It is little wonder, then, that
the Russians have reportedly invited the NCB leadership to visit Moscow, just as
it was reported in November that the Iranians have opened channels to Mannaa. If
Washington is going to provide openings then its enemies are going to exploit
them to sabotage US policy objectives.
Therefore, the administration has to readjust its priorities, making sure to
strongly articulate its red lines and seeing to it that friendly regional actors
adhere to them so as to deny the regime and its allies the ability to maneuver.
To that end, the words of an activist in the battered city of Homs provide some
clarity. The opposition, he said, was busy with what comes "after toppling the
regime that they are losing the main point. They should focus on one thing only:
the toppling of the regime." He could as well have been addressing the Obama
administration.
*Tony Badran is a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
He tweets @AcrossTheBay.
Turkey may step up moves against Paris on genocide,
diplomat says
January 5, 2012 /Turkey may step up action against France if the French Senate
votes this month to outlaw denial of the Armenian genocide, a Turkish diplomatic
source said Thursday.
"There may be a downgrading of the Turkish diplomatic representation in Paris.
It is probable," if the upper house of parliament approves the bill
criminalizing denial of the disputed 1915 genocide, the source told AFP. The
French lower house approved the law last month, threatening anyone who denies
that the massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turk forces amounted to genocide with
jail. Ankara froze political and military ties with France when the bill was
passed by the National Assembly, and threatened further measures if it continues
through the Senate or is approved by President Nicolas Sarkozy. Turkey has
withdrawn its ambassador to Paris, but embassy officials said Thursday that he
will return next Monday in order to monitor the Senate's handling of the bill.
In 1915 and 1916, during World War I, many Armenians died in Ottoman Turkey.
Armenia says 1.5 million were killed in a genocide. Turkey says around 500,000
died in fighting after Armenians sided with Russian invaders.
France recognized the killings as a genocide in 2001, but the new bill would
punish anyone who denies this with a year in jail and a fine of 45,000 euros
(60,000 dollars).
Modern Turkey is still very sensitive about the issue and has accused France of
attacking freedom of expression and free historical enquiry.
France is home to an estimated 500,000 citizens of Armenian descent, and
Sarkozy's UMP party has been accused of backing the law in order to pander to a
key electoral group ahead of presidential and legislative elections this year.
It is backed by a cross-party majority of lawmakers but has not won universal
support in the government, where some ministers fear it will hurt diplomatic and
trade ties with a NATO ally and major economic partner. French Foreign Minister
Alain Juppe has said publicly that the bill is "badly timed" and has been
reported as describing it privately as "stupid".-AFP/NOW Lebanon
Canada police search for Jamal Hazime, a Lebanese man accused of fraud
January 05, 2012/The Daily Star /BEIRUT: Canadian police are seeking a Lebanese
man accused of fraud and forgery who is suspected of working for an auto
dealership in Beirut, CBC News reported late Wednesday. Jamal Hazime was
reportedly given permission by a Canadian court to leave the country and visit
his ailing mother in Lebanon, but failed to return as agreed on Nov. 3. Police
suspect that Hazime, who is accused of conducting fraud while working at auto
dealerships in Canada, is now employed by Kanaan Auto in his home country,
according to CBC. When contacted by The Daily Star, Mohammad Kanaan, the owner
of Kanaan Auto, denied that Hazime works at the company.
"He doesn't work here," Mohammad Kanaan said, adding that he has known Hazime's
brother for a long time. "I know that [Jamal] had been in Canada for a while but
that's it," he added. Kanaan also said that he does not know why Canadian police
made the connection to him. Hazime, along with two other people, has been
charged on multiple counts of fraud and forgery, according to CBC news. Hazime
now has an arrest warrant issued against him while the other two await trial in
the southern Canadian city of Windsor.
Windsor Police Staff Sgt. Gerry Corriveau was quoted by CBC’s website as saying
that due to the publicity the case has generated, Windsor police receive at
least six calls daily from people who suspect they may have been the victims of
fraud by the three, who worked at two separate auto dealerships.
