Bible Quotation for today/“A Tree and Its Fruit
Matthew 7/15-22:  “Be on your guard against false prophets; they come to you looking like sheep on the outside, but on the inside they are really like wild wolves. 6 You will know them by what they do. Thorn bushes do not bear grapes, and briers do not bear figs.  A healthy tree bears good fruit, but a poor tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a poor tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 And any tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown in the fire.  So then, you will know the false prophets by what they

Netanyahu: Iran wants to take over Mideast
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4437401,00.html
At Bar-Ilan University, PM says Israel, US see eye-to-eye on need to prevent nuclear Iran. 'If they want peace, they will agree to dismantle nuke program, he says. Adds: Occupation did not create conflict
Gilad Morag Latest Update: 10.06.13, 22:30 / Israel News "Iran's goal is to take over the entire Middle East and beyond, and destroy the State of Israel. This is not speculation, this is the goal," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday evening. Speaking at Bar-Ilan University's Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, Netanyahu said that the Iranian nuclear program is not intended for peaceful purposes, adding that Israel and the United States see eye-to-eye on the need to prevent Iran from arming itself with nuclear weapons.
"I do not believe (Iranian) President Hassan Rohani is interested in (nuclear capability) for civilian purposes. We should ask why
they insist on centrifuges for the enrichment of uranium. There is no need for them (in a peaceful nuclear program)," the Israeli leader said.Netanyahu said the international community should seek a diplomatic solution to the nuclear stand-off, "but only one that will prevent the Iranians from obtaining nuclear weapons." The PM called on the West not to let up the pressure on Iran and even add economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
"The truth is simple and it cuts through the fog they are trying to spread around here,” he explained. “If they want peace they will agree. If they don't want peace, they won't agree. If they dismantle, they'll receive (an easing of sanctions) – if they don't, they won't." Addressing the Mideast conflict, the PM dismissed claims that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank in 1967 stood at the heart of the conflict, stating instead that as long as the Palestinians do not recognize the Jewish state’s right to exist, there will not be peace. 'Go forward without blindness' (Photo: Amos Ben-Gershom, GPO)
“In order for the process, in which we find ourselves, to be significant… in order for it to have a real chance of success, it’s necessary to hear the Palestinian leadership finally say that it recognizes the right of the Jewish people to a state of its own, which is the state of Israel,” he said.
“I hope that it shall be so, so that we can advance a real solution to the conflict,” continued Netanyahu.
According to Netanyahu, the occupation did not create the conflict. "For me it started in 1921, the day the Arabs attacked Beit Haolim in Jaffa."
Beit Haolim housed new Jewish immigrants. Several Jews were murdered in the attack, including famed writer Yosef Haim Brenner. "My own grandfather had arrived at Jaffa, to the same house, one year earlier," said Netanyahu. "This attack was not against territories or settlements," he noted. "It was against the immigration of Jews to the Land of Israel."
Netanyahu also called for Palestinians to give up on their demand for the return of refugees to areas now inside Israel, and said any agreement would need to address Israel’s security needs. “The Palestinians must abandon their right of return,” he said. “After generations of incitement, we have no confidence that recognition (of Israel) will trickle down to the Palestinian people. Therefore, we need very strong security arrangements, and to go forward without blindness.”The Israeli premier also criticized Iran for what he said were its attempts to make cynical use of the Holocaust.
Netanyahu noted that he recently heard Iran's representative “muttering half heartedly” about the crimes of the Nazis, and then going on immediately to say that the Jews must not be allowed to use the Nazi issue in order to commit crimes against the Palestinians. The historical truth is the opposite of this presentation, the PM said. The PM then began quoting numerous historical sources he claimed proved that the mufti of Jerusalem was “one of the initiators of the Holocaust of the Jews of Europe” and that he was constantly encouraging the Nazi leadership to annihilate the Jews, throughout the war. He cited evidence that the mufti even visited the gas chambers at Auschwitz with Adolf Eichmann. "The mufti is still a greatly admired figure in the Palestinian national movement," said Netanyahu.
"These are the weeds that need to be uprooted," he said. "The root of the conflict is the deep resistance among a hard core of Palestinians to the right of the Jewish people to its own state in Israel."
First Published: 10.06.13, 21:44
 

Iran: World powers must present new approach before nuclear talks
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4437401,00.html
At Bar-Ilan University, PM says Israel, US see eye-to-eye on need to prevent nuclear Iran. Adds: Occupation did not create conflict
Gilad Morag Latest Update: 10.06.13, 22:30 / Ynetnews
"Iran's goal is to take over the entire Middle East and beyond, and destroy the State of Israel. This is not speculation, this is the goal," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday evening.
Speaking at Bar-Ilan University, Netanyahu said that the Iranian nuclear program is not intended for peaceful purposes, adding that Israel and the United States see eye-to-eye on the need to prevent Iran from arming itself with nuclear weapons. "I do not believe (Iranian) President Hassan Rohani is interested in (nuclear capability) for civilian purposes. We should ask why they insist on centrifuges for the enrichment of uranium. There is no need for them (in a peaceful nuclear program)," the Israeli leader said. Netanyahu said the international community should seek a diplomatic solution to the nuclear stand-off, "but only one that will prevent the Iranians from obtaining nuclear weapons." The PM called on the West not to let up the pressure on Iran and even add economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
"The truth is simple and it cuts through the fog they are trying to spread around here,” he explained. “If they want peace they will agree. If they don't want peace, they won't agree. If they dismantle, they'll receive (an easing of sanctions) – if they don't, they won't."Addressing the Mideast conflict, the PM said the Palestinians must "recognise Israel as the state of the Jewish people" in order to achieve real peace. According to Netanyahu, the occupation did not create the conflict. "For me it started in 1921, the day the Arabs attacked Beit Haolim in Jaffa." Beit Haolim housed new Jewish immigrants. Several Jews were murdered in the attack, including famed writer Yosef Haim Brenner. "My own grandfather had arrived at Jaffa, to the same house, one year earlier," said Netanyahu. "This attack was not against territories or settlements," he noted. "It was against the immigration of Jews to the Land of Israel." The Israeli premier also criticized Iran for what he said were its attempts to make cynical use of the Holocaust. Netanyahu noted that he recently heard Iran's representative “muttering half heartedly” about the crimes of the Nazis, and then going on immediately to say that the Jews must not be allowed to use the Nazi issue in order to commit crimes against the Palestinians.
The historical truth is the opposite of this presentation, the PM said. The PM then began quoting numerous historical sources he claimed proved that the mufti of Jerusalem was “one of the initiators of the Holocaust of the Jews of Europe” and that he was constantly encouraging the Nazi leadership to annihilate the Jews, throughout the war. He cited evidence that the mufti even visited the gas chambers at Auschwitz with Adolf Eichmann.
"The mufti is still a greatly admired figure in the Palestinian national movement," said Netanyahu. "These are the weeds that need to be uprooted," he said. "The root of the conflict is the deep resistance among a hard core of Palestinians to the right of the Jewish people to its own state in Israel."

Report: Foreign Powers May Seek Extending Suleiman's Term until Syrian Crisis is Resolved
Naharnet/President Michel Suleiman's repeated denials that he is seeking the extension of his term does not mean that this possibility has been taken off the table, diplomatic sources told the Kuwaiti daily al-Anba on Sunday.
They said that his term, which ends in 2014, may indeed be extended until the Syrian crisis is resolved. Foreign powers are reasoning that Suleiman's term should inevitably be extended given the extension of the term of the Lebanese parliament and the tenure of official security agencies chiefs. Moreover, they explained that it is best to keep “old figures instead of introducing new ones” until the crisis in Syria is resolved. Foreign powers have not yet taken action to ensure the extension of the president's term however, added the diplomatic sources. The extension is justified after Suleiman proved his “high wisdom and awareness in tackling disputes,” they stressed.
He succeeded in defending Lebanon's sovereignty and his efforts in maintaining the country's stability have been recognized by the international community, they said. The international community is therefore seeking to maintain Suleiman's potential instead of wasting it should Lebanon fail to stage the presidential election, they explained. In September, Suleiman said that he would challenge the extension of his mandate if the parliament took such a move amid soaring political tensions and the failure to form a new government. He added: “The constitution is clear that a government should assume its constitutional responsibilities and prepare for the presidential elections as soon as possible.”His term ends in May 2014.

