LCCC NEWS BULLETIN
JULY 13 and 14/2006
Below News From
miscellaneous sources 13 & 14/07/06
Israeli reprisals bash Lebanon, 47 civilians killed-Malaysia Star
Israel Bombs Beirut Airport Forcing Its Closure, Blasts South-Naharnet
Israeli navy blocks Lebanon's ports-RTE.ie - Ireland
Tourists Flee Lebanon to Syria After Israeli Raids-Naharnet
Statement of His Eminence and His Beatitude
Nasrallah -PR Newswire (press release)
Lebanese church leader visits my people-Mineral Wells Index
The Jihadist War Against India-AINA
Warning against 'all but essential' travel to Lebanon-Guardian Unlimited
Israel blockades Lebanon, kills 53 civilians-Reuters
IDF strikes Lebanon airports-Ynetnews
Israel to UN: Lebanon declared war-Ynetnews
EU Accuses Israel Over Attacks on Lebanon-Washington Post
Syria opens borders to tourists fleeing Lebanon-Reuters
Lebanon asks for ceasefire-Ynetnews - Israel
Iran, Syria Used Hizballah As Proxy to Attack Israel, Analysts Say-CNSN
Russia, France Condemn Israeli Strikes in Lebanon-MOSNEWS
Hezbollah attack / Gov't okays massive strikes on Lebanon; Israel -Ha'aretz
Timeline: Lebanon-BBC News
Changing the rules-Ariga - Tel Aviv,Israel
Israel Points Finger at Iran, SyriaArutz Sheva - Israel
US Holds Iran, Syria to Account for Hizballah-ThreatsWatch.Org
The Israelis Strike Back: The View From Beirut-TIME
Hezbollah raid spills fighting to 2nd front-Fort Wayne Journal Gazette
A second front opens for Israel-Christian Science Monitor
Getting Serious About Syria-The Daily Standard
Cyprus offers Europeans in Lebanon flight from Syria-Reuters
'No' to Lebanon War II-Ha'aretz
Arab ministers to discuss Israeli attacks-Alarab online
US blames Syria and Iran, demands soldiers' release-Ha'aretz
Lebanon recalls its Ambassador to US-Ya Libnan
Below News From The Daily
Star for 13 & 14/07/06
UN Security Council to discuss crisis on Friday
Raids destroy 18 bridges, target key highways
Airport attacks, coastal blockade cut Lebanon off from world
50 more civilians die as leaflets warn residents to avoid areas 'frequented by
Hizbullah'
Politicians, religious leaders rally behind call for comprehensive cease-fire
Cabinet condemns attacks, calls for unity after 3 heated sessions
Many Lebanese question Hizbullah's right to usher chaos into country
Lebanon could really use Rafik Hariri right now
Normal life screeches to abrupt halt
Gulf tourists flee in face of air strikes
Israeli jets hit Palestinian Foreign Ministry
Villages of South bear brunt of onslaught-By:
By Meris Lutz
Southern village mourns family of 12 -By
Nicholas Blanford
Beirut Stock Exchange plunges 10 percent as Israeli attacks spread across
Lebanese greet capture of 2 Israeli troops with
spontaneous celebration
Simiora's Cabinet makes clear it had nothing to do with 'what happened'
Nasrallah: Only exchange will win back troops
Israel targets Lebanese infrastructure after Hizbullah captures 2 soldiers
Beirut is show solidarity with besieged Gazans
Border clashes raise familar questions
Siniora and Lahoud hold first private meeting since October
Organizers hope for rousing run of Beirut Marathon
Funding foul-ups keep most of Lebanon's young offenders in prison for adults
Working for Lebanon's Second Independence
Is a Task for the Lebanese
by Muhamad Mugraby
US President George Bush and his aides close and far do not miss an opportunity
to declare their government's strong support for Lebanon's independence. For
example, on June 21, during press availability at the 2006 US-EU Summit, Bush
called on Syria "to leave Lebanon alone… let them be a free democracy".
Unquestionably, all statements of support for Lebanon's freedom and democracy
are welcome, especially from big powers. Nevertheless, the task of insuring and
safeguarding Lebanon's independence, freedom and democracy is not up to big
powers such as the USA or to close neighbors such as Syria. Such support is
helpful, and, arguably, necessary, but is clearly insufficient. For it is up to
the Lebanese themselves, and only to the Lebanese, to achieve and sustain their
own, true independence.
Although the people of Lebanon are said to have substantially secured their
independence from the French in November, 1943, from Nasser's United Arab
Republic in September 1958, from Israel in May 2000, and from Syria in April
2005, yet none of these events was a fully accomplished achievement. Multi
national armies under a large number of flags, French, British, American,
Israeli, Palestinian, Syrian, and other, came and left. Depending on one's
political perception, some came as invaders, others as friends and allies.
Invariably, many Lebanese look at the contemporary military interventions and
occupation inflicted on them as evidence of strong external interest in their
country. They see themselves and their country as the innocent prey and victim
of foreigners. They see the foreign interest in Lebanon as strongly continuing
and stubbornly un-relented.
The truth is that many, if not all, of the foreign flagged armies entered
Lebanon with the acquiescence, connivance, invitation or open welcome of the
mainstream Lebanese political establishment, as friends, allies or even
liberators and were forced to leave after the same establishment labeled them as
trespassers and aggressors. It is also true that the Lebanese political
establishment allowed itself to be patronized and manipulated by the external
powers, the "external colonialists", in return for iron-clad guarantees for its
privilege of unaccountable corruption and its franchise to colonize the Lebanese
people and harvest Lebanon's national resources to their own private gain.
Hence, while "external colonialists" may come and go from time to time,
"internal colonialism" continues in earnest.
It is tragic in deed that many nations of the Third World achieved their
political independence by paying a bloody high price only to realize that they
did not really become independent and that they badly needed a second
independence. For it has been frequently demonstrated that independence from
foreign oppression, handicapped by international attention, leaves the newly
"liberated" people as easy prey to internal colonialists who yield greater
oppression with full impunity and little concern for global public opinion. When
independence from foreign military control does not bring about the rule of law
to replace the rule of fear, freedom of speech to replace official propaganda
through an obedient media, respect for human rights to replace disregard for
human dignity, economic development and free quality education to provide
employment opportunities and eradicate poverty, and the right to participate in
national decision making through a system of democratic representation arising
from free general elections, then a second independence becomes urgently needed.
The Lebanese and the better-informed friends of Lebanon know full well that the
process of liberating Lebanon from internal colonization is a pre-requisite to
achieving the country's second independence and has not taken off yet. The
Lebanese and the better-informed friends of Lebanon need no lesson in
contemporary Lebanese history to agree that the only way to start this process
is for the Lebanese people, and not their various foreign friends and
self-styled sponsors, to resolve to become a nation under their republican and
democratic constitution, and not to remain subjects and hostages or prisoners of
communal colonies absolutely ruled by the Lebanese political establishment. To
achieve their second and lasting independence, the people of Lebanon must
directly wrestle away their destiny from their own internal colonizers and
oppressors who have thrived as the brokers and arbiters of perverted and
oppressive communal power in old and contemporary times.
Can the friends of Lebanon be of help in this historic process and how?
Foreign governments that are seriously and sincerely interested in helping
Lebanon achieve its second independence can, for a start, firmly resist
manipulation by the Lebanese political establishment and refuse to become the
new adoptive parents of the same old monster with a baby face who took many
other foster parents in the past only to exploit them to its own selfish
advantage. For a start, the European governments should insist on the strictest
application and observance of Article Two of the Lebanese-European Association
Agreement which carries a potent human rights clause. European and American
statements re-affirming support for Lebanon's independence should publicly
acknowledge that no meaningful independence could be achieved if the country
remains victim to its own internal colonialists and adamantly demand that
absolute priority be given to structural reforms that swiftly establish the
basic conditions for the rule of law and justice with full respect for the
constitution and the Universal Declaration.
It is common ground among the Lebanese that the country's political
establishment constitutes a formidable impediment to the country's progress
towards good governance and progress in all fields. Hence most Lebanese aspire
for the retirement or phasing out of the entire political establishment without
undue delay. The lesson from not-too-distant European history is compelling.
