LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
DECEMBER 22/2006Bible Reading of the day
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 1,26-38.
In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, "Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you." But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." But Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?" And the angel said to her in reply, "The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God." Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." Then the angel departed from her.Free Opinions
Free Opinions & Studies of the Day
A key player in Lebanon alters his part.Gen. Michel Aoun, a Christian, has hitched his star to Hezbollah
By Megan K. Stack, Times Staff Writer-December 21, 2006
Are U.S. Taxpayers Paying for a Network Infiltrated by Hezbollah? By Andrew Cochran - From the Counterterrorism Blog 21.12.
Israel's Lieberman Calls for Tougher Stance on Israeli Arabs.By Ira Stoll-New York Sun 21.12.06
Latest news from miscellaneous sources for December 21/06
Moussa Cautiously Optimistic About His Mission's Success-Naharnet
Lebanon president should 'serve out term'-Middle East Times-Naarnet
Putin, Assad Discuss Middle East-CNSNews.com
Qatari Soldiers Join UNIFIL-Naharnet
Arab League head tries again to end Lebanon crisis-Reuters
Pontiff Sees Vatican-Syria Relations Progressing-Zenit News Agency
Olmert: Syrian peace overtures not genuine-Ynetnews
Russian FM Lavrov voices concern over govt. crisis in Lebanon-RIA Novosti
Lebanon is Iran's Lungs: You Can Hear Iran Breathing in Beirut-New California Media
ITALIAN FOREIGN MINISTER D'ALEMA BEGINS VISIT-AKI - Rome
D'ALEMA, WE NEED TO SUPPORT ARAB LEAGUE MEDIATION-Agenzia Giornalistica Italia
Iran is manufacturing four civil wars in the Middle East-Middle East Online
Missing the forest for the trees-Ha'aretz
Lebanon Christians urged to reconcile-Monsters and Critics.com
Mussa hopes to solve Lebanon crisis-The News
Moussa in new Lebanon talks - opposition ups ante-Middle East Times
Kerry: Lebanon can count on the new US Congress-Ya Libnan
US calls on Syria to listen to neighbors on Lebanon question-International Herald Tribune
Lebanon Still Reeling From War, Assassinations-Voice of America
'We want the government to go'-Gulf News
UN investigator reports progress in Hariri assassination probe-JURIST
Few Arab regimes interested to deal with Syria,Kuwait News
LEBANON: Rate of cluster bomb casualties falling-Reuters
A two-way street with Syria-USA TodayMoussa Cautiously Optimistic About His Mission's Success
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa on Wednesday held separate talks with President Emile Lahoud, Premier Fouad Saniora and Shiite spiritual leader Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah within the framework of his mediation to contain the political crisis in Lebanon.
Mousa told reporters he was cautiously hopeful about the outcome of his mediation between Saniora's majority government and the Hizbullah-led camp that is trying to topple it.
"The atmosphere is very good," Moussa told reporters after meeting Saniora. Following his talks with Fadlallah, the Arab League official expressed "hope that life returns to normal in Lebanon as soon as possible. This is what we are trying to achieve."In answering a question as to whether certain factions are trying to obstruct his mission, Moussa said: "There are factions that support this mission. We have to look at the positive side."Moussa explained that he will leave for the Syrian capital of Damascus early Thursday and would return to Beirut later in the day, stressing that his contacts with Arab leaders help in defusing the explosive situation in Lebanon. After meeting Lahoud earlier in the day, Moussa stressed that the controversial Lebanese president should serve out his extended term which expires in November 2007.
"(Lahoud) should remain until the end of his mandate, and his term should be respected," Moussa told reporters.
"Choosing his successor should then be made by consensus," he added. Lahoud's mandate was controversially extended for three years in September 2004 after parliament, under pressure from Lebanon's then political master Syria, adopted a constitutional amendment to that effect.
The Arab League chief on Tuesday began a new round of talks with Saniora and Hizbullah-led factions to resolve growing political and sectarian tensions that are threatening to tear the country apart. His trip, the second to Beirut in less than a week, comes amid renewed threats by the Hizbullah-led alliance to escalate its open-ended street protests to topple Saniora's government, calling this time for early parliamentary elections.
Upon arrival at Beirut airport Tuesday, Moussa said he planned to visit Syria and was in contact with other Arab countries to seek their assistance in solving the Lebanese crisis. All Arab nations are "concerned and worried" about the situation in Lebanon and support the Arab League's efforts to break the deadlock, he said. He stressed that he was also maintaining "contacts with Iran."
