LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
February 01/2013

Bible Quotation for today/Teaching about Anger
Metthew 05/21-26: "You have heard that people were told in the past, ‘Do not commit murder; anyone who does will be brought to trial.’  But now I tell you: if you are angry with your brother you will be brought to trial, if you call your brother ‘You good-for-nothing!’ you will be brought before the Council, and if you call your brother a worthless fool you will be in danger of going to the fire of hell. So if you are about to offer your gift to God at the altar and there you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar, go at once and make peace with your brother, and then come back and offer your gift to God.  “If someone brings a lawsuit against you and takes you to court, settle the dispute while there is time, before you get to court. Once you are there, you will be turned over to the judge, who will hand you over to the police, and you will be put in jail. There you will stay, I tell you, until you pay the last penny of your fine.

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
Yemen's Forgotten Christians/by Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/February 01/13
What Happened to the Space Monkey/By Adel Al-Toraifi/Asharq Alawsat/February 01/13

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for February 01/13
French president meets Lebanon's Kataeb leader
STL prosecution backs defense request to postpone trial
Lebanese hostages not Turkey’s main problem: Erdogan
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) urges Lebanon to push for more reforms
Lebanon's Ex-General Security head Jamil al-Sayyed, slams Annan over ‘erroneous’ claims in book
Lebanese Lawmakers divided over prospect of holding elections on time
President Michel Sleiman vows open borders as donors pledge $1.5 bln for refugees
EU grants Lebanon $4.7 mln for agriculture loans
Jumblat Shies Away from Revealing Alliances in Upcoming Polls
Lebanese Parliamentary Subcommittee to Resume Discussions on Hybrid Electoral System
Hariri Contacts Berri, Emphasizes Need to Maintain National Unity According to Taef
Officials: Israel hit SA-17 missiles shipment
Syria: Israeli jets strike Jamaraya arms depot near Damascus leaving casualties
Lebanese sources say no Israeli strike in Lebanon
Israelis wary of Assad's chemical weapons
Report: Iran, Hezbollah terror threat rising
Website aims to expose corruption in Lebanon
Syria accuses Israel of strike near capital
Israel hits Syria arms convoy to Lebanon: sources
U.N. Chief Says Syria Aid Pledges Exceed $1.5 Billion Target as Donors Meet in Kuwait
Syria Opposition Chief Says Ready for Talks with Regime
Israel jets increase activity in Lebanese airspace
Hagel pledges focus on Iran military options
UN chief presses for major boost in Syrian aid
Egypt: Opposition Leader Calls for National Dialogue
Egypt activist advocates for better ties with Israel
Merkel Tells Morsi to Ensure Dialogue in Egypt
New Law Curtails CPVPV’s Powers
French Enter Last Main Islamist-Held Town in Northern Mali

Syria accuses Israel of strike near capital
January 31, 2013/By Daily Star Staff
Agencies /BEIRUT: Israel conducted a rare airstrike on a military target inside Syria near the border with Lebanon, foreign officials and Syrian state TV said Wednesday, amid speculation President Bashar Assad’s regime could provide powerful weapons to Hezbollah. Syria’s army announced the strike in a statement read on state TV, saying the jets bombed a military research center in the area of Jamraya, northwest of the capital, Damascus, and about 15 kilometers from the border with Lebanon. The statement said the center was responsible for “raising the level of resistance and self-defense” of Syria’s military. It said the strike destroyed the center and a nearby building, killing two workers and wounding five others. The Syrian army statement denied that the strike had targeted a convoy heading from Syria to Lebanon, and instead maintained it was linked to the war pitting Assad’s forces against rebels seeking to push him from power. “This proves that Israel is the instigator, beneficiary and sometimes executor of the terrorist acts targeting Syria and its people,” it said.
But regional security officials said Israel had been planning in the days leading up to the airstrike to hit a shipment of weapons bound for Hezbollah.
Among Israeli officials’ chief fears is that Assad will pass chemical weapons or sophisticated anti-aircraft missiles to Hezbollah, which could change the balance of power in the region and greatly hinder Israel’s ability to conduct air sorties in Lebanon. The regional officials said the shipment Israel was planning to strike included Russian-made SA-17 anti-aircraft missiles, which would be strategically “game-changing” in the hands of Hezbollah by enabling the group to carry out fiercer attacks on Israel and shoot down Israeli jets, helicopters and surveillance drones. A U.S. official said the strike hit a convoy of trucks but did not give an exact location.
The Israeli military declined to comment, and the location could not be independently confirmed because of reporting restrictions in Syria.
Washington was similarly tight-lipped, when White House spokesman Jay Carney was asked about the strike.
“I’d refer you to the government of Israel for questions about deliberations or actions that they may or may not have taken,” he said.
A Hezbollah spokesperson told The Daily Star he had no knowledge of the alleged Israeli strike. “I don’t have any information about that,” Ibrahim Musawi said.
While Assad’s fall does not appear imminent, analysts worry he could grow desperate as his power wanes and seek to cause trouble elsewhere in the region through proxies like Hezbollah.
Syria’s government portrays the crisis, which started with political protests in 2011 and has since become a full-blown insurgency, as a foreign-backed conspiracy meant to destroy the country.
Top Israeli officials have recently expressed worries that Assad’s regime could pass chemical weapons to Hezbollah or other militant groups.
President Barack Obama has called Syria’s use of chemical weapons a “red line” whose crossing could prompt a tougher U.S. response, but U.S. officials say they are tracking Syria’s chemical weapons and that they still appear to be under regime control. Earlier this week, Israel moved a battery of its new “Iron Dome” rocket defense system to the northern city of Haifa, which was battered by Hezbollah rocket fire in the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. The Israeli army called that move “routine.” The airstrike was the first inside Syria in more than five years. In September 2007, Israeli warplanes destroyed a site in Syria that the U.N. nuclear watchdog deemed likely to be a secretly built nuclear reactor. Syria has denied the claim, saying the building was a non-nuclear military site.
Syria allowed international inspectors to visit the bombed site in 2008 but it has refused to allow nuclear inspectors new access. Israeli warplanes flew over Assad’s palace in 2006 after Syrian-backed militants in Gaza captured an Israeli soldier. And in 2003, Israeli warplanes attacked a suspected militant training camp just north of Damascus, in response to an Islamic jihad suicide bombing in Haifa that killed 21 Israelis. Syria vowed to retaliate for both attacks, but never did. The Lebanese Army said Israeli warplanes have sharply increased their activity over Lebanon in the past week, including at least 12 sorties in less than 24 hours in the country’s south.
A senior Lebanese security official said no Israeli airstrikes occurred inside Lebanese territory. A Lebanese Army statement said the last of the sorties took place at 2 a.m. local time Wednesday. It said four warplanes flew in over the southernmost coastal town of Naqoura and hovered for several hours over villages in southern Lebanon before leaving Lebanese airspace.
It said eight other warplanes conducted similar flights Tuesday. Another Lebanese security official said the flights were part of “increased activity” in the past week but did not elaborate.

Syria: Israeli jets strike Jamaraya arms depot near Damascus leaving casualties
DEBKAfile Special Report January 30, 2013
The Syrian government, by admitting that the Israel Air Force attacked the Jamaraya “Military Research Institute” (a euphemism for an arms deport), near Damascus, broke the barrier of silence the Israeli government had clamped down on its initial involvement in the Syrian conflict. It also indicated that Bashar Assad may have decided to pick up the gauntlet thrown down by Israel. The Syrian statement also refuted the report by foreign media from “Israeli sources” that Israeli jets had struck a convoy carrying sophisticated weapons from Syria to the Hizballah in Lebanon.
The Syrian statement was detailed: It said that the “Military Research Institute” developed Syrian army and Hizballah combat capabilities, that two Syrian solders were killed and five injured in the raid, and that a building had been leveled along with serious damage to military vehicles parked outside.
Israeli warplanes were described as coming in low from the north to evade Syrian [and Iranian] radar after flying over the Syrian peaks of the Hermon ridge. The Israeli jets were reported to have flown back to home base by the same route.
Last week, debkafile reports, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu sent two senior aides to Washington and Moscow with an identical message: If Bashar Assad ventures to permit Syrian arms, conventional or chemical, to reach Hizballah, the Israeli Defense Forces will prevent their delivery by force.
Military Intelligence chief Maj. Gen Aviv Kochavi handed this message to Obama administration officials in Washington and National Security Adviser Yakov Amidror delivered it for Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
debkafile’s military and intelligence sources report the message was sent out too late and soon overtaken by events:
1. Assad has passed the point of being accessible to outside influence or receptive to international condemnation. He no longer listens even to the advice of allies, such as President Vladimir Putin.
2. The Syrian ruler is no longer interested in how the sophisticated weapons owned by Hizballah and stored in Syria are disposed of. For years they were stored in Syrian military storehouses and kept from crossing the border into Lebanon by Israeli threats. Now, as far as Assad is concerned, Hizballah can collect the weapons systems or leave them where they are, whatever they wish. But they will have to take charge of keeping them secure since the Syrian army has no manpower to spare for this task. 3. On the other hand, Assad acknowledges his debt to Hizballah for the great assistance it has rendered his war against the Syrian insurgency. He will therefore not deny his Lebanese ally assistance in preparing for war with Israel. For all these reasons, the Kochavi and Amidror missions were a wasted effort.
Furthermore, two days earlier, President Barack Obama made it clear that he was not getting the United States involved in the Syrian conflict. In an interview to The New Republic, he asked rhetorically: “In a situation like Syria I have to ask: can we make a difference in that situation?” From that point on, it was obviously up to Syria’s neighbors to pick up the Syrian ball themselves, including the threat of chemical warfare.
After the Israeli air raid, the Pentagon pointed a finger at its authors, answering reporters’ question with a terse: Ask Israel.
By publishing the Israeli air raid, Bashar Assad seems to be treating it with all the seriousness of an act of war. His next step may well be to fight back.