When Europe was liberated from Nazi occupation, none of the politicians who
collaborated with the occupiers survived and it was unthinkable that, even
former national heroes such as French President Field Marshal Petan, would be
spared because he was "compelled to cooperate" under various excuses. In
Lebanon, the collaborators, and most of their ancestors, were intimately
involved with every occupation of Lebanon since the early part of the Twentieth
Century and many since the Nineteenth Century, and yet they now try to wear the
mantle of national liberation leaders. This transparent ploy must be equally
unacceptable to Lebanese and the better-informed friends of Lebanon alike.
Obviously, the task of phasing out or retiring the entire political
establishment is not an easy one and is definitely up to the Lebanese people
alone to accomplish. The empowerment of the people on a national non-sectarian
basis and the rise of a Lebanese national consciousness are two prerequisites
for the success of such a task.
The above appeared as an editorial on July 11, 2006.
For further information: E-mail info@cdrl.org and visit http://www.cdrl.org/.
The Cedars Revolution
www.cedarsrevolution.org -cedarsrevolution@aol.com
Wednesday 12th July 2006
Washington Bureau
H.E. Kofi Annan
Secretary General
United Nations -New York N.Y. -USA
Your Excellency,
Re Current affairs in southern Lebanon
The World Council of the Cedars Revolution representing the hopes and
aspirations of the great majority of the many millions of Lebanese throughout
the Diaspora is absolutely appalled at Hezbollah's attacks on Israel, killing
several Israeli soldiers and capturing two others; which has seen Israel,
immediately carrying out reprisal attacks bringing destruction and devastation
upon the people of Lebanon.
Our senior executives have on numerous occasions met with your Deputies and with
Ambassadors of all members of the UN Security Council, strongly and emphatically
expressing our desire of the UNSC to disarm Hezbollah and block the continuous
supply of arms by Syria to Hezbollah, the Palestinians and other militias
operating on Lebanese soil, fearing the occurrence and escalation of the events
which are unfolding before our very eyes.
The people of Lebanon are innocent. All attacks against the people of Lebanon
must cease immediately; and the only body which can make this happen is the UNSC.
Hezbollah is armed and controlled by Syria and Iran; and that's where the
Israeli response should be directed.
It should be clearly understood that the World Council of the Cedars Revolution
considers it absolutely unacceptable that Hezbollah should maintain any arms and
must be disarmed as soon as possible. The Lebanese Diaspora is outraged at the
UNSC,s soft approach towards disarming Hezbollah. We are horrified at the
possibility of escalating hostilities in the Region. Such a conflict will have
an intolerable effect upon the defenseless people of Lebanon who have only
recently come out of thirty years of Syrian domination and tyranny.
We condemn this barbaric conflict and call on the United Nations Security
Council to send urgently a UN Security Force to protect the borders between
Lebanon and Israel and between Lebanon and Syria, until Lebanon,s territorial
integrity could be safeguarded and all militias disarmed.
Joeseph P. Baini
President
Northern
attack: 11 wounded; 2 soldiers kidnapped
Under massive fire in a coordinated attack, Hizbullah kidnaps
two IDF soldiers, demands prisoner release in exchange for troops. Israel
confirms two soldiers missing. IDF strikes targets in south Lebanon, conducts
ground search in bid to locate troops
While all eyes were turned toward the Gaza Strip Wednesday morning following the
IDF strike which killed six Palestinians and injured top Hamas leader Muhammad
Deif, it appeared that Hizbullah was once again attempting to divert the
attention to the northern border, claiming that it abducted two IDF soldiers.
Olmert: We were attacked by a sovereign country
Prime minister says elements on Israel's northern, southern border that pose
risk to country's security will pay heavy price for their actions, Lebanese
government is responsible for cross-border attack; government to convene for
emergency meeting Wednesday evening
Ronny Sofer
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Wednesday that "the events this morning are not
terror attacks but actions of a sovereign state that attacked Israel for no
reason. The Lebanese government, of which Hizbullah is a member, is trying to
destabilize regional stability. Lebanon is responsible and it will bear
responsibility."
Hezbollah Attack Is "act of war" by Lebanon: Israel’s PM
12 July 2006
Jerusalem. The cross-border attack by Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, whose
activists fired at Israeli armed forces in the northern part of Israel and
kidnapped two soldiers, are equal to Lebanon declaring war on Israel, Israel’s
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said cited by Reuters.
"We are already responding with great strength ... The cabinet will convene
tonight to decide on a further military response by the Israel Defence Forces,"
Olmert said, threatening "very painful and far-reaching" action.
Syria says Israel deserved Hizbollah attacks
(Reuters)- 12 July 2006 -DAMASCUS - Syria said on Wednesday Israel was
responsible for an operation by its ally Hizbollah in which two Israeli soldiers
were captured. “Occupation is what provokes the Palestinian and Lebanese
people,” Vice President Farouq al-Shara told reporters.
“The resistance in south Lebanon and among the Palestinian people decides solely
what to do and why.”
Syria supports demands by Hizbollah, a Shia group also backed by Iran, for
Israel to pull out of Shebaa Farms, an area near the Golan Heights which the
United Nations says is Syrian land, but which Syria describes as Lebanese. It
also supports the group’s demand for Israel to free several Lebanese prisoners
still in its jails, including at least one who has been in captivity for more
than two decades. Shara, a former foreign minister, did not say whether he
expected Israel to launch strikes against Syria in retaliation for the Hizbollah
operation. Israel has already hinted it could assassinate members of Hamas’s
exiled leadership in Syria after the military wing of the Palestinian movement
took part in an attack that captured an Israeli soldier near Gaza on June 25.
Israel Launches Major Operation Against Lebanon in Search of 2 Soldiers Captured
by Hizbullah
Hizbullah captured two Israeli
soldiers in a cross-border raid Wednesday, triggering an Israeli assault with
warplanes, tanks and gunboats against southern Lebanon as Israeli troops crossed
the frontier in search of the servicemen. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
called the Hizbullah move "an act of war" and held the Lebanese government
responsible, vowing that the Israeli response "will be restrained, but very,
very, very painful."
Hizbullah said it had kidnapped the soldiers to help win the release of
prisoners held in Israel. The Palestinian Hamas had made identical demands in
seizing an Israeli soldier in Gaza which triggered a full-scale Israeli assault
on the strip.
A top Hamas leader said his movement did not coordinate with Hizbullah over the
capture of the soldiers, but said it was "natural" for the two groups to work
together in their demands against Israel.
"Now Israel has to decide on its choices," Osama Hamdan, Hamas' spokesman in
Lebanon, told The Associated Press. "It is early to talk about details of the
exchange, but no doubt the operation carried out by Hizbullah today will
strengthen our demands to exchange the captives."
Israel, however, appeared determined to win its troops' freedom with a show of
force.
Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz warned the Lebanese government that the
Israeli military will target infrastructure and "turn back the clock in Lebanon
by 20 years," if the soldiers were not returned, Israeli TV reported.
Israeli troops crossed into a southwestern sector of Lebanon, across the border
from where the soldiers were seized, trying to keep their captors from moving
them deeper into Lebanon, Israeli security officials said. Hizbullah said it
destroyed an Israeli tank as it tried to cross the frontier.
Olmert's Cabinet was to convene later Wednesday to approve further military
action in Lebanon, as the military prepared to call up thousands of reserve
soldiers. Residents of Israeli towns along the northern border were ordered to
seek cover in underground bomb shelters.
Israeli warplanes, helicopters and gunboats off the coast blasted bridges and
Hizbullah positions in south Lebanon, killing two civilians and wounding six
others, Lebanese security officials said.
Seven Israeli soldiers were killed in the fighting -- three in Hizbullah's
initial raid that captured the soldiers and four others in a tank blasted by
Hizbullah fighters as it crossed the border, Israeli army spokeswoman said. The
Israeli army confirmed casualties among its troops but did not elaborate.
Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said a fighter from his Shiite militant group was killed
in clashes with Israeli troops following the abduction of the two Israeli
soldiers.
"The resistance lost a martyr, but not in the operation (that captured the
soldiers), in subsequent confrontations," Nasrallah told a press conference.
