LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
October 24/12

Bible Quotation for today
Luke 12:49-53. I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. From now on a household of five will be divided, three against two and two against three; a father will be divided against his son and a son against his father, a mother against her daughter and a daughter against her mother, a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law."

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
Will the Wissam Hassan assassination topple al-Assad/By Abdul Rahman al-Rashed/Asharq Alawsat/October 23/12
The gift of a ceasefire for al-Assad/By Tariq Alhomayed/Asharq Al-Awsat/October 23/12
Debate comes as Mideast terrorism, conflicts widen/By: Oren Dorell/USA TODAY/October 23/12
The Islamic Schoolyard-Bully and Obama's America/By Raymond Ibrahim/FrontPageMagazine.com/October 23/12

Beirut girl Jennifer Chedid, 10,hurt by car bomb needed 300 stitches
October 23, 2012/By Bassem Mroue
The Daily Star
Nisrine Chedid kisses her daughter, Jennifer Chedid, 10, as she lies in her bed in intensive care in Beirut.
BEIRUT: Jennifer Chedid had just arrived home from school and she was hungry. As she asked her older sister what she could eat, a massive explosion shook their entire block and turned the glass of their fourth floor apartment into flying knives that slashed 10-year-old Jennifer from head to toe.
Their father Richard was climbing the stairs to the apartment on his way back from buying bread for the family when the car bomb struck Friday afternoon less than 20 meters away, shaking doors and shattering his home.
He grabbed his bleeding daughter from the arms of her older sister Josianne and rushed her downstairs.
“As I carried her down the stairs, she was trembling and telling me: ‘Please dad rescue me,’” the father told the Associated Press Monday.
A neighbor helped him carry Jennifer and a soldier then took the girl and whisked her to an ambulance that sped off to the hospital.
An Associated Press photo, published in newspapers around the world, showed the girl being carried out with deep head and face wounds and her sneakers soaked red with blood.
“As we were in the ambulance, she was better but losing lots of blood,” her father said.
The blast, which hit the Chedids’ narrow residential street in Beirut’s predominantly Christian neighborhood of Ashrafieh, targeted Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan, a top intelligence official who was one of the opponents of Syria in Lebanon.
He was killed along with his bodyguard and a female civilian – a mother of three. It has sparked angry accusations from Syria’s opponents in Lebanon that Damascus was behind the bombings.
Jennifer was one of the dozens wounded in the blast.
She lay in a hospital Monday with more than 300 stitches in her body, 90 of them in her face and head and about 50 more on her hands. Her head was shaved and her face was swollen.
Smiling faintly with a monitor behind her showing her heart rate and blood pressure, Jennifer blew kisses to visiting reporters and called out “hi, hi.”
Antoine Younan, the doctor leading the team treating Jennifer, showed reporters Monday a picture of the girl when she arrived at the hospital.
“Her body was riddled with glass wounds,” he said. Younan said Jennifer is in stable condition. The veins of her right hands, severely damaged by the glass, are healing and she moved her fingers for the first time. She underwent operations to remove the glass, repair her veins and stitch her wounds.
Jennifer’s 17-year-old sister Josianne, sitting in the lobby of the hospital, recounted the scene in their home just after the blast struck.
Jennifer was on the floor bleeding while Josianne said she was thrown by the power of the blast and landed under a China cabinet where she suffered minor injuries. She immediately got up to help her younger sister.
“As I opened my eyes I saw that much of the apartment was turned upside down,” she told reporters. “I stood up and started shouting ‘Jenny, Jenny’ but no one answered. Then I found her next to a couch and covered with debris that fell from the ceiling,” said Josianne, who had a bandage on her left brow from a glass injury.
“I screamed for help but no one answered,” continued Josianne, wearing a cross around her neck. “I carried her and kept talking to her. I did not want her to go unconscious. She was holding me saying: ‘Help me.’”
Jennifer’s mother Nisrine was at work on the other side of the city in the commercial neighborhood of Hamra when she received a message on her phone about an explosion in her neighborhood Ashrafieh. She jumped into a taxi, but had to get out about a mile away because cars were kept away from the scene to clear the roads for ambulances.
The cellphone network was overloaded and she could not get through to her husband or children. But she did receive a call from her daughter’s school that let her know she had arrived home in her school bus.
She ran toward her apartment.
“I wanted to be with the children so that they would not be afraid,” she said.
When she arrived at her street, security forces prevented her from reaching the building because the area was cordoned off for the investigation of the car bomb.
Then she saw something that made her collapse.
“As I looked at the street, I saw Jennifer’s shoes covered with blood,” Nisrine said. “I bit my tongue and fainted.”
She was treated by a paramedic. When she asked him about her daughters, he took her to Josianne.
“When I saw the blood on Josianne’s clothes, I knew that Jennifer’s injuries were serious,” Nisrine added. She then received a call from the hospital where Jennifer was being treated and headed over.
A few hours after she arrived, Jennifer was taken out of the operating room and she saw her daughter wearing a green hospital gown.
“I looked at her. My heart broke,” the mother told journalists outside the Intensive Care Unit where Jennifer has been since Friday.
Jennifer, a top student in her 5th grade class, loves drawing and taking pictures with the cellphones of her parents and sister.
She is no fan of science or math but loves reading and sports. Her favorite cartoon is Tom and Jerry.
On Sundays, she goes with her Maronite Christian family to church for prayers.
Jennifer opened her eyes from the latest operation Monday and started communicating for the first time.
“My happiness today is beyond explanation,” said her mother Nisrine.

Lebanon's Arabic press digest - Oct. 23, 2012
October 23, 2012/The Daily Star
Lebanon's Arabic press digest.
Following are summaries of some of the main stories in a selection of Lebanese newspapers Tuesday. The Daily Star cannot vouch for the accuracy of these reports.
Al-Mustaqbal
Important leads in Hasan’s assassination probe ... Ashton in Beirut today
March 14 from boycotting government to boycotting Parliament
Chaos spread through Beirut and Tripoli as security forces exerted efforts to bring the situation under control and prevent it from expanding.
This turmoil nearly overshadowed the peaceful action launched by March 14 forces through a sit-in outside the Grand Serail in Beirut and another outside Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s residence in Tripoli or through boycotting parliamentary meetings after boycotting the government.
However, the most significant development was the uncovering of “important leads” in the assassination of Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan, according to Interior Minister Marwan Charbel.
Al-Joumhouria
Army draws a red line, Washington committed to [Lebanon’s] stability, not government
Assassination or chaos?
Diplomatic sources told Al-Joumhouria that the U.S. administration does not care about the survival of the current government as this is something the Lebanese themselves determine. Washington, according to the sources, is instead interested in maintaining stability in Lebanon and avoiding political vacuum and chaos, which could be exploited by forces that want to export the Syria crisis to Lebanon.
The opposition found itself following the assassination of Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan with two options: chaos or assassination.
The opposition believes that the continuation of the incumbent government is tantamount to legalizing chaos and assassinations.
It also believes that while the international community is keen on Lebanon’s stability, the continuation of this government would push the country sooner or later into chaos and destruction.
As-Safir
Life back in the capital ... roads to south, Bekaa open ... Tripoli waiting
Hasan’s last phone call to Hariri: I'm in Beirut
It is enough that every family sitting in the current state of fear wanted to throw more than a rose or grain on the Lebanese Army. They wanted to embrace each and every soldier who put an end to the sight of gunmen on the streets and the road closures for school children to get to school and employees wanting to get to work.
It is enough that the Lebanese Army is proud that it remains to be an institution at an equal distance from all the Lebanese.
While Ashrafieh was trying to get back on its feet four days after the car bomb attack, a well-informed official told As-Safir that the Internal Security Forces Information Branch put its hand on the "communications data" that took place between Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan hours before his assassination, specifically from the moment of his arrival at Beirut airport Thursday evening until the moment of the explosion Friday afternoon.
The official said that ISF chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi only learned that Hasan was back in Beirut from former Prime Minister Saad Hariri.
Hariri telephoned Rifi at 4 p.m. Friday to ask about Hasan’s wellbeing [about an hour after the car bomb ripped through Ashrafieh].
Rifi replied that Hasan was still in Paris. It was then that Hariri told Rifi that Hasan had called him upon arrival in Beirut to tell him he was okay.
Rifi at once dispatched a squad in charge of Hasan’s security to the blast scene and it was around 5 p.m. that the team got back from the crime scene and everybody discovered that Hasan was the target.
Al-Akhbar
... And he went on pilgrimage with a clear conscience
Prime Minister Najib Mikati returns to the Grand Serail today, enjoying both Arab and international political support while closing the doors to attempts to overthrow the Cabinet and leaving the opposition to cry and scream behind a locked door.
Just as every year, Prime Minister Najib Mikati headed to Mecca to perform the Hajj.
Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning at the latest, the plane carrying him and his family will head to Mecca.
He is going to Hajj with a “clear conscience,” one of Mikati’s aides said. He cares less about all the opposition’s accusations against him.
On Friday, after Mikati found out that Wissam al-Hasan was the target of the car bombing, he believed remaining as prime minister was meaningless.
He was even more convinced of the need to resign on Saturday. But the flood of phone calls he received from Arab and international countries, who warned him against creating a political vacuum in the country, made him reconsider his calculations.