Raad: Govt. Lacking Real Representation of Country Components is Out of the Question
Naharnet /Head of Hizbullah's Loyalty to Resistance parliamentary bloc MP Mohammed Raad on Sunday stressed that “the formation of a cabinet that does not reflect the real political weight of the country's main components is something totally out of the question." Raad called on the political forces “not to commit a big mistake that might harm the country and hit society with further disintegration,” reiterating that Lebanon needs “a cabinet in which political forces are represented according to their parliamentary weight.”“Let us put aside the debate over the one-third veto power and other issues, as the only way to achieve consensus and understanding is this representation in cabinet,” Raad said, adding that “any other approach means that the country is still hinging on foreign bets while we want the cabinet to reflect the honest national will.” The Hizbullah lawmaker urged all Lebanese to "reconsider and reevaluate their calculations and thoroughly mull whether or not their bets have failed.”“They must reassess their behavior towards their partners in the country and to agree with them on means to boost national unity and build a national strategy,” Raad added.

Brital Residents Nab 6 Syrians near Baalbek in Retaliatory Move
Naharnet/Young men from the Bekaa town of Brital on Sunday kidnapped six Syrians east of the city of Baalbek, in retaliation to the last week abduction of a Brital resident. “Unknown individuals kidnapped near Baalbek six Syrians who hail from the Syrian town of Durra,” state-run National News Agency reported. “This comes in retaliation to the kidnap of Brital resident Yasser Ismail, who was abducted last week in the town's outskirts,” it added. Earlier on Sunday, LBCI television said “members of the Sawsaq family abducted six Syrians between Brital and Hawrtaala in retaliation to the kidnap of a man from the Ismail family in Arsal's outskirts two days ago." Citing reports, LBCI said the abductee was transferred to Syrian territory after his abduction. Later on Sunday, NNA said Syrian national Mahmoud Ismail and his son were released in the evening, after they were kidnapped by gunmen Saturday near the town of Sirein al-Tahta “in retaliation to the abduction of Lebanese national Yasser Ali Ismail.”It noted that Yasser was nabbed from the barren mountains of the Eastern Mountain Belt in Brital before being taken to Syria.

Sami Gemayel Says Army Didn't 'Enter' Dahieh, Deployed Around It
Naharnet /Phalange Party Central Committee Coordinator MP Sami Gemayel on Sunday pointed out that the army did not enter Dahieh with the rest of security forces as part of the plan devised for the area, noting that its troops are only deployed around the Hizbullah stronghold. "The real reason is that the army refuses to enter an area in which it does not have full authority and this is something it cannot tolerate," Gemayel said.
"That's why it refused to be in the joint committee or to enter the area," the MP added. "Let us not delude people into thinking that the Lebanese army had entered Dahieh, because it is only present around it," he went on to say.
More than 1,000 security forces members and soldiers deployed on September 23 in Hizbullah's stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut, weeks after the party had adopted strict security measures in the area.
The army, Internal Security Forces, and General Security members set up security points and took over Hizbullah's checkpoints in the area. According to caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel, the task force in Dahieh includes 300 army troops, 100 General Security agents and 400 Internal Security Forces personnel.  The deployment in Dahieh was aimed at ending Hizbullah's controversial security measures in the wake of two deadly explosions that targeted its stronghold in the suburbs. Among the measures taken by Hizbullah was setting up checkpoints inside and at the entrances of the suburbs.

Berri in Geneva for Inter-Parliamentary Union Meeting, Urges Confronting 'Scheme Aiming to Fragment Region'
Naharnet/Speaker Nabih Berri on Sunday warned from Geneva that “the scheme aiming to tear apart a number of Arab states is still ongoing.”“The winds that are lashing Libya, Egypt, Iraq and Syria put the region in a dangerous situation, which requires a responsible and firm stance in order to confront this scheme,” Berri said on the sidelines of the 129th Inter-Parliamentary Union conference in Switzerland. During a meeting with Algerian Speaker Abdul Qader bin Saleh, Berri noted that there is “a scheme to fragment Syria and plunge it into sedition,” stressing that “a political solution is the only way to put an end to the Syrian crisis and the Syrians' plight.”
Berri also held talks with Kuwaiti National Assembly Speaker Marzouq al-Ghanim, in the presence of the two countries' delegations. “I want to reassure you that the security situation in Lebanon is among the best in the entire region, contrary to what is being told to our brothers in the Gulf. There is a decision at all levels in Lebanon that there will never be a return to civil war … that's why I was surprised by the decision of our brothers in the Gulf to (ask their citizens to) boycott Lebanon,” Berri told the Kuwaiti speaker, according to state-run National News Agency.  The pan-Arab daily al-Hayat has reported that Berri was expected to hold talks in Geneva with a number of heads of parliaments of Arab and foreign countries on the sidelines of the conference. His discussions are likely to focus on Arab and international developments, it added. The speaker participated in a preparatory meeting on Sunday for the Arab parliamentary union and the union of the parliaments of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. The Inter-Parliamentary Union Conference is scheduled to tackle the agenda of its March 2014 meeting.
The agenda will focus on eliminating nuclear arms from the world. Berri is accompanied on his trip by MPs Abdul Latif al-Zein, Gilberte Zouein, and Elie Aoun.

Hezbollah says Salam violating parliamentary majority

October 06, 2013/The Daily Star /BEIRUT: Hezbollah MP Ali Fayyad criticized the PM-designate Sunday for failing to abide by the demands of the parliamentary majority in his efforts to form a new Cabinet, while another party official urged the caretaker government to approve oil-related decrees. "The prime minister-designate’s insistence on the 8-8-8 formula for the Cabinet is now in violation of the parliamentary majority, particularly in light of MP Walid Jumblatt's opposition to it,” Fayyad said during a ceremony in south Lebanon. “This contradicts the philosophy of forming a Cabinet by the majority which means a violation to the main critical standards in Cabinet formation: agreement and majority,” he added. Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam, who was nominated in April, has proposed a 24-member Cabinet lineup, with eight seats apiece for March 8, March 14 and centrists.
The centrists refer to President Michel Sleiman, Salam and Jumblatt. Jumblatt has opposed such a lineup, saying Lebanon was in need for an all-encompassing government.
Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah also opposed the formula and has argued that the March 14 coalition would actually have 10 ministers because Salam should be seen as a member of the March 14 camp, according to such a proposal.
Salam has been struggling for over six months to form a new Cabinet as he wrestles with conditions and counter-conditions set down by rival groups.
Fayyad also reiterated his party’s accusation that the March 14 was obstructing the formation of a new government. “The public should know ... that March 14 with its regional alliance should be held responsible for the absence of a government and dialogue and consequently shunning all kinds of resolutions,” he said. Sheik Nabil Qaouk, Hezbollah's commander in south Lebanon, also slammed his rivals in the March 14 group, saying their decisions lie in the hands of what he described as “sponsor countries who are still betting on the fall of the state in Syria.”"I ask the March 14 to facilitate the formation of a new Cabinet for all the Lebanese because it has become a national demand,” he said during his speech at a graduation ceremony in Aiteet. He reiterated the party’s call for a government that represents each bloc based on its parliamentary weight.
Meanwhile, caretaker State Minister Mohammad Fneish, also a Hezbollah official, said Sunday the resistance group represents a deterrence factor preventing Israel from infringing on Lebanon’s maritime borders.
“As always, the Zionist enemy seeks to violate our maritime rights given that it did not even hesitate to begin exploration four kilometers away from our maritime borders,” he said.
“This enemy will not be deterred unless we commit to the formula of the ‘Army, the people and the resistance' which has achieved what no other Arab country has as it has foiled the 2006 aggression,” he added.
“[The formula] is the only element that can certainly deter the enemy from thinking of violating our rights.” Hezbollah has urged the caretaker Cabinet under outgoing Prime Minister Najib Mikati to convene and issue pending oil decrees demarcating 10 maritime oil exploration blocks and establishing a revenue-sharing model. The decrees which require government approval are needed before oil and gas contracts can be awarded. “Will the caretaker government abandon its role in preserving the nation's wealth under the pretext that it is unconstitutional?” Fneish asked. “Decrees allowing exploration have already been approved and the pending ones are a continuation of the process and in line with the law which is already in effect,” he added.
 