An Israeli army spokesman had earlier said Israeli troops shot dead a Hizbullah
gunman who was attempting to penetrate an army post along the volatile border
with Lebanon. The Israeli jets made their deepest foray in an afternoon strike
on a road in the Zahrani region along the Mediterranean coast -- about halfway
between the border and Beirut. Anti-aircraft guns opened fire on jets overflying
the coastal city of Sidon.
Jubilant residents of Beirut's southern suburbs, a stronghold of Hizbullah, and
Palestinians in the Ain el Hilweh refugee camp fired their guns in the air and
set off firecrackers for more than an hour after the capture of the Israeli
soldiers was announced.
Hizbullah said in a statement that its fighters captured two Israeli soldiers
"on the border with occupied Palestine, fulfilling the promise to liberate its
prisoners" held by Israel. It said the prisoners were moved to "a safe area."
Israel's Defense Ministry confirmed Israeli soldiers were
captured.(AP-Naharnet-AFP) Beirut, 12 Jul 06, 09:46
Hizbullah Demands Swap of Captured Israelis for Arab
Prisoners
Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said Wednesday that Israel's military
assault in Lebanon would not win the freedom of two captured Israeli soldiers,
saying they would only be released as part of a prisoner swap. Nasrallah said he
was open to a package deal in which the two Israeli soldiers, along with a third
captured by Palestinian militants in Gaza two weeks ago, would be traded for
Arab prisoners. "The capture of the two soldiers could provide a solution to the
Gaza crisis ... Now that one (held in Gaza) plus two (held by Hizbullah) makes
three," Nasrallah told a news conference in his stronghold of south Beirut.
He said he understood Arab efforts to release the Israeli troops, but said it
would be an "illusion" if Israel thought a military campaign can win the release
of the soldiers. "We have no objection that there is a Lebanese-Palestinian
effort to get out of the crisis," Nasrallah said, but added that "no military
operation will return them." "The prisoners will not be returned except through
one way -- indirect negotiations and a trade," he said.
Nasrallah did not specify whose freedom he demanded in exchange for the Israelis
-- three Lebanese men held by Israel, or some of the more than 8,000 Palestinian
prisoners. But speaking to the Lebanese prisoners, Nasrallah said: "You are now
on the road to freedom."
Nasrallah dubbed the operation in which the Israeli soldiers were captured as
"Truthful Promise." He warned that his party was ready to fight, but was open to
any cease-fire proposal. "We have no intention to escalate," he added. Nasrallah
said the captured soldiers were "in a safe and very far place," saying the
attack, although planned for a long time, would serve to ease the pressure on
the Palestinians in Gaza, where Hamas-linked militants are holding an Israeli
soldier seized two weeks ago. "The timing, no doubt, provides support for our
brothers in Palestine," he said.(AP) Beirut, 12 Jul 06,
International Calls for Release of Israeli Soldiers and
Restraint to Avoid Escalation
The international community on Wednesday called for the
immediate release of two Israeli soldiers captured by Hizbullah and appealed for
calm after Israel launched a full-scale military assault on south Lebanon in
search of the two captives. "I call on Hizbullah to release the soldiers," U.N.
Secretary General Kofi Annan's personal representative to south Lebanon, Gier
Pederson, told reporters after meeting Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Saniora.
He also urged "all parties to exercise maximum restraint and avoid any further
escalation." EU spokeswoman Emma Udwin urged both sides to respect the Blue Line
drawn by the U.N. after the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon
in 2000. "We're extremely concerned," Udwin said. "There has been a very serious
incident." She said the EU "unreservedly" condemned the kidnapping. "The Israeli
soldiers must be released immediately, in safety," Udwin said, calling on all
sides to "reduce the temperature" to prevent more violence. "The Blue Line must
be respected by all parties to avoid further escalation," she said.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Welch warned
that the capture of the two soldiers was "a very dangerous escalation" and
demanded their release. "This is a very dangerous but important moment, when the
responsibilities of all those who are sincere about finding a path toward peace
will be tested," said Welch speaking in Cairo. The British foreign office
condemned Hizbullah rocket attacks on northern Israel at the beginning of the
escalation and appealed for calm. Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells said: "We
condemn this morning's rocket attacks by Hizbullah on northern Israel."
He also voiced concern about the capture of the two soldiers. "Hizbullah's
actions will further escalate an already tense situation in the region. A
further escalation is in no one's interest," Howells said in a statement. "We
call on all parties to take actions to promote a rapid and peaceful resolution
of the crisis and urge that any Israeli action be both measured and
proportionate," he said. The Jewish state launched its first ground operation
into Lebanon since its troop pullout in 2000 in search of its kidnapped
servicemen.
France's foreign minister denounced the Israeli strike in southern Lebanon and
the Hizbullah capture of Israeli soldiers. "I am very concerned about the latest
developments on the Israel-Lebanon border," Philippe Douste-Blazy said in a
statement. "I condemn the rocket strikes this (Wednesday) morning on the town of
Kyriat Shmona. I also condemn the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers and I ask
for their immediate and unconditional release," he said. "I call on all parties
to show restraint and not engage in a cycle of violence in which civilian
populations would be the first victims," he said. He said France is in contact
with all parties involved to help seek a solution to the crisis. Russia on
Wednesday called for the release of the two Israeli soldiers and urged Israel to
show restraint in its military response.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said the urgent task was to avoid the Hizbullah
raid in Israel and ensuing Israeli military offensive in southern Lebanon
degenerating into a "full-blown confrontation."A statement called for "the
swiftest possible release of the Israeli soldiers and an end to the firing on
Israeli territory."
The Ministry added that Israel, for its part, should "show restraint and a cool
head, not permit the destruction of civilian infrastructure in Lebanon and
refrain from the disproportionate use of force."(AP-AFP-Naharnet) Beirut, 12 Jul
06, 14:04
May Chidiac Returns to Lebanon with a Determination to
'Be the Voice of Martyrs'
LBCI anchorwoman May Chidiac who was severely maimed in a
bomb attack has returned home to a high-level reception, and vowed to "be a
scream in the face of the criminals." Leaning on a stick, Chidiac on Tuesday
walked down the steps of a plane at the Rafik Hariri International airport to be
greeted by cabinet ministers, colleagues, friends and a police guard of honor.
"I cannot describe my joy today as I stand before you," said Chidiac, who lost
her left arm and left leg when a bomb planted under her vehicle exploded on
September 25. The blast was one of more than a dozen explosions that have mainly
targeted prominent opponents of Syrian influence in Lebanon. Wearing her
trademark pink, a beaming Chidiac inspected the guard of honor and waved to the
well-wishers who had come to welcome her back from her 9-month stay France,
where she was receiving treatment for her injuries. Fitted with a prosthetic arm
and leg, Chidiac gave an emotional and defiant speech in the airport's VIP
lounge that was broadcast on several Lebanese television stations.
"The wounds are in the body, but the tongue is in very good shape and the heart
loves you," Chidiac said, adding she would shortly return to her political talk
show "Nharkon Said" or "Good Day." "I promise you that I will be the voice of
the martyrs ... the voice of the desperate ... I will be the scream in the face
of the criminals," she said. Chidiac acknowledged she was frustrated that those
behind the bombing campaign are "still at large, happy with what their hands
have done."
But, she added, "in the end, the truth will reveal itself because the Lebanese
people are longing for life, justice and freedom." Her welcoming party included
representatives of President Emile Lahoud and Prime Minister Fouad Saniora as
well as several figures who had been personally affected by the bombing
campaign.
Defense Minister Elias Murr, who survived a car bombing last year, and
Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh, who was wounded in a 2004 car
bombing, were present at the airport. So too were Siham Tueni, the widow of An
Nahar General Manager Gebran Tueni, and Giselle Khoury, the widow of An Nahar
columnist Samir Kassir. The four Red Cross workers who nursed Chidiac
immediately after the bomb blast joined the reception.
From the airport, Chidiac drove to the mountains northeast of Beirut to attend a
mass at the monastery of Saint Charbel. En route, a crowd in the port city of
Byblos halted her convoy and showered it with rose petals.
The charismatic anchorwoman has repeatedly credited St. Charbel with saving her
life. She has recalled that she visited the monastery hours before the bombing.