Israel hits Syria arms convoy to Lebanon: sources
By Dominic Evans and Khaled Yacoub Oweis | Reuters
..BEIRUT/AMMAN (Reuters) - Israeli warplanes bombed a convoy near Syria's border with Lebanon, sources told Reuters, apparently targeting weapons destined for Hezbollah in what some called a warning to Damascus not to arm Israel's Lebanese enemy. Syrian state television accused Israel of bombing a military research center at Jamraya, between Damascus and the nearby border, but Syrian rebels disputed that, saying their forces had attacked the site. No source spoke of a second Israeli strike.
"The target was a truck loaded with weapons, heading from Syria to Lebanon," said one Western diplomat, echoing others who said the convoy's load may have included anti-aircraft missiles or long-range rockets. Several sources ruled out the presence in the convoy of chemical weapons, about which Israel has also raised concerns.
Diplomatic sources from three countries told Reuters that chemical weapons were believed to be stored at Jamraya, and that it was possible that the convoy was near the large site when it came under attack early on Wednesday. However, there was no suggestion that the vehicles themselves had been carrying chemical weapons.
The raid followed warnings from Israel that it was ready to act to prevent the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad leading to Syria's chemical weapons and modern rockets reaching either his Hezbollah allies or his Islamist enemies. A source among Syrian rebels said an air strike around dawn (0430 GMT) blasted a convoy near the border. "It attacked trucks carrying sophisticated weapons from the regime to Hezbollah," the source said, adding that it took place inside Syria.
Syrian state television said two people were killed in a dawn raid on the military site at Jamraya, which lies in the 25-km (15-mile) strip between Damascus and the Lebanese border. It described it as a scientific research centers "aimed at raising the level of resistance and self-defense".
It did not mention specific retaliation but said "these criminal acts" would not weaken Syria's support for Palestinians and other groups engaged in "resistance" to Israel.
Several rebel sources, however, including a commander in the Damascus area, accused the authorities of lying and said the only attacks at Jamraya had been mortar attacks by insurgents.
A regional security source said Israel's target was weaponry given by Assad's military to fellow Iranian ally Hezbollah.
"This episode boils down to a warning by Israel to Syria and Hezbollah not to engage in the transfer of sensitive weapons," the source said. "Assad knows his survival depends on his military capabilities and he would not want those capabilities neutralized by Israel - so the message is this kind of transfer is simply not worth it, neither for him nor Hezbollah."
With official secrecy shrouding the event, few details were corroborated by multiple sources. All those with knowledge of the events - from several countries - spoke anonymously.
"MOCK RAIDS"
There was no comment from Hezbollah or the Israeli government. Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV said only that Israeli warplanes had carried out "mock raids" over southern Lebanon on Wednesday night, close to the Syrian border.
Israel's ally the United States declined all comment. A Lebanese security source said its territory was not hit, though the army also reported a heavy presence of Israeli jets through the night after days of unusually frequent incursions.
Such a strike or strikes would fit Israel's policy of pre-emptive covert and overt action to curb Hezbollah and does not necessarily indicate a major escalation of the war in Syria. It does, however, indicate how the erosion of the Assad family's rule after 42 years is seen by Israel as posing a threat.
Israel this week echoed concerns in the United States about Syrian chemical weapons, but its officials say a more immediate worry is that the civil war could see weapons that are capable of denting its massive superiority in airpower and tanks reaching Hezbollah; the group fought Israel in 2006 and remains a more pressing threat than its Syrian and Iranian sponsors.
Israeli officials have said they feared Assad may be losing his grip on some chemical weapons, including around Damascus, to rebel groups which are also potentially hostile to Israel. U.S. and European security sources told Reuters they were confident that chemical weapons were not in the convoy which was bombed.
Wednesday's action could have been a rapid response to an opportunity. But a stream of Israeli comment on Syria in recent days may have been intended to limit surprise in world capitals.
The head of the Israeli air force said only hours before the attack that his corps, which has an array of the latest jet bombers, attack helicopters and unmanned drones at its disposal, was involved in a covert "campaign between wars". "This campaign is 24/7, 365 days a year," Major-General Amir Eshel told a conference on Tuesday. "We are taking action to reduce the immediate threats, to create better conditions in which we will be able to win the wars, when they happen."On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, set for a new term after an election, told his cabinet that Iran and turmoil in Arab states meant Israel must be strong: "In the east, north and south, everything is in ferment, and we must be prepared, strong and determined in the face of all possible developments."
Israel's refusal to comment on Wednesday is usual in such cases; it has, for example, never admitted a 2007 air strike on a suspected Syrian nuclear site despite U.S. confirmation of it.
By not acknowledging that raid, Israel may have ensured that Assad did not feel obliged to retaliate. For 40 years, Syria has offered little but bellicose words against Israel.
(Additional reporting by Mariam Karouny and Oliver Holmes in Beirut, Myra MacDonald in London, Mark Hosenball in Washington and Reuters bureaux; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by David Stamp)

Iran, Hezbollah terror threat rising: report
Lolita C. Baldor, Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Global News
In testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee last September, Matthew Olsen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said "the Quds force, as well as the group that it co-ordinates with, Lebanese Hezbollah" posed a significant source of concern.
, Getty Images
WASHINGTON - Iran's elite Quds Force and Hezbollah militants are learning from a series of botched terror attacks over the past two years and pose a growing threat to the U.S. and other Western targets as well as Israel, a prominent counterterrorism expert says.
Operating both independently and together, the militant groups are escalating their activities around the world, fueling worries in the U.S. that they increasingly have the ability and the willingness to attack the U.S., according to a report by Matthew Levitt of the Washington Institute for Near East Studies. His report points to two attacks last year — one successful and one foiled by U.S. authorities — as indications that the militants are adapting and are determined to take revenge on the West for efforts to disrupt Tehran's nuclear program and other perceived offences.
The report's conclusions expand on comments late last year from U.S. terrorism officials who told Congress that the Quds Force and Hezbollah, which often co-ordinate efforts, have become "a significant source of concern" for the U.S. The Quds Force is an elite wing of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard, the defenders of Iran's ruling clerics and their hold on power.
The report comes amid ongoing tensions between Iran and the West, including a persistent stalemate over scheduling six-party talks on Tehran's nuclear program and anger over reports that the U.S. and Israel were behind the Stuxnet computer attack that forced the temporary shutdown of thousands of centrifuges at an Iranian nuclear facility in 2010. More than 20 terror attacks by Hezbollah or Quds Force operatives were thwarted around the world between May 2011 and July 2012, with nine coming in the first nine months of 2012, Levitt said in the report. "What is particularly striking is how amateurish the actions of both organizations have been: Targets were poorly chosen and assaults carried out with gross incompetence," Levitt said in the report. "But as the groups brush off the cobwebs and professionalize their operations, this sloppy tradecraft could quickly be replaced by operational success." Levitt is a senior fellow and director of the Washington Institute's Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence. From 2005 to early 2007, he served as deputy assistant secretary for intelligence and analysis at the Treasury Department. The two key attacks, the report said, include the plot by a Texas man to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States. Manssor Arbabsiar, a U.S. citizen with an Iranian passport, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and murder-for-hire last October and told the court that Iranian military officials were involved in the planning. Iran has denied that link.
His effort was foiled when he tried to hire what he thought was a drug dealer to carry out the attack in a Washington restaurant. The man was actually a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration confidential source.
While that plot highlighted a growing willingness to wage attacks in the U.S., a second, more successful plot in Bulgaria suggests that militants may be learning from their missteps.
Last July, a bomb killed a bus driver and five Israelis, and wounded 30 others, when it struck a tour bus in a caravan. Officials have blamed the attack on Hezbollah.
Other attacks over the past two years have also identified repeated links between Hezbollah and the Quds force — a long alliance that historically involved the Iranians arming, funding or training the Lebanon-based militants and using them as proxies. In testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee last September, Matthew Olsen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said "the Quds force, as well as the group that it co-ordinates with, Lebanese Hezbollah" posed a significant source of concern.
FBI associate deputy director Kevin Perkins added, "We look at it as a serious threat, and ... we are focusing intelligence analysts and other resources on that on a daily basis to monitor that threat."
According to Levitt, the efforts to disrupt Iran's nuclear program have only made Tehran more eager to see a successful attack carried out. He said that both Hezbollah and the Quds Force have been hampered by the increased security triggered by the 9-11 attacks.
© The Canadian Press, 2013

