LCCC ENGLISH
DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
November 15/07
Bible Reading of the day
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 17,11-19. As he
continued his journey to Jerusalem, he traveled through Samaria and Galilee. As
he was entering a village, ten lepers met (him). They stood at a distance from
him and raised their voice, saying, "Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!" And when
he saw them, he said, "Go show yourselves to the priests." As they were going
they were cleansed. And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned,
glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked
him. He was a Samaritan. Jesus said in reply, "Ten were cleansed, were they not?
Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to
God?" Then he said to him, "Stand up and go; your faith has saved you."
Releases.
Reports & Opinions
Nasrallah builds case for jihad against Lebanese government.By
Abu Kais.Ya Libnan. November 14/07
Latest
News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for November 14/07
Ban in
Beirut Thursday after Spain, Tunisia-Naharnet
Sfeir, Responding to Appeals, Finally Puts Forward List.Naharnet
Hariri Accuses Syria of Seeking to Destroy French Initiative.Naharnet
Canadian chosen to head probe into Hariri killing.Globe
and Mail
Former
FBI, CIA Lebanese Woman Obtains Information on Hizbullah-Naharnet
CIA Officer Admits Guilt in Seeking Hezbollah Files.New
York Times
IDF chief: Lebanon War could have been quicker and cheaper.Ha'aretz
Israel Hopes to Resume Talks With Syria.The
Associated Press
Brammertz Replaced-Naharnet
Kouchner shuttles
among Lebanese leaders-Daily
Star
UN chief to visit Beirut to
push for election-Daily Star
France grants $729,000 for
South-Daily Star
March 14 MP assails
Nasrallah speech-Daily Star
Mousawi: US aims to weaken
Hizbullah-Daily Star
'The situation in the South
could change any minute-Daily Star
Winograd panel gets okay to
keep report secret-Daily Star
Palestinian factions vow to prevent security breaches
UNRWA: Nahr al-Bared poses
'daunting challenge-Daily Star
Fishermen want compensation
for damage from Sidon dump-Daily Star
Ban to Visit Beirut on Thursday. Naharnet
IDF Chief: Lebanon war contributed to Israel's security.Ha'aretz, Israel
Former FBI Agent Accused Of Leaking Info.CBS
11, TX
Analysis: The United States' New Backyard.Free
Internet Press,
Hariri to Launch 24-Hour News Channel.Naharnet
A rare
cinematic treat for Beirut audiences-Daily
Star
'About $6 billion
for Beirut telecom sale-Daily
Star
Abbas, Peres hail US summit
as 'historic opportunity-Daily Star
Iran turns
tables on Argentine investigation.AFP
Sfeir, Responding to Appeals,
Finally Drafts List of Presidential Candidates
Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir has finally responded to national and
international appeals regarding the need to put forward a list of presidential
candidates.
The daily An Nahar on Tuesday said Sfeir "actually did write down a list of five
or six candidates," that included opposition Gen. Michel Aoun as well as
pro-government MPs Butros Hard and Nassib Lahoud. It said Sfeir, who had always
insisted on not wanting to be drawn into the naming game, has softened his
stance after he was informed by visiting French Foreign Minister Bernard
Kouchner that there is no way that parliament doors would open for elections
without Bkiri issuing a list of presidents accepted by the feuding sides. The
daily said the French envoy also cautioned Sfeir that in the event his rejection
continued regarding naming compromise candidates for president "he will be held
responsible for failure of elections and for fear of a constitutional vacuum,"
warning him that "several parties would place the responsibility upon him."An
Nahar said Sfeir agreed to put forward a presidential list after Kouchner
conveyed to him the stances from all the sides he met on Tuesday, which included
MP Saad Hariri, Premier Fouad Saniora,
Speaker Nabih Berri, former President Amin Gemayel, Lebanese Forces leader Samir
Geagea, former cabinet minister Suleiman Franjieh, and Aoun. An Nahar said Sfeir
on Wednesday would likely hand in the presidential candidate list to the chargé
d'affairs of the French Embassy. The daily cited prominent political sources as
saying that the "French Plan" enjoys both Arab and global backing. Kouchner had
said he hoped Sfeir would name a consensus presidential candidate.
