LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
May 01/12

Bible Quotation for today/The Coming of the Holy Spirit
Acts 02/01-13/: "When the day of Pentecost came, all the believers were gathered together in one place. Suddenly there was a noise from the sky which sounded like a strong wind blowing, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then they saw what looked like tongues of fire which spread out and touched each person there. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to talk in other languages, as the Spirit enabled them to speak. There were Jews living in Jerusalem, religious people who had come from every country in the world. When they heard this noise, a large crowd gathered. They were all excited, because all of them heard the believers talking in their own languages. In amazement and wonder they exclaimed, These people who are talking like this are Galileans! How is it, then, that all of us hear them speaking in our own native languages? We are from Parthia, Media, and Elam; from Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia; from Pontus and Asia, from Phrygia and Pamphylia, from Egypt and the regions of Libya near Cyrene. Some of us are from Rome, both Jews and Gentiles converted to Judaism, and some of us are from Crete and Arabia—yet all of us hear them speaking in our own languages about the great things that God has done! Amazed and confused, they kept asking each other, What does this mean? But others made fun of the believers, saying, These people are drunk!

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
Out of its depth/Now Lebanon/April 30/12

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for April 30/12
Former Chief Investigator Confirms Concrete Evidence in Hariri Murder
Israel begins work on Lebanon border wall
Lebanese skier shot by Syrian border guards
Lebanon's Arabic Press Digest - April 30, 2012/ Daily Star
Lebanon's March 14 camp threatens civil disobedience
Bombings spread in Syria as Al Qaeda seizes control of rebel factions
Israeli former IDF chief of staff Ashkenazi: Iran strike not needed tomorrow
Canada Condemns Latest Church Attacks in Nigeria
Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem : Hezbollah ready for dialogue despite opponents’ unwillingness
Future bloc MP Ammar Houri : Hezbollah preventing help for Syrian refugees in Bekaa
Future MP Nuhad Mashnouq says opposition to topple Cabinet through peaceful means
Future Movement official Mustafa Allouch hints Hezbollah behind Hariri assassination
MP, Alain Aoun denies FPM targeting Sleiman, says president creating controversy
MP, Micheal Aoun on Jumblat: We May Forget His Thefts but Won't Accept Theft of Our Freedom via Electoral Law
Jumblatt: Proportional representation would restore Syrian tutelage
Lebanese skier wounded by gunfire on Syria border
Deadly bombs in Syria's Idlib target security
Head of UN mission in Syria urges halt to violence
Ahead of nuclear talks, Iran vows never to halt uranium enrichment
Israel must be prepared for future confrontation with Egypt, says ex-Defense Minister
Syria says Central Bank attacked with grenades; Idlib bombs kill more than 20
Top UN truce monitor arrives in Syria, as activists report lull in violence
Clinton Telephones Suleiman, Praises his Call for Democracy in Political Practice
Leading candidate in Egypt presidential race calls Israel peace accord 'dead and buried'
Phalange: Govt. Failure to Allow Expats to Vote May Force us to Question Legitimacy of Elections
Lebanese Army Detains Iraqi Woman Linked to Abduction of Two Saudis
Hariri Denies Reports of his Return to Lebanon

Former Chief Investigator Confirms Concrete Evidence in Hariri Murder
Naharnet/30 April 2012/Former chief U.N. investigator Nick Kaldas stressed that there is solid evidence and concrete facts in the assassination case of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
The STL “isn’t politicized and the case is based on concrete evidence,” Kaldas told An Nahar newspaper on Monday.The Deputy Commissioner of the New South Wales Police in Australia revealed that the indictment wasn’t extensively based on the telecoms evidence, saying there is more evidence that would convict the accused - Salim Ayyash, Mustafa Badreddine, Hussein Oneissi, and Assad Sabra- who are Hizbullah members.“Only the Special Tribunal for Lebanon is authorized with revealing any information on the evidence,” said Kaldas, who served in 2008 as chief investigator probing the Feb. 14, 2005 assassination of Hariri in a suicide car bombing along with 22 other people including the bomber.Kaldas urged the four suspects to appear before the court and defend themselves against the accusations if they “consider themselves innocent.”He stressed that his work with the STL was “transparent, unbiased and not politicized.”
However, he admitted to some flaws during the first four years of the tribunal’s work.“The truth is that even if the four accused were not detained, justice will take place,” Kaldas said.
He told An Nahar that the court ended the era of impunity in Lebanon.Asked about Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s claims in July 2011 that he acted as a "stooge for Israel and the CIA,” Kaldas ruled out these allegations, saying: “It’s a lie.”“I’ve never visited Israel and I don’t know anyone there… I don’t expect from him to compliment me as I led the investigations and my decisions were the main reason behind the indictment” against the four suspects, Kaldas said.He praised the work of the STL, describing it as a “professional tribunal that is working according to international justice principles.”
Kaldas is convinced that the case condemns Hizbullah, hoping that the “group” would accept the results of the trials and investigation.“They would be proud if (they let justice take its course)… If they didn’t they would be acting against their best interests,” Kaldas noted.Nasrallah has continuously defended the four men accused in the case, describing them as honorable men who fought gallantly in the resistance against the Israeli occupation of south Lebanon.He has said that the four would never be apprehended but tried in absentia instead.
Concerning the possibility of his assassination, Kaldas said that his murder “will not change the work of the tribunal or remove the evidence… My assassination will not resolve their problem.”
Michael Taylor succeeded Kaldas at the end of his contract on Feb, 28 2010 to return to resume his duties as Deputy Commissioner of the NSW Police.

