LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
February 24/2013

Bible Quotation for today/The Light of the Body
Luke 8/:43-49: "A woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her living on physicians, and could not be healed by any, came behind him (Jesus), and touched the fringe of his cloak, and immediately the flow of her blood stopped. Jesus said, “Who touched me?” When all denied it, Peter and those with him said, “Master, the multitudes press and jostle you, and you say, ‘Who touched me?’” 8:46 But Jesus said, “Someone did touch me, for I perceived that power has gone out of me.” When the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared to him in the presence of all the people the reason why she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately. He said to her, “Daughter, cheer up. Your faith has made you well. Go in peace.”

Faith & Hop Cured The Bleeding Women
By: Elias Bejjani
(John 6:68): “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life"
Whenever we are in real trouble encountering devastating and harsh conditions either physically or materially, we unconsciously react with sadness, anger, confusion, helplessness and feel abandoned. When in a big mess, we expect our family members and friends to automatically run to our rescue. But in the majority of such difficult situations, we discover with great disappointment that in reality our heartfelt expectations do not unfold as we wish.
What is frustrating and shocking is that very few of our family members and friends would stand beside us during hardships and endeavour to genuinely offer the needed help. Those who have already walked through these rocky life paths and adversities definitely know very well the bitter taste of disappointment. They know exactly the real meaning of the well-know saying, "a friend in need is a friend indeed".
Sadly our weak human nature is driven by inborn instincts that often make us side with the rich, powerful, healthy and strong over the poor, weak, needy and sick. Those who have no faith in Almighty God find it very difficult to cope in a real mess.
Meanwhile, those whose faith is solid stand up with courage, refuse to give up hope, and call on their Almighty Father for help through praying and worshiping. They know for sure that our Great Father is loving and passionate. He will not abandon any one of us when calling on Him for mercy and help because He said and promised so. Matthew 11/28-30: "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
One might ask, 'Why should I pray?' And, 'Do I have to ask God for help, can't He help me without praying to Him?' The answer is 'no'. We need to pray and when we do so with faith and confidence God listens and responds (Mark 11/:24): "Therefore I tell you, all things whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you have received them, and you shall have them"
Yes, we have to make the effort and be adamant and persistent. We have to ask and knock in a bid to show our mere submission to Him and He with no doubt shall provide. (Matthew 7/7 & 8): "Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened".
On this second Sunday of Lent in our Catholic Church's Eastern Maronite rite, we cite and recall the miraculous cure of the bleeding woman in Matthew 9/20-22, Mark 5/25-34, and Luke 8/43-48. As we learn from the Holy Gospel, the bleeding woman's great faith made her believe without a shred of doubt that her twelve years of chronic bleeding would stop immediately if she touched Jesus' garment. She knew deeply in her heart that Jesus would cure her even without asking him. Her faith cured the bleeding and made her well. Her prayers were heard and responded to.
Luke 8/:43-49: "A woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her living on physicians, and could not be healed by any, came behind him (Jesus), and touched the fringe of his cloak, and immediately the flow of her blood stopped. Jesus said, “Who touched me?” When all denied it, Peter and those with him said, “Master, the multitudes press and jostle you, and you say, ‘Who touched me?’” 8:46 But Jesus said, “Someone did touch me, for I perceived that power has gone out of me.” When the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared to him in the presence of all the people the reason why she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately. He said to her, “Daughter, cheer up. Your faith has made you well. Go in peace.”
The woman's faith cured her chronic bleeding and put her back in the society as a normal and acceptable citizen. During that era women with uterus bleeding were looked upon as sinners, defiled and totally banned from entering synagogues for praying. Meanwhile, because of her sickness she was physically unable to be a mother and bear children. Sadly she was socially and religiously abandoned, humiliated and alienated. But her faith and hope empowered her with the needed strength and perseverance and enabled her to cope successfully against all odds.
Hallelujah! Faith can do miracles. Yes indeed. (Luke17/5 & 6): " The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” The Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you would tell this sycamore tree, ‘Be uprooted, and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you". How badly do we today need to have a faith like that of this women? Let us all on this second Lent Sunday pray with solid faith. Let us ask Almighty God who cured the bleeding women, and who was crucified on the cross to absolve our original sin, that He would endow His Holy graces of peace, tranquility, and love all over the world. And that He would strengthen the faith, patience and hope of all those persecuted, imprisoned, and deprived for courageously witnessing the Gospel's message and truth.

Syrian gunfire kills two Lebanese men
Two Lebanese citizens were killed on Saturday by gunfire originating from Syrian territory, the National News Agency reported.
The NNA added that the two men identified as Mohammad Hussein Ezzo and Hussein Ismail died in the northern border towns of Wadi Khaled and Al-Bqaiaa respectively.Lebanon’s border regions with Syria have experienced regular border violations, including shelling and gunfire as well as limited incursions by Syrian troops.
More than 70,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since the outbreak of Syria's anti-regime revolt in March 2011, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Hezbollah Courier Tracked Israeli Flights in Cyprus
23/02/2013
http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=1&id=32978
Asharq Al-Awsat
Beirut, Asharq Al-Awsat—A court in Cyprus heard testimony from a member of Hezbollah this week, who admitted to carrying out surveillance of different businesses and airlines linked to Israel on the island on behalf of the organization. The accused, Hossam Taleb Yaacoub, who holds joint Swedish-Lebanese citizenship, was arrested by Cypriot authorities last July. He admitted in court to being a courier for Hezbollah since 2007, with the codename ‘Wael.’ He also admitted to carrying out surveillance on areas on the island where Israeli tourists are known to congregate and recording the arrival times of flights from Israel.
When arrested, he was found to be in possession of a notebook which contained the license plate numbers of buses used to carry Israeli tourists. Speaking through an interpreter, he told the court that his Hezbollah handler, who he knew only as ‘Ayman’ had also asked him to gather information on warehouse rentals and locate kosher restaurants.
Cyprus is a popular holiday destination for many Israelis. 40,000 Israeli tourists are reported to have visited the island last year alone. Yaacoub admitted receiving training in the use of different weapons, including assault rifles, handguns, and anti-tank rockets during his time with Hezbollah, in addition to carrying out courier missions for the organization in France, the Netherlands, and Turkey. He also said that he had purchased cell phone SIM cards for the group on a previous visit to Cyprus in 2011.The state prosecutor, Athos Kannaourides, accused Yaacoub of assisting in the preparation of terrorist attacks in Cyprus, saying “You bought the cards at separate kiosks so as not to cause suspicion, so you could have contact with Hezbollah to prepare a strike against Israelis in Cyprus.”Yaacoub denied any knowledge of what the materials and information he gathered would be used for.
He also denied that he would take part in any terrorist attack, even if his superiors asked him to. He told the court: “Even if they asked me to participate in a terrorist action, I would refuse” adding “I could never do that. I’m only trained to defend Lebanon.” During his testimony, he also accused the police officers who interrogated him of altering his statement to say that he was trained in the use of plastic explosives.
The case is likely to be watched closely in government and security circles throughout Europe, given the recent bombing of a tour bus in Bulgaria that killed a local driver and several Israeli tourists. The government of Israel alleged that Hezbollah was involved in the attack, and is now pushing for the European Union, of which Cyprus is a member, to officially declare Hezbollah a terrorist organization.

