LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
October 06/12

Bible Quotation for today/
John 05/17-23: "But Jesus answered them, ‘My Father is still working, and I also am working.’For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God. Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing; and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished. Indeed, just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomsoever he wishes. The Father judges no one but has given all judgement to the Son, so that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father. Anyone who does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent him.

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
How involved is Hezbollah in Syria/By: Ana Maria Luca/Now Lebanon/October 05/12
Khaled Mishal the “Zionist agent”/By Tariq Alhomayed/Asharq Al-Awsat/October 05/12
Sulzberger’s lessons/By Adel Al Toraifi/Asharq Alawsat/October 05/12

Defecting Iranian cameraman brings CIA priceless film of secret nuclear sites
http://www.debka.com/article/22412/Defecting-Iranian-cameraman-brings-CIA-priceless-film-of-secret-nuclear-sites-
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report October 5, 2012/sdebkafile reveals one of the CIA’s most dramatic scoops in many years, and epic disaster for Iran. Our most exclusive Iranian and intelligence sources disclose that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s personal cameraman, Hassan Golkhanban, who defected from his UN entourage in New York on Oct. 1, brought with him an intelligence treasure trove of up-to-date photographs and videos of top Iranian leaders visiting their most sensitive and secret nuclear and missile sites.
The cameraman, who is in his 40s, is staying at an undisclosed address, presumably a CIA safe house under close guard.
He stayed behind when Ahmadinejad, after his UN speech, departed New York with his 140-strong entourage. For some years, Golkhanban worked not just as a news cameraman but personally recorded visits by the Iranian president and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of top-secret nuclear facilities and Revolutionary Guards installations.
When he left Tehran in the president’s party, his luggage was not searched and so he was able to bring out two suitcases packed with precious film and deliver it safely into waiting hands in New York.
The Iranian cameraman has given US intelligence the most complete and updated footage it has ever obtained of the interiors of Iran’s top secret military facilities and various nuclear installations, including some never revealed to nuclear watchdog inspectors. Among them are exclusive interior shots of the Natanz nuclear complex, the Fordo underground enrichment plant, the Parchin military complex and the small Amir-Abad research reactor in Tehran. Some of the film depicts Revolutionary Guards and military industry chiefs explaining in detail to the president or supreme leader the working of secret equipment on view. Golkhanban recorded their voices. Our sources also disclose that, in late September, he took the precaution of sending his wife and two children out of Iran on the pretext of a family visit to Turkey. They are most likely on their way to the United States by now. From his years as a member of the loyal Bassij militia, the cameraman earned the complete trust of Iran’s security services and was able to reach his professional pinnacle as personal photographer for the two most eminent figures in the country, Khamenei and Ahmadinejad, with the task of recording their most confidential pursuits.
This was his second visit to New York. The first time, a year ago, US intelligence was able to make contact and persuade him to defect with his stock of priceless photos and film.
Although Golkhanban’s defection to the United States and request for asylum was disclosed to the media some days ago, Tehran has not made any comment.