He said contacts between the Hizbullah-led opposition and the parliament
majority were "going on very well" and that Sfeir is "thinking about a list that
includes the names of several candidates." "I don't know them (candidate names),
but they might become public tomorrow or after tomorrow," he told a news
conference late Tuesday at the airport before heading back for France.
"During my meetings ... there was understanding and intention," Kouchner said of
talks with Berri and Hariri. "They are taking responsibility in this process and
I believe they have the intention that there be a compromise president and this
is what France wants." He said Hariri and Berri would select "with sincerity and
courage" the person to win the top job. A source at the Maronite patriarchate
said he did not know when Sfeir may present the list. "We are confident that the
cardinal will present a list, but we will have to wait and see to know if the
process will actually work," a prominent member of the ruling majority said.
"It is an attempt to reach an accord, we are still at the start of the process,"
the member added. The list is expected to be submitted to Berri and Hariri who
would then select two or three names to be proposed at the November 21
parliament session. Kouchner, who announced his intention to return to Beirut
next week, pressed urged all sides to pick a compromise candidate for Lebanon's
next president and gave France and Germany as examples of history-long animosity
that has been overcome.
"These two countries are building Europe," Kouchner said. "I hope the Lebanese
sects exert (similar) efforts for the election." Kouchner described the results
of his daylong meetings with the various Lebanese political leaders as
"excellent" but warned that the situation remains complicated.
He said Lebanon is "very important for France," adding that "France wants and
hopes this (election) process would take place in line with the Lebanese
constitution," Kouchner said at the news conference. Kouchner indirectly blasted
Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah for his fiery Sunday speech, saying he
was sorry to "hear threatening voices." "These voices want to say that this
electoral path is not the right one, but I don't think so," Koucher said,
stressing that France never favored one Lebanese sect over the
other.(Naharnet_AFP) Beirut, 14 Nov 07, 08:54
Hariri Accuses Syria of
Seeking to Destroy French Initiative
Parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri announced that the ruling March 14
alliance had every intention to make the French initiative a complete success,
accusing Syria of seeking to destroy it. "We are exerting all efforts to make
the French initiative a success and so we could reach a settlement," Hariri told
the French satellite channel TV5. "But the Syrian regime is capable of thwarting
it (French initiative)," Hariri added. Hariri said there is a "big chance" for
electing a consensus president "if pressure was exerted on others."He said that
Berri is after smooth presidential elections, however "there are increasing
Syrian pressures on our friends in Lebanon."
"All we want is a President who … believes in Lebanon's independence,
sovereignty and freedom and rejects foreign hegemony on Lebanon," Hariri said.
Asked if March 14 would use a simple majority vote to elect a new president,
Hariri said: "We have to give dialogue and consensus a chance."He said the
opposition "is not capable of establishing a second government despite its
threats.""… They have weapons (coming in) from Syria and Iran and threaten (us)
with them," Hariri said of Hizbullah's arms still flowing from Syria and Iran.
"We take these threats seriously, but will they implement them? Hariri asked.
"… We represent the majority of the Lebanese people and we will do everything we
possibly can, with the help of our friends, particularly the French, to curb any
threat to the stability," Hariri warned. Beirut, 14 Nov 07, 10:00
Ban in Beirut Thursday after
Spain, Tunisia
U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon was due to arrive in Beirut Thursday to push the
country's feuding political leaders to reach consensus on a looming presidential
election.
Ban was expected to arrive in Spain on Wednesday after a week-long tour of South
America and the Antarctic that he said has made him an informed "messenger" on
the problem of climate change. Next weekend, he is to attend the unveiling of
the fourth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report in Valencia,
Spain.