The Shia Al-Qaeda
By Tariq Alhomayed/Asharq Alawsat
If an observer were to take a look at our region, he would find that we are face to face with mounting evidence of the “Shia Al-Qaeda”—otherwise known as Hezbollah—in Syria, Yemen, and Iraq, as well as in the Gulf States, most notably Bahrain, and even in Libya and North Africa. Iran’s adherent groups are acting along the same lines as the Sunni Al-Qaeda; seeking to cement a presence in the region’s hot-spots and apply the Hezbollah model there. The Shia Al-Qaeda is drawing its inspiration from Hezbollah’s experience in Lebanon and applying it to Yemen, via the Houthis, with the aim of creating a front against Saudi Arabia and, of course, the entire Gulf region. Similarly, in Iraq, the Shia Asaib Ahl Al-Haq—an adherent of Iran that has carried out killings and bloodshed—has entered the political arena with the aim of undermining the Sadrist movement and consolidating Nuri Al-Maliki’s stance. This is reminiscent of Hezbollah’s endeavors to hijack the Shiite leadership in Lebanon from the Amal Movement there. In Bahrain, armed terrorist militias are being formed while the Shia Wefaq movement continues to work under a civil guise, seeking to penetrate Western institutions along the lines of Hezbollah by using an armed wing and a political one. It is ironic that this is all happening at a time when the West is currently considering imposing sanctions on Hezbollah, in both its military and political forms.
In Syria, the situation is even uglier. Now we see the Free Syrian Army (FSA) giving an ultimatum to Hezbollah, threatening to target its sites. Hezbollah, alongside the Iranian Quds Force, are seeking to quell the Syrian popular revolution and protect Bashar Al-Assad, or at least ensure that Hezbollah and Iran have a foothold in the post-Assad era. In order for Hezbollah to accomplish this objective, they are trying to form an affiliate party there. In a similar manner to Hezbollah, this party will later on base its legitimacy on the premise of targeting Israel from the Golan Heights, and thus any affront against it would be akin to defending Israel. Furthermore, this all is happening under Iranian auspices.In spite of the crimes of his group, and up until around 2004, Osama Bin Laden was known as “Sheikh”. Similarly, in the Shiite case, some continue to refer to Hassan Nasrallah as “Sayyid” (an honorific title in Shia Islam). As for Iran’s agents who adhere to Hezbollah, they are not only infiltrating the Arab media or Arab parliaments, but also Western research centers that continue to promote them in a naïve manner, similar to how Al-Jazeera promoted Al-Qaeda in the late 1990s.
What is most frustrating about the story of the Shia Al-Qaeda—Hezbollah—in our region is not the Western ignorance of it, but rather the silence of rational Shiites, even as Iran trades on their issues and causes. It is odd for some to argue, for example, that Israel is seeking to provoke sectarian strife in the region, when the question that should be raised is: Why is Iran allowed to exploit the region’s Shiites to accomplish Israel’s objectives? Aren’t there any rational Shiites willing to challenge this, particularly considering the unforgivable crimes Hezbollah and Iran are committing in Syria?
Therefore, it is important to heed the warnings about the spread of the Shia Al-Qaeda in our region, for it is no less dangerous than its Sunni counterpart

President Michel Sleiman calls on Arsal residents to stay impartial
February 23, 2013/The Daily Star/ BEIRUT: President Michel Sleiman called Saturday on the residents of the Bekaa border town of Arsal to distance themselves from the Syrian crisis.
“Arsal [residents] should not take part in any of the problems surrounding them, especially the Syrian [crisis],” Sleiman said following a meeting with a delegation from Arsal, according to a statement from the president’s media office. Shelling from the Syrian side of the Arsal border has killed at least three Lebanese farmers since the uprising against President Bashar Assad began.
The predominantly Sunni village was also the site of repeated incursions by the Syrian army and rebels. Sleiman also said that a clear investigation into the ambush that targeted the Army in Arsal and led to the killing of two soldiers requires handing over the wanted individuals in the incident. “The wanted suspects should be handed over to the relevant authorities to hear what they have to say in order to achieve a clear and fair investigation,” Sleiman said. He also urged the residents of the town to “cooperate with the state and its [security and judicial] agencies.” The Arsal delegation said their town abides by the law, voicing respect for the Army. Over thirty people were charged of being involved in the ambush that killed Captain Pierre Bashaalani, 31, and Sergeant Ibrahim Zahraman, 32, in what seemed a retaliation for the pursue of a wanted suspect, Khaled Hmayyed.
This incident prompted different reactions and condemnation from Lebanese officials and citizens.

Prime Minister Najib MikatiL Orthodox law ‘cannot pass’: Mikati
February 23, 2013 /The Daily Star/BEIRUT: The Orthodox Gathering law cannot be adopted for the coming parliamentary elections scheduled later this year, Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Saturday.
“The Orthodox proposal for the parliamentary elections cannot pass because it violates the essence of Lebanon's existence and mutual coexistence,” the prime minister said via Twitter.
The Orthodox law, approved this week by Lebanon’s joint parliamentary committees, still has to pass a vote in Parliament if it is to be adopted. The committee’s approval of the proposal sparked criticism from its opponents, prompting Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to appeal to the country’s political rivals and ask them to agree on a consensual law before passing the bill to vote in Parliament. According to the draft law, which has been endorsed by Christian political parties and the March 8 alliance, each sect would elect its own MPs with the country as a single district. Opponents of the proposal argue that the law is unconstitutional and would deepen sectarian division. President Michel Sleiman has indicated that he would challenge it in court. In another tweet, Mikati called on all rivals to agree over another law that safeguards the country’s coexistence.
“We must all think of ways to achieve real representation for all Lebanese sects through reaching an agreement on an electoral law that does not harm coexistence,” the post read.
According to Mikati, the Orthodox proposal will provoke sectarian divisions in the country. “The Lebanese Civil War failed to impose division among the people because they insisted on coexistence and overcoming their differences,” said Mikati. “Are we required today to give in to another type of division or federalism?” he asked. Mikati argued that the real target of the Orthodox law is to strike Lebanon’s unity, rather than ensuring fair representation for Christians in Parliament as the proposal’s supporters argue. “If the apparent aim behind the Orthodox proposal is to give sects their rights [for fair representation], what it really does is strike the Lebanese unity,” the prime minister said.