STL prosecution backs defense request to postpone trial
January 31, 2013/By Willow Osgood/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: The Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s prosecutor voiced his support Wednesday for a defense request to push back the trial’s start date, a move that suggests the proceedings currently set for March 25 will be delayed.
Pretrial Judge Daniel Fransen heard from the prosecution and the defense in a hearing Wednesday to assess their preparations for trial. He then announced that he was not ready to make a decision on the request for a delay, but would do so swiftly. Last week, defense attorneys representing the four members of Hezbollah accused in the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri requested that Fransen change the start of the trial. The defense argued that the failure of the prosecution to disclose all necessary documents and the failure of the government of Lebanon to cooperate with their requests for information, among other factors, had left them without adequate time to prepare. In his response, Prosecutor Norman Farrell acknowledged that the defense had presented fair reasons for asking to change the trial date. “Of the eight factors cited in the Joint Defense Motion, the prosecution acknowledges that some of these factors would justify postponing the trial date under the present circumstances. These include the incomplete disclosure process to date, the volume of evidence disclosed, the scale of the case, and some technical, software and translation issues,” the prosecution’s filing said. “The prosecution acknowledges that the extended period needed for prosecution disclosure has impacted on the defense’s ability to prepare, and that further time is therefore required.” At the hearing, the prosecution said that it would complete disclosure of all documents by March 11 but, following the lead of the defense attorneys, did not suggest an alternative start date. Though in agreement over postponing the trial, defense and prosecution attorneys faced off at the hearing over a number of factors that are slowing the work of the defense. In particular, the defense voiced frustration over access to records of call data, evidence that is likely to be crucial to the prosecution’s attempt to prove their case against the defendants, who remain at large.
Though they have the raw call record data, the defense attorneys argued that it was essentially useless in its current form and would take a year to organize. Access to a database of the call records that the prosecution developed was unsatisfactory, they said, asking for a change in policy that would allow them to work from the same data as the prosecution. Much of the prosecution’s case rests on call records it says prove the accused took part in the attack that killed Hariri and 21 others. Another point of contention at the hearing was folders of data disclosed by the prosecution that cannot be opened by the defense. “If data can’t be opened and used, in the end it cannot be deemed that it have been genuine disclosure,” said attorney Antoine Korkmaz, who represents Mustafa Badreddine.As of Jan. 22, the prosecution has given the defense some 469,000 pages in documents.

Lebanese sources say no Israeli strike in Lebanon
January 30, 2013/By Dana Khraiche/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Lebanese security sources said Wednesday there was no Israeli strike inside Lebanese territory after reports said Israeli jets hit a weapons convoy on the border with Syria. Regional security sources told the Associated Press that the Jewish state conducted an airstrike inside Syria near the border with Lebanon. They added that Tel Aviv has been making plans leading up to the attack to target a shipment of arms bound for Hezbollah. Lebanese Army sources told The Daily Star that there was no aerial strike inside Lebanon, although the military has registered increased violations of Lebanese airspace by Israeli jets since Friday of last week. "No Israeli strike or aggression occurred along the border stretching from Shabaa Farms to Jabal al-Sheikh and Hermel. No strike took place on Lebanese soil," a high-ranking security source said.
He added that security agencies in the country have no information with regards to an aerial attack inside Syria. Several media outlets said Israeli jets hit a convoy carrying anti-aircraft missiles on its way to Lebanon without providing specific location for the attack. A Hezbollah spokesperson told The Daily Star he had no knowledge of the alleged Israeli strike.
“I don’t have any information about that,” Ibrahim Musawi said. Prime Minister Najib Mikati said he could not confirm the attack near the border with Lebanon. “I heard about the aerial raid during the meetings [with Turkish officials] and I haven’t received any confirmation from Lebanese authorities,” Mikati told reporters at a news conference in Ankara. “I haven’t had time to contact the Lebanese Army but these are all media reports without any official confirmation.” In a statement, the Lebanese Army said four Israeli warplanes violated Lebanon’s airspace at 2 a.m. Wednesday and conducted aerial maneuvers above various Lebanese areas for approximately six hours. The military also said that it registered two violations on separate occasions on Tuesday by eight Israeli warplanes. Reuters quoted a Western diplomat and security sources Wednesday saying Israeli forces attacked a target on the Lebanon-Syria border overnight while Agence France Press and Al-Arabiya television reported that Israeli forces carried out a strike overnight on a weapons convoy coming from Syria into the border area. "The Israeli air force blew up a convoy which had just crossed the border from Syria into Lebanon," AFP quoted one source as saying. News of the alleged attack comes weeks after Israeli officials upped their rhetoric over the possibility that President Bashar Assad’s stockpile of chemical weapons could fall into the hands of Hezbollah. Last week, Israel's vice premier Benjamin Netanyahu was quoted as saying that any sign that Assad is losing grip on his country’s chemical weapons due to the fighting there could prompt Israeli military strikes. Iran, a key supporter of Assad in the region, has said it considered any attack on Syria as an attack on itself and has warned against military intervention to end the bloodshed in the troubled country. Hezbollah's chief Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah denied last year his group possessed chemical weapons. “We don’t have chemical weapons and we don’t need to use them ... because [Israel] has factories and locations that are in the reach of our rockets,” he told Al-Mayadeen television, adding that it was religiously unacceptable for his group to use chemical weapons.

French president meets Lebanon's Kataeb leader
Now Lebanon/Kataeb bloc leader MP Amin Gemayel met with French President Francois Hollande in Paris on Wednesday where they discussed the developments in the region.
Gemayel said that Hollande promised him France would help Lebanon on all levels and keep it from being affected by the Syrian crisis, the National News Agency reported. The French president also tackled the Syria refugees issue with the Kataeb MP.Lebanon is facing difficulties dealing with the increasingly high number of refugees fleeing Syria’s violent uprising against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, which has killed more than 60,000 people since its outbreak in March 2011.

Hariri Contacts Berri, Emphasizes Need to Maintain National Unity According to Taef
Naharnet/Speaker Nabih Berri received on Wednesday a telephone call from former Prime Minister Saad Hariri to discuss the latest developments, announced the latter's press office in a statement.The two officials stressed the need to preserve national unity and “maintain the principles of coexistence” in line with the Taef Accord, especially in light of the challenges Lebanon is facing on the local and regional scenes.On Tuesday, Hariri received at his Paris residence Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat.The two leaders stressed the need to preserve the Taef constitution and religious coexistence in Lebanon which provide protection for national unity and stability in the face of these challenges.On Monday, the former premier met with Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel.

