LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
May 10/12

Bible Quotation for today/Warnings against Idols
01 Corinthians 10/12-22: " If you think you are standing firm you had better be careful that you do not fall. Every test that you have experienced is the kind that normally comes to people. But God keeps his promise, and he will not allow you to be tested beyond your power to remain firm; at the time you are put to the test, he will give you the strength to endure it, and so provide you with a way out. So then, my dear friends, keep away from the worship of idols. I speak to you as sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. The cup we use in the Lord's Supper and for which we give thanks to God: when we drink from it, we are sharing in the blood of Christ. And the bread we break: when we eat it, we are sharing in the body of Christ. Because there is the one loaf of bread, all of us, though many, are one body, for we all share the same loaf. Consider the people of Israel; those who eat what is offered in sacrifice share in the altar's service to God. Do I imply, then, that an idol or the food offered to it really amounts to anything? No! What I am saying is that what is sacrificed on pagan altars is offered to demons, not to God. And I do not want you to be partners with demons. You cannot drink from the Lord's cup and also from the cup of demons; you cannot eat at the Lord's table and also at the table of demons. Or do we want to make the Lord jealous? Do we think that we are stronger than he?

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea: hristians must spearhead change/By Nicholas Blanford/ The Daily Star/May 09/12
Syria: Is This an Arab Spring or a Balkan Winter?/By Tony Karon/TIME/May 09/12

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for May 09/12
UN: Weapons being smuggled between Lebanon, Syria
Lebanon to pay dearly if Hezbollah retaliates to Israel attack on Iran: report
Elderly Lebanese woman killed by Syrian cross-border fire
STL to allow 58 victims to participate in Hariri assassination trial
Defense lawyers want STL declared illegal
U.N. should be more rigorous in its decisions: Mikati
Hariri says trip to Qatar aimed at coordinating on issues
Syria buys grain via Lebanon to beat sanctions
The Daily Star/Lebanon's Arabic press digest - May 9, 2012
March 14 slams Aoun’s “sectarian” rhetoric
Berri: Persistence of Current Govt. Performance is Unacceptable
Lebanon Complains to UNIFIL over Israel’s Removal of Barbed Wire at Fatima Gate
Mustaqbal Says Hizbullah Protecting FPM's 'Militia-like Practices'
Report: Jumblat Will Ally with March 14 in Upcoming Elections
Satellite imagery shows Iran may be 'washing' military site
UN: Weapons being smuggled between Lebanon, Syria
Zvi Bar'el / Iran to IAEA: Meet you in Baghdad
Arab newspapers: 'Netanyahu forming war government'
Netanyahu-Mofaz unity deal provides a great opportunity for Israel/Haaretz Editorial
Palestinians don't have high hopes for Mofaz
Mofaz: I joined coalition for Israel's future
Ari Shavit / Like Ariel Sharon, Netanyahu has been pushed to the center
Analysis and opinions on Israel's new government by Haaretz's top writers
Double agent again exposed al Qaeda's use of undetectable PETN explosive
Saudi intelligence, CIA infiltrated al Qaeda in Yemen: reports
Blast hits UN observer convoy in Syria
Rice Says U.S. Target Remains Removal of Assad
EU's Ashton Briefs Netanyahu on Iran Talks
Paris Strongly Condemns Attack on U.N. Convoy in Syria
Annan: ‘Last chance’ to avoid civil war in Syria