LF Leader, Dr. Geagea launches membership drive for Lebanese Forces
February 23, 2013/By Meris Lutz/The Daily Star/MAARAB, Lebanon: The Lebanese Forces marked a major milestone in the evolution of the group from a wartime Christian militia to an organized political party Friday with the launch of its membership drive, opening registration to the party base for the first time. “We all want a strong state, and there is no strong state without strong politics, and there is no strong politics without strong parties,” LF leader Samir Geagea told a room of journalists and political figures during a news conference at the party’s headquarters in Maarab, Kesrouan. “Starting now, we will build a strong party in order to build a strong state, a strong party whose first priority is absolute sovereignty, strong institutions and strong leaders, a party for 100 years in the future, a party that shoulders the problems of our society and realizes our dreams and the goals of the new generation,” he said. Like many political groups in Lebanon, the LF enjoys broad support among its overwhelmingly Christian base and operates a powerful patronage network, but its actual registered membership is limited to the “about a hundred” figures who make up the party’s constitutional committee, former LF minister Tony Karam estimated. “For the continuity of the party and for the future, if you want something to last, you should grow a solid base,” Karam, who now serves as head of the party’s new central membership committee, told The Daily Star.
Karam went on to say that launching a registration drive will pave the way for internal elections to select the party leadership, creating a democratic organization defined by principles and political vision.
“The Lebanese Forces was first created as a military organization; that was a necessity, and now ... we are completing the shift from an armed or military organization to a full-scale political party,” he said.
In his speech, Geagea made a particular effort to reach out to women, speaking of the LF’s history of inclusion and gender equality since its inception and calling on his female support base to do right by their children and join the party. He also affirmed the LF’s loyalty to the March 14 coalition, led by former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s Future Movement, but made clear that the interests of his Christian base supersede any secondary alliances.
“We are truly a party of the cause, the cause of Lebanon which has been embodied over the last seven years in March 14 and in the Cedar Revolution – we are a March 14 party,” he stressed.
“We are children of the Cedar Revolution, but this absolutely does not mean we erase ourselves from the geography [of Lebanon],” he continued, referring to negotiations over a new electoral law proposal that have split March 14.The Future Movement and independent Christian figures have objected to the Orthodox Gathering proposal championed by the LF and other Christian groups such as the Kataeb Party, Marada Movement and Free Patriotic Movement. The proposal, which sparked a wide backlash when it was approved by Parliament’s Joint Committees earlier this week, would erase electoral districts in favor of a nationwide, proportional representation system, but with voters restricted to electing MPs from their own sect. Geagea defended his party against accusations of sectarianism for supporting the Orthodox proposal, while appearing to leave the door open for an alternative solution. “We want a new electoral law because the country needs a new electoral law, not because the Christians want to take revenge for the past!” he emphasized. “We have two goals in working toward an electoral law: The first is to arrive at a new electoral law, the second is to reach a consensus ... we support consensus, as long as it leads to a new electoral law.”

State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr Demands Questioning of al-Asir over Possession of Arms
Naharnet/State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr demanded on Saturday Sidon police station to interrogate Salafist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir over the possession of arms. "Al-Asir will be questioned over the arms that were in the possession of his supporters on Friday," LBCI television said. Later on Saturday, Asir issued a statement commenting on the call to interrogate him: "We urge concerned authorities to first put (Speaker Nabih) Berri and (Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hasan) Nasrallah on trial for their crimes". Al-Asir, the imam of Sidon's Bilal bin Rabah Mosque, and his supporters deployed Friday with their weapons around the Mosque, amid a heavy deployment by the army and security forces. The anti-Hizbullah Salafist cleric said in a statement that “a number of young men who belong to the (Hizbullah-affiliated) Resistance Brigades, accompanied by members of 'Iran's party' (Hizbullah), roamed the area around the mosque while carrying visible weapons.”“They made provocative moves, prompting the mosque's guards to go on alert,” al-Asir added.

Report: Kidnapping Gangs Comprised of 37 Lebanese, Syrian, Palestinian Nationals
Naharnet /A security apparatus has completed a report on the kidnappings in Lebanon, reported the daily An Nahar on Saturday./It said that the apparatus determined that 37 individuals are part of the various abduction gangs in the country.Their identities are known to the security agencies and the report will be referred to President Michel Suleiman, Speaker Nabih Berri, Prime Minister Najib Miqati, and various security and judicial agencies.
The report revealed that the heads of the gangs control their activity from various towns and Beirut's southern suburbs, adding that its members are Lebanese, Syrian, and Palestinian nationals. Kidnappings for ransom have increased in recent months, the latest of which was the abduction earlier this week of the 12-year-old son of businessman Nidal Awada in front of his Beirut residence. Media reports said that the abductors had demanded a ransom of $2 million. Al-Liwaa newspaper reported Thursday that security forces had arrested two people linked to the abduction of businessman Najib Youssef in the southern city of Tyre on February 5.
He was released on February 11 for a ransom of $140,000.

Miqati Reiterates Criticism of Orthodox Proposal, Says it Incites Division
Naharnet /Prime Minister Najib Miqati slammed on Saturday the Orthodox Gathering electoral draft law, stressing that the proposal will not be adopted as it violates the “essence of Lebanon's existence and mutual coexistence.”
“We must achieve real representation for all Lebanese sects through reaching an agreement on an electoral law that does not harm coexistence,” Miqati said via twitter. He pointed out that the 1975-1990 war, which took the lives of at least 150,000 people, failed to divide the Lebanese and creating a federal system as they sought to overcome the obstacles. The polls are likely to be postponed if the parliament gives the green light to the so-called Orthodox Gathering proposal that was approved by the joint parliamentary committees on Tuesday. It divides Lebanon into a single district and allows each sect to vote for its own MPs under a proportional representation system. But the proposal has been rejected by al-Mustaqbal bloc, the centrist National Struggle Front of MP Walid Jumblat, and March 14 opposition’s Christian independent MPs. It has been also criticized by President Michel Suleiman. “Are we asked today to surrender to another kind of division or a disguised federation,” Miqati wondered. He hailed the will of “most” Lebanese to coexist under one nation, saying: “It would be unfair to deprive them from their right by adopting an electoral law such as the Orthodox proposal.” “The obvious purpose behind the Orthodox proposal is to give all sects their rights, but it was really found to hit the Lebanese unity deeply and to split the spiritual families,” Miqati added

Lebanese Army Raids Britel on Backdrop of Armed Family Dispute
Naharnet /The Lebanese army raided the border town of Britel in Bekaa on Saturday on the backdrop of an armed dispute between two families, said the state-run National News Agency.A family row that led to gunfire between the Ismail and Murad families caused some damage in one of the town's cafes, NNA added.The Army Command said in a statement: “A family dispute in Britel between two citizens escalated into shooting using light military weapons. An army force raided the area at dawn and arrested several suspects for possessing ammunition and military equipment.”

Hackers Post Asir's Photo on Parliament's Official Website
Naharnet /Hackers hacked on Saturday the website of the Lebanese parliament.The hackers, identifying themselves as “Team Kuwait Hackers,” placed Bilal bin Rabbah Imam Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir's photo on the website.
They also put up an anti- Hizbullah and Syrian regime message.The parliament's General Secretariat warned that it will take legal action against the hackers. In June, a group calling itself “Raise Your Voice” hacked the official website for the Presidency of the Council of Ministers (pcm.gov.lb) and the website of Administrative Reform and Development (omsar.gov.lb), demanding the government to halt electricity rationing during the summer. In April, the same group hacked around 15 Lebanese government websites demanding an improvement in living standards. The hackers posted a caricature on the home page of the premiership’s website depicting a skinny man, representing the people, feeding a fat man described as the government, on its right a photo of bread and on the left a photo of a candle.It had previously vowed to continue hacking the government sites until the Lebanese people earn the rights they are asking for and until living standards are improved.