Lebanese hostages not Turkey’s main problem: Erdogan
January 31, 2013/By Van Meguerditchian/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday that the issue of the Lebanese pilgrims held hostage in Turkey was not his country’s “main problem” given the ongoing regional unrest.
For his part, after meeting with his Turkish counterpart, Prime Minister Najib Mikati urged Turkey to increase its pressure on the hostages’ captors, saying the Lebanese people believe Turkey is capable of helping to obtain their release. Nine of the 11 Lebanese pilgrims are still being held by Syrian rebels despite months of talks between Lebanese officials and the group holding them.
The pilgrims were abducted last May, and two of the hostages were released last year and returned to Beirut via Turkey. Speaking during a joint news conference at the Turkish presidential palace in Ankara, Mikati said his talks with Erdogan on the fate of the remaining hostages were positive. “We spoke about a very important issue to us ... the kidnapped Lebanese,” Mikati said, adding that he asked for Turkey to “exert pressure on the abductors” to release them.
According to several Turkish media reports, Mikati’s convoy was late to the presidential palace and an official delegation and ceremonial band who were awaiting his arrival were forced to return to the palace in the face of cold weather. “During my meeting with Prime Minister Erdogan, I conveyed to him my opinion that if Turkey increases its pressure on the captors of the Lebanese, the hostages would be liberated,” Mikati said.
Erdogan told reporters he had conveyed to Mikati that “the issue is sensitive and we are exerting efforts with our concerned brothers and attempting to communicate to secure the release of the Lebanese.”
Neither official would be drawn on the details of their talks, but after repeated questions Erdogan said the issue “is not our main problem; we have at least 200,000 Syrian refugees in Turkish territory and our primary problem today is with the Syrian regime.” “The Syrian regime’s shelling of our territories has killed five Turkish civilians, and I believe that the proper question to ask today is who is sponsoring this regime and keeping it in power in Syria,” he said. “It is true that we have good relations with the Syrian people and the opposition, and that is why in our talks with the opposition groups we ask them to show the same sympathy that all of you [Lebanese] are showing, so that the kidnapped pilgrims can be reunited with their families,” the prime minister added.
Mikati was accompanied on his one-day official visit by a delegation including Interior Minister Marwan Charbel, Public Works and Transport Minister Ghazi Aridi and Economy Minister Nicolas Nahhas.
Erdogan rejected claims that Turkey was providing weapons to the Syrian opposition, and praised the Lebanese government’s policy of disassociation from the conflict in Syria.
“Peace and stability in Lebanon is very important for Turkey, and as I mentioned to Prime Minister Mikati I want to stress that we support Lebanon’s policies toward Syria, because everyone in Lebanon needs this peace,” he said. Erdogan also said that Turkey helped end Syria’s occupation of Lebanon in 2005. “Lebanon suffered a lot at the hands of this Syrian regime and we should not forget the occupation of Lebanon and how Turkey played an important role in the Syrian withdrawal from Lebanese territories.” Mikati said he hoped the next few weeks would yield positive results for the hostages, and said the two countries are facing similar challenges with the influx of refugees from Syria.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) urges Lebanon to push for more reforms
January 31, 2013/The Daily Star/BEIRUT: The International Monetary Fund called on Lebanon to implement deeper reforms as Finance Minister Mohammad Safadi met U.S. officials in Washington Wednesday.
“We agreed that Lebanon can no longer continue to overlook the bold financial, fiscal administrative reforms,” the finance minister said following a meeting with IMF head Christian Lagarde. “Political forces should assume responsibility in improving the financial situation away from political divisions,” he added. Safadi said Lagarde suggested that the 2013 budget should include the investments necessary to bolster the economy, but at the same time, should also cut squandering and unnecessary expenses. “The IMF is satisfied with Lebanon’s [economic] performance in general, but there were a few reservations,” Safadi was quoted as saying by the National News Agency. He added that the IMF expressed willingness to discuss various economic propositions, particularly in light of international trust that the country still enjoys. Safadi’s talks with the fund came as the ministry mulled increasing taxes to fund a new salary scale for public sector employees. The government has so far failed to finalize a budget draft that would cover the cost of the wage hikes. Most ministers have expressed strong reservations about raising taxes amid a severe economic slowdown and political uncertainty in the country. Earlier, the IMF and the World Bank opposed the public sector salary increases and urged Safadi to avoid such a move, citing concerns over inflation and fiscal conditions. The Economic Committees, a group that represents the private sector, has also expressed similar views.

Lebanese Lawmakers divided over prospect of holding elections on time
January 31, 2013/By Wassim Mroueh/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: MPs from rival blocs were divided over the prospect of holding parliamentary polls on time as they participated in a session for parliamentary joint committees Wednesday.
Some said the elections, currently scheduled for June, would be held on time only if parties from across the political divide reached an agreement on an electoral law. Others believed that too much time had elapsed to allow for polls under a new law in June. Still other political groups, were indifferent on whether elections took place at all. “I have little hope [that elections will be held on time] ... there are parties from both camps that want elections not to be held, each for their own reasons,” said an MP from the Kataeb party who requested to remain anonymous.
Another MP from the same party voiced his belief that elections could not be held on time if a new law was to be drafted. “There will not be enough time for the candidate to conduct his electoral campaign and for the voters to examine the new law thoroughly,” he said. “But if the 1960 law [on the basis of which the 2009 polls were held] was adopted with minor amendments, then elections could still be held on time.”
A third MP from the same bloc was more optimistic, as he expected that a consensus on the draft law proposed by Speaker Nabih Berri would be reached between rival groups. Berri’s proposal combines proportional representation with a winner-take-all system.
“It is very likely that within the next 15 days we will reach a solution,” he said. Joint parliamentary committees decided Wednesday to give 15 additional days to a subcommittee, working with rival parties to reach a consensus, to conclude its task. The subcommittee will be studying the hybrid law. A Lebanese Forces MP agreed: “I believe elections will be held on time, and the hybrid law will be adopted.”
Another LF lawmaker said holding elections on time depended on whether rival groups could agree on an electoral law: “If they quickly agree on a law, then yes [polls will be held on time], if not, then no.”
A Hezbollah MP said: “I won’t say anything. I will only say that we want consensus [over a law].”
“Why won’t there be elections on time?” asked one of his colleagues in the same bloc. “We are working on an electoral law on a daily basis ... there are MPs who did not attend today, they do not want elections,” he said, referring to Future Movement lawmakers.
MPs from the March 14 coalition boycotted all Parliament activities that involved ministers of the current government, following the October assassination of Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan, the head of the Internal Security Forces Information Branch. Parliament has not convened since then. Kataeb and Lebanese Forces MPs attended the Wednesday session but those from the Future Movement continued their boycott. Two Cabinet ministers were also present. A Future Movement lawmaker said it was in fact Hezbollah that was not interested in holding elections and not the other way around. “They have a [parliamentary] majority now [with their allies] ... they are not sure whether they will maintain it after the polls.” The MP said a speech delivered by Hezbollah MP Mohammad Raad earlier this week, in which he said reaching a consensus on an electoral law was the only way to hold polls on time, is a subtle indication of the party’s unwillingness to allow elections to take place. An MP from Michel Aoun’s Change and Reform parliamentary bloc said he believes polls will take place on time, only not under the 1960 law. An MP from Berri’s bloc said it would not be a problem to postpone polls for a few months if various blocs reached consensus over the law. “If we agree on an electoral law and we had to postpone polls for a few months to make preparations, then it won’t be a problem,” he said. But he could not say whether polls would be held on time or if a consensus could be reached. “Nobody can tell [for now], we are working toward that.”

President Michel Sleiman vows open borders as donors pledge $1.5 bln for refugees
January 31, 2013/By Daily Star Staff/Agencies
BEIRUT: President Michel Sleiman pledged Wednesday that Lebanon’s borders would remain open to refugees as a donor conference in Kuwait exceeded the United Nations’ call for $1.5 billion to aid war-ravaged Syrians.
Addressing representatives from more than 60 countries, Sleiman called for a speedy solution to the Syrian refugee influx into Lebanon. “Lebanon has sought in the past months to provide assistance to the Syrian refugees despite its limited capabilities. However, the country needs help in hosting the refugees,” Sleiman said. The president said that although the influx is expected to increase, “the border will remain open to refugees.”
He also urged Arab countries to help in hosting refugees because Lebanon is not able to shoulder the burden alone. “We ask Arab countries to share the hosting of refugees, not because we want them deported, but after we get the consent of refugees themselves and the Arab countries,” Sleiman said. Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia pledged $300 million each to help the refugees in the region, expected to number 1 million in mid-2013. Lebanon has almost 160,000 refugees officially registered with the United Nations, while another 70,000 people await processing.
Sleiman said that out of Beirut’s $370 million comprehensive plan for refugee aid, $180 million would be allocated to Lebanese state institutions, while $190 million would be distributed among international agencies.
The president held separate meetings with the emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon, and U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Gotiris.
Ban made an impassioned appeal for an end to the fighting “in the name of humanity,” calling on all sides, “and particularly the Syrian government” to halt attacks in the 22-month-old civil war that the U.N. says has claimed more than 60,000 lives. He listed a “cascading catalog of horrors” facing Syrians, including shortages of food and medicine and abuses such as “sexual violence and arbitrary arrests and detention.” Half of public hospitals have been damaged, he added. “The use of heavy weapons in residential areas has destroyed whole communities and neighborhoods,” Ban told delegates.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II, whose country is hosting nearly half of the 700,000 refugees, said bluntly that “we have reached the end of the line. We have exhausted our resources.”
Gulf nongovernment groups and charities have pledged $184 million, while the European Union and United States promised a total of nearly $300 million. Iran, a staunch supporter of Syrian President Bashar Assad, said the blame for the humanitarian crisis lay with “mercenary” rebel fighters.