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea: hristians must spearhead change
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2012/May-09/172771-geagea-christians-must-spearhead-change.ashx#axzz1uHperuhl
May 09, 2012/ By Nicholas Blanford/ The Daily Star
MAARAB, Lebanon: The Christians of the Middle East should not view with trepidation the turmoil engulfing the region over the past 18 months, Syria especially, but should instead seize the initiative to advance change and ensure communal survival, says Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea.
“We should spearhead any quantum leap in the region, otherwise we will lose our role and if we lose our role we will lose our presence,” Geagea told The Daily Star in an interview. “We cannot as Christians keep our presence in this area by supplicating Hezbollah to give us a few parliamentary seats [or] by asking anybody else. We can keep our presence in the Middle East by playing a full-fledged role ... We should have a clear understanding, especially with something historic like the Arab Spring ... otherwise we will be [destined for] oblivion in a few decades if not in a few years.”
Geagea’s assertive stance toward the Arab Spring, combined with the good relations he has cultivated and maintains with former Prime Minister Saad Hariri and the so-called “moderate Arab” countries in the region (he recently traveled to Riyadh to meet with Saudi King Abdullah), serves as a deliberate counterpoint to the political position of his arch Christian rival Michel Aoun.
Aoun has always been closer to Hezbollah and harbors suspicions and antipathy toward the Hariris, while standing by Syrian President Bashar Assad. Syrian Christians in general have been slow to embrace the revolt against Assad’s regime, mainly due to fears for what might come next. The experiences of Christians in Iraq following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion have thrown those concerns into stark relief. But Geagea adopts the view that the downfall of the Assad regime cannot be anything but beneficial for the Christians of Syria and Lebanon.
“It will have an outcome in the direction of democracy and freedom ... it can be a full-fledged real democracy and freedom or it could be partial, but [it will go] in this direction for sure,” he said. “So all in all it is beneficial for Christians in Syria to side with [the revolution].”
As for the fear of fundamentalist groups taking over in Syria and minorities being persecuted, Geagea said that was no excuse for continuing to side with the Assad regime. The identity of a future Syrian regime, whether Islamist or secular, is unimportant, he said, what matters is the performance of the regime.
“If it is a Christian or Druze regime and it is a killer regime, do we support it only because it is a Christian or a Druze regime or a minorities regime? This is not the [correct] criteria. The [correct] criteria is the substance [policies] of the regime.”
With Geagea and Aoun representing the bulk of Lebanon’s Christian electorate, the competition between these two old foes is expected to be fierce during next year’s parliamentary elections. Geagea appeared confident he could make some inroads into Aoun’s support base, snapping up those members of the Free Patriotic Movement who, according to the Lebanese Forces leader, have grown disillusioned with the performance of Aounist ministers in the government.
“It’s not to do with politics but the lack of good governance, the lack of good performance, corruption. Aoun fought under the banner of fighting corruption, then it appears that his ministers were the most corrupt maybe in the history of the republic ... People are much more concerned with these issues than the strategic issues,” he said.
But that surely does not mean that a disaffected Aounist would choose to vote for the Lebanese Forces in 2013, especially given the traditional hostility between the two parties.
“The Lebanese Forces has offered a very acceptable alternative in terms of its political program and in terms of its political behavior, its parliamentary behavior ... There is zero smoke of corruption around the Lebanese Forces, I mean zero. So yes, I dare say that the necessary elements are now in place for the Lebanese Forces to be the next choice for all those who quit either Aoun or all other parties.”
Since the uprising began in Syria in March 2011, there has been near constant speculation that the violence could spill across the border into Lebanon. So far, beyond some shootings across the Lebanon-Syria border, a few flare-ups between the traditionally volatile Sunni and Alawite communities in Tripoli, a couple of Katyusha rocket launches into Israel and three bomb attacks against UNIFIL in the south, the country has remained relatively quiet. Geagea believes that the calm should continue simply because a descent into factional violence serves the interests of no one.
“Who would benefit?” he asked. “If the Sunnis come and fight Hezbollah, does that help the revolution in Syria? If Hezbollah fights the Sunnis, does that help the [Assad] regime? No.”
However, for Geagea, his narrow escape from an assassin’s bullet – actually three bullets – last month served as a grim reminder of how easy it would be to destabilize the country through a strategic killing.
Asked what motive someone might have for killing him, he said: “For sure, one of the reasons is the impact on the Christian arena in Lebanon. The Christian arena without Geagea would fall completely to March 8.”
Furthermore, there are relatively few strategic March 14 targets these days, with Hariri having lived abroad for the past year and Walid Jumblatt steering a course between the two camps.
Geagea said he recalled hearing two shots fired in quick succession as he was strolling in his garden. “I heard two but apparently there were three fired very fast at the same fraction of a second,” he said, speculating that the assassination attempt must have involved three individual snipers firing at the same time. He threw himself to the ground “instinctively” and crawled to cover before even realizing that he was being shot at. Forensic investigators extracted three 12.7mm rounds from the wall – two were at head height and one at belly height – having missed the Lebanese Forces leader by about 20 centimeters. The garden remains closed off for now under orders of the Lebanese judiciary. But the source of fire was pinpointed to a steep conical hill some 900 meters from Geagea’s residence and just about the only location with an overview of the garden.
Geagea said he had not been informed of the results of the investigation, but added that he had confidence in the goodwill of the heads of the various security departments involved in the case.
“But practically this should lead to discover who was behind the operation, otherwise it will stay at the stage of goodwill,” he said.
Geagea would not be drawn on declaring outright whom he believed was behind the shooting, although his comments needed little interpretation.
“It was for political reasons for sure. So who are the party or parties who are well qualified for such an operation and at the same time benefit? I have my own analysis but I will not declare it because it is just a guess ... [but my view is based on] analyzing who profits from this crime, analyzing the quality of this operation, the logistics necessary to make it happen ... Who has the ability to come in with three big rifles and to wait. From 2005, I have been on my guard because of the nature of the political work in Lebanon. But they discovered a [breach in my security] after many months if not years of long-distance observation.”Geagea said he could not predict whether the attempt on his life signaled a new wave of assassinations, but he said he would not give them a second chance.
“I will not leave a [breach] open this time

UN: Weapons being smuggled between Lebanon, Syria
By Reuters /International mediator Kofi Annan, Red Cross and Arab League warn Syria is descending into civil war; 10 people killed in clashes with Syrian security forces.Weapons are being smuggled both ways between Lebanon and Syria, where a 14-month popular uprising has brought the country to the brink of civil war, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
Syria has repeatedly said weapons are being smuggled over its border from Lebanon and other countries to arm rebels fighting President Bashar Assad in the conflict. Western diplomats and UN officials say that although the rebels have received some weapons they remain severely outgunned. Security forces killed at least 10 people in fighting across Syria on Tuesday, activists said, as international mediator Kofi Annan, the Red Cross and Arab League warned the country was descending into civil war. "Based on information that we have there are reasons to believe that there is a flow of arms both ways - from Lebanon into Syria and from Syria into Lebanon," said Terje Roed-Larsen, UN special envoy on the implementation of a security council resolution that calls for the disarming of Lebanese militia.
"We do not have independent observers for this, but we are basing our reporting on information we are receiving from a variety of sources," he told reporters after briefing the 15-member UN Security Council. According to Roed-Larsen's briefing notes, he told the council UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had raised the issue of cross-border arms transfers with Lebanese officials during a recent visit to Beirut, urging them to improve border control. Lebanese authorities seized 60,000 rounds of ammunition hidden in two cars on an Italian container ship docked at the northern Lebanese port of Tripoli, a security source said earlier on Tuesday. Tripoli, a mainly Sunni Muslim city, has seen regular protests in support of the uprising against Assad.
In late April, Lebanese authorities seized a large consignment of Libyan weapons including rocket-propelled grenades and heavy caliber ammunition from a ship intercepted in the Mediterranean. The ship's owner said the vessel was traveling to Tripoli in Lebanon. The United Nations says more than 9,000 people have been killed by state forces trying to crush the revolt against four decades of rule by Assad and his father, Hafez Assad. What began as a peaceful protest movement has been overtaken by an armed insurgency against Syrian forces. The government says the rebels are terrorists steered by foreign powers and over 2,600 people from the police and army have been killed. UN-Arab League mediator Kofi Annan, told the Security Council earlier on Tuesday that peace in Syria remains elusive nearly a month after a truce was announced.