Siniora tells Sleiman Future not taking part in Dialogue: source
October 23, 2012/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora told President Michel Sleiman Tuesday that the Future Movement would not participate in National Dialogue before the resignation of the present government, a party source told The Daily Star.
The opposition party will also boycott all Parliament sessions that include participation by Cabinet ministers, another party source said.
The two sources spoke on condition of anonymity.Siniora held talks with Sleiman at the Baabda Palace Tuesday.
According to the National News Agency, Siniora was at odds with Sleiman after the latter urged for a speedy resumption to the all-party talks.
The NNA said during the meeting Sleiman suggested bringing forward the dialogue date in the wake of the assassination of Lebanon’s top intelligence chief Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan.
Siniora, however, disagreed, the NNA said, and informed Sleiman that such a decision would have to be made after consultations with the March 14 coalition. March 14 normally meets every Wednesday.
The Future parliamentary bloc leader vowed Sunday not to return to the dialogue table before Prime Minister Najib Mikati resigned.
"No talks before the departure of this government, no dialogue on the blood of the martyr's," Siniora vowed in his speech during Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan’s funeral procession.
Sleiman’s recommendation for early talks will also top the agenda of a meeting of the Future Movement later Tuesday.
Sleiman set Nov. 12 for a new round of National Dialogue, and since the death of Hasan has urged speedy resumption of dialogue, after sources earlier told The Daily Star that he would likely postpone the talks until after Nov. 22 as Siniora was said to have scheduled a visit to the United States.
Separately, Sleiman hailed Tuesdat the recent Lebanese Army crackdown on gunmen who blocked roads and engaged in armed clashes in Beirut in the aftermath of Hasan’s killing.
“Lebanese Army efforts to maintain civil peace, security and stability once again prove that the legitimacy in all its institutions are a safe haven for all the Lebanese who ... should work in a spirit of dialogue and openness to overcome the difficult phase and continue to spare the domestic arena [Lebanon] the implications of what is going on in the region,” Sleiman said in a statement released by his office Tuesday.

FBI to assist ISF in probe into Hasan assassination
October 23, 2012/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: An FBI delegation will arrive in Lebanon to provide technical assistance to the investigation into the assassination of senior intelligence official Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan, the head of the Internal Security Forces said Monday.
Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi discussed the possibility of FBI assistance with David Brown, U.S. Embassy security attache, and Scott Smith, FBI legal attache of at the U.S. Embassy, according to an ISF statement.
The statement said that both U.S. officials met with Rifi at ISF headquarters after Prime Minister Najib Mikati asked for U.S. technical aid in the investigation during a telephone conversation with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Hasan, who served as the head of the ISF Information Branch, was killed by a car bomb in the Ashrafieh neighborhood of Beirut last week.
Rifi acknowledged that it was a misstep not to change the location of Hasan’s Ashrafieh safe house after its location was discovered.
“Intelligence always has safe houses ... and there is a possibility that they can be discovered, that is why they are changed routinely,” Rifi said in a TV interview Monday.
Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said the recent discovery of the type of car that held the bomb could be an important lead in the investigation. Speaking to a foreign news agency, Charbel said the inquiry is being carried out quickly and seriously. Security sources said that the bomb was placed in a RAV4 Toyota SUV rather than a Honda CRV as was previously reported.
The car was stolen, but its original owner hails from the Qabr Shmoun village in Mount Lebanon.
The car’s owner said it was stolen a year ago, and he had declined to pay the thief to return the car. He said the thief told him the offer was still on, and his mobile number was still in his phone.
Speaking to the Central News Agency, the sources said the investigation is focusing on uncovering the caller’s identity. The owner of the mobile number he called from has been identified and has several arrest warrants out in his name. Security sources refused to give further details about the investigation, saying secrecy is essential to uncovering the identity of those involved in the crime and the means by which between 50 and 60 kilograms of TNT were placed in the car.
The sources said the investigation is focusing on tracking the car’s route up until the moment of the explosion.
Separately, the ISF released a statement listing the credentials of Col. Imad Othman, who Rifi Sunday appointed as Hasan’s successor.
Othman joined the ISF in 1984 as an officer cadet. He rose through the ranks and has participated in several training sessions outside Lebanon in the security field. Othman has a good command of both English and French.“After the martyrdom of ... Hasan, several names for a successor were discussed with Interior Minister Marwan Charbel ... we lost one of our major security pillars and we do our best to protect people,” Rifi said in the interview. “Col. Othman has a similar profile to Hasan ... and has worked with him for 10 years,” he added, saying “our capacity is still the same, we are ready to continue to protect people and we will not give up.” The statement listed Othman’s achievements during his service in the Information Branch and judicial police as including participation in combating terrorism and arresting gangs involved in car thefts and drug trading.

