LCCC ENGLISH NEWS BULLETIN
October 05/06
Biblical Reading For today
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 9,57-62.
As they were proceeding on their journey someone said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go."Jesus answered him, "Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head." And to another he said, "Follow me." But he replied, "(Lord,) let me go first and bury my father." But he answered him, "Let the dead bury their dead. But you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God."And another said, "I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at home." (To him) Jesus said, "No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God."
Extremely alarming Report
Hizballah Shuts Reoccupied S. Lebanese Bases to Lebanese and UN ...
DEBKA file
New Opinions
A choice Christians can't afford to make -By Michael Young
Only among friends, Rice will not get much done -By David Ignatius
Latest New from the Daily Star for October 05/06
Rice, Abbas show united front on past deals
Solana signals growing impatience with Tehran
Report: Hizbullah intercepted Israeli Army communications during war
Bishops' Council ties calls for unity government to 'attempts to hamper' Hariri trial
Visiting MPs aim to shape Australian policy
Army prevents demonstration at border
Statement from the publisher
Lahoud requests update on Siddiq extradition from France
Vetting process for Constitutional Council hopefuls begins Tuesday
UN rebuffs criticism from both Israel, Hizbullah
Government details Stockholm conference donor commitmentsFrench environmentalists arrive to assist in oil-spill damage control, clean-up
Taamir gunbattle results in death of 10-year-old bystander
The extraordinary work of delivering basic services
Lebanese-Canadian novelist on short list for lucrative Giller prize
100 former world leaders appeal for revival of Arab-Israeli peace effort
Latest New from Miscellaneous Sources for October 05/06Hizballah Shuts Reoccupied S. Lebanese Bases to Lebanese and UN ...
DEBKA file Rice lands in Israel, to hold talks with Abbas, Olmert-E Canada Now, Canada
Rice, in Mideast, Meets Skeptics-Los Angeles Times
Gunmen kill Hamas leader in West Bank; Rice to visit-Reuters
UNIFIL Will Act 'Forcefully' Against Any Hostile Activity or Threat-Naharnet
Rice Calls for Rearming the Lebanese Army, Strengthening Government-Naharnet
Saudi Doctors Battle for Hearts and Minds in Lebanon After War-Naharnet
Four U.N. Experts: Israel Violated Rights in Lebanon, Hizbullah Must Also Face Probe-NaharnetRussian troops in Lebanon for first time since 18 century-Monsters and Critics.com
Peretz: Syria keeping war option open-Ynetnews
Shiites depend on Hezbollah-DetNews.com
Saad Hariri warns of internal strife-Ya Libnan
Israel sets conditions for Syria talks-Alarab online, UK
'Syria calls for peace, rejects Lebanon's gov't'-Jerusalem Post
UN's Lebanon missioon to be joined by 150 Irish troops-Ireland Online
German ships arrive for Lebanon force-International Herald Tribune
Russian troops in Lebanon for first time since 18 century
Monsters and Critics.com UNIFIL permitted to use force in southern Lebanon-Jerusalem Post, Israel
Hizballah Shuts Reoccupied S. Lebanese Bases to Lebanese and UN forces
DEBKAfile Exclusive Military Report
October 4, 2006, 2:05 PM (GMT+02:00)
On Yom Kippur, Oct. 2, 24 hours after the last Israeli soldier left South Lebanon and the day before UNIFIL published its rules of engagement, Hizballah placed roadblocks on all the approaches to the central sector of the South and the entrances to the towns and villages reoccupied by its forces and their rocket units. These enclaves were declared “closed military zones.” DEBKAfile’s exclusive military and Western intelligence sources report that neither the Lebanese army which moved south nor the international peacekeepers of UNIFIL venture to set foot in these enclaves. Nor did they raise a finger to block the first broad-daylight consignment of advanced Iranian weapons to be delivered in Lebanon via Syria since the August 14 ceasefire.
This coordinated Hizballah-Iranian-Syrian ploy has brought into question the point of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 which was to prevent the resumption of hostilities and Hizballah’s rearmament while helping the Beirut government and army assert its sovereignty in the South. It has also made a mockery of the UN Force and its missions. These developments effectively assign UN Security Council resolution 1701 to the same dustbin as resolution 1559 which ordered Hizballah disarmed.
It is especially noted that the Israeli government has made no military or diplomatic response to these violations, or even informed the public that Hizballah has redeployed in the precise positions from which it blitzed Haifa, Nahariya, Carmiel, Acre and W. Galilee for more than a month. Tuesday, Oct. 3, after Hizballah completed its redeployment, the southern commander who orchestrated the rocket bombardment of Israel, Sheikh Nabil Qauq, made his first appearance since the war. He announced that his forces had regrouped, fully armed and in command of rocket supplies, in exactly the same positions facing the Israeli border as they had occupied when they went to war on July 12. This statement is fully confirmed by DEBKAfile’s military and W. intelligence sources which locate the enclaves Hizballah has cordoned off as closed military zones:
1. Majdal Zoun south of Tyre, from which Nahariya, Acre, Carmiel and Western Galilee were bombed. The Nasser rocket brigade has returned to its posts there with a fresh supply of rockets, as well as the launchers and crews which escaped Israeli counter-attack.