Clinton Telephones Suleiman, Praises his Call for Democracy in Political Practice
Naharnet / 30 April 2012/U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton telephoned on Monday President Michel Suleiman to praise his speech at the Arab League summit that was held in Baghdad in late March.
She lauded his call to implement democracy in political practice and expressed her country’s support to such an end.She also revealed that her envoy, Jeffrey Feltman, will travel to Lebanon to follow up on the situation in the Arab world.Suleiman and Clinton’s talks addressed local and regional developments and ways to bolster bilateral ties.During his speech at the Arab summit, the president said: “The developments in the Arab world require wise and brave decisions.”This requires the rulers to make the right choices that would achieve the greater good of the Arab countries that would lead to their stability and unity, he added.In order to accomplish this goal, all sides must commit to the “true democratic Arabism, based on equality and the need to maintain diversity, which is embodied in the various sects existing in the region,” Suleiman stated.“Lebanon therefore seeks to contribute to these changes based on its principles of freedom, dialogue, and mutual coexistence,” he continued.
The president later held talks at the Baabda Palace with former Prime Minister Fouad Saniora.He then met with Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji to follow up on the Lebanese army's interception on Friday of a ship that was smuggling weapons to Syria.Media reports over the weekend had said that Feltman would arrive in Lebanon later this week to tackle Arab developments and Lebanon’s 2013 parliamentary elections.

Aoun on Jumblat: We May Forget His Thefts but Won't Accept Theft of Our Freedom via Electoral Law
Naharnet Newsdesk 30 April 2012/ Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Monday accused the opposition March 14 camp of “practicing obstruction” and slammed Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat over his rejection of an electoral law based on proportional representation.“The parliamentary minority is practicing obstruction in collusion with some of the executive authority, and we will not remain silent over this issue even if some people launched verbal attacks,” Aoun told reporters after the weekly meeting of the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc in Rabiyeh.
“I support a proportional representation law and turning Lebanon into a single electorate and those who have another point of view must voice it in parliament,” Aoun said.
Criticizing Jumblat without mentioning him by name, Aoun said: “We are not obliged” to boost his political clout. “We might forget about the thefts … but we will not tolerate the theft of our freedom,” Aoun added.Commenting on the issue of the arms ship seized on Friday by the Lebanese navy, Aoun said “it is an attack against Lebanese territory and Lebanese sovereignty, as well as an attack on a brotherly state, Syria.”According to media reports, the navy intercepted three containers of heavy machineguns, artillery shells, rockets, rocket launchers and other explosives destined for Syrian rebels on a ship originating in Libya.“The policy of self-dissociation must be applied by both the government and the people and those trafficking arms are harming the ties with a brotherly state,” Aoun noted.
Addressing the ongoing financial row, the FPM leader said: “The ‘era of prostitution’ is over and we have embarked on forming a panel together with some MPs for the sake of financial accountability from 1993 until now.” “The objective is improving administration and the financial situation, but some parliamentary committees have started obstructing the step,” he added.
“We are ready to go to court ... and should we be convicted in a single case, we pledge that we would quit politics. Where are your evidences?” he said, addressing his movement’s political rivals.
Asked about the imminent visit to Lebanon by Jeffrey Feltman, assistant U.S. secretary of state for near eastern affairs, Aoun said: “He is coming to support the corruption he used to support when he was (an ambassador) in Lebanon.”