Mikati to resume work from Grand Serail
October 23, 2012 /By Hasan Lakkis/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Prime Minister Najib Mikati will resume his work from the Grand Serail Tuesday, three days after he said he had suspended his decision to resign and that he would work from his home in protest at the assassination of top security official Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan.
Mikati has come under mounting pressure from the opposition March 14 parties to resign since Hasan’s killing in a car bomb in Beirut last week. The March 14 parties have blamed Mikati and Syrian President Bashar Assad for Hasan’s assassination.
Mikati is expected to meet at the Grand Serail with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton who is visiting Lebanon on the second leg of a five-day tour of the Middle East for talks on developments in the region, particularly the 19-month-old conflict in Syria and its repercussions on the situation in Lebanon. Ashton visited Jordan Monday.
Ashton will reiterate the EU’s position announced by the EU ambassador to Lebanon, Angelina Eichhorst, when she met Mikati two days ago which calls for the Lebanese government not to resign to avoid plunging the country into a power vacuum, sources at the Grand Serail said.
Foreign officials who have contacted Mikati since Hasan’s assassination have expressed similar stances, the sources said.
Referring to sectarian clashes in Beirut and the northern city of Tripoli that followed Hasan’s funeral in downtown Beirut Sunday, ministerial sources told The Daily Star that the decision to maintain security in the country and prevent the blocking of roads and gunfire has been taken at the highest levels.
Referring to March 14 protests in downtown Beirut to press for the government’s resignation, the sources said that any civilized protests or a peaceful sit-in would be tolerated provided that the action would not undermine the country’s security and stability.
Meanwhile, Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun warned of a political vacuum in the country if the government resigned under March 14 pressure.
In an exclusive interview with The Daily Star, Aoun said the resignation of some ministers in the Cabinet was a possibility in light of the developments following Hasan’s assassination.
“It would be very hard for the Cabinet to resign now. The reason being the difficulties in forming Cabinets and that the country cannot bear a [political] void,” Aoun said. “What happened [Hasan’s assassination] constitutes a security setback but if there was a vacuum, maybe the country will be in chaos without officials and the average of forming government, unfortunately, has been six months and up.”
Interior Minister Marwan Charbel met with senior police officers at the Grand Serail Monday to thrash out a plan to maintain security around the government seat in downtown Beirut and prevent a recurrence of Sunday’s attempts by March 14 protesters to storm the Grand Serail.
During a meeting with President Michel Sleiman at Baabda Palace, Mikati was briefed by the president on the contacts he had with Lebanese leaders as well as the attitudes of the ambassadors of major powers to deal with the crisis brought on by Hasan’s killing, government sources said.
The sources added that Mikati resuming his activity at the Grand Serail was no longer a priority. Mikati has told political leaders who contacted him that he was ready to discuss all options. “If they want a new government, I am ready. If they don’t want a government, I have no problem either,” the sources quoted Mikati as saying.
Political sources said that the stance of Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt since Hasan’s killing was that there was no alternative to Mikati as head of the current government or any other national unity or salvation Cabinet.
Furthermore, the attitudes of Western capitals which rejected the government’s resignation have enhanced the impression felt by people who met Mikati Monday that he was more satisfied and reassured than the first days of the crisis, the sources said. As such, the sources said that the March 14 parties will have to review their assessment of the Western and local political climate which indicates that Mikati’s staying as the head of the government was inevitable for the time being.
Meanwhile, Western countries and the United Nations expressed solidarity with Lebanon as it struggles to overcome the crisis over Hasan’s assassination.
“The meeting with President Michel Sleiman was held at our request to underline our solidarity with Lebanon at this difficult time,” U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly told reporters following an emergency meeting with Sleiman at Baabda Palace.
The meeting was attended by ambassadors of five major powers – the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia, which are permanent members in the U.N. Security Council.
Plumbly urged all Lebanese parties to reach a deal that would preserve national unity: “The United Nations calls on all Lebanese sides to move forward on a peaceful political path to preserve stability and security in their country.”
He added that the Cabinet should continue to preserve stability and security in Lebanon.
“The U.N., and the five countries’ representatives that attended the meeting expressed their determination to support the government of Lebanon to put an end once and for all to impunity in Lebanon,” Plumbly said. Condemning the “terrorist attack” that killed Hasan, his driver and a woman in Ashrafieh, Plumbly said the U.N. stressed the need to refer those involved in the bombing to the judiciary.
“The U.N. reiterates once again its condemnation of any attempt that aims at destabilizing Lebanon through political assassinations,” Plumbly said in Arabic while surrounded by the five ambassadors. “The permanent members at the United Nations call upon all the parties in Lebanon to preserve stability.”
U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Maura Connelly discussed developments in Lebanon during a meeting with Speaker Nabih Berri.
Meanwhile, Jumblatt signaled his support for the Mikati government in the face of strong March 14 calls for its resignation following Hasan’s assassination. He also said that the PSP was ready to participate in the formation of a new salvation government, a long-standing demand by the opposition March 14 coalition.
Responding to March 14 leaders who linked attending National Dialogue sessions to the government’s resignation first, Jumblatt said in his weekly article to be published in the PSP’s weekly Al-Anbaa newspaper Tuesday: “Linking all future stances to the government’s resignation first would expose the country to instability and falling again into the trap wanted by the Syrian regime, which is to plunge Lebanon into vacuum. “The PSP, while affirming its full commitment to civil peace as a red line that should not be crossed, renews its readiness to participate in the formation of a new government to serve as a national partnership government to salvage the country from the current situation provided that there was a collective consensus at the local and regional levels.”
Jumblatt defended Mikati against harsh March 14 campaigns. “The government and its head must not be held responsible more than they can endure,” he said.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu warned in a newspaper interview that Hasan’s assassination would lead to “negative reactions and repercussions not only on Lebanon, but also on all states in the region, including Turkey.”