The Lebanese Syndicate Coordination Committee Vows to Go ahead with Strike, Sets Measures to Combat Cabinet Procrastination
Naharnet/The Syndicate Coordination Committee set on Saturday a plan highlighting its measures for the second week of its open-ended strike to protest the cabinet's procrastination over the new wage scale for public sector.
The SCC, a coalition of private and public school teachers and public sector employees, vowed to go ahead with its open-ended strike until the government refers urgently the new scale to the parliament.
“There are no more excuses. The Directorate General of Urban Planning approved a plan on the profits from real estate,” a statement issued by the SCC after a meeting in UNESCO with the protest committees that were formed at ministries said. The committee warned the cabinet of further delaying the issue, rejecting any attempts to slap taxes on citizens or violating the rights of employees.
The SCC held the government responsible for the damages inflicted on the economy due to the strike, clarifying that the cabinet forced to escalate the measures. It reiterated that official exams will not be held on time and will be postponed in respect to the days of the strike. Earlier, SCC protesters went ahead in its protests near ministries across Lebanon for the fifth day in a row and staged a sit-in in front of the Finance Ministry in Beirut.
Head of the private school teachers association Nehme Mahfoud announced that the SCC will escalate its actions starting by Monday, revealing that all private schools will be shut. “We will not halt our movement before the new wage scale is referred to parliament,” he added. “This is a civilized strike and we hope that the ministers will respond to us in the same manner,” he continued. Meanwhile, head of Public Secondary School Education Teachers Association Hanna Gharib called on the government to cease its stalling in referring the scale to parliament. He called an end to excuses that the government is still studying means to fund the scale, saying that it can tackle this issue if Prime Minister Najib Miqati simply controlled corruption. In addition, Gharib urged contract teachers at private schools to abide by the strike, renewing his call to hold a sit-in on Monday in front of the Central Bank in Beirut's Hamra neighborhood. On Friday, the SCC held a demonstration near the Agriculture Ministry in Beirut's Bir Hassan area.
Protesters marched later toward the headquarters of the Economic Committees, a grouping of the country's businessmen and owners of major firms. The SCC considers that the Committees are playing a major role in delaying the referral of the draft-law, accusing them of corruption. The cabinet has been stalling in finding sources to fund the scale that was approved last year, leading to growing differences with the SCC, which has been accusing it of negligence.However, the government argues that it is delaying the decision on the funding in an attempt to thoroughly discuss plans to boost the treasury's revenue to cover the expenses of the salaries boost.
The state treasury will have more than $1.2 billion to cover over the presence of 180,000 public sector employees including military personnel.

Sheikhs against the Brotherhood
By Mshari Al-Zaydi/Asharq Alawsat
In Tunisia, the press reports that there is a significant difference of opinion between Hamadi Jebali, “star” of Ennahda, and the party’s founder and leader Rachid Ghannouchi.
This dispute, regarding the approach to governing, has reached an impasse after Jebali’s initiative to form a “technocrat” government to replace the authoritarian Ennahda-dominated government was blocked. “Sheikh” Rachid Ghannouchi stubbornly rejected this proposal, frankly stating that “we will not leave power.” Jebali, angered by Ghannouchi’s frighteningly authoritarian stance, submitted his resignation as prime minister, and some now believe that he intends to establish a new Islamist political party, one with a more liberal and flexible approach than Ennahda.
Before Jebali there was Sheikh Abdel Fattah Mourou, who served as Ennahda’s counterbalance to Ghannouchi. He previously called on Ghannouchi to step down as party leader in order to save the Islamist movement. However Mourou later retracted this statement after Ghannouchi publicly praised him, although we don’t know what the Ennahda leader said to him behind closed doors to convince him to soften his position.
These events bear a resemblance to some previous developments in Egypt, where Rifaq Abu Al-Alaa followed the same path as Essam Sultan and Mohamed Mahsoub and others, and left the embrace of the mother Muslim Brotherhood organization to craft a political platform of their own. The entrance of these figures into the political arena as independents was said to be at the behest of the Brotherhood itself, and at the initiative of the organization’s younger members at that. However the Muslim Brotherhood later rejected these political platforms, leading the youth to form their own party in 1996. However, the government’s political commission refused to recognize this political party, and this became a high-profile case in Egypt, particularly as the party applied for a political license on three separate occasions and met with refusal each time. The party was eventually able to officially register itself following the ouster of the Mubarak regime in 2011 under the name Hizb Al-Wasat Al-Jadid otherwise known as the Wasat (moderate) Party.
Around this time, affiliation to the Wasat Party, or merely communicating with it, was grounds for expulsion from the Muslim Brotherhood organization, despite its similar ideological, educational, and political activist model. Recently, following the so-called Arab Spring in Egypt, senior Muslim Brotherhood figure Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh took the decision to run for president, against the wishes of the mother organization. He therefore jumped, or was pushed, out of the Brotherhood and formed his own political party, increasing the number of his followers and supporters. Today, he continues to attempt to promote himself as a moderate alternative to the Brotherhood, as an Islamist with a liberal and nationalist flavor.
These are the most prominent Egyptian cases, but there are many trying either to jump ship from the Brotherhood, or win over some of the organization’s support base by competing with it over religious slogans, particularly following the Brotherhood’s missteps after taking power. In fact there are some Egyptian parties who are seeking to take the Brotherhood’s place, particularly in terms of the organization’s primary activities of Islamic Dawa (Call) and discourse, away from direct political action. This is what former Brotherhood leadership figure Kamal El-Helbawi, and former Brotherhood Deputy General Guide Mohamed Habib are currently trying to do.
Note that we are only talking about defections from the Brotherhood organization, rather than ideology or approach that it embraces. The Muslim Brotherhood is not the only organization that utilizes religious slogans for political mobilization and to attract the general public. There are other groups such as the Salafi political groups and Hizb ut-Tahrir that are urgently calling for the establishment of a caliphate. There are also divisions and differences of opinion within each trend that sometimes reach the point of violence and even the exchange of accusations of treason. It is sufficient to read what the Salafists say about the Muslim Brotherhood and what the Brotherhood say about the Salafists, not to mention what Hizb ut-Tahrir say about them both, to see the ferocity of these disputes.
The question that is raised here is: Which of the above represents the “true” Islamic viewpoint?
Speaking for myself, they are all mere mortals and nobody has a monopoly on the divine, regardless of what slogans one shouts.
The deciding factor is evidence, the results on the ground, and how this benefits the people, rather than physical manifestations of religiosity and the repetition of the same tired speeches and sermons.

