LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
May 17/12

Bible Quotation for today/The Lord Warns the Prophet
Isaiah 08/11-15: "With his great power the Lord warned me not to follow the road which the people were following. He said, Do not join in the schemes of the people and do not be afraid of the things that they fear. Remember that I, the Lord Almighty, am holy; I am the one you must fear. Because of my awesome holiness I am like a stone that people stumble over; I am like a trap that will catch the people of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel and the people of Jerusalem. Many will stumble; they will fall and be crushed. They will be caught in a trap.

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
Silence strike/By Tariq Alhomayed/Asharq Al-Awsat/May 16/12
Democracy and the Arab Spring/By Abdullah Al-Otaibi/Asharq Alawsat/May 16/12
Ahmadinejad: A perception disorder/By Emad El Din Adeeb/Asharq Alawsat/May 16/12
The Vatican and Islam: Has Dhimmitude Prevailed?/By Andrew G. Bostom/American Thinker/May 16/12

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for May 16/12
France Unveils Hollande's New Government
Iran to Hezbollah: Don't strike Israel
U.S. aid to Syrian rebels is a signal to Iran
Iran drills first large-scale paratroop drops for offensive action
Syria attack kills 21; rebels say protect U.N. monitors
Assad threatens foreign leaders
Syrian rebels receiving large weapon shipments facilitated by US and Gulf, report says
Iran's tough nuclear stance masks struggles at top
Egypt Brotherhood takes harder line in campaign
Iran urges rally against Saudi-Bahrain union
Baird Canada Condemns Ongoing Violence in Syria
Egyptian Policeman Sentenced to Death for Killing Christians
Berri Confirms Terrorist Group Entered Lebanon to Carry Out Political Assassinations
Geagea says might close ranks with Aoun against 1960 electoral law
March 14 blames Syria for deadly clashes in north Lebanon
Lebanese Army imposes rule of law in Tripoli
Tripoli clashes: harbinger of violence to come?
Israeli warplanes violate Lebanese airspace
Lebanese Cabinet approves emergency funds for army, ISF
Lebanon House Speaker, Berri says list of assassination targets serious, dangerous
Lebanese, Syrian hostages released in swap
STL Registrar Appoints Counsel for Participating Victims
Charbel Urges Officials to Assume Responsibilities, Deal with Gunmen in Tripoli
Qassem Warns of Vote-Buying during 2013 Ballots, Calls for Dialogue
Lebanese Cabinet Fails to Agree on Spending, Approves Contingency Funds for Security Forces
Several wounded in renewed Tripoli clashes
Rockets hit Tripoli neighborhood amid intermittent sniper fire

Geagea says might close ranks with Aoun against 1960 electoral law
May 16, 2012/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said that he might close ranks with others, including his rival MP Gen.Michel Aoun of the Free Patriotic Movement, to oppose the 1960 electoral law.
“We and Gen. Aoun, and possibly the Future [Movement], can reach an agreement to oppose [the 1960 law]," Geagea said in remarks published Wednesday in the local Al-Akhbar newspaper .
But the LF chief questioned whether Aoun had made a final decision regarding opposition to the 1960 law, which adopts the qada as an electoral district and was used in the 2009 elections.
Aoun reiterated Tuesday his support of an electoral law based on a system of proportional representation with Lebanon treated as a single electoral district. “Proportional representation is the only system that allows Christians to freely elect 64 Christian deputies,” he said. President Michel Sleiman has also pledged to press ahead with efforts to have the government adopt an election law based on proportional representation. He has vowed to prevent a return to the 1960 election law. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri is planning contacts with various parties, including the opposition March 14 coalition, to rally support for his own electoral proposal. In his interview, Geagea said that a “a spirited debate is under way with our allies ... in order for us to reach agreement on a law that guarantees fair Christian and Muslim representation.” When asked about some of his allies' support for the 1960 law, Geagea said: “We make our demands and our allies have to take them into account.”The Future Movement is a key component of the March 14 alliance, of which Geagea is a key member. Geagea stated that he believes there are two alternatives to the 1960 law: proportional representation or the adoption of mini-districts in which the number of seats are no more than three.

France Unveils Hollande's New Government
Naharnet/16 May 2012/,France unveiled President Francois Hollande's new government on Wednesday, with former prime minister Laurent Fabius, 65, named foreign minister and Pierre Moscovici, 54, finance minister.Jean-Yves Le Drian, a 64-year-old local politician from Brittany, was named defense minister, while Manuel Valls, a free-market modernizer seen as on the right of the Socialist Party, was named interior minister.Not counting Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, who was named by the Socialist Hollande on Tuesday, the cabinet consists of 34 members, two more than the outgoing cabinet that served under right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy.Though most of the top-level posts were held by men, it was also the first French cabinet to reach gender parity, meeting a promise made by Hollande during the election campaign.Hollande also chose close ally Michel Sapin, 60, as labor minister and put Arnaud Montebourg, a 49-year-old from the left wing of the Socialist party, in charge of reindustrialization.
Moscovici, a former European affairs minister, was Hollande's campaign manager and transition chief.Jerome Cahuzac, 59 and the head of parliament's budget committee, was named budget minister, while Christiane Taubira, a 60-year-old lawmaker from French Guiana, was named justice minister.The first cabinet session was take place on Thursday at 1300 GMT.Notably absent from the line-up was Socialist leader and former labor minister Martine Aubry, a key figure in the party's old-guard left wing, who said she would not join cabinet after being passed up for the premiership.
SourceAgence France Presse.