Hezbollah buries slain fighters, vows to keep arms
October 05, 2012/By Hussein Dakroub/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Hezbollah held funeral services Thursday for three of its fighters slain in a blast at an arms depot in eastern Lebanon, with vows to keep the party’s arsenal despite local and international calls for the group to disarm. Meanwhile, the reported killing of a Hezbollah commander and several fighters by anti-regime rebels in Syria drew fire from members of the parliamentary Future bloc.
The opposition MPs lambasted the party’s involvement in the 18-month-old bloody conflict in the neighboring country and scoffed at the government’s dissociation policy on the developments next door.
Hezbollah said three of its fighters were killed Wednesday when an explosion ripped through an arms depot in the eastern village of Nabi Sheet, a stronghold of the party about 30 kilometers south of the ancient city of Baalbek. The group added that the blast occurred in a warehouse where old shells and ammunition and remnants of the Israeli shelling in the area were stored.
Hezbollah identified the three victims as Jaafar Ali Musawi, Ali Mustafa Alaeddine and Ali Hussein al-Khishen.
During funeral processions attended by senior Hezbollah officials and hundreds of supporters and relatives of the victims, Musawi was buried in his home village of Nabi Sheet, while the other two were laid to rest in their home village of Sohmor in western Bekaa.
Black-clad women threw rice grains and rose petals at the coffins of the three, carried shoulder-high by Hezbollah’s supporters and relatives. The coffins were wrapped with Hezbollah’s yellow flags.
Addressing mourners in Nabi Sheet, Sheikh Mohammad Yazbek, a member of Hezbollah’s Shura Council, vowed that the party will retain its weapons despite mounting local calls on the group to surrender its arms to the Lebanese Army.
“We will remain in this position and we will keep our arms. We consider our arms like blood flowing in our veins no matter what the costs are,” he said.
Apparently responding to threats by the rebel Free Syrian Army which promised Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah “surprises that will give him nightmares,” Yazbek said: “We are making preparations for the victory day. To those who promised us surprises, we promise surprises to the enemies of our Muslim nation. Our war is against the American-Israeli project and not a war among Muslims.”Military investigating Judge Danny al-Zeini, accompanied by Lebanese Army intelligence personnel, inspected the site of the explosion in Nabi Sheet Wednesday night in an attempt to determine what caused the powerful blast that led to the collapse of the four-story building.
Israeli media reports suggested that Israel could be behind the Nabi Sheet explosion. The Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot quoted a senior Israeli security official as hinting at Israel’s involvement in the explosion. “This explosion amounted to piercing the sword in the heart of Hezbollah,” the unidentified official was quoted as saying.
Similar explosions have occurred at Hezbollah’s weapons depots in southern Lebanon in recent years, also causing casualties.
Wednesday’s blast followed reports that the Hezbollah commander and several fighters had been killed in Syria by anti-regime rebels.
The FSA has claimed responsibility for the death of Hezbollah commander Ali Hussein Nassif, also known as Abu Abbas, with an explosive device that killed him and two of his bodyguards in the Qusair area on the Syrian side of the border. The FSA also vowed what it called an “earthshaking response” against Hezbollah fighters for providing assistance to the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Lebanese security officials said Tuesday that Nassif and several Hezbollah fighters had been killed in Syria.
Meanwhile, Future lawmakers lashed out at Hezbollah, saying that the group’s resistance against Israel has now shifted to fighting the Syrian people seeking freedom and democracy in their country.
Former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, head of the Future bloc, indirectly slammed Hezbollah’s involvement in the conflict in Syria. “We are trying hard to maintain and consolidate stability in Lebanon and keep it away from regional and international struggles. However, I think unfortunately that some in Lebanon are not committed to this policy,” Siniora said in a clear reference to Hezbollah.
“I fear that the policy and practices of some [Hezbollah] may lead to involving and linking Lebanon to regional and international axes on which the Lebanese people were not consulted,” he said in a speech in the southern city of Sidon. “What is the reason for sliding into the ongoing military conflict in Syria between the Syrian people, who are seeking to regain their freedom and dignity, and the Syrian regime?”
Commenting on the death of Hezbollah members in Syria, Future MP Ammar Houri said in a statement: “From Qusair to Nabi Sheet, [Hezbollah’s] jihadi duty and its arms are still gambling with the resources of Lebanon and the Lebanese. The jihadi duty has lost its way. Nabi Sheet is not Kiryat Shimona [in Israel], Qusair is not the Galilee, and Aleppo is not Haifa.”
Referring to Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s government which has repeatedly bragged that its dissociation policy was designed to protect Lebanon from the repercussions of the turmoil in Syria, Houri said: “I ask the people of the dissociation policy what is your stance concerning published documents about plots to carry out crimes inside Lebanon?”
Houri was referring to former Information Minister Michel Samaha, a longtime ally of Assad, who was formally charged in August by Lebanon’s Military Tribunal of being part of a terror plot to destabilize the country. Maj. Gen. Ali Mamlouk, the chief of Syrian National Security Bureau, and a Syrian officer, identified as Brig. Gen. Adnan, were also accused of being part of the conspiracy.
Future MP Ahmad Fatfat slammed Hezbollah for accusing the opposition March 14 parties of dragging Lebanon into the Syrian conflict while, he said, the party’s resistance against Israel was now geared toward fighting the Syrian people. “Compelling facts indicate that the one who claims resistance against Israel has turned into resisting the democratic will of the Lebanese people. And now it has become a resistance against the freedom will of the Syrian people,” Fatfat said in statement. “Did [Hezbollah’s] ‘jihadi duty’ abandon its role against Israel and did [Hezbollah] abandon the southern Lebanese villages to turn to Homs’ countryside to help Bashar Assad’s shabbiha [armed thugs] and its brigades and carry out the ‘jihadi duty’ against the heroic Syrian people who are slaughtered every day?” Fatfat asked.
“Hezbollah’s flagrant military intervention in Syria, in addition to the confirmed terrorist case of Michel Samaha, have put stability at stake and placed Lebanon on the brink of a security, economic and political abyss,” he added.

Italy, Lebanon launch new development center
October 05, 2012/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: The Italian Embassy in Lebanon and the Social Affairs Minister launched a joint project to finance social development projects Thursday, pledging a new central finance center would better coordinate important projects that improve people’s lives. The National Program for Local Socioeconomic Development was launched at UNESCO Palace by Italian Ambassador Giuseppe Morabito and Social Affairs Minister Wael Abu Faour and is intended to finance aid programs in particularly marginalized areas. The project “aims to develop the networks of services and social investments at the local level in addition to usual care services,” a release from the Italian Embassy said. Morabito stressed the importance of the project in helping marginalized groups, saying a central body can coordinate that help much more effectively.“The design of such instrument is a pioneer experience in Lebanon since it introduces for the first time a central-local cooperation based on cash co-financing, government direct management, monitoring and evaluation,” Morabito said. The ambassador stressed that more international investment in such a central coordinated area would be an effective use of funds.
“I would like to invite all the donors active in the social development sector to become part of this important social development procedure, by contributing either in funds or by building the capacities of the ministry and its Social Development Centers, or simply though sharing information on ongoing and planned projects in order to avoid any likely duplication,” Morabito said in the press release.
Italy is a continual contributor to development projects in the country and in particular to rural and underdeveloped areas. Italian officials have also made visits to the country recently to access the need of the growing Syrian refugee population. Italy is also a major contributor to the United Nations peacekeeping force in the country with over 1,000 peacekeepers in deployment.