Behind the Scenes in Al-Qaeda
By Fahd Al-Ziyabi
Riyadh, Asharq Al-Awsat—Osama Bin Laden’s obsession with America was the principal reason behind the first split within the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization, a former member has revealed to Asharq Al-Awsat.
In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, Khalid Al-Johani said that Bin Laden’s pre-September 11 decision to focus his ire on America was a source of contention among the nascent organization’s members, particularly those from Arab states.
Johani said: “At the time, the matter led to the defection of the Yemeni Hamza Al-Quaiti from the organization. He established another camp, thanks to the external support he had received, before eventually resolving his dispute with Bin Laden, closing his new camp, and returning under the Al-Qaeda banner. However, this did not happen with other groups that had left Al-Qaeda for the same reason.”
Johani entered Afghanistan in 1996 via the Khyber Pass, facilitated by some influential Al-Qaeda members who had links with Pakistani border guards. He first met Osama Bin Laden two years later through Abu Faraj Al-Libbi. He informed Asharq Al-Awsat that Al-Qaeda leaders advised Bin Laden to tone down his anti-Americanism, and opposed attacks on the US on the grounds that it had not attacked Afghanistan, unlike the Soviet Union.
Moreover, they warned that Afghanistan’s institutions were undergoing a process of reconstruction under the Taliban, and the country could not afford to make an enemy of the US. However, Bin Laden rejected this advice and carried out his threat to strike the World Trade Center in New York.
The former Al-Qaeda member revealed that he had his own reservations about Bin Laden’s grandiose terrorist plans. During a meeting with the Al-Qaeda leader prior to the 9/11 attacks, he expressed his hesitation. Zayn Al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn AKA Abu Zubaydah and Abu Faraj Libbi subsequently offered to transfer him to the Ramzi Yousef battalion,of which Khaled Sheikh Mohammed was a notable member of. The battalion’s stated mission was to attack targets outside of Afghanistan. Johani rejected the transfer. He revealed that during this period, Bin Laden personally told him, “Don’t let us down, and we won’t let you down.”
He added that when the US Air Force began its bombardment of Afghanistan, the Al-Qaeda leadership ordered 350 fighters to retreat to the mountains of Tora Bora, along with Osama Bin Laden. The US bombardment led to the deaths of 10 Al-Qaeda members in less than a month, which greatly affected the morale of the fighters.
One member, Suleiman Abu Ghaith, attempted to mitigate the situation by releasing a statement announcing that the organization would re-order its ranks , while Bin Laden himself stressed that Al-Qaeda would emerge victorious and the US would withdraw from the country in light of its daily losses. Not long after this, Al-Qaeda’s fighters were ordered to withdraw from Tora Bora. Osama Bin Laden himself led the retreat, along with his 20 bodyguards, heading to an unknown location. While Al-Qaeda deputy leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri headed elsewhere.
Johani explained that he attempted to flee to Pakistan with his unit, with the assistance of some Afghans. However, they were soon caught by US forces who detained them at their base in Kandahar. He revealed that Al-Qaeda members were not even aware that all Afghan cities had fallen under the control of the US as they were isolated from events in Tora Bora.
Johani also recounted the story of his arrest and transportation to Guantanamo Bay on an American aircraft, with a stop-over in Turkey. He arrived in Cuba on January 01, 2002. He was subsequently detained for nearly four years until he was handed over to Saudi Arabia in late 2005. Johani told Asharq Al-Awsat that he quickly became disillusioned during his time with Al-Qaeda, admitting that he initially believed those traveling to fight with the group were divine beings, but he soon realized that they were only ordinary people seeking money and power.
According to Johani, Bin Laden only had a few followers in 1998, with his recruits limited to three camps known as “Jihad”, “Farouk”, and “Omar.” However, in that year alone Nasir Al-Wuhayshi was able to recruit 30 new members along with 20 fighters. Wuhayshi had extensive relations in Yemen and Saudi Arabia through which he was able to attract young fighters with the call for jihad in Afghanistan, providing them with monthly salaries of up to USD 200 and guarantees of housing for married recruits.
Johani’s experience with jihadi groups also included a stint with an Islamist group in the Philippines led by Hashim Salamat, which was fighting to protest the massacres committed against Muslims at the hands of President Ferdinand Marcos’s forces. Johani revealed that the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi used to send weapons shipments to Islamist fighters in the Philippines, after relations with its government deteriorated. However, Johani’s experience here did not last long and this group broke up after one of its most prominent leaders, Omar Al-Faruq, was arrested in Jakarta.