Berri Confirms Terrorist Group Entered Lebanon to Carry Out Political Assassinations
Naharnet /16 May 2012/Speaker Nabih Berri confirmed during Wednesday’s parliamentary meeting a list of politicians and figures targeted by extremist groups, describing the threat as serious and dangerous. According to NBN, Berri called on security agencies to follow up the issue.Local newspapers reported on Wednesday that international countries warned Lebanese officials that a terrorist group - linked to an extremist organization, has infiltrated the country recently to carry out “sabotage” operations. According to As Safir newspaper, the information coincided with similar data obtained by Lebanese security agencies.Speaker Nabih Berri and several other senior Lebanese officials might be the target of a security threat by the terrorist group.Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea escaped an assassination attempt on April 4.In January, security agencies urged Berri and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat to take precautions as they might be the target of an assassination plot.
On Tuesday, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported that the security agencies succeeded in the past few days in uncovering a terrorist network with local, Arab, and European links.
It said that the confessions of one of the detainees led to the arrest of Sunni Islamist Shadi al-Mawlawi, a development which sparked armed clashes in the northern city of Tripoli over the weekend.
The General Security detained in Tripoli last week Hamza Mahmoud Tarbey whose confessions led to al-Mawlawi’s arrest, according to the daily.
The six-member network includes three Lebanese individuals and a national from each of Qatar, Palestine, and Jordan.
Military Tribunal Judge Saqr Saqr had charged on Monday al-Mawlawi and the five other network members with forming an armed terrorist group and undermining the authority of the state, as well as having links to the al-Qaida. He later issued an arrest warrant against al-Mawlawi.

March 14 blames Syria for deadly clashes in north Lebanon
May 16, 2012/ The Daily Star
BEIRUT: The March 14 coalition held Syria responsible Wednesday for the recent clashes in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli between loyalists and opponents of President Bashar Assad that led to the killing of at least seven and the wounding of 100. "The General Secretariat took note of the critical juncture that Tripoli [reached] in the past few days and affirmed that the basis of [the events] are an attempt by the Syrian regime to export its crisis to Lebanon,” the opposition grouping said in a statement following its weekly meeting. The Lebanese Army brought an end Tuesday to three days of clashes between the rival neighborhoods of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen in Tripoli which left at least seven people dead and over 100 wounded. The March 14 alliance also said that it "reminds the government, which claims to apply the law in Tripoli, that it can no longer evade its responsibility to detain four suspects in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri." Meanwhile, Future Movement MP Ammar Houri, during a luncheon at Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s residence in Beirut, reiterated his party’s call that all parts of the country be free of “illegitimate weapons.”“After the clear and firm positions taken by Prime Minister Hariri and by the [Future Movement] bloc, we went to Tripoli to say that we will not lose faith in the state, the army and the security forces, he said, referring to a meeting by the opposition group Tuesday in the northern coastal city. “We will continue to call for Beirut, Tripoli and all of Lebanon to be free from illegal weapons, because the state alone can protect us all,” Houri added. Houri also defended the city against charges that it is a “source of terrorism.” “We went to [Tripoli] to say: It is not true that Tripoli is a source of terrorism, or that our people are terrorists,” he said. “On the contrary, we believe in the state, stability and coexistence. We also say to Tripoli that we are with you, with stability and coexistence in Tripoli, protected by the state, the army and security forces,” he added.

Baird Canada Condemns Ongoing Violence in Syria
May 15, 2012 - Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird today issued the following statement:
“Canada is outraged by the Syrian regime’s latest display of senseless brutality. Spiralling violence continues to hit new and despicable lows, as Syrian forces opened fire on innocent civilians taking part in a funeral procession. “The attack on the United Nations convoy shortly afterwards reflects this continued escalation of violence.
“This abhorrent behaviour, in plain sight of the UN observers, shows Assad is continuing to completely disregard the international community.
“We again call on all parties to cooperate with the UN observers, to respect the ceasefire, and to support the efforts of Joint Special Envoy Kofi Annan to resolve the crisis.”

Egyptian Policeman Sentenced to Death for Killing Christians
Assyrian International News Agency
(AINA) -- Yesterday an Egyptian court in Minya sentenced a Muslim man to death for the killing and wounding of six Christians. Judge Mahmoud Salama pronounced the sentenced against 29-year-old policeman Amer Ashour Abdel-Zaher. During its previous session, the court had referred the case to the Egyptian Grand Mufti, as is usual with a death penalty verdict, who supported the court's decision. Yesterday's court session was to pronounce the verdict.
In December, 2010 Abdel-Zaher, who worked as a policeman at the Bani Mazar police investigations unit, went on a train bound for Cairo from Assiut in the upper Egyptian town of Samalut and fired his gun at six Copts after chanting "Allahu Akbar" (AINA 1-12-2011).
According to eye-witnesses, he walked up and down the train car, looking for passengers with the sign of the cross tattooed on their wrist, which the majority of Copts have, or any other sign revealing their Christian identity. He aimed at six Copts sitting together, dressed in western-style clothes and singing Christian hymns. He opened fire on them, killing a 71-year-old Fathy Ghattas, who died immediately as he slept. Another five Copts were seriously injured including the murdered man's wife, Emily Hanna, who underwent an operation to remove her left kidney and spleen. Another Coptic woman, Sabah Saniod, 54, underwent an operation on her liver. Three young Copts, Marianne, Maggie and her fiance Ashraf were severely wounded and were and taken by helicopter to a Cairo hospital. Abdel-Zaher attempted to escape but was apprehended by a passenger.
The Egyptian interior Ministry issued several statements to cover-up the sectarian motives behind the incident and said the assailant shot indiscriminately at passengers and was "mentally unstable" and had previously undergone medical treatment.
Today's verdict came as a surprise to the Egyptian Christians, as "usually killers of Christians, literally get away with murder," commented Coptic activist Mark Ebeid. "They are usually referred to hospital for being 'mentally unstable' and after the matter has died down, they are just quietly discharged from hospital for being cured and this is usually the end of the story for the families of victims."
Coptic activist Mina Yacoub, of the Maspero Coptic Youth Federation, was less optimistic. He said the ruling is because of this week's Egyptian presidential elections, where Islamists are hoping to get some of the Coptic votes and are trying to prove to them that "Islam is a 'just religion' and they have nothing to worry about with the application of Sharia, which they are advocating. Why has the death penalty never been passed on a Muslim for killing a Christian, it is because Islam plainly says in Hadith 9:50, 57 'No umma [a member of Muslim community] should be killed for killing a Kafir [infidel]' and this has been applied diligently by judges."
Referring to the death penalty passed in January 2011 on Muslim Hammam el-Kamouni, who shot dead six Copts as they left church on Coptic Christmas Eve on January 6, 2010 in Nag Hammadi, he explained that with the six murdered Copts was a Muslim policeman who died by mistake and this death penalty was in lieu of his blood (AINA 1-7-2010).
*By Mary Abdelmassih
Copyright (C) 2012, Assyrian International News Agency. A