Lebanon's Ex-General Security head Jamil al-Sayyed, slams Annan over ‘erroneous’ claims in book
January 31, 2013/The Daily Star/BEIRUT: Ex-General Security head Jamil al-Sayyed, slammed Wednesday former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan for arguing in his latest book that Lebanon raised the issue of Israel’s occupation of the Shebaa Farms in 2000 as a pretext for Hezbollah to pursue its resistance operations against Israel. Sayyed said Anan relied on “erroneous facts” provided to him by Israel and U.N. envoy Terje Roed-Larsen. Sayyed, who was a member of the Lebanese team negotiating the demarcation of the Blue Line, explained that on the eve of Israel’s 2000 withdrawal from south Lebanon, Roed-Larsen opposed Israel’s evacuation of the Shebaa Farms, even after Lebanon presented a map showing that the Farms were located inside Lebanese land. Sayyed added that Lebanon had received “oral assurances” from Syria that it would sign the map. According to a statement by the former security chief, Roed-Larsen said Israel and the U.N. opposed withdrawal from Shebaa Farms because they fell under the mandate of U.N. forces in the Occupied Syrian Golan heights.
He said Lebanon’s demand that Israel withdraw from the Shebaa Farms at the time had not been a pretext for Hezbollah to continue its operations. “Had Israel and the U.N. approved the map and a withdrawal, we would not be facing the issue of occupation nor its consequences,” Sayyed said.

EU grants Lebanon $4.7 mln for agriculture loans
January 29, 2013/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: The Agriculture Ministry, the European Union and Kafalat signed a grant contract of 3.5 million euros ($4.7 million) Monday for small loans intended for agricultural and rural development.
The project, dubbed Credit for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD Scheme), is part of the Agriculture and Rural Development Program, an EU-funded initiative implemented by the ministry, the EU delegation said in a statement. The small credit scheme will include two financial products with one targeting short-term loans up to 35,000 euros and another meeting long-term credit needs of the sector, including tree farming.
With the cumulative EU and Kafalat contributions totaling 7 million euros, the fund could guarantee up to 36 million euros of loans due to the multiplier effect offered by the guarantee fund mechanism, the statement said.
The program aims to increase access to credit for small-scale farmers and agricultural cooperatives, the EU said. “CARD will complement the existing Kafalat agriculture guarantee scheme and will help filling major gaps in the agricultural credit market in Lebanon by supporting small short-term and large long-term loans,” a news release said. Rural women and young farmers will be the main target groups for the project, the statement said, adding income-generating activities and job creation are also a priority. A campaign later this year will encourage farmers and cooperatives to apply for agricultural loans, it said. It is expected that more than 800 farmers will benefit from this scheme over the coming 48 months. More than 1,500 loans will be made in the next 10 years, the statement added.

Website aims to expose corruption in Lebanon
January 31, 2013/By Mohamad El Amin/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Bribing government clerks to speed up paperwork, reduce property taxes or hasten car registration is a common practice in Lebanon. The media have reported extensively on corruption in most government departments, but no real action has been taken to crack down on the violators. To encourage citizens to exercise their rights and highlight some of these complaints, Rabih Sfeir launched rashwe.com in December, the first portal in Lebanon which handles such sensitive matters. “Many in Lebanon despair, accepting corruption as part of daily life, while many people see it as one way of getting things done with minimal hassle,” Sfeir told The Daily Star. “This is precisely what the website intends to change,” Sfeir, a 35-old finance professional, explained. The website, which aims to track and analyze bribery, is Sfeir’s own reaction to a blatant bribe request by a vehicle registration clerk. In the 15 minutes Sfeir spent at the office, the corrupt employee pocketed no less than LL5,000 from each of the eight citizens he saw.
“In Lebanon, everyone has a bribe story, but we do not have any sort of data or ways to collect evidence,” he said. The website, Sfeir added, was mainly intended to collect data and issue analytical reports that shed light not only on the cost of bribery to the Lebanese economy, but to help change the bitter reality by exposing the most corrupt departments.
In other service-oriented economies, he said, studies showed corruption ate away a huge chunk of GDP. “With a GDP of around $39 billion, and the approximation with Mexico, which has a better transparency ranking, the cost of bribery in Lebanon could amount to up to $3.9 billion per year, or 10 percent of our GDP,” he said. But the website’s first statistics this month show that Lebanese still lack the courage to try and make a difference. “It is some sort of a fear factor that keeps people from reporting on the bribes they are paying,” Sfeir explained. Out of 1,920 unique visitors and 2,225 visits the website attracted, only 47 individuals made corruption claims. Though not insignificant, the claims are not yet enough to generate national data, Sfeir said.
More than 20 percent of the claims cited violations during car registration. Many complaints indicated that public employees often do not return the change when a fee or a stamp is paid, making sizeable profits at the expense of citizens, Sfeir added. To attract more traffic and claims, Sfeir plans to reach out to a bigger audience through social media and advertisements, encouraging people to overcome their fears and report any incidents. Financing for the website is so far provided by Sfeir himself. The privacy of the claimant is guaranteed and people can choose to remain anonymous. “The purpose of the website is to compile data and not to single out individuals,” Sfeir stressed. Falling behind a global average of 43 points, Lebanon ranks 128th out of 174 countries surveyed for corruption perception, according to the Corruption Perception Index issued by Transparency International in December. “Lose the fear and hope for a chance of success. You have nothing to lose but the higher cost of transacting with the government and some of your frustration,” Sfeir adds on his website, urging citizens to act more and talk less.

Hagel pledges focus on Iran military options
By BLOOMBERG01/30/2013/J.Post
“While there is time and space for diplomacy, backed by pressure, the window is closing,” Hagel says ahead of nomination hearing.Chuck Hagel is pledging that as defense secretary he will “focus intently on ensuring the US military” is prepared to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities if needed. “I agree with the president that the United States should take no options off the table in our efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon,” Hagel said in written answers to policy questions posed by the Senate Armed Services Committee, which will hold a hearing tomorrow on President Barack Obama’s nomination of the former Nebraska senator to head the Pentagon.“While there is time and space for diplomacy, backed by pressure, the window is closing,” Hagel said in the 112-page document obtained by Bloomberg News. “Iran needs to demonstrate it is prepared to negotiate seriously.”
Hagel’s readiness to take on Iran is among questions he may face tomorrow from fellow Republicans, who have said that they are troubled by his past policy comments -- including opposition to unilateral economic sanctions against Iran and to the troop surge during the Iraq war and remarks he once made about the influence of the “Jewish lobby” in Washington.
Most of the written answers Hagel provided to the committee reflect current White House and Pentagon policy on Iraq, Afghanistan, budget cuts, personnel issues, weapons programs and the industrial base. When pressed on changes he might make if he is confirmed to succeed the departing defense secretary, Leon Panetta, Hagel repeatedly responded that he would have to weigh such matters once in office.Devastating" cuts
While Hagel, 66, has in the past described the Pentagon’s budget as bloated, he said in his written responses that automatic cuts scheduled to begin in March would be “devastating,” echoing Panetta’s position on the across-the- board reductions known as sequestration. Unless Congress and Obama agree on an alternative plan to reduce the federal deficit, defense programs will be cut by $45 billion through September and about $500 billion over a decade. “It would harm military readiness and disrupt each and every investment program,” Hagel said. “I urge Congress to eliminate the sequester threat permanently and pass a balanced deficit-reduction plan.”
There also would be “negative effects on morale and welfare of the force including recruiting and retention problems,” Hagel said. ‘Terrible Sign’ “It would send a terrible sign to our military and civilian workforce, to those we hope to recruit and to both our allies and adversaries,” he said. While Panetta once called the automatic cuts a “doomsday mechanism,” Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said in an interview yesterday that it is now “more likely than unlikely” that sequestration will go ahead. Hagel indicated that he would be a hands-on manager when it comes to defense contracting. Asked about Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT)’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the Pentagon’s most expensive weapons program, Hagel expressed concern about the strategy for acquiring the jet for the Air Force, the Navy and the Marine Corps. The Pentagon “has taken too much risk” with the program’s “concurrency” strategy that builds planes while they are still being developed, “committing to production well before the design was tested enough to know that it is mature and stable,” he said.
Examining F-35
Frank Kendall, the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer, said last year that the approach was “acquisition malpractice.”The F-35 “has experienced significant cost increases and schedule slips,” Hagel said. The Pentagon’s $395.7 billion estimate for the total cost of development and production of 2,443 fighters is a 70 percent increase since the initial contract with Bethesda, Maryland- based company was signed in 2001.
If confirmed, Hagel said, “I will make it a high priority to examine the health of this program to determine if it is on sound footing and ensure the aircraft are delivered with the capability we need and cost we can afford.”