Hezbollah: On a Military Wing and a Prayer
Matthew Levitt/Washington Institute
Foreign Policy/February 12, 2013
Europe thinks it can separate Hezbollah's political activities from its terrorist operations, but the Party of God isn't built that way.
Bulgaria's interior minister announced on Feb. 5 the result of his country's investigation into the July 2012 bombing of a bus filled with Israeli tourists in the city of Burgas, which killed five Israelis and the vehicle's Bulgarian driver. Two of the individuals who carried out the terrorist attack, he said, "belonged to the military formation of Hezbollah."
It was not by chance that his statement fingered only the military wing of Hezbollah, not the group as a whole. Within the European Union, the findings of the Bulgarian investigation have kicked off a firestorm over whether to add the Lebanese militant organization -- in whole, or perhaps just its military or terrorist wings -- to the EU's list of banned terrorist groups. But are there in fact distinct wings within the self-styled "Party of God"?
Hezbollah is many things. It is one of the dominant political parties in Lebanon, as well as a social and religious movement catering first and foremost -- though not exclusively -- to Lebanon's Shiite community. Hezbollah is also Lebanon's largest militia, the only one to keep its weapons and rebrand its armed elements as an "Islamic resistance" in response to the terms of the 1989 Taif Accord, which ended the Lebanese Civil War.
While the group's various elements are intended to complement one another, the reality is often messier. In part, that has to do with compartmentalization of Hezbollah's covert activities. It is also, however, a result of the group's multiple identities -- Lebanese, pan-Shiite, pro-Iranian -- and the group's multiple and sometimes competing goals tied to these different identities.
Hezbollah's ideological commitment to Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's revolutionary doctrine of velayat-e faqih (guardianship of the jurist), which holds that a Shiite Islamic cleric should serve as the supreme head of government, is a key source of conflict. The group is thus simultaneously committed to the decrees of Iranian clerics, the Lebanese state, its sectarian Shiite community within Lebanon, and fellow Shiites abroad.
The consequences of these competing ideological drivers was clear in July 2006, when Hezbollah dragged Israel and Lebanon into a war neither state wanted by crossing the U.N.-demarcated border between the two countries, killing three Israeli soldiers, and kidnapping two more in an ambush. They came to the fore again two years later, when Hezbollah took over West Beirut by force of arms, turning its weapons of "resistance" against fellow Lebanese citizens. When the chips are down, Hezbollah's commitment to Iran trumps its identity as a Lebanese political movement.
The ties that bind Hezbollah's political leadership with its international illicit activities are also unmistakable. According to a CIA document, even before Hassan Nasrallah rose to the position of secretary-general in 1992, he was "directly involved in many Hizballah terrorist operations, including hostage taking, airline hijackings, and attacks against Lebanese rivals."
Time and again, Hezbollah's political personalities have been tied to the group's terrorist and criminal activities. Consider a major case in the United States: In 2008, while Hezbollah operative Ali Karaki was planning a Hezbollah attack in Azerbaijan's capital, Baku, his brother, Hasan Antar Karaki, was helping lead a broad criminal conspiracy to sell counterfeit and stolen currency in Philadelphia. Luckily, Hasan Antar Karaki sold his wares to an undercover FBI informant posing as a member of the Philadelphia criminal underworld. Hasan Antar Karaki proved to be a major figure in Hezbollah's forgery operations, and he provided an FBI source with fraudulent British and Canadian passports.
Meanwhile, in meetings in Lebanon and the United States, Hasan Antar Karaki's associate, Hassan Hodroj, a Hezbollah spokesman and the head of its Palestinian issues portfolio within the group's political echelon, sought to procure a long list of sophisticated weapons in a black-market scheme involving Hezbollah operatives across the globe. According to court documents, Hodroj wanted "heavy machinery" for the "fight against Jews and to protect Lebanon." But move forward with caution, Hodroj counseled an undercover FBI source, because someone in the United States could "go to jail for 100 years" if caught dealing with Hezbollah.
In light of cases like this one, in which people overtly affiliated with Hezbollah's political activities are engaged in criminal and terrorist activities, it becomes increasingly difficult to separate Hezbollah's overt activities from its covert behavior. "Little is known about [the Hezbollah military wing's] internal command hierarchy," a Western government report noted in 2012, "due to its highly secretive nature and use of sophisticated protective measures."
The structure and manpower of Hezbollah's terrorist operation, which is responsible for its financial and logistical activities as well as its terrorist operations abroad, are similarly opaque. We do know, however, that Hezbollah's terrorist network, the Islamic Jihad Organization (IJO), was formally founded in 1983 when Hezbollah master terrorist Imad Mughniyeh fled to Iran after orchestrating the October 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine Corps and French military barracks in Beirut with his brother-in-law, Mustafa Badreddine.
This much is clear: Since its founding, Hezbollah has developed a sophisticated organizational and leadership structure. The overall governing authority, the Majlis al-Shura (Consultative Council), wields all decision-making power and directs several subordinate functional councils. Each functional council reports directly to the Majlis al-Shura, which, as Hezbollah Deputy Secretary-General Naim Qassem wrote in his book, is "in charge of drawing the overall vision and policies, overseeing the general strategies for the party's function, and taking political decisions."
U.S. assessments echo Qassem's description. "Hezbollah has a unified leadership structure that oversees the organization's complementary, partially compartmentalized elements," reads a Congressional Research Service report.
The secretary-general, currently Nasrallah, presides over the Majlis al-Shura and functions as the group's leader under the authority of the "jurist theologian" Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader. Five administrative bodies, organized around thematic responsibilities, run Hezbollah's political, military (jihad), parliamentary, executive, and judicial activities. The Majlis al-Shura considers all elements of the group's activities, including its political and military wings, as part of one holistic entity.
According to Hezbollah's top officials, this unity of purpose among the group's diverse activities is essential to its success. "If the military wing were separated from the political wing, this would have repercussions, and it would reflect on the political scene," Qassem told a Lebanese paper in 2000. "Hezbollah's secretary-general is the head of the Shura Council and also the head of the Jihad Council, and this means that we have one leadership, with one administration."
The Jihad Council is the functional council underneath the Majlis al-Shura responsible for all military matters. Qassem writes that it "comprises those in charge of resistance activity, be that in terms of oversight, recruitment, training, equipment, security, or any other resistance-related endeavors." To accomplish its mission, the council is divided into several smaller units in charge of protecting the leadership and carrying out internal and external surveillance, as well as overseas operations. The party's security branch is further broken down into three subgroups: central, preventive, and overseas security. In 2000, a dedicated counterintelligence branch was reportedly founded as well.
Under this structure, Hezbollah's militia and terrorist activities, along with its security organ, all report to the Jihad Council. Until he was killed, Mughniyeh was Hezbollah's top militant commander and reportedly led the Jihad Council himself. By some accounts, he also held a seat on the Majlis al-Shura, which would be typical for the party's standing military commander.
Unlike its sister councils, however, the Jihad Council enjoys strategic ambiguity. Neither the majority of Hezbollah officials nor the party's elected parliamentarians are aware of the details of their party's covert military and terrorist activities, which are decided on by the most senior leadership. According to the U.S. government, these activities are "executed" by the leadership of Hezbollah's military apparatus, known as the Islamic Resistance and led by Badreddine, and by the IJO, led by Talal Hamiyah, and they are "overseen" by Nasrallah.
Europe's approach to Hezbollah has been varied. Many European governments have resisted international efforts to designate the organization as a terrorist group by distinguishing between Hezbollah's political and military wings. Britain distinguishes among Hezbollah's terrorist wing (the Islamic Jihad Organization), military wing, and political wing, and the country banned the IJO in 2000 and the military wing in 2008. The Netherlands, however, designated Hezbollah a terrorist entity in 2004 without distinguishing between the group's political and military wings. A 2004 Dutch intelligence report highlighted investigations that show "Hezbollah's political and terrorist wings are controlled by one co-ordinating council."
The European Union has taken action against Hezbollah's interests in the past. In May 2002, the European Union froze the assets of a non-European terrorist group for the first time by adding seven Hezbollah-affiliated individuals, including Mughniyeh, to its financial sanctions list for terrorism. It did not, however, sanction Hezbollah as an organization. On March 10, 2005, the European Parliament passed a nonbinding resolution recognizing that "clear evidence exists of terrorist activities on the part of Hezbollah" and calling on the European Council to take "all necessary steps to curtail them."
But the necessary steps did not occur. Instead, most European countries preferred to make convenient distinctions between the different parts of Hezbollah, even when the group's own leadership does not.
Today, as European leaders consider whether to label Hezbollah a terrorist group, they should judge the group by the totality of its actions. Hezbollah cannot be forgiven its criminal, terrorist, or militant pursuits simply because it also engages in political or humanitarian ones. As the Burgas bus bombing demonstrates, the Party of God can and has mobilized operatives for everything from criminal enterprises to terrorist attacks well beyond Lebanon's borders.And though Hezbollah is composed of multiple committees and branches, it operates as a single entity. Hezbollah, the U.S. intelligence community has determined, is "a multifaceted, disciplined organization that combines political, social, paramilitary, and terrorist elements" and is one in which decisions "to resort to arms or terrorist tactics [are] carefully calibrated."
Hezbollah's Qassem, speaking in October 2012, concurred: "We don't have a military wing and a political one; we don't have Hezbollah on one hand and the resistance party on the other.… Every element of Hezbollah, from commanders to members as well as our various capabilities, are in the service of the resistance, and we have nothing but the resistance as a priority," he said.
*Matthew Levitt directs the Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at The Washington Institute.

Iran announces uranium discovery days before nuclear talks
By JPOST.COM STAFF, REUTERS LAST UPDATED: 02/23/2013/ Iranian Atomic Energy Organization announces plans to expand nuclear program, saying it has designated 16 sites for new nuclear plants; Ayalon: Iranian declarations of nuclear progress a negotiating ploy. Iran announced Saturday that it had designated 16 new sites for nuclear power plants and made a significant discovery of new uranium deposits, days before the Islamic Republic was scheduled to partake in talks with Western powers in Kazakhstan over its controversial nuclear program.“Following months of efforts, 16 new sites for nuclear power plants have been designated in coastal areas of the Caspian Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Sea of Oman, [southwestern province of] Khuzestan and northwestern part of the country,” Press TV quoted the Atomic Energy Organization as saying. 'Iran may be advancing new way to produce nukes'Drones, cyber-defense feature in Iran Guards drill The agency stated that the nuclear plants were being established for electricity generation only, and were in line with international standards.
The organization added that Iran has found significant new deposits of raw uranium to feed its nuclear program. State news agency IRNA on Saturday said the deposits were found in "southern coastal areas" and had trebled the amount outlined in previous estimates. There was no independent confirmation but with few uranium mines of its own, Western experts had previously thought that Iran may be close to exhausting its supply of raw uranium.Diplomats say the United States and its allies - the so called P5+1 - are set to offer Iran some relief from their sanctions at the talks in Kazakhstan on Tuesday if it agrees to curb its production of higher grade enriched uranium. The West says the production demonstrates Tehran's intent to develop a nuclear weapons capability, an allegation the Islamic republic denies. Ayalon: Iran using negotiating techniques common in the Persian bazaar
Former deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon said Saturday that Iran's recent announcements of advancements in its nuclear program are part of a ploy by the Islamic Republic to enter Tuesday's nuclear talks in a position of strength. "With the upcoming renewal of the dialogue between the P5+1 (the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany) and Iran on neutralizing the Iranian nuclear program, it seems that Iran is trying to raise the bidding price and to enter negotiations from a position of strength," Ayalon said in a Facebook post. "With this in mind it is possible to understand the latest Iranian declarations on their increased enrichment abilities with advanced centrifuges and declarations on their discovery of uranium deposits in their territory." Ayalon called Iran's declarations "a negotiating pattern which is common in the Persian bazaar." Ayalon accused the Islamic Republic of attempting to carry out "psychological warfare against the West."The former deputy minister said that Iran's behavior "does not signal an Iranian readiness to compromise." He called for "a full embargo" on Iran and said that the military option should be portrayed as an increasingly more likely outcome.

