Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for July 25/12
Israel’s security chiefs rally to disperse war clouds with Syria
Big Russian fleet nears Syria. Iran to fight regime change as foreign forces pile up
Can Syria keep control of its chemical weapons?
U.S. extends sanctions on Hezbollah backers
EU refuses Israeli request to blacklist Hezbollah
Lebanon's PM, Mikati was not consulted on protest letter to Syria
Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour Sends Memorandum to Syria, but Falls Short of 'Protest' Expectations
Future bloc MP Ahmad Fatfat: March 14 to cast no-confidence vote against FM
Aoun: Request for Telecom Data is Blackmail
Lebabob's FM, Mansour Delays Sending Complaint to Ali Pending Validation of 'Some Facts on the Ground
Lebanon's Future Bloc: No Dialogue without telecoms data
Lebanon receives pledges to help with Syrian refugee influx
LF calls for the questioning of Al-Akhbar journalist
Report: Hizbullah Uncovers 3-Member Spy Network
Hussam fugitive from Lebanese justice
Miqati Regrets Government Inaction on Strikes
Jumblat to Meet Saudi King ‘Soon,’ Reiterates Cabinet Won’t Collapse
Future of National Dialogue In Lebanon tied to events in Syria
President Gemayel Rules out Collapse of Hizbullah after Defeat of Syrian Regime
Iran general: Reprisals await Arabs over Syria
Saudi Grand Mufti Fears TV Series Will Expose Islam to Criticism/by Raymond Ibrahim
Ramadan massacre at mosque near Hama
Syria unleashes helicopters on rebels in Aleppo
Syria's Weapons at the Ready
Clinton Says 'Not Too Late' for Assad to Hand Over Power
In Beirut, Dozens Protest Russian Position on Syria
Syria: Rustom Ghazali Named Chief of Political Security
Turkey to Shut Border Crossings with Syria
Syrian Ambassador to UAE Defects  
Reports: Head of Syria Embassy in Cyprus Defects
Lavrov Accuses U.S. of 'Justifying Terror' in Syria
Observers: Half U.N. Observer Mission has Quit Syria
Israel's Iron Dome System Downs Gaza Rocket
EU, Iran Officials Hold Talks on Nuclear Row

Israel’s security chiefs rally to disperse war clouds with Syria
DEBKAfile Special Report July 24, 2012/Amos Gilead, head of the Defense Ministry Political and Security Division, went first with a long radio interview on Tuesday, July 24, followed by Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz – both administering their own brands of tranquilizer. Gilead said that the Assad regime was in full control of Syria’s unconventional weapons and so, while Israel’s intelligence bodies must be extra alert and prepare for all eventualities in Syria, there is no need to panic.
Gen. Gantz offered the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee this abstruse thought: “If you work from one focus, you may find it hard to find the point, but if you act broadly, you may quickly find yourself in an area that is broader than you planned.”
Since the topic he was addressing was Syria’s chemical and biological arsenal, he probably meant to say something like this: If the IDF only targets Syria’s unconventional arsenal, its aim might not hit home. But by missing its aim, the Israeli military may find itself dragged very quickly into a comprehensive war with Syria – and perhaps Hizballah and Iran, to boot.
The chief of staff, like the defense ministry official, therefore broke ranks with the muscle-flexing President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, by urging a large measure of restraint against Syria’s admitted possession of chemical weapons.
The two Israeli security chiefs answered the Syrian Foreign Ministry’s warning Monday - that Damascus would only use chemical weapons if faced with “external aggression” - by making it clear that Israel is not planning to attack Syria. Therefore, Bashar Assad has no cause to target Israel for any unconventional warfare attacks he may plan.
Amos Gilead dismissed as “not credible” the rebel Free Syrian Army’s Tuesday statement that the Damascus government has moved chemical weapons to airports on its borders, along with equipment for mixing chemical components. He also said emphatically: “Hizballah does not have Syrian chemical weapons at this time,” thereby laying the ground for Gen. Gantz’s assurance.
Both sought to cut through the war clouds gathering between Israel and Syria since July 20, when US Pentagon sources first disclosed that Syria’s chemical weapons had been moved out of storage.
debkafile’s military sources strongly doubt that Gilead and Gantz will achieve their purpose - either in Damascus or at home. They have only generated the troubling impression of an Israeli leadership divided against itself by broadcasting mixed signals on the highly incendiary issue of the largest chemical arsenal in the world in the hands of one of its most ruthless despots.
Bashar Assad didn't need their assurances. He wasn’t worried about Israel suddenly deciding to intervene in the Syrian civil war after refraining from doing so for 17 months. At this point, he is deep in plotting tactics for emerging victorious from the full-scale revolt against his regime.
Advice relevant to his current preoccupation was offered Monday by the hard-line Iranian publication Kayhan: Since the conflict in Syria has morphed from the security (suppressing unrest) plane to the military (warfare between the military and rebels) track, said the Kayhan editorial, Assad is left with no option but to embark on war – limited or broad - to liberate occupied territory (the Golan) - i.e. against Israel. Since Kayhan often represents the views of the ruling elite in Tehran and the Revolutionary Guards, its editorial comments will be taken seriously.
And this is what the Israeli chief of staff was talking about when he warned that a “broad” operation might degenerate into a wider plan than planned, while intimating that Israel has no wish to be entangled in war against either Syria or Iran. Rather than inspiring confidence and calm in the Israeli street, Gilead and Gantz sowed confusion and alarm -most of all by their assurance that Assad is in “full control” of his unconventional weapons arsenal and it has not yet passed into “negative hands.”.
If that is so desirable, why did US President Barack Obama issue a grave warning to the Syrian ruler Monday that he would be held accountable by the world and the United States “if he makes the tragic mistake of using chemical weapons?” He was not the only world leader to voice extreme concern. His control of those poisonous weapons is like putting the cat in charge of the cream.
And if Israel has turned to a policy of tolerance for the mass murderer in Damascus and his control of chemical weapons, why did Defense Minister Barak order the Israeli military to prepare for a possible attack on that weapons arsenal? By flatly contradicting the statements of Israel’s prime minister and defense minister, the two security chiefs caused extreme damage to Israel’s credibility without serving any beneficial purpose. How will this be taken in Damascus and Tehran?

Big Russian fleet nears Syria. Iran to fight regime change as foreign forces pile up
DEBKAfile Special Report July 25, 2012/Russian, Western and Arab forces were piling up on Syrian borders Wednesday, July 25, bringing closer a war confrontation which could spur the Assad regime into making good on its threat to use chemical weapons against “external aggression.”
Based on this reading, Moscow added its voice Tuesday to that of US President Obama and warned Bashar Assad against using chemical weapons in view of “its commitments under the international convention it ratified prohibiting the use of poisonous gases as a method of warfare.”
debkafile’s military sources: With operational intelligence deployment and electronic stations positioned inside Syria, the Russians are better placed than any other outsiders to know what is happening on Syria’s battlefields. Their warning must therefore be tied to solid information confirming Washington’s assessment that Assad is dangerously close to deciding to use his chemical and biological weapons in a way that would precipitate a regional conflict.
Israel, Turkey and Jordan would be the first targets on his list.
The immediacy of the peril, debkafile’s military sources report, has speeded the arrival of Russian warships to Syria to counter a potential Western, Arab or Israeli assault on the embattled country.
The Russian Ministry of Defense, which rarely discloses Russian military movements outside its borders, announced early Wednesday morning, July 25 that a fleet of Russian warships had passed through the Strait of Gibraltar and entered the Mediterranean.
The fleet is headed by the anti-submarine and anti-aircraft Admiral Chabanenko warship and consists of another three vessels carrying a large number of Russian marines. This fleet will rendezvous with a Russian flotilla standing by in the Mediterranean since July 21, detached from Russian Black Fleet and composed of the Smetlivy figate and two large landing craft loaded with Russian marines. This group awaited the main force before approaching Syria.
The fact that Russia is massing large numbers of marines off the Syrian coast looks as though a landing on Syrian soil is on Moscow’s cards.
The Russian marine contingent, debkafile’s sources say, will stand ready - either to come to the aid of the Assad regime or to serve as a bargaining chip for a last-minute deal between Moscow and Washington for ending the war by establishing a transitional military regime in Damascus whose makeup would be agreed between them and Assad.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hinted at this possibility on Tuesday, July 24, when she said: “We do believe that it is not too late for the Assad regime to commence with planning for a transition.”
But Clinton also hinted, in a more threatening tone, that a situation is developing for the creation of safe zones in rebel-controlled areas of Syria. “More and more territory is being taken and it will, eventually, result in a safe haven inside Syria which will then provide a base for further actions by the opposition,” she said.
Clinton didn’t name the potential protectors of those havens. However, since the Syrian rebels are short of manpower, Western, Muslim or Arab defenders would have to be called in.
Wednesday, British military sources in London sad the moment is rushing forward for British forces to get involved in what is happening in Syria. Iran and Turkey are not indifferent either.
Deputy Iranian Revolutionary Guard chief, Gen. Masoud Jazayeri, warned on Tuesday, July 24, that Tehran would not permit regime change in Damascus and if Syria’s enemies intervened, Iran would hit them hard. The Iranian commander pointed a finger at Saudi Arabia and Qatar, adding that the US and Israel are at the forefront of the comprehensive campaign against Syria but are being beaten back.
This was the first time Tehran had explicitly threatened military intervention in Syria. Wednesday, Turkey shut its border crossings to Syria. Military sources in Ankara confirmed that massive Turkish military strength had been on the move toward the Syrian border.

U.S. extends sanctions on Hezbollah backers
July 25, 2012 /The Daily Star/WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama extended for another year Wednesday sanctions against entities the U.S. considers threatening to Lebanon’s stability, a veiled reference to supporters of Hezbollah. Obama said in a message to Congress that he would prolong the “national emergency” which former president George W. Bush first declared in 2007, and which has been renewed each year since. The measures include freezing the assets of people considered to be threatening to Lebanon’s democracy or stability.
“Certain ongoing activities, such as continuing arms transfers to Hezbollah that include increasingly sophisticated weapons systems, serve to undermine Lebanese sovereignty, contribute to political and economic instability in Lebanon, and continue to constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States,” the president wrote.
Obama mentioned “Syrian interference in Lebanon” but did not explicitly reference the current conflict in Syria. However, sectarian violence has flared on a number of occasions in Beirut since the revolt broke out in neighboring Syria in March last year.