Free Patriotic Movement leader Micgeal Aoun: Resignation of some ministers possible
October 23, 2012/By Jana El Hassan/The Daily Star
RABIEH, Lebanon: In an exclusive interview with The Daily Star, the Free Patriotic Movement leader said the resignation of some ministers in the Cabinet was a possibility in light of the recent assassination of a top intelligence chief in a car bombing. What follows are excerpts from the interview.
Q: Developments turned the country’s situation upside down last week –will the Cabinet respond to calls for its resignation after the assassination of Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan?
A: It would be very hard for the Cabinet to resign now. The reason being the difficulties in forming Cabinets and that the country cannot bear a [political] void. What happened [Hasan’s assassination] constitutes a security setback, but if there was a vacuum, maybe the country would be chaotic without officials and the average [time] for forming a government, unfortunately, has been six months and up.
Q: How about Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s remarks about suspending his resignation and the president’s position?
A: This has to do with principles. The president is aware of his ability to form a new Cabinet and he knows such governments cannot be formed quickly. And to have a void is a bad thing; a caretaker Cabinet cannot serve like a Cabinet that enjoys the trust of Parliament.
Q: Doesn’t the current security situation call for a specific settlement, given that one side is calling for Cabinet’s resignation and the recent security incident Sunday?
A: If we think back to 2006, a million-and-a-half went down and the sit-in lasted a year and six months, but people remained peaceful and there was nothing: The Cabinet went about its work ... until the events of May 7 [2008], and even then the Cabinet didn’t resign and then there was room for talks and you had the Doha summit and solutions were reached.
Q: How will you act toward the March 14 coalition?
A: It is March 14, with its conduct, that has blocked dialogue. I made an early address in which I recommended how the atmosphere should be and with regret everything that occurred was the opposite of what we suggested, which complicated things: When someone refuses to talk to you and [former] Prime Minister Fouad Siniora [makes] demands, it’s like you have a form of blockage. We were surprised: The funeral should have been separated from the objections and the manner it was put forward.
Q: If the funeral took place normally and the sit-in was peaceful, could the government have resigned and a new Cabinet been formed?
A: No, the president was going to hold discussions around convening a national [dialogue] committee, but I think this won’t take place.
Q: So there won’t be dialogue?
A: We want a return to calm. If we sit at the table to talk, there needs to be a certain atmosphere.
Q: [Former Prime Minister Saad] Hariri called on his supporters to vacate the streets and to adopt peaceful forms of protest. Does this make a difference?
A: The primary mobilizer [is no longer Hariri and Siniora]. What happened yesterday, what happened today in Tariq al-Jadideh and the Palestinian camps proves that the primary mobilizing source is no longer Hariri and Siniora ... What happened at the Grand Serial was caused by Siniora’s provocative speech, as well that by a journalist, but its continuation today shows there are other forces.
Q: Who are these other forces?
A: Where is the mobilization going on? In Tariq al-Jadideh and the Palestinian camps. The Palestinians have entered as a side.
Q: So who are you accusing?
A: I am not accusing anyone, I am just describing the situation.
Q: I mean who do you accuse of being behind the Hasan’s assassination?
A: We can’t determine a specific side and we can’t rush to accusing a particular side. There may be an apparent suspect, but this apparent suspect might not be responsible.
Q: When you say an apparent suspect are you talking about Syria?
A: They [March 14] are talking about Syria. I think under the current circumstances, Syria does not have the ability.
Q: March 14 is directly accusing Syria, and they are linking the discovery of a bomb plot to Hasan’s killing.
A: This is what is apparent. I am not excluding this possibility, but I am saying under the current circumstances I don’t think Syria still has this ability.
Q: Could we regard these as Syria’s final blows against Lebanon?
A: Nothing is clear at the moment ...
Q: What about your relationship with Syria and support for it?
A: I am being misunderstood when I talk about my understanding about the Syrian crisis ... What I am saying is that the international situation, the balance of forces and the ability to mobilize, all of these indicate that the Syrian regime will continue. I don’t say the Syrian regime will fall. Some people will interpret this that I have a desire for the regime not to fall or lack of a desire.
Q: So you don’t have a desire for the regime to remain or go?
A: No, when I look at Arab regimes, I think [Syria] is the closest to a democratic system, I am not ashamed of saying this. Here you have the freedom to dress the way you want, you have freedom of expression ... Article 8 of [Syria’s] constitution that gives the Baath Party exclusivity was canceled. He [Bashar Assad] also voiced support to dialogue ... but he was always met with rejection. But he, in turn, has allies in the Brics countries. Not all of them are involved in the issue ... but they all support a particular Russian policy. This equation, the economic and political situation of Europe and America will not allow them to give more support and this means the Syrian administration will continue.
After a year and eight months of the conflict there has been nothing decisive and there have been many casualties so they will need to go back to a solution that [keeps] the current regime. Of course there will be changes, but the solution will not be with the fall of the regime or that one side prevails over the other.
Q: Could we not see the formation of a national unity or salvation Cabinet?
A: If we took the right course, it is possible.
Q: So there is hope?
A: It won’t happen with confrontation. It needs to be done through consensus. The fighting between rivals needs to stop. They should use the language of dialogue. They should recognize that there is a crisis that we need to get out of and we need to find a solution to it. Then we can begin constructive dialogue.
Q: Are you willing to put your hands in the hands of March 14?
A: For the sake of saving Lebanon, you know I harbor no hatred in politics.
Q: Could you discuss your relationship with Hezbollah?
A: We have an understanding that is available in the memorandum ... We are still committed to it.
Q: And your relationship with Walid Jumblatt?
A: He is defining his relationship with us. He is allied with our political opponents.
Q: So you consider him being in an alliance with your opponents?
A: Of course.
Q: Has Jumblatt left the alliance with March 8?
A: He says he is independent.
Q: He says he is independent, but at a certain stage he leaned more toward one side, and yesterday [Sunday] he didn’t participate in the funeral.
A: This is the wind: the fluctuations of the wind.
Q: Wissam al-Hasan thwarted an attempt to bring in explosives into Lebanon.
A: Do you know all the details of this crime? Therefore let us wait.
Q: But preliminary investigations are showing that there was a Syrian role.
A: There may be a different role.
Q: What other role?
A: So long as we haven’t seen the investigation we can’t say. ... I keep saying I will wait for the result of the investigation.
Q: Those who regard themselves as being targeted, have they the patience to wait for the results of the investigations? There are some probes that last years; some that don’t produce anything.
A: So what do they do? Do they go out and kill one or two innocent people?
Q: No, but they consider that when they call for the toppling of the government, they are in a sense getting some justice.
A: Maybe someone will resign, but not the Cabinet.
Q: So someone inside the Cabinet might resign?
A: If Lebanese know how responsibilities are set, who resigns or who doesn’t – I don’t tell them who will resign. I know who will resign from the government, but I don’t want to say.
Q: So someone might resign from the government.
A: Maybe. If so, it would have to be in security, someone responsible for security, particularly given the case of Hasan, he was even responsible for my own security. He was the Information Branch that warns MPs and officials; he sees the intelligence whether there is a risk to someone’s life, he warns them, he warned MPs, he warned [police chief Ashraf] Rifi once because he has to look after security.
Q: Is there a possibility that the interior minister will resign?
A: Yes, it is possible, but this is in response to your question. I am not calling on him to resign.
Q: Were there suggestions or discussions on this.
A: Maybe some people proposed the issue of resignations given that Mikati [Saturday] talked about resignation. Maybe there was talk about resignation.
Q: Was there specific talk about the resignation of the interior minister?
A: No, I don’t have that information.
Q: Is there anything official that he might resign?
A: No. Anyone could resign.
Q: This international support to the Cabinet, how can we describe it? Today, five ambassadors met Mikati and Plumbly was there, and they voiced support to the government, can’t another side come and say you are America’s government in Lebanon or the West’s government?
A: They aren’t asking anything that harms us but the opposite: They are warning us of the dangers, of what could happen if there is a vacuum. Of course for them they see it is in their interest not to have a Lebanon that is unstable.
Q: So what can happen to calm the situation in the country?
A: The situation of the country is not one of collapse. There was a crime, there were objections and protests, but this isn’t a collapse.
Q: What about the appearance of weapons on the street?
A: This was immediate anger to the killing, which is natural. What it is not natural is that it continue ... They will have to accept what happened and wait for the investigation.
Q: March 14 is calling for peaceful sit-ins.
A: So long as it is peaceful, it is fine. Yesterday, Siniora’s speech was very provocative ... and no one said anything to him.
Q: Is there a possibility that there will be a National Dialogue session.
A: Everything is possible in politics.
Q: If there was a national dialogue session and the sides sat down and agreed to form a national salvation or unity government and the government resigned, is this possible?
A: If so, the government would be formed and replace the other one.
Q: Will elections take place given the current situation?
A: Of course, we have many martyrs ... life needs to continue for the living.
Q: And the election law?
A: That’s why there are always discussions until we reach an agreement.
Q: Can there be a settlement and a salvation Cabinet formed?
A: Let’s see if there are conditions. This can’t be decided by one side. There needs to be two sides that discuss and agree.

BEIRUT: Tariq al-Jdideh residents voice support for Army crackdown
October 23, 2012/By Wassim Mroueh/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: After a long night of armed clashes, residents of the Beirut neighborhood of Tariq al-Jadideh were split about the provenance of the gunmen who exchanged gunfire with the Army.
Many locals affirmed the fighters were from the area, with others calling them outsiders. Almost everyone, however, said they backed the Army’s plans to deal with the gunmen.
Maher Hibri, a four decade resident of Tariq al-Jadideh, argued that the gunmen hailed from his neighborhood. Speaking to The Daily Star from his currency exchange shop on Afif Tibi Street, Hibri said that the men were “from the area” and “opened fire in the air ... one of them was masked, but I know who he is.”
“There were around four or five of them standing in every alley,” Hibri continued, calling the violence “shameful” and the men “thugs.” His shop was one of the few businesses open on the street Monday.
Hours after Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan, the head of the Internal Security Forces Information Branch, was laid to rest in downtown Beirut Sunday, people protesting his killing blocked roads in Tariq al-Jadideh and other neighborhoods in the capital for the third consecutive day.
Starting at around midnight, gunfire rattled throughout Tariq al-Jadideh, a stronghold of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s Future Movement, as armed men clashed with the Lebanese Army.
Hasan, who maintained close ties with Hariri, was killed by a car bomb in the Beirut neighborhood of Ashrafieh last week.
The Army raided militant hideouts in Beirut Monday, restoring calm in Tariq al-Jadideh and Qasqas, where there had also been gunfire.
The Future Movement denied that it had any links to the gunmen.
Hibri said that he strongly supports Hariri, but that what happened Sunday in his neighborhood is unacceptable.
“Why did they close roads? Two of my children slept away from home yesterday, they couldn’t make it [home] from Cola or Corniche al-Mazraa,” he said angrily.
Hibri wondered why the Army did not act decisively to open roads Sunday, rather than wait until Monday as it did in some cases: “Why hasn’t the Army arrested these thugs?”
“It was a horrible night ... kids were very afraid, it was literally a war,” said a woman preparing the stuffing for lahmbaajin, minced meat in thin dough, in a nearby bakery.
Unlike Hibri, the woman did not believe the men to be from the area.
“They are not from the area. It didn’t seem like they were really familiar with the streets,” she said, before acceding to her husband’s request to “stop talking politics.”
Ahmad Turk, the owner of a clothes shop in the same area, agreed that the men were outsiders.
“Who are the people who were shooting? We do not know them, no one here has arms,” he said. “They did not look familiar; they had beards and were well-built.”
Turk stressed that residents of the area had long been strong supporters of the Army: “The Army always protects us.”
Another area resident complained of Army inaction:
“We have no Army ... any armed man from any party is ... damaging cars and houses and people are worried,” he said. “Gunmen are saying hello to Army soldiers on Corniche al-Mazraa.”
The man, who refused to be named, said that Tariq al-Jadideh had been targeted because of its political affiliation with the Future Movement.
“Parties in areas that are far away are pouring oil on fire, and we end up suffering,” he said. “Residents of this area are targeted because they back Saad Hariri.”
Normally heavy with traffic, Corniche al-Mazraa was nearly empty Monday afternoon.
The nearby Al-Fakhani Street was busier, with many shops opening for business and locals sitting outside and socializing. Like many streets in the area, posters bearing Hasan’s face plastered the walls.
“You tell us, are we going to sleep tonight?” asked a young man from the sidewalk where he and some friends had set out chairs.
Ahmad Dabboura stated frankly that neighborhood occupants were involved in the clashes, and regretted that they had not been more intense.
“If you visit hospitals, you will figure out that the wounded in the clashes hail from Tariq al-Jadideh,” the local man said. “They were taking part in the fighting.”
“It should have been worse,” Dabboura argued. “Wissam al-Hasan served Lebanon. We will repeat this [fighting] when someone assaults us. This is a message to the allies of Syria, who are now orphans, that Tariq al-Jadideh will not be a scapegoat.”
According to Dabboura, residents did not set up to fight with the Army. He said that they were responding to gunfire from Amal Movement members in the Wata al-Mosseitbeh neighborhood, a stronghold of Walid Jumblatt’s Progressive Socialist Party.