The leftist newspaper As Safir said Wednesday that Moussa's mission could also include a visit to Tehran. Moussa met Saniora shortly after he flew in from Cairo late Tuesday. He described his two-hour talks with the prime minister at the government offices in Beirut as "very good. I am satisfied." He refused to disclose further details. Saniora has been holed up at his office complex in downtown Beirut behind a tight security cordon since thousands of Hizbullah-spearheaded protestors began camping and staging mass protests in front of his office on Dec. 1.
Moussa's talks on Tuesday also included Berri and Saad Hariri, leader of the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority and son of the slain ex-Premier Rafik Hariri. Beirut, 20 Dec 06, 09:27
Qatari Soldiers Join UNIFIL
Thirty Soldiers from Qatar flew into Beirut Wednesday to serve with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in the southern region bordering Israel. Assistant commander of the Qatari battalion Col. Nasser al-Atiyeh told reporters at Beirut Airport the rest of the force would arrive in Lebanon by January and would deploy in the southern towns of Tibnin, Bint Jbeil, Ainata and Aita al-Jabal.
The 203-soldier strong Qatari Battalion is the only Arab force serving with UNIFIL. The vanguard of the Qatari Battalion had arrived in Lebanon at an earlier date to set the logistical needs for their comrades. 23 nations contribute troops to UNIFIL, which already has 11.048 soldiers deployed in south Lebanon and Lebanese territorial waters. U.N. Security Council resolution 1701, which ended a 34-day confrontation between Hizbullah and Israel on Aug. 14, set UNIFIL's force level at 15.000 troops. The U.N, peacekeepers are deployed in a 23-kilometer deep stretch of terrain south of the litani river in an effort to prevent Hizbullah from controlling the region and launching cross-border attacks against Israel. Beirut, 20 Dec 06, 15:00
D'Alema Discusses Lebanon's Crisis with Saniora
Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema on Wednesday discussed with Premier Fouad Saniora the ongoing political crisis in Lebanon and the role played by the Italian contingent serving with a U.N. peacekeeping force in the south. The talks, according to a press release by Saniora's office, also covered bilateral relations.After a lunch hosted by Saniora at the government offices in Beirut, D'Alema is to meet Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who is an ally of Hizbullah. The Shiite group and its allies are staging an open-ended sit-in in downtown Beirut aimed at toppling the Saniora government. D'Alema will also pay a visit to Italian troops in south Lebanon-- a 2,500-strong contingent that is the largest contribution to the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). On Thursday, D'Alema travels to the Palestinian territories for talks with President Mahmoud Abbas, who has called for early elections in an effort to contain the political crisis in the Palestinian areas. (Naharnet-AFP) Beirut, 20 Dec 06, 11:44
1 killed, 3 Wounded in Cluster Bomb, Landmine Explosions in South
A Lebanese man was killed and three other people were wounded in cluster bomb and landmine explosions left over from the Israeli aggression on Lebanon this summer, the National News Agency reported Wednesday.
It said Wissan Mohammed Tabaja, 35, was wounded in a cluster bomb explosion in the border town of Marjayoun Wednesday morning and was rushed to Sheikh Ragheb Harb hospital in Nabatiyeh. NNA said a man was killed and two others were wounded when a landmine exploded in Marjayoun late Tuesday. The agency identified the victim as Ali Milhem, and the wounded as Youssef Kazem Msheik and Qassem Mohammed Mortada, who were taken to Harb hospital for treatment. It was not immediately clear whether the landmine exploded when the men stepped on it or were handling with it. Last week, two Lebanese soldiers were killed in a similar explosion in southern Lebanon while they were trying to dismantle a landmine left behind by Israeli troops. The United Nations and human rights groups have accused Israel of laying mines and dropping as many as 4 million cluster bombs on Lebanon during the July-August war with Hizbullah.
U.N. ordnance clearing experts have said that up to 1 million cluster bombs failed to explode and continue to threaten civilians.
At least 28 people have died in cluster bomb and land mine explosions in Lebanon since the war ended in a U.N.-brokered cease-fire on Aug. 14.
South Lebanon is riddled with land mines, laid by retreating Israeli soldiers who pulled out of the region in 2000 after an 18-year occupation. Hizbullah has also planted mines to ward off Israeli forces.(AP-Naharnet) (AFP file photo shows French UNIFIL peacekeepers searching for cluster bombs and unexploded ammunitions in a field in the south) Beirut, 20 Dec 06, 11:03A key player in Lebanon alters his part
Gen. Michel Aoun, a Christian, has hitched his star to Hezbollah
By Megan K. Stack, Times Staff Writer
December 20, 2006
RABIEH, LEBANON — In these days of fear and distrust in Lebanon, there may be no man who inspires more venom than Gen. Michel Aoun.