Zahra proposes amendments to smoking ban
October 05, 2012/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Batroun MP Antoine Zahra proposed urgent amendments to the smoking ban which went into effect last month and called on the Parliament to approve it to help revive the country’s already struggling tourism sector. Amendments to the nonsmoking ban proposed by Zahra include designated sections for smokers and would also yield income to the treasury via taxes, the politician said Thursday.
“I submitted an urgent amendment to Article 5 of the nonsmoking ban after it was obvious that applying the law has hurt the tourism sector although Lebanon’s economy has suffered enough,” Zahra told reporters at the Parliament. “This amendment designates smoking sections as well as ventilation systems in line with international standards, in addition to banning people less than 18 years of age to enter places where smoking is allowed,” Zahra added. Zahra’s submission comes a day after the tourism associations demanded the government amend the nonsmoking ban which went into effect last month, saying the sector has been burdened with heavy losses as a result. “We are not calling to cancel the smoking ban but [for a law] that takes our business into account,” Pierre Achkar, Head of the Hotels Association, said during a news conference Tuesday, while the Head of the Chambers of Commerce Mohammad Choucair asked the government to give licenses for institutes specialized in nargileh.
On the day Law 174 went into effect, several restaurants and nargileh cafes shut down in protest while a demonstration took place in the Metn town of Antelias.
Speaking to reporters Thursday, Zahra said his proposed amendment also includes a means for the government to cover expenditures, particularly the public sector’s salary scale hike.
“This amendment gives the state an additional output via taxes on places where smoking is allowed,” he said.
According to Zahra’s proposal, Law 174 should be amended in a way that would grant restaurants and hotels to choose whether they want to have smoking sections or not.
If a hotel complies with the conditions for having an isolated hall which won’t exceed 5 percent of the hotel’s space and pays the necessary taxes to the government, it should be allowed to have a smoking section, according to Zahra’s proposal. He also announced that he submitted two draft amendments that would cover the expense of the salary scale hike via taxes on tobacco and imported alcohol.

Shiite preacher warns lives of abducted pilgrims in danger
October 05, 2012 /The Daily Star /BEIRUT: A Shiite preacher warned Thursday that the recent Syrian-Turkish border clash threatens the safety of the remaining pilgrims in Syria.
“The shelling and the retaliation that took place Wednesday between Turkey and Syria is a threat against the lives of the nine pilgrims because they are present in a very sensitive location,” Sheikh Abbas Zogheib said. The pilgrims were kidnapped by Syrian armed rebels in May while returning from a pilgrimage in Iran, and several media reports said that the rebels are keeping the hostages in the northern Syrian town of Azaz. According to Zogheib, who has been tasked by the Shiite Higher Council to follow up on the issue of the pilgrims, the Turkish authorities are responsible for ensuring their safety.
“Turkey is responsible today for the presence of the pilgrims in that area. The families of the kidnapped call on Turkish authorities to speed up their release to end this crisis given the danger to their lives.”

Harb: March 8 against expatriate voting over campaign constraints
October 05, 2012/By Wassim Mroueh The Daily Star
BEIRUT: The March 8 coalition opposes the right of expatriates to vote in next year’s parliamentary elections as Hezbollah cannot campaign in countries where it is considered a terrorist organization, MP Butros Harb said in a statement Thursday. “Discussions that took place between Hezbollah [MPs], some of its allies and a representative of Foreign Minister [Adnan Mansour] in today’s session showed these groups are not excited about expatriates taking part in polls,” he added after attending a meeting of Parliament’s joint committees.
The March 14 lawmaker said the March 8 coalition argued that some of its members were prohibited from campaigning or entering states who have labeled them terrorist groups. “These positions are a glaring violation of the right of the Lebanese to take part in political life and in making decisions that concern the future and sovereignty of Lebanon,” Harb added. “It is ... an unacceptable position.”
Harb said this stance explains the Foreign Ministry’s neglect in implementing a mechanism to enable expatriates to vote.
Hezbollah MP Ali Fayyad said his party supports the right of expatriates to vote, but he argued that elections cannot take place in countries where major Lebanese political groups are deprived of their right to campaign. “We stress the right of expatriates to vote but we said it is necessary to take into consideration that the Constitution ... stipulates that all Lebanese are equal in terms of rights and duties,” he told reporters after the session. “It is not possible that elections be held in countries where there is discrimination [against certain Lebanese political groups] and a lack of equal opportunities among Lebanese because this contradicts the Constitution,” Fayyad continued.
He said that the results of elections held in these countries could be challenged before the Constitutional Council and also noted that any new election law should enable Christian voters to have a bigger say in electing their MPs. “We support whatever our allies in the Free Patriotic Movement choose,” he added. Hezbollah is blacklisted as a terrorist group in several countries, including the United States.
For his part, Metn MP Ibrahim Kanaan maintained that the right of expatriates to vote was already endorsed by Parliament in 2009.
He said he proposed during the session that the Interior and Foreign ministries present to the joint committees a detailed report on progress made in laying down a mechanism to allow expat voting. Speaking to reporters after the session, Deputy-Speaker Farid Makari, who chaired the session, said that MPs agreed to ask the two ministers to do so.
The session lasted for over two hours and joint committees will reconvene next Thursday to continue studying a draft vote law forwarded by Cabinet.
The makeup of a parliamentary subcommittee that will study two controversial articles in that draft law became the newest subject of disagreement in a series of sessions that have been dominated by bickering. Makari proposed that the subcommittee have 10 members, but MP Ghazi Zeaiter said such a committee would be unbalanced, as five MPs would represent the March 14 coalition while only four would represent rivals in the March 8 alliance. The 10th member would represent Walid Jumblatt’s Progressive Socialist Party.
Some lawmakers objected to the fact that the Syrian Social Nationalist Party and the Tashnag parties would not be represented.
MPs then agreed that the March 14 and March 8 coalitions would each have 4 MPs representing them in the subcommittee along with a PSP representative and Makari, the chair of the subcommittee.
Once that was settled, the MPs said they needed to refer to their leaderships to select lawmakers and said they would present the names in the next session.
The PSP and the Democratic Gathering blocs nominated MP Akram Shehayeb to represent them.
The subcommittee is responsible for reaching out to various political groups in order to formulate an agreement on two divisive articles in the draft law.
The articles concern electoral districts and the electoral system. The proposal would divide Lebanon into 13-mediumsized districts and introduce proportional representation.
The March 14 coalition argues that proportional representation cannot be implemented as long as Hezbollah has its arms and supports a draft law proposed by the Christian parties of the coalition which would divide the country into 50 small districts under a winner-takes-all system.
Many MPs from rival groups said the subcommittee had no actual authority to make decisions, voicing their belief that an agreement on the two divisive articles requires political consensus outside Parliament among parties. Kataeb (Phalange) Party MP Sami Gemayel came out against even the formation of the subcommittee. “We want a law made in Parliament ... by Lebanese MPs [in the joint committees] ... that’s why we hope ... that we don’t go to subcommittees,” Gemayel said. MPs then moved to third article of the draft law, which specifies how residents and expatriates would vote.
“Around 10 mechanisms to enable expatriates to vote were proposed, so we postponed looking into this until Thursday’s session,” Future Movement MP Ziad Qaderi said, describing the talks as “meaningless.”