EU refuses Israeli request to blacklist Hezbollah
July 24, 2012/Daily Star/BRUSSELS: The European Union turned down a request Tuesday by Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman to blacklist Hezbollah as a terror group after last week's deadly bombing in Bulgaria. "There is no consensus for putting Hezbollah on the list of terrorist organizations," said Cypriot Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency. Israel blames Iran and Hezbollah for Wednesday's suicide attack at the Black Sea airport of Burgas in which five Israelis and their Bulgarian driver died. Sitting alongside the Cypriot minister at a news conference held after annual EU-Israel talks, Lieberman said: "The time has come to put Hezbollah on the terrorist list of Europe." "It would give the right signal to the international community and the Israeli people." But Kozakou-Marcoullis said Hezbollah was an organisation comprising a party as well as an armed wing and was "active in Lebanese politics". "Taking into account this and other aspects there is no consensus for putting Hezbollah on the list of terrorist organizations," she said. The EU would consider this if there were tangible evidence of Hezbollah engaging in acts of terror, she added.

LF calls for the questioning of Al-Akhbar journalist
July 25, 2012/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: The Lebanese Forces called on the State Prosecutor Said Mirza to question a journalist in Al-Akhbar newspaper for interviewing the assassin of former President Bachir Gemayel, Habib Chartouni “The LF calls on the General Prosecutor to summon journalist Afif Diab to inquire about when, how and where he met Chartouni to help arrest him again after his extradition if he is abroad,” the LF said in a statement. Two days after the assassination of Gemayel, Chartouni, a Maronite and a member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party was arrested and admitted killing Gemayel. But in 1990, Chartouni escaped prison and has been regularly giving interviews to Lebanese journalists since then although his whereabouts remain unknown. Hours after the LF statement Tuesday, Chartouni spoke to Al-Jadeed television channel via telephone and said he is no longer a member of the SSNP. Chartouni also said that the Gemayel family has had relations with Israel since 1950s and that the Kataeb Party was heavily paying the price of its acts during the 1975-90 Civil War.

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour Sends Memorandum to Syria, but Falls Short of 'Protest' Expectations
Naharnet/Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour revealed on Wednesday that he sent a memorandum to Syrian Ambassador Ali Abdul Karim Ali demanding his country to avoid the recurrence of any border incidents. Mansour made the revelation to reporters ahead of a cabinet session at the Grand Serail and following two days of harsh criticism by the March 14 opposition on his procrastination in delivering a letter of complaint on Syria’s violations of Lebanese territories in compliance with President Michel Suleiman’s request.
But the foreign minister’s memorandum fell short of Suleiman’s demand of a protest letter on repeated incursions to Lebanon.
Ahead of his move, Mansour shrugged off demands to summon Ali or expel him, saying “summoning does not take place among brethren.”
“I will snap back at my critics in the appropriate way and at the appropriate time,” Mansour told several newspapers.
The March 14 criticism came after Ali violated the protocol on Monday and made a statement even before receiving the letter of protest.
Syria should instead be filing complaints because its border posts are being attacked from Lebanese territories, the diplomat said.
The opposition also criticized the foreign minister, who reiterated that he was taking his time in delivering the letter to the Syrian envoy because he is trying to “document the security information” after allegedly five Lebanese men were killed inside Syrian territories.
He said “there is no need to hand him (Ali) a letter of complaint but a diplomatic memo because the violation did not come from one side.”
The issue drew a sharp reaction from the opposition which met with Mansour on Tuesday to pressure him into handing over the letter to the Syrian ambassador.
Al-Mustaqbal bloc MP Nuhad Mashnouq said he will ask the head of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee to call for a meeting to discuss the issue.
“The Lebanese authorities should have expelled the Syrian envoy” for crossing the line, said the opposition lawmaker, who also criticized Mansour for supporting him.
Another March 14 official, Phalange lawmaker Elie Marouni, ridiculed Mansour for “still trying to figure out the appropriate words to write the letter.”
“He should have given the Syrian ambassador a few hour ultimatum to leave” Lebanon, he said.
Sources close to Prime Minister Najib Miqati said the premier learned of Suleiman’s request only after it was made. They stressed that the issue will not be discussed during a cabinet session at the Grand Serail on Wednesday.

Future bloc MP Ahmad Fatfat: March 14 to cast no-confidence vote against FM
July 25, 2012 /Future bloc MP Ahmad Fatfat told Future News television on Wednesday that March 14 parties will cast a no-confidence vote against Foreign Affairs Minister Adnan Mansour as soon as possible if the parliament convenes.Fatfat also called for expelling Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdel Karim Ali. On Monday, President Michel Sleiman accused Syria of violating Lebanese territory after a house East of the country was hit by a blast and shells fell on the northern border. The president requested Mansour send a letter of complaint to Ali to address the issue. On Tuesday, Mansour said he was waiting “to verify facts before submitting the letter of complaint to Ali.”-NOW Lebanon

Hussam fugitive from Lebanese justice
July 25, 2012 /By Wassim Mroueh/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Although the Special Tribunal for Lebanon has said that it has no authority to press charges against the so-called false witnesses in the investigation of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, recently captured Hussam Hussam is wanted by Lebanon’s judiciary in two criminal cases. A judicial source told The Daily Star Tuesday that Beirut’s investigative judge issued an arrest warrant for Hussam in 2008 for allegedly making threats against journalist Fares Khashan, and the Syrian national is also wanted on charges of fraud issued by the investigative judge in the south. A Syrian rebel group announced in a video posted on YouTube Sunday that it had captured Hussam, who gave testimony to the STL’s predecessor, the U.N. International Independent Investigation Commission, alleging that Syrian and Lebanese security chiefs were involved in the bombing that claimed the lives of Hariri and 22 others. Asked whether he had any information about the assassination of Hariri, Hussam said in the video: “Just let me reach Beirut and I will reveal surprises that you have never dreamed of.” The rebel speaking in the video also promised to send Hussam to former Prime Minister Saad Hariri as a “gift.”
But former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, who heads Hariri’s Future parliamentary bloc, said that the Future Movement has nothing to do with the matter.
“This is a judicial matter in which the international tribunal has a say,” the Sidon MP told The Daily Star. Siniora said the movement would not be contacting Hussam at all.
Hussam, 36, gave testimony in 2005 to the UNIIIC, which was probing the assassination of the former statesman. A few months later, Hussam held a news conference in Damascus, recanting his testimony and lashing out at Saad Hariri and the March 14 coalition. During the UNIIIC’s investigation, four Lebanese generals were held almost four years in connection with the Hariri case before the STL ordered they be freed. An STL spokesperson could not be reached by The Daily Star Tuesday for comment on Hussam’s capture, but last year, its Appeals Chamber ruled that the U.N.-backed court has no jurisdiction to look into the case of false witnesses. “The individuals who were interviewed during the mandate of the United Nations International Independent Investigation Commission [UNIIIC] are not witnesses before the tribunal, as their evidence has not been presented to the Trial Chamber,” it said. The STL said that “no provision in our statute allows the tribunal to assert jurisdiction over criminal offenses which might have taken place before the creation of the tribunal, other than those listed in Article 1 of the Statute,” added the decision.
Article 1 specifies that the STL has jurisdiction over the attack that killed Hariri, as well as connected attacks in 2004 and 2005. STL President David Baragwanath has said the court could broach the issue, but only if Lebanon and the U.N. Security Council first extend its mandate.The family of former head of the Lebanese Communist Party George Hawi, who was killed in a bomb blast in June 2005, filed a lawsuit against Hussam after photos were released of him at the crime scene shortly after the attack. The STL is investigating Hawi’s case in addition to other connected cases under its jurisdiction. Another case that could involve Hussam is the attempted assassination of journalist May Chidiac. The March 14 journalist who survived the attempt on her life in September 2005, says that Hussam came to the hospital where she was transferred shortly after the attack to see whether she passed away. The Hezbollah-led March 8 coalition has labeled Hussam, along with Mohammad Zuheir al-Siddiq and others, “false witnesses” who mislead the international investigation into Hariri’s assassination.