The Vatican and Islam: Has Dhimmitude Prevailed?
By Andrew G. Bostom/American Thinker
Posted GMT 5-15-2012 18:56:43
Professor Sergio Itzhak Minerbi was a senior lecturer at the Institute of Contemporary Jewry at Hebrew University and Professor in the Department of Political Science at Haifa University. His scholarly research has focused upon the relations between the Catholic Church and the Jews. He also served as an Israeli diplomat within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, assuming many ambassadorial positions. Professor Minerbi is the author of numerous books, including The Vatican and Zionism (1990) and, most recently, The Eichmann Trial Diary: A Chronicle of the Holocaust (2011).
Minerbi has just contributed a very thoughtful, if depressing essay to the latest issue (not yet online) of The Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs (Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 63-73), entitled "Benedict XVI and Islam."
Minerbi's essay opens by recounting the inchoate efforts of Benedict XVI to engage Islam unapologetically, during 2005 and 2006 (see my own discussions, here and here), influenced by Samir Khalil Samir, a Jesuit professor of Islamic studies and the history of Arab culture, at the Université Saint-Joseph in Beirut and at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome.
Samir may indeed have encouraged these efforts, but a decade earlier, Pope Benedict XVI, as Cardinal Ratzinger, had already expressed a pellucid understanding of Islam's totalitarian quintessence -- derived from the Koran-inspired sharia -- which he contrasted, unabashedly, with Christian thought. In a 1996 compendium of his interviews with journalist Peter Seewald, The Salt of the Earth (p. 244), then Cardinal Ratzinger stated:
Today's discussion in the West about the possibility of Islamic theological faculties or about the ideal of Islam as a legal entity presupposes that all religions have basically the same structure, that they all fit into a democratic system with its regulations. In itself, however, this necessarily contradicts the essence of Islam, which simply does not have the separation of the political and religious sphere that Christianity has had from the beginning. The Koran is a total religious law which regulates the whole of political and social life and insists that the whole order of life be Isamic Sharia shapes society from beginning to end. In this sense, it [Sharia] can exploit such partial freedoms, as our constitution gives, but it can't be its final goal to say" Yes, now we too are a body with rights, now we are present, just like the Catholics and the Protestants. In such a situation, it would not achieve a status consistent with its inner nature; it would be in alienation from itself. Islam has a total organization of life that is completely different from ours; it embraces simply everything.
Ten years later, commenting aptly upon Ratzinger's 1996 formulation, Samir made explicit that the only way such Muslim "alienation" could be resolved was via "total Islamization of society" -- including Western societies. Samir argued that Muslims living in the West "can benefit from or exploit certain elements, but can never identify with the non-Muslim citizen, because [he] does not find himself in a Muslim society."
But Professor Minerbi's essay highlights what he terms, with understatement, that "different trends exist[ing] inside the Catholic Church," regarding relations between Islam and the Holy See. The examples provided by Minerbi, however, demonstrate that The Vatican's overall policy reflects a distressing cognitive dissonance and raw dhimmitude. These intellectually and morally debased trends are epitomized by the views expressed in the bimonthly La Civiltà Cattolica, mouthpiece of the Vatican's Secretariat of State: groveling Islamophilia, even towards overtly jihadist movements (for example, Hezb'allah), accompanied by criticism of the U.S. "war on terrorism" as an "injustice" to Muslims, and constant scapegoating of Israel, often expressed with strident animus towards the Jewish State.
Minerbi identifies the very government of the Holy See, its Secretariat of State, as the "loudest and most frequent" voice of this corrosive hypocrisy:
... quick to praise every stream of Islam. [But] In the face of Islamic terrorist outrages, they observe a rigorous silence, even when Christians are killed. No protest whatsoever was heard when the Bishop of Iskanderun (Turkey) was murdered on June 3, 2012 by his Muslim driver.
Even Pope Benedict XVI, Minerbi observes, who "generally steers clear of voicing views on current political affairs ... during the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip ... spoke out no less than five times in one week against Jerusalem's military action in January 2009."
Minerbi concludes by harshly criticizing current overall Vatican policy on Islam -- a perverse combination of deliberate misguidance and absence of guidance:
It is impossible to avoid the conclusion that the Catholic Church has not yet defined a clear policy toward Islam. On occasion, Pope Benedict XVI has displayed the will to oppose Islam. However, his Secretariat of State has generally preferred a more lenient attitude in the hope of securing Islamic benevolence toward Catholics. There is little to suggest that such a policy will bear fruit. The bishops, it seems, are largely without guidance from the Vatican. Islam is making rapid inroads in Christian Europe. What we are witnessing now is not an Islamic spring, but a resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism that leaves no space for any kind of moderate Islam. Apparently, the Church is incapable of formulating a policy that would contain the Islamic onslaught, and teach people how to live in a pluralistic society.
Despite his clear understanding of Islam, and prior actions which indicated a willingness to counter Islamization, Benedict XVI appears to have abandoned these efforts, and, grudgingly or not, embraced policies of dhimmitude. When Benedict XVI himself oversaw Magdi Allam's public Easter 2008 conversion from Islam to Christianity, in St. Peter's Basilica, the intrepid Mr. Allam clearly enunciated Islam's defining bellicose intolerance, while extolling the pope's moral courage:
I asked myself how it was possible that those who, like me, sincerely and boldly called for a "moderate Islam," assuming the responsibility of exposing themselves in the first person in denouncing Islamic extremism and terrorism, ended up being sentenced to death in the name of Islam on the basis of the Quran. I was forced to see that, beyond the contingency of the phenomenon of Islamic extremism and terrorism that has appeared on a global level, the root of evil is inherent in an Islam that is physiologically violent and historically conflictive[.] ... His Holiness has sent an explicit and revolutionary message to a Church that until now has been too prudent in the conversion of Muslims, abstaining from proselytizing in majority Muslim countries and keeping quiet about the reality of converts in Christian countries. Out of fear. The fear of not being able to protect converts in the face of their being condemned to death for apostasy and fear of reprisals against Christians living in Islamic countries. Well, today Benedict XVI, with his witness, tells us that we must overcome fear and not be afraid to affirm the truth of Jesus even with Muslims. For my part, I say that it is time to put an end to the abuse and the violence of Muslims who do not respect the freedom of religious choice.
Benedict XVI must regain the bold moral clarity he demonstrated at Magdi Allam's public conversion to Catholicism, so that The Church, under his stewardship, may yet overcome the profound fear expressed in this plaintive 1967 appeal by Father Michel Hayek (1928-2005), the late Lebanese Maronite scholar of Islam:
Why not admit it clearly, so as to break a taboo and a political interdict, which is felt in the flesh and the Christian conscience -- that Islam has been the most appalling torment that ever struck the Church[?] Christian sensibility has remained traumatized until now.
By Andrew G. Bostom
American Thinker
© 2012, Assyrian International News Agency. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use.