Hezbollah hands petitions to Western envoys over insults
October 05, 2012/The Daily Star /BEIRUT: Hezbollah MP Nawwar Sahili submitted petitions to French ambassador to Lebanon Patrice Paoli and the German charges d’affaires in Beirut Thursday calling on their governments to protect religious symbols and ban insults against them. Sahili met with Paoli at the French Embassy in Beirut and asked him to refer the petition to French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and the French parliament. He also asked German Charge d’Affaires Michael Birhof in Beirut to refer the petition to Chancellor Angela Merkel and the German parliament. “The Zionist project is the only side benefiting from this deterioration in relations between our religions, especially the relations between Islam and Christianity,” the Hezbollah MP said. Waves of violent demonstrations ripped through the Arab world last month in response to a short-movie produced in the U.S. insulting Prophet Mohammad.

Sleiman urges swift solution to Syria crisis
October 05, 2012/The Daily Star /BEIRUT: Arab nations should achieve democracy without any foreign military intervention, President Michel Sleiman said, urging a swift political solution to the crisis in Syria. Following his meeting with Argentinean President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Sleiman told reporters that it was important to allow Arab nations to achieve their aims, including reform, freedom and democracy, without violence or foreign military intervention.He added that it was also necessary to swiftly find a political solution for the crisis in Syria on the basis of dialogue and agreement in the framework of the international community’s efforts and the mission of U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi. Sleiman, who is on a two-day official visit to Argentina, also spoke about a swift search for a conclusive peace process in all conflicts faced by the region, noting the right of Palestinians to return to their homeland. “He noted the importance for Arab countries and Lebanon to preserve the right of return of Palestinian refugees and reject their nationalization in Arab countries,” his press office said. The two presidents also agreed on the need to implement reforms in the United Nations as well as for the global financial system in order to face international crises. For her part, Kirchner welcomed Sleiman to her country, calling Lebanon the “jewel of the Middle East,” and eschewing the epithet of the “Paris of the Middle East,” calling it a colonial description. She focused on the importance of resolving the Palestinian issue, saying she considered it as the key to peace – not only for the Middle East but to the entire world – to guarantee a Palestinian state that enjoys sovereignty. She praised Lebanon’s constant support for her country in the conflict between Argentina and Britain with regard to the Malvinas Islands.
Upon his arrival Wednesday, the president was met by Argentina’s deputy foreign minister, Lebanese Ambassador to Argentina Hisham Hamdan, and members of Lebanon’s diplomatic corps in Buenos Aires. After his meeting with the president, Sleiman also met with the head of the Argentinian Institute for International Relations to discuss ongoing cooperation between the countries.
He met with Luis Beder Herrera, Governor of La Rioja, and Lucia Corpacci, governor of Catamarca Province, who are both of Lebanese origins.