Two formulas for post-Mikati Cabinet
October 23, 2012/By Antoine Ghattas Saab/The Daily Star
The assassination of Wissam al-Hasan was not simply an attempt on one man’s life. Killing a keeper of the country’s secrets would have taken a level of planning and intelligence strength that could only be acquired by a state – not a party or group.
The killing was meant to hit at the country as a whole, and as the turmoil in Syria continues and tension in Lebanon increases, two competing international political axes have designs on imposing their own ideas on the region. It is for this reason that Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea called the fate of Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s government simply a detail in a greater plan being prepared for Lebanon.
But forcing the government’s resignation has become a focal point for the March 14 movement. This was clear in Future parliamentary bloc head Fouad Siniora’s speech to the crowd at Martyrs Square Sunday, and it was evident as some protesters attempted to storm the Grand Serail. It should be noted that the attempt to cross into the Serail was done despite objections by some March 14 leaders.
Presidential palace sources said that the Cabinet’s resignation will bring no immediate solutions for the country, but will lead to a power vacuum and a crisis that the president does not want. Sleiman believes that despite its shortcomings, the government should remain, as it is preferable to the unknown. Foreign diplomats have already informed those close to the government that resignation should not be considered at this time. Informed sources told The Daily Star that although Mikati said he had suspended a decision to resign at Sleiman’s request, the two did not actually have this discussion.
Rather, Mikati announced that he had spoken about resignation with Sleiman in order to throw the ball into the president’s court and create a rift between the president and March 14 forces, avoiding blame for the turbulent situation. Sleiman continues to insist that there must be an agreement on an alternative if the government is to resign. This includes details such as specific names and positions that will make up the next Cabinet. There have been contacts between Sleiman, Mikati, Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt, Speaker Nabih Berri and Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun about possible formulas. Energy Minister Gebran Bassil has been visiting various leaders on behalf of Aoun, informing them of his opinions.
Two formulas are being discussed. The first is a government of technocrats that is neutral, and would have as its sole responsibility the administration of the 2013 parliamentary elections. The three candidates for forming such a government are former MP Bahij Tabara, Finance Minister Mohammad Safadi, and MP Talam Salam. Of the three, Salam is considered the most likely possibility.
The second – and more likely – formula is a repeat of the events that took place during the term of the late President Elias Sarkis, when a salvation government was formed by the leaders of all parties. In today’s terms, this would mean Cabinet would be made up of the members of the National Dialogue table. This Cabinet would also be a transition until next year’s elections.
Nothing is final until Mikati announces his resignation, but until then the other players in Lebanon’s political game will be laying the foundations for the next government.

Army, gunmen clash in Beirut as fears of civil war rise
Now Lebanon/Lebanese troops and gunmen exchanged gunfire in Beirut on Monday, raising fears that the country would be engulfed in sectarian violence after the assassination of a top security official blamed on the Syrian regime. The Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) said it was keen on restoring order in Lebanon, with the northern part of Tripoli shaken by fighting between partisans and opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that killed at least six people on Monday, according to the state-run National News Agency.
“The army will take resolute measures, particularly in areas of mounting sectarian friction... to prevent the assassination of martyred General Wissam al-Hassan from being exploited as an opportunity to murder the nation as a whole,” said a statement released by the LAF. Lebanon has been on edge since Friday, when police intelligence chief General Wissam al-Hassan died in a Beirut car bombing. That immediately prompted calls for Prime Minister Najib Miqati, whose cabinet is dominated by Damascus ally Hezbollah, to resign. The army statement came as troops responded after being fired on as they tried to clear a road in a Sunni district of Beirut that had been blocked by partisans of opposition leader Saad Hariri despite his calls for them to stay off the streets. In the northern port of Tripoli, a Sunni bastion where opposition to Assad is strong, a woman and four youths died during fighting between Sunnis and Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam to which Assad belongs, reported the NNA. Clashes have erupted regularly in Tripoli as tensions spill over the border from Syria, where a 19-month-old anti-regime revolt has left more than 34,000 people dead, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Fighting between Sunni and Shiite gunmen in Beirut in 2008 brought Lebanon close to the brink of a new civil war.
In the capital, a Palestinian man was killed and at least six people were wounded after the army made a pre-dawn sweep through the Sunni district of Tariq al-Jedideh in pursuit of armed men, and automatic weapons and anti-tank rocket fire could be heard.
The Lebanese army issued a statement that one of its patrols in Beirut’s Qasqas neighborhood shot and killed a Palestinian national after the latter and his brother had opened fire on the troops.
Beirut scene
NOW arrived at around 1 p.m. on Monday to the Makassid Hospital in Tariq al-Jedideh where the Palestinian young man was transported. There were at least 100 men in and outside the hospital furious about the recent killing.
“Damn the state, and damn the army,” said the Palestinian youth’s brother, while his mother was screaming in grief.
“Are you telling me that my son is dead?” wailed the mother, whose third son was also in the hospital in critical condition.
A block away from the hospital, a small group of young men was casually standing and holding machine guns. One man claimed that they were with the “Hariri faction.”
However, another man said: “[Saad] Hariri did not even show up to the funeral of [Hassan]. Nobody represents the Shebab (youth), they represent themselves.”
In nearby Qasqas, the site of the killing, a pool of blood was still visible on the street and army forces were everywhere.
Residents told NOW that there was “very heavy” fighting the night before and they expect the same tonight.
“We are scared,” said Latifa, a 23-year old pharmacist. “There’s a lot of shooting. I didn’t go to work today, as the pharmacy is closed.”
According to Ali al-Katab, who owns a money exchange office in the area of Tariq al-Jedideh, “some residents of the neighborhood were fighting with [Shia] Amal [Movement] forces and the army [on Sunday night].”
“The fighting went on till 6:30 a.m. this morning,” Katab said, adding: “Most people here are with the [Sunni] Future Movement.”
“Why do they fight,” NOW asked a woman drinking coffee in a nearby shop. “Why? Because it’s war,” she said laughing.
Violence erupted on Friday when at least 100 protesters tried to storm the Grand Serail following the top security chief’s funeral in downtown Beirut.
According to Rabih Baakrini, a Lebanese national, he and two other were attacked on Friday night at a checkpoint in Tariq al-Jedideh.
“[Armed men] shot to kill. There are 16 bullet holes in my car. Thankfully no one was injured,” he told NOW on Monday. “We were coming back from the airport after dropping off a friend when we reached a checkpoint manned by men with guns and no flags.”
Baakrini, a 30-year-old musician and festival organizer, said that the armed men asked for his ID and searched his car.
“I think they were Future Movement guys,” he said, adding: “I heard them mention that I was from Shiyah [a predominantly Shia neighborhood]. But they could also see from my name that I’m Christian.”
However, the men handed back Baakrini his ID and paperwork and told him he was allowed to drive through.
“The men started to yell at me to leave, but there was another car being searched in front of me, and I couldn’t drive passed it,” he said. “One guy then smashed my rear light with his gun, and I snapped back at him and asked him why he did that.”
The 30-year-old said that the men opened fire at his car as soon as he was able to drive away.
“Thirty seconds later, several men from the checkpoint jumped at the car and opened fire. One bullet went through the back seat and only missed the passenger because she bent down, and another bullet hit my head rest.”
Meanwhile, the army was not able to do anything, said Baakrini. “I eventually arrived at an army checkpoint and freaked out at them. I told them that someone tried to kill me. However, all they said is that I should fix my flat tire and leave because there’s nothing they can do.”
-NOW Lebanon