A spillover likely?
Shane Farrell and Luna Safwan/Now Lebanon
July 25, 2012
A tank and an ambulance stationed in Tripoli, where sectarian clashes have been fuelled by the situation in next-door Syria. (AFP photo)
When the news of last week’s blast in Damascus that killed several of President Bashar al-Assad’s inner circle reached the Lebanese town of Tripoli, celebratory gunfire in the pro-rebel, largely Sunni area of Bab al-Tabbeneh quickly turned into a short clash with neighboring Jabal Mohsen, many of whose residents support the Syrian government. The clash resulted in one dead.
With Lebanon’s political scene broadly split over support for or opposition to the Syrian regime, developments on its doorstep often have implications for Lebanon’s domestic politics. And there is a sectarian dimension: The Shia, largely represented by Hezbollah and Amal, are seen as strong allies of the Alawite-dominated Syrian government. Lebanese Sunnis, on the other hand, generally side with the mainly Sunni opposition in Syria.
But while the conflict in Syria is increasingly being viewed along sectarian lines, it has not sparked clashes in Lebanon to the extent that some commentators had predicted. The exception to this is Tripoli, which has seen several rounds of clashes between Alawites and Sunnis since the Syrian conflict began in March 2011.
Lebanese political leaders, for their part, appear to be actively quelling sectarian tensions in the country, and the army is playing a key role. The army sent soldiers to separate pro-and anti-regime demonstrations that took place in the same neighborhoods.
March 14 leaders, for their part, have been treading a fine line between open support for the Syrian opposition and avoiding sectarian rhetoric. March 8, and in particular Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, have also avoided fiery comments likely to incite clashes. This was most clearly illustrated in May, when a group of Shia pilgrims were kidnapped by opposition forces in Syria. Sunni leader Saad Hariri condemned the kidnapping and offered to fly the pilgrims, who were erroneously thought to have been released, back to Lebanon on his private jet, while Nasrallah appealed for calm and called on his supporters not to demonstrate on the streets.
But there is only so much the political establishment can do.
In the mixed, working-class Beirut neighborhoods of Tarik al-Jdeideh, Barbour, Corniche al-Mazraa, Zokak al-Blat, Saleem Slem and Ras al-Nabaa , which often witness the first and most intense bouts of fighting based on sectarian grievances, residents say there are plenty of issues that could spark sectarian fighting besides the Syria conflict.
Although people keep an eye on Syrian developments, most of the 30 or so residents NOW Lebanon interviewed cited other issues that incite popular anger, namely a decline in their income and a lack of provision of social services, most evident by increasingly frequent power cuts. The latter grievance, moreover, has resulted in road blockages and tire burning in many parts of the country. Several people also said road rage or fights over parking spots, which are notoriously difficult to find in residential centers, are also likely to spark disputes.
Fights that begin with a small number of people, especially if those involved have strong political or community ties, could escalate and—worse –take on a sectarian dimension. And this is something political leaders would find far more difficult to quell. They might be able to put a lid on it for a time, but they cannot always prevent tensions from spilling over. This is arguably more the case with Sunnis who have faced a leadership vacuum since April 2011, when Saad Hariri, the most popular Sunni leader, left Lebanon apparently due to security concerns.
As for the current situation in these mixed areas, it varies widely depending on whom you ask. Most people interviewed said that there was no sectarian tension at all. In Barbour, however, café owner Mohammad Noureddine, who comes from a mixed Sunni-Shia background and whose parents’ families lie on opposite sides of the political spectrum, took a different view. He said that tension in the streets has rarely been so high, that people in these areas generally frequent establishments owned by people of their same sect and that those who say otherwise are only doing so because that is what they want printed in the press. More worryingly, since the May events in 2008, when Hezbollah-backed militias took over most of West Beirut and some areas outside the capital, people on both sides have dramatically increased their weapons stockpiles, Noureddine said.
But journalist Sanna el-Jaques, who also lives in Barbour, says she feels tension levels are far lower now than in 2008 and that, contrary to what others reported, daily grievances are actually uniting people, as they are difficulties faced by all residents. “People who don’t live but work in these mixed areas imagine that there is always something, but the residents don’t feel scared,” she added.
Al-Balad journalist and Dahiyeh resident Ali al-Amin does not expect widespread trouble around Beirut, at least linked to developments in Syria. He believes the capital “might witness small, personal conflicts as usual, but nothing more,” and that Saida would be conflict-free, despite the fiery anti-Hezbollah rhetoric of Saida-based Sheikh Ahmed al-Assir. Instead, as has been the case up to now, if clashes do occur in Lebanon, Amin feels they will be largely limited to neighborhoods in Tripoli and the northern border region. But if the conflict in Syria becomes far more sectarian, it may spill over into Lebanon.
“In Syria, all of the confrontations are feeding the division in Lebanon. We can connect the future of the Sunni-Shia relationship in Lebanon to what will happen in Syria. Depending on how the regime [in Syria] falls, we can identify the consequences here.”

Iran general: Reprisals await Arabs over Syria
July 24, 2012/Daily Star/By Nasser Karimi
TEHRAN, Iran: A commander of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards has warned "hated Arab" rivals they could face repercussions for their efforts to topple the Tehran-backed regime of President Bashar Assad in Syria, a report said Tuesday. Gen. Masoud Jazayeri did not specify any country or give details on the type of possible backlash, but Iran's main Arab foe Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations such as Qatar are key supporters of the Syrian rebels. The comments, carried by the semiofficial Fars news agency, also appear aimed at dismissing speculation that Iran is trying to distance itself from Assad as part of political bet-hedging in case he falls. Assad is Iran's main Middle East ally, and his downfall would be a serious blow to Iran and its proxy forces Hezbollah in Lebanon and Palestinian Hamas.
"Soon the soil of Syria will be cleaned of the dirt of the enemy," Fars quoted Jazayeri as saying. He added the "resistance" - meaning Assad's government and its allies- "will settle scores with enemies one by one." Jazayeri, also a spokesman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that Assad's regime has friends in the region poised to "strike out" - an apparent reference to forces that include Hezbollah and Hamas.
"Yet none of the friends of the Syrian government and the great front of resistance has entered the scene. If this happens, they will strike back hard at the enemy, particularly the hated Arabs," Jazayeri was quoted as saying. The remarks suggest that Iranian has no current military role in the Syrian crisis despite close relations between Tehran and Damascus. Iran has proposed playing a mediator role between Assad and rebels, but the offer has found no backing among opposition groups that refused to negotiate to Assad or allies. At least 17,000 people have died in the Syrian uprising since March 2011. Gulf nations such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar have pledged funds to aid Syria's rebels, but there is no clear trail showing how much is reaching the fighters.

Report: Hizbullah Uncovers 3-Member Spy Network
Naharnet / 25 July 2012/Hizbullah has reportedly detained two of its high-ranking officials and a member of a municipality in the eastern Bekaa valley for cooperating with Israel. According to An Nahar newspaper published on Wednesday, the party’s security apparatus was able to expose the three members five days ago. Media reports revealed earlier this month that Hizbullah was able to crack a spying cell that involved three men who resided in Bourj al-Barajneh area in Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hizbullah stronghold. The three men according to the reports are not members of Hizbullah but are known for having close relations with high-ranking officials in the party. The first suspect M. H. lived in Ukraine in 1998-2000 and worked at a human smuggling network, where he helped smuggle Lebanese, Palestinian and Iraqi citizens into Europe.He later moved back to Lebanon, and then headed to France where he was supposedly detained on charges of smuggling people.
However, the reports said that he wasn’t detained but actually worked with a western intelligence agency that tasked him to monitor the endeavors of an official at Hizbullah who lived close to him in Beirut.
The nature of the mission given to the other two alleged spy network members J. J. and M. S. remains obscure, according to the reports.

Lebanon's Future Bloc: No Dialogue without telecoms data
July 25, 2012/By Hussein Dakroub/The Daily Star
The Future bloc stressed the significance of National Dialogue with “equal rights.” (The Daily Star/Dalati Nohra)
BEIRUT: The parliamentary Future bloc called Tuesday on Hezbollah to clarify its position on the discussion of its arms and renewed its demand for the government to provide security agencies with complete telecommunications data as an essential step for the opposition March 14 coalition to end its boycott of National Dialogue.
The bloc’s stance came as the row over the telecoms data issue escalated between the March 14 coalition and the Hezbollah-led March 8 bloc. Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun described the March 14 demand for complete telecoms data as “illegal,” saying it touched on the people’s private lives.
Meanwhile, the general prosecutor of the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon, Normon Farrell, and top investigator Mohammad Ali al-Lajmi arrived in Beirut Tuesday night from Paris for talks with Lebanese officials on the work of the tribunal, which is seeking to uncover and try the perpetrators of the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
The Future bloc of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri stressed the significance of dialogue among rival Lebanese factions as a way to resolve political differences and consolidate sectarian coexistence.
It also expressed appreciation President Michel Sleiman’s call for intra-Lebanese dialogue and his efforts to make the talks successful.
However, the bloc reiterated the requirements to ensure the success of dialogue which, it said, “should be held among parties equal in rights and duties who must show honest readiness” to make any dialogue move successful.
“Hence, the bloc sees that the March 14 coalition’s declared stance on suspending participation in National Dialogue sessions came after parties participating in Dialogue who control the Cabinet decision-making had refused to allow the Lebanese security bodies to obtain the necessary cellular telecommunications data to fight the assassination crimes and protect the Lebanese from terrorist acts,” the bloc said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting chaired by former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora at Hariri’s residence in Downtown Beirut.
The statement clearly referred to Hezbollah and its ally, Aoun’s FPM, who have strongly refused to allow security bodies to access the data on the pretext of protecting people’s privacy.
The bloc warned that the government’s continued refusal to constantly and automatically provide security bodies with telecoms data undermined the credibility of these parties and the usefulness of dialogue with them, “especially as these parties [Hezbollah] upheld illegitimate arms, refusing to put them under the state’s authority and control.”
“The Future bloc stresses its stance on the need for automatically and constantly providing the Lebanese security bodies with complete telecoms data without impediments,” it said.
It called on the government to protect March 14 leaders threatened with assassination. The bloc also demanded the quick arrest of people suspected of involvement in the attempts to assassinate Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea in April and Batroun MP Butros Harb in July and lift protection from “those criminals and expose those standing behind them.”
The bloc called on Hezbollah to clarify its stance on National Dialogue on the issue of its arms following MP Mohammad Raad’s “surprising remarks” that it was premature to discuss a national defense strategy now. “Dialogue is an important and essential means for resolving differences and is not [meant] for maneuvers,” it said.
The bloc stressed that any dialogue not based on the principle of adhering to the Constitution with regard to the state as the only authority to possess arms and defend Lebanon, would be “a futile dialogue [meant] for distraction and passing time.”
The bloc’s stance came a day after Sleiman postponed a new round of National Dialogue scheduled for Tuesday until Aug. 16, in a move reflecting continuing rifts between rival political leaders over the thorny issue of Hezbollah’s arms and the release of telecoms data.
Sleiman’s decision came shortly after the March 14 coalition upheld its decision to boycott the Dialogue session, citing ambiguities concerning the release of telecommunications data it says security bodies need to carry on their probes in cases of attempted assassinations of the coalition’s political figures.
The Dialogue session was supposed to discuss how to benefit from Hezbollah’s weapons in a national defense strategy designed to protect Lebanon against a possible Israeli attack.
Siniora, after meeting an envoy of Sleiman, reiterated the March 14 demand for the release of complete telecoms data to security agencies.
Meanwhile, Aoun rejected the March 14 demand for the release of complete telecoms data as “illegal.”
“We heard yesterday that they [March 14 parties] are demanding complete data and [Hezbollah’s] arms. Arms was not originally on the Dialogue agenda,” Aoun told reporters after chairing a weekly meeting of his parliamentary Change and Reform bloc at his residence in Rabieh, north of Beirut.
Noting that Tuesday’s Dialogue session was designed to discuss a plan to be presented by Sleiman on a national defense strategy, Aoun said: “We were surprised by their demand for complete [telecoms] data. This demand is illegal and unconstitutional. It touches on the people’s private lives without any reason.”
The March 14 coalition has held the government responsible for the attempted assassination of Harb because it has withheld telecoms data necessary for security bodies to uncover such plots.
Since the assassination attempt against Geagea in April, the March 14 coalition has accused the Hezbollah-controlled government of providing cover for perpetrators. March 14 officials have repeatedly called on the government to provide security forces with the data needed to investigate the assassination attempts.
U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly underlined the need for rival Lebanese leaders to continue dialogue.
“The National Dialogue is important. The United Nations, the Security Council in its press statement and the secretary-general, we are all concerned with the National Dialogue. We believe that it is something positive, particularly at this time,” Plumbly told reporters after meeting Prime Minister Najib Mikati at the Grand Serail. “We hope that the obstacles to convening the National Dialogue will be overcome in order to allow the next session that the President has now scheduled for August to take place.”