One Killed in Shootout between ISF, Wanted Suspects in Ashrafiyeh
Naharnet/A wanted suspect was killed on Sunday during a shootout with an Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau patrol in Beirut. LBCI television said that the shootout broke out between the patrol and two suspects wants on charges of theft. The incident took place near ABC mall in the Ashrafiyeh area in Beirut. LBCI identified the victim as Mustapha al-Yahfoufi. The other suspect, who was not identified, also has a record of firing at ISF patrols. Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) later said that Yahfoufi was killed in a chase that ensued in Ashrafiyeh near the residence of caretaker Telecommunications Minister Nicolas Sehnaoui.

Lebanese boat survivors return home
October 06, 2013/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: A plane carrying 18 survivors from last week's boat tragedy off the coast of Indonesia arrived to Lebanon Sunday morning as relatives and officials swarmed the airport to receive the returnees.
Families greeted loved ones who survived the sinking of an Australia-bound ferry with dozens of would-be illegal immigrants aboard. Other families still await the return of their relatives' bodies.
“I traveled with my wife and three children and today I return all alone,” one of the survivors told reporters at the Rafik Hariri International Airport after landing in Beirut on board an Emirates Airline flight via Dubai.
Others who traveled alone to Indonesia said they embarked on this perilous journey in an effort to escape poor living conditions in Lebanon, particularly in the northern region which is considered to be Lebanon's most deprived.
Louay Baghdadi, 25, said he swam to a nearby shore after the boat was flooded with water and sank. “We left on a boat with the understanding that they would put us on another one after an hour or an hour and a half,” Baghdadi told The Daily Star. “When we sailed out to the sea they did not transfer us. They tricked us and sold us. It was cheaper for them,” he added, noting that the journey cost him $10,000.
Baghdadi said he would consider traveling once again via the same means. “I knew there was death on the road I took, and in Tripoli, where I come from, there is death as well,” he said.
“If there was work, I would not leave. But I will definitely leave like this if I can,” he added. Other survivors said the boat was at sea for five days and that the captain had lost his way. The boat sank on its way back to Indonesia. Hussein Ahmad Khodr, whose wife and eight children died in the boat incident, arrived home to his northern village of Qabeet as many gathered to offer him their condolences.
"I sent pictures of the boat with my phone to several of my relatives in Lebanon and I used GPRS to contact Australian authorities asking for them to come save us," he told reporters.
"We were promised to go on a decent boat but that was not the case," Khodr added. The father of eight said he pulled the bodies of five of his children and his wife from the water. The bodies of his other children have not yet been identified. According to the Lebanese delegation dispatched to Jakarta last week to deal with the repatriation of survivors and remains, 28 people in total survived the tragedy including 18 Lebanese, while Indonesian authorities have recovered 43 bodies so far. Most of the Lebanese families involved in the tragedy hail from the northern village of Qabeet in Akkar. The delegation is expected to return to Lebanon Wednesday along with six Lebanese who were imprisoned for overstaying their visas in Jakarta and five additional nationals who sought to return home. Caretaker Foreign Affairs Minister Adnan Mansour who was at the airport Sunday to receive the survivors said DNA tests to identify the bodies of the deceased will take several days. “The government should provide decent living conditions and jobs so that we can prevent such a tragedy,” Mansour told reporters.
“Judicial bodies should prosecute those who fooled the Lebanese into going on that trip,” he added.  Survivors and their families have spoken about a group of smugglers headed by an Iraqi citizen that charged each person between $3,000 and $5,000 to go on the trip.

Misplaced blame
October 05, 2013/The Daily Star
A mini-commotion erupted in Lebanon this week over the country’s passport, after reports that it deserved to be considered among the worst in the world.
The day after the news emerged and was widely circulated, and commented on, General Security responded with a spirited defense of its institution, which is responsible for formalities for passports and entry and exit into Lebanon. Some of the arguments that General Security put forward are understandable, while others are a bit off the mark – the institution complained that the headline “Lebanese passport among the 10 worst passports in the world” was not present in the original report on ranking the world’s passports, but since Lebanon was tied for 88th place out of 94 countries, the media’s decision to highlight the story this way can be defended easily.
General Security also stated that it was in the process of adopting a new, advanced biometric passport, which will certainly upgrade the status of the travel document.
The information about Lebanon’s low ranking, however, shouldn’t cause General Security to go ballistic and consider the news an attack on its performance. If Lebanon’s currency were to suddenly take a dive, few people would look around and blame the institution that prints the money as being responsible for such a negative development.
In case anyone has forgotten, General Security does not unilaterally conclude treaties with other countries, or decide the level of diplomatic ties and other matters.
In fact, it currently more than has its hands full working under quasi-emergency conditions due to the massive influx of Syrian refugees into Lebanon. It is also partly responsible for overseeing the smooth entry and exit of thousands of domestic migrant workers, whose formalities can involve difficult interaction with employment agencies and foreign governments.
The fact is, it is the legislative and executive branches where responsibility should be assigned when it comes to the question of whether Lebanese can enter a given country without a visa.
But what is worrisome is that politicians and officials seemed to take the news about the Lebanese passport in stride, as if they had no part to play in this dreary tale. But this isn’t completely surprising, because the public has lost hope in seeing officials do anything more than just talk about the need to solve people’s daily problems. General Security is primarily a passport and border control body, and it has only partial responsibility for the security situation in Lebanon – incidents of tension and violence, Lebanon’s reputation internationally, and all related matters should be addressed by officials and politicians, and should not be considered a smear campaign against a state agency that has its hands full keeping up with routine work.