Gates: Strike on Iran to have catastrophic results
Former US defense secretary warns neither Israel nor US is capable of obliterating Iran's atom program, says attack 'would make nuclear Iran inevitable' 10.04.12/ynetnews
WASHINGTON - Former US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates warned on Thursday that an Israeli or American strike on Iran would only bolster the Islamic Republic's drive for a nuclear weapon. Neither Israel nor the US has the capabilities to obliterate Iran's atom program, he said, and a military operation against the country's nuclear facilities "would make a nuclear-armed Iran inevitable. They would just bury the program deeper and make it more covert."Gates, who staunchly opposed an attack on the Islamic Republic during his term in the Pentagon, made the remarks in a speech in Norfolk, Virginia."The results of an American or Israeli military strike on Iran could, in my view, prove catastrophic, haunting us for generations in that part of the world," he said, and called for harsher sanctions to be imposed on Tehran. "That's our best chance going forward, to ratchet up the economic pressure and diplomatic isolation to the point where the Iranian leadership concludes that it actually hurts Iranian security and, above all, the security of the regime itself, to continue to pursue nuclear weapons."
Gates said that while Israel's anxiety over a nuclear Iran is

President Michel Suleiman Says Hizbullah, Salafists will be Eventually Disarmed
Naharnet/04 October 2012/President Michel Suleiman on Thursday noted that Syria was not seeking to stir chaos in Lebanon, stressing that the weapons of non-state actors will be eventually removed, “whether they belong to Hizbullah or the Salafist forces.” “Syria does not have the objective of stirring chaos in Lebanon as it is barely being able to tackle its own problems at the moment, and we have to prevent a spillover of the Syrian crisis into Lebanon through endorsing the stance of neutrality that was taken by the national dialogue commission,” Suleiman said during a meeting with Argentinean reporters in Buenos Aires. The president has said that Syrian President Bashar Assad must contact him to clarify the charges against Syrian officials in the case of ex-Minister Michel Samaha.
Lebanon's Military Court has charged Samaha and Syrian security Chief Maj. Gen. Ali Mamlouk with forming a group to commit terrorist crimes in Lebanon.
Suleiman told the Argentinean reporters that the approach towards the Syrian crisis was based on “preventing Lebanon from becoming a launchpad for operations against Syria or for training and military bases linked to the Syrian conflict.”Asked whether any Free Syrian Army fighters were operating in northern Lebanon, Suleiman denied “the presence of specific locations for the FSA in Lebanon,” noting that “violations are being committed by both the Free Army and the regime army on the overlapping border” between Lebanon and Syria.Addressing the issue of the weapons of non-state actors, Suleiman said one “must not mix up Hizbullah's arms and the Resistance's arms.”He noted that “the Resistance's arms are part of a defense strategy we're putting together at the dialogue sessions, and they are to be used only to defend Lebanon against any Israeli attack and to support the Lebanese army according to the decision of the political authority. While the weapons that are being used domestically must be prohibited and removed, whether they belong to Hizbullah, the Salafist forces or anyone else.”“We are exerting efforts towards this objective but we have not achieved it yet. The issue of the proliferation of arms domestically was put on the dialogue table's agenda and the first phase will be putting a moratorium on the use of these arms ahead of removing them,” Suleiman added.

Maronite Bishop says Byblos priest “reprimanded” for stance on Aoun visit
October 4, 2012 /The Maronite Diocese of Byblos issued a statement on Thursday saying that it had summoned the priest in charge of the Our Lady of Elige Church to be “reprimanded.”
“To avoid any misleading rumors concerning Father Naji Abi Salloum and the sermon he delivered on the day of the visit of Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun to Byblos, the Maronite Diocese of Byblos would like to clarify that the bishop of Byblos has summoned Father Salloum and reprimanded him for his stance,” the statement said. However, the statement added that the bishop’s reprimand was strictly a “parochial” measure, and that the priest had not been excommunicated “as mentioned by some media outlets.” Last week, Aoun canceled the controversial visit he was scheduled to make to the Our Lady of Elige Church, located in the Lebanese town of Mayfouq in the Byblos district, after Lebanese Forces figures staunchly voiced their objection to the visit. LF supporters also congregated at the church to prevent the FPM leader from visiting its cemeteries where a large number of LF fighters were laid to rest.
-NOW Lebanon