Lebanon to pay dearly if Hezbollah retaliates to Israel attack on Iran: report
May 08, 2012/The Daily Star /BEIRUT: A senior Israeli officer told the Telegraph Sunday that Lebanon will face severe damages if Hezbollah retaliates to an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities.
According to the officer, any retaliation by Hezbollah to an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities would lead to a destructive war where Israel would destroy much of Lebanon's infrastructure.
"The situation in Lebanon after this war will be horrible," the officer, a senior commander on Israel's northern border with Syria and Lebanon, said. "They will have to think about whether they want it or not. I hope that Iran will not push them into a war that Iran will not pay the price for but that Lebanon will." The officer said that all of Lebanon would suffer but the areas considered Hezbollah strongholds would face the worst of the attacks. "In these villages where Hezbollah has infrastructure I will guess that civilians will not have houses to come back to after the war," he said."The Lebanese government has to take this into consideration. Many of the villages in southern Lebanon will be destroyed. Unfortunate, but we will have no other solution. The day after [we attack] the village will be something that it will take 10 years to rebuild."

Mustaqbal Says Hizbullah Protecting FPM's 'Militia-like Practices'
Naharnet/08 May 2012/Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Tuesday accused Hizbullah of “protecting the spiteful, chaotic and militia-like practices, especially those practiced by its ally the Aounist movement.”In a statement issued after its weekly meeting, the bloc said “the armed invasion of Beirut and several Lebanese areas by Hizbullah and its allies” on May 7, 2008 had “ended the national legitimacy” of Hizbullah’s arms, stressing that “the Lebanese will not regain their normal life without the return of the Lebanese state’s authority and decision over its territory.”
The bloc said Hizbullah “changed the direction of its weapons, which should be pointed at the Israeli enemy, and pointed them at the peaceful residents, killing innocents and torching houses and institutions.”
“This crime committed by Hizbullah and its allies against the residents of the capital and some Lebanese areas pushed the country into a different phase, when weapons and their influence were and are still being used to terrorize the Lebanese and impose political, social and economic domination on them,” the bloc added.It recalled that back then “the March 14 camp tried to act positively in Doha in order to rise above what happened, but the renouncing of the Doha Agreement and the national unity government and the subsequent practices and stances of Hizbullah and its allies … will lead to deepening the rift with the ‘party of arms and gunmen.’”The bloc, however, reiterated its support for “dialogue and rapprochement.”Addressing the latest financial row, the bloc slammed “the state of confusion and deterioration governing the country and its economy due to the government’s worsening failure to perform its basic duties, especially as to finalizing the 2012 draft state budget.”

The Daily Star/Lebanon's Arabic press digest - May 9, 2012
Following are summaries of some of the main stories in a selection of Lebanese newspapers Wednesday. The Daily Star cannot vouch for the accuracy of these reports.
An-Nahar
Red light by Government after Aoun attack
Sleiman fed up with attempts at securing monopoly [of power]
Mikati seeks to overcome 2 disputed issues on Cabinet’s Wednesday agenda
Move to cool down debate on election law
The clash between President Michel Sleiman and head of the Change and Reform bloc Gen. Michel Aoun, who is supported by Hezbollah, has reached unprecedented levels, creating a situation far more serious than previous [disputes] in the government.
It seemed difficult on the eve of a Cabinet meeting to be held at 4 p.m. at Baabda Palace Wednesday to create a breakthrough in the deadlock over state spending, which has become a point of contention between Aoun and Sleiman.
While Aoun lambasted Sleiman, holding him responsible for all the “negative aspects” of the financial crisis, Sleiman has reportedly made a “big statement,” telling visitors “enough is enough” – that [Aoun] threatens to violate the red line.
Al-Akhbar
Sleiman mad at Hezbollah: I will turn the tables
Cabinet will meet today. However, ministers from the Change and Reform bloc will kick off the meeting with a “soft attack” on President Michel Sleiman over his refusal to sign the LL8.9 trillion decree.
Pro-Aoun ministers will get the support of their allies – the Amal Movement and Hezbollah – who will give a clear opinion from a legal standpoint regarding the issue, ministerial sources said.
They said contacts made Tuesday that included Lebanon’s top three leaders [President Michel Sleiman, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Najib Mikati] and the forces that comprise the government failed to produce an agreement on the overspending issues, which are set to be debated during Wednesday’s meeting.
The sources said pro-Aoun ministers and their allies from the March 8 coalition will oppose the issue dealing with LL 8.9 trillion because it is already in Parliament.
Al-Mustaqbal
Future bloc criticizes government clash over spending issue ... renews proposal for a solution
Aoun steps up [campaign] against Sleiman, threatens Jumblatt: ‘You’d better watch out for a slip of your tongue’
The dispute over a settlement to the spending issue remained among government members amid questions about its impact on the cohesion of this Cabinet, which is protected by Hezbollah weapons.
The latest in the war of words between prominent leaders who make up the government came from MP Michel Aoun who stepped up his campaign Tuesday against President Michel Sleiman and head of the National Struggle Front MP Walid Jumblatt.
It was interesting that Aoun said Sleiman had been elected in an “unconstitutional manner” and blamed him for the spending crisis.
Aoun also hit back at Jumblatt, telling him: “Why do you, Walid Bek, criticize me so harshly ... even though we know the truth about you and your [Cabinet] ministers who give lessons in ethics when they have nothing to do with them ... Walid Bek, remain silent ... I have the right to say what I want and lift your immunity ... You’d better watch out for a slip of your tongue ... We have suffered enough from you.”
Al-Anwar
Aoun’s escalating campaign against President [Sleiman] and Jumblatt speeds up government collapse
The vehement campaign waged by Gen. Michel Aoun against President Michel Sleiman and MP Walid Jumblatt Tuesday raised questions about the government situation and the possibility of holding productive Cabinet meetings. Political sources said the situation is vacillating between a government collapse or [a nearly] impossible coexistence.
Cabinet will meet Wednesday under these circumstances as Baabda Palace sources said Sleiman would not succumb to pressure and that he will only work in line with his [constitutionally specified] powers.