The document is seen as a landmark reference paper for governments trying to
tackle global warming -- and a key text that will be read ahead of a Bali
conference in December on the issue that Ban will host. "I hope that by this
time the world leaders and the international community have fully understood the
urgency and importance of this accelerating global warming phenomenon," he told
AFP Tuesday on a flight back from Brazil's Amazon basin. "Now I'm going to
continue with my consultations and my role as a messenger of early warning on
climate change until I go to Bali," he said. "By the time we meet in Bali, I
hope we will agree to launch on official negotiations" aimed at coming up with
an international accord to succeed the Kyoto treaty, which expires in 2012.
Negotiators at the Valencia talks said there was wrangling over the final
2,500-page report, which is intended to be a neutral guide for decision-makers.
One negotiator described the talks as "difficult," with sharp exchanges over
what the document should include. The U.N. secretary general was not to get
involved in that haggling.
Upon arrival in Madrid Wednesday he was to hold a meeting with Spanish Prime
Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. He was then to jet off to Tunisia to
attend an international counter-terrorism conference, followed by a
hastily-organized flight to Lebanon, before returning to Spain to attend the
Valencia meeting.
The U.N. chief has declared tackling climate change one of his top priorities.
He said Tuesday, during a visit to the Amazon jungle, that he was "returning
with a sense of great achievement" from what he had learned throughout his trip.
During his tour, he took in Argentina, Chile and the Antarctic before visiting
Brazil for three days.
He met Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Monday and commended him
on his ecological policies. During his jungle visit, he also repeated to
Brazilian officials and indigenous representatives: "I make my firm commitment
that the United Nations will work with you and stand by you."
Brazilian Environment Minister Marina Silva, accompanying Ban and his wife up
the Guama River in the Amazon basin to Combu Island, near Belem, said "the
presence of the U.N. secretary general is a strong gesture" for Brazil's efforts
to preserve the Amazon rainforest.(AFP) Beirut, 13 Nov 07, 20:15
Former FBI, CIA Lebanese Woman Obtains Information on Hizbullah
A Lebanese-born woman pleaded guilty Tuesday to having paid an American to marry
her so she could get U.S. citizenship and then later obtain jobs at the FBI and
CIA, the Justice Department said. In a case which bared weaknesses in the US
vetting of staff for its key law enforcement and intelligence agencies, Nada
Nadim Prouty, 37, also pleaded guilty to having illegally obtained from FBI
computers information on her relatives and Hizbullah, branded a terrorist group
by the U.S. government. According to a Justice Department statement on the case,
filed in Detroit, Michigan, Prouty was helped in gaining U.S. citizenship by
former Detroit restaurant owner Talal Khalil Chahine, her sister's husband who
is now wanted in the United States on tax evasion, bribery and extortion
charges. The statement linked Chahine, now a fugitive believed in Lebanon, with
Hizbullah leader Sheik Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, designated by Washington as a
"global terrorist."
According to the statement, Prouty defrauded the United States by paying an
unemployed man in 1990 to marry her after her student visa ran out. She then
used the marriage to obtain US citizenship in 1994, and a year later divorced
her husband. In April 1999 she was hired by the FBI to work in its Washington
office as a special agent working on crimes against U.S. citizens overseas. The
charges said that in 2000 and 2003 she probed FBI computers for records on
herself, her sister and Chahine, and on a Detroit FBI investigation into
Hizbullah.
She left the FBI in 2003 to join the CIA, from where she resigned earlier this
month.
The statement said that she had agreed to cooperate fully with prosecutors as a
part of a plea agreement. The most severe charge, naturalization fraud, could
bring up to 10 years in prison and a 250,000 dollar fine, as well as removal of
her citizenship. "This case highlights the importance of conducting stringent
and thorough background investigations," said U.S. Attorney Stephen Murphy.