What Happened to the Space Monkey?
By Adel Al-Toraifi/Asharq Alawsat
For the past three years in Tehran’s Nasir Khusraw Street—where several licensed pharmacies compete to sell medicine—there has been a thriving black market trade in pharmaceuticals. Despite repeated campaigns launched by Iranian health bodies to eliminate this phenomenon, the authorities have begun to turn something of a blind eye towards what is happening, because some of the essential medicines being sold there are no longer available in official outlets due to international sanctions. The company Darou Pakhsh, which is the largest pharmaceutical supplier in Iran (accounting for a third of the market), recently announced it would be halting its production of some medications due to a lack of essential materials and foreign companies refusing to deal with their Iranian counterparts for fear of being fined by the US and European authorities.
This is not the first time that Iran has suffered a shortage of imported pharmaceutical drugs. Over the past three decades the country has repeatedly been subjected to Western and international sanctions. As a result of this, the Iranian market has grown accustomed to making up the shortfall in imports through locally produced alternatives or orientating towards Asian markets where international controls over some trading ports are weaker. This is not to mention the fact that the Iranian regime, through multiple organs, has mastered the art of smuggling and circumventing sanctions by changing names and switching between domestic and foreign brokers. However, there are those who argue that the sanctions this time might prove a defining moment, citing the significant implications that have begun to emerge so far as a direct result of this.
For example, an Iranian parliamentary report revealed that oil revenues have fallen by 45 percent, according to estimates from the Iranian Ministry of Petroleum, while the Iranian rial has lost 80 percent of its value against the US dollar over the past two years. Earlier this month, Air France announced that it had cancelled flights to Tehran, making Lufthansa the only European airline still flying to Iran. It was noticeable in Air France’s statement that the decision was based on economic, not political, considerations, meaning that regardless of the political risk, it is no longer profitable to fly to Tehran.
Of course there are contradictory news reports about the real impact of these sanctions. At a time when economic indicators seem bad, Tehran also appears regionally active. It is no secret that the Iranians are providing the Syrian regime with military supplies, and even contributing financially to its survival. We do not know the exact amount of money President Assad’s regime is receiving from its Iranian allies, but there is no doubt that the Syrian regime no longer possesses significant government revenues given that the civil war has reached its current stage. Furthermore, Tehran claims it is providing Afghanistan with electricity generators, probably in an effort to compensate for the US withdrawal from the troubled country. With regards to minimizing the impact of the sanctions, Iranian officials have boasted that their gas exports to Turkey have not been affected despite Tehran’s position regarding the war in Syria. However are conditions truly that bad? At the Davos forum in Switzerland one can hear two distinct points of view on the matter, the first being that the recent sanctions differ from previous ones, and that by necessity they will force Iran to its knees, despite Tehran’s current arrogance and obstinacy. Renowned diplomat Henry Kissinger surprised his audience at Davos by confirming that a decision on the Iranian nuclear project will take place in the foreseeable future, which has prompted some to question whether the prominent realist has inside information about a political deal or an imminent war plan.
As for the other point of view, this has been represented by Vali Nasr (author of The Shia Revival). The US academic argues that after six months Iran was able to overcome the sanctions, stressing that Tehran has followed the example of North Korea, in other words joining the nuclear club first and then negotiating to ease sanctions.
A few days ago the Iranian authorities announced that they had successfully managed to send what they referred to as a “living being” into space. State media broadcasted televised footage of a monkey being strapped into place, followed by still images of the rocket and the launch, together with a voiceover from a commentator who said that the experiment was a “cognitive leap” for experts and researchers, adding that Iran could send a man into space by 2020. Meanwhile, US officials criticized Iran for bypassing international law, and the Israelis doubted the success of the mission. On Iranian social networking sites there was a flurry of jokes and comments on the news, with some questioning the mystery behind the officials’ decision to say “living being” instead of “monkey”, while others called for the monkey’s name to be revealed along with his future plans after recording this unprecedented achievement in the history of Iranian space science. Of course, there were also those who questioned the success of the experiment, calling on the authorities to provide evidence that the capsule and “living being” landed safely, or for an interview with the monkey to dispel doubts.  In any case, the timing of the experiment represents an attempt to respond to the issue of sanctions. At a time when Iranians lack medicines for serious and fatal diseases, the authorities can send a monkey into space, or at least a distance of a hundred kilometers, as their experts say. In his excellent book, “The Mantle of the Prophet: Religion and Politics in Iran”, Roy Mottahedeh, quoted poet Omar Khayyam: “One thing is certain, that life flies;  One thing is certain, and the rest is lies” So let us just assume that the monkey, when travelling into space, was swallowed by a black hole!

New Law Curtails CPVPV’s Powers
By Bandar al-Sharida/Riyadh, Asharq Al-Awsat—Saudi Arabia passed a new law Monday curtailing the powers of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (CPVPV). Dr. Abdullatif Al Al-Sheikh, CPVPV President, informed Asharq Al-Awsat that the new law will develop the organization’s mechanism. He denied claims that these changes have made the organization obsolete, stressing that they will improve its operations. Al-Sheikh emphasized that the changes will advance and improve CPVPV agents work, confirming that some of the powers previously held by the organization have now been transferred to the competent authorities. Al-Sheikh said, “In the past, the CPVPV agents’ would carry out legal proceedings against suspects, however the new system will transfer investigation of suspects to the Bureau of Investigations and the General Prosecution”, adding that the transfer of these powers to the competent authorities will ensure justice and equality. He emphasized that while the CPVPV retains the power to detain suspects, these suspects must then be transferred directly to police stations to complete legal proceedings against them. He also asserted that the new system only allows CPVPV agents to investigate and arrest suspects involved with “flagrant offenses”. The CPVPV may still arrest those carrying out offenses such as harassing women, consuming alcohol and drugs, blackmailing, and the practice of witchcraft.
Dr. Al-Sheikh told Asharq Al-Awsat that the new system will also clamp down on improper practices by CPVPV agents in the field, ensuring that they carry out their legitimate duties to the fullest extent. He described these changes as a “cultural shift” in the organization’s operation, stressing that they will allow the organization to better serve Islam and the citizens of Saudi Arabia in a civilized and disciplined manner.
Commenting on the cabinet’s decision in this regard, the CPVPV president asserted that this comes in the context of supporting the organization’s leadership and allowing it to carry out its vital role of serving religion and society. He added that these charges were taken following studies conducted by a number of special committees and coordination with the CPVPV presidency itself. Al-Sheikh said, “The new system aims to strengthen the procedures and mission of the CPVPV and facilitate its operations, harmonizing this with the criminal procedure code, which is the official reference for the organization.” The CPVPV president also emphasized that the organization will not get involved in cases outside of its jurisdiction. He confirmed that the CPVPV will remain an independent organization, reporting to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Salman Bin Abdulaziz.He stressed that the CPVPV will abide by the judiciary’s right to issue judicial judgments, as well as the Bureau of Investigations and the General Prosecution’s right to fully question and investigate suspects.
Al-Sheikh also revealed that the CPVPV presidency had formed a panel of experts to study draft regulations with the objective of raising this to the cabinet, adding that this panel met with senior CPVPV presidency officials and agents. He asserted that the panel’s task was to develop and improve the CPVPV’s operations within an institutional framework.