The Rape and Murder of Pakistan's Christian Children
by Raymond Ibrahim/Investigative Project on Terrorism
http://www.meforum.org/3362/pakistan-christian-children
The West sighed in relief when Rimsha Masih, the 14-year-old Christian girl arrested in Pakistan on August 16 for allegedly burning pages of the Quran, was finally released. Yet the West remains clueless concerning the graphic abuses—including rape and murder—Christian children in Pakistan routinely suffer, simply for being Christian. Consider two stories alone, both of which occurred at the same time Rimsha's blasphemy ordeal was making headlines around the world.
On August 14, another Christian girl, 12-year-old Muqadas Kainat (which means "Holy Universe") was ambushed in a field near her home in Sahawil by five Muslim men who "gang raped and murdered" her. At the time, her father was at a hospital visiting her sick mother. He and other family members began a frantic search, until a tip led them to the field where his daughter's body lay. The postmortem revealed that she had been "gang raped and later strangled to death by five men." Police, as usual, did not arrest anyone. As a Salem News report puts it, "Complicating matters is the fact that several Christian girls in this remote area have been raped and forced to both marry into the Muslim community and abandon their own religion, human rights groups report…. there is a history in this part of Pakistan according to the Christian community, of local authorities failing to investigate cases of rape or other violence against Christians, often for fear of influential Muslims or militants."
Similarly, on August 20, an 11-year-old Christian boy, Samuel Yaqoob, went to the markets of Faisalabad to buy food for his family, never to return. According to Wilson Chowdhry, Chairman of the British Pakistani Christian Association, "After extensive searching his body was found near a drain in the Christian colony, bearing marks of horrific torture, with the murder weapon nearby. His nose, lips and belly had been sliced off, and his family could hardly recognize him because the body was so badly burnt. Some 23 wounds by a sharp weapon have been identified in the autopsy. When sending his body for an autopsy, police raised the possibility of sodomy. Parts of Pakistani culture have a strong homosexual pederast culture, and Christian and other minority boys are especially susceptible to rape and abuse because of the powerlessness of their community and their despised status. In one case fairly recently, a Christian boy was kidnapped, raped, tortured and killed by a police officer, his body similarly being dumped in a drain."
These were just some of the stories concerning the sexual abuse and murder of Pakistan's Christian children that occurred last August—even as the world stood in awe at the Rimsha Masih blasphemy case. Here are 10 more examples, chosen at random from the many former documented cases:
Nisha, a 9-year-old Christian girl was abducted by Muslims, gang-raped, murdered by repeated blows to her head, and then dumped into a canal (May, 2009).
Gulfam, another 9-year-old Christian girl, was raped by a Muslim man. Though not killed, she was left "in shock and in the throes of a physical and psychological trauma." During her ordeal, her rapist told her "not to worry because he had done the same service to other young Christian girls" (December, 2010).
Lubna, a 12-year-old Christian girl was kidnapped, gang-raped, and murdered by a group of Muslims (October, 2010).
Kidnapped last Christmas Eve, a 12-year-old Christian girl known as "Anna" was gang raped for eight months, forcibly converted and then "married" to her Muslim attacker. After she escaped, instead of seeing justice done, "the Christian family is in hiding from the rapists and the police" (October, 2011).
After gang-raping a 13-year-old Christian girl, a band of Muslims came to her house when all male members were away working and "mercilessly" beat her pregnant aunt causing her to lose female twins to miscarriage: "They murdered our children, they raped our daughter. We have nothing left with us," lamented an older family member. The police went on to accuse the 13-year-old raped girl of "committing adultery with three men" (June, 2012).
A Muslim man murdered a teenage Christian girl, Amariah, during an attempted rape: he had "grabbed the girl and, under the threat of a gun, tried to drag her away. The young woman resisted, trying to escape the clutches of her attacker, when the man opened fire and killed her instantly, and later tried to conceal the corpse" (December, 2011).
Muslims abducted a 14-year-old Christian girl, Mehek, at gunpoint in broad daylight from her parents' house. One of her abductors declared he would "purify her" by making her "Muslim and my mistress" (August, 2011).
Shazia, a 12-year-old Christian girl, was enslaved, raped, and murdered by Chaudhry Naeem, a rich Muslim lawyer, who was acquitted. His wife and son had participated in abusing the child (November, 2010).Nadia, a Christian girl who was abducted in 2001 when she was 15-years-old and forced to marry a Muslim, only recently returned to her Catholic family (January, 2012).
A powerful Muslim businessman had two Christian sisters kidnapped, forced to convert to Islam, and "married" to him (May, 2011).
In every one of these cases, Pakistani police either failed to act or sided with the rapists and murderers.
The anecdotes represent a mere sampling of the documented atrocities committed against the children of Pakistan's Christians, who amount for a miniscule 1.5% of the nation's population. Then there are the stories that never make it to any media—stories of silent abuse that only the nameless, faceless victims know. For example, it took five years for the story of a 2-year-old toddler who was savagely raped because her Christian father refused to convert to Islam to surface. After undergoing five surgeries, her anatomy remains disfigured and she suffers from several permanent complications. Her family lives in fear and hiding.
How many Christian children in Pakistan are being mauled in silence, with their stories never surfacing?
And what animates this savagery? Discussing the aforementioned rape of 9-year-old Gulfam, local sources in Pakistan put it well: "It is shameful. Such incidents occur frequently. Christian girls are considered goods to be damaged at leisure. Abusing them is a right. According to the [Muslim] community's mentality it is not even a crime. Muslims regard them as spoils of war."
Indeed, here is how the late Majid Khadduri, "internationally recognized as one of the world's leading authorities on Islamic law and jurisprudence," explained the idea of human "spoils" in his War and Peace in the Law of Islam:
The term spoil (ghanima) is applied specifically to property acquired by force from non-Muslims. It includes, however, not only property (movable and immovable) but also persons, whether in the capacity of asra (prisoners of war) or sabi (women and children). … If the slave were a woman, the master was permitted to have sexual connection with her as a concubine.
From here, one can begin to understand the rabid fanaticism that possessed Pakistan's Muslims concerning the Rifsha blasphemy case, which resulted in mass riots, Muslim threats to take the law in their own hands, and the dislocation of Christians, some of whom have been forced to live and worship in the wilderness: if infidel Christians, especially their children, are seen as mere "spoils" to be used and disposed of with impunity, certainly it must be intolerable for Muslims if one of these "sub-humans" dares to desecrate Islam's holy book—the same book that ordains their inhuman status.
And herein is the true significance of the Rifsha Masih case: success can be measured not in the fact that this one particular Christian child got away from the savageries of Islamic law and culture, but whether her ordeal will begin to open Western eyes to the terrors Pakistan's Christian children routinely face.
**Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