Since returning from 15 years of exile to the joyful cheers of his followers last year, the Christian leader known simply as "the General" has frayed this fragile country's intricate network of allegiances. First he formed a surprising political alliance with Hezbollah. Then he sent his followers into the streets for massive antigovernment demonstrations.
With rising religious and political tensions threatening to pitch the country into fighting, plenty of his embittered fellow Lebanese hold Aoun squarely to blame.
But after decades of war and exile, Aoun is in no mood to apologize. Watching the country unravel from a fortified perch in Beirut's well-heeled Christian suburbs, he is calm and selfassured. He politely acknowledges his many, vociferous critics — and describes himself as a misunderstood savior of Christians and Lebanon.
"A leader must be a leader. Sometimes he could make choices against the opinions of his followers because he has to go through a crisis and to save them. The vision is not for everybody," says Aoun, peering over his desk through round eyeglasses. "He has to make a choice, and maybe, after, the people will understand why he has done what he has done."
It's no secret that Aoun would like to emerge from Lebanon's political paralysis as president, a post reserved for a Christian under Lebanon's system of carving up the government according to religion. Many Lebanese believe that he made a Faustian bargain with Hezbollah in hopes of assuring his ascendance.
His rivals say he is so blinded by ambition that he's willing to destabilize the country — and turn Christians against one another — to get the power he wants. But Aoun insists that he is working to secure a better government for Lebanon, and that the presidency is an afterthought.
Whatever his motives, he has boosted Hezbollah's fortunes at a delicate time: As it pushes to topple the government, Hezbollah has minimized its image as an armed Islamist party of Shiite Muslims. Hezbollah now speaks of itself as a mainstream movement with a populist, cross-sectarian appeal.
Critics fear Aoun is being used by Hezbollah, and warn that his newfound allies will toss him aside when they no longer need him. They call him a traitor to Christians and a tool of Syria and Iran, Hezbollah's main backers.
"He's a destructive figure in recent Lebanese history," said Michael Young, opinion editor for Lebanon's Daily Star newspaper. "Lebanon has never been so divided, and the Christian community, since his return, has never been so divided. Like many a demagogue, he lives off division."
This slight, 71-year-old leader with an office full of history books and an evident interest in Charles de Gaulle has gambled his legacy on Hezbollah. He argues that time will prove the wisdom of his choices.
"Maybe it looks to somebody like a big gamble, but to me it's clear," he said. "The result will save this country…. The other choices we have right now threaten our own existence. What I am doing right now will preserve the existence of Christians in the Middle East."
But many of Lebanon's Christians are furious with Aoun. Tensions have led to scattered street fights among his followers and fellow Christians. Aoun shrugs off worries over the divisions, which he called predictable and unremarkable.
"They don't have enough judgment to appreciate what I'm doing for the Christian community and Lebanon," Aoun said. "Those people are educated on hatred.
"They are angry. They cannot conceive that a man from the people would become a leader," he said of his critics in government. "They are a factor of stagnation in our country. They won't accept any reform or change."
Born into a poor family, Aoun worked his way up through the ranks of the military. He dismisses much of Lebanon's political elite as "remainders of political feudalism" who inherited both power and fortunes.
Aoun's longtime, outspoken hatred of Syria has shaped an often isolated trek through war and politics. As the civil war wound down in 1990, the one-time prime minister was forced into exile in France. He pledged never to set foot in Lebanon until the Syrians relinquished their hold on the country.
During the hard, repressive years that followed, Aoun's backers in the Free Patriotic Movement staged illegal street demonstrations, enduring jail, interrogations and abuse.
Meanwhile, many of Lebanon's other leaders went along with the Syrian government in Damascus, including some of the most outspoken members of the self-proclaimed "anti-Syria" coalition that now controls the majority bloc in Lebanon's parliament.
Days after Syria was forced to withdraw its soldiers from Lebanon last year, the general charged triumphantly home to the delight of weeping, cheering fans. But his return proved bittersweet.
He found himself usurped: Sunni leader Saad Hariri led a coalition of newly minted "anti-Syria" politicians who seized control of the parliament through national elections.
When Aoun forged alliances with staunch allies of Syria, Lebanese began to whisper a startling rumor: Aoun had hammered out an understanding with Damascus before returning home.
Aoun insists that this is a lie. To this day, he says, he has carried out no negotiation, direct or indirect, with Syria.