Out of its depth
April 30, 2012/Now Lebanon
Energy Minister Gebran Bassil heads a ministry that is supposed to be clean, transparent and efficient, but that is making no progress on the issue of deep-sea drilling. Seven to ten years minimum. That is the time frame for Lebanon to potentially benefit from the estimated 1.9 billion barrels of oil and 122 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and oil that lie under the seabed in our territorial waters. Naturally, the government needs to act with greater urgency if it is to set in motion the process for Lebanon to eventually end its reliance on imported energy reserves and inject much-needed funds into the economy.
If and when we get them (we say “if” because there is a chance—albeit slim—that the fields could be too small and too deep, making drilling technically very difficult and too expensive to be worth all the effort) the proceeds would boost our foreign currency reserves and service Lebanon’s huge national debt. They could also be plowed into infrastructure such as roads, utilities, water and electricity, leading to eventual privatization, while any excess can be used to create a sovereign wealth and/or a social welfare fund.
But typically, till now the government has done little to exploit the potential wealth in our waters. The oil and gas law was passed in late 2010, but we are still waiting for the creation of the so-called Petroleum Authority so it can tender licenses for exploration and drilling.
And as usual, the issue has been hijacked for political purposes. In January, Energy Minister Gebran Bassil employed defiant rhetoric in a bid to draw attention away from the delays, declaring that “Lebanon has drawn its [maritime] borders based on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea” and warned that “no Lebanese will accept either the renunciation of their energy resources or their maritime rights.”
He was, of course, hinting at the potential of a maritime border dispute with Israel, hoping to strike a jingoistic chord with the Lebanese. But in reality his words were insulting and crass. With the exception of card-carrying party drones, and their numbers are dwindling by the day, most Lebanese gave up listening to their politicians a long time ago. They want to see results.
There can be no more pussy footing and no more procrastination. This government has been a catastrophic failure at every turn, and its inability to move forward on the oil and gas file has once again highlighted its incompetence. Bottom line, the state is out of its depth (no pun intended) when it comes to dealing professionally, efficiently and transparently with complex matters. The public sector is so shot through with incompetence and corruption, and so threadbare in its talent, it is hard to think how this or any other progress will ever evolve.
Last week in this column we castigated the government over its inability to deal with the growing level of petty crime and pointed out that public confidence in the government’s performance was at an all-time low. Now there is further evidence of gross mismanagement, and ironically it comes from a ministry run by Gebran Bassil, one of Michel Aoun’s so-called clean technocrats.
And let us not forget the ever-present shadow of Hezbollah, a party that will waste no time in hijacking anything it can blister onto its cause, no matter what the cost to the country. Ironically, for a party that claims to put Lebanon before all else, Hezbollah has contributed little to the growth of the state over the past decade. With parliamentary elections set for next year, the opposition March 14 bloc must make this and other pressing economic and social concerns the big-ticket items. As for March 8, we have witnessed its failure in all its shabby mediocrity. The sooner it is consigned to the bone yard of Lebanese politics, the sooner we can get on with the belated task of rebuilding our country.

Jumblatt: Proportional representation would restore Syrian tutelage
April 30, 2012/The Daily Star /BEIRUT: Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt lashed out Monday at a proportional representation electoral law, saying that its purpose was to restore the era of Syrian hegemony over Lebanon. "Proportional representation constitutes, in one way or another ... a recreation of the era of tutelage represented by a now-extinct presidency during which there occurred political assassinations," he said in his weekly statement to Al-Anbaa newspaper. He said that an attempt to return Lebanon to the days when Syrian intelligence controlled much of Lebanon's political life from the Bekka town of Anjar would fail. "A return to the era of Anjar is impossible and any attempt to do so on the sly through an electoral law or otherwise would be confronted anew by a rejection on the part of the Lebanese to turning the clock back." Insisting that when the PSP called for proportional representation in the past, it did so in good faith, Jumblatt alleged that current proponents of such a law are motivated not by a wish for political reform but "exclusively by an unrestrained desire to eliminate the other."He argued that an electoral law based on proportional representation would "widen the internal division" between the Lebanese.

Canada Condemns Latest Church Attacks in Nigeria
April 29, 2012 - Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird today issued the following statement: “I am deeply saddened to see that Nigerians gathered to practise their faith have again become the target of terrorists.“Canada urges all people in Nigeria to work with the Nigerian government to counter religious extremism and terrorism, and bring to justice those responsible for these reprehensible crimes.
“On behalf of all Canadians, I would like to extend my deepest sympathies to the families and friends of those killed in these attacks, and I wish a speedy recovery to the injured.”
Initial reports suggest that as many as 20 people were killed and many wounded in these attacks on worshippers at church services at Bayero University Kano. Minister Baird recently met with his Nigerian counterpart to express Canada’s solidarity with the government and people of Nigeria in the face of their struggle against terrorism.