Debate comes as Mideast terrorism, conflicts widen
Oren Dorell, USA TODAY
October 22. 2012 - As presidential candidates prepare to debate foreign policy Monday night, Middle East analysts say that while extremists have been ideologically weakened by the Arab Spring, they are trying to take advantage of tumult in the region by pushing Westerners and their allies out of the way.
Through it all, American foreign policy under President Obama "was guided by only one factor, don't get involved," says Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former CIA operator who's now at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. "They were talking about Americans avoiding another conflict."
That attitude provides "the jet fuel for Jihadism that the United States is running, that the United States is weak," Gerecht says. "We should counter that perception" by being more active and visible in support of its friends and ideals.
In Libya, where a string of attacks on Western diplomats ended with a deadly assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi and the withdrawal of most of the U.S. diplomatic staff there and in Tripoli, Gerecht says the U.S. diplomatic presence should be restored and expanded.
In Syria, where Obama says he supports but won't arm an opposition movement that has been fighting a civil war with Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, Gerecht says the U.S. should provide weapons to the rebels and support Turkey to end the conflict sooner.
Al-Qaeda has taken a beating since the end of the Iraq war and since the rise of democratic movements across the Arab world, which took away the Jihadi narrative of liberating Muslims from dictatorships. But that's not going to stop them from trying to take advantage of disorder, Gerecht says.
"If you see severe dictatorial systems collapse or be seriously challenged as in Syria, it's natural you're going to have a vacuum there and that small well-armed groups of men will have an opportunity."
Among the latest:
-- Jordanian authorities said Monday that 11 suspected al-Qaeda-linked terrorists have been charged with planning to attack shopping malls and Western diplomatic missions in the country, including the U.S. Embassy in Amman.
-- Three British Muslim men went on trial in London on Monday, accused of plotting to set off multiple bombs in terrorist strikes that prosecutors say could have been deadlier than the 2005 London transit attacks.
-- Fighting in Lebanon between Sunnis and Shiites widened in in Beirut and Tripoli as violence from the civil war in Syria spilled over into neighboring countries. A Jordanian soldier was killed in clashes with armed militants trying to cross the border into Syria.
Gerecht says the U.S. government should be visible and vigorous, especially in a place like Libya, where a pro-American government is struggling to rebuild, although that would not necessarily have stopped al-Qaeda from attacking.
When the attacks do come, however, the USA. should rebuild, "to make it very clear we're not going anywhere," he says.
"The administration would like to diminish its presence in the Middle East if not leave," he says. "That's not a good thing."
In Egypt, ultra-conservative Islamists vying for influence against the ruling Muslim Brotherhood rallied a mob to storm the U.S. Embassy over an American-made anti-Islam film last month. The U.S. should not apologize for free speech but speak against censorship and link its foreign aid to outcomes that support democratic ideals such as freedom of speech and protecting, he said.
U.S. inaction on Syria has allowed the situation to get much worse than it had to, resulting in thousands of excess deaths and the possibility of an all-out ethnic conflict between Sunnis and Alawites that could cost hundreds of thousands more lives, Gerecht says. U.S. anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons and Turkish involvement could have brought a quick resolution to the conflict and sent a message to Syria's Alawites to abandon Assad, he says.
"You want to do that before bloodlust develops," he says. "Once bloodlust develops and young men start killing people, it's much harder for older men to put an end to it."
The Benghazi attack, the Jordanian plot and weapons shipments from jihadists in eastern Libyan to militants in Syria and in Mali have shown that disparate branches of al-Qaeda affiliated groups are coordinating and working together, says Walid Phares, author of The Coming Revolution: Struggle for Freedom in the Middle East.
"They are linked, they are coordinating and they are helping each other," Phares says. "And what I project is that they are getting themselves ready for 'better times.'"
On jihadist chat rooms, participants project that in the next year or so they will again control large territories in Afghanistan after the USA withdraws, in parts of Libya, in northern Mali, which they already control, and in Sunni towns and cities inside Syria, Phares says.
"For them it's not an issue of striking targets inside the United States -- that's not their priority right now -- but to multiply the areas around the world where they will have open bases," he says.
The USA should focus more on supporting secularists in Libya, Egypt and Syria, where radical Islamists are on the rise, Phares says.
In Egypt, where the Muslim Brotherhood came to power earlier this year through elections, that Islamic party is allied with the Salafis, who are ideologically linked to al-Qaeda, Phares says.
"These countries discard the democratic process," he says. "In the very long term the forces of democracy will win it but they will need the help of the international community."
The Jordan plot was to be timed to the seven-year anniversary of hotel bombings that killed 60 people.
"They were plotting deadly terror attacks on vital institutions, shopping centers and diplomatic missions," government spokesman Sameeh Maaytah said. "They sought to destabilize Jordan.
Jordan's monarchy has been on good terms with the United States and the West in general, as well as Israel. But the Muslim Brotherhood has been making greater demands of the government for expanded democratic changes that would allow it to gain power in the country.
Abed Shehadeh al-Tahawi, who heads Jordan's Salafis, told the Associated Press that he "recognized at least half of the people shown on television. They are members of my group, but they have nothing to do with what is said to be a 'terror plot'," he said.
A statement by Jordanian intelligence said an investigation showed that the group "adopts the ideology of al-Qaeda" and that it nicknamed its terror plot as "9/11 the second" — a reference to the Amman hotel blasts, which happened on Nov. 9, 2005.
Since June, the suspects have been surveying targets across the country, bringing in rockets from Syria to use in the alleged plot, the statement said, adding that the group also planned to carry out suicide attacks using explosive belts. The militants sought to carry out their attacks in stages, it added, with initial attacks on shopping centers and foreigners in Jordanian hotels, followed by more deadly strikes with powerful explosives and chemicals on Western diplomatic missions and unspecified "vital national sites."
One attack involved firing rockets at a district in the Jordanian capital that houses the U.S., British and other diplomatic missions as well as housing for expats and Western diplomats.
In London, prosecutors say the three men on trial for terrorism were fired up by the sermons of a US.-born al-Qaeda preacher and hoped to cause carnage on a mass scale. But their plot was undone by mishaps with money and logistics, and ended in a police counterterrorism swoop last year.
Prosecution lawyer Brian Altman said Irfan Khalid and Ashik Ali, both 27, and 31-year-old Irfan Naseer, were central players in a plan to mount a terrorist attack "on a scale potentially greater than the London bombings in July 2005." Fifty-two commuters were killed when four al-Qaeda-inspired suicide bombers blew themselves up on London's bus and subway network on July 7, 2005.
Prosecutor Brian Altman said the trio were the senior members of a home-grown terror cell inspired by the anti-Western sermons of U.S.-born Islamist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed in Yemen in September 2011.
Meanwhile, Lebanese troops launched a major security operation on Monday to open all roads and force gunmen off the streets, trying to contain an outburst of violence set off by the assassination of a top intelligence official who was a powerful opponent of Syria.
Sectarian clashes killed at least five people. Opponents of Syria have blamed the regime in Damascus for the killing of Lebanese Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan in a Beirut car bomb on Friday. With Lebanon already tense and deeply divided over the civil war next door, the assassination has threatened to drag the country back into the kind of sectarian strife that plagued it for decades — much of it linked to Syria.
"The nation is passing through a crucial and critical period and tension has risen in some areas to unprecedented levels," the army said in a statement. It urged politicians to be careful not to incite violence "because the fate of the nation is on the edge."
Contributing: The Associated Press