"Hariri and his group were pro-Syrian. And they took advantage of that and made fortunes from the resources of the country," Aoun said. "So what's going on now is that these people collaborated so much with Syria that they have to show some hate, some extremism, in speaking of Syria."
Aoun, who believes the government has succumbed to nepotism and corruption, pushed for an extensive audit of the government to find out who had profited illegally during the years of Syrian control. He called for an overhaul of Lebanon's election laws, and decried the system of apportioning power along religious lines.
And then came the final stroke: This year, Aoun signed a document of common political strategy with Hezbollah, utterly confounding many Lebanese. The general brushed off criticism, insisting that Christians could not be secure in the Middle East unless they dealt pragmatically with the Muslim majority.
"They can't be different, like they're imported from another area," he said.
Aoun's pact raised eyebrows in Washington, which classifies Hezbollah as a terrorist group. He said his recent relations with Washington were "not good." But he insisted that it was unrealistic and counterproductive for the Bush administration to expect him to ignore Hezbollah.
"That's one-third of the Lebanese people," he said. "We cannot isolate them. We cannot kill them."
Many Christians simply cannot bring themselves to support an alliance with an armed Islamist organization they regard as a threat to their community's future. Others cheer Aoun as a visionary leader and praise his choice of Hezbollah over the pampered heirs and warlords they regard as corrupt.
"There's only one reason I'm standing by somebody who's an extremist: It's a trust balance against all the hypocrisy on the other side," said Roy Saab, 29, a Christian magazine editor who has demonstrated against the government along with Hezbollah followers. "I know they have weapons and missiles. But I trust what they say, as opposed to everyone else."
Saab acknowledged that his stance might seem bizarre. "No one can say the Middle East is not an absurd place to live," he said with a grin.
But it remains to be seen how far Aoun will go to remain loyal to his newfound political allies. He stopped short of calling for Hezbollah's disarmament, a defining issue in Lebanese politics.
"You cannot say to people, if you don't have another security system to defend them, 'OK, give up your weapons and go home,' " Aoun said. "Everybody will feel insecure and we'll have instability." That, he says, is where his project of Muslim-Christian alliance comes in.
"We have to disarm their minds. The weapons don't make a crime by themselves. They are manipulated by man," he said. "So the pacification of the country starts by pacifying spirits and minds."A briefing by Avigdor Lieberman
December 12, 2006
http://www.meforum.org/article/1072
Avigdor Lieberman is the recently appointed minister of strategic affairs and deputy prime minister of Israel. As the leader of Yisrael Beytenu, the party he founded, his faction holds 11 seats, making it the fifth largest in parliament with almost 10 percent of the total seats. Polls show that he is the second most popular Israeli politician, after Benjamin Netanyahu, with current Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert ranking fifth. Minister Lieberman addressed the Middle East Forum on December 12, 2006. The following is an account of his briefing, as reported in the New York Sun.
Israel's Lieberman Calls for Tougher Stance on Israeli Arabs
by Ira Stoll-New York Sun
December 13, 2006
The deputy prime minister of Israel, Avigdor Lieberman, is calling for a tougher stance toward Israeli Arabs.
Mr. Lieberman outlined his views at a luncheon session in New York yesterday organized by the Middle East Forum, and afterward in an interview with The New York Sun and other journalists.
"The conflict includes not only the Arabs in Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip, but Israeli Arabs also," Mr. Lieberman said. "The linkage between the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli Arab population — it will destroy us, it is impossible. What is the logic of creating one and a half country for one people and a half country for the Jewish people?"
Mr. Lieberman spoke of requiring Israelis to sign a commitment to loyalty to the Israeli flag and to its national anthem, and of requiring service in the army or alternative national service. Citizens who refuse to sign the declaration, he said, could continue as permanent residents of Israel, working, studying, and receiving health care benefits, but they could not vote in national elections or be elected to national office.
"It's not racism," Mr. Lieberman said. "The test is loyalty, not their religion." He said he would also deny Israeli citizenship to extreme anti-Zionist Orthodox Jewish groups, such as the Neturei Karta, which sent representatives to this week's Holocaust denial conference in Tehran.
Mr. Lieberman said the "close linkage" between Israeli Arabs and the Arabs of the Palestinian Authority is a result of Israeli "weakness."
"If we will be more strong, more tough, they will be more loyal," he said. "They are really afraid about their future."
He defended his statement that Israeli Arab parliamentarians who went to Damascus and met with Hamas should be shot, and he said Americans would understand that position. He asked whether one could imagine an American congressman or senator going to Tora Bora during the war in Afghanistan and meeting with Osama bin Laden, then returning to a seat in Congress.