Destroying Syria’s chemical weapons
By: Ron G Manley 6 October 2013
The expert responsible for chemical weapons destruction operations in Iraq from 1991-94 takes a look at the challenge in Syria. A key decision will be whether to move all of the chemical weapons to a single location for destruction or undertake their destruction at the individual sites.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) have now begun their work in Syria. Their first task will be to visit the sites declared by the Syrian Government and verify that the chemical weapons, precursor chemicals - used in their manufacture and chemical weapon production and filling facilities present at each site match what has been declared by Syria. Once this has been done, their next task will be to oversee the inactivation of the production and filling facilities. This can be achieved by the removal of key components, the insertion of blanking plates to seal off key pipes or vessels and the use of tamperproof seals to prevent the facilities from being reactivated. Under the terms of the CWC all these facilities will eventually have to be destroyed in accordance with procedures set down in the treaty.
The next step in the process will be to develop and agree on a plan for the destruction of all of the declared items. The inactivated production and filling plants will need to be decontaminated, to remove any traces of chemical agents, dismantled and the individual components destroyed in a safe and effective manner. All the associated buildings and facilities will also have to be destroyed.
The declared chemical weapons will consist of filled chemical munitions of various types - some of which may also contain explosives, bulk stocks of chemical agents, unfilled chemical munitions and stocks of the key precursor chemicals used to make the chemical agents. Each of these will pose a different destruction problem and it is likely that a range of technical solutions will be needed to achieve their safe destruction in an environmentally acceptable manner.
In drawing up this plan, a key decision will be whether to move all of the chemical weapons to a single location for destruction or undertake their destruction at the individual sites. Moving them to a single location would enable the use of larger, non-mobile, equipment with increased destruction capacity, capability and efficiency. The safe transportation of chemical filled munitions and bulk chemical agents, however, is a complex process, requiring very careful planning and specialised equipment. The current situation on the ground in Syria may make this a particularly difficult operation. The alternative would be to undertake the destruction process at each of the declared sites. For this to be achieved, in an acceptable timeframe, it will be necessary to use mobile destruction facilities. A number of these have been developed and used in different parts of the world. Their major disadvantage is that they normally have a limited capacity and are manpower intensive. Depending on the number of sites involved, several systems would probably be needed if destruction is to be achieved within the desired timescale.
In reality a mixture of these two options may provide the optimum solution. Unfilled chemical munitions, for example, can be destroyed relatively easily using techniques such as crushing or cutting up with oxyacetylene torches. Their destruction at each declared location should, therefore, not pose any particular problems. Although some of the precursor chemicals are very corrosive and hazardous they are not highly toxic. Their safe transport by road or sea, in normal circumstances, would not be significantly different from that involved in the routine movement of other hazardous industrial chemicals. Their movement to a single location either in country or, with the agreement of the OPCW, out of country for destruction may prove the most practical option.
The safe destruction of the filled chemical munitions and bulk chemical agents will be more difficult. Filled chemical munitions can be stored either without their explosive components fitted or complete with their explosive components. Clearly, the destruction of munitions that are explosively configured, ready for immediate use, poses additional destruction problems. The traditional approach to dealing with a filled chemical munition is to separate the chemical agent from the munition and any explosives present. This, by its nature, is a hazardous operation, ideally undertaken in facilities that protect the operator from blast or accidental exposure and prevent the risk of release of chemical agent to the environment. Once the various components have been separated they can be safely destroyed using a range of well established techniques. Any explosive contents can either be destroyed in a specially designed furnace or by open air detonation. The munition cases can be destroyed by heating, in a specially designed metal parts furnace at 500 – 600C, for sufficient time to destroy any residual chemical agent and ensure that the metal components are no longer useable. After removal from the furnace they can, where necessary, undergo further treatment, for example by mechanical crushing, to ensure their complete destruction.
The recovered chemical agents can be destroyed along with the bulk chemical agents. Two well proven technologies for carrying out this final step are incineration and chemical breakdown. Both techniques have their advantages and disadvantages. Incineration has been shown to be highly effective but does require an incinerator specifically designed for this purpose and fitted with a pollution abatement system to ensure that hazardous combustion products present in the exhaust gases from the furnace are removed before they are released to the atmosphere. Incineration systems designed for the destruction of chemical weapons are complex, fixed site, installations and primarily designed for installation at a single location. While mobile incineration systems have been developed they tend to have a limited capacity and although described as transportable are not easily moved from site to site. Chemical breakdown, by what is known as hydrolysis, is also a well established technique. The principal downside of this technique is that the waste products need some form of secondary treatment before they can be released to the environment. Once again portable units for undertaking this process have been developed but they again tend to have a much more limited capacity than a larger fixed site-based system.
In recent years alternative approaches to the need to first disassemble chemical munitions into their individual components have been developed. These mainly involve the use of explosive containment chambers in which the chemical munitions are either destroyed using added explosives or high temperature. The containment vessels are designed to withstand the force of an exploding chemical munition and any resulting gases can be treated before they are released to the atmosphere. Their principal downside is that they are very large, heavy items, not easily transportable and can only treat small numbers of munitions each day. They do, however, eliminate the need for the hazardous disassembly step. While such systems would be suitable for use in Syria they are not available off the shelf and only a small number are currently operating in different parts of the world. The timescale involved with obtaining such a system and the limited rate of destruction may, therefore, rule out its use in Syria.
Overall the complexity of the destruction process and the time required to complete it will be dependent on the amounts of each category of chemical weapons present in Syria and the number of sites involved. Clearly, the larger the number of filled chemical weapons the more complex and time consuming the destruction process will be. The final solution to destroying Syria’s chemical munitions, in a safe and environmentally effective manner, will, therefore, require very careful planning and will almost certainly require a significant period of time to establish the necessary capability and complete the operation.


Insight: After chemical horror, besieged Syrian suburb defiant
Reuters – Fri, 4 Oct, 2013(The identity of the reporter has been withheld for security reasons)
ZAMALKA, Syria (Reuters) - Sixteen-year-old Mohammad al Zeibaa lost his entire family in the sarin gas attack east of Damascus six weeks ago, surviving the world's deadliest chemical weapons strike in a quarter century only because he was out working a hospital night shift.
Mohammad's father, who rushed to the scene to help survivors, died from the effects of the sarin, as did his mother and five brothers and sisters who stayed at home.
The teenager now lives with a surviving cousin amid the ruined streets and half-collapsed buildings that scar the Zamalka neighborhood and other districts of the Ghouta region on the edge of the capital.
Perhaps numbed by more than two years of bloodshed, he sheds no tears over the August 21 sarin attack which killed hundreds of people and brought the United States and France to the verge of air strikes against President Bashar al-Assad's forces.
"We've been seeing people martyred every day - why not my family?" he said. Young men surrounding him nodded in agreement.
Already it is hard to tell exactly where the chemical rockets fell in the rebel-held Ghouta, a mix of suburban sprawl and farmland, because damage from conventional bombardment has reduced the area to a grey monochrome of rubble and wreckage.
Street after street is littered with smashed concrete and bent metal. One building, destroyed before the chemical attack, is sliced in half from top to bottom. On one floor, a kitchen can be seen complete with cabinets and washing machine. On another, the headboard of a double bed and a bedroom commode.
At the site where residents say a sarin-loaded rocket fell, only mounds of rubble stand amid scorched earth, remnants of houses and patches of garden ringed by narrow streets that were so packed with bodies on the night of the attack that they said it was impossible not to step or drive over the dead.
The rebels and their Western backers blame Assad's forces for the attack, which they say killed 1,400 people. Authorities say rebels carried it out to provoke Western intervention in a civil war which has already killed more than 100,000 people.
COMMUNITY BESIEGED
Like most people in Ghouta, Mohammad vows to remain steadfast until Assad's overthrow - a still distant goal after military gains by the president's forces.
He has become an integral part of a community struggling to administer itself despite clashes with government forces and a 13-month government siege that leaves everyone hungry and is starting to starve the youngest and most vulnerable.
Every day, Mohammad shows up to work at the field hospital near his home. Thin and child-like for his age, he is too small to bear arms but he resembles the men with his stoic appearance, broken occasionally by a quick smile.
Like everyone else he eats many meals without bread, a staple now in short supply, and finishes perishable food quickly because it cannot be refrigerated. The rebel area has been off the electricity grid for a year.
At night he spends his time in the dim half light of rechargeable torches and the droning of electricity generators, along with their noxious fumes. To get around, Mohammad uses a bicycle due to fuel shortages and lack of public transport.
At home his landline telephone stopped working long ago and he has no use for a cell phone because it is hard to get a signal. If he needs to communicate, he uses a walkie-talkie to contact a dispatcher and ask him to relay messages.
Most of the rebel fighters are further west, on the front line near the Damascus ring-road which separates the rebellious eastern suburbs from the center of the capital.
But during a short drive through the area, rebels could be seen two or three to a motor bike, their guns slung over their shoulders. Others walk around, congregating around rebel checkpoints. Almost every family has a gun, sometimes laid openly on a table or hanging by the door.
Such is life in the rebel territory linked to central Damascus only via two government checkpoints. There, soldiers confiscate food, baby milk and medicine and at times refuse entry even to people who have queued for hours.
Residents, especially the men, cannot leave their district and venture into government controlled Damascus without risking indefinite detention when they try to pass the checkpoint.
For food they rely on locally raised poultry and meat, as well as olives, citrus, eggplant and green peppers. But in May, government bombardment set ablaze this year's wheat crop.
The handful of doctors complain that dysentery and a lack of antibiotics endanger lives. They say the siege is starting to cause malnutrition among pregnant mothers and children, and that some babies have already died of starvation.
CHILD NURSES
The one thing that East Ghouta has in abundance is men willing to fight. But supported by financing from underground charities and fund-raising by families abroad, it has also set up a network of pro-rebel organizations tackling the community's medical needs, communications, humanitarian relief, education and sanitation, and ensuring something that approximates to the rule of law. With most schools either bombed out or unsafe, residents have organized "revolutionary education" centers for small children. Teenagers, however, go to work.
The most popular choice for boys and girls as young as 14 is medical work, where volunteers are needed and parents feel their children are as safe as they can be in a war zone.
Teenage nursing assistants receive on-the-job training in field hospitals and quickly find themselves dispensing medicine and helping to treat battlefield casualties.
When the sarin was unleashed on the East Ghouta, dozens of teenage nurses administered injections of atropine - a sarin antidote - to survivors. And many did so at their own peril.
Sixteen-year-old Faris, whose home is a short bike ride away from where the chemical rockets fell, woke early the following morning unaware of the calamity that had occurred in the night.
He learned about it at 7 a.m., on his way to the bicycle shop where he works before his shift at the field hospital.
He rushed to the hospital and treated dozens of people.
"I was shocked. I'm still remembering things that I didn't at that time," he said, sitting up in his bed at the field hospital, his head loosely bandaged and his complexion pale after he too was wounded in the subsequent bombardment.
"For example, today they were telling me that one of my neighbors, Abu Leila, had died in the chemical attack. And after they told me, I remembered that I had seen his body that morning when I arrived at the field hospital," he said.
Shortly after he arrived and helped remove dozens of bodies and attend to dozens more survivors, many of them foaming at the mouth and struggling to breathe, Faris developed minor sarin gas symptoms including nausea and eye irritation.
No one wore proper gas masks, which are unavailable in Ghouta. Some first responders used surgical face masks or wet towels at the site in a vain effort to protect themselves.
A NIGHT LIKE ARMAGEDDON
Survivors still suffer from insomnia, severe headaches and the mental fog that they say began after their exposure to sarin gas. Everyone around Zamalka speaks of a night of horror that they liken to Armageddon.
Mohammad, who was on duty at the hospital that night, said he heard an unusual-sounding rocket shortly before 2 a.m. It seemed to land without the blast of mortar or tank shells.
It was not long before the dispatcher on the walkie-talkie started saying there had been a chemical attack, and ordered volunteers and medics to the scene to help.
Then came chaos. As people started to move bodies and take survivors to the field hospital, another rocket carrying sarin hit the crowd, killing four medics and many volunteers.
Locals say they have become accustomed to army shelling whenever they congregate, a practice they say is done on purpose in order to target the largest number of civilians.
No one was sure how many chemical rockets fell, but fierce shelling with conventional explosives continued all night, killing more volunteers and sarin survivors, especially those who fled to higher floors seeking fresh air, escaping the heavier gas which lingers at ground level. Survivors describe the events as a blur, punctuated by moments of nightmarish lucidity.
There was the graveyard that gave up its dead as relentless bombardment pounded its grounds.
There were dead animals - goats, sheep and cats, and a tree under which 300 birds lay on the ground, one survivor said.
There were living people mistaken for dead, thrown in among the bodies awaiting burial, until a movement of the head or the faint sound of their moaning saved them.
People insist they took extra care that day to ensure that no body was lowered into the mass grave before a final confirmation of death by one of the few doctors there.
They continued to bury their dead for 16 straight hours, then finding more bodies trapped inside homes for several more days during which fierce government bombardment continued.
Many of the dead were entire families. Some died in their sleep, or together in the living room. One family of five died huddled in a bathroom, apparently seeking shelter from the gas.
Most of the dead were identified by a relative, a friend or a neighbor. But many were newcomers, Syrians who had been displaced from elsewhere.
"We found entire families dead in their homes, and no one in our community knew who they were," said an army defector and media activist who used the nom de guerre Mohammad Salahedinne.
One family had scribbled the name of their town, Jarba, on the wall of their living room, and that was how local people figured out their place of origin.
Mohammad recalls giving atropine injections to dozens of survivors brought into the field hospital that night including, unsuccessfully, his own father.
Asked to name the fallen in his family, he began with the distant relatives first, and continued in a soft but matter-of-fact voice.
"Sheikh Rashad Shams died, and his wife Baraa Nadaf. Shifa Shams. Shayma Shams. Mawada Shams and a boy she was due to give birth to in a week. Those were my maternal uncle's family.
"Then my paternal uncle's family: Anas al Zeibaa, Mahmoud and Ahmad al Zeibaa, and Khaled and Mashhoor, my cousins. And my parents, Nasib al Zeibaa and Moameneh Shams and, what's his name, Samer al Zeibaa, 21, the eldest. "Then Aya, Fatimeh, and who else? Oh yes, Asma al Zeibaa, and the last one Abdullah al Zeibaa."
Asked who was his favorite, he smiled and said it was four-year-old Abdullah.
(Editing by Dominic Evans and Giles Elgood)