March 14 camp threatens civil disobedience
April 30, 2012/By Hussein Dakroub/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: The opposition March 14 coalition stepped up its campaign against the government Sunday, threatening to stage acts of civil disobedience unless a neutral Cabinet is formed to oversee next year’s parliamentary elections as Prime Minister Najib Mikati promised to ensure a “free and democratic” voting. The escalating rhetoric came as the Hezbollah-led March 8 alliance and the Future Movement-led March 14 coalition bickered over a new electoral law on which basis the 2013 elections would be conducted.
It also came as President Michel Sleiman and Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun engaged in a spat following the FPM head’s criticism of the president’s performance.
Speaking to journalists who accompanied him on his official visit to Belgium last week, Mikati said the 2013 elections would be held on time according to an electoral law to be passed by Parliament.
“I would like to stress that parliamentary elections will be held as scheduled according to the law Parliament sees fit to pass,” Mikati said in a statement issued Sunday. “If we [the Cabinet] are still in power on election day, we will implement Parliament’s decision and supervise the holding of elections in a free and democratic manner.”
Emboldened by Parliament’s renewed vote of confidence, Mikati declared on April 20 that his government would stay in office to supervise next year’s elections.
The prime minister’s announcement was aimed at responding to repeated calls by the opposition March 14 parties for the formation of a technocrat or a neutral government to supervise the elections.
Mikati said the Cabinet, which is still discussing a draft electoral law based on a system of proportional representation prepared by Interior Minister Marwan Charbel, will later send the law to Parliament to decide on it.
Mikati urged Lebanese expatriates to register their names at Lebanese Embassies in order to participate in the elections, saying only a few thousand have so far done so. He said the Cabinet last week approved a mechanism to allow the Lebanese in the diaspora to vote in line with a proposal by Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour.
“The current number of all the Lebanese who have registered at embassies to participate in voting is only 4,200 Lebanese. Hence, I call on all expatriates to register at embassies in order to cast their ballots,” Mikati said.
Meanwhile, Future MP Nuhad Mashnouq lashed out at the government, saying it cannot be trusted to supervise the 2013 elections. He said the opposition would use all peaceful means, including civil disobedience, to topple the government and force the formation of a neutral Cabinet to oversee the elections.
“This government is illegitimate and was formed through the force of arms,” Mashnouq said in an interview with the Voice of Lebanon radio station.
“The opposition will use all peaceful efforts to topple the Cabinet because it cannot be trusted. If the need arises, [we will] resort to civil disobedience to bring it down and [force] the formation of a neutral government of technocrats to draft an electoral law on whose basis the elections will be held on time,” he said.
March 14 parties have argued that Mikati’s Cabinet was formed as a result of “a Hezbollah-led coup” that led to the toppling of Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s government in January 2011.
Mashnouq added that Hariri would deliver an address on May 6, on Martyrs of the Press Day, discussing developments in Lebanon and the region, particularly in Syria. Mashnouq also criticized the draft electoral law that is still being discussed by the Cabinet: “Proportional representation in Lebanon does not achieve justice for voters, particularly in areas where arms are spread,” he said.
The proportional representation proposal has raised objections from Hariri, leader of the opposition Future bloc, and Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt, while it won support from Hezbollah and Aoun.
For his part, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said the 2013 elections would be crucial and accused the March 8 parties of trying to influence the results of the vote in order to retain power. “The 2013 parliamentary elections will be very decisive because the other [March 8] side will try to hijack these elections and take over power in Lebanon as a compensation for what is happening in Syria,” Geagea said in a televised speech at an LF dinner in Sydney, Australia, Saturday attended by Australian officials and representatives of March 14 parties.
“But I tell them [March 8] that they will lose power not only in Syria but in Lebanon as well,” he added, speaking via live video link.
Geagea, whose speech was released by the LF’s media office Sunday, said the March 14 coalition was engaged in “a major confrontation” with the March 8 bloc over who takes over power in Lebanon.
Referring to popular upheavals in some Arab countries, Geagea said: “The situation in the region will change while a political confrontation will continue here because there is a [March 8] party that imposes its control over all the Lebanese.”
Former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora held a two-hour meeting with Geagea at the latter’s residence in Maarab Saturday to coordinate March 14 stances.
Siniora also congratulated Geagea on escaping an assassination attempt on April 4, and the LF leader showed Siniora the traces of a sniper’s bullets that had targeted him.
Separately, a spat erupted between Sleiman and Aoun after the president defended his election as a consensual head of state and slammed the FPM leader as constantly coveting the country’s highest post.
“At least a consensual president does not beg for the presidency. On the contrary, everyone asks him to accept the post of president,” Sleiman said in a Twitter and Facebook statement.
The statement came hours after Aoun held a live question and answer session on his party’s Facebook page in which he said the future head of the Lebanese Republic should command a parliamentary bloc rather than “beg at [the door of] some ministers.”
“The experience [with Sleiman] does not encourage the acceptance of another consensual president and rather than the president begging at [the door of] some ministers, he should have a parliamentary bloc that makes a difference and ministers that represent it,” Aoun said.
Meanwhile, Sleiman has ruled out postponing the 2013 elections if parties fail to agree on a new electoral system. He also ruled out a Cabinet change before the elections.
“Elections should take place regardless of the system to be adopted,” Sleiman said in an interview with Al-Joumhouria newspaper published Saturday.
As for the March 14 coalition’s call to form a neutral, technocratic government tasked with overseeing the 2013 elections, Sleiman said that none of the political parties in the government supports such an idea. “If the Cabinet resigns or is forced to collapse, then we could think about it. But for now, the Cabinet will stay on,” he said.
Sleiman has voiced his support for the draft electoral law based on proportional representation and vowed to prevent a return to the 1960 election law which adopts the qada as an electoral district and which was used in the 2009 round.
Hezbollah, which has voiced support for a system of proportional representation, accused March 14 parties of rejecting dialogue with the March 8 camp.
“We are open to a serious and constructive dialogue with all parties in the Lebanese arena. But so far we have not seen any positive step toward dialogue from the other side,” Hezbollah’s deputy head Sheikh Naim Qassem told a rally in Beirut’s southern suburbs. “Anyone who wants dialogue, he must enter it without restrictions or conditions and his political speech must not be hostile.”