Iran urges rally against Saudi-Bahrain union
May 16, 2012/ By Farhad Pouladi/Daily Star
TEHRAN: Iran hardened its tone against a plan to unite Bahrain with Saudi Arabia, calling on its people to protest Friday against what it described as a US plot to annex the tiny Gulf archipelago.
The Islamic Propagation Coordination Council, which organises state-backed protests, urged Iranians "to protest against the American plan to annex Bahrain to Saudi Arabia and express their anger against the lackey regimes of Al-Khalifa and Al-Saud." Leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) discussed on Monday plans to turn the bloc into a union, starting with Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
"This dangerous plot is the result of the American-Zionist-Britain evil triangle to prevent popular uprisings spreading into other countries of the region and to control the internal crisis in Bahrain which has been caused by the inability of the Al-Khalifa regime to control the situation," the council said on its website.
"Al-Saud and Al-Khalifa should be aware that with this kind of plot they will not stop the popular movement in Bahrain and the movement of Islamic awakening in the region," it added.
The announcement comes after Tehran warned Riyadh's plans to form a union with Manama would deepen the crisis in Bahrain, where dozens of people have been killed in violence since February 2011.
Saudi Arabia had earlier told Iran to keep out of its relations with Bahrain, a Shiite-majority but Sunni-ruled kingdom.
"Any kind of foreign intervention or non-normative plans without respecting people's vote will only deepen the already existing wounds," Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said.
GCC chief Abdullatif al-Zayani condemned Iran for making "provocative" comments, saying they revealed "hostile" and "bad intentions" while arousing "anxiety and tension across the region.
"Relations between Gulf Cooperation Council states is a Gulf and Arab matter in which Iran has no right to interfere," Zayani said in a statement.
Iranian MPs had on Monday condemned the planned union between the two Gulf countries.
"Bahraini and Saudi rulers must understand that this unwise decision will only strengthen the Bahraini people's resolve against the forces of occupation," they said in a letter, referring to the Saudi-led forces.
Bahrain on Tuesday hit out at Iran for interfering in its affairs.
"These statements represent a flagrant interference in the internal affairs of the kingdom and an attack on its sovereignty," the foreign ministry said in a letter of protest handed to the Islamic republic's charge d'affairs, according to BNA state news agency. Saudi-led Gulf forces rolled into Sunni-ruled Bahrain in March 2011 to boost the kingdom's security forces which a day later crushed month-old, Shiite-dominated protests. Shiite-dominated Iran has repeatedly voiced support for the protests in Bahrain and strongly condemned the deployment of Saudi-led forces.
The GCC was formed in 1981 as the Sunni-dominated monarchies of the Gulf aimed to bolster security after the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran that was followed by an eight-year war between Baghdad and Tehran. The Bahrain issue is sensitive one to Iran, where a nationalist-conservative movement within the Islamic regime still considers the island, controlled by Persia before being colonised by Britain and then to gain independence in 1971, as an Iranian province.
"The right is reserved for the Islamic republic, as patron and heir to the territorial integrity of Iran, to want the return of a separated province to the Islamic homeland," said Hossein Shariatmadari, the director of the hardline Kayhan newspaper. "The Bahrainis essentially consider themselves to be Iranians and according to some reports they are eager to return to Iran," he added without specifying on which reports.