Two Canadians jailed in Cairo, Egypt have been released
By The Canadian Press | The Canadian Press –CAIRO - Two Canadians held for seven weeks in an Egyptian prison in what they`ve described as brutal conditions have been freed, Canadian officials announced Saturday.
There were few other details on the release of John Greyson and Dr.Tarek Loubani, who were arrested on Aug. 16 during violent anti-government demonstrations in Cairo.
"I look forward to Dr. Loubani and Mr. Greyson being reunited with their families and friends, who have shown tremendous strength during this difficult time," Lynne Yelich, a junior minister responsible for consular affairs said in a statement late Saturday. "We are facilitating Dr. Loubani and Mr. Greyson's departure from Egypt," the statement added.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper also welcomed the news of the release of the two Canadians, issuing a statement from the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur where he`s continuing a visit aimed at strengthening ties with that Southeast Asian nation. "The government of Canada has obviously been pushing for that and welcomes this decision by the government of Egypt and we look forward to seeing these two Canadian citizens return home in the not too distant future."
Greyson and Loubani were released Sunday morning — Cairo time — but there has been no confirmed word on exactly when they will be returning to Canada.
There was no immediate comment on their release from the two men's families. A website that was set up to generate support for the pair made no mention of their release late Saturday.
Greyson, a Toronto based filmmaker and Loubani, an emergency room doctor from London, Ont. have said they planned to stay in the Egyptian capital only briefly on their way to Gaza last month.
They issued a statement from prison last month indicating they had decided to check out protests that were close to their hotel and saw at least 50 protesters killed. Loubani stopped to treat some injured protesters and Greyson filmed the carnage.
Their statement said that after leaving the scene of the protests they asked police for directions and were stopped and beaten and taken into custody.
Subsequently Egyptian prosecutors accused them of "participating with members of the Muslim Brotherhood'' in an attack on a police station, but never laid any charges.
The two Canadians said they spent most of their time crammed with other inmates in a filthy, cockroach-infested prison cell as they awaited word on their fate.
The pair staged a 16 day hunger strike to try to pressure Egyptian officials to release them, but started eating food again last week.
Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird and other Canadian officials intensely lobbied Egyptian officials for weeks, demanding that the pair either be charged with a crime or released.
Baird spoke with his Egyptian counterpart for an hour late last month lobbying on the two men's behalf.
 