Lebanon's Arabic Press Digest - April 30, 2012/ Daily Star
Al-Akhbar
Deal with Turkish company expected this week over thorny issue of electricity-generating barges
Negotiations moved forward toward leasing electricity-generating barges with contracts expected to be signed this week.
Meanwhile, the majority has geared up for a new wave of pressure to be exerted on President Michel Sleiman to make him sign a decree that would legalize the overspending of LL8.9. trillion.
On the political level, Jeffrey Feltman is expected in Beirut once the election battle has begun.
Cabinet will meet at the Grand Serail Wednesday with 68 items on its agenda, most of which are pending from the previous session. Telecoms Minister Nicolas Sehnaoui has added an item; forming a committee to discuss switching terrestrial television broadcasting to digital format.
Al-Liwaa
Feltman in Beirut Wednesday amid widening split in Lebanon
Parliamentary elections inflame dispute between Baabda and Rabieh
The political atmosphere between President Michel Sleiman and MP Michel Aoun caught fire Sunday night as March 14 forces upped the confrontation, including with Hezbollah and the Syrian regime.
Ministerial sources saw that at a time when Prime Minister Najib Mikati reassured [public employees] that he would pay their salaries, the general atmosphere in the country was gloomy on the eve of a Cabinet meeting after a war of words broke out between Sleiman and Aoun on Twitter and Facebook.
This is likely to worsen any chances of reaching an understanding on administrative appointments [and] national decisions, such as the election law or others.
Amid the sharp division and following a television report that said Mikati – who is in London on a family trip – met with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman, a diplomatic source said Feltman is expected in Beirut either Wednesday or Thursday to discuss the situation in Lebanon and Syria and the region as a whole with Lebanese officials and March 14 leaders.
Al-Mustaqbal
Siniora meets Sheikh of al-Azhar ... Geagea stresses ‘other camp will lose power in Syria and Lebanon’
March 14: Adamant on technocratic government
Prime Minister Najib Mikati tried, while still in Belgium, to curtail [March 14] calls for the formation of a technocratic, neutral government not headed by him to oversee the upcoming elections.
“Parliamentary elections will be held on time, according to the law to be issued by Parliament as it deems appropriate. And if we are in power on election day we will implement Parliament’s decision and monitor elections democratically,” Mikati said.
In a related event, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said March 14 forces will be presented with a big challenge in the showdown with March 8 forces “which showed their true face following an experience that lasted over 10 months in power.”
Geagea told March 8 that they will lose power not only in Syria but in Lebanon as well.
LF MP Antoine Zahra told Al-Mustaqbal that a meeting between Geagea and former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora in Maarab on Saturday touched on the need to change the government.
Siniora, who heads the Future parliamentary bloc, visited Cairo Sunday and held talks with the Grand Sheikh of al-Azhar Ahmad Tayyeb.
Following his meeting with the Secretary General of the Arab League Nabil Arabi, Siniora said: “One cannot stop the ongoing transition to democracy and freedom in the Arab world, including Syria.”
On the subject of toppling the government, Future MP Nuhad Mashnouq confirmed that the opposition will do its best to peacefully bring down the government, even if the March 14 coalition has to resort to civil disobedience to topple it.
An-Nahar
Former head of international investigation team: firm evidence besides telecoms data in Hariri’s assassination
The General Labor Confederation goes on strike Thursday as the Lebanese Communist Party demonstrates in the streets of the capital Monday on its way to the Grand Serial in Downtown Beirut to protest against government policies causing “poverty and starvation.”
Meanwhile, the fate of Lebanese patients remains unknown, as private hospitals will stop receiving as of Monday patients covered by the National Social Security Fund. Public employees also await the promised pay raise. Separately, the former head of the international investigation team into the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Nick Kaldas, spoke to An-Nahar’s correspondent in Australia of firm evidence [in the case] -- besides telecoms data and not subject to external influence.
Kaldas, who acknowledged mistakes were made in the investigation, said he put the probe in the right direction, leading to the release of the four [detained] Lebanese officers.

Lebanese skier shot by Syrian border guards
(Reuters) - Syrian soldiers fired at a group of one Swiss and three Lebanese skiers along the mountainous border on Monday, wounding one, after they mistook them for smugglers, Lebanese security sources said. The group of four were skiing on Mount Herman in Lebanon's east when one of the Lebanese men, Antoine Hajj, was shot in the shoulder, they said.
"Once they came under fire from the Syrian army post, the skiers started screaming to them to hold fire," the security source said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the press.
The Syrian border guards then entered Lebanon, he said, and told the skiers that they could leave. They then walked for four hours to the nearest Lebanese security post, he added.
The Syrian army has at times entered Lebanon briefly and opened fire on people they suspect of smuggling weapons into Syria across the poorly demarcated border.
According to UN estimates, more than 9,000 people have been killed in violence across Syria since protests demanding the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad broke out in March 2011.
Damascus says 2,600 of its personnel have been killed in the fighting. (Reporting by Mariam Karouny; Writing by Oliver Holmes Editing by Maria Golovnina)