Assad threatens foreign leaders
News agencies Published: 05.16.12/Ynetnews
President Assad warns world powers against intervening in Syria, says 'if you sow chaos…you may be infected by it yourself'; foreign mercenaries have been nabbed in country, he says . Countries that "sow chaos" in Syria could suffer from it themselves, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told a Russian television station in an interview aired on Wednesday.
"For the leaders of these countries, it's becoming clear that this is not 'Spring' but chaos, and as I have said, if you sow chaos in Syria you may be infected by it yourself, and they understand this perfectly well," Assad said, referring to the Arab Spring that toppled long-entrenched leaders in the Middle East.In his remarks, Assad referred specifically to France, saying that he hoped Paris would change its policies in the Middle East and Arab world under President Francois Hollande, warning against "inciting chaos and crisis." "I hope the new president will think about the interests of France," Assad told Russia's Rossiya-24 television. "I am certain that they do not lie in further inciting chaos and crisis in the Middle East and the whole Arab world."
'Foreign mercenaries captured'Assad said Western sanctions are affecting Syria's economy but Damascus has a "wonderful relationship" with non-Western countries.Assad also said in the interview broadcast Wednesday that his country has captured foreign mercenaries who were fighting for the opposition and is ready to show them to the world. In addition, he complained that Western countries protest the violence by his regime's forces but not by the opposition fighters. Assad said religious extremists and al-Qaeda members from abroad are among the forces fighting his government.
"There are foreign mercenaries, some of them still alive. They are being detained and we are preparing to show them to the world," he said.
Referring to the main rebel organization, Syria's National Council, he said: "I don't think that they have any kind of weight or significance within Syria."Reuters and AP contributed to the story

Iran to Hezbollah: Don't strike Israel
Dudi Cohen/16.12, 21/:Ynetnews
Iranian media: Commander of al-Quds Force spoke with Nasrallah, said war against Israel would 'hurt Iran and Hezbollah'; Revolutionary Guards later deny reports
Iran scared of war against Israel? A senior Iranian official ordered Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah to refrain from striking Israel, several media outlets in Iran reported Wednesday.
Websites affiliated with Iran's Revolutionary Guards quoted the commander of Iran's al-Quds Force, Qasem Soleimani, as warning Nasrallah not to strike Israel during a phone conversationAccording to reports, Soleimani told Nasrallah that a war against Israel would "hurt Iran and Hezbollah." The Fares news agency reported earlier that Soleimani warned Nasrallah not to make "radical" moves, adding that the authority of those who think of launching a sudden attack against the "Zionist regime" should be curbed. Notably, last week Nasrallah said that as opposed to the Second Lebanon War, Hezbollah now possesses the ability to hit specific Tel Aviv targets. According to Wednesday's reports, Soleimani said that a war would allow Israel to assume the role of victim.
However, the reports apparently angered senior Iranian officials, and several hours later the Revolutionary Guards denied the story, claiming it was a "big lie published on behalf of the Zionists." According to the announcement, the West has been trying for some time to portray Hezbollah as a 'two-faced organization." In the framework of his post, Soleimani is in charge of the Revolutionary Guards' elite force, which among other things is in charge of coordination terror activity beyond Iran's borders.

U.S. aid to Syrian rebels is a signal to Iran
By Anshel Pfeffer | May.16, 2012/Haaretz
In what was clearly an officially-sanctioned leak, the U.S. sent Iran a clear message just a few days before the next round of Iran-West nuclear talks in Baghdad. The word Iran appears only once in Wednesday's report in the Washington Post on American assistance to rebel forces in Syria, which includes coordination of larger and much improved arms shipments. That mention was buried at the end of the long piece, almost as an aside - but Tehran's address is written all over the report.
Administration sources emphasized to the Post that it's not material aid either, the money and arms are coming from the Sunni Gulf states. What the U.S. is providing is "assessments of rebel credibility and command-and-control infrastructure" for the Gulf arms suppliers. Or in other words, America is the go-between, the crucial link ensuring that the most useful weaponry goes through to where the rebels need it most.
Since it's not clear when the American aid began and from the wording of the report, it is clear that this was an officially-sanctioned leak, accurately timed to come out just a few days before senior American diplomats and other representatives of the five permanent Security Council members and Germany are to meet with a senior Iranian delegation in Baghdad.
The Syrian rebellion has been ongoing now for fourteen months, in the course of which anywhere between 10,000-25,000 Syrians have been killed, at least three-quarters of them civilians. Arms have been coming in, financed by the Saudis and other Gulf governments, earlier in a trickle but now apparently flowing, for most of that time. Until now the Obama administration has been observing a hands-off policy, denouncing President Bashar Assad and calling upon him to leave, but doing nothing to actually make that happen.
So why has the administration decided just now, not only to provide "nonlethal assistance" to the Syrian opposition, but also to announce it? The administration officials speaking with the Post went a step forward and reported that there were also discussions being held with leaders of the Kurdish community in eastern Syria, who have so far remained mainly on the uprising's sidelines. One of the ideas apparently floated in these talks was the possibility of opening up a "second-front," forcing Assad to split the forces still loyal to his regime and send part of them far away from Syria's urban centers.
Assuming that nothing by now is going to force Assad out of power of his own free will, and the Gulf states obviously already know that the Americans are cooperating with them, the only player whom the administration is sending this message to is Iran - probably the country with the most to lose if and when the Assad regime goes down, taking with it a critical link in their strategic Shia chain of allies, which now includes also Iraq and Hezbollah-dominated Lebanon.
Assad's downfall will not only mean the loss of an ally and the strategic "depth" that enabled Hezbollah to train and store advanced weaponry far away and relatively safe from Israel. It will serve as a major encouragement to the anti-regime elements within Iran, largely dormant for over two years since the suppression of the Green Revolution.
What is the administration hoping to gain from this signal to Tehran?
Are they hoping that the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei will finally realize that the noose is beginning to tighten, and give up on the dream of nuclear weapons along with Iran's strategic vision of a Shia crescent stretching across the Middle East? Hardly likely. But could Barack Obama be playing a much more Machiavellian game?
In its desire to prevent a war in the Persian Gulf, would the administration be willing to forego even this limited assistance to the Syrian opposition, in return for some flexibility over the uranium