Defense lawyers want STL declared illegal
May 9, 2012
Now Lebanon/Defense lawyers before a UN-backed court probing former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri's murder sought Wednesday to have the tribunal's creation declared illegal and unfit to judge their clients. Lawyers for Salim Ayyash – one of four men wanted for trial in connection with Hariri's car bomb death in 2005 – asked "the trial chamber to find that the establishment of the court was not legal."
"As a result, the trial chamber does not have the jurisdiction to hear the indictment brought against Mr Ayyash and his co-accused," they said in papers filed before the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL).
The Hague-based court in early February said it would put Salim Ayyash, Mustafa Badreddine, Hussein Anaissi and Assad Sabra on trial for Hariri's death and arrest warrants have been issued for the four – but they remain at large. Lawyers for Badreddine, Anaissi and Sabra have filed similar documents, a source close to the case, who asked not to be named, told AFP.
Lawyers for Badreddine, described as the "brains behind the operation" that killed the billionaire politician and 22 others including a suicide bomber on February 14, 2005 said they doubted the court's ability to try their client. "Having been established in an illegitimate and unconstitutional [manner]... the STL cannot give the accused a fair trial," they said in a statement.
Last month, STL judges turned down prosecutors who asked to add a charge of "criminal association" to the initial indictment against the four members of the Hezbollah Shia group who are being tried in their absence on listed charges of conspiracy to commit a terrorist act and homicide. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has dismissed the STL as a US-Israeli conspiracy and vowed that no member of his group would ever be found or arrested. Hezbollah denies involvement in the Hariri attack. The STL is the only international court that has a mandate to try suspects in absentia.Created by a 2007 UN Security Council resolution at Lebanon's request, the STL opened its doors in 2009 and is tasked with trying those suspected of responsibility for Hariri's assassination.-AFP/NOW Lebanon

STL to allow 58 victims to participate in Hariri assassination trial
May 09, 2012/The Daily Star /BEIRUT: The Special Tribunal for Lebanon will allow 58 victims to participate in the court case against four Hezbollah suspects accused of involvement in former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination. "The pre-trial judge has determined that 58 of 73 victims of the February 14, 2005 attack who applied to do so can now take part in the proceedings," the Special Tribunal for Lebanon said in a statement Wednesday. The tribunal’s registrar will now designate a legal representative to represent the victims, who will be tried in absentia, and as many co-counsels as the registrar feels appropriate to assist the legal representative. “The names and identities of the victims will continue to remain confidential unless and until there is a further court order to the contrary,” the statement said. The international court also urged other victims of the February 14, 2005 attack, which killed Hariri and 22 others, to apply to participate in the proceedings through the tribunal's Victim Participation Unit. Each application is reviewed by Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen. The U.N.-backed tribunal indicted four members of the resistance party last year for involvement in the assassination. They are Mustafa Badreddine, Salim al-Ayyash, Hasan Aineysseh and Asad Sabra. Following a failed attempted by Lebanon to apprehend the suspects, the court has decided to try the men in absentia.
Hezbollah has denied the allegations against its members, describing the four as honorable men of the party. Hezbollah also described the court as a U.S.-Israeli tool aimed at sowing strife in Lebanon.
Earlier this year, Fransen rejected the prosecution's request to amend the indictment and add a count of “criminal association.” The content of the proposed amendment remains confidential.

Syria buys grain via Lebanon to beat sanctions May 09, 2012/By Michael Hogan
Daily Star/HAMBURG: Syria is importing significant volumes of grain via Lebanon to work around western sanctions and secure vital supplies, European traders told Reuters.
The trade is not illegal because food imports are not included in sanctions imposed by the European Union, the United States and other Western countries on President Bashar Assad's government over his crackdown on a revolt.
But the measures have blocked access to trade finance for Syria in the same way as similar penalties imposed on Iran over its nuclear program.
Growing numbers of Syrians are struggling to obtain food, with prices of staples more than doubling after more than a year of conflict that has cost more than 10,000 lives.
Some people in the capital Damascus, long spared the violence but now shaken by explosions overnight, say they are stocking up with at least a month's supplies.
"Syrian grain imports are being transacted in large volumes using offices in Lebanon to handle the paperwork and act as initial buyer," one trader said.
"The deal is then re-booked in Lebanon, and ships are then later diverted to Syrian ports."
Some trade sources said hundreds of thousands of tonnes were involved, while deals in smaller volumes are also being booked via dealers based in Dubai.
"Food imports themselves are not stopped by the sanctions, but it is the impact of the banking sanctions which is disrupting imports," a second trader said.
Syrian imports booked in the past two months include wheat for food as well as barley and corn for animal feed.
The Black Sea region, including Ukraine and Russia, has been the main grain source, dealers said.
Lebanon has close trade and business ties with neighboring Syria but is politically divided between allies of Damascus and his opponents, who pushed Assad to end nearly three decades of Syrian military presence in Lebanon seven years ago.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, whose government includes ministers from Hezbollah and pro-Syrian Christian parties, says he is seeking to prevent Syria's crisis from spilling over into his country.
Mikati and the central bank have pledged to fully implement international sanctions related to Syria, but his foreign minister last year rejected an Arab League decision to impose sanctions on Damascus, saying Lebanon would not implement them. Some Lebanese trading firms seem ready to take the risk of being cut off from Western finance to do business with Syria, the second trader said.
"For the Lebanese, Syria is their traditional market," he added. "Major wheat supplies to Syria seem to be arriving under state-to-state deals."
Ukraine said in March it would supply Syria with 300,000 tonnes of food wheat under the terms of an inter-government agreement. Dealers said normal direct grain trade with Syria is no longer possible because of sanctions. "I had requests for 10,000 tonnes of barley and 10,000 tonnes of corn from Syrian buyers last week, but I cannot deal with Syria as my banks in Germany and Switzerland will not provide finance," a trader said. "Regular grain trading with Syria has stopped. It is another Iran." The Iranian government was compelled to step in and purchase millions of tonnes of wheat in February and March after western sanctions disrupted normal grain imports. "Whether the Syrians have imported enough for their needs is another question which is difficult to answer, but a large volume has been booked via Lebanon," another dealer said. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in March estimated that Syria would need to import about 4 million tonnes of grain in the July 2011/June 2012 season, up by 1 million tonnes on the previous year-ago period after a poor harvest in summer 2011. The United Nations bought Turkish sunflower oil for Syria, traders said on Monday.
Syria's own 2012 wheat and barley harvest is due to start in May, which will reduce the country's import needs at least temporarily in the coming months, traders said.
The FAO has warned that the outlook for Syria's 2012 harvest is uncertain because of the impact of the unrest. Syria's state grains agency issued an international tender on April 30 to buy 150,000 tonnes of animal feed barley.