Israel begins work on Lebanon border wall
April 30, 2012/The Daily Star
KFAR KILA, Lebanon: The Israeli army began building a wall Monday along part of its border with Lebanon in order to “avoid friction.”
Members of the U.N. Disengagement Observer Force Zone (UNDOF) worked with the Israeli army to determine that the wall is erected within Israeli territory.
"This construction, which began on Monday, is being carried out in coordination with UNIFIL (the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) and the Lebanese Army. The wall is intended to avoid friction on the border," an Israeli military spokeswoman told Agence France Presse.
On Sunday, UNIFIL began installing a two-meter high structure covered by an orange tarpaulin on the pavement alongside the fence on the Lebanese side of the border.
Metal poles on which the tarpaulin will be fixed were also erected on a 200-meter stretch near the Fatima Gate.
Monday’s work is expected to include the early stages of building the eight-meter-high, one-kilometer-long wall.
The Lebanese Army along with UNIFIL troops maintained a heavy presence in the area.
The wall will separate the Lebanese village of Kfar Kila from Israel’s settlement of Metula.
Last week, a Palestinian man and his two children snuck briefly into Israel before being caught and handed back to the Lebanese Army.
Israeli public radio said the wall, which is expected to take several weeks to build, was intended to protect Metula from fire coming from the Lebanese side.
Israel's military announced the project in January, saying it would protect recently constructed apartment blocks in Metula from sniper fire coming from the Lebanese border town of Kfar Kila.
Israel and Lebanon are technically at war but military officers from the two sides meet regularly under the auspices of UNIFIL to coordinate security along their joint border.
Israel fought a devastating war against Lebanon's Hezbollah movement in 2006, which cost the lives of 1,200 people in Lebanon, mainly civilians, and 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers. With AFP

MP, Alain Aoun denies FPM targeting Sleiman, says president creating controversy
April 30, 2012/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: The Free Patriotic Movement denied Monday launching a campaign against the Lebanese president and claimed that Michel Sleiman seeks to ignite controversy.
“The [FPM] has not mounted a campaign against President Michel Sleiman. [FPM head MP] Michel Aoun was merely giving his opinion on the issue of a consensual president,” MP Alain Aoun told Voice of Lebanon radio station Monday. A spat erupted over the weekend between Sleiman and Aoun when the president defended his election as a consensual head of state by slamming the FPM leader as constantly coveting the country’s highest post. "At least a consensual president does not beg for the presidency," Sleiman said in a Twitter and Facebook statement. "On the contrary, everyone asks him to accept the post of president." The statement came hours after Aoun held a live question-and-answer session on his party’s Facebook page in which he said the future head of the Lebanese Republic should command a parliamentary bloc rather than “beg at [the door of] some ministers.” “The experience [with Sleiman] does not encourage the acceptance of another consensual president and rather than the president begging at [the door of] some ministers, he should have a parliamentary bloc that makes a difference and ministers that represent it,” Aoun said. Alain Aoun accused Sleiman of exaggerating the matter. “The president of the republic wanted to create a controversy with his reaction and this is his right, but we were forced to respond,” Aoun said.
He also criticized the custom by which candidates who do not enjoy parliamentary representation are chosen to be heads of state, saying that such a practice “places the seat of the presidency in a state of paralysis and prevents decisive decisions from being made.”

U.S. Policy Options in Syria
A briefing by Gary C. Gambill
February 27, 2012
http://www.meforum.org/3224/syria-policy
Gary Gambill holds a B.S. in mathematics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, an M.A. in Arab studies from Georgetown University, and is A.B.D. from N.Y.U. He is a former editor of the Middle East Intelligence Bulletin and the Middle East Monitor, a former employee of the Middle East Forum, and is now an independent editor. Gambill has been a country editor on Syria and Lebanon for Freedom House and has written extensively on Syria and Lebanon. On February 27, 2012, he briefed the Middle East Forum via conference call about US policy options in Syria.
Bashar Assad "can't win," Gambill argued, because he now lacks the power to pacify his opposition—something he had in abundance until last year. His position is made ever more tenuous by his Alawite origin, viewed as heretical by Syria's majority Sunni population.
Gambill attributed the Assad regime's ability to seize and hold power for forty-one years to several primary strengths. First, it has established a brutal police state that slaughtered dissidents by the thousands, notably in Hama in 1982 by Bashar's father, Hafez, and Homs today. Second, it has been highly effective at penetrating all walks of Syrian society. Third, its embrace of a virulently anti-Zionist and anti-American foreign policy succeeded in both splitting the opposition and lending it an aura of legitimacy. Fourth, both the West and the predominantly Sunni Arab world have appeased Assad's regime and ignored the abuses of his rule. Lastly, Assad's ability to retain the support not just of Alawites but also of other non-Sunni minorities, mainly the Christians, has proved crucial. Most of these factors no longer apply, not least since the "barrier of fear" has been crossed. Should the U.S. seek to stop the bloodletting and accelerate Assad's fall through direct military intervention? Gambill's answer is a resounding no.
The status quo is untenable because the other Arab countries, including those that have urged Washington to confront Iran, and even Turkey, will not allow continued instability and bloodshed on their borders. Any confrontation between Tehran and the Arab states should be allowed to run its course. If Assad is fated for defeat, and his fall would remove Iran from "Syria's orbit," there is no rationale for U.S. intervention. Nor should Israel be unduly alarmed by Assad's demise, though the likely Islamist domination of the successor regime. Bashar's diversionary anti-Zionist foreign policy and rhetoric was just that—a diversion from his Alawite origin—and an unnecessarily radical stance for any Sunni-dominated government to assume. Assad's willingness to murder his own people is an albatross for both his regime and his Iranian allies. If America can do nothing to decisively improve the situation, it is in our best interests to stand by and watch Iran struggle with the very same dilemma.
*Summary account by Alex Berman.