How involved is Hezbollah in Syria?
Ana Maria Luca , October 4, 2012
Now Lebanon/Ali Hussein Nassif, alias Abu Abbas, was a senior Hezbollah military commander. His picture, which hangs on the wall in the living room of his house in Bodai, a village in the eastern Beqaa near Baalbek, shows a fit, grey-bearded man in his early fifties, dressed in a military uniform, wearing a black cap and holding a Kalashnikov. The family is accepting condolences, but they didn’t expect journalists to visit. “How did you even find out about this?” they asked, surprised that Nassif’s death had been announced on Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television channel and on its website.
The whole village is in mourning. People are wearing black, and yellow banners with the martyr’s picture hang on several houses. But the villagers are not happy to see strangers. The phone lines are dead in the village; one is only able to pick up a signal from a mile away. But the phones of Nassif’s family members seem to work well, as they called two Hezbollah officials to question inquisitive journalists.
After an hour of questioning, Nassif’s mother and his brothers decide that they can’t speak about his life without official Hezbollah permission from Beirut. But as tradition dictates, the women welcome strangers and offer them the customary sour coffee and the maamoul cake. “I don’t care to see him praised in newspapers,” Nassif’s mother says, sitting with other women, all wearing head-to-toe black hijabs. She is not crying and shows no sign of distress. “When we go to jihad, we don’t think about this life, we think about the afterlife,” she says. Nassif’s body was brought to his village on Tuesday and was buried the same day with great fanfare, as his rank dictated. "Hezbollah and the people of the village of Bodai held a funeral for the martyred commander Ali Hussein Nassif, known as Abu Abbas," the Hezbollah-affiliated website moqawama.org wrote. "He died while performing his jihadist duties.”
Abu Moayed, a Syrian rebel commander in Homs, explained that Nassif and two of his escorts were killed by an improvised explosive device next to Qusair, near the Lebanese border. The rebels planted several IEDs at a checkpoint next to the town, in the Zaraa area, where the Syrian national army had placed troops to prevent the rebel Free Syrian Army from smuggling supplies. “A general who hasn’t defected and who is cooperating with the FSA had informed us that more Syrian soldiers had been sent to Qusair and that Hezbollah members were among them,” Moayed told AFP.
In the past, Hezbollah has officially denied that it is involved in any way in the Syrian conflict, though several Syrian activists from Qusair told NOW that Hezbollah fighters have been in Syria since the uprising began a year and a half ago, and some refugees have blamed the party’s snipers for wounding protesters in the town of Tal Kalakh near the Lebanese border as well as in Homs. However, there was no actual proof of their presence.
Ali Haidar, a journalist based in South Lebanon, also said that secret funerals have been held in Hezbollah-controlled villages in South Lebanon and the Beqaa Valley for the past year and a half. “The families were always told that they died in training, doing their jihadist duty. They never said these martyrs died in Syria, though,” he said. The journalist added that he thinks the Party of God did not send its members to get involved in combat, as the Syrian activists claim, but to act as consultants for the regime’s troops, the same way the Iranian Revolutionary Guards do. “These Iranian advisors were also in Lebanon training Hezbollah operatives in the camps close to the Syrian border in East Beqaa. At the beginning of the Syrian uprising, some of these Hezbollah members and some of these Iranian trainers were moved from the camps in the Beqaa to Syria. It was the logical thing to do,” Haidar explained.
Ibrahim Bayram, an An-Nahar commentator who follows Hezbollah, told NOW that the reason Nassif was given a large funeral with media coverage was because he was a high-ranking commander and that the party had to honor him properly. He also explained that Hezbollah’s official stance is to not interfere in Syrian internal affairs but that the party does have fighters located in Syrian villages close to the Lebanese border that are inhabited by Shiites.
“Nassif was sent in to defend these people from the armed Syrian rebels. Hezbollah took initiatives to defend these people and sent it their fighters, and among them was Nassif,” he said. “He was killed in combat with the armed rebels in Reef Homs. I don’t believe Hezbollah is involved in the fighting, because Hezbollah doesn’t know the geography, and because the regime doesn’t need the Hezbollah fighters, and Hezbollah does not want to suffer the consequences of the Syrian conflict,” he added.
Nadine Elali and Naziha Baasiri contributed reporting to this article.

Sulzberger’s lessons
Reflections on the legacy of a famed newspaperman
By Adel Al Toraifi/Asharq Alawsat
In the office of the executive editor of the New York Times, there is a large portrait of the paper’s late publisher, Arthur Sulzberger, who worked at the paper between 1963 and 1997. The managing editor told me: “He may not still be with us, but you will not find a single editor here who worked with him who does not have a tale to tell”. When he proposed the expansion of the newspaper’s supplements to include fashion, sport and the arts, some editors worried that it would affect the reputation of the newspaper as a source of serious news. “Punch” – Sulzberger’s nickname – told them: “any news that people read is serious and important”.
There is no doubt that the New York Times is among the most distinguished newspapers in the world. However, there is a problem with how Middle Eastern journalists treat the New York Times and similar publications: like a civil society institution or a global human rights body, whose mission it is to expose scandals and injustice around the world. In reality, the New York Times and other media outlets are business ventures, and many do not realize that the newspaper is still owned by the Sulzberger family. The family has been able to invest in other media areas – against the wishes of some journalists who consider this to be a commercial diversion from the newspaper’s message – and today the New York Times has a board of trustees that ensure the newspaper’s policies are not compromised by fluctuations in the media industry and the stock market.
Arthur Ochs Sulzberger died last week. American newspapers and magazines commemorated the event by celebrating his life and his impact on American journalism. The rival Washington Post devoted a full page obituary to their rival’s late publisher. In a special editorial, the newspaper wrote, in professional acknowledgement: “Part of his legacy is the continuing excellence of the Times, which he helped put on a sounder footing when it faced what seemed like a financial death spiral in the 1970s” (Washington Post, 2nd October 2012).
Sulzberger inherited the newspaper from his grandfather when he was 37 years old. Were it not for the insistence of his mother, the job would have gone to the trusteeship council. Sulzberger’s importance was not a journalist, but as a successful financial administrator. During his chairmanship of the newspaper, he managed to float the company on the stock exchange by the end of the 1960s, against the wishes of some idealistic journalists. Over his career, he was able to increase the New York Times Company’s annual revenues from US$ 100 million to more than US$ 2.5 billion by the end of the 1990s, having invested in advertising companies and having acquired television and radio stations, and other businesses, enabling the newspaper to maintain its standards even in the current financial crisis.
In many of the articles written about him, newspaper editors always say that “Punch” did not interfere in editorial management. He had his opinions, and sometimes he would get upset with what he was publishing, but at the same time he kept enough distance to give editors the freedom to make their own judgments. One article remarked that on the rare occasions that he attended an editorial meeting, Sulzberger would be more interested in the air conditioning ducts.
When the newspaper decided in 1971 to publish the leaked ‘Pentagon Papers’ about the Vietnam War, it came under pressure from the White House. “Punch” tried to discourage the editors from their decision, because he feared – being a war veteran himself – that it would have negative consequences for American troops. He asked the editors: “Is there anything here that could affect our soldiers?” They told him no, and he published the papers after fighting a successful legal battle with the Nixon administration.
But while the newspaper gained a scoop by publishing the Pentagon Papers, and also reported alongside the Washington Post on the “Watergate” scandal, the astute publisher felt that the newspaper’s editors were perhaps becoming complacent and overconfident. He hired William Safire – a conservative journalist and one of President Nixon’s speechwriters – in a move that shocked the editors, who tried to isolate and avoid the newcomer. “Punch” sensed what Safire was going through, so he went to visit him in his office, carrying in his hand a framed portrait of his grandfather Adolph S. Ochs, which he proceeded to hang on the wall. He told Safire: “I want you to feel at home”. Safire went on to win three of the 31 Pulitzer Prizes won by the paper during Sulzberger’s era.
“Punch” also gave his journalists a lesson about paying attention to the views of the readers. When he observed the reluctance of the newspaper’s editors to do just that, he began to send messages to the readers’ mail column under the pseudonym “A. Sock”. Editors soon began to watch out for these letters and started taking into account the views and topics of the average reader. Sulzberger did not write in again, but the editors took a new interest in the readers’ mail, fearing that they might miss one from “Punch.”
Sulzberger’s example is an important one for our region, where the press often acts either as a government mouthpiece, or as an opposition entity with no qualms about serving its political objectives regardless of the facts. There can be a fine line between responsible journalism and propaganda. In our region there are hardly any independent boards of trustees to preserve the identity of a newspaper and its journalistic integrity, and at the same time ensure its commercial success. Exceptions include Asharq al-Awsat and a few others, who have tried to follow the example of the New York Times.
A good journalist can produce good stories, but without a publisher who knows the industry and has sound commercial sense, you cannot produce a successful newspaper. As Arthur Sulzberger said: “You're not buying news when you buy The New York Times. You're buying judgment.”