Future of National Dialogue tied to events in Syria
July 25, 2012/By Hasan Lakkis/The Daily Star
Sleiman and Berri have a side chat during National Dialogue session.
Parliamentary sources say it was clear from the outset that National Dialogue would go nowhere.
They cite several reasons for this, the most important of which is March 14’s belief that given the recent bombings in Damascus, Bashar Assad’s regime is heading speedily toward its end, and this will shift the rules of the Lebanese political game.
For this reason, March 14 has set an impossible condition for dialogue – discussing Hezbollah’s weapons – and has ignored the larger issue, that of national defense strategy.
President Michel Sleiman was supposed to submit a proposal for the strategy during Tuesday’s postponed session, and March 14 was effectively waiting for developments in Syria and Lebanon to play out so it could avoid participating in the National Dialogue that it already considered useless.
These developments, the sources add, include the controversy related to the attempted assassination of Future Movement MP Butros Harb: March 14 said that a new condition of their sitting down to the table was security forces’ access to telecoms data for the investigations.
The second development was the aftermath of statements by MP Mohammad Raad, the head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, that it was premature to discuss a national defense strategy when Israel still occupies Lebanese territory.
The sources say these two developments gave the opposition additional pretexts to boycott National Dailogue, which they were essentially obliged to participate in by Saudi Arabia.
Sleiman attempted to satisfy the opposition and bring them to the dialogue table with two initiatives: The first was taking over the issue of the telecoms data from Prime Minister Najib Mikati. Sleiman’s meetings with authorities, however, led to the same failures as Mikati’s.
Sleiman also requested that the Foreign Affairs Ministry submit an official protest to Syria about Syrian border violations and the shelling of Lebanese border towns and villages in the north and Bekaa. This initiative came ahead of the Wednesday Cabinet session which was set to discuss the topic.
At a time when dialogue is on hold, political sources fear that the president’s attempt to protest to Syria could cause disputes within the Cabinet, adding to a series of other disagreements between the opposition and the majority.
It seems that Mikati’s policy of disassociation is being interpreted differently by each group. March 14 wants to apply the policy to those who support the Syrian regime, but not to decisions by the Arab League and international organizations. March 8 interprets the policy as meaning Lebanon should not break agreements with Syria, especially those related to security. Thus March 8 believes disassociation should strike a balance between prohibition and responding to smuggling weapons and fighters across the border.
According to the sources, the issue of whether to officially protest to Syria will increase tension in the Cabinet in the coming days, especially since the president’s stance against Syrian violations does not yet have political cover. The sources fear that any campaign against Sleiman’s move will obstruct Cabinet’s performance, causing internal rupture.
As for National Dialogue, the sources add that there is no guarantee that it will resume in a month, as it is now tied up with the progression of events in Syria.

Mikati not consulted on protest letter to Syria
July 25, 2012/By Hasan Lakkis/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour said Tuesday he will not immediately comply with President Michel Sleiman’s request to submit a protest letter on Syrian border violations, an appeal that Prime Minister Najib Mikati learned of after it was made, according to sources close to the premier. Sources close to Mikati said Mansour informed the prime minister of Sleiman’s request.
Mansour told Al-Manar Tuesday that he will not send the letter until the events in question are investigated. Speaking to the television station, he also said “we deal with Syria as a sister state and this relationship will not be broken now or in the future.”
Ministerial sources told The Daily Star that Mansour will wait for the appropriate documentation on which to build the letter – which Sleiman asked be sent to Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdel-Karim Ali – so that he can present the issue to Cabinet in its Wednesday session. He will only submit such a letter if Cabinet approves Sleiman’s request.
Baabda Palace sources said that Sleiman’s action was based on the idea that the president is responsible for the country’s foreign policy, while other ministerial sources contended that Article 52 of the Constitution stipulates that the president cannot act without consulting Cabinet or the Prime Minister.
Citing an example, these sources said that it is customary for the Foreign Minister to send protest letters to Israel after violations of international resolutions or agreements only after the president and prime minister agree on the matter.
They added that according to Article 52, the president is responsible for negotiating on international resolutions, but with agreement from the prime minister. They believed that Cabinet’s approval is required for agreement with any foreign party or group.
Ali said he had not received anything “from Lebanon related to the protest that President Michel Sleiman directed to the Syrian authorities because of border relations.”
He expressed surprise that Sleiman would attempt to send such a letter, and added that on the contrary “Syria is the one who should protest, especially since it ... has always and is still being subjected to bullets and missiles from the Lebanese side, leading to the deaths of Syrians. This is the security responsibility of Lebanon’s Army and security forces. The violations on the Lebanese side are harming Lebanese-Syrian relations.”
A March 14 delegation met with Mansour Tuesday, and after the meeting Minyeh MP Ahmad Fatfat said the Foreign Minister “promised us he will submit the letter requested of him by the president to the Syrian ambassador ... Sleiman is dedicated to Lebanese sovereignty and carries out his role in this field.”Criticizing Ali, Fatfat said that the envoy “has crossed many lines ... and acts as if he is in charge of the Lebanese government and its foreign policy.” He alleged that Ali had criticized Sleiman, an act he called “unacceptable.”
“We consider sending the letter as the least that can be done,” Fatfat said. “I believe that expelling the ambassador ... might be the thing to do. It has become a popular demand of many Lebanese.”
The parliamentary Future bloc of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri renewed its deep condemnation of Syria’s repeated violations of Lebanese sovereignty.
A statement issued after the bloc’s weekly meeting Tuesday chaired by former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora praised Sleiman’s decision to ask Mansour to deliver the letter of protest over recurrent Syrian violations of the Lebanese border.
Sleiman’s move is “considered as a courageous and essential stance reflecting a duty to protect the state, its soil and citizens,” it said. It deplored the silence of the government and Prime Minister Najib Mikati on “the Syrian regime’s violations.”

Lebanon receives pledges to help with Syrian refugee influx
July 25, 2012 /By Hussein Dakroub/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: The international community came forth Tuesday with pledges of assistance to the Lebanese government in meeting its humanitarian obligations toward thousands of Syrians displaced by the 16-month turmoil in their country. The move came a day after Lebanon launched an appeal for financial aid to cope with a massive influx of Syrian refugees into the country,The announcement also followed U.S. and U.N. envoys’ meetings with Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Social Affairs Minister Wael Abu Faour.
The number of refugees soared dramatically last week after the killings of four high-ranking Syrian security officials in a huge bombing in Damascus.
The bombing and subsequent attacks launched by rebels in Damascus jolted the war-ravaged nation and prompted thousands of families to abandon the capital and flee the escalating violence for the safety of neighboring countries, including Lebanon.
Activists estimate the current number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon at around 90,000.
U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly discussed with Mikati the repercussions of the Syrian unrest on Lebanon, including helping thousands of Syrians who have taken refuge in Lebanon.
“I told the prime minister that [U.N. Security] Council members were concerned by the incidents along Lebanon’s borders with Syria and that they had stressed the importance of respect for Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Plumbly told reporters after meeting Mikati at the Grand Serail.
“The Council members also emphasized their commitment and the commitment of the international community to Lebanon’s security and stability. In that regard, they appreciated the determination of Lebanon’s leaders to protect their country from the effects of the crisis in neighboring Syria and other regional developments.”
Plumbly, who has just returned from a visit to New York where he attended the Security Council session on the implementation of Resolution 1701, said he also relayed to Mikati “the international community’s commitment to continue supporting the Lebanese government in meeting its humanitarian obligations toward the thousands of displaced Syrians who have taken refuge in Lebanon.”
He added that Mikati met Monday with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees “to discuss ways of strengthening cooperation between the U.N. and the international community on one hand, and the government of Lebanon on the other in this field.”
Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Maura Connelly reiterated “the continuing U.S. commitment to providing aid to Syrian refugees and Lebanese societies hosting them,” according to a statement released by the U.S. Embassy in Beirut.
Connelly made the remarks following a meeting with Abu Faour, with whom she discussed the political and security situation in Lebanon and developments in Syria.
She welcomed “the generosity of the Lebanese people and the efforts made by the government in cooperation with international partners and organizations to provide humanitarian assistance to Syrians fleeing violence,” the statement said.
She also stressed the importance of protecting all refugees in Lebanon, including Syrian opposition figures and army deserters who have renounced violence, in line with Lebanon’s international humanitarian obligations. She renewed the United States’ commitment to a stable, sovereign and independent Lebanon, the statement added.
Abou Faour also met with the Norwegian Ambassador to Lebanon Svein Aass, who expressed his country’s sympathy with the plight of Syrian refugees, saying the Norwegian government was ready to provide aid to the Lebanese state in this respect, the state-run National News Agency reported.
Praising the efforts of the Lebanese state and the Social Affairs Ministry to help Syrian refugees, Aass hoped that an agreement would be signed soon between the Lebanese and Norwegian governments to secure funds to the ministry to assist the refugees, NNA said.
Also, EU Ambassador Angelina Eichhorst said the European Union is willing to help the Lebanese government provide aid to Syrian refugees.
In an interview with As-Safir newspaper, Eichhorst said that the EU was studying means to contribute financially to the government’s refugee aid program, particularly after Mikati appealed for funding.
She said the EU’s involvement also comes after Abu Faour said that Lebanon needs $115 million to help the refugees.
Eichhorst said that during the EU foreign ministers’ meeting Monday, the participants praised Lebanon’s efforts in supporting those escaping violence in Syria and encouraged the government to continue its commitment in this regard. She added the EU has donated 3 million euros ($3.6 million) so far to Syrian refugees through U.N. offices and civil organizations.
The UNHCR said last week that up to 30,000 refugees arrived through Lebanon’s Masnaa border crossing in the east of the country over the span of two days.
The Local Coordinating Committee of Syria, which works in Lebanon to aid refugees and support the opposition, now estimates there are 90,000 refugees in the country. But it’s too early to tell exactly how many there are, where they are located and who needs help, LCC officials said. But with Lebanon’s Higher Relief Committee facing shortages of funding and UNHCR reaching only a portion of the refugee population, government officials and aid workers have decided it’s clear that the country needs more funding to help.
Abou Faour said after meeting Mikati Monday that Lebanon would launch a round of contacts with Arab and international parties to muster financial support to help Syrian refugees. However, he stressed that a plan for spending was required.