When the bomb exploded, she was leaning back to arrange the icons and holy oil
that she had bought at the monastery, and she believes this reduced the impact
of the explosion on her body. Nobody has been arrested for the attack on Chidiac
or the other explosions. Anti-Syrian groups have accused Damascus of being
behind the bombings including the assassination of ex-premier Rafik Hariri last
year. But the Syrian government has denied involvement.(AP-Naharnet)
Beirut, 12 Jul 06, 08:49
Hammoud Was Waiting for Visa to Canada when Arrested in
Lebanon, Expert Says
Suspected al-Qaida loyalist Assem Hammoud who has been linked
to a plot to bomb commuter train tunnels in New York City had applied for a visa
to return to Canada before his arrest, a terrorism expert familiar with the case
has said.
Fawaz Gerges, chairman of Middle Eastern studies at Sarah Lawrence College in
New York, said Tuesday that Lebanese security forces told him that Hammoud had
applied to the Canadian Embassy in Lebanon for a visa prior to his April 27
arrest.
"The rationale within the Lebanese intelligence community is that he was
planning to go to Canada after he completed military training in Pakistan,"
Gerges, a U.S. media commentator, told The Canadian Press in a telephone
interview from Beirut. "The rationale is that the reason why he wanted to go to
Canada was the proximity to the United States." An official from Canada's
Citizenship and Immigration bureau could not confirm whether the embassy in
Lebanon had received such an application from Hammoud. "We cannot disclose any
personal information," said spokeswoman Marina Wilson.
The 31-year-old Lebanese national and seven other people are suspected of
plotting to bomb commuter trains in the tunnels connecting New York and New
Jersey. The FBI said the suspects are alleged to have planned to attack trains
under the Hudson River using suicide bombers and backpack bombs. The plan, which
authorities said the suspects hoped to carry out in October or November, was to
flood lower Manhattan by attacking the tunnels -- used by tens of thousands of
commuters each day. U.S. and Lebanese authorities have said the plan had not
progressed beyond the talking stage before Hammoud and two others were arrested.
"It was really more talk, even though you might think he was trying to put his
ideas into action by getting a visa to Pakistan and applying for the visa (to)
Canada," said Gerges, author of "Journey of the Jihadist." "They don't have any
concrete and definite evidence of any concrete action."
International authorities are seeking at least five more suspects. A source
familiar with the investigation has told The Canadian Press that a friend of
Hammoud has been questioned by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and remains
under surveillance in Montreal.
Hammoud was an international student at Concordia University in Montreal from
1995 to 2002, graduating that spring with a bachelor of commerce degree.
Lebanese security forces have said he confessed to the plot and to being a
member of al-Qaida. But Gerges said the consensus among intelligence officials
in Lebanon is that Hammoud was not involved with radicals and had not been
recruited while in Canada. "He was not radical when he was living in Canada,"
Gerges said. It appears that outrage over U.S. military action in Iraq led the
former Canadian university student to turn to al-Qaida in 2003, after he left
the country, he said.
Gerges has said the knowledge of North America that Hammoud gained while living
in Montreal would have been an asset to al-Qaida.(AP-Naharnet)
Beirut, 12 Jul 06, 10:37
Olmert Blames Lebanon for Attack, Sends in Troops
July 12 (Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Ehud Olmert blamed Lebanon for a Hezbollah
attack on Israel he said was ``war-like'' and called for a ``painful and
far-reaching'' response. Israeli troops entered Lebanon, the daily Haaretz
reported, as an army spokeswoman said a call-up of reservists was on the agenda.
The military action came after the armed Hezbollah group said on its Web site it
captured two Israeli soldiers. The army said there was a ``heavy suspicion''
that two soldiers were abducted. An army spokeswoman, speaking anonymously,
declined to comment on any military ground operations in Lebanon.
Olmert called an emergency cabinet meeting for later today to decide on further
military action in Lebanon. ``The murderous attack this morning was not a
terrorist act, it was a war-like act by the state of Lebanon against Israel in
its sovereign territory,'' he said at a press conference in Jerusalem.
The escalation in the north threatened wider Mideast military confrontation 15
days into Israel's incursion into the Gaza Strip to win the release of an
Israeli soldier abducted on June 25 and to halt Palestinian rocket attacks on
southern Israel.
Olmert said that the Hezbollah attack would be responded to in ``an unequivocal
manner that will be very painful and far- reaching against those who initiated
it.''
Israeli aircraft fired missiles into Lebanon after Hezbollah launched rockets
that hit northern towns, wounding several soldiers and civilians, the army said.
Lebanon Responsible
Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Israel was holding Lebanon responsible for the
fate of the missing soldiers Hezbollah claimed to hold. ``The Lebanese
government must take determined and immediate action to find the soldiers,
prevent their being hurt, and ensure their return to Israel,'' he said in a
statement issued by phone from his office.
Al-Jazeera television, citing Hezbollah, said the captured soldiers had been
moved to a safe place. It said two Lebanese civilians were killed in Israeli
airstrikes. Two Israelis were killed by Hezbollah in the attacks, Reuters
reported. The news agency, citing an Israeli security official, said the
identities of the dead weren't immediately clear and the army didn't comment.
Israel in May 2000 withdrew its troops from a southern strip it held in Lebanon
for 18 years. The violence on Israel's northern border came as its ground forces
moved into central Gaza after an air force missile killed five people and
wounded 15, including master bombmaker Mohammed Deif, who has been identified by
Hamas as one of its top military commanders.
Military Confrontation
The military confrontation in Gaza was Israel's first with Hamas since the
movement, branded a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the EU, won
Palestinian parliamentary elections in January. Hamas refuses to recognize
Israel or previous peace accords signed by Palestinians. The Gaza incursion, now
in its 15th day, has no timetable for completion, Olmert said earlier this week.
Developments in the north indicate that Hezbollah and Hamas are coordinating
military action against Israel, according to Gerald Steinberg, a political
science professor at Bar Ilan University. ``These are not isolated incidents,''
Steinberg said in a telephone interview. ``This major escalation is designed to
help the Palestinians divert the Israeli forces into two different combat
zones.'' Before the missiles hit in the north, Palestinian security officials
reported Israeli tanks, armored vehicles and personnel carriers backed by
helicopters had entered Gaza.
Nine Killed
The army said in an e-mailed statement that Israeli ground forces made ``a
limited incursion into the central Gaza Strip.'' It said the air force targeted
a building where senior Hamas military commanders were meeting. The head of
emergency services at Gaza's Shifa Hospital said nine people were killed in the
strike, two of them children. Israel has deployed its forces at a disused Gaza
airport and briefly occupied part of northern Gaza last week to stop rocket
attacks and to search for tunnels of the type used by Palestinians to stage the
June 25 raid that led to Corporal Gilad Shalit's abduction.
The Palestinian groups that abducted Shalit, 19, proposed Israel release about
1,400 Palestinian prisoners from its jails, including women and children under
18. Israel has refused to free any prisoners. Israel's incursion into Gaza, a
360-square-kilometer (139- square-mile) region on the Mediterranean coast, is
the latest in a series of actions to put pressure on Hamas. Israel evacuated its
settlers and soldiers from Gaza last August and September, razing Jewish
settlements established there after it seized Gaza, along with the West Bank and
Golan Heights, in the 1967 Six-Day War. Israel cut off transfers of tax money it
had been collecting for the Palestinian Authority while Western nations halted
financial aid in a bid to force Hamas to accept Israel's right to exist and
foreswear violence. Without the aid or tax transfers, the Authority hasn't been
able to pay civil servants, damaging the economy.
Israel invades south Lebanon after Hezbollah seizes two
soldiers
07-12-2006, 11h01-AITA SHAAB, Lebanon (AFP)
Map showing the border area between Israel and Lebanon. Israel has invaded
southern Lebanon in a ground and air assault to retrieve two soldiers snatched
by Hezbollah, the first such assault into the country since a 2000 pullout.