Khaled Mishal the “Zionist agent”!
By Tariq Alhomayed/Asharq Al-Awsat,
During the Israeli war on Gaza in early 2009, the Hamas movement was criticized for its recklessness in exposing Gaza to destruction and havoc only to serve the goals of Iran, Hezbollah and Bashar al-Assad in the region. Wise commentators said that the war was not justified, and that it was just another adventure for Hamas after Hezbollah’s adventure in Lebanon in 2006.
Subsequently, a frenzied campaign was launched by all those who stood behind Iran, the al-Assad regime and Hezbollah. A list was prepared of all journalists who had criticized Hamas, and therefore “traded in the blood of the Palestinians”, which was then circulated at the time under the false titles “The list of shame” or “The friends of Israel”. Even the BBC Arabic website covered the campaign, reporting that: “Several groups affiliated to Islamist trends have published a list of dozens of names of Arab writers accused of justifying Israeli attacks on Gaza, and of criticizing the policies of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran”. In reality, it was not only “several groups”, but Syrian newspapers, satellite television channels, and other journalists who believed in the so-called “resistance”!
On the 14th January 2009, I wrote an article entitled “Hamas in Gaza and Damascus”, in which I said that there was a big difference between Hamas in Gaza and in Damascus, and a clear contrast in attitudes and statements. This enraged Hamas sympathizers at the time, but what about now? Why am I returning to this story in 2012? The reason is simple, and important. Today, Hamas has acknowledged that there are differences within the Hamas leadership in Gaza, and especially with regards to Khaled Mishal. In fact, matters have now reached the point where it is not possible for Mishal to continue in his position, and it is necessary for him to step down! This is not all, for the same entities that used to defend Mishal, whether Hezbollah, Iran or the al-Assad regime, and published “The list of shame” in order to support him and portray his critics as those trading in the blood of the Gaza people, have returned in 2012 to say that Khaled Mishal is a Zionist agent, exploiting the resistance, and a member of the so-called “band of drummers”, an expression that denotes shame and disgrace.
Syrian state television in Damascus launched a massive attack on Mishal, telling him to remember when he first sought refuge from his surroundings, and arrived at mercy of al-Sham [Damascus]. As for the Iranian newspaper “Kayhan”, issued directly from the office of the Iranian Supreme Leader, it said that Mishal had forgotten the years he had been living under Syrian protection during his residence and work in Damascus, and was acting like a Zionist agent. The newspaper also claimed he is ready to sacrifice the people of Palestine in exchange for his personal ambitions!
Indeed, the true evil of any affliction is rejoicing in it, and the rope of lies is shorter than the turban of some of the conspirators. Yet here they are trying to eliminate one another, using the same descriptions that they previously directed against rational commentators [during the 2009 Gaza war], whereby Mishal has now transformed into an agent and a conspirator! However, one important question remains: Do some of the drummers in our Arab media, who have repeated the propaganda of the axis of destruction in our region; Iran, Hezbollah and al-Assad, not feel slightly ashamed now? We must remember, God does not gloat!