"It's hard to imagine a greater threat than the situation where a foreign
national uses fraud to attain citizenship and then, based on that fraud
insinuates herself into a sensitive position in the U.S. government."(AFP)
Beirut, 14 Nov 07, 10:39
Brammertz Replaced
U.N. Chief Ban ki-moon has picked a Canadian, Daniel Bellemare, to replace
Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz as head of the U.N. probe into the 2005
murder of Lebanese ex-premier Rafik Hariri, according to a letter seen here
Tuesday. In a letter sent to the U.N. Security Council, the secretary general,
said Bellemare, until recently Canada's deputy Attorney General, would take over
from Brammertz, who has just been to nominated to be the new chief prosecutor at
the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Ban thanked
Brammertz, whose mandate expires on December 31, "for his leadership in
advancing the investigation and for his commitment to assisting the Lebanese
government and people in bringing and to impunity in their country." He said the
55-year-old Bellemare, who retired from Canada's department of justice and
public service last September 29, would begin his official duties as chief
investigator in the Hariri probe "at a later date." Bellemare's appointment is
expected to be endorsed by the 15-member Security Council. Brammertz, a former
deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, has been in charge of the
Hariri probe since January 2006, when he succeeded German magistrate Detlev
Mehlis. Mehlis had implicated in the Hariri slaying senior officials from Syria,
which for three decades was the power broker in its smaller neighbor. Damascus
has strongly denies any connection with that murder as well as with the string
of assassinations of other anti-Syrian Lebanese figures.
Last July, Brammertz released an interim report indicating that investigators
had identified several people who may have been involved in Hariri's
assassination.
Hariri, who was a leading opponent of Syrian domination of Lebanon, and 22 other
people were killed in a massive truck bombing in downtown Beirut on February 14,
2005. (AFP) Beirut, 13 Nov 07, 18:55
Nasrallah builds case for jihad against Lebanese government
Tuesday, 13 November, 2007 @ 7:30 PM
By Abu Kais
Nasrallah has appealed to Syrian-installed puppet Emile Lahoud to embark on a
"national rescue initiative" so that the country does not fall into the hands of
"thieves and murderers who are followers of the American-Zionist project".
Nasrallah said his militia will not recognize a president elected outside the
"consensus", and will consider him an "usurper". He added that the presidential
election is important because it will determine the role of the army and
government in the next period. He said no force on earth can disarm his militia,
and that last week's exercises were a "message to the world that the resistance
can create a victory that can "alter the face of the region".
Nasrallah also warned against privatizing cell phone companies-- which Siniora's
government is trying to do-- threatening future bidders that his Iranian-owned
militia will "confront them using legal and legitimate means". Nasrallah, who
represents a privatized version of Shia Islam, has his own phone network, and
prefers to keep his wiretapping operation undisturbed by giving new licenses or
modernizing the service in the land of do as you like.
He also called for early elections, and vowed to accept the result of that
election and give the current "fake majority" the right to elect a president if
they win two thirds of the seats. He said he considers the results of the last
parliamentary elections invalid, because the deputies who allied themselves with
Hizbullah during the election have not honored their campaign promise of
rejecting UNSC 1559 and protecting the "weapons of the resistance".
Nasrallah denied rumors of impending clashes erupting between Hizbullah and
armed elements in the refugee camps near the southern suburbs. The rumors are,
mind you, are being propagated by Damascus-based PFLP-GC leader Ahmad Gibril.
The speech, delivered on the occasion of "Martyr's Day", is full of lies and
hypocritical claims as usual. It's safe to say that Hizbullah now equates the
current Lebanese government and March 14 leaders with the Israeli government.
That he hasn't called for jihad against the government seems to be a matter of
time. It makes you wonder on what basis Hariri and Berri are meeting. Does
Hariri really think he can reach an agreement with people who consider him to be
a Zionist thief and murderer?
Source: From Beirut to the Beltway