Suicide bombers target Iraq Shi'ites, killing 60
By Kareem Raheem | Reuters – By Kareem Raheem
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two suicide bombers targeted Shi'ite Muslims in Iraq on Saturday, killing 60 people on the eve of the anniversary of one of their imams' deaths, police and medics said on Saturday.
In the northern city of Mosul, unidentified gunmen shot two Iraqi television journalists dead as they were filming, security sources said. No group immediately claimed responsibility for either of the bombings, but such attacks are the hallmark of Sunni Islamist al Qaeda, which views Shi'ites as non-believers and has been regaining momentum this year.
In Baghdad, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives at a checkpoint, killing 48 Shi'ite pilgrims on their way to visit a shrine in the Kadhimiya district, police and medical sources said.
Earlier on Saturday, another suicide bomber blew himself up inside a cafe in a mainly Shi'ite town of Balad, 80 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad, killing 12 people. The cafe was targeted in an almost identical bombing 40 days ago. "I received the corpse of my cousin. It was completely charred and difficult to identify," said Abdullah al-Baldawi, whose relative was killed in the cafe bombing.
Relations between Islam's two main denominations have come under acute strain from the conflict in Syria, which has drawn fighters from Iraq and the wider Middle East into a sectarian proxy war.
More than 6,000 people have been killed in violence across the country this year, according to monitoring group Iraq Body Count, reversing a decline in sectarian bloodshed that had climaxed in 2006-07.
It was not clear who was behind the killing of the journalists, who worked for Iraqi television channel al-Sharqiya News, which is often critical of the Shi'ite-led government and is popular among the country's Sunni minority.
"They shot them in the chest and head, killing them instantly," said a security source who declined to be named.
Iraq is considered one of the most dangerous countries for journalists. According to the Baghdad-based Journalism Freedoms Observatory, 261 journalists have been killed and 46 kidnapped since 2003, the year of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Mosul, capital of the predominantly Sunni province of Nineveh, is a stronghold for Islamist and other insurgents.
A journalist from Mosul said insurgents in the city changed their tactics and targets from time to time, and may now have set their sights on journalists, after previous spates of attacks against traffic police and mayors.
"I will leave the city of Mosul and live in the outskirts until things calm down," said the journalist on condition of anonymity.
The Journalists' Syndicate denounced the killings as a "criminal act", demanding the authorities track down the perpetrators and do more to protect the media.
Nineveh governor Atheel al-Nujaifi condemned the killings: "It aims to muzzle the voice of people, the voice of righteousness".
Iraq's Sunni community has grown increasingly resentful of a government it accuses of marginalizing their sect since coming to power after the U.S.-led invasion that vanquished Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Sunnis launched street protests in December after Shi'ite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki sought to arrest a senior Sunni politician. A bloody raid by security forces on a protest camp in April touched off a violent backlash by Sunni militants. The United Nations Mission in Iraq said nearly 900 civilians were killed across Iraq in September, raising the death toll so far this year to well above the total for 2013.
(Additional reporting by Raheem Salman and Ghazwan Hassan in Tikrit; Writing by Isabel Coles; Editing by Ralph Boulton)
 

Libya, Somalia raids show U.S. threat to al Qaeda: Kerry
By Mark Hosenball and Ghaith Shennib
WASHINGTON/TRIPOLI (Reuters) - After U.S. raids in Libya and Somalia that captured an Islamist wanted for bombing U.S. embassies in Africa 15 years ago, Secretary of State John Kerry warned al Qaeda they "can run but they can't hide". Nazih al-Ragye, better known by the cover name Abu Anas al-Liby, was seized by U.S. forces in the Libyan capital Tripoli on Saturday, the Pentagon said. A raid on the Somali port of Barawe, a stronghold of the al Shabaab movement behind last month's attack on a Kenyan mall, failed to take its target.
"We hope this makes clear that the United States of America will never stop in its effort to hold those accountable who conduct acts of terror," Kerry said on Sunday in Indonesia, ahead of an Asia-Pacific summit.
"Those members of al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations literally can run but they can't hide," Kerry said in Benoa on Bali. "We will continue to try to bring people to justice."
Liby, a Libyan believed to be 49, has been under U.S. indictment for his alleged role in the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, which killed 224 people.
The U.S. government has also been offering a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture, under the State Department's Rewards for Justice program.
"As the result of a U.S. counterterrorism operation, Abu Anas al-Liby is currently lawfully detained by the U.S. military in a secure location outside of Libya," Pentagon spokesman George Little said without elaborating.
Liby was arrested at dawn in Tripoli as he was heading home after morning prayers, a neighbor and Libyan militia sources said.
"As I was opening my house door, I saw a group of cars coming quickly from the direction of the house where al-Ragye lives. I was shocked by this movement in the early morning," said one of his neighbors, who did not give his name. "They kidnapped him. We do not know who are they."
Two Islamist militia sources confirmed the incident.
A year ago, CNN quoted Western intelligence sources as saying Liby had returned to his native country during the Western-backed uprising that ousted Muammar Gaddafi.
The Pentagon confirmed U.S. military personnel had been involved in an operation against what it called "a known al Shabaab terrorist," in Somalia, but gave no more details.
Local people in Barawe and Somali security officials said troops came ashore from the Indian Ocean to attack a house near the shore used by al Shabaab fighters.
One U.S. official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the al Shabaab leader targeted in the operation was neither captured nor killed.
U.S. officials did not identify the target. They said U.S. forces, trying to avoid civilian casualties, disengaged after inflicting some al Shabaab casualties. They said no U.S. personnel were wounded or killed in the operation, which one U.S. source said was carried out by a Navy SEAL team.
SOMALIA FIREFIGHT
A Somali intelligence official said the target of the raid at Barawe, about 110 miles south of Mogadishu, was a Chechen commander, who had been wounded and his guard killed. Police said a total of seven people were killed.
Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, spokesman for al Shabaab's military operations, told Reuters foreign forces had landed on the beach at Barawe and launched an assault at dawn that drew gunfire from rebel fighters in one of the militia's coastal bases.
Britain and Turkey denied his suggestion that their forces had been involved in the attack and taken casualties.
Abu Musab said the attackers appeared to use silenced weapons. Al Shabaab responded with gunfire and grenades.
The New York Times quoted an unnamed U.S. security official as saying that the Barawe raid was planned a week and a half ago in response to the al Shabaab assault on a Nairobi shopping mall last month in which at least 67 people died.
"It was prompted by the Westgate attack," the official said.
Barawe residents said fighting erupted at about 3 a.m. on Saturday (midnight GMT).
"We were awoken by heavy gunfire last night, we thought an al Shabaab base at the beach was captured," Sumira Nur told Reuters from Barawe by telephone. "We also heard sounds of shells, but we do not know where they landed," she added.
The New York Times quoted a Somali government official as saying that the government "was pre-informed about the attack".
In 2009, helicopter-borne U.S. special forces killed senior al Qaeda militant Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan in a raid in southern Somalia. Nabhan was suspected of building the bomb that killed 15 people at an Israeli-owned hotel on the Kenyan coast in 2002.
The United States has used drones to kill fighters in Somalia in the past. In January 2012, members of the elite U.S. Navy SEALs rescued two aid workers after killing their nine kidnappers.
Shabaab leader Ahmed Godane, also known as Mukhtar Abu al-Zubayr, has described the Nairobi mall attack as retaliation for Kenya's incursion in October 2011 into southern Somalia to crush the insurgents. It has raised concern in the West over the operations of Shabaab in the region.
(Additional reporting by Lesley Wroughton in Bali, Phil Stewart, Warren Strobel and David Brunnstrom in Washington and Feisal Omar and Abdi Sheikh in Mogadishu; Writing by David Brunnstrom and Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