Corriveau also said that Hazime's absence might not affect investigations but it
could affect the ability of the court to prosecute him
Washing away the sins of the Syrian regime
By Hamad Al-Majid/Asharq Alawsat
The criminal practice of laundering is no longer limited to the realm of
finance; corrupt regimes also require this method to wash the disgrace of their
actions, even if this ultimately leaves them dirtier. It seems that the Syrian
regime now needs to resort to this method to prevent an imminent collapse, and
this time the laundering is courtesy of the head of the Arab observation team,
General Mustafa al-Dabi. The difference between money laundering and the Syrian
regime’s laundering is that it the latter is less intelligent and more
destructive. The regime’s cards have been exposed, its statements blatant, and
the situation in Syria, as my colleague Tariq Alhomayed said, “does not require
delegations and observers, but rather it requires a real effort to stop the
al-Assad killing machine”. I would add that every Syrian citizen has turned into
an observer with no recognition; a correspondent with no salary. Their mobile
phone cameras are depicting, monitoring, documenting and fuelling media content
across the internet, which appears on major global satellite channels within
minutes, and without them the world would not have seen the horrors of the
regime and its crimes.
I saw General al-Dabi for the first time on a satellite news program, and he was
walking amongst the Syrian protestors with a certain swagger. He had a swollen
chest and his facial expression was stern, as if he was reviewing a military
line up, walking with his face away from the protestors even when they spoke,
barely responding to their cries of distress, as if they were insolent beggars.
This left me with a feeling of alienation towards him and his observer mission,
and I scolded myself for my hasty assessment, which was not based upon wise
perceptions. However, after al-Dabi’s provocative statements overlooking the
crimes of the al-Assad regime, my initial feelings were proved to be correct.
The choice of a military figure to lead this noble humanitarian mission; a
nominee from a military regime that is stained with blood in many areas of Sudan
where massacres have taken place - and where we do not know al-Dabi’s role - and
the al-Assad regime blessing this nomination and then praising al-Dabi and his
comments, has made the Arab people - as well as the world’s media - doubt the
integrity of the General’s nomination. Some have suggested that Syria interfered
to “create” these arrangements, with the help of the Sudanese government.
Regardless of whether this this conspiracy theory is credible or not, the facts
on the ground and al-Dabi’s abhorrent comments, which do not difference between
the executioner and the victims in Syria, are suffice to condemn this observer,
and put pressure upon the Arab League to quickly change the head of the mission,
along with any observers who have obeyed al-Dabi rather than God and their
conscience. Of course, this does not include a number of honorable observers,
whose genuine voices in conveying the suffering of the captive Syrian people
have been overshadowed by the noise of General al-Dabi’s statements.
The Arab people do not want the new head of the observer mission to be
prejudiced against the Bashar al-Assad regime, or to have already sympathized
with the suffering of the Syrian people. They want an honest, neutral,
transparent leader, who describes the Syrian scene as it is, without cosmetics
or embellishments. The leader must be indifferent to complex political accounts,
and must not be politicized or commandeered by any regime. We want the Arab
observation project in Syria to be successful, because several Arab areas could
potentially lead to a reproduction of the Syrian scene, God forbid. This would
require action similar to this noble mission, and its success will ensure that
future solutions to problems in the Arab house are conducted by Arab hands.
Revolutions and the military
By Osman Mirghani/Asharqalawsat
Arabs did not need revolutions and uprisings to remind them of the negative role
often played by the army in political life. Arab history over more than half a
century testifies to the negative nature of this relationship and its damaging
impact on the development of political life. This has been evident ever since
the first military coup, up until the scenes that are being repeated in front of
our eyes today, with tanks and armored personnel carriers storming residential
areas to quell the voice of the people, in defense of regimes that came to power
via coups and ruled with oppression and tyranny.
However, the events of the Arab Spring perhaps have helped to shed more light on
this relationship, as well as highlight another other clear fact, namely that it
is necessary to distance or remove armies from politics. The popular revolutions
will not succeed in achieving a popular democratic transition, consolidating the
means of governance and the peaceful transfer of power, unless the army is
removed from politics, redefined, and its doctrine strengthened with regards to
protecting the nation and the people from external threats, instead of
undertaking coups and protecting tyrannical regimes. In the countries of the
Arab Spring, people today often focus on the debate surrounding the
constitution, citizenship and the civil state, yet they forget the other
important issue, namely the role of the army as a national institution that
should be distanced from politics.
All our Arab republics have been ruled [at some stage] by military coup regimes,
with the exception of Djibouti. Even in Lebanon the relationship sometimes blurs
between the palace and the army, and Lebanese leaders in recent years have come
primarily from the military establishment. In fact, military institutions in our
countries have become the means and qualification criteria to rule the state.