Iran drills first large-scale paratroop drops for offensive action
DEBKAfile Special Report May 16, 2012/Special operations units of the Iranian army and Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Tuesday, May 14, began a two-day practice of offensive tactics, for the first time dropping large-scale forces from the air deep behind enemy lines. The many war games Iran has conducted until now focused on defenses of strategic and nuclear locations and repelling invaders. This drill displayed its aggressive capabilities. Codenamed Ja’far Tayyar, it was staged in remote Khorasan near the Afghan border, so as not to expose the commando tactics it employed.
In announcing the exercise, Gholam-Ali Gholamian, Dep. Commander for Operations for the IRGC Ground Forces, cagily called it another routine exercise for “maintaining the preparedness and promoting the combat capability of units stationed in the region.”
debkafile’s military sources disclose that there was nothing routine about it. The units taking part were not stationed in the region but flown in especially.
Western intelligence sources observing the exercise report that its offensive nature was evident: Air transports coming in from the rest of the country dropped large numbers of paratroopers and special forces; Air Force fighter-bombers practiced intense bombardments of small targeted locations; and helicopters drilled rapid transfers of forces between points and air cover for the units reaching the ground.
Monday, the Persian Gulf rulers invited to Riyadh by Saudi King Abdullah for a summit on the Iranian threat dwelt long and hard on the exercise and concluded the threat had been exacerbated and that Tehran had more in store for them than closing the Strait of Hormuz to oil traffic in the event of war. They saw special forces being prepared by Iran to strike deep inside their countries up to and including their oil-producing regions. The exercise also served the ongoing trade of war signals between Washington and Tehran. Staging a special forces exercise not far from the US military presence in Afghanistan was meant as a rejoinder to US-led special forces maneuver taking place in Jordan across the border with Syria with the participation of 17 nations.
Iranian and Syrian media made much of the fact that the US-led war game was named Eager Lion 12 as a deliberate insult to Bashar Assad, whose name is the Arabic for Lion.

Ahmadinejad: A perception disorder
By Emad El Din Adeeb/Asharq Alawsat
I feel very bad about Iranian President Ahmadinejad, and I am quite certain that he needs to see a “perception disorder” specialist. This perception disorder is characterized by developing a virtual reality within one’s imagination which does not reflect reality in any way, shape or form, and then behaving as if this virtual reality were real. This disorder intensifies and becomes extremely dangerous if the person suffering from it is the president of a country like Iran, namely a country that has an important geo-political location, vast oil wealth and the capability to produce nuclear energy!
A rather humorous statement was issued by Ahmadinejad on Monday in which he said that the state of Israel is weak, comparing it to a “mosquito” whilst boasting that Iran is capable of defeating it within a matter of moments. In a separate statement also issued Monday, Ahmadinejad said the three [UAE] islands are as much a part of Iran as Tehran. Whilst last month, Ahmadinejad stressed that his country is capable of breaking any international economic blockade adding that there is no basis for any such blockade in the first place.
Let us analyze Ahmadinejad’s comments.As for his saying that Israel is as weak as a "mosquito", he seems to feign ignorance of the fact that Israel is the strongest military force in the Middle East, the fourth-strongest military force in the world, and that despite its small population, Israel is capable of quickly mobilizing troops – aged between 18 and 50– anywhere in the region.
Ahmadinejad also feigns ignorance of the fact that Israel is the second-largest foreign investor in Wall Street and that it has some of the largest companies in the US stock exchange, and that it is deemed one of the world's largest electronics and arms exporters, in the same manner as China, India and Turkey.
This "mosquito" also has one of the highest expenditures on science and research in the world. As for his dealing with the three islands and the Strait of Hormuz as Iranian “property”, this is akin to playing with fire!The Strait of Hormuz is an international strait that affects oil and trade routes up and down the Gulf region, and any threat here would promptly cause energy prices to soar, whilst also jeopardizing global industry and security. As for threatening the UAE, this is internationally unacceptable, and the world will not stand idly by should this occur. Such threats would result in the Gulf States and Arab world uniting against Iran. This would also affect Europe, as the prime beneficiary of the Strait of Hormuz, particularly France which has a military base in the UAE and which signed a Joint Defense Agreement with Abu Dhabi. In whose interests are Ahmadinejad’s explosive statements? Has the misreading of the global financial crisis given Ahmadinejad the impression that the world is now unable to take action against him? What Ahmadinejad has failed to understand is that throughout history wars have often been waged to solve economic crises!