Still, Mr. Lieberman said, Israel's main problem is not Israeli Arabs, "it's Israeli Jews." He noted that the country has had 10 foreign ministers and seven defense ministers in the past 11 years as fragile political coalitions have collapsed and elections have been called. "It's impossible to establish any policy under these conditions," he said.
On the Iranian threat, Mr. Lieberman said Iran's nuclear ambitions are "the biggest threat" to Jewry since World War II. "Ahmadinejad is not a rational player," he said of the Iranian president. "Any attempt to pacify him is like before the second World War in Europe."
On the Palestinian front, Mr. Lieberman said the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs is not about territory or settlements or "occupation" but about values, a conflict between the West and the radical Islamic world.
He had harsh words for the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Mahmoud Abbas, the longtime aide to Yasser Arafat who is also known as Abu Mazen. The Bush administration has depicted Mr. Abbas as a partner for peace with the Israelis and as more moderate and secular than his political rivals, the Islamist terrorist group Hamas.
"I don't think that Abu Mazen is the right partner. I think that he is the biggest obstacle," Mr. Lieberman said. "Abu Mazen, he is excellent for declaration, but when he must deliver the goods, he is incompetent."
As an alternative, Mr. Lieberman suggested that Israel work with the "new generation" of Palestinian Arabs who were educated in America and in Europe. He also said Israel should coordinate any agreements it makes concerning the West Bank with Jordan and concerning the Gaza Strip with Egypt.
Mr. Lieberman said Israeli concessions have been interpreted as gestures of weakness, not of good will.
He sketched the framework of a possible agreement with Syria, saying that before any such accord was reached, Damascus would have to close down the headquarters of any terrorist organizations based there. "We can lease the Golan Heights for 99 years," he said.
Polls show that Mr. Lieberman, who also serves as minister of strategic affairs, is the second-most popular politician in Israel. An immigrant from Moldova, he served in previous governments as minister of national infrastructure and minister of transportation. His Israel Beiteinu Party controls 11 seats in Israel's 120-member parliament. Though he started out as an Israeli labor leader, he has backed efforts to privatize Israeli state assets such as the national airline and the radio and television broadcasting authority.
He said the reception he has received has changed. "When I spoke even two, three years ago, everyone said, ‘You are radical, you are crazy,'" he said. Now, he says, people complain he isn't going far enough. One measure of the increasing seriousness with which Mr. Lieberman is being considered is that on his visit to America, a Lieberman with a more moderate reputation, the newly re-elected senator from Connecticut, made time for a meeting with him.
Are U.S. Taxpayers Paying for a Network Infiltrated by Hezbollah?
By Andrew Cochran
I received a translation of an Arabic-language article published in the "Moharrer Al Arabi" newspaper on December 15 about the infiltration by Hezbollah of the “al-Hurra” TV station and its sister “Radio Sawa” station in Beirut. These stations are funded by American taxpayers to provide objective news and analysis to the Lebanese people, but if this story is correct, the Administration and the new Congress will have to take corrective action. At a minimum, there should be an investigation of the charges in the article. Here is the translated text of the article as sent to me by a reliable source (with errors uncorrected):
"Syrian intelligence plants female staff, daughters of security officials
'Hezbollah' penetrates the American 'ALHURRA TV' and 'Radio SAWA' and
The Congress ousts the Lebanese director and engenders comprehensive changes
It might be the worst climax of President Bush republican administration is the success of this administration in tolerating Hezbollah to penetrate through its Media and security gaps.
Confirmed information from Washington, Beirut, Dubai and Damascus assured that the party succeeded to infiltrate the two main American means of information, perhaps the only Arabic-speaking, that addresses the Arabic public opinion in order to strengthen its confrontation against al-Qaeda, terrorism and Iran plan to hold grip control on Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine by means of its cat’s-paw and organizations, particularly Hezbollah.
Reliable sources revealed that “al-Hurra” TV station and its sister “Radio Sawa”, oriented towards Arab world and middle-east, have been politically, informational and security transpierced so that Hezbollah party could control wide area of its broad direction or in monitoring the events through.
According to available information, this infiltration was through the Arabic director of al-Hurra who was a member of Hezbollah in 1980s then left for study in the USA, and worked for a short period as side assistant in a television program then a correspondent for an Arabic newspaper published in Paris. After which a partner in a news agency of special task to blackmailing Saudi Arabia and when failed, quit and returned to Lebanon to restore his old connections, adding new relations with the Syrian security, specifically, the official in charge of Syrian regime’s relation with Hezbollah and Shiite’s political action’s activists.