Military coups ruin political life without a doubt, and disrupt any natural
development of civilian rule. Worse still, this sometimes happens with the
participation of political forces both from the left and from the right, in the
sense that some political currents have begun to believe that power is best
accessed through coups rather than elections. There are many examples of this,
from the reign of the Baathists in Iraq and Syria, to the rule of the Islamists,
as in the Sudanese case, and many more.
The Arab popular revolutions have laid bare the complex nature of the ruling
power’s relationship with the army. The protestors on the streets of Tunisia,
Egypt, Yemen, Libya and Syria were demanding the overthrow of regimes with
significant military history and depth, even if their leaders wore civilian
clothes and used election polls to claim that they were popular and legitimate,
whereas in fact they came to power via coups or revolutions as they liked to
call them.
Therefore, when these regimes were faced with a threat to their security grip on
power, they sought to use the army to confront the civilians. They succeeded in
this regard in most cases because of the composition of the army and its
fraternal or beneficial relationship with the regime. This prompted the army to
answer the call of the ruling elite, rather than listen to the voice of the
people. Thus we saw Colonel Gaddafi’s forces, or rather his battalions placed
under the command of his sons, commit the worst crimes and most brutal
practices. More than 30,000 thousand Libyans were killed, and twice as many
injured, according to estimates. In Syria, the statistics of human rights
organizations indicate that around 6,000 people have died in clashes between the
protestors and the regime’s forces, whether from the army, the security services
or the Shabiha. In Yemen, there are reports suggesting that more than 1,500 have
been killed and over 20,000 wounded, while in Egypt, some reports state that
around 1,000 people have died, and more than 6,000 have been injured, since the
outbreak of the revolution and up to and including the recent clashes.
Let us compare this to figures announced recently in Israel, regarding the
number of deaths the state has suffered in all wars since its foundation. The
total death toll is estimated to be slightly below 27,000, with around 23,000 of
these being soldiers. In terms of the number of lives that were lost at the
hands of Arab armies killing their own people last year, this far exceeds the
Israeli death toll in all its wars.
This image reflects a major imbalance in the nature of the role played by the
majority of Arab armies, in their transformation from the guardian of the
homeland against external threats to the incubator and protector of
authoritarian regimes, and oppressors of the people. However, to be fair, it
must be noted that there are a few Arab armies that have behaved with
professionalism and discipline, to perform their natural and fundamental role to
protect the homeland and the people from threats, and stay away from politics.
Again to be fair, I must highlight the stances of the officers and soldiers who
refused to aim their guns towards the protestors, and instead directed them
towards the regimes that ordered them to slaughter their own people.
One might say that the Egyptian army sided with the people and refused to carry
out orders to intervene and disperse the protests, and that this stance played a
major role in the success of the revolution and in forcing Mubarak to step down.
Likewise, the Tunisian army, according to numerous accounts, also played an
important role in the success of the revolution there by refusing its leaders’
orders to intervene and suppress the protests alongside the security forces, and
then pressuring Ben Ali to leave. This is all true, and the Egyptians and
Tunisians deserve praise before others, but this does not detract from the
former fraternal relationship between the two respective military institutions
and the two ousted regimes, and the need in both countries, as with elsewhere,
to distance armies from politics, and for the military to remain a national
institution with the primary task of protecting the homeland and its territory
from any external threats.
By plunging into politics, the army is distracted from its key role, and its
national image is tarnished, as it is placed in front of complex political
interactions and accounts. This is what happened in Egypt, when the cheering and
welcoming exclamations for the role of the military council transformed into
cries for the military to leave, and voices questioning its decisions and
fearing its intentions. It is true that there is also support for the military
council and its role, especially in this difficult period, but the military
council would have avoided all this if it had withdrawn from the arena quickly,
handing over power to a presidential council and a transitional national
government, with consultation of all political and civil forces. It would have
still remained the guarantor and protector of the revolution, until elections
were conducted and power was transferred to an elected government.
These words are not intended to detract from the value of the army; rather they
are an appraisal of its correct role, a role that must be distanced from
politics. This role needs to be consolidated to correct the path of the past,
and perhaps the lessons of the Arab Spring will be a step in this direction.