Aoun: Request for Telecom Data is Blackmail
Naharnet /Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun accused on Tuesday the March 14 camp of seeking to ruin Lebanon over their request of the complete telecommunications data in various assassination attempts. He said after the Change and Reform bloc’s weekly meeting: “They are blackmailing us by demanding that obtaining the telecom data be a main condition for participating in the national dialogue.”“The complete data cannot be handed over if the request is illegal and infringes on people’s rights,” he added. “The telecom data is not a joke. It can only be handed over in case a crime has been committed,” Aoun explained. “Anything other than that would be considered blackmail. They want to ruin the national dialogue table,” declared the FPM leader.
“They want to ruin the country if they believe that the data does not harm the people’s rights,” he stressed. The March 14 camp announced on Monday its boycott of the national dialogue session that was set for Tuesday. It explained that it will not attend the all-party talks over the failure to hand over the telecom data and the failure to discuss Hizbullah’s arms and Palestinian possesses of weapons inside and outside refugee camps. The session was postponed to August 16.

Syrian Ambassador to UAE Defects
Naharnet/25 July 2012/Syrian Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates Abdul-Latif al-Dabbagh has defected, al-Jazeera TV reported Wednesday. The Doha based television said that Dabbagh defected but it did not say where he was. In February, Gulf Arab states announced the expulsion of Syria's envoys in protest at Damascus' deadly crackdown on dissent. A high-level source confirmed to Agence France Presse on Wednesday that Syria’s charge d'affairs in Cyprus, Lamia Hariri, has defected from the regime. But the source said there was no confirmation that Hariri's husband, Dabbagh, had also defected. "It is true that Lamia Hariri (has defected) but it is not yet (confirmed) that her husband has," the source said on condition of anonymity. The Syrian foreign ministry has not yet confirmed the couple's defection Hariri's defection comes after Nawaf Fares, Syria's ambassador to Iraq, left for Qatar this month after publicly renouncing his post.*Agence France Presse.

Turkey to Shut Border Crossings with Syria
Naharnet/25 July 2012/Turkey will close its border crossings with neighboring strife-torn Syria on Wednesday until further notice, a Turkish official told Agence France Presse. "We have taken such a measure for our citizens for security reasons," said the official. "This is an open-ended measure and the reopening depends on the developments on the ground." The move comes after rebels seized two border posts along the border in clashes with the regime's loyalist troops. The official said foreigners who want to cross the border would be required to sign a paper warning them about potential danger in Syria. There are seven functioning border posts along the nearly 900-kilometer (560-mile) frontier between the two countries. The rebels controlled Jarabulus, Bab al-Hawa and al-Salama border crossings along the Turkish frontier. During last week's clashes between rebels and Syrian army troops at Bab al-Hawa, which lies across Turkey's Cilvegozu crossing, Turkish trucks were burned and ransacked.
*Agence France Presse.

Saudi Grand Mufti Fears TV Series Will Expose Islam to Criticism
by Raymond Ibrahim • Jul 24, 2012 at 1:35 pm
Cross-posted from Jihad Watch
http://www.raymondibrahim.com/2012/07/saudi-grand-mufti-fears-tv-series-will-expose
The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia—the authority who called for the destruction of all churches in the region—recently condemned a new Saudi Arabian satellite TV series, which was scheduled to air during Ramadan, on the life of Islamic prophet Muhammad's companion and second caliph, Omar ibn al-Khattab.
Saudi Grand Mufti: No to films that may expose Islam to criticism.
The series is supposed to tell the story of the early days of the Muslim caliphate, including, most likely, the Islamic conquests, since many non-Muslim nations, such as Egypt, were conquered during Omar's reign. What is interesting is why the Grand Mufti is condemning this series, calling it a "crime deserving of punishment": It "depicts the lives of the caliphs and companions [of Muhammad] in a movie, exposing them to discussion by every depraved person, making them vulnerable to slander and criticism."
In short, it seems he wants the obscurities of early Islam to remain obscure—perhaps like how Omar allegedly used to strip female sex-slaves in public whenever they were overly-dressed—lest they become a renewed source of criticism of Islam and its early followers, otherwise known as al-salaf al-salah, the "righteous forefathers" whom Wahabbis and Salafis, like the Grand Mufti, pattern their lives after—and, hence, come into constant conflict with the modern world.

Huffington Post, MSM Facilitate Destruction of Egypt's Pyramids
by Raymond Ibrahim/FrontPageMagazine.com
July 24, 2012
http://www.meforum.org/3290/huffington-post-egypt-pyramids
Because the article "Calls to Destroy Egypt's Great Pyramids Begin" went viral on the Internet—read nearly 400,000 times on FrontPage Magazine alone where it first appeared—as expected, the infamous "hoax" charge has been made to lull the West back to sleep.
The vertical gash appearing in the smallest of the three Great Pyramids of Giza was made by a 12th century Islamic ruler who spent eight months trying to dismantle the pyramid.
According to Daily News Egypt's "Another hoax: cleric calls on President Morsy to destroy Giza Pyramids," the calls from the Bahraini cleric I cited "urging President Mohamed Morsy to destroy the Giza Pyramids were issued from a parody Twitter account online, the Daily News Egypt has learned."
That's all—that's the "proof" that this story is a "hoax": Daily News Egypt (DNE) "has learned" that someone was "impersonating" the Bahraini cleric. Unlike my article, DNE offers no evidence, no links, no proofs to back its story: "Just believe us—you'll feel better," seems to be the message.
Some questions: If, as DNE suggests, this was a hoax to scare people over the rising influence of Egypt's Islamists, why did the hoax perpetrators choose a cleric from Bahrain, a small, foreign nation—why not parody an Egyptian cleric, which obviously would've made for a much more effective "hoax"?
More importantly, why does DNE not address the other sources I had cited—including Egypt's very own Salafi party, which is on record calling for the elimination of Egypt's pyramids? Even Elaph, "one of the most influential websites in the Arab world," documents that both the Bahraini cleric and Egypt's Salafis are calling for the Pyramids' destruction.
Needless to say, DNE's hoax charge was quickly disseminated by others, who added their own "logic." For example, after quoting DNE as evidence, one Kate Durham, writing in Egypt Today, focuses on portraying me as having an "agenda" (which, of course, I do: safeguarding the Pyramids).
Likewise, after quoting the DNE report, RT's "Holy hoax: Radical Islamists call on Egypt to destroy pyramids" offered a revisionist history that truly resembles a "hoax," arguing that "demolishing the pyramids was prohibited during the 7th century—so the structures remained untouched."
Really? This almost suggests that the Arabian marauders, who invaded Egypt in the 7th century, pillaging and destroying, were "respectful" of the "cultural significance" of the Pyramids—perhaps designating them as "tourist attractions"? What about 8th century Caliph Ma'mun, who—as this comprehensive English-language fatwa dedicated to explaining the Islamic obligation of destroying pagan monuments, including the Pyramids, puts it—"wanted to destroy the Pyramids in Egypt and he gathered workers but he could not do it"?
What about 12th century Bin Yusif, Saladin's son and ruler of Egypt? He attempted to destroy the Pyramids, and had an army of laborers work day and night to dismantle Menkaure's Pyramid, only to quit after eight months, realizing the futility of the task, though his vandals did manage to leave a large vertical gash in the Pyramid's north face (see here). What about Egypt's Mamlukes who, with the advent of gun powder, used the "pagan" Sphinx for target practice, effacing its nose?
After citing the DNE report, Huffington Post's Llewelyn Morgan offers his assurances: "Let's be crystal-clear about this right here. The answer to the question in my title ["Are the Pyramids Next?"] is a mile-high, neon "NO". The pyramids of Giza are under no threat whatsoever, and neither is any of the rest of Egypt's glorious archaeological record."
He then portrays me as "scaremongering" and "offer[ing] a deeply misleading account of what has been happening in Timbuktu," because I had written, "Currently, in what the International Criminal Court is describing as a possible 'war crime,' Islamic fanatics are destroying the ancient heritage of the city of Timbuktu in Mali—all to Islam's triumphant war cry, 'Allahu Akbar!'" Morgan explains:
To read that that you'd think that the only Muslims involved in events at Timbuktu were the ones doing the vandalism. But of course it was Islamic buildings that they were attacking. Ansar al-Din, the al-Qaeda-affiliated zealots in northern Mali, consider the traditional Sufi practices of Timbuktu to be heretical.
This is strange logic, indeed. Because the Salafis of Mali consider Sufi buildings insufficiently Islamic—as all Salafis, Wahhabis, and "radicals" do—according to Morgan, that is proof positive that the Pyramids, which are purely pagan, are "under no threat whatsoever" from Egypt's Salafis.
If Morgan's point is that, by destroying Sufi Muslim shrines, the "al-Qaeda-affiliated zealots" are not practicing "true Islam"—that's still neither here nor there. All Salafis—whether in Mali or in Egypt, whether "al-Qaeda affiliated" or not—reject Sufism as a heresy and pagan Pyramids as worse; and in Egypt, the Salafis are now out of the prisons and sitting in Parliament.
All of these apologists are unaware that the Koran portrays pre-Islamic Egypt's Pharaoh as the quintessential infidel, with the result that the Pyramids, the handiwork of Pharaoh, have always been seen by the pious as an affront to the total victory of Islam in Egypt—hence why any number of Muslim leaders through the centuries tried to lay low those defiant symbols of Egypt's pre-Islamic past; hence why such calls are again become vocal.
Indeed, here's the latest bit of evidence: just published in El-Balad, on July 17, "Egypt's Justice and Development for Human Rights warned against the ongoing incitements from a large number of men of the Islamic religion to destroy the Pyramids and other Pharaonic antiquities, deeming them pagan symbols of pre-Islamic Egypt…. these calls have greatly increased after the victory of the Muslim Brotherhood candidate, Dr. Muhammad Morsi."
These calls are neither a joke nor a "hoax": the same mentality that sought to destroy the Pyramids in the past, is the same mentality that is gaining mastery over Egypt in the present—with the exception that, if destroying the Pyramids was an impossible task then, it is realizable now, a wonderful feather in the turban of any aspiring "champion of Islam"—a feat that none of the greatest caliphs and sultans could accomplish, try as they might.
Accordingly, those who understand that the Great Pyramids belong to all mankind, not just Egyptians—and I say this as a Copt, the nearest thing to a living descendant of Pharaonic Egypt—must safeguard their preservation, and not abandon them to Islamic zealots.
Still, the "leftist" mentality remains oblivious, as if to say, so what if Islamic doctrine and history is replete with the destruction of pre-Islamic monuments from one end of the Islamic world to the other, including several attempts against the Pyramids? So what if, at this very moment, Muslim fanatics are destroying artifacts in the name of Islam, in Mali and elsewhere? So what if Egypt's Salafis are on record calling for the destruction of the Pyramids?
Not to worry, the Huffington Post et al say it's just a "hoax." Nothing to see here, folks; go right back to sleep.
Incidentally, these media outlets and their writers are the same ones who, when the day comes and the Pyramids are attacked—just like when the Twin Towers were attacked on 9/11—will wring their hands and shake their heads, wondering, "Who knew?" "How?" "Why?" Then, because they still cannot comprehend Islam's teachings and history, they will, as ever, cite "grievance" or "poverty" or "political oppression" as the real reasons behind this latest atrocity, calling for more Western engagement and head-sticking in the sand.
And so the vicious cycle of Islamic intolerance followed by Western appeasement will continue, ad nauseam.
**Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