Democracy and the Arab Spring
By Abdullah Al-Otaibi/Asharq Alawsat
A number of Egyptian media outlets held the first ever live debate in the Arab world between the two Egyptian presidential candidates who enjoyed the highest public opinion poll rating, namely Amr Musa and Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh. The media was successful in running the debate in a well-organized and appealing manner.
The debate was held amidst an Egyptian and Arab scene filled with ballot boxes, particularly in the electoral districts of states where revolutions have taken place such as Tunisia and Egypt, as well as in stable states likes Jordan, Morocco and Kuwait. Ballot boxes are now preoccupying people's minds, as well as the aspirations of different political trends, and so we see the media filled with rhetoric about democracy being the “savior”, in accordance with a widespread misconception.
Democracy, according to the version developed by the West, is the political expression of debate between three major concepts: justice - with its incorporated concepts of rights, equality and so on; freedom - as the major principle governing modern Western liberal thought; and happiness or wellbeing - being the primary objective for an individual, society and the country as a whole.
However, there are constant efforts in the Arab world to transform democracy – as a mechanism rather than a concept – into a one way street towards justice, freedom and happiness. Hence, immense cultural and ideological theories have been promoted to sum up the so-called “mechanism” of democracy; which in reality means only elections and ballot boxes. Therefore, according to this misconception, when people rise up against injustice and abuse, the solution does not lie in addressing their concerns, but in providing a mechanism for democracy. In this case, when people speak out against repression and confinement, freedom is not the objective; rather it is democracy, the mechanism. Similarly, when everyone works towards their aspirations and the masses express themselves, and when individuals seek to gain happiness, the state need not promote their wellbeing because the mechanism of democracy is sufficient. Hence, the ballot boxes have become something akin to Aladdin's lamp that can fulfill all wishes and dreams.
Western culture is rich and full of debate, books and ideas that have touched upon the concepts of justice, freedom and the search for happiness. Yet, the West has never summed up this profound and rich debate into the “democracy mechanism”, or even more crudely, "ballot boxes."
Each of these philosophical concepts that established democracy have political, economic and social manifestations expressed in a variety of ways, and so they have received different reactions in the Arab world. In the political sphere, some people consider Western democracy as a model that must be applied domestically, as when it is directed from abroad it is merely "domination." As for the economic sphere, the Western capitalist system was considered by many Arab intellectuals to be imperialist, and hence they put forth alternatives: some leftist and some Islamic – the latter becoming known as the Islamic banking system that was created and used by religious groups for decades – or a mixed system incorporating both socialism and Islam. As for the social sphere, whilst it was easy for the West to civilize its society through civil organizations and the tools of the media, some Arabs have viewed such manifestations as a "cultural invasion."
Some writers believe that at the time of Arab revolutions it is a great shame not to be an advocate of democracy, or it is a shame that Arabs are making comparisons between the priorities of democracy and development, or indeed they are wary of the principle of democracy, even if these concerns stem from a realistic, historical or philosophical framework. Yet these writers have been deluded by a similarity of names, rather than meanings, which has prevented them from understanding democracy as it rose in the West. This prevents them from considering the cultural, civil, religious and social environment in which the concept of democracy was born, and distances them from the modern application of its mechanisms.
The modern application of democracy in the West experienced a hard labor and extremely difficult phases, especially in France, which some people use as a comparison to the current state of affairs in the Arab world. Yet surely the differences here are too big to pass by unnoticed by any observer, let alone an intellectual, especially when they are distant from the influence of the public, the domination of the mob and the mania of democracy’s supporters.
The mechanism of democracy is a political and realist manifestation of a philosophical and intellectual discourse. It is a form of social mobility stimulated by economy, rather than politics. Indeed, Charles Baird believes that the founding fathers of the United States were motivated more by economics than by philosophical principles.
It is worthwhile here to recall that modern political democracy in the West is nothing more than a manifestation of the liberalist individual culture that established itself over centuries, until it was eventually successful in overstepping the fundamental barriers of language, race, religion and nationalism. This paved the way for a genuine awareness of democracy as an effective and active political mechanism, although not necessarily fair in its representation of the people, or in its results. This is because democracy has also brought dictators into power like Hitler in Germany or Stalin in Russia, and thus Europe and the world had to pay a high price when the mechanism of democracy promoted their opponents through the ballot boxes.
When the mechanism of democracy was activated, its deeply-rooted philosophical history failed to protect a country like Germany from Hitler's Nazism. Likewise, the philosophy of the Enlightenment did not prevent someone like Maximilien Robespierre from rising to power in France and creating a climate of despotism. Yet whilst democracy’s history and heritage did not prevent such politically barbaric characters from emerging, it did help to expose and erode their presence when they were at the peak of their authority and aggression. Democracy also later helped to rectify and reshape the political scene, in accordance with its accumulated philosophical and critical heritage, which was largely religious during the Renaissance period and largely political in the post-Enlightenment period.
As a final point, it is worth noting that the theory of democracy, as a comprehensive concept, has no answer to the spread of extremism during revolutionary times. Extremists could be viewed as people who have many tools, either for victory or sabotage, whilst no doctrine of freedom can hinder them, even when they themselves express this!

Silence strike!
By Tariq Alhomayed/Asharq Al-Awsat
We are witnessing a general state where concepts, terminology and even peaceful expressions of protest are being distorted. There is also a frightening distortion regarding the concepts of democracy and republic in the Arab world, and how these two concepts should truly be. The final distortion that we are witnessing in our region is regarding the concept of the hunger strike!
Here we see the director of the Iranian Al-Alam TV in Egypt announcing an open-ended hunger strike due to the Egyptian authorities shutting down the Iranian television channel’s offices in Cairo. The director of the Iranian television channel’s Cairo offices is claiming that the Egyptian authorities are suppressing freedom of expression, whilst the Egyptian authorities are claiming that the Iranian station does not have a broadcast license. In this case, what has rights, their suppression and all such clichés got to do with anything when this blocked Iranian television station does not have a broadcast license in the first place? Even if the station made a request for a broadcast license, and the Egyptian authorities refused to grant this, then this is normal and part of the powers of the Egyptian authorities, indeed this is one of their most basic rights.
We also saw the British government deciding to quietly withdraw the broadcast license of Iran’s English-language Press TV; however nobody – of course – can say that this means that Britain is muzzling the media! Following the British ban, the German authorities took the decision to remove Press TV from a satellite network broadcasting to the country, and nobody said anything about the German authorities. On the other hand we do not see any Arab television station’s operating freely on Iranian soil, whilst Arab or foreign journalists or correspondents are also not allowed to operate freely in Iran, however despite all of this we do not hear any voice of criticism regarding what the Iranian authorities are doing against the Arab and foreign media there. In fact, the number of newspapers in Iran that have been shut down since Ahmadinejad came to power is greater than the average number of newspapers in most countries!
This is not all, for during the Green Revolution in Iran in 2009, the Iranian authorities suddenly decided, without warning, to expel all international correspondents in the country, even those who had licenses from the authorities, simply because Tehran had taken the decision to suppress the uprising and did not want any media coverage of this, whilst nobody at the time said anything about this! Today we see Iran providing all manner of support to the regime of the tyrant of Damascus, not just to kill the Syrian people, but also to block Arab satellite television channels, disrupt internet services and block websites, in order to allow the Bashar al-Assad regime to suppress the Syrian people away from the prying eyes of the international community: so where are those pleading for freedom of expression in this regard?
Unfortunately, these are all part of operations to mislead, distort and confuse, otherwise how can anybody compare the hunger strike being carried out over the closure of an unlicensed Iranian television station with the hunger strike being carried out by Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons, particularly when anybody who works in the media and respects its professionalism is aware of the extent of the deception and trickery that characterizes most Iranian media outlets, including news agencies, television channels, newspapers and others?
Therefore, one finds themselves obliged to tell the supporters of Iran within our own ranks – or shall we say the fifth column – as well as those who are concerned in general with human rights activists and others going on hunger strike: please, should you decide to go on hunger strike, why don’t you also take a vow of silence, for this will be more useful!