Somali militants say Western forces raid base and kill fighter
By Feisal Omar and Abdi Sheikh | Reuters –
By Feisal Omar and Abdi Sheikh
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali al Shabaab militants said on Saturday British and Turkish special forces had raided a coastal town overnight, killing a rebel fighter, but that a British officer had also been killed and others wounded.
A British Defence Ministry spokeswoman said: "We are not aware of any British involvement in this at all." A Turkish Foreign Ministry official denied any Turkish part in such an action.
A Somali intelligence official said the target of the raid on Shabaab's stronghold in the small southern coastal town of Barawe was a Chechen commander, who had been wounded and his guard killed. A total of seven people were killed, said police.
It was not clear whether the assault was related to the attack on a Kenyan mall two weeks ago, which the al Qaeda-linked group said it carried out and which killed at least 67. Nor was there any independent confirmation of what forces were involved.
Both U.S. and French forces have carried out similar raids in the past. The French army denied involvement and the Pentagon declined to comment.
Shabaab leader Ahmed Godane, also known as Mukhtar Abu al-Zubayr, has described the mall attack as retaliation for Kenya's incursion in October 2011 into southern Somalia to crush the insurgents. It has raised concern in the West over the operations of Shabaab in the region.
Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, spokesman for al Shabaab's military operations, told Reuters foreign forces had landed on the beach at Barawe, about 180 km (110 miles) south of Mogadishu, and launched an assault at dawn that drew gunfire from rebel fighters in one of the militia's coastal bases.
He later said the attack was carried out by Britain's SAS unit and Turkish special forces, and that the British commander was killed during the raid and four other SAS soldiers were critically wounded. A Turkish soldier was also wounded, he added.
Western navies patrol the sea off Somalia, mired in conflict for more than two decades, and have in the past launched strikes on land from warships. Neither Turkish nor British forces have any past record of raids in the area.
Barawe is fully controlled by the Islamist militia with almost no government presence.
CHECHEN
Somali security officials gave conflicting accounts.
"We understand that French troops injured Abu Diyad also known as Abu Ciyad, an al Shabaab leader from Chechnya. They killed his main guard who was also a foreigner. The main target was the Shabaab leader from Chechnya," an intelligence officer based in Mogadishu, who gave his name as Mohamed, told Reuters.
A second Somali intelligence officer said the Barawe attack had been carried out by foreign forces. He confirmed the target was a foreign national, and said another foreigner was wounded.
Col. Abdikadir Mohamed, a senior police officer in Mogadishu, said that despite the statements by al Shabaab on the identities of the foreign forces, he still believed the attacking troops were American and their target was a senior foreign al Shabaab official. "At least seven people died in the Barawe port town attack - five militants plus two of the attackers," Mohamed told Reuters.
In 2009, helicopter-borne U.S. special forces killed senior al Qaeda militant Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan in a raid in southern Somalia. Nabhan was suspected of building the bomb that killed 15 people at an Israeli-owned hotel on the Kenyan coast in 2002. NATO denied involvement in the Barawe attack, as did EU Navfor, Europe's counterpiracy mission off the Somalian coast. "Westerners in boats attacked our base at Barawe beach and one was martyred from our side," Musab said.
"No planes or helicopters took part in the fight. The attackers left weapons, medicine and stains of blood, we chased them," he added.
"Although we both exchanged grenades, the attackers had silencer guns, so the weapons heard were ours."
HEAVY GUNFIRE
Residents said fighting erupted at about 3 a.m. (midnight GMT).
"We were awoken by heavy gunfire last night, we thought an al Shabaab base at the beach was captured," Sumira Nur, a mother of four, told Reuters from Barawe on Saturday.
"We also heard sounds of shells but we do not know where they landed. We don't have any other information."
The United States has used drones to kill fighters in Somalia in the past. In January 2012, members of the elite U.S. Navy SEALs rescued two aid workers after they killed their nine kidnappers.
In January this year the French military used helicopters to attack an al Shabaab base in a southern village to rescue a French hostage. Two French commandos were killed and the insurgents later claimed they had killed the hostage. Al Shabaab were driven out of Mogadishu in late 2011 and are struggling to hold on to territory elsewhere in the face of attacks by Kenyan, Ethiopian and African Union forces trying to prevent Islamist militancy spreading from Somalia. Al Shabaab wants to impose its strict version of sharia, or Islamic law, across the Horn of Africa state.
The Kenyan mall raid, in which attackers stormed in spraying people with bullets and throwing grenades, confirmed fears in the region and the West that Somalia remains a training ground for militant Islam.
A Kenyan military spokesman on Saturday named four of the attackers, saying they also included a Sudanese, Kenyan Arab and a Somali, trained by al Shabaab and al Qaeda.
(Additional reporting by Marion Douet in Paris, Adrian Croft in Brussels, Phil Stewart in Washington DC, Humeyra Pamuk in Ankara,; editing by Ralph Boulton; Writing by James Macharia)

34 dead as Egypt Islamists try to galvanise protests
October 06, 2013/By Samer al-Atrush/Daily Star
CAIRO: At least 34 people were killed in clashes between Islamists and police in Egypt Sunday, as thousands of supporters of the military marked the anniversary of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.
Supporters of deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, overthrown in a July military coup, tried to converge on a central Cairo square for the anniversary celebrations, when police confronted them.
At least 30 people were killed in Cairo, and four south of the capital, and 209 people were wounded, senior health ministry official Khaled al-Khatib said in a statement.
An interior ministry official told AFP no policemen were killed in the clashes.
In central Cairo, policemen fired shots and tear gas to disperse stone-throwing protesters. AFP correspondents saw several suspected demonstrators being arrested and beaten.
Three months after Morsi's overthrow, followed by a harsh crackdown on his Muslim Brotherhood movement, the Islamists had planned to galvanise their protest movement in a symbolic attempt to reach Tahrir Square.
Sunday's death toll was the highest in clashes between Islamists and police since several days of violence starting on August 14 killed more than 1,000 people, mostly Islamists.
After several weeks of relative calm, the Islamists said they would escalate their protests by trying to rally in the symbolic Tahrir Square. Hundreds of thousands of people had filled the square in February 2011 to force president Hosni Mubarak to resign, and again in July 2013 to urge the army to depose his successor Morsi. But on Sunday, security forces guarded entrances to the square, frisking people arriving for the anniversary celebrations.
Several thousand people, some carrying pictures of army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, waved Egyptian flags as warplanes flew overhead in formation and patriotic songs blared from loudspeakers. Elsewhere in the city, the air was thick with tear gas and the crackle of gunfire as police confronted several marches heading for Tahrir.
In Delga, an Islamist bastion south of Cairo, one person was killed when Islamists clashed with civilian opponents and police, a health ministry official and witnesses said.
Clashes also erupted in the Suez Canal city of Ismailiya, a security official said. For weeks authorities have been drumming up national fervour in state media, amid the worst political divisions in Egypt's recent history.
Prime Minister Hazem Beblawi urged Egyptians to unite, saying the country is on the road to recovery.
"As we go through these critical times all Egyptians should stand together, be confident and be optimistic about the future," he said in a televised address. Morsi's opponents demonstrated in their millions in June and July to urge the army to remove him, accusing the Islamist of failing the revolution that brought him to the presidency and concentrating power in the hands of his allies.
Interior ministry warning
His supporters decried his overthrow a year after his election in Egypt's first free polls as a violation of democratic principles.
Away from the main squares, Cairo's streets were largely deserted on Sunday, a public holiday to commemorate the October War, known as the Yom Kippur War in Israel.
The conflict, remembered proudly by the Egyptian army because it caught Israel by surprise, led to the recovery of the Sinai Peninsula in a 1979 peace treaty.
The interior ministry had warned it would "firmly confront" any violence or attempts to disturb Sunday's celebrations, state news agency MENA reported.
Attempts by Islamists to reach Tahrir on Friday sparked clashes with Morsi opponents and security forces that killed four people.
Analysts called the Islamists' call for protests a high-risk attempt to strip the current high command of the army's legacy and patriotic pride in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
"They will try to show that the present army is not the army of all Egyptians, but only of those who backed the coup," Hassan Nafaa, political science professor at Cairo University, told AFP.
"But this message will not go down well."
The Anti-Coup Alliance group has repeatedly called for protests against Morsi's overthrow.
But its ability to mobilise large numbers has waned as security forces have arrested some 2,000 Islamists, including Morsi himself and several Brotherhood leaders.
More than 1,000 people were killed on August 14 when security forces moved in to destroy two large pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo, and ensuing clashes in the following days.
Islamists elsewhere in Egypt struck back, attacking police and torching churches and other Coptic Christian institutions.
The government has also been battling an insurgency in the Sinai, where militants have launched near-daily attacks on security targets.


Mansour: Egyptians will not tolerate foreign interference
Egypt's interim president says the country is proceeding with its political transition
Egypt’s interim president, Adly Mansour, during his interview with Asharq Al-Awsat on October 5 (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Cairo, Asharq Al-Awsat—In an exclusive interview with Asharq Al-Awsat Egypt’s interim President Adly Mansour praised the stance of Saudi Arabia and the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz towards the recent transformations in Egypt. “The King was the first to have sent me a congratulatory telegram a few hours after I was assigned the presidency, even before I was sworn in,” Mansour told Asharq Al-Awsat.
He added: “It is no secret when I say that the majority of Egyptians felt that the content of the King’s congratulatory letter expressed what they were feeling at that critical stage.”
In the interview which Asharq Al-Awsat will publish in two parts in the coming days, Mansour said that under the existing “roadmap” for Egypt’s political transition parliamentary elections will be held prior to the presidential poll, denying reports to the contrary. Mansour also said that Egypt’s political decision-making is completely independent and is based on what serves best the national interest. According to the interim president, support from Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries has been a major factor in ensuring the independence of the country’s political apparatus. Also in the interview, Mansour emphasized that Egyptians will in no way accept any violation of their country’s sovereignty or interference in its internal affairs. Commenting on tensions with Qatar, Mansour said: “Those who want to support Egypt in line with the strategic vision the Egyptian government has adopted are welcome,” adding that those who think that they can “draw a specific path for us to follow in exchange for aid,” will be rejected both by his government and by the public.
As for the Muslim Brotherhood, the Egyptian president told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Islamist group has been seeking foreign support since the mass protests that toppled ex-president Mursi, an approach which he said was unacceptable to Egyptians. Mansour, also said that one of the main reasons for the collapse of the former Islamist regime is its decision to rely on its own members and followers, to the exclusion of the rest of Egyptian society.
The full text of Asharq Al-Awsat’s interview with President Adly Mansour will be published in English soon.