Israeli former IDF chief of staff Ashkenazi: Iran strike not needed tomorrow
By YAAKOV KATZ /J.Post
04/29/2012 18:22 Watch the Jerusalem Post Conference live from New York; former IDF chief of staff predicts replacement government for Assad could be positive change for Israel if not aligned with Iran, Hezbollah.A military strike against Iran is "not needed tomorrow morning" but Israel does need to present a credible military threat alongside sanctions and diplomatic action against the Islamic regime, former IDF chief of staff Lt.-Gen. (res.) Gabi Ashkenazi said on Sunday.Speaking at The Jerusalem Post conference in New York, Ashkenazi said that the right strategy was too continue the economic crackdown on Iran as well as covert action that takes place "under the radar.""I think we still have time. It is not tomorrow morning it is better to persuade our friends in the world and the region that it is a global threat and this government [Netanyahu government Y.K.] has done a good job on this but in any case Israel needs its own capability since we cannot allow to live under a nuclear umbrella," he said.
"We need crippling sanctions and much more severe sanctions. It might now be too late and too light and it needs to be supported by a credible military threat on the table," he added.
Turning to the ongoing upheaval in the Middle East, Ashkenazi revealed that former Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman visited Israel two months before President Hosni Mubarak was toppled and predicted that either he or Mubarak's son Jamal would succeed the president. Ashkenazi said that someone in the room asked Suleiman how he could be certain that the transition of power would occur like he said. He said that Sulieman said that it did not matter who voted but rather "who counted the vote."

Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem : Hezbollah ready for dialogue despite opponents’ unwillingness
April 29, 2012 /Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem said Sunday that despite the party’s readiness for dialogue with its political opponents, the latter were not willing to reciprocate.
“[I underscore] Hezbollah’s openness to serious and constructive dialogue with all [political] factions on the Lebanese scene,” the National News Agency quoted Qassem as saying.
“We haven’t yet seen any positive steps taken by the other side, or even the will to establish dialogue.”Qassem also said that parties in a dialogue “should enter it without conditions… and refrain from lies and instigation.”The Hezbollah official added that the current government was working “for all Lebanese,” calling on the March 14 coalition to help in “building the state and not destroying it.”
The current Lebanese cabinet is led by Prime Minister Najib Mikati and composed mainly of ministers loyal to the Hezbollah-led March 8 coalition.-NOW Lebanon

Future bloc MP Ammar Houri : Hezbollah preventing help for Syrian refugees in Bekaa
April 29, 2012 /Future bloc MP Ammar Houri said on Sunday that Hezbollah was preventing help from being given to Syrian refugees in the Bekaa area. “The cabinet is delinquent in helping the Syrian refugees in the Bekaa,” Houri told Future News TV, adding that “Hezbollah in the Bekaa area prevented [the cabinet] from helping the refugees.” The MP also commented on the Lebanese army’s seizure of the “Lutfallah II” vessel, which is suspected of carrying weapons destined for Syria's rebel army. “There is another version of the story that says that the shipment was [destined] to the Syrian regime, because [selling] weapons to Syria is banned,” he said. He also called for waiting for the results of the investigations into the weapons shipment before saying it was intended for the Syrian opposition.
On Friday, a security official said that Lebanon intercepted a ship off the coast of the northern city of Batroun. Syrian authorities have repeatedly charged that weapons were being smuggled from Lebanon into Syria to assist rebels seeking the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad. The Future bloc MP also revealed that his party would hold a festival on May 6 near the tomb of late Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in support of the Syrian opposition. Lebanon’s political scene is split between supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, led by Hezbollah, and the pro-Western March 14 camp.
According to UN estimates, more than 9,000 people have been killed in violence across Syria since anti-regime protests broke out in 2011, while monitors put the number at more than 11,000, mostly civilians.-NOW Lebanon

Future Movement official Mustafa Allouch hints Hezbollah behind Hariri assassination
April 29, 2012 /Future Movement official Mustafa Allouch implied on Sunday that Hezbollah was behind the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. “Despite all the efforts led by Rafik Hariri to merge between the logic of [non-state] weapons on the one hand and development and stability on the other, they expressed gratitude by assassinating him,” the National News Agency quoted Allouch as saying.He also described Hezbollah as “the fictional party,” and said that its project “cannot be accomplished without chaos and destruction.” The UN-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which is probing Hariri’s 2005 assassination, indicted four Hezbollah members in the killing. However, Hezbollah strongly denied the charges and refuses to cooperate with the court.-NOW Lebanon