The Hezbollah Connection in Syria and Iran
Matthew Levitt/CFR.org/Washington Institute
February 15, 2013
Dr. Levitt and CFR.org consulting editor Bernard Gwertzman discuss Hezbollah's preparations for Assad's fall, its ever-closer ties with Iran, and its expanding terrorist and militant activities inside and outside Lebanon.
In recent days, U.S. and Mideast officials have reported that Iran and Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite group, are making military preparations for the sectarian chaos likely to engulf a post-Assad Syria. Counterterrorism expert Matthew Levitt says that Hezbollah has closely aligned itself with Iran's Quds Force, an elite paramilitary group linked directly to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, while fighting alongside the Assad regime. In recent years, the partnership between Hezbollah and Iran has tightened to the point that the group's allegiance to Khamenei is paramount, he says. "What we see now is that Hezbollah is going to do things today that are in Iran's interest even if they expressly run counter to the interests of Lebanon and Hezbollah's own interest there."
GWERTZMAN: Israeli warplanes recently bombed a truck convoy in Syria, reportedly carrying antiaircraft missiles to Hezbollah in Lebanon. Why would Syria be shipping weapons to Lebanon instead of the other way around?
LEVITT: Hezbollah has long stockpiled weapons in Syria, and the Assad government has long provided some of these weapons to Hezbollah. In addition, Iran has often supplied weapons to Hezbollah through Syria. As events in Syria turn worse for the Bashar al-Assad regime, Hezbollah is going to -- as we've already seen -- try to move as much of its weapons to safer ground as possible. Some of its stockpiles [are] in Lebanon where it has dug caves into mountains.
Both sides of this conflict, the more radical Sunni extremists embedded with the rebels and the Shiite extremists aligned with Hezbollah and Iran, are setting up militias who will be loyal to them after the fall of the Assad regime. What we're seeing is the stockpiling of weapons for that second phase of conflict.
GWERTZMAN: So you think Hezbollah now has come to the conclusion that Assad is not long for the world?
LEVITT: They came to that conclusion a little while ago. They want to set things up so they are positioned to continue to have influence in Syria even after Assad is gone and a Sunni majority remains.
GWERTZMAN: How has Hezbollah been helping out Syria in this civil war?
LEVITT: There's a tremendous amount of evidence that Hezbollah has been aiding the regime, especially with training. There are also reports of snipers trying to hold key pieces of territory, especially along the border with Lebanon.
Hezbollah was designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. government in 1997; it's on the State Department's list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations and on the Treasury Department's list of global terrorist entities. It was re-listed by Treasury just a couple of months ago for its support of the Assad regime and for undermining security and stability in Syria. When the State Department released that designation, it included -- as State and Treasury always do in these press statements -- a little bit of declassified intelligence. One of the snippets that almost nobody's picked up on was that the individual responsible for overseeing Hezbollah's activities in Syria is Hassan Nasrallah himself, the group's long-time leader.
GWERTZMAN: Is Hezbollah still a jihadist group?
LEVITT: It still is, but Hezbollah is multiple things: Hezbollah is one of the dominant political parties in Lebanon, as well as a social and religious movement, catering first and foremost to Lebanon's Shiite community. The group is also Lebanon's largest militia. After the 1989 Taif Accords, which ended Lebanon's civil war, the group was rebranded as a kind of an Islamic resistance.
People tend to misunderstand the relationship between Hezbollah and Iran, which has changed over time but is now extremely close. The U.S. intelligence community has publicly described this as a "strategic partnership." But people don't fully appreciate Hezbollah's ideological commitment to the concept of "velayat-e faqih," or guardianship of the jurists, which holds that a Shiite Islamic cleric should also serve as supreme head of government. For Hezbollah, this means the Iranian leadership is also their leader -- not for every foot soldier, but for Hezbollah's senior leaders absolutely.
So what we see now is that Hezbollah is going to do things today that are in Iran's interest even if they expressly run counter to the interests of Lebanon and Hezbollah's own interest there. At the end of the day, the group's commitment to Iran trumps its identity as a Lebanese political movement. Part of that has to do with the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh in 2008, who led Hezbollah's military wing.
GWERTZMAN: What was the fallout there?
LEVITT: Mughniyeh led Hezbollah and is believed to have had close ties with the Iranian Quds force. Because of that, Iran had tremendous faith in him. If he was told to do something by Iran, he could hold them off a little bit. But his successors, his cousin Mustafa Badre al-Dine in particular, are nowhere near Mughniyeh in stature, so Iran doesn't have the same trust in him. Therefore, the strategic partnership has become even closer.
If you look at Hezbollah's attacks against Israeli tourists worldwide, there's no way they can be described as in Lebanon's interests in any way. Look back at Hezbollah's support of Shiite militants in Iraq during the Iraq war; look now today to Hezbollah helping to ferry Iranian weapons to Houthi rebels in Yemen; look just recently to Hezbollah's flying a drone near the Israeli nuclear reactor in Dimona. None of this is in Lebanon's interest.
GWERTZMAN: And this bombing in Bulgaria?
LEVITT: The Bulgarians recently concluded that Hezbollah operatives carried out the July 2012 bus bombing in Burgas. A week before the Burgas bombing, an individual Hezbollah operative with dual Lebanese-Swedish citizenship was arrested in Cyprus for carrying out surveillance on Israeli flights and tourists. Six months earlier, [there was] another Hezbollah plot targeting an Israeli tour bus on its way to Bulgaria for a skiing trip -- an attack that was thwarted.
So the Bulgarian investigation is only the first shoe to drop in Europe. There's a tremendous amount of activity going on and none of it can be described as being in Lebanon's interests, or in the interest of Hezbollah's political aspirations in Lebanon.
GWERTZMAN: What's going on in Lebanon? Is Beirut a thriving city now? How evident is Hezbollah's presence?
LEVITT: Beirut isn't a thriving city; it's a divided city. The signs of Hezbollah are all over the place, especially where the group is dominant, like south of the airport. There's a lot of tension because Hezbollah has recently been accused of doing things that are not in Lebanon's interest. Just last week, a Hezbollah member was arrested for the July 2012 attempted assassination of Bourus Harb, a member of parliament; and the group has also been implicated in the killing of Wissam al-Hassan a few months later. Moreover, Hezbollah operatives, including Mustafa Badre al-Dine, stand accused by the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon at The Hague of assassinating former prime minister Rafik Hariri, who was the de facto leader of the Sunni community.
GWERTZMAN: Does the United States have any role to play in combating Hezbollah?
LEVITT: Without question the U.S. has a role to play, especially when it has partners that are willing to work with it. That means pressing the Europeans to take Hezbollah more seriously. The European Union designation of Hezbollah as a terrorist group would be a shot across the bow, telling the group that it needs to make a choice to be either political or militant. It would also empower European countries to do more to prevent the travel of Hezbollah operatives to Europe, which Hezbollah treats as its near abroad, and to raise funds there, which Hezbollah does today hand over fist.
White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan made an excellent point speaking in Ireland last October, where he said one of the reasons Washington wants the Europeans to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist group is that some European countries cannot or will not open counterterrorism investigations into the group until this distinction is made.
But it's not just an American or European effort: the Yemenis right now are tremendously concerned about recent arms shipments from Iran that they have seized destined for Houthi rebels. The Yemenis have said there's evidence that Hezbollah is involved. And we see Hezbollah's activities elsewhere as well. Some of the Shiite militant groups that Hezbollah trained to fight coalition forces in Iraq have now turned up in Syria, fighting alongside Hezbollah and supporting the Assad regime. So, there's a lot that can be done to a) counter Hezbollah's actual terrorist operations, and b) frustrate the group's ability to procure weapons and fundraise worldwide.
**Matthew Levitt directs the Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at The Washington Institute.