Israel has invaded southern Lebanon in a ground and air assault to retrieve two
soldiers snatched by Hezbollah, the first such assault into the country since a
2000 pullout.The capture, in an attack on an army outpost on the volatile
Lebanese border, opened a new front in the Middle East after the capture of
another Israeli soldier by Palestinians two weeks ago plunged the region into
chaos.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the abduction amounted to an act of war, held
the government in Beirut fully responsible, and vowed no negotiations, as
aircraft and artillery pounded Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah,
whose Shiite militia was instrumental in forcing Israeli troops out of Lebanon
six years ago and which is sponsored by Israel's arch-foes Syria and Iran,
demanded the release of Arab prisoners in exchange for the soldiers.
The morning raid and abduction came amid intense cross-border exchanges in which
at least four civilians were wounded in northern Israel and another four in
south Lebanon, including a correspondent of Hezbollah television. Two Lebanese
civilians were later killed and five others wounded as the Israelis mounted
their incursion, Lebanese police said. "The Lebanese government is responsible.
Lebanon will pay the price," Olmert warned at a news conference with Japanese
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who had hoped his visit would ease already
sky-high tensions in the region.
"This morning's events are not a terror attack but the action of a sovereign
state which attacked Israel without any reason," he added.
"Israel will react in a decisive way so that those responsible for the attack
will pay a high and painful price," vowed the premier, who is facing his second
crisis over captive servicemen in barely a fortnight. Clearing his schedule,
Olmert has called an emergency cabinet meeting for 8:00 pm (1700 GMT) as the
military called up a rapid-reaction division of 6,000 troops, headed for
Israel's northern border.
Hezbollah earlier announced that its military wing had captured the two soldiers
in a bid to extract the release of prisoners and detainees.
"To fulfil a promise to free the prisoners and detainees, the Islamic Resistance
captured at 9:05 am (0605 GMT) two Israeli soldiers at the borders with occupied
Palestine," Hezbollah said. Defence Minister Amir Peretz confirmed the soldiers
were captured in an operation along Israel's northern border.
The Shiite militant group, which sits in the Lebanese government and whose armed
wing controls the south of the country, said the two soldiers "were moved to a
safe place".As soon as news of the capture was announced, celebratory gunfire
erupted across Beirut's southern suburbs -- a Hezbollah stronghold. Some
residents were also seen distributing sweets to passing motorists. Israeli
troops swiftly crossed the border in the first ground incursion since the Jewish
state ended its 22-year occupation of south Lebanon in May 2000. Aircraft were
waging aerial attacks as ground and naval artillery pounded Hezbollah targets in
southern Lebanon, a military spokesman said.
Lebanese police said Israeli warplanes flew at low and medium altitude over
southern Lebanon and pounded several Hezbollah positions as well as a bridge in
the western sector of the area. Israel had been on high alert for possible
retaliation from Hezbollah following its threats to kill Hamas militants based
in Damascus and since it sent warplanes over a Syrian presidential palace late
last month. "We will take Lebanon 20 years back," Israel's army chief of staff
Dan Halutz was quoted as saying by the private Channel 10 television. "We must
stop the restraint and the diplomatic dialogue and move to a serious military
move against anyone who is linked and sends these people," said Avigdor
Yitzhaki, the leader of Israel's coalition bloc in parliament.
The return of Israeli troops to the Gaza Strip last week has already evoked
painful memories of the army's disastrous 1982 invasion of Lebanon where
soldiers became bogged down in a deadly quagmire before finally leaving.
Wednesday's flare-up on the northern border came shortly after Israeli tanks and
troops pushed a new offensive in the central Gaza Strip, killing nine members of
the same family in an air strike on a house owned by a Hamas leader.
The fresh crisis developed even as the situation continued to deteriorate in the
Gaza Strip, where Palestinian militants are still holding Gilad Shalit, an
19-year-old Israeli corporal seized on June 25. His capture, which was claimed
by three groups including the armed wing of the governing Hamas, sparked the
worst crisis in the region since the Islamist movement had its cabinet sworn in
last March.
In an interview, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said his mediation efforts for
Shalit's release had been sabotaged by an unnamed party.
In the remarks published Wednesday, Murabak said he had reached a deal with
Israel for "a large number of prisoners" to be released but added that Hamas
came under fresh pressure and the mediation was scuppered. Hezbollah and its
leader Hassan Nasrallah have repeatedly urged Hamas not to release the Israeli
soldier, arguing that his capture was the best bargaining chip for the release
of Palestinian and Arab prisoners. The three groups detaining Shalit in the Gaza
Strip have demanded the release of 1,000 Palestinian, Arab, Muslim and other
prisoners. Israel has so far refused to negotiate and launched a large-scale
operation against the Gaza Strip, killing more than 60 Palestinians in the past
10 days and pounding the territory's infrastructure.AFP
What is Hezbollah?
BBC: Hezbollah - or Party of God - is a powerful political
and military organisation of Shia Muslims in Lebanon.
It emerged with financial backing from Iran in the early 1980s and began a
struggle to drive Israeli troops from Lebanon.
Hezbollah presents itself as a force of resistance for Lebanon and the region
In May 2000 this aim was achieved, thanks largely to the success of the party's
military arm, the Islamic Resistance.
In return, the movement, which represents Lebanon's Shia Muslims - the country's
single largest community - won the respect of most Lebanese.
It now has an important presence in the Lebanese parliament and has built broad
support by providing social services and health care. It also has an influential
TV station, al-Manar. But, it still has a militia that refuses to demilitarise,
despite UN resolution 1559, passed in 2004, which calls for the withdrawal of
foreign forces from Lebanon and the disarming of militias. After Israel withdrew
from Lebanon, Hezbollah was expected to integrate its forces into the Lebanese
army and focus on its political and social operations. But, while capitalised on
its political gains, it continued to describe itself as a force of resistance
not only for Lebanon, but for the region.
Syria
The Islamic Resistance is still active on the Israel/Lebanon border. Tension is
focused on an area known as the Shebaa Farms. Hezbollah says the Shebaa Farms
area is occupied Lebanese territory, but Israel, backed by the UN, says the
farms are on the Syrian side of the border and so are part of the Golan Heights,
which Israel has occupied since 1967. The movement has long operated with
neighbouring Syria's blessing, protecting Damascus' interests in Lebanon and
serving as a card for Damascus to play in its own confrontation with Israel over
the occupation of the Golan Heights. But pressure on Syria to withdraw in 14,000
troops deployed in Lebanon, presented Hezbollah with a serious challenge: how
long it could it remain a guerrilla movement without endangering its growing
role as a mainstream, albeit religious-based, political party. In February,
2005, Lebanon was plunged into a political crisis after the assassination of a
former prime minister Rafik Hariri, widely believed to be the work of Syrian
intelligence. Opposition parties sought a dialogue with Hezbollah in an attempt
to get it to join their ranks.
Analysts say Hezbollah has adopted a cautious policy since the crisis. It has
continued to profess its support for Syrian involvement in Lebanon, while not
criticising the Lebanese opposition. It has also stressed Lebanese unity by
arguing against "Western interference" in the country.
In March, after weeks of unprecedented anti-Syrian demonstrations in Beirut,
Hezbollah proved it, too, had people power on its side. Hundreds of thousands of
its followers poured on to the streets of the capital in support of Lebanon's
historic and strategic relationship with Syria.
Starting out
Hezbollah was conceived in 1982 by a group of Muslim clerics after the Israeli
invasion of Lebanon. It was close to a contingent of some 2000 Iranian
Revolutionary guards, based in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, which had been sent to
the country to aid the resistance against Israel. Hezbollah was formed primarily
to offer resistance to the Israeli occupation.
Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah has argued against Western interference
It also dreamed of transforming Lebanon's multi-confessional state into an
Iranian-style Islamic state, although this idea was later abandoned.
The party's rhetoric calls for the destruction of the state of Israel. It
regards the whole of Palestine as occupied Muslim land and it argues that Israel
has no right to exist. The party was long supported by Iran, which provided it
with arms and money.
Passionate and demanding
Hezbollah also adopted the tactic of taking Western hostages, through a number
of freelance hostage taking cells. In 1983, militants who went on to join
Hezbollah ranks carried out a suicide bombing attack that killed 241 US marines
in Beirut. Hezbollah has always sought to further an Islamic way of life. In the
early days, its leaders imposed strict codes of Islamic behaviour on towns and
villages in the south of the country - a move that was not universally popular
with the region's citizens. But the party emphasises that its Islamic vision
should not be interpreted as an intention to impose an Islamic society on the
Lebanese.