Jumblatt: Mawlawi’s arrest by General Security “stupid”
May 16, 2012 share
Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt on Wednesday criticized the method used by the General Security in arresting the Lebanese citizen Shadi al-Mawlawi in Tripoli describing it as “stupid.”
“The method [used] by the General Security is stupid,” Jumblatt told, adding: “the General Security could have sent a letter of request [instead].”Jumblatt also voiced objection to the “violent tactics that the Syrian regime and some of its allies are adopting, especially after the events in Tripoli.”Deadly clashes broke out on Saturday in Tripoli between Islamists and the army as young demonstrators, sympathizers of the revolt in Syria, tried to approach the offices of the pro-President Bashar al-Assad Syrian Social Nationalist Party. The clashes followed the arrest of Mawlawi by General Security. After his arrest, 100 young men blocked the northern and southern roads into Tripoli.The ensuing sectarian clashes between residents of the two neighborhoods earlier this week left nine people dead and some 50 wounded.
-NOW Lebanon

U.N. team in Syria evacuated from tense town
May 16, 2012 By Bassem Mroue/Daily Star
BEIRUT: A team of international observers was evacuated from a tense town in northern Syria on Wednesday, one day after a roadside bomb hit their convoy and left them stranded overnight with rebel forces, a U.N. spokesman said.
The team's vehicles were struck by the blast Tuesday during a mission in Khan Sheikhoun, which has witnessed anti-government protests since an uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime began in March last year. None of the observers was wounded, but they had to spend the night with rebels in the area.
Tuesday's attack, which came minutes after witnesses said regime forces gunned down mourners at a funeral procession nearby, dealt a fresh blow to international envoy Kofi Annan's peace plan and the U.N. effort to monitor compliance with a troubled cease-fire agreement. The deal already has been tested by relentless violence from both sides, and fears about the observers' safety could raise doubts about its effectiveness. Ahmad Fawzi, a spokesman for Annan, said the observers were "reported to be uninjured and in good health."
Syria-based U.N. spokesman Hassan Seklawi said U.N. members picked up the team around noon Wednesday. "They left in one convoy in the direction of Hama," Seklawi said referring to a central city south of Khan Sheikhoun. Even as violence grips the nation, Assad told a Russian state news channel that his country supports his reform agenda. He pointed to recent parliamentary elections, saying Syrians "up to this time support the course of reform." The government has praised the May 7 vote as a milestone in promised political reforms. But the opposition boycotted the polls and said they were orchestrated by the regime to strengthen Assad's grip on power. The interview was to be broadcast on state news channel Rossiya-24 later Wednesday, but some excerpts were released in advance.
Russia has been Syria's most powerful and loyal ally over the course of the uprising, selling weapons to the regime and blocking action against Damascus at the U.N. Security Council.
Activists said the violence continued Wednesday with regime forces opening fire from the outskirts of Khan Sheikhoun. Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights activist group, said the heavy machine-gun fire prevented people from holding funerals for some of the 20 mourners who were killed at the funeral on Tuesday.
Fawzi said the six observers were "reported to be uninjured and in good health."
He said the observers were meeting with members of the rebel Free Syrian Army when Tuesday's explosion occurred. He said three vehicles were damaged. It was not clear who was behind the blast and no one claimed responsibility. More than 200 U.N. observers have been deployed throughout Syria to monitor the cease-fire agreement, which has been repeatedly violated by both sides since it took effect on April 12. The bombing was at least the second time the U.N. observers have been caught up in Syria's violence. Last week, a roadside bomb struck a Syrian military truck in the south of the country just seconds after the Norwegian team leader Maj. Gen. Robert Mood rode by in a convoy.
A video posted by activists online appeared to show the exact moment the U.N. vehicle was struck. The video shows two white vehicles clearly marked "U.N" with people milling around it, and two others parked a few meters (yards) behind. Slippers apparently left behind by the mourners running away from the shooting earlier are seen strewn about on the ground.
The blast blew off the front of the first vehicle and sent up a plume of smoke as people screamed and frantically ran for cover. The four cars are then seen slowly driving away.
It was not clear how close the observers were to the funeral shootings, but if confirmed, a regime attack on civilians directly in front of the observer mission could put pressure on them to describe publicly what they are seeing in Syria. They report back to the U.N. but have not publicized their findings.
Also Wednesday, a Turkish official said the situation in Syria and discussions on the possibility of a NATO intervention were bound to come up during a NATO summit in Chicago next week. So far, the international community has shown little appetite for getting involved in another Arab nation in turmoil. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with Turkish government regulations, said NATO could become involved if the U.N. Security Council approved an intervention - a move considered unlikely given Russia and China's support of Assad - or if any of the NATO members feels threatened and calls for protection from the alliance.
The official said Turkey would call for NATO protection if "our national security and national interests are threatened or if there is an attack from Syria," though he added "there is no such situation at present."
Syria's state-run TV, meanwhile, reported Wednesday that authorities released 250 people who were involved in the uprising. Assad has issued several pardons releasing thousands of detainees since the crisis began. The Syrian uprising began with mostly peaceful protests calling for change, but a relentless government crackdown led many in the opposition to take up arms. Some soldiers also have switched sides and joined forces with the rebels.The U.N. estimates the conflict has killed more than 9,000 people. Tensions have spilled over the border, with Lebanese tribesmen loyal to Assad kidnapping Syrian opposition supporters to exchange them with relatives abducted in Syria recently. Members of Lebanon's Jaafar tribe kidnapped seven anti-government Syrian citizens recently and exchanged them Wednesday for two men kidnapped in the Syrian border town of Zeita, according to Lebanese security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.