Egypt activist advocates for better ties with Israel
By MELANIE LIDMAN01/31/2013/J.Post
Emad el Dafrawi braves secret police and explosion to meet with ‘Post’ in Cairo and explain why Egyptian media fuel hatred of Israel.
EMAD EL DAFRAWI, an Egyptian pacifist in Cairo Photo: MELANIE LIDMAN
Two years into the messy aftermath of Egypt’s January 25 Revolution, there is one surprising topic that nearly all the activists ignore: Israel.
Egyptians from every side feel the same way toward Israel now as they did when the revolution started – mostly indifferent. We have so many internal problems, let’s deal with those first, we don’t even need to talk about Israel, many protesters said.
One small group of activists, however, is not ignoring the Israel issue. No to Compulsory Military Service is a pacifist group started by Maikel Nabil Sanaad in 2009 aimed at encouraging Egyptians to exercise their right to refuse to serve while promoting the value of pacifism.
Emad el Dafrawi is one of the central activists in the No to Compulsory Military Service and an avowed pacifist.
For el Dafrawi, pacifism means advocating for peace with all countries – including Israel.
“If there was no conflict and no wars between Egypt and Israel, I believe that we would have been closer to democracy,” el Dafrawi said in downtown Cairo, days after the second anniversary of the January 25 Revolution.
“This is an issue that they always use to try to distract people’s attention from the internal issues or real issues that affect them.”
El Dafrawi, 25, grew up in a Muslim home and was apolitical as a teenager. But when he studied mass communications at university, he started reading international news as a way to improve his English and check the bias of the state media.
“[Egyptians] are not really aware of how much, with the Israel issue, they’re really manipulated and they’re really lied to,” said el Dafrawi.
“Normal Egyptians don’t hate Jews or Israelis. And if they do it is because of propaganda of the media, because they were taught that Israel...shouldn’t exist.”
Small in stature, El Dafrawi speaks softly and deliberately.
It’s clear that he has carefully thought through each one of these arguments.
He refuses my request to refer to Israel as “Canada” throughout the interview in Groppi’s, a Cairene institution famous for its desserts.
“To me, being silent is as subjugating to racism and bigotry,” he wrote in an email afterward, assuring me that he wants his name published in full.
El Dafrawi also lives his opinions with a fierce and quiet determination. By refusing to serve in the military – as is required of all Egyptian males – he cannot work and cannot travel until the military gives him an exemption. He has been waiting for more than a year, living with his family and subsisting on freelance translating.
His family does not support his decision, though for now they do not talk about it. He could be stuck in this limbo until age 30, when he will age out of his required military service.
El Dafrawi doesn’t consider himself “pro-Israel,” realizing the label has many connotations.
He is critical of some of Israel’s policies, and believes that the Israeli army acts with too much force against Palestinians in Gaza. But he is still interested in advocating for normalization with Israel and encouraging Egyptians to at least get the full story in order to form their opinions from a neutral standpoint.
El Dafrawi cited the 2011 terrorist attack near Eilat as an example of the local media’s incitement. On August 18, 2011, terrorists from the Gaza Strip infiltrated Israel from Sinai and killed eight Israelis, including the driver of an Egged bus and a number of soldiers before slipping back over the border int`o Sinai. When Israel retaliated and shot at the fleeing terrorists, up to five Egyptian soldiers were killed, sparking violent anti-Israel protests in Cairo where protesters stormed the Israeli Embassy.
“People were violently protesting, because they didn’t understand the story from the beginning,” el Dafrawi said. The local media only covered the Israeli soldiers shooting at Egyptian soldiers, and nothing about the terrorist attack. Even if Egyptians wanted to form an informed opinion, they couldn’t, he said.
Instead, the incident reinforced anti-Israel beliefs.
“They already have a presumption that Israel is always an aggressor, that Israel is always an attacker, that they attack any person and any place without reason because they feel like it,” el Dafrawi said.
News media in Arabic reinforces these opinions by using explosive language to describe Israeli activity.
“They handpick words which play on peoples’ emotions,” el Dafrawi explained.
Halfway through the interview, Groppi’s is rocked by a loud explosion down the street.
The bustling crowds outside stop for a moment to look around, before quickly resuming their activities.
“I’m not sure what that was.
But you know, it’s kind of business as usual,” el Dafrawi said, dismissing it with a wave of his hand. “Maybe it’s a tire of a car that exploded. People are much less concerned when they hear any loud noise. Let’s continue.”
El Dafrawi also blames Israel for the lack of reliable information about the country in Egypt.
He accused Israel of not following through with the normalization promised in the 1979 peace treaty, claiming it should have created lasting relationships with Egyptian citizens rather than relying solely on the dictatorship.
“The regime won’t stay forever,” he said. “This is how it is all over history, all the regimes can rule as much as they can, but eventually they fall.”
El Dafrawi also knows that his opinions put him in a dangerous position in Egypt, where he insists on speaking openly about Israel in public places and wants his full name and picture to be published, even in so-called “enemy publications.”
“For a few moments maybe I say what I want [about Israel] and I know they may harm me,” he said, matter-of-factly.
“They may claim that it is a conspiracy theory, they might make people believe that he is a collaborator with a Zionist entity and these stupid things, but why should I care? If you are afraid, you are not going to do anything.”
El Dafrawi oscillates between hope and fatalism. When speaking about the dangers of being pro-peace with Israel, he becomes bleak.
“Our lives are wasted anyway, our lives are ruined, so it is better to try at least. Maybe the generations after us will have a better life,” he said.
But then he strikes a hopeful note.
“[The situation] has to improve, and I’ll tell you why.
They can’t control the information as much as they could.
Even if they tried to control it, you would see that people would get the information from somewhere else. People are starting to question what they believe,” he said.
El Dafrawi noted that after World War II it took years after the propaganda stopped before Germans began changing their own views toward Jews.
“My peaceful views aren’t representative of the youth, because no one can represent all the youth of Egypt,” he said.
“But they are representative of the people who want to live in peace, who want development, who are sick of the hate climate, the propaganda and the racism.”
As we finished the interview, el Dafrawi cocked his head at a nearby table and said softly, “Looks like we had a friend join us,” as a man in a suit, possibly from the secret security services, also gets up to leave.
My stomach dropped 10 stories as el Dafrawi casually mentioned that the man showed up halfway through the interview and has been listening in. It is a chilling reminder that despite the determination of one young activist to make sure he gets the full story about Israel, Egypt still has a long way to go.

Yemen's Forgotten Christians
by Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute
January 29, 2013
http://www.meforum.org/3437/yemen-christians
When one thinks of Yemen—the impoverished Arab country that begat Osama bin Laden and is cushioned between Saudi Arabia and Somalia, two of the absolute most radical Muslim nations—one seldom thinks of Christians, primarily because they are practically nonexistent in such an inhospitable environment. In fact, most tallies suggest that Yemen's entire non-Muslim population is less than one percent.
However, a new Arabic report discusses the existence of Christians in Yemen, and their plight—a plight that should be familiar by now, wherever Christian minorities live under Muslim majorities.
Unofficial statistics suggest that there are some 2,500 indigenous Christians in the nation, practicing their faith underground, even as hostile tribes surround them. According to human rights activist, Abdul Razzaq al-Azazi, "Christians in Yemen cannot practice their religion nor can they go to church freely. Society would work on having them enter Islam."
He added that, as in most Muslim countries, "the government does not permit the establishment of buildings or worship places without prior permission," pointing out that Roman Catholic officials, for example, are currently awaiting a decision from the government on whether they will be allowed to construct a building and be officially recognized by the government in Sana.
A convert to Christianity—an apostate from Islam whose life is forfeit and who naturally prefers to remain anonymous, going by the pseudonym, "Ibn Yemen" (Son of Yemen)—expressed his fear of increased pressure on Christians, especially since the "Islamists now represent the dominant political faction, following the Arab Spring and the protests that brought the fall of President Ali Abdullah Saleh." He added that even though the old regime "was not Islamist, Christians were still subjected to persecution and scrutiny by the police apparatus under that regime. Authorities did not allow us to practice our religion openly or allow us to build a private church, all because of Islam's apostasy law. What do you think it will be like now that the Islamists are in power?"
Accordingly, and as another Christian interviewed in Yemen indicated, Christians pray underground in the members' houses on a rotational basis—not unlike the days of Roman persecution of Christians, when the latter worshipped in underground catacombs. Along with Yemen's indigenous Christians, there are also some 15,000-25,000 non-native Christians living in Yemen, mostly refugees from Somalia, Eritrea, and Ethiopia, where the persecution of Christians is often even worse than in Yemen, especially Somalia, where Al-Shabaab ("the Youth") behead Muslim apostates to Christianity on a regular basis. Such Christian refugees from Africa often change their names to Muslim names to avoid harassment in Yemeni society.
Some Christian organizations and institutions do exist, mostly foreign ones, including the American Baptist Mission, which runs Jibla Hospital and the Church which provides services to the poor, orphans, and imprisoned women. These work primarily to serve the community, not facilitate Christian worship. Likewise, another study confirmed the previous existence of five churches in the southern city of Aden, three of which were Roman Catholic, one Anglican, and the fifth of unidentified affiliation: three of those five churches which were built during the British occupation of southern Yemen, were neglected and left to crumble; the fourth became the property of the government; and the fifth was turned into a health facility.
The story of Yemen's Christians is a microcosm of the story of Islam's Christians, as it wholly conforms to the current pattern of oppression for Christians under Islam: things were better for Christians—for religious freedom in general—in earlier eras under Western influence; as the Muslim world, which for a while was Western-looking, continues returning to Islam, the things of Islam, its "way," or "Sharia"—in this case, hostility to non-Muslim worship and apostates—returns; and, as the "Arab Spring" has done elsewhere, Islamists now dominate Yemeni politics, bringing to mind the apostate Ibn Yemen's apt question: "What do you think it will be like now [for Christians] that the Islamists are in power?"
*Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