Suddenly, this former member of the party, without scrutiny in his political background, was appointed a director of al-Hurra satellite station and radio Sawa. However, extensive uproar surrounded his administration and deals which was said he conducted, and has becomes subject of wide formal investigation that did not take long to discover traces of connection between him and Hezbollah and the Syrian regime’s security services.
Lebanese quarters disclosed that the carried out investigations which included the appointment of female staff, that their fathers are working with Syrian security services, aimed to reinforce the control of monitoring network in within the TV Station and the Radio, and to insinuate through to the Arabic spectators and listeners.
One political observer in Beirut said: he would not know how it could pass the process of appointing this former member of Hezbollah through the congress in his position as a manager of al Hurra and Sawa, before resigning under the pressure of financial investigation and turn to be an advisor of the institution.
Available information added that “al Hurra” former director and present advisor, also succeeded to employ his wife in the institution, who is a former broadcaster of one Lebanese institution. In addition to her work with detainee major general Jamil al Sayyed, man of Lebanese Intelligence and former director of National Security who managed to consolidate his institution ties with the husband and his wife.
According to information from within the institution, the former director received from Hezbollah and Syrian Security Services two lists, one included a number of those who preferably be away from any media attendance because of their attitude towards the party and the Syrian regime, and the second consisted of a number of those who are supposed to be polished (تلميعهم ) as political analyzers (كمحللين) politicians.
The former director of al Hurra perfectly executed the instructions. He set away those who should be secluded and shaded light upon those who must be shown, and he kept a continuous contact with those he must keep in Beirut and Damascus, providing consultations and receive advice accordingly.
Lebanese sources said, quoted by Lebanese-origin deputies in the new Democratic Congress, that they would reconsider a far-reaching investigation of all what happened inside al Hurra and Radio funded by the Congress, and reform its structure after secluding all those who are suspected to have relation with Hezbollah or Syrian security system, or Iran?"They Know You Know They're Winning
Hezbollah has the ultimate weapons in the fight over Lebanon: confidence and patience.
By Shmuel Rosner
Monday, Dec. 4, 2006,
On Friday morning, as 800,000 demonstrators took a stand, beginning a weekend of protests in the streets of Beirut, professor Shibley Telhami stood at the podium of the Brookings Institution's Falk Auditorium in Washington, D.C.
Telhami is a senior fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy and the Anwar Sadat Professor at the University of Maryland. He is round-faced and soft-spoken and, wondrously enough, he has just conducted an opinion poll in Lebanon. If you want to know what the Lebanese are thinking in this moment of crisis, Telhami's slides come in handy. If you're looking for good news, though, stay well clear. Studying them conjures the looming, inevitable defeat of the good guys.
Supporters of Hezbollah, the terror organization that is the most powerful military presence inside Lebanon, feel that they are winning, that they are on the march. The majority of the country also feels that they are winning. Hezbollah knows that everybody else knows that they feel that they are winning. And they have the determination and the necessary patience—and support from Iran and Syria. What does Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora have to offer? The support of the United States. Majorities of both the Sunni and the Shiite components of Lebanese society define their views of the United States as "very unfavorable." Both Sunnis and Shiites say they have "no confidence" in the United States. Both Sunnis and Shiites believe that democracy "is not a real U.S. objective" in the region.
But it is the Shiites who have the most interesting answers in this poll—though they aren't always the same answers as the rest of the population (that is, Sunnis, Christians, and Druze). Shiites are the only group that believes that "[i]f the US quickly withdrew its forces" from Iraq, "Iraqis will find a way to bridge their differences." (Shiites are the majority in Iraq.) Shiites are the only group that insists that "[e]ven if the Israelis return all of the territories occupied in 1967 peacefully, the Arabs should continue to fight Israel no matter what the outcome" and the only group who perceive Israel as "[w]eaker than it looks/matter of time before defeated." They are the only group whose views of Hezbollah have changed for the better since the summer war with Israel and the only group that considers Israel to be the big loser of the war—rather than the "Lebanese people" as the other groups believe.
In short, they are the only group that feels strengthened, confident, and on the march. These are the most dangerous feelings you can have in a region like the Middle East. If you're humbled and realistic, you go for compromise. If you're cocky and emboldened, you try to grab it all. Why not have the Americans pull out of Iraq if you think that your people will take over control of the country? Why stop fighting Israel if you believe you're ultimately going to win?