Syria: Is This an Arab Spring or a Balkan Winter?
By Tony Karon/TIME/
Special envoy Kofi Annan told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that his struggling peace plan is the last hope to prevent Syria from plunging into an all-out civil war. But the reason his cease-fire and political-dialogue plan has not yet stopped the fighting, despite the truce that was formally agreed to a month ago, is that Syria is, in fact, already engaged in a civil war. Some 15 months after Syria’s rebellion began, it is clear that President Bashar Assad has effectively eluded the narrative arc that would deliver him the fate of Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak or Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi. Instead, Assad has taken a leaf from the playbook of former Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic.
Political violence in Syria was once front-page news in the Western media, where coverage appeared to assume that the Arab Spring had come to Syria and that Assad would shortly go the way of Mubarak or Gaddafi. But Syria today appears to be more of an echo of the Balkan wars of the early ’90s, than of the Arab Spring in its early teens. This brutal civil conflict pits rival communities against one another on a sectarian basis, while Western powers appear paralyzed as peace initiatives brought on by foreign diplomats flounder and cease-fires are violated by both sides. It rarely makes the front page when Syrians are butchered by other Syrians, despite the fact that the death toll has climbed past 9,000. The arguments for and against intervention have become well-worn and familiar. Syria’s civil war has become the new normal.
Almost two decades ago, amid the breakup of Yugoslavia, Serb forces under President Slobodan Milosevic and his Bosnian-Serb protégés launched a war to carve up Bosnia and expand territory under Serbian control through a vicious campaign of ethnic cleansing [EM] a term that no longer appears in quotation marks in Western media coverage, but back then was a grotesque euphemism for pogroms directed at Bosnian Muslims and Croats. The war began in earnest a month after the main protagonists had signed onto an international peace plan named for its creators, the British diplomat Lord Peter Carrington and Portuguese Ambassador José Cutileiro.
What followed was years of brutal fighting before NATO began to enforce a no-fly zone in 1994 and eventually stepped up its intervention to force the parties to accept an unhappy power-sharing peace agreement signed in Dayton, Ohio, in November 1995. One of its signatories was Milosevic, who had cemented his position through the war to the point that he had become indispensable to the prospect of restoring peace. (Justice had to wait some five years more before Milosevic would be overthrown by the Serbian people and sent off to face a war-crimes trial at The Hague, where he died.)
President Bashar Assad appears to have decided early in the Syria campaign that he’d rather be Milosevic than Gaddafi, albeit with a different ending. And thus far he’s doing a pretty effective job. Now that this has turned from protest movement to sectarian civil war, he has managed to sidestep the demand that he should step down. Instead, peace plans are now based on securing his agreement to stop state violence. Despite Annan reporting a drop in violence, it’s far from clear whether many of those doing the fighting against Assad are ready to observe a cease-fire, even though by defying it, they give the regime political and diplomatic advantage. And the regime certainly is continuing to direct its fire wherever it is challenged, knowing that it dominates on the terrain of violence.
Assad’s forces have the upper hand militarily and seem easily able to prevent opposition fighters from holding territory, even if the regime is unable to militarily eliminate the rebellion. Despite talk, particularly by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, of arming the rebels, there’s little sign of any such assistance, with the rebels struggling to find money to buy ammunition. And, of course, Assad has managed to talk Western powers back from insisting that he step down to instead focusing on a solution that brings violence to a halt while he remains in charge.
(MORE: The Question Remains: What Can Be Done to Hurt Syria’s Assad?)
Unlike Gaddafi, Assad is benefiting from strong diplomatic support from Russia and China, which oppose any foreign intervention aimed at regime change in Syria, as well as military and economic aid from its key regional ally, Iran. Europe is focused on the slow-moving economic catastrophe brought on by its financial crisis while the U.S., as in 1992, is in a state of recession and focused on a presidential campaign, its appetite for expeditionary warfare maxed out in Iraq and Afghanistan. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who championed the NATO intervention in Libya, has just been voted out of office. His successor, President-elect François Hollande, has made clear that France would only get involved in a military action in Syria within a U.N. framework [EM] which is unlikely to be created, because Russia and China are likely to veto any Security Council authorization for intervention.
Turkey has become the focus of hopes for some sort of intervention, given its role in hosting the Free Syrian Army and its anger at Assad’s handling of the crisis. But the fact that Syrian refugee camps in Turkey are taking on the features of a permanent facility suggests that Turkey is not about to intervene to topple the regime in order to bring a decisive end to the conflict. Instead, it is hunkering down for a protracted war.
But while all the intervention scenarios carry major risks, passivity in the face of the conflict’s escalation promotes a radicalization of the opposition. The growing incidence of suicide bombings and other evidence of jihadist involvement are giving Western governments pause. For now, though, international involvement is limited to Annan’s cease-fire efforts and the 30 monitors on the ground to oversee its implementation. Although their numbers are due to rise to 300, they’re not intended as a force to actually stop violence, as much as to generate political and diplomatic pressure.
There was a note of resignation in White House Press Secretary Jay Carney’s choice of words, last week, when he noted that “if the regime’s intransigence continues, the international community is going to have to admit defeat … It is clear and we will not deny that the plan has not been succeeding thus far.” Carney’s point, of course, is that admitting failure would require that the international community come up with an alternative. But there’s not much sign of a substantially different plan B emerging anytime soon. In Bosnia, of course, it took years [EM] and even then, the solution was not so much a happy ending, as it was making the best of a bad situation.
MORE: The Syrian Elections: How the Regime’s Official Media Covered It