Request to RCMP to investigate born alive aborted babies
TO: More recipients
CC: recipientsYou More
BCC: recipientsYou Show Details FROM:maurice.vellacott.a1@parl.gc.ca Message starred Wednesday, January 30, 2013 4:18:23 PM HOUSE OF COMMONS
CANADA
Maurice Vellacott, MP
Saskatoon-Wanuskewin
January 23, 2013
RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson
RCMP National Headquarters
Headquarters Building
73 Leikin Drive
Ottawa, ON K1A 0R2
Dear Commissioner Paulson,
Recent public reports have revealed the possibility of numerous breaches of the Criminal Code - to be specific, homicides - in Canada which need to be investigated.
These killings appear to have started out as attempted abortions, but the babies were born alive. At the blog, Run With Life, you will learn: "From 2000 to 2009 in Canada, there were 491 abortions, of 20 weeks gestation and greater, that resulted in live births. This means that the aborted child died after it was born. These abortions are coded as P96.4 or 'Termination of pregnancy, affecting fetus and newborn'" (http://run-with-life.blogspot.ca/2012/10/late-term-abortions-statistics-born.html).
The data used to discover the existence of these possible murders is from Statistics Canada, CANSIM Table 102-0536, "Deaths by Cause, Chapter XVI, Certain conditions originating in the perinatal period" (http://www5.statcan.gc.ca/cansim/a26?lang=eng&retrLang=eng&id=1020536&paSer=&pattern=&stByVal=1&p1=1&p2=-1&tabMode=dataTable&csid=).
According to the Criminal Code, a child is considered to be a human being and a person after proceeding fully from the mother's womb, therefore, based on Section 223(2) of the Criminal Code, there should be 491 homicide investigations or prosecutions in connection with these deaths.
As you would know, Section 223(2) of the Criminal Code reads, "A person commits homicide when he causes injury to a child before or during its birth as a result of which the child dies after becoming a human being." That is to say, anyone who interferes with a pregnancy such that the child dies after it is born alive due to that interference is guilty of homicide.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) has also reported 119 live birth abortions for the year 2010/2011 (http://run-with-life.blogspot.ca/2012/12/update-live-birth-abortions-on-rise-in.html), which is an extremely troubling increase from previous years.
This increase indicates that the killing of Canadian children may continue to grow if these apparent crimes are not investigated, and the perpetrators prosecuted.
These incidents appear to be homicides. Therefore a thorough police investigation is required, and I am formally requesting you to pursue that. I can make several experts on this matter available to you in the course of your investigation, should you so desire.
These incidents that need investigating took place across Canada, making this a national investigation. Furthermore, in many of Canada's province's, the RCMP is the provincial police force. It, therefore, is the best police force in Canada to exercise the leadership necessary to investigate these serious charges.
I look forward to your expeditious confirmation that you have commenced an investigation.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Vellacott, Leon Benoit,
Member of Parliament, Member of Parliament,
Saskatoon-Wanuskwein Vegreville-Wainwright

Wladyslaw Lizon,
Member of Parliament,
Mississauga East-

Leon Benoit,
Member of Parliament, Member of Parliament,
Saskatoon-Wanuskwein Vegreville-Wainwright

French Enter Last Main Islamist-Held Town in Northern Mali
Naharnet/French troops on Wednesday entered Kidal, the last Islamist bastion in Mali's north to be recaptured in a whirlwind Paris-led offensive amid reports the radicals have regrouped in remote hills near Algeria.
Their arrival in Kidal comes days after the capture of Gao and Timbuktu in a three-week offensive that Paris now hopes to wind down and hand over to African troops.
"French elements were deployed overnight in Kidal," French army spokesman Thierry Burkhard told AFP in Paris.
Several sources reported earlier that French troops had landed at the airport of Kidal.
"We confirm that French aircraft are on the Kidal landing strip and that protection helicopters are in the sky," said a regional security source.
A spokesman for the breakaway Islamic Movement of Azawad, which recently announced it had taken control of the town, said its leader was speaking to the French who landed at the airport.
Kidal lies 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) northeast of the capital Bamako and until recently was controlled by the Islamist group Ansar Dine (Defenders of the Faith).
Last Thursday however, the newly formed group announced it had split from Ansar Dine, that it rejected "extremism and terrorism" and wanted to find a peaceful solution to Mali's crisis.
Ansar Dine and two other Islamist groups took advantage of the chaos following a military coup in Bamako last March to seize the north, imposing a brutal form of Islamic sharia law. Offenders suffered whippings, amputations and in some cases were executed.
France swept to Mali's aid on January 11 as the Islamists advanced south towards Bamako, sparking fears that the whole country could become a haven for terrorists.
"The Malian and French forces have reversed the chain of events," French chief of defense staff Admiral Edouard Guillaud said in Bamako on Wednesday, after meeting Malian Prime Minister Diango Cissoko.
"The re-establishment of law and order in northern Mali has started. That's good news and we will carry on.
Several reports say the main Islamist chiefs, Iyad Ag Ghaly of Ansar Dine and the Algerian Abou Zeid of Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), have retreated to the mountains in the Kidal region, which borders Algeria and Niger.
In the face of ground strikes and devastating air bombings that destroyed their headquarters in Timbuktu as well as their fuel supplies and armory, the Islamists had no choice but to flee.
But the lack of resistance for the moment does not mean they have been neutralized, said Alain Antil, the head of sub-Saharan affairs at the French Institute of International Relations.
"They can turn to classic guerrilla tactics including harassment, rapid attacks with kidnappings and bombings," said Antil.
"They will regroup and re-position themselves in Libya, Algeria and Tunisia. It's above all an international network," said Souleimane Mangane, a Malian specialist on Islamist movements.
The U.N. refugee agency reported that food, clean water and fuel were scarce in both Kidal and Tessalit, further north.
"Hundreds of people are reported to have fled Kidal in recent days to villages further north, even closer to the Algerian border," said the UNHCR.
"Others have crossed into Algeria, despite the border being officially closed."
In Timbuktu on Tuesday, a day after the troops drove in to an ecstatic welcome, hundreds of people looted shops they said belonged to Arabs, Mauritanians and Algerians accused of backing the Islamists.
Experts in the city are still trying to assess exactly how many of the city's priceless ancient manuscripts dating back to the Middle Ages were destroyed when fleeing Islamists set fire to the building housing them.
But Shamil Jeppie, Timbuktu Manuscripts Project director at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, said more than 90 percent of the ancient books and manuscripts housed in Timbuktu were smuggled away before Islamists overran the city last year.
At a donor conference in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa Tuesday, African leaders and international officials pledged more than $455 million (340 million euros) for military operations in Mali and humanitarian aid.
Lack of cash and equipment has hampered deployment of nearly 6,000 west African troops under the African-led force for Mali (AFISMA) which is expected to take from the French army.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has insisted his troops would leave Mali quickly.
"Freeing Gao and Timbuktu very quickly was part of the plan," he said. "Now it's for the African countries to take over."
So far, just 2,000 African troops have been sent to Mali or neighboring Niger, many of them from Chad, whose contingent is independent from the AFISMA force. The bulk of fighting has been borne by some 2,900 French troops.
SourceAgence France Presse