Hezbollah Disarmament
Nadim Hasbani Al-Hayat - 11/07/06//
Disarming Hezbollah will not happen quickly. It will require a Lebanese approach
with compromises and international guaranties within the framework of UN
resolution 1559. Hezbollah will fully rejoin Lebanese mainstream politics and
abandon weapons only if it sees sufficient advantages in doing so and is
convinced it will not make greater gains by other means. This will necessitate
an unconventional reform of the Lebanese Army, creating an asymmetric,
government-controlled military that can effectively integrate Hezbollah and
transfer its power of deterrence to the national forces.
Hezbollah has accumulated many political and military victories and thinks it is
capable of anything. This "victory disease" influenced U.S. decisions in Iraq
and Syrian actions in Lebanon, and the consequences are well-known. It would be
the reason for Hezbollah rejecting peaceful disarmament, which would likely lead
Lebanon to a new armed conflict. Moreover, Hezbollah's current attitude is
pushing other communities to turn to their own extremists. As analyst Michael
Young puts it, if Christians feel they are on an irreversible slide into
oblivion, they might abandon Lebanon, resort to violence, or both. With
increasing Sunni-Shia friction all over the Middle East, Sunnis might be tempted
as well, with Arab support, to resort to violence.
Shia in Lebanon, including Hezbollah sympathizers, must be convinced disarming
Hezbollah is neither a first step to re-marginalize the Shia community nor
targeting their political empowerment, gained through Hezbollah's military
achievements against Israel. Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the
empowerment of its Shia and of Iran, Shia communities all over the Arab world
have been asked to again prove their loyalty to their country. Making
concessions and merging with the army to form an asymmetric,
government-controlled military will help Hezbollah prove its political path
intersects with Lebanon's interests. It will reinforce the perception of other
confessions that the Lebanon's Shia primary loyalty lies with Lebanon.
Hezbollah provides specific military abilities that have proved extremely
efficient in offering a type of deterrence force for Lebanon and against Israel,
but under an unacceptable Islamist cover. Its asymmetric warfare methods and
guerilla techniques - sophisticated roadside bombings, infiltration commandos,
abduction of invading soldiers, easy to handle and mobile missiles, spy
networks, elaborated psychological warfare - are not used by the Lebanese
national army, but they should be.
It is advantageous for all communities in Lebanon, not only the Shia, to keep
and better organize this deterrence. The best way to do so is by transferring
Hezbollah tactics and abilities to the army. It would not simply be a merger of
the militia into the Lebanese army and would involve more than placing Hezbollah
Katiousha missiles under Army command. Rather, it would entail an unconventional
restructuring the Lebanese army along the lines of an asymmetric warfare
organization, with small mobile commando units similar to Hezbollah's. Once
attacked, these army units would recoil, redeploy and spoil foreign troops like
a government-controlled resistance.
However, this unconventionally reformed army must indisputably be directly
controlled by the multi-confessional Lebanese collegial government and
parliament. It will be the task of the legitimate political institutions to
declare war and peace or order retaliation whenever necessary. Hezbollah will
loose its ability to take Lebanon hostage in the event of a conflict with
Israel. Moreover, this political control must be clearly defined in the
constitution.
Hezbollah has two main military goals: liberating Lebanese soil and another
linked to the Palestinian cause and Iran. As part of its concessions, it must
abandon its regional role and join, within the framework of the Lebanese
government, a possible regional peace process with Israel. High-level relations
with Iran should pass through national Lebanese structures. Iranian funding of
Hezbollah should serve as a basis to develop bilateral relationship between the
two states and particularly their ministries of Defense and Social Affairs.
Military-related funding could be integrated as part of the Lebanese defense
budget as foreign support to military institutions, while Iranian logistical and
military support could be used to improve asymmetric warfare techniques within
the restructured Lebanese army. Within this state-to-state relationship, weapons
procurement from Iranian defense industries might also be envisaged. In return
for institutionalizing this relationship, Hezbollah must commit to not becoming
Iran's "over the horizon force" to attack Israel outside a Lebanon-Israel
conflict, for example in response to a U.S. or Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear
facilities.
In exchange of these concessions made by Hezbollah the Lebanese government
should take necessary diplomatic measures to have a purely political Hezbollah
removed from the U.S. list of terrorist organizations. More importantly, other
communities should recognize that the Shia in Lebanon will officially gain
stronger influence on the Lebanese Army, but an army with an efficient
deterrence force offering diplomatic negotiation capabilities. In any case,
Hezbollah's influence and level of infiltration of the army remains unknown and
is probably very high.
Hezbollah's basic demands from Israel are to be answered before any Lebanese
Army reform procedure is launched; mainly freeing Shebaa farms (since the
multi-confessional National Dialogue leaders agreed that Shebaa is Lebanese),
releasing all Hezbollah prisoners and many key Palestinian ones (similar to the
January 2004 deal that lead to releasing 23 Lebanese prisoners and some 400
Palestinian ones) and obtaining international guaranties and recognition for its
merger within the Army on asymmetric warfare basis. Lebanon-Israel borders
should be demarcated and recognized by the UN.
As for the UN, it has been proved that its resolutions are not deterrent enough
to provide Lebanon with a protection against Israeli aggressions. Other means of
protection should be offered by the international community including the UN,
the U.S, Saudi Arabia, Iran and France. They can include a demilitarized zone
with a strongly reinforced and reequipped UN presence. It has been proven that
the Lebanese government can not completely control Palestinian lead attacks on
Israel from its soil. This task has to be transferred under UN responsibility
and the UNIFIL; hence the international community will be held accountable for
any aggression on Israel.
* Mr. Nadim Hasbani is an Associate Researcher at the Ghent University and a
Researcher at the French Institute of Geopolitics
CCD stands with India against terror attacks in
Mumbai and Kashmir
For Immediate Release
Toronto, Canada, Tuesday, July 12, 2006 - Terrorists today launched grenade
attacks in Srinagar, Kashmir and bombed eight commuter trains in Mumbai, India.
The terrorists targeted innocent civilians, killing over 180 and injuring or
maiming over 450.
Intelligence reports indicate that these atrocities are the work of radical
Islamic organizations, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) and the Students Islamic Movement
of India (SIMI). LeT is designated as terrorist entity in Canada.
"This massacre has all the hallmarks of radical Islam," said Alastair Gordon,
President of the Canadian Coalition for Democracies (CCD). "Our government must
clearly identify the enemy, and condemn the propaganda that claims poverty,
marginalization, Israel or foreign policy played any role in these barbaric
attacks.
"The Harper government must also educate Canadians that there is a global
movement slaughtering innocents in Kashmir, India, Israel, Bali, London, Madrid,
Sinai, Algeria, Russia, Sudan, Thailand, Philippines, United States and dozens
of other places around the world," added Gordon. "And the same movement that
delivered today's carnage may well have achieved even greater bloodshed in
Toronto had they not been apprehended by our security forces.
"Canada's armed forces in Afghanistan are on the forefront of the war that has
been declared against us, and it is they who will prevent that nation from again
becoming a secure incubator for exporting this kind of terror to Canada and
other free nations."
The Canadian Coalition for Democracies stands with India and the Indian diaspora
in their time of sorrow and loss. We also share their anger and determination to
crush those who pervert the multicultural tolerance of free societies to promote
terror.
-30-
If you would like to comment on this statement or other topics relating to
foreign policy, please visit our public message forum and post your comments:
http://canadiancoalition.com/forum/messages/17635.shtml
For more information, please contact:
Alastair Gordon, President
416-963-8998
David Harris, Senior Fellow for National Security
613-447-2784
Canadian Coalition for Democracies
PO Box 72602
345 Bloor Street East
Toronto, ON M4W 3J0 Canada
Hezbollah Raid Opens 2nd Front for Israel
Lebanese Shiite Fighters Seize 2 Soldiers; Beirut Airport Among Sites Hit in
Response
By Anthony Shadid and Scott Wilson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, July 13, 2006; A01
BEIRUT, July 13 -- The Lebanese Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah infiltrated the
Israeli border Wednesday in a brazen raid, capturing two Israeli soldiers,
killing three others and prompting Israeli attacks on the airport in Beirut and
bridges, roads, power stations and military positions across the hillsides of
southern Lebanon. Five more Israeli soldiers were killed after the army entered
Lebanon in pursuit, one of the military's highest one-day death tolls in more
than four years.