Future MP Nuhad Mashnouq says opposition to topple Cabinet through peaceful means
April 29, 2012/The Daily Star /BEIRUT: Future MP Nuhad Mashnouq said Sunday the March 14 alliance would use all peaceful means available, including popular protests, to topple the government and replace it with a Cabinet of technocrats that would draft an elections law for next year’s parliamentary polls. “The opposition will utilize all peaceful efforts to topple the Cabinet because it cannot be trusted. If necessary, [we will] resort to popular action to bring it down in order for a neutral government of technocrats to [take its place] and pass an elections law on which the polls will be held on schedule,” Mashnouq told Voice of Lebanon radio station. The Future Movement lawmaker also said an elections law based on proportional representation would “not achieve justice for the electorate, particularly in areas where there are weapons; experience in the previous elections has shown this.”Both the Future Movement and the Progressive Socialist Party have voiced their opposition to an elections law based on proportional representation. “The Future Movement’s position is for an elections law as described in the Taif Accord, including the establishment of a senate,” Mashnouq said, adding that the opposition party would turn down any proposal that “does not satisfy our Christian allies.”The Taif Accord, Lebanon’s revised Constitution, helped end the country’s 1975-90 Civil War.
“This government is not legitimate and was formed through the use of weapons,” Mashnouq said, in an indirect reference to Hezbollah.
“We need to boycott it in Parliament,” he added.The Future Movement has repeatedly called on Hezbollah to disarm, arguing that in order for the state to be strong it must exercise exclusive rights over matters of war and peace. Hezbollah insists its arms are for defensive purposes. Mashnouq also announced that former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, the head of the Future Movement, would make a speech on May 6 during a commemoration of the country’s slain journalists.

Bombings spread in Syria as Al Qaeda seizes control of rebel factions
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report April 30, 2012/Around the first anniversary of the death of al Qaeda’s iconic leader Osama bin Laden at the hands of US special forces, the jihadist movement is making an operational comback in the Arab world and Africa. The suicide bombings hitting Damascus and Idlib in the last 24 hours were the work of Al Qaeda in Iraq – AQI, whose operatives have been pouring into Syria in the last two weeks, debkafile’s counter-terror sources report.
Washington has not asked Iraqi premier Nouri al-Maliki to stem the outward flow, realizing he is glad to see the backs of the terrorists and waving them across the border into Syria. Our sources report from Western agencies fighting al Qaeda that several thousand operatives have arrived in Syria to fight the Assad regime, most entering the country from the north. They come fully armed with quantities of explosives. Among them are hundreds of Saudis, Egyptians, Lebanese, Palestinians, Iraqis and Sudanese.
They quickly join up with the hundreds of al Qaeda fighters from Libya present at Free Syrian Army-FSA training camps in southeast Turkey. There, they are instructed in the geography of Syrian government, army and security forces locations, led across the border and transported to their targeted locations by special guides.
Monday, April 30, the day after Norwegian Maj. Gen. Robert Hood took command of a painfully inadequate force of UN UN truce supervisors, al Qaeda let loose with a spate of bombings in Damascus and the northeastern flashpoint town of Idlib. I
In the capital, they bombed the Syrian central bank with RPG grenades, ambushed a police patrol in the town center and blew up a bomb car against a Syrian military convoy driving through the Qudsiya district. Two days earlier, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the Zain al-Abideen mosque of Damascus, killing at least 9 worshippers.
These attacks were followed later Monday with three bomb blasts in Idlib at security and intelligence centers in the town, killing some 20 people, most of them security personnel. One command center was destroyed and hundreds were injured by the force of the blasts.
The Syrian ruler Bashar Assad keeps on complaining that his regime is under assault by terrorists and many of the fatalities reported are members of his army and police. But his own brutal methods against dissidents have deafened the West to these complaints and the world addresses its demands to halt the violence to him and him alone.
There is nothing new about the refusal in the West to heed the fact that al Qaeda infiltrators are increasingly responsible for violence in the various parts of the Arab Revolt. In Libya too, Muammar Qaddafi warned repeatedly that his overthrow would result in al Qaeda-linked groups seizing control of the country and commandeering his vast arsenals of weapons.
In the seven months since the Qaddafi regime was destroyed, Washington, London and Paris have turned a blind eye to the impossibility of establishing a stable government in Tripoli because rebel factions and militias identified with al Qaeda which control Libya’s main towns are too busy running the biggest arms smuggling network ever seen in North Africa.
Rockets, explosives and every kind of weapon is reaching al Qaeda elements and affiliates in abundant quantities across northern Africa and the Middle East, including their offshoots in Egyptian Sinai and the Gaza Strip.
Groups identified with al Qaeda have seized control of large parts of Mali and directly threaten the stability of the Algerian government.
debkafile’s counter-terror and Washington sources report fears that Syria might go the same way as Libya. Syrian officers and agents who have deserted from Syrian military and security agencies have made their way to Washington to implore administration officials to abandon the US policy of non-intervention in Syria. They warn that the rebel Free Syrian Army is falling into the clutches of al Qaeda. It won’t be long, they say, before these jihdist terrorists not only wreak mayhem in Syria, but turn that country into their haven and base for cross-border attacks against Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, the West Bank and Jordan.
Their pleas have not moved the Obama administration. Our military sources note that so long as the Americans stay out of involvement in Syria, France, Turkey and Arab League nations will also stand aside, because the US alone is capable of establishing combined commands and infrastructure for coordinating an operation with multiple air support on the scale required for Syria.
By opting out of action in Syria, the West and the Arab League not only give Assad free rein to continue slaughtering his people but leave the door open for al Qaeda to move in on the various Syrian rebel movements and add the element of terror to the ongoing carnage.