Syria's Weapons at the Ready
July 24, 2012
http://www.meforum.org/3289/syria-chemical-weapons
For immediate release
Contact: Efraim Karsh
Editor, Middle East Quarterly
Email: MEQ@MEForum.org
After years of denials, the Syrian regime has admitted to possessing a weapons-grade chemical arsenal. Despite a disclaimer that such weapons would never be used "inside Syria," Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi cautioned that Syria would not hold back if "exposed to external aggression." Many analysts see these statements as a warning to Israel, the United States, and other allied countries not to attempt an armed intervention in the Syrian crisis. U.S. intelligence officials are monitoring a disturbing rise in activity and movement of chemical weapons by the regime.
Non-conventional weapons expert Dany Shoham has detailed Syria's CBW capabilities in a Middle East Quarterly article, "Guile, Gas and Germs: Syria's Ultimate Weapons." He reports: "As early as 1992, the U.S. Defense Department ranked Syria as the sole Muslim state possessing a 'chemical systems capability in all critical elements' for chemical weapons. And in recent years, Syria has added biological weapons to its store—weapons with far more strategic value than chemical weapons."
In Shoham's second look at Syria's arsenal, "Poisoned Missiles: Syria's Doomsday Deterrent," he poses several possible scenarios for the regime's use of chemical or biological weapons—one scenario bears a chilling similarity to the current situation:
"The Syrians would justify the use of chemical weapons by claiming that their very survival was at stake. If Syria were on the brink of military defeat, any use of chemical weapons would almost certainly be aimed at the source of the immediate danger: Israeli forces, other targets at the front, and air force bases. … a chemical attack on civilian targets cannot be ruled out."
Heightening the current danger is the possibility that if the regime falls, the Syrian weapons could end up in the hands of terrorists including the regime's Lebanese proxy Hezbollah or al-Qaeda operatives. However, Makdissi sought to downplay this threat, saying that the country's "chemical or bacterial weapons" are "stored and secured by Syrian military forces."
To understand exactly how dangerous Syria's chemical and biological arsenal is, read Dany Shoham's articles in the Middle East Quarterly—one of America's most authoritative journals of Middle Eastern affairs.

Ramadan massacre at mosque near Hama
July 25, 2012 /Agencies
BEIRUT: Syrian troops killed up to 30 worshippers as they were entering a mosque to attend Ramadan evening prayers in a village northwest of the city of Hama, opposition activists said Tuesday, as helicopters strafed the country’s second city Aleppo.
“Troops and Shabbiha left the roadblock on the edge of Sharia and crossed the main road and began firing automatic rifles at the worshippers as they were entering the mosque,” Jamil al-Hamwi, one of the activists, said by telephone from al-Ghab Plain.
“We have confirmed the names for 15 bodies, and it is estimated there is a similar number still to be collected from the streets,” Hamwi said.
The roadblock was manned by troops backed by tanks as well as militiamen recruited from Alawite villages near Sharia, he added.
Government shelling in the southern town of Herak also killed six children Tuesday, an activist group said, taking the nationwide death toll to over 70.
“At least seven civilians, including six children, were killed by regime forces’ shelling of the besieged town of Herak,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
A video distributed by the Britain-based watchdog showed the bodies of dead children, including a young girl in a pink and white dress, lying on a blood-smeared floor.
“Herak has been under shelling for 10 days,” an unidentified man says in the amateur video.
“The world is watching. Where are the Arabs and Muslims when these children are killed during Ramadan?” he pleaded, referring to the Muslim holy month which began last week.
“Where is Islam? Bashar, I hope your children will suffer the same fate,” he screamed, addressing President Bashar Assad.
Before the report of killings in Sharia, the Observatory had put the nationwide death toll for Tuesday at 42, including at least seven people killed when regime forces put down a prison mutiny in Aleppo, which followed a similar rebellion at the main prison in the central city of Homs Saturday.
An inmate, who said he had managed to smuggle a mobile phone into the prison, told AFP, “the situation after the security forces came in is horrifying.”
“They are viciously torturing the detainees who they suspect of leading the mutiny,” the man said. The opposition Syrian National Council said eight people were killed in the mutiny after Syrian forces “opened fire with bullets and tear gas on the detainees ... in response to a peaceful sit-in organized by prisoners because of the great injustice of which they are victims,” the SNC said in a statement.
Fighting raged in Aleppo Tuesday, with the Observatory reporting “clashes between rebels and regular troops in the Sukari neighborhood and on the outskirts of Salaheddin.” A spokesman for the rebel Military Council told AFP Monday that opposition fighters had “liberated” multiple neighborhoods of the city, including Salaheddin, as the army continued to bombard the districts.
At least 15 people were killed in violence in the province Tuesday.
In Damascus, Syrian government troops attacked the Qadam and Assali districts Tuesday, two of the last pockets of rebel-held territory in the city, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. “Syrian regime forces have attacked the Qadam and Assali districts, launching a wave of raids and arrests,” it said.
The Qadam neighborhood of south Damascus has been the scene of frequent clashes between troops and rebel fighters.
Overnight, after a week of intense clashes in several Damascus districts, the army took control of most of the capital, activists said.
But clashes were ongoing in Qadam and Al-Hajar Al-Aswad, particularly “in the streets where the rebels are dug in,” the Observatory said. Over the past three days, the army has retaken control of a string of rebel districts of Damascus, including Mezzeh in the west, Barzeh in the northeast, and the upscale district of Midan in the south.
The unprecedented fighting has triggered an exodus from the city, with rebels eventually mostly withdrawing to the outskirts.
Fearing they may be caught up in the violence, thousands of residents have fled the country, with more than 5,000 Syrias arriving in Jordan in the past three days, according to one aid agency. Other internally displaced have set up makeshift camps in the capital’s parks and schools. Rebels have been emboldened in the capital cities, following a stunning bomb attack on Assad’s National Security headquarters Wednesday that killed four members of his crisis command, including the defense minister and intelligence chief.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday the Syrian opposition was “closer than ever to victory,” amid ongoing reports of senior army defections and desertions.
Al-Jazeera TV reported Tuesday that the head of the Syrian Embassy in Cyprus, Lamia al-Hariri, defected to Qatar, becoming the second senior diplomat to defect after Iraq ambassador, Nawaf Fares, publicly renounced his post and joined the rebellion last week.
The reports could not be immediately verified.
Still, with the Syrian opposition fragmented and international powers fiercely divided over how to deal with the crisis, there are real fears chaos could ensue in the country. Arab ministers Sunday offered to provide Assad and his family with a safe exit if he relinquished power, but the Syrian leader has shown no intention of doing so. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday that Washington would step up cooperation with the opposition in its battle to force Assad out after failing to win a U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria after Russia and China imposed their vetoes.
“We do believe that it is not too late for the Assad regime to commence with planning for a transition to find a way that ends the violence and begin the serious discussions that have not occurred to date,” Clinton told reporters. “We are well aware that the pace of events is accelerating inside Syria,” she said.
“We have to work closely with the opposition because more and more territory is being taken, and it will eventually result in a safe haven inside Syria which will then provide a base for further actions by the opposition.”Highlighting the divisions within the opposition, the Syrian National Council backtracked on earlier statements Tuesday that they would accept a unity transition government led by a member of the regime. SNC spokeswoman Bassma Kodmani said there “was never any question of a national unity government,” contradicting a statement by another SNC member, George Sabra, who hours earlier said the Council was ready to agree to a transitional government.
Meanwhile, the new head of an unarmed U.N. monitoring mission to Syria, General Babacar Gaye arrived in Beirut late Tuesday, on route to Damascus. He replaces Major General Robert Mood.