The capture of the soldiers and the fighting effectively opened a second front
for Israel, whose troops entered the Gaza Strip last month in search of a
soldier seized June 25. Within hours, reverberations rolled across an already
tense region. The United States blamed Syria and Iran for the abduction, and
Israeli tanks and troops moved toward the Lebanese border throughout the day. In
Lebanon and elsewhere, the attack emboldened Hezbollah's supporters, who greeted
the news by handing out sweets and setting off fireworks.
The fighting took a dramatic turn early Thursday with Israeli attacks on the
Beirut airport and Hezbollah's television station in the capital's predominantly
Shiite Muslim southern suburbs. Lebanese television reported that Israeli
aircraft attacked two runways, forcing the facility to close and sending flights
to airports elsewhere in the Middle East. Footage showed a column of black smoke
drifting over the modern facility, considered an emblem of Lebanon's post-civil
war reconstruction.
Into the morning, Israel escalated its raids across southern Lebanon, with
artillery and aircraft pounding targets. Civilian casualties mounted; Lebanese
television said at least 27 Lebanese were killed, including a family of 12 in
the village of Dweir. Hezbollah said it fired rockets at targets across northern
Israel, part of an arsenal that it said numbers as many as 13,000.
About 7 a.m. Thursday, a Katyusha rocket landed on the main street in the
Israeli resort city of Nahariya, killing one woman and injuring at least 10
people. In the following half-hour, more than a dozen other rockets struck near
downtown and other areas of the city, five miles inside the Israeli border.
Sirens sounded for people to assemble in bomb shelters.
On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel held Lebanon for
the responsible for the Hezbollah raid and promised a "painful and far-reaching
response," a threat that recalled broad Israeli offensives in southern Lebanon
in 1993 and 1996. "The murderous attack this morning was not a terrorist act, it
was an act of war," Olmert said in Jerusalem.
Hezbollah said it carried out the attack about 9:05 a.m., when its fighters
managed to cross the heavily fortified border near Shtula, an Israeli farming
town of about 350 people. Hezbollah guerrillas fired on two Israeli army
Humvees, killing three soldiers and capturing two others.
Hezbollah's leader, Hasan Nasrallah, said an hour passed before Israeli forces
set out to recover the captives, giving Hezbollah time to smuggle them to a
place he called "safe and far, far, far away." He said the attack had been
planned for months and was aimed at forcing negotiations that would win the
release of three Lebanese held in Israeli jails.
"Let this be clear, the prisoners will only return home through indirect
negotiations and a trade," Nasrallah told reporters at a news conference in
southern Beirut, one of Hezbollah's strongholds. "If the Israelis are
considering any military action to bring the hostages home, they are delusional,
delusional, delusional."
"We don't want an escalation in the south, nor war," he said. "But if the
Israelis want an escalation, then we are ready for a confrontation and to its
furthest extent. If Israel chooses confrontation, we are ready, and it should
expect surprises."
Israeli officials said Wednesday that operations by the military -- known
formally as the Israel Defense Forces, or IDF -- could escalate and, at least
publicly, they ruled out negotiations on the two soldiers' release.
"The government of Lebanon is directly responsible for the fate of the IDF
soldiers, and it must act immediately and seriously to locate them, to prevent
any harm done to them, and to return them to Israel," Defense Minister Amir
Peretz said in a statement. "The state of Israel will take any measure it sees
fit, and the IDF will be instructed accordingly."
The attack by Hezbollah, a powerful, armed Shiite Muslim faction that takes part
in the Lebanese government and effectively controls the border, created a
quandary for Lebanon, Israel and the United States.
Israel moved deeper into the Gaza Strip -- where hospital officials said 23
Palestinians were killed on Wednesday, most of them civilians -- but has so far
been unable to free the 19-year-old Israeli corporal who was kidnapped almost
three weeks ago. It faces even more difficult terrain in southern Lebanon, where
Hezbollah draws most of its support.
The United States called the border attack a terrorist act, but U.S. officials
appeared reluctant to see fighting wreck a country that has emerged as one of
the success stories of Bush administration policy in the Middle East. Lebanon's
government, in a carefully worded statement, said it had no knowledge of the
attack and was not responsible for it.
Wednesday's death toll on the border was the highest for the Israeli military in
major fighting since April 9, 2002, when 13 of its soldiers were killed during
fighting in the West Bank city of Jenin. Hezbollah said one of its fighters was
killed in the day's fighting.
After the abduction, Israeli troops entered Lebanon in force for the first time
since May 2000, when the military ended its presence on a rocky, hilly swath of
southern Lebanon that it had first occupied in 1978. Four Israeli soldiers were
killed when their tank struck a mine, and Hezbollah broadcast video footage of
what was described as the wreckage through the day.
The eighth slain soldier was killed trying to retrieve the ruined tank and the
remains of his colleagues in the evening, the Israeli army said. A small
contingent of Israeli troops remained inside the Lebanese border as darkness
fell, trying to recover the remains of the dead soldiers.
From midmorning Wednesday, Israeli forces struck dozens of targets -- bridges,
roads, power stations and Hezbollah posts -- in what the military called an
effort to slow the movements of the soldiers' captors.
On Lebanon's Mediterranean coast south of Sidon, Israeli warplanes bombed at
least five bridges in quick succession, effectively cutting southern Lebanon off
from the rest of the country. At least two Lebanese civilians were killed in one
of the strikes, civil defense officials said. Israeli gunboats shelled roads
stretching north from the border town of Naqurah.
Scores of suddenly stranded Lebanese, their faces drawn, wandered back roads
looking for a way home. As they walked, carrying bags, ambulances with their
sirens blaring passed them in the other direction.
"We're scared, we're scared. From the moment of the attack until now, we're just
scared," said Um Fatima, whose cousin, 40-year-old Mohammed Saghir, was one of
those killed in an airstrike on a bridge.
On Israel's side of the border, Katyusha rockets fired by Hezbollah fighters
landed in sage patches and eucalyptus groves. Small brush fires lit up some of
the hills near Shtula, and smoke from smoldering roads and bridges in Lebanon
appeared in the near distance, sending a dark smudge tailing south for miles at
twilight.
The Israeli residents of agricultural towns and even some of the seaside beach
resorts were ordered through loudspeakers into bomb shelters and warned of
rocket attacks.
Hezbollah last captured an Israeli soldier in October 2000, when it seized three
who were later executed or died of wounds suffered as they were taken. The
bodies of the three soldiers, along with a civilian kidnapped separately, were
returned to Israel in 2004 in exchange for the release of hundreds of
Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails.
The attack Wednesday was almost sure to bolster the martial reputation of
Hezbollah, which probably enjoys more support in the rest of the Arab world than
in Lebanon itself, where other sectarian factions have pushed for it to disarm.
Nasrallah has vowed on numerous occasions to seize soldiers as a bargaining chip
for the Lebanese prisoners; in one speech, he said it would happen this year.
The broadening of the Israeli response north to Beirut's airport will almost
certainly put additional pressures on Hezbollah, both inside the country and
abroad. Some Lebanese officials have already questioned whether Hezbollah had
the right to make a decision that could potentially drag the entire country into
war. But in southern Lebanon, often a battleground between Hezbollah and Israeli
forces, the soldiers' capture was praised; residents said they had grown
accustomed to the kind of fighting that has followed.
"Look, we're used to it. For 25 years, 26 years, it's been like this," said
Hassan Qaryani, 21, a butcher from Burj Rahal. He stood with a friend, Mohammed
Tahine, near a destroyed bridge, looking down at the rubble and tangled iron
rods.
He called the kidnapping "like a crown on my head."
"As soon as I heard the news I was overjoyed," he said. "It was like Italy
winning the World Cup."
His friend grinned as he looked at the bridge. "If you don't destroy, then you
don't build," he said.