The Shiites of Lebanon—those of them who support Hezbollah, at least—are in this perilous mood now, and you can see it in every report from the streets of Beirut. The silent majority is apprehensive, muted, worried. The Shiite demonstrators are as arrogant as you can get. "The fault lines are in the minds of the people. It's much more than just the geography of Beirut," Robert Saliba, a 56-year-old architect and urban planner, told the Washington Post's Anthony Shadid. "I think the mental geography is more important than what happens on the ground."
I talked to several Lebanese acquaintances over the weekend, and they all started by describing the situation in the most technical of tones. "Hezbollah and its allies want to have a third of government ministers so they could block decisions. … Michel Aoun [Lebanon's Christian opposition leader] just wants to become president. With Aoun's and Amal's ministers, Hezbollah will have their third." But after a while, and only after they had made sure that all the political intricacies had been clarified, they turned to the real story: "We are very much in a civil war, only until now there has been no use of arms," one of them told me. A couple of hours later, the first victim of the demonstrations was shot dead.
But, interestingly enough, the first victim was a Shiite protester who was killed in a Sunni district of Beirut. The Shiites haven't used violent force so far—they don't need to. They are the ones who speak softly and carry the bigger stick. Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader, intends to paralyze the country to prove that nothing can be done without his consent. He forced the Hezbollah-influenced Shiite ministers to resign from the government, and he will not let any new Shiite ministers be appointed. So, even if the government is still "constitutional," it doesn't represent the country, since there's a whole community that is not represented.
Nasrallah's ultimate goal for Hezbollah, many in Lebanon believe, is the Iran model. They know it cannot be implemented right now, but, in the long run, "if Christians keep leaving the country in big numbers, as they are doing now, well, it might happen," one Lebanese gloomily told me. The Shiites have the fertility rate, the money, the support from the outside—but, most of all, they have "the confidence and the patience."
And most of all, as they look around, they don't see any other force that might stop them. The United States is determined, but it is exhausting itself in Iraq; Israel has tried and failed; and the other, more moderate, Arab countries will not pick a fight with Iran and Syria over this marginal cause. Some Lebanese are waiting, somewhat anxiously, for the Baker-Hamilton committee's recommendations this Wednesday. They have zero confidence in the help they might get in the future from an American administration. "If the Syrians help Bush in Iraq, he could sell us out in a second," one of them told me. "Exactly as his father sold out the Kurds to Saddam 15 years ago."
Syria in Bush's Crosshairs
Exclusive: A classified document suggests the Administration is considering a plan to fund political opposition to the Damascus government. Some critics say it would be an unwarranted covert actionBy ADAM ZAGORIN/WASHINGTON -TIME 20.12.06
http://www.time.com/time/world/printout/0,8816,1571751,00.htmlThe Bush Administration has been quietly nurturing individuals and parties opposed to the Syrian government in an effort to undermine the regime of President Bashar Assad. Parts of the scheme are outlined in a classified, two-page document which says that the U.S. already is "supporting regular meetings of internal and diaspora Syrian activists" in Europe. The document bluntly expresses the hope that "these meetings will facilitate a more coherent strategy and plan of actions for all anti-Assad activists."
The document says that Syria's legislative elections, scheduled for March 2007, "provide a potentially galvanizing issue for... critics of the Assad regime." To capitalize on that opportunity, the document proposes a secret "election monitoring" scheme, in which "internet accessible materials will be available for printing and dissemination by activists inside the country [Syria] and neighboring countries." The proposal also calls for surreptitiously giving money to at least one Syrian politician who, according to the document, intends to run in the election. The effort would also include "voter education campaigns" and public opinion polling, with the first poll "tentatively scheduled in early 2007."
American officials say the U.S. government has had extensive contacts with a range of anti-Assad groups in Washington, Europe and inside Syria. To give momemtum to that opposition, the U.S. is giving serious consideration to the election- monitoring scheme proposed in the document, according to several officials. The proposal has not yet been approved, in part because of questions over whether the Syrian elections will be delayed or even cancelled. But one U.S. official familiar with the proposal said: "You are forced to wonder whether we are now trying to destabilize the Syrian government."
Some critics in Congress and the Administration say that such a plan, meant to secretly influence a foreign government, should be legally deemed a "covert action," which by law would then require that the White House inform the intelligence committees on Capitol Hill. Some in Congress would undoubtedly raise objections to this secret use of publicly appropriated funds to promote democracy.