Syria unleashes helicopters on rebels in Aleppo
July 24, 2012/By Paul Schemm
BEIRUT: With warplanes circling overhead, Syrian attack helicopters pounded rebel-held neighborhoods in Aleppo on Tuesday in an escalation of the battle for the country's commercial capital and largest city, residents and activists said.
Following a pair of rebel assaults on the country's two main cities and a bombing that wiped out some of his top security last week advisors, President Bashar Assad on Tuesday reshuffled his top intelligence posts, dismissing one general and appointing a new national security council chief to replace the one killed in the blast.
The Syrian regime, deeply shaken after last week's stunning attack on Assad's inner circle and rebel advances, has turned to heavy weapons like artillery and helicopter gunships to uproot the opposition fighters in Damascus and now in Aleppo, Syria's largest city at around 3 million.
"It's like a real war zone over here, there are street battles over large parts of the city," said Aleppo-based opposition activist Mohammed Saeed by telephone as the sound of gunfire and explosions could be heard in the background. "Aleppo has joined Homs and Hama and other revolutionary cities."
Four days into the rebel attack on Aleppo, Saeed estimated that the opposition fighters were holding large chunks of the city.
Facing a resilient opponent, the government responded Tuesday with attack helicopters to pound rebellious neighborhoods, and fighter jets circling overhead periodically roared down and broke the sound barrier in an apparent attempt to cow the rebels.
"It's the worst day of fighting in Aleppo so far, but I can't tell what's happening on the ground or who's in control," said a local writer in the Zahra neighborhood, about 3 miles (5 kilometers) from some of the heaviest clashes.
"This is bad because in the end it's the civilians who will pay the price of this street fighting," he added on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
For the time being, Syria's rebels, outmanned and outgunned by the regime's professional army, appear to be holding out in Aleppo. The battle has spread from neighborhoods in the northeast and southwest of the city to previously untouched areas like Firdous in the south and Arkoub closer to the center, local activists and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
On Sunday, a newly formed alliance of rebel groups called the Brigade for Unification announced an operation to take the city. While the rebels have not shown themselves able to hold neighborhoods for any significant period of time, the continued fighting highlights the government's inability to definitely defeat the lightly armed opposition forces.
Prisoners in Aleppo's jail also rioted overnight and activists said at least eight have been killed by government forces. Another prison riot in the city of Homs was quelled with tear gas and live ammunition.
The worsening situation in Syria, where activists estimate more than 19,000 people have died since March 2011, has prompted increasing concern and veiled threats from Syria's neighbors.
Monday night, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan told a party rally that "we believe that the people of Syria are ever closer to victory," while in Saudi Arabia, a country that has openly pledged to fund rebels, state television announced the country had collected $32 million in donations for "our brothers in Syria."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the weekend expressed fears that Syria's chemical weapons could fall into the hands of the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah and hinted at intervention, though on Tuesday, senior Defense Ministry official Amos Gilad asserted that Syria had "complete control" over its unconventional weapons.
Iran then waded into the fight Tuesday with a warning by the commander of the powerful Revolutionary Guards, Gen. Masoud Jayazeri, to retaliate if any Arab countries intervened against Syria.
For its part, Syria warned the international community Monday that it had chemical weapons and would use them in the case of any foreign aggression.
In a speech before a veterans' association in Reno, Nevada, President Barack Obama cautioned Syria against unleashing its non-conventional arsenal.
"Given the regime's stockpiles of chemical weapons, we will continue to make it clear to Assad and those around him that the world is watching, and that they will be held accountable by the international community and the United States, should they make the tragic mistake of using those weapons," he said.
Assad on Tuesday reshuffled the generals at the core of his regime's highly secretive security apparatus. A government official said that Assad appointed Maj. Gen. Ali Mamlouk, the former head of General Intelligence, to the key post of head of the National Security Council. His predecessor, Maj. Gen. Hisham Ikhtiyar, died of wounds sustained in last week's bombing.
Maj. Gen. Abdel Fattah Qudsiyeh, the former head of Military Intelligence, was named the council's deputy chief, replacing a general who was apparently fired. The EU has imposed sanctions on Qudsiyeh for his role in the crackdown on the uprising. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss security matters.

Syria: Rustom Ghazali Named Chief of Political Security
Naharnet/24 July 2012/Syria has named General Ali Mamlouk as the new head of its national security office and General Rustom Ghazali as the new chief of political security, in a shakeup of the security services after a bombing killed four top regime figures last week, a security source told Agence France Presse on Tuesday.
"General Ali Mamlouk, who was head of state security, is becoming the head of the bureau of national security, with the rank of minister, overseeing the entire security apparatus," the source said.
"He will report directly to President Bashar Assad," the source added.
General Rustom Ghazali, the former director of military security in Damascus, has been named chief of political security, the source said, replacing Deeb Zaytoun, who will take over Mamlouk's former post as head of state security. The shake-up follows a July 18 attack, claimed by rebel forces battling Assad's regime, which targeted the government's security leadership.
The attack killed Defense Minister Daoud Rajha, Assad's brother-in-law Assad Shawkat, national security chief Hisham Ikhtiyar and Hassan Turkmani, head of the crisis cell set up to tackle the uprising against the regime. "Until now, the security services were spread among different ministers: the military intelligence and those of the army and the air force under the minister of defense, the political intelligence under the interior ministry and the state security with the presidency," the source said.
"A process of centralization was underway, but it was of course accelerated by the attack."
Assad's father and predecessor, Hafez Assad, created multiple intelligence services whose rivalry made it more difficult for any forces to engage in a coup.
In the wake of the uprising, President Assad has forced his regime to consolidate those multiple services, in a bid to protect the increasingly embattled government.
SourceAgence France Presse.
 

Syria's Kurds stand alone after rejecting rebels and regime
by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi
The National (Abu Dhabi)
http://www.meforum.org/3291/syria-kurds
Developments in Syria and Iraq have led some to speculate that the birth of an independent Kurdish state might be at hand. A closer analysis shows that a united Kurdistan is still unlikely, although a separate semiautonomous Kurdish community in Syria, with some parallels to the Kurdish Autonomous Region in Iraq, is a growing possibility.
In Syria, Kurds are sitting on the sidelines of the uprising against the Damascus regime. Indeed, the Free Syrian Army has accused members of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) of hindering its operations in some areas against the Assad regime, according to the Kurdish website Rudaw.net. Leaders of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), which is affiliated with the PKK, have made it clear that they will not tolerate the spread of Syria's conflict into the Kurdish-dominated areas of Syria.
The PYD stands separate from the Kurdish National Council, a coalition of 11 Kurdish parties in Syria that has ties to the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq. But leaders of the Kurdish National Council have also indicated to Rudaw that they are aiming to keep Kurdish areas free from fighting between the regime and the rebels.
The Kurdish groups are far from united on most issues - the KNC has in the past clashed with the PYD, but since Syria's unrest began last year, the two factions have "signed an agreement sponsored by the Iraqi Kurdish leadership to prevent intra-Kurdish tensions", according to Jonathan Spyer, an analyst at the Israel-based Global Research in International Affairs Center.
This, Mr Spyer writes in the Jerusalem Post, ensures "de facto Kurdish control of a large swathe of Syria's north-east and the placing of this area off limits to the insurgency against the Assad regime for the foreseeable future".
Syria's Kurds are not, by and large, supporters of President Bashar Al Assad, but their scepticism about the Syrian opposition is understandable. For one thing, rebel fighters in Syria have the support of Ankara, which has a bad reputation regarding Turkish Kurds in matters of civil and cultural rights.
In addition, whenever Kurdish groups have tried to engage the Syrian opposition about the shape of a post-Assad Syria, talks have always broken down. The main issue is that the opposition refuses to drop the identification of Syria as an Arab nation (as evinced in the country's official name: "Syrian Arab Republic") and accept that Kurds are a distinct people. Thus ended the recent Cairo meeting of anti-Assad groups, attended by the KNC.
With Syrian Kurds declining to choose between Mr Al Assad and the opposition, the idea of a de facto Kurdish autonomous area in the Al Jazira area of north-east Syria becomes a possibility.
In the event of Mr Al Assad's downfall, Sunni groups and others in Syria might be too distracted by infighting to deal with the question of Kurdish autonomy.
It does not follow, however, that the Syrian Kurds will join with Iraq's Kurdish Regional Government to form an independent Kurdish state straddling the northern part of today's Iraq-Syria border.
Evidently, Iraq's Kurdish leadership would like to win independence from Baghdad eventually, although that is rarely stated explicitly. But economic independence is a prerequisite, and Syria's Kurdish areas would have little to offer the Iraqi Kurds in that regard.
Most of Syria's remaining oil reserves are located in the Sunni Arab tribal areas around Deir Ezzor. Nor does Syria's Kurdish region have access to ports that could allow Iraq's Kurds to set up an independent pipeline to transport petroleum to the international market.
There was considerable media coverage of an agreement signed in May between Turkey and the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq, covering two pipelines that carry oil and gas from the Kirkuk area to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.
Numerous reports portrayed this deal as incurring the disapproval of the Iraqi government in Baghdad. The implication was that Turkey and the KRG had agreed, without Baghdad's permission, to set up these pipelines.
Some commentators saw the deal as part of a Turkish strategy to deepen economic ties with Iraqi Kurds. This was seen as a sign that the Turkish government had warmed to the idea of potential Kurdish independence.
However, as the analyst Joel Wing of the blog Musings on Iraq noted, this analysis gets the basic facts wrong. The Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipelines are under the control of the oil ministry in Baghdad, and so the KRG agreement with Turkey must have had central government approval to some degree. After all, Baghdad provides 95 per cent of the KRG's annual budget.
Note that the Kurdish areas of Turkey constitute at least 50 per cent of the dreamed of Kurdistan. Ankara would not welcome an independent Kurdish state just south of its border, believing that such a state would increase the possibility of a Kurdish revolt in Turkey's south-east. One of the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipelines was shut down on Saturday after an explosion that Ankara blamed on Kurdish rebels. That fraught relationship does not appear to be improving any time soon.
As long as Turkey remains opposed to Kurdish independence and the KRG lacks opportunities to break its financial reliance on Baghdad, an independent Kurdistan will remain a remote prospect.
*Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi is a student at Brasenose College, Oxford University, and an adjunct fellow at the Middle East Forum.