Elderly Lebanese woman killed by Syrian cross border fire
May 09, 2012/ The Daily Star
BEKAA, Lebanon: Syrian forces shot volleys of machine-gun fire across the Lebanese border Wednesday, killing a 70-year-old woman in the border village of Joura, east Lebanon. Security sources, speaking to The Daily Star on condition of anonymity, said Halimeh Krunbi was shot in the head as she sat outside the village’s mosque in the Mashareeh al-Qaa border region. They said Krunbi, 70, was killed instantly. At least 9,000 people have been killed since the confrontation between Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces and Syrian rebels demanding reforms began in March 2011.
According to the United Nations, 24,000 Syrians have fled the fighting and sought refuge in Lebanon during the past 14 months. Last month, a Lebanese TV cameraman was shot dead by Syrian gunfire from across the frontier while on assignment at a border crossing in the Wadi Khaled area, north Lebanon. A Lebanese skier on the Lebanese side of Mount Hermon was shot and wounded by Syrian troops on April 30.Syrian troops have also frequently fired shells into Lebanese border towns in recent months. Local residents say Syrian forces sometimes cross the border to hunt down rebel fighters.

Satellite imagery shows Iran may be 'washing' military site
By REUTERS 05/09/2012 15:02 US-based think tank says images taken of Parchin military complex appear to show items being cleansed outside building suspected to contain explosive chamber used to carry out nuclear weapons related experiments. Photo:
VIENNA - A US security institute says commercial satellite imagery shows new activity at an Iranian military site which raises concern that the Islamic state may be "washing" a building the United Nations' nuclear agency wants to inspect.The United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) suspects nuclear weapons-related research may have taken place at the Parchin military complex southeast of Tehran. IAEA chief Yukiya Amano said last week that the agency had recently noticed some "activities" there. He gave no details but Western diplomats suspect Iran may be cleaning the site before any inspection. Tehran denies this. The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), a Washington-based think-tank specializing on nuclear proliferation, said it had acquired commercial satellite imagery from April 9 which back up the IAEA's concern. "The new activity seen in the satellite image occurred outside a building suspected to contain an explosive chamber used to carry out nuclear weapons related experiments," it said on its website in a May 8 report including the satellite image. Iran's mission to the IAEA was not immediately available for comment. It has previously dismissed allegations aired about Parchin as "childish" and "ridiculous". The images showed items lined up outside a building and what appeared to be a stream of water, ISIS said.
"The items visible outside the building could be associated with the removal of equipment from the building or with cleansing it," it said.
US sees Iranian obstruction "The stream of water that appears to emanate from the building raises concerns that Iran may have been washing inside the building, or perhaps washing the items outside the building," ISIS said. Previous satellite images from recent months did not show any similar activity at the building, indicating it is not a regular occurrence, it added.
The IAEA has said that gaining access to Parchin is a priority when it holds a new round of talks with Iran in Vienna next week after two previous meetings in Tehran failed to make any notable progress.
Western powers suspect Iran is seeking to develop the capability to make nuclear bombs. Iran, one of the world's largest oil producers, says its program is peaceful.
An IAEA report late last year revealed a trove of intelligence pointing to research activities in Iran of use in developing the means and technologies needed to assemble nuclear weapons, should it decide to do so.One finding in the report was information that Iran had built a large containment chamber at Parchin in which to conduct high-explosives tests that the IAEA said are "strong indicators of possible weapon development".A senior US official said on Tuesday that Iran must cooperate with the IAEA's investigation and provide access to relevant sites, personnel and documents.
"Iran continues to delay and obstruct that process," Thomas Countryman, assistant secretary for international security and nonproliferation, told a meeting in Vienna.

Arab newspapers: 'Netanyahu forming war government'
Roi Kais/Ynetnews/Arab newspapers interpret new Netanyahu-Mofaz alliance as preamble for war
Newspapers across the Arab world could not ignore Israel's political drama and the declaration of a unity government on Tuesday. Benjamin Netanyahu and Shaul Mofaz were described as conniving war mongers and corrupt politicians as editorials declared war was looming. "Netanyahu is forming a war government," al-Quds al-Arabi's headline cried. "No one knows what goes on through the mind of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on many regional issues these days. One can predict that this man is scheming and planning wars after murdering the peace process with the settlement policy in the occupied Arab territories," the London-based paper said.The UAE paper al-Bayan printed an editorial titled "A government challenges peace." The headline in Saudi Arabia's al-Madina paper read: "Israel prepares for war."Al-Quds al-Arabi predicts war The paper analyzed Netanyahu as a statesman and ruled he was "concerned about his status in Israeli history and wants to be remembered as the leader who destroyed the Iranian nuclear program and solidified Israel's nuclear monopoly in the region." Lebanon's popular as-Safir newspaper chose to address the political drama from a different perspective. Titled "Israeli recklessness," its editorial explained that the "news (of early elections) turned out to be random fraud but it captured the attention of the entire world and became the focus of analyses and estimates that war is looming.""The country once described as the only democracy in the Middle East is slowly emerging to be nothing more than a yard-sale, not just because some of its Arab neighbors are trying to establish true democratic models but because its current statesmen are behaving like crime bosses."