Obama and Netanyahu aid Khamenei’s campaign for Iran’s next president
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report February 23, 2013/
The Obama administration was unmoved by the IAEA finding that Iran had installed 180 advanced centrifuges had been installed at Natanz. Indeed, the White House said Thursday, Feb. 21 that “a diplomatic solution is still possible” for resolving nuclear issues with Iran.
The International Atomic Energy Agency report came out the next day: The new IR-1m centrifuges installed in Natanz were said to enrich uranium three times faster than the outdated machines used at Natanz until now, considerably shortening Tehran’s path to a nuclear bomb. The IAEA also noted faster than expected progress in setting up the Arak plant for producing plutonium.
These findings mean that the red line drawn by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu before the UN General Assembly last September - when he said Iran must not be permitted to stock 250 kilos of near weapons-grade uranium of 20 percent purity – is approaching faster than the “late-spring-early summer” deadline he set for stopping Iran before it can build a nuclear bomb.
Yet, in the response to the IAEA finding of Thursday, Netanyahu’s office said only, that the report's findings "prove that Iran continues to advance quickly to the red line" and "Iran is closer than ever to achieving enrichment for a nuclear bomb."
Administration sources report that the US is continuing to push Iran for one-on-one talks after the six powers face Iran in Kazakhstan on Feb. 26 – even though a secret round a couple of months ago was a flop. Gary Samore, the Obama aide who set it up, has since quit the White House and moved over to Harvard University.
Yet Barack Obama stands by diplomatic engagement and “increased pressure” (sanctions) as the sole means of preventing Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has put the US president on the spot, debkafile’s intelligence sources report: He is calling in a debt. He respected Obama’s request to refrain from spoiling his campaign for reelection in November and held back from delivering the “October surprise” widely predicted by US media.
Now, Tehran faces a presidential election in June and Khamenei wants to be sure that the US doesn’t upset his plans. His foremost aspiration is to block the path of the retiring president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s in-law to the presidency and replace him with a nondescript, uncharismatic figure handpicked by himself who is also a competent administrator and qualified to haul Iran out of its economic morass. Not all of Iran’s troubles are caused by sanctions; Ahmadinejad’s reign has seen plenty of dysfunction and corruption.
Extreme violence is already bedeviling the Iranian campaign up to and including threats of assassination. The supreme ruler is bidding the Obama administration for some peace on quiet on the diplomatic front.
According to our sources, Iran’s stormy election campaign will hold Tehran back from any real diplomatic breakthrough or progress toward definitive nuclear weaponization until a new president is elected and forms a government, some time in the fall.
At the same time, the ayatollah is playing a complex double game by keeping diplomatic tensions high and avoiding any real dialogue with Washington. Indeed, he may even welcome tougher sanctions and military threats for boosting his candidate for president and letting Ahmadinejad’s candidate in for punishment at the hands of the suffering Iranian voter.
Hence, the crossed signals from Washington, Europe, Israel and the IAEA. On the one hand, alarm over Tehran’s rapid advance toward a nuclear weapon capability, while on the other, insistence on doing nothing substantial beyond futile palaver to stop it. All four are playing into the ayatollah’s hands.

Battle for Syria's Aleppo airport intensifies
February 23, 2013/By Barbara Surk
BEIRUT: The battle for Syria's second-largest airport intensified on Saturday as regime troops tried to reverse rebels' strategic gains in the northeast recently.
Rebels have been trying for months to capture Aleppo's international airport.
Rami Abdul-Rahman, director of the Britain-based activist group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the fighting is now concentrated around a section of a highway that connects the city with the airport.
The rebels have cut off the highway the army has been using to transport troops and supplies to a military base within the airport complex. The airport east of the city is part of a complex that includes a smaller military airfield and the base. Rebels have made significant advances in the battle for the complex in the past weeks after capturing two army bases along the road to the airport.
Aleppo is Syria's largest city and its commercial capital. President Bashar Assad's troops have been locked in a stalemate with the rebels there since July, when the city became a major battlefield in the nearly 2-year-old conflict.
The rebels control large swaths of land outside Aleppo and whole neighborhoods inside the city, which is divided between regime- and opposition-controlled areas with both sides shelling each other.
Regime forces fired three missiles into a rebel-held area in eastern Aleppo on Friday, hitting several buildings and killing 29 people, according to the Observatory. The group initially reported 14 casualties in the strike that apparently involved ground-to-ground missiles.
Abdul-Rahman raised the death toll late Friday after activists on the ground said more bodies had been recovered from the rubble of the damaged buildings.
On Saturday, the army pressed an offensive on opposition strongholds outside Damascus, trying to dislodge rebels from areas around the capital which they have been trying to storm for weeks.
Recent rebel advances in the Damascus suburbs, combined with the bombings and three straight days of mortar attacks earlier this week marked the most sustained challenge to the heart of the capital, the seat of Assad's power.
A suicide car bombing on Thursday near the ruling Baath Party headquarters in the heart of Damascus killed 53 civilians and wounded more than 200, according to state media. Anti-regime activists put the death toll at 61, which would make it the deadliest bombing of the revolt in the capital.
The different tolls could not be reconciled.
Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack. Car bombs and suicide attacks have been a hallmark of an Islamic militant group Jabhat al-Nusra fighting among the rebels.
The Nusra fighters have been the most effective group on the battlefield, leading assaults on military installations and controlling whole sections of territory in the north, including parts of Aleppo neighborhoods.
The United Nations says at least 70,000 people have been killed since Syrian conflict started in March 2011.