Egypt's Sixty Years of Misery
by Daniel Pipes/National Review Online
July 24, 2012
http://www.meforum.org/pipes/11692/egypt-misery
This week marks 60 years since Egypt's self-proclaimed Free Officers overthrew the constitutional monarchy of King Farouq – and the first anniversary when one can imagine the demise of the military despotism that so long has wounded the country. Sadly, its most likely replacement will bring on an even worse rule.
King Farouk I (r. 1936-52).
The era of monarchy had plenty of faults, from iniquitous income levels to violent movements (foremost among them, the Muslim Brotherhood) but it was an era of modernization, of a growing economy, and of increasing influence in the world. Industry had begun, women threw off their face coverings, and Egyptian soft power had a wide impact in Arabic-speaking countries. Tarek Osman recalls this time in his excellent Egypt on the Brink: From Nasser to Mubarak (Yale) as "liberal, glamorous, cosmopolitan."
The dreary rule of generals and colonels began on July 23, 1952, led by the ambitious Gamal Abdul Nasser (r. 1954-70). The grandiose Anwar el-Sadat (r. 1970-81) followed him, then the pompous Husni Mubarak (r. 1981-2011). Nasser, much the worst of the trio, danced to the demons of anti-capitalist resentment and anti-imperialist frustration; his rule saw crippling confiscation of private property and inane foreign adventures (with Syria, against Israel, in Yemen), incurring costs the country still pays.
President Muhammad Naguib (r. 1953-54).
The regime specialized in deception. The junta donned mufti even as the military's reach extended over the economy, the security services, the legislature, and the judiciary. Unity with Syria masked bitter hostility. Ostentatious rivalry with Islamists hid a squalid competition over spoils. Peace with Israel disguised continued warfare through other means.
During the long, painful, and regressive reign of the army boots, Egypt moved backward according to every meaningful index, from standard of living to diplomatic clout, even as the population quadrupled from 20 to 83 million and Islamist ideology flourished. Egypt and South Korea, Osman notes, were on a socio-economic par in 1952; now, Egypt has fallen far behind. He writes how "society did not progress" under the soldiers' rule but, to the contrary, "on many fronts, it actually regressed." He discerns since 1952 "an overarching feeling of an irreparable sense of damage, a national defeat." From football games to poetry, one senses that defeatism.
President Gamal Abdul Nasser (r. 1954-70).
On approaching his 30th year in power, Pharaoh Mubarak decided, in a paroxysm of hubris, to sideline his military colleagues. He aspired to steal yet more money, even if that meant denying the officers their share, and (under pressure of his wife) sought to have, not another military officer but his son, the banker Gamal, succeed him as president.
The outraged general officers bided their time. In early 2011, when brave, secular, and modern young people in Tahrir Square announced their impatience with tyranny, the junta exploited them to push Mubarak from office. Liberals thought they won, but they served merely as a tool and pretext for the military to be rid of its despised master. Having served their purpose, liberals were shunted aside as officers and Islamists competed for loot.
President Anwar el-Sadat (r. 1970-81).
Which brings us to the present: The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces still runs the country, the Muslim Brotherhood wants to push it aside. Which of these unworthy, autocratic forces will win? SCAF has, in my view, an 80 percent chance of holding power, meaning that Islamists will prevail only if they display enough talent. SCAF cleverly sidelined the Muslim Brotherhood's most charismatic and capable leader, Khairat al-Shater on dubious technical grounds (his imprisonment by the Mubarak regime). That left the much less competent Mohamed Morsi as the brotherhood's standard-bearer and the country's new president. His first few weeks have shown him to be a mumbler and bumbler with no aptitude for waging political battle even against the incompetents who staff SCAF.
As Egyptians endure the 60th anniversary of the military's power grab, they have little to look forward to. If more July 23rd celebrations likely await them, at least they are not suffering through the first anniversary of Islamist rule. Better domination by greedy soldiers than by Islamist ideologues.
But Egyptians and their supporters abroad can aspire to better. The liberals who rallied in Tahrir Square remain the country's only hope and the West's only allies; they deserve support. However remote they are from the corridors of power, their rise uniquely offers an antidote to sixty years of tyranny and decline.
Mr. Pipes (www.DanielPipes.org) is president of the Middle East Forum and Taube distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. © 2012 by Daniel Pipes. All rights reserved.

Can Syria keep control of its chemical weapons?
CBC – It was a bold admission on the part of the Syrian regime — that long-suspected chemical weapons existed within its conflict-ridden borders.
For decades, intelligence and military experts have cobbled together indirect intelligence about Syria's unconventional weapons capabilities.
On Monday, Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi acknowledged the presence of chemical and biological weapons when he said "all of these types of weapons are in storage and under security."
"No chemical weapons will be used" inside Syria against its own citizenry, said Makdissi, adding they would only be used if Syria is "exposed to external aggression."
Given the beleaguered regime of President Bashar al-Assad has repeatedly said the 17-month uprising is sponsored by foreign infiltrators and terrorists, Makdissi's statement created some confusion in some circles. Adding to that confusion, the government later backpedalled on Makdissi's statement, stating the policy applied only "if any" such weapons were present.
Whatever the case, the use of chemical weaponry on Syrians, while a horrifying prospect, is not the most likely or worrisome scenario, observers say.
"Even in desperate circumstances, I can’t see them resorting to chemical weapons," said Wesley Wark of the University of Toronto's Munk Centre for International Studies. "The Assad regime knows there would be swift military reaction from the U.S. and Israelis."
While the mere presence of chemical weapons is "alarming," Fawaz Gerges, a professor of international relations and director of the London School of Economics' Middle East Centre, says the true danger is if Syria implodes and the regime loses its grasp on its chemical weapons cache.
"The worst-case scenario is that chemical weapons fall into the wrong hands," said Gerges.
Among myriad dangers posed by any collapse of the Assad regime would be that its arsenal — secret and otherwise —passes over to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah,or to some of the rogue Syrian military units or paramilitary organizations.
If the chemical weapons are left unguarded, experts say, they could fall into the hands of the opposition Free Syrian Army, which might employ them out of desperation; or the stash could even "simply disappear," says Wark.
"Any of those scenarios are really nightmare scenarios."Syria is believed to have the most advanced chemical warfare capabilities in the Middle East.
In June, Israel's deputy chief of the general staff, Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh, suggested it has the "biggest chemical weapons arsenal in the world" with "missiles and hand rockets capable of reaching any part of Israeli territory."
Some believe that Syria began building its chemical weapons capability before the 1973 Yom Kippur War against Israel.
The country is not part of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which requires member states to be transparent about their stockpiles and destroy them. The international watchdog reacted to Monday's news, saying it has never received an official response from Syria about stockpiles and refused to speculate on the veracity of reports.
"There’s a lot that is unknown about Syria’s weapons program," said Omar Lamrani, military analyst for Stratfor, a strategic intelligence provider. "Most of the information we know is from either outside surveillance or inside reports. It’s not very clear."
What's more important is whether Syria has the precursor elements needed to make a chemical weapons stockpile operational, analysts say.
"The only recent clue we've had to the operational status is the reported movement of some of these chemical weapons from location to location, which would indicate that the Assad regime wants to make sure that they don’t lose control of them," said Wark. "They wouldn’t worry about them so much if they weren't operationally usable."
Syria is believed to possess a large number of Scud ballistic missiles that can be fitted with chemical warheads.
International concerns rose last week when Nawaf Fares, the former Syrian ambassador to Iraq and the highest-level political defector from the Assad regime, told the BBC that he was convinced Assad would draw on his stockpile of chemical weapons if cornered. He did not, however, offer any proof.
Lamrani notes, however, that it's important to "keep in mind that the Syrians have always thought of their chemical weapons as a deterrent," particularly regarding Israel.
While the Syrian government has sought to assuage the international community that the chemical weapons stash is in safe hands, so, too, have the rebels.
Last week, Gen. Adnan Silou, one of the most high-ranking of the Assad regime defectors to join the opposition Free Syrian Army, and a former general in the country's chemical and biological weapons administration, told the Daily Telegraph that the Free Syrian Army is creating a unit assigned to deal with chemical weapons and has been trained in "securing stores, in reconnaissance of possible threats, in how to purge supplies."
But "whether or not they’d have the capacity to secure chemical weapon stores and treat them properly is really anybody’s guess," says Wark. Also among the unknowns is where the chemical weapons stash is being kept.
According to Global Security, Syria has four suspected production facilities.
One is believed to be located just north of Damascus, others are believed to be near the industrial city of Homs, in Hama and in the Mediterranean port of Latakia, an area dominated by the powerful Alawite minority. Specialists also believe about 45 smaller facilities exist across the country.
But military analyst Lamrani notes that even if the chemicals fall into the hands of groups outside the Assad regime, they would need expertise on how to assemble the weapons.
Still, with international action at a standstill after Russia and China last week vetoed the third UN Security Council resolution to impose sanctions, intelligence experts are now in the difficult position of trying to find ways to prevent a "loss-of-control scenario" regarding the chemical weapons stockpile.
"If Syria is left to fight it out, we’ll never be in a position to know when the sort of danger point will come until it arrives, and that's the problematic thing," said Wark.