'Sharia-Medicine'/Egyptian Clinic Treats People with Camel Urine Per Prophet's Advice
by Raymond Ibrahim/FrontPageMagazine.com
http://www.meforum.org/3351/sharia-medicine-camel-urine
A recent Egyptian TV program showed how Islamic Sharia law's many prescriptions do not merely clash with modern-day concepts like free speech and religious freedom, but even with medicine and science.
On September 16, popular TV persona Wael El-Ibrashi hosted Dr. Zaghlul al-Naggar, a prominent Islamic thinker and Chairman of Egypt's Committee of Scientific Notions in the Quran, on the topic of medical science and Islam. Inevitably the idea of drinking camel urine as a form of therapy—first proposed in the 7th century by Muslim prophet Muhammad—came up.
Not only did Dr. Naggar promote this practice, but he made the staggering announcement that right now in Egypt a medical center in Marsa Matrouh actually specializes in treating people with camel urine, all in accord with the prophet's advice.
Other Egyptian thinkers joined the show via satellite, including Khaled Montaser (who earlier exposed the Islamic world's "inferiority complex"). At one point, while delineating how science and medicine work, Montaser reminded that urine is where all the body's toxins are carried out, asking "so, shall we drink it for health?" Naggar simply responded with arrogance: "I am older than you and more learned than you: you are not going to teach me; I will teach generations of people like you."
Staunch secularist Sayyid al-Qemany—whose strong support for rationalistic thinking and the separation of religion and state caused Egypt's Islamic establishment to pronounce him an apostate infidel—also joined the show via phone, deploring the very idea that drinking camel urine could heal people.
Referring to Naggar's announcement that there is a clinic specializing in treating people with camel urine as a "catastrophe" that only indicates how far Egypt has sunk, Qemany called on Egyptian health officials to verify if such a medical center truly exists, saying this is a serious issue involving the health of Egypt's citizenry.
Naggar tried to defend the "salutary benefits" of camel urine by arguing that European pharmacies produce a medicine that contains female urine (possibly a reference to HCG). Qemany replied that such medicines are not based on drinking crude urine but are synthetic, exclaiming, "does this mean I should go drink my wife's urine?!"
An exasperated Qemany concluded by offering a compromise. He suggested that Nagger, whose PhD is in geology, should lead an expedition to Mecca and Medina and somehow try to extrapolate the urine of Muslim prophet Muhammad, and use that to heal people instead of camel urine, sarcastically adding, "surely the urine of the prophet—peace and blessings upon him—is better than camel urine?"
Dr. Naggar simply shook his head, saying such talk was inappropriate.
In fact, both ideas—drinking camel urine and drinking Muhammad's urine—are traced to the prophet's own words, and, accordingly, are aspects of "Sharia-medicine." In a canonical tradition, Muhammad once told some men who were sick "to drink the milk and urine of camels, and they recovered and grew fat," that is, they were healed (more information on this practice can be found in a modern-day fatwa in the English language aptly titled "The Benefits of Drinking Camel Urine.")
Likewise, Egypt's Grand Mufti, Ali Gomaa, once wrote that drinking Muhammad's urine was considered "a great blessing.
All of this sheds light on the totalitarian nature of Sharia law, which treats, not just the Quran, but canonical hadiths, or traditions and sayings of Muhammad—which is where both urine-drinking ideas appear—as sacred and not to be questioned. Saudi Arabia's highest Islamic authority until he died in 1999, Sheikh Bin Baz, held that the earth was flat and that all scientific evidence otherwise was a "Western conspiracy," simply because Quran 18:86 claims the sun sets in a pool of mud, suggesting that the earth is flat.
The greater lesson for non-Muslims is that, if Islam's most prominent thinkers—the many ulema, muftis, sheikhs, and "Islamic thinkers" like Naggar himself—tenaciously cling to Islam's teachings even when they defy objective science (not to mention grossly defame Islam), surely they must cling to those other ironclad teachings that deal with "subjective" matters, from freedom of religion and freedom of speech, to hostility, jihad, and subjugation for the infidel.
At one point in the debate, Qemany made this connection when he likened the mentality that would give sick people camel urine to drink, to the mentality that attacked U.S. embassies and killed people. In both cases, blind obedience and/or fanaticism is at work—and all to Muhammad's words, which advocated drinking camel urine for health no less than they banned mockery of the prophet.
**Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr. Baird Statement on Assad Regime’s Attack on Civilians Across Turkish Border
October 3, 2012 - Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird today issued the following statement:
“After killing tens of thousands of Syrian civilians, the brutal and repressive regime of Bashar al-Assad continues the slaughter of its own people, and now it takes its assault beyond its borders.
“The Assad regime today launched mortar attacks across the Turkish border.
“Canada strongly condemns this attack by the Assad regime—which killed five people, including a six year old child—across Turkey’s border.
“We offer our sincere condolences to those affected, and we stand with Turkey and our other regional partners.
“All countries must bring pressure to bear on Syria for Assad to go. Canada has some of the strongest sanctions on Syria in the world. We are working with our international partners to continue to isolate this dangerous regime and to end the bloodshed of its own people and its neighbours.
“The statement from NATO allies speaks for itself.
“Canada calls for calm and for the Assad regime to stop drawing the region into his self-inflicted conflict and war on the Syrian people.
“The Syrian people deserve better than this illegitimate and murderous regime. Canada will continue to champion the freedom and human rights of all Syrians.”