Labor: Mofaz sold his soul to the devil
Moran Azulay /Ynetnews/Knesset holds stormy session ahead of Kadima chairman's induction as Coalition member. Opposition blames party for being a 'rotten apple that undermines the public's faith in the House' The Knesset plenum held a heated session Wednesday, ahead of Kadima Chairman Shaul Mofaz's induction as a new minister in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government.The move – kept secret until after the agreement was signed – created an unprecedented coalition numbering 92 Knesset members. It also left the Opposition virtually powerless, as it now lacks the ability to raise the necessary 40 MK signatures for a nonconfidence vote. Labor Chairwoman Shelly Yachimovich will head the Opposition for the duration of the Knesset's term. Ministers taking to the podium Wednesday leveled harsh criticism at Netanyahu and Mofaz for keeping the move secret. "You've sold your soul to the devil," MK Binyamin Ben-Eliezer (Labor) blasted Mofaz. "The devil is the only one that profits from the deal," he said. Meretz Chairwoman Zahava Gal-On blamed both for "devising a deal so dirty the public has lost faith in all of us. One rotten apple – the Kadima Party – has spoiled us all."
Within Kadima itself, many of those who were caught off guard by the move voiced doubt about its prospects. Party sources said that several MKs, who supported former Chairwoman Tzipi Livni in her primary bid vis-à-vis Mofaz, said they would be absent from the vote and were now pressured to support Mofaz. The vote is meant to ratify a section of the new coalition agreement that names Mofaz deputy prime minister and cabinet. Mofaz was also promised a seat in the cabinet and on Netanyahu's special security forum. Mofaz will become a minister sans portfolio as part of the coalition agreement signed between the Likud and Kadima on Monday night, in a controversial move meant to avoid general elections in September.

Netanyahu-Mofaz unity deal provides a great opportunity for Israel
Haaretz Editorial
Netanyahu's new partnership with Kadima chairman Shaul Mofaz frees him of extreme right pressure. Now, all the excuses about how 'Netanyahu can't' no longer exist - he must evacuate Migron and Ulpana and resume talks with the Palestinians.Kadima's entry into the government puts Benjamin Netanyahu at the head of a broad coalition of 94 Knesset members. That gives him almost complete freedom of action over the remaining year and a half of the 18th Knesset's term. The parliamentary opposition has been dwarfed and neutralized, while coalition factions will have trouble threatening to topple the prime minister from power. Now, with the early election canceled, Netanyahu will have to decide how to spend his remaining time in office: Will he continue to run in place beneath the shelter of his broad coalition, or will he work to implement his June 2009 speech at Bar-Ilan University by reaching an agreement with the Palestinians and delineating permanent borders for Israel?
For the last three years, Netanyahu has tread water, painting himself as the captive of both his political partners on the extreme right and senior members of his own party, who broke right due to their own ideological leanings and the influence of Moshe Feiglin's followers in Likud party organs. His government did not advance the diplomatic process with the Palestinians, it accelerated construction in the settlements, got into fights with the American administration and deepened Israel's international isolation.
In recent weeks, the pressure on Netanyahu has increased due to High Court of Justice rulings that obliged him to evacuate settlers from the Migron outpost and Beit El's Ulpana neighborhood, whose houses were built on privately owned land stolen from Palestinians. The right was demanding that Netanyahu not carry out the court's decisions, urging him instead to perpetuate the land theft via legislation.
His new partnership with Kadima chairman Shaul Mofaz frees Netanyahu of pressure from the extreme right and strengthens the government's moderate wing. Now, all the excuses about how "Netanyahu can't" no longer exist. Netanyahu can and must carry out the High Court's decisions, evacuate Migron and Ulpana, and resume talks with the Palestinians with no evasions and no superfluous preconditions.
This must be his goal over the next 18 months. If he instead wastes his time on threats of war with Iran or empty moves to change the system of government and draft the ultra-Orthodox and Arabs into civilian national service, Netanyahu will waste the enormous political opportunity that his agreement with Kadima has given him.

Blast hits UN observer convoy in Syria
DARAA, Syria , (AFP) - A roadside bomb wounded six soldiers as they escorted a convoy of UN peace observers, including the general who heads the mission, in southern Syria on Wednesday, an AFP photographer said.The explosive device, which appeared to have been planted underground, detonated as the convoy of four vehicles was about to enter the town of Daraa, cradle of a 14-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's regime. Major General Robert Mood of Norway, the head of the UN mission, was in the convoy but escaped unharmed along with 11 other observers and his spokesman Neeraj Singh, said the photographer who was travelling in the convoy.
The bomb attack was the latest breach of a month-old ceasefire agreement that international envoy Kofi Annan said could be the last chance to avert a civil war in Syria.
Troops elsewhere pounded a rebel hideout near the capital Damascus, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The shelling of Douma, about 13 kilometres (eight miles) northeast of the capital, came as violence across Syria killed at least three people, said the Britain-based watchdog.
Forces loyal to Assad lost two of their own men in clashes with rebel fighters in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, said the Observatory.
On Tuesday, Annan told the UN Security Council the priority in Syria was "to stop the killing," and expressed concern that torture, mass arrests and other human rights violations were intensifying.
Regime forces "continue to press against the population," despite a putative truce that started on April 12, but attacks are more discreet because of the presence of the UN military observers, diplomats quoted him as saying.
"The biggest priority, first of all we need to stop the killing," Annan told reporters in Geneva, adding that his six-point peace plan is "the only remaining chance to stabilise the country."
Annan briefed the council on his efforts to get Assad to implement the plan, which he said was possibly "the last chance to avoid civil war."
He stressed, however, that the peace bid was not an "open-ended" opportunity for Assad, the diplomats who attended the briefing said.
Annan plans to return to Damascus in the coming weeks, his spokesman said Tuesday, though this depended on events on the ground there. It would be only his second visit since his mission began earlier this year. US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said Washington's goal was still the removal of Assad.
"The United States remains focused on increasing the pressure on the Assad regime and on Assad himself to step down," Rice said.
"The situation in Syria remains dire, especially for the millions who continue to endure daily attacks and are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance," she told reporters after Annan's briefing.
Top US officials are to meet delegates from the Syrian Kurdish National Council (KNC) in Washington this week to try to build a "more cohesive opposition" to Assad, a State Department spokesman said.
Annan updated the UN body on the status of his six-point plan, which includes a UN military observer mission, a day after UN chief Ban Ki-moon warned world powers were racing against time to prevent all-out civil war in Syria.
The current 60 or so observers on the ground "have had a calming effect" and the deployment by the end of the month of a 300-strong team would see a "much greater impact," Annan said.
While there had been a decrease in military activities however, there had been "serious violations" of the agreed ceasefire, which included attacks on government troops and facilities, he added.
"The need for human rights abuses to come to an end cannot be underestimated," he stressed.
"This is what the plan is all about."
UN Middle East envoy Terje Roed-Larsen told the Security Council that arms were being smuggled in both directions between Lebanon and Syria.
"What we see across the region is a dance of death at the brink of the abyss of war," he told reporters later.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said almost 12,000 people, most of them civilians, had died since the revolt broke out in March 2011.
Of that number, about 800 had died since the truce was supposed to have taken effect, said the Britain-based watchdog -- and at least six civilians had been killed on Tuesday.
The unrest has persisted despite the presence of UN observers monitoring the truce and parliamentary elections on Monday.
The opposition boycotted the vote, denouncing it as a sham. The United States said the exercise was "bordering on ludicrous."
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged the UN to bolster its observer mission well past the 300 authorised under a Security Council resolution.
The United Nations has accused both the Syrian regime and rebels of violating the truce.