Early Thursday in the Gaza Strip, where more than 70 Palestinians and one
Israeli soldier have been killed since June 28, an Israeli airstrike destroyed
the building housing the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Foreign Ministry,
according to the Associated Press. Palestinian medical workers said 13 people in
the neighborhood, including six children, were injured. Before daybreak, a
fighter from Islamic Jihad was killed and one was wounded in an Israeli
airstrike in southern Gaza.
Wilson reported from Shtula and Nahariya. Special correspondents Alia Ibrahim in
Beirut, Islam Abdelkareem in Gaza City and Sufian Taha in Jerusalem contributed
to this report.
© 2006 The Washington Post Company
The Jihadist War Against India
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted GMT 7-12-2006 15:37:43
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Is this the beginning of the Jihadi war on India? Yes and no. Yes it is a
jihadist war on India, but no, the trains' bombings weren't the beginning of
that war. Unlike the U.S., Spain, and the UK, the Indians have been subjected to
small explosions of the holy war for years. Yesterday's bombings of Mumbai's
trains (previously Bombay) are not the first strikes on Indian mainland. In
October 2005, terror bombings killed more than 60 people in the Indian capital
of Delhi. Mumbai itself was the target of terror attacks that massacred 55
persons and injured 180 in August 2003. And in December 2001, jihadist groups
launched raids on India's parliament killed a number of people, as well. The
targeting of the most populous democracy on earth has been taking place for
years, even before 9/11 at the hands of followers of a Salafi-Tablighi ideology,
with common roots with al-Qaeda's terrorist doctrine. The July 11 blasts in
Mumbai aiming at innocent civilians are the last in a string of crimes directed
against the Indian population by militants following orders and engaged in an
irreversible path of violence. But who did it and why?
Indian experts and security sources believe that an Indian jihadist, Daoud
Ibrahim, is probably behind the organization of the terror attacks in Mumbai, as
he is accused of having a history of similar actions. Ibrahim is an Indian
Muslim who followed Islamist ideology and committed himself to waging jihad
against the Hindus and the state of India. He is believed to have declared Bay'a
(commitment) to Osama Bin Laden in the past. Ibrahim has jihadist networks
inside India and is connected with the Kashmir Islamist organizations on both
sides of the border with Pakistan.
The main "movement" that starts in Pakistan and stretches into the Indian
province of Kashmir is Laskar-e-Taiba, which was founded in the late 1980s by
Hafiz Mohammad Saeed. Laskar-e-Taiba is said to mean "The soldiers of the Pure."
It could also mean linguistically "the Good soldiers" or the "best soldiers," in
reference to them as the vanguards of the Mujahideen in the region. In reality,
the "Laskars" are another form of Kashmiri Taliban whose aim is to establish an
Emirate in the Indian province of Kashmir before joining forces with the
Islamists of Pakistan and the Taliban of Afghanistan to create a massive and
powerful "Jihadi Principality" in south Asia stretching from Iran to China.
The Laskar Taiba is under the ideological auspices of a Wahhabi-style foundation
in Pakistan, the Markaz Dawa ul-Irshad, also created in the late 1980s. Some
reports conclude that the "Dawa" is the mother ship, while the "Laskar" is the
army, or one of its armed branches. In the jungle of south Asia's Islamic
fundamentalism, networks are intertwined but well connected. The Salafi-Tablighi
jihadists of Pakistan and their counterparts in India have two enemies: one
strategic and the other an interim enemy. The Indian state is seen as the foe
obstructing the separation of Kashmir and the establishment of an Emirate. As in
the case of Chechnya, the Islamists hijacked the "ethnic cause" and transformed
it into a jihadist onslaught. The "Laskar" and their supporters inside Kashmir
and the rest of India have in reality moved the center of their struggle from
classical separation from India to the establishment of a Taliban regime in
northern India, whose real objective would be to radicalize India's
100-million-strong Muslim community. Reports indicate that this penetration is
now embodied by the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), accused by Indian
sources of being an associate of the Laskar. Hence, the "Talibanization" of
Kashmir's issue has become the dominant threat to India and by ripple effect
also to President Musharref Pakistan. For the second internal enemy to the
aggregation of all jihadists from Waziristan to Kashmir is none other but the
president of Pakistan. They believe he is "not helping them enough against
India," as they claim on their websites and, obviously, on al-Jazeera.
But above the clouds of the Pakistani-Indian magma, Osama Bin Laden has issued
his mortal fatwas against the south Asian "infidel." In at least their last four
messages -- audio or video -- aired on al-Jazeera or posted on al Sahhab
website, Osama bin laden and Zawahiri blasted the Hindus as an abhorred enemy.
Lashing out against one billion Hindus in the subcontinent, not distinguishing
between governments and individuals, the chief Jihadists ordered their henchmen
to shed the blood of the Indian masses on ideological grounds.
Here again, after the U.S., Spain, Britain, Russia, and other target nations of
terrorism, India will have to declare the identity of the criminals, not only in
term of their names and the names of their organizations, but the name of their
ideology and its content. The more jihadists widen their bloody fault lines
against the international community, the more they will isolate themselves among
"infidels" and Muslims alike.
But what can and should India do to counter the jihadist war on its cities? Any
observer can predict that the Mumbai trains won't be the last ones to be
attacked in the future. The penetration of the second largest country in the
world is deep and wide, and above all backed from across the border by
Pakistan's powerful fundamentalists. According to reports, almost every shop in
the main bazaar of every town -- large or small -- in Pakistan had a Lashkar
collection box to raise funds for the "struggle in Kashmir." The group was
indeed banned by the government in 2002; nevertheless, it still operates across
the country, inside Kashmir, and has now spread its tentacles deep inside India.
The latter can deal with the branches within India's many provinces, but the
roots of that tree are deeply planted and fertilized inside Pakistan.
Hence, Pakistani President Musharref has to push from the West and the Indian
government from the East to contain and isolate the Jihadi terror network. But
can the Pakistani president rise to the mission?
Immediately after the attacks, General Musharref and his Foreign Minister
denounced the "heinous act." This was the right thing to do to cool
Indian-Pakistani relations. But would the commander-in-chief of the Pakistani
Army cross the line and move against the Laskar-e-Taiba inside his own country?
It is a very tall order in view of the solid entrenchment of the jihadists in
the second largest Muslim country in the world. To the east, on the border of
Afghanistan, Taliban-Pashtuns tribes control Waziristan, where Osama bin Laden
is believed to hide. To the West, along the border with India, stretch the
Laskar. In the center and within the big cities, roam the Islamist parties of
the country, intimidating the once influential secular parties. In the middle,
stands Musharref with his army. The question is about the Islamist influence
inside the Army and the intelligence service. A few months ago, a former
higher-up in the armed forces advised on a website, "Musharref better withdraw
the troops from Waziristan if he doesn't want to see the intifada exploding.
Al-Qaeda, the Dawa leadership, the Laskar, and their allies inside India
understand this deadly geography. They are playing chicken with both Pakistan
and India, manipulating both against the other. The strike inside India was a
strategic order coming from the top jihadist command in the hopes of putting
pressure on Delhi to retaliate against Pakistan itself, and on Islamabad to
strike back against India's retaliation. It is clear bin Laden wants a greater
war between these two nuclear powers on the Asian subcontinent. And he believes
he can provoke that war by striking in India's cities.
This is why I believe more strikes will come.
And finally, to bring it home, where is the American connection? Is there one?
American diplomats, of course, must monitor tensions between the nuclear powers
of India and Pakistan, as they already are. But U.S. Homeland Security must be
aware of these strikes on Mumbai, for Laskar Taibe is not alien to our shores.
Just three years ago, a jihad group known as the "Virginia Paintball cell" was
training to "extend support to Laskar e Taiba." Indeed, 60 miles from downtown
Washington, a number of American-born believers in jihad and followers of
al-Qaeda's ideology were training in urban combat. Among them was one Ismael
Royer of CAIR, now sitting in jail as part of a jihadist conspiracy against the
infidels.
If a cell of Laskar-e-Taiba was preparing for terror a short distance from the
U.S. capital, no one can guarantee that the masters of the jihad won't someday
order the derailing of American trains, as well.
By Dr. Walid Phares
Fox News
Dr. Walid Phares is the author of the newly released book Future Jihad. He is
also a senior fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in
Washington DC.
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