The proposal says part of the effort would be run through a foundation operated by Amar Abdulhamid, a Washington-based member of a Syrian umbrella opposition group known as the National Salvation Front (NSF). The Front includes the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist organization that for decades supported the violent overthrow the Syrian government, but now says it seeks peaceful, democratic reform. (In Syria, however, membership in the Brotherhood is still punishable by death.) Another member of the NSF is Abdul Halim Khaddam, a former high-ranking Syrian official and Assad family loyalist who recently went into exile after a political clash with the regime. Representatives of the National Salvation Front, including Abdulhamid, were accorded at least two meetings earlier this year at the White House, which described the sessions as exploratory. Since then, the National Salvation Front has said it intends to open an office in Washington in the near future.
"Democracy promotion" has been a focus of both Democratic and Republican administrations, but the Bush White House has been a particular booster since 9/11. Iran contra figure Elliott Abrams was put in charge of the effort at the National Security Council. Until recently, Elizabeth Cheney, daughter of the Vice President, oversaw such work at the State Department. In the past, the U.S. has used support for "democracy building" to topple unfriendly dictators, including Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic and Ukraine's Vladimir Kuchma.
However, in order to make the "election monitoring" plan for Syria effective, the proposal makes clear that the U.S. effort will have to be concealed: "Any information regarding funding for domestic [Syrian] politicians for elections monitoring would have to be protected from public dissemination," the document says. But American experts on "democracy promotion" consulted by TIME say it would be unwise to give financial support to a specific candidate in the election, because of the perceived conflict of interest. More ominously, an official familiar with the document explained that secrecy is necessary in part because Syria's government might retaliate against anyone inside the country who was seen as supporting the U.S.-backed election effort. The official added that because the Syrian government fields a broad network of internal spies, it would almost certainly find out about the U.S. effort, if it hasn't already. That could lead to the imprisonment of still more opposition figures.
Any American-orchestrated attempt to conduct such an election-monitoring effort could make a dialogue between Washington and Damascus — as proposed by the Iraq Study Group and several U.S. allies — difficult or impossible. The entire proposal could also be a waste of effort; Edward P. Djerejian, a former U.S. ambassador to Syria who worked on the Iraq Study Group report, says that Syria's opposition is so fractured and weak that there is little to be gained by such a venture. "To fund opposition parties on the margins is a distraction at best," he told TIME. "It will only impede the better option of engaging Syria on much more important, fundamental issues like Iraq, peace with Israel, and the dangerous situation in Lebanon."
Others detect another goal for the proposed policy. "Ever since the U.S. invasion of Iraq, which Syria opposed, the Bush Administration has been looking for ways to squeeze the government in Damascus," notes Joshua Landis, a Syria expert who is co-director of the Center for Peace Studies at the University of Oklahoma. "Syria has appeared to be next on the Administration's agenda to reform the greater Middle East." Landis adds: "This is apparently an effort to gin up the Syrian opposition under the rubric of 'democracy promotion' and 'election monitoring,' but it's really just an attempt to pressure the Syrian government" into doing what the U.S. wants. That would include blocking Syria's border with Iraq so insurgents do not cross into Iraq to kill U.S. troops; ending funding of Hizballah and interference in Lebanese politics; and cooperating with the U.N. in the investigation of the assassination of Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. Senior Syrian government officials are considered prime suspects in Hariri case.
Money for the election-monitoring proposal would be channeled through a State Department program known as the Middle East Partnership Initiative, or MEPI. According to MEPI's website, the program passes out funds ranging between $100,000 and $1 million to promote education and women's empowerment, as well as economic and political reform, part of a total allocation of $5 million for Syria that Congress supported earlier this year.
MEPI helps funnel millions of dollars every year to groups around the Middle East intent on promoting reforms. In the vast majority of cases, beneficiaries are publicly identified, as financial support is distributed through channels including the National Democratic Institute, a non-profit affiliated with the Democratic Party, and the International Republican Institute (IRI), which is linked to the GOP. In the Syrian case, the election-monitoring proposal identifies IRI as a "partner" — although the IRI website, replete with information about its democracy promotion elsewhere in the world, does not mention Syria. A spokesperson for IRI had no comment on what the organization might have planned or underway in Syria, describing the subject as "sensitive."
U.S. foreign policy experts familiar with the proposal say it was developed by a "democracy and public diplomacy" working group that meets weekly at the State department to discuss Iran and Syria. Along with related working groups, it prepares proposals for the higher-level Iran Syria Operations Group, or ISOG, an inter-agency body that, several officials said, has had input from Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns, deputy National Security Council advisor Elliott Abrams and representatives from the Pentagon, Treasury and U.S. intelligence. The State Department's deputy spokesman, Thomas Casey, said the election-monitoring proposal had already been through several classified drafts, but that "the basic concept is very much still valid."