The Islamic Schoolyard-Bully and Obama's America
by Raymond Ibrahim/FrontPageMagazine.com
October 18, 2012
http://www.meforum.org/3363/islamic-schoolyard-bully
In an era of high education and specialty degrees—from psychology to political science—perhaps it was inevitable for simple common sense to fall by the wayside. The embassy attacks across the Muslim world, especially the most savage in Egypt and Libya, are a testimony to this: U.S. policy towards these countries fundamentally exacerbated their wild reactions. To understand all this, one need only turn to the classic "schoolyard bully" paradigm, that any child can understand.
Not especially large or strong, the schoolyard bully—generally a prickly, nasty fellow—picks on two groups: 1) those who are obviously weaker than him and 2) those who, while larger or stronger than him, willingly give in to him—willingly appease. Bullying the first group, the weak, is an easy matter for the bully. As for the second group, whose capacities and responses are unclear, these he must first determine through a few bully trial-runs—to see whether they will fight back, or whether they will give in. He begins small—a shove and harsh word here and there—and takes it from there, always seeing how far he can go. The bully will receive one of two responses from the second group, those not smaller or weaker than him: either appeasement and giving in, or a punch to the nose. If he receives the former, he continually ups the bullying to see how much more he can get away with: harsh words and shoves become demands for lunch money and stolen jackets. His work becomes complete with the absolute subordination of his victim. As for the one who does not put up with his bullying—who gives him a swift punch to the nose—not only does the bully leave him be, he even begins to respect if not befriend him.
For centuries, people from all walks of life knew this—from experience if not common sense. Children knew it.
Now consider how the schoolyard bully paradigm helps explain America's relationship to the Muslim world, especially in the last four years, culminating with the U.S. embassy debacles in the Muslim world.
To set the stage, here are the main characters: the Muslim world represents the bully and the international arena is the schoolyard where his shoves and demands are made; the Muslim world's religious minorities, Christian and otherwise, represent the weak—they who are bullied incessantly because there is nothing they can do about it, and whose plight is a testimony to the bullying mentality of the Muslim world; the U.S. represents the ostensibly strong figure in the international-schoolyard, whose response to the bully is not wholly known and needs to be tested.
Soon after taking office, Barrack Obama made it clear in numerous ways that he was intent on appeasing the Muslim world—whether by bowing to the Wahabbi King, commanding NASA to make Muslims feel better about themselves, censoring security language deemed insulting to Muslims, or giving terrorist Osama bin Laden an Islamic funeral. No American president has been more appeasing to the Muslim world than Barrack Obama.
Of course, much of this may not be naïve appeasement; it may be something much worse. But the Muslim masses interpret it as appeasement.
Obama's most recent concessions were unprecedented: he betrayed America's longtime secular allies—whose existence was fundamental to U.S. interests, not to mention the interests of the secular and non-Muslim segments of their societies—to appease the Islamists of the world, those groups that share the same ideology, if not always tactics, of the terrorists who struck the U.S. on 9/11; those groups that are fundamentally hostile to the U.S.; those groups renowned for bullying the weak in their midst.
Of all Middle East nations, it was his policies in Egypt and Libya that were especially appeasing to the Islamists. In Egypt, he threw Hosni Mubarak—a staunch 30-year-ally of the U.S.—under the bus and helped empower the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafis; in Libya, he provided military aid to the al-Qaeda-affiliated "rebels" who overthrew Gaddafi.
And what thanks did America receive from Egypt and Libya? More bullying, more demands. Like the proverbial schoolyard bully used to getting what he wants, during the embassy riots and protests across the Muslim world, it was the Islamists of Egypt and Libya—precisely those two groups which Obama did so much for, the al-Qaeda affiliated rebels in Libya and the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafis—who went on the most violent sprees, made bolder demands (including the release of the Blind Sheikh or else), stormed and terrorized embassies, burned American flags, and murdered and raped American diplomats.
Thus, as all the talking heads analyze how and why the embassy attacks occurred, the greater lesson is obvious for those with common sense: nothing short of a punch to the nose—or at this very late date, when the image of an appeasing America is so ingrained, several punches—will ever cease the bullying and earn some respect for the United States.
**Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

The Qatari emir eyes Gaza’s Hamas as his “Al Qods”-style militia
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report October 22, 2012/The Qatari ruler, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, decided to visit the Gaza Strip this week, becoming the first Arab ruler ever to visit the Palestinian enclave, not merely as a benign patron with a large $245 million dollar check for the beleaguered population. He has big plans for its rulers, the Islamist Hamas, which could have wide-ranging repercussions for Israel, Egypt, Jordan and the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority headed by Hama’s rival Mahmoud Abbas.
He will no doubt enjoy a warm welcome, not least by making naught of the Israeli sea blockade against the Gaza Strip where Hamas seized power in a coup in 2007, two years after Israel handed the territory over to the Palestinian Authority.
Sheikh Hamad’s plans for Gaza are an extension of his own regional ambitions. Two years ago, he began making his mark on Middle East politics in Libya, where he pressed his security and special forces and cash into the NATO operation for overthrowing Muammar Qaddafi. After Qaddafi was killed, the Qatari emir took a hand in the Syrian conflict, sponsoring some of the factions fighting to rid their country of Bashar Assad.
Both of these Al Thani projects remain unfinished, although they shed some light on his mode of operation and objectives.
Until the early winter of 2011, Qatari political, military and intelligence input and the Obama administration’s goals in Libya went hand in hand, although Washington chose to lead the operation “from behind."
But after Qaddafi was killed exactly a year ago on Oct. 20, their ways parted. The United States threw its support behind one group of former insurrectionists while the emir espoused more radical Islamist factions.
This division of labor evolved into the main obstacle to establishing stable central government in Tripoli. It also provided fertile ground for the radical Muslim Brotherhood and fundamentalist Salafis to flourish.
The exact relationship between radical factions and militias under Qatari patronage and the Al Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM) network branching out across North Africa is hard to pin down with any precision. But it leaves a gray area which was exploited for the murder of US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans in Benghazi on Sept. 11.
To this day, the circumstances of this attack have not been fully established - even after it become a hot potato tossed back and forth between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney in their campaigns for the presidency. But Libya’s factional infighting bears strongly on the Qatari emir’s visit to the Gaza Strip because it is reflected in the power politics of the Gaza Strip spilling over into Egyptian Sinai among the ruling Hamas, the Salafi groups and al Qaeda factions.
Since Qaddafi’s downfall, rivers of smuggled arms have underscored the Libyan connection by transforming Sinai and Gaza into the biggest munitions trading store in the Middle East. There is plenty to go around for all and sundry. Islamist terrorists of every stripe, including al Qaeda, have for months been partaking freely of the smuggled hardware.
The Egyptian authorities did not interfere when the one million Bedouin denizens of Sinai, cashing in on Libyan chaos, matured from petty smugglers to rich merchants, local warlords commanding private militias and influence.
For the past three months, the spiraling attacks on Israel which are planned and organized in the Gaza Strip aim equally at keeping Egyptian security forces based in Sinai out of their nefarious transactions.
Hisham Al-Saidni, aka Abu Walid al-Masri, head of the Gaza and Sinai Salafist faction known as Majlis Shura Al-Mujahideen, was not based in Sinai where he kept most of his men. He preferred to work out of Jabaliya north of Gaza City. He counted on Hamas turning a blind eye to his doings.
By killing him in an air strike on Oct. 13, while he was riding a motorcycle in Jabaliya, Israel put its hand in an Islamist hornets’ nest reaching outside the borders of Gaza-Sinai terror and touching a nerve as far away as the Al Thani palace in Doha.
Sheikh Hamad’s visit - most probably Tuesday, Oct. 23 – aims to mark out the Gaza Strip at as an area of Qatari influence. During his brief stay, accompanied by a large entourage including his wife, he will inspect projects he has funded in the past and the new enterprises he is sponsoring, three roads, a hospital and a new town.
The Qatari emir’s overall plan is to shore up the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip, after giving up on Egypt’s government as inept and not up to hauling the country out of its economic morass. He believes it is imperative for the Gaza-based Palestinian regime to gain mastery over the lawless Bedouin and Salafist terrorist groups of Sinai and, above all the arms smuggling hub in the peninsula. If they continue to run riot, Qatar’s influence in Libya will gradually ebb.
To achieve this mastery, Sheik Hamad wants to turn the Hamas Islamist terrorist organization into a disciplined elite fighting force on the Iranian Al Qods Brigades model, to serve as Qatar’s operational arm in the Gaza Strip and the strategic Sinai Peninsula.
This promises Hamas a new lease of life after the loss of its command bases, assets and positions of influence in Damascus as a result of the Syrian conflict.
The Palestinian Islamists will remain faithful to their commitment to fight the Jewish state – only now they will carry on as an instrument of Sheikh Hamad, and Israel will not only be up against the Islamists and jihadis of the Gaza Strip and Sinai, but Qatar’s legions in Libya and Syria.
As a muscle-flexing display for its new patron, Hamas is expected to redouble its attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip and Sinai.