Double agent again exposed al Qaeda's use of undetectable PETN explosive
DEBKAfile Special Report May 9, 2012/The White House and US intelligence agencies are furious over the French News Agency AFP’s revelation Wednesday, May 9, that a Saudi double agent working with the US led to the discovery of an upgraded underwear bomb for blowing up US jets, and also the US drone air strike Sunday, May 6, in Yemen which killed Fahd al-Quso, who was sought in connection with the blowing up of the USS Cole in October 2000.
When the improved underwear bombs were ready, one or more was handed to the Saudi double agent with instructions from Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula AQAP to return to the kingdom, board a US-bound passenger jet and blow it up en route to America.
Instead, he handed the prize to Saudi intelligence which passed it on US agencies.
The device was more sophisticated than the original underpants bomb which Nigerian student Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab failed to detonate aboard an American airliner bound for Detroit on Christmas 2009. It had no metal parts for alerting airport security detectors and contained the PETN powder explosive that is undetectable by airport X-ray machines. The FBI is testing the device now, but officials question whether it would have been detected without an intelligence tip-off which most likely came from Saudis, according to US officials.
The Saudi mole is reported to have succeeded in infiltrating the AQAP cell in Yemen as a volunteer suicide bomber and reached close to its bomb-maker Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, the Saudi who also designed the bomb that failed to explode over Detroit and the devices planted in ink cartridges put aboard US-bound cargo planes in 2012 in Britain which too failed to detonate.
The entire episode was kept under wraps until Monday, May 7, when the White House disclosed that the CIA had foiled a plot to bring down a US-bound airliner by means of an improved underwear device close to the May 2 anniversary of Osama bin Laden’s death. The statement stressed that there had never been any real danger to an American or an allied flight.
debkafile’s intelligence and counterterrorism sources say that the way the story was released and Washington’s dismay over subsequent revelations raise three intelligence-related issues:
1. Why did the White House release the first, incomplete story if it was so important to keep the highly sensitive US-Saudi penetration of a key Al Qaeda cell in Yemen veiled in secrecy? And why state that the attack on an American jet was foiled when it had not gone beyond the planning stage?
2. US intelligence rightly feared that this publicity would compromise other Saudi double agents, present and future. So why was the White House permitted to go public even with an abbreviated account?
The disclosure occurred shortly after security was proved to have been seriously wanting for President Barack Obama’s May 2 trip to Kabul to mark the anniversary of Bin Laden’s death and sign a long-term military and strategic cooperation agreement with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
His precise timetable had been leaked in advance – no one knows how – so that less than two hours after the US President flew out of Kabul, insurgent suicide bombers and gunmen launched coordinated attacks on the Afghan capital, demonstrating the real value of the agreement just signed.
Did the White House and the CIA release the underwear bomb affair to underscore a second feat against al Qaeda and therefore a reminder of the Obama administration’s success in liquidating its master in Abbotabad? The answer is most probably affirmative.
3. As for the follow-up leak which has so incensed Washington, that may have indeed been planted by the Saudi intelligence agency itself, or some Western or Arab clandestine service which worked with the Saudis and the Americans in running the double, or perhaps triple, agent. Because the upgraded device could only have been stopped with the help of prior intelligence, the damage caused by exposing sources of information is inestimable.
Running double agents or moles on sensitive undercover missions is extremely tricky and hazardous. None of the parties involved, including the double agent knows everything going on in his vicinity, least of all about the strings being pulled outside his purview.
Take, for example, the upgraded underwear bomb. Who really developed it? From the limited information available it does not seem likely that the al Qaeda bomb expert Ibrahim Hassan al-Asir was responsible.
It is not beyond the bounds of possibility, that the advanced technology was developed by American or Saudi intelligence and given to the double agent to offer the Al Qaeda cell in Yemen to win its trust as a suicide bomber volunteer. It would also have given him the chance to evaluate how far the cell’s bomb-making capacity had advanced.
The way that these revelations spilled out indicates that not all parts of the US-Saudi collaboration running the agent had agreed on a policy of publicity. Ideally, nothing at all about the operation should have been revealed in the first place. But since the cat was let out of the bag, it can’t be put back.