A political fatwa against nuclear weapons
By: Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Alawsat
Sometimes there isn’t much difference between politicians and clergymen. The art of speech is their profession. They can justify or evade issues with their eloquence. The Iranian regime is currently saying that it does not intend to build military nuclear capabilities because the supreme guide issued a fatwa prohibiting nuclear weapons. You must be a pious Shi’ite Iranian to believe this pledge. The region’s governments cannot possibly believe such statements. I will use the phrase my colleague Eyad Abu Shakra used in his article on Wednesday: “Cynicism may be a sign of wisdom.” The supreme guide’s fatwa increases our suspicions. The issue doesn’t require a fatwa. It requires that facilities and reactors be open to international inspectors, and it requires that we accept their judgment and guarantees. As neighbors of Iran, we will not demand Benjamin Netanyahu’s conditions, announced during his UN General Assembly speech: “First, cease all uranium enrichment. . . . Second, remove from Iran’s territory the stockpiles of enriched uranium. Third, dismantle the infrastructure for nuclear breakout capability, including the underground facility at Qom and the advanced centrifuges in Natanz. And, four, stop all work at the heavy water reactor in Arak aimed at the production of plutonium.”
The supreme leader’s fatwa prohibiting nuclear weapons was motivated by religion and politics. Islam teachs that “whoever slays a soul, unless it be for manslaughter or for mischief in the land, it is as though he has slain all men.” One nuclear warhead is enough to annihilate thousands of innocent people. But the supreme leader’s fatwa is not that different from the pope’s edict prohibiting contraceptives. Iran is about to give birth to its prohibited weapon. Iran spent a lot of money and sacrificed a lot over the last decade and a half for the sake of its nuclear program. It is therefore not possible to believe that all of this was geared towards lighting Tehran’s streets using nuclear energy. The West has offered rewards, alternatives and incentives to consecutive Iranian governments in order to allow Iran to attain the energy it needs. But Iran refused them and resumed implementing a project which cannot be considered anything but a military one.
Avoiding war
The Middle East, which has become accustomed to war, is capable of engaging in other wars. But after eliminating tyrants like Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi and fighting even against Bashar Al-Assad, hope increased that the day the region rids itself of war is nearing. Hope increased that regimes like the one in Iran will give up their expansionist schemes and dreams of establishing regional empires, and thus free themselves to build their countries from within. The threat against Iran comes from within, and not from Arabs or Israelis—that is what the Islamic Republic’s lecturers say in order to justify the misery the Iranian people are put through for the sake of attaining the holy bomb.The irony is that the Americans, who spent a lot of time and effort to build an expanded alliance which succeeded in restraining Iran’s regime politically and economically, are currently destroying this alliance. The US aimed to achieve its goal peacefully by forcing Tehran to give up its military dreams. It used banks and petroleum, travel and technology companies, in addition to its security and military means, for that purpose. Banks were shut down, economic interests were obstructed, airline companies were banned, and various products were prohibited from being exported to Iran. This is what pushed the Iranian leadership to choose Hassan Rouhani, the man with the smiling face, to replace Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the man with the frowning face, to act as president and peace activist.
We—the ones who live within a stone’s throw of Iran—will be happier than the Americans or the Israelis if the Iranian regime really wants peace and has really reached the conviction that it should give up its nuclear weapons. Attaining them will cost Iran much more than it would benefit Iran. Unfortunately, we do not sense any of this humbleness. Instead, it appears to us that the current gestures on the part of Iran are simply part of a PR project aiming to appeal to the sentiment of the White House.

Erdoğan’s Options
By: Samir Salha/Asharq Alawsat
At the time that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was putting the finishing touches on his historic package of economic, political, and social reforms, his closest aides were viewing polling data.
Consensus Corporation, a major research company in Turkey specialized in public opinion polling which successfully predicted the results of the 2011 general elections, recently published the details of a survey it carried out on the socio-political options facing Turkey. The survey was conducted throughout 81 Turkish cities and polled a broad range of people of different age groups and political views.
Erdoğan, who is preparing for three elections—municipal, presidential and parliamentary—in two years is well aware that the fate of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) over the coming decade will be decided by these election results. He will therefore, no doubt, pay close attention to this report, and the people’s views. Opinion polls of this kind must be a priority for any leader, and in this case they serve to remind Erdoğan of the suffering of the Turkish people. A brief reading of the Turkish street’s central demands on sensitive and decisive issues could perhaps help us closely realize the Turkish electorate’s mood and why it is so important that the leadership listen to them. Fifty percent of the people covered by the poll are of the opinion that Turkey’s major problem is the on-going unemployment crisis. The issue of terrorism came second with 48 percent of the vote, followed by education, democracy, freedom of expression, and inflation.
The good news for Erdoğan is that 50 percent of Turkish voters are prepared to vote for the AKP at any future parliamentary election. This figure matches public expectations. While only 27 percent of those polled said they would vote for the opposition Republican People’s Party. However the AKP’s prospective share of the vote in the municipal elections is not as strong, with only 40 percent of those polled saying they would vote for the ruling party. This comes as the Republican People’s Party enjoys a strong presence in a number of cities along the Aegean Sea, particularly Izmir, which is known for its left-wing and secular politics. Despite this, the Republican People’s Party can only expect to obtain 25 percent of total votes, according to the poll.
As for the Kurdish issue, 43 percent of those polled said they back the government’s recent endeavor to engage in a dialogue with Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan to solve the Kurdish problem, whereas only 39 percent judged the AKP as being successful in confronting terrorism. This means that the Kurdish issue in Turkey remains central to discussions.
Erdoğan will also face additional pressure in drawing up the new constitution. According to the survey, 67 percent oppose the AKP’s monopolization of the constitution drafting process and are demanding that other political and civil powers should be involved in this.
The opinion poll come as a surprise to many, perhaps including Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, as 26 percent of those polled said they would like to see current Turkish President Abdullah Gül become Prime Minister.
Perhaps the biggest shock in the poll is the sheer number of people who believe that Erdoğan is seeking to shift the system of government in Turkey from a parliamentary to a presidential system, with 74 percent saying they would oppose this. These figures and rates have declined remarkably compared to figures and surveys in previous polls.
As for foreign policy, another shock was the 48 percent of respondents who said they opposed Erdoğan’s handling of the Egyptian crisis. As for the Syrian crisis, only 34 of those polled expressed support for the government’s policies, this is a considerable decrease from the 44 percent support enjoyed by Ankara over Syria in a 2012 survey.
While Erdoğan would have been far from happy with the polling date, Republican People’s Party leader, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, will have been even more disappointed, with his party failing to secure any significant advance over the past two years.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan still has a lot of options in front of him, despite the criticism and accusations that he has endured. He says that his mission has yet to be accomplished and that his main objective is to strengthen Turkey and its society in the run up to the country’s centennial celebrations in 2023.
Addressing those who object to the extension of AKP’s term in power and who demand more democracy and change, Erdoğan can point to the German elections and Angela Merkel’s third term in power.
Six months remain until Turkey heads to the polls for the first, but not last, time. Will there be surprises in store for the country’s electorate? Or has Erdoğan succeeded in securing his grip on the tiller of the Turkish ship, regardless of which direction the winds are blowing?
Only time will tell.