2. Jouaiya, the strategic village occupied by the IDF during the war, has been roped into the Majdal Zoun “military area,” providing Hizballah with full military control of the Tyre district and the ability to bombard UNIFIL headquarters and bases.
3. Siddiquine south of Kana.
4. Deir Amess.
5. The road approaches to the large village of Tebnin in the central sector of the South are blocked.
Our military experts explain that control of Sidiquine, Deir Amess and Tebnin afford Hizballah’s military deployment command of the strategic Jabel Amel mountain region, and its focal points of Haris, Kafra and Aita e-Zott villages. From there, Hizballah fired rockets at Haifa. They were also the centers of the advanced electronic sites from which Hizballah tracked Israeli troop movements across the border and eavesdropped on their signals.
DEBKAfile’s sources also provide detailed information on the Iranian-Syrian arms supplies sent openly into Lebanon on Oct. 2.
In early September, DEBKAfile began reporting on the 25 Hizballah arms dumps maintained for easy access on the Syrian side of the Lebanese border. Damascus was thus technically complicit with the 1701 arms embargo. The Syrian Al Qusayr air base south of Homs and opposite the Lebanese town of Hermel was given over for the use of the forward Iranian Revolutionary Guards command. Since the ceasefire, Iranian air transports have been landing arms for Hizballah at this facility almost daily.
Saturday, Sept 30, Syrian military supplies and maintenance units at this air base prepared a convoy of six trucks for a trial run to test the response. Two were fully loaded with miscellaneous rockets, including Katyusha, anti-air and anti-tank missiles, four with mortars, heavy machine guns and ammunition.
This convoy crossed the border at a central road junction connecting the Syrian village of Qusayr with Mt. Lebanon, and headed southwest to Hermel. Another two arms convoys stood by on the Syrian side of the border, waiting to see if the first one was allowed through. Since both the IDF and UNIFIL sat on their hands, the next two will soon follow.
What the international forces did next on Tuesday night Oct. 3 was to publish its rules of engagement These are the main clauses:
The force's commanders have sufficient authority to act forcefully when confronted with hostile activity of any kind.
UNIFIL personnel may exercise the inherent right of self-defense, as well as "the use of force beyond self-defense to ensure that UNIFIL's area of operations is not utilized for hostile activities."
The peacekeepers also may use force "to resist attempts by forceful means to prevent UNIFIL from discharging its duties under the mandate of the Security Council, to protect U.N. personnel, facilities, installations and equipment and to ensure the security and freedom of movement of U.N. personnel and humanitarian workers."
Also the use of force may be applied "to protect civilians under imminent threat of physical violence in its areas of deployment, within its capabilities."
DEBKAfile notes that all these locutions are open to broad interpretation.
For instance, “hostile activity” could apply to an attack from outer space since there is no mention of “Hizballah,” “Syria or “Iran.” The “arms embargo” ordered by Resolution 1701 is another unmentionable. “The civilians” to be protected are likewise undefined. UNIFIL’s commander has full discretion to decide whether or not it is aplicable to a Hizballlah rocket attack on Nahariya.
Since UN commanders have state explicitly they will only act with the permission of the Lebanese government and army (in which Hizballah holds the power of veto), there is no way that the international force can carry out its duties as mandated by the UN Security Council.
The Olmert government fully colludes in reducing this body to the same ineffectiveness as it displayed in the 28 years leading up to the Lebanon War. By their silence and passivity, Israeli leaders hope to hide the true outcome of that bungled campaign from Israeli and world opinion. Foreign minister Tzipi Livni, who proudly held up the UN force’s deployment as the war’s only success and the formula for Israel’s successful exit strategy, has been strangely struck dumb.
Bishops' Council ties calls for unity government to 'attempts to hamper' Hariri trial
By Nada Bakri and Maroun Khoury
Daily Star staff
Thursday, October 05, 2006
BEIRUT: The Maronite Bishops' Council said on Wednesday that calls by the opposition for the government to resign could have ulterior motives. "Attempts to transform the current Cabinet into a national unity government" might represent "hidden attempts to hamper the creation of an international tribunal to try former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassins," the council said.
In a statement read by Monsignor Youssef Tawk following its monthly meeting in Bkirki, the council said the political bickering and rallies that took place after the month-long war with Israel "do not serve Lebanon's interests."
The council said the war had "divided the Lebanese instead of uniting them." The bishops reiterated that Israel's war on Lebanon would have repercussions on the regional and international community, emphasizing the need to promote unity and coexistence in Lebanon.
It also expressed gratitude for the "major efforts deployed by humanitarian organizations and foreign countries" to help Lebanon after the war.
Urging the government to assume its responsibilities, the council warned that "some parties" were attempting to use international aid "to fulfill personal ambitions."
Meanwhile, the confrontational rhetoric between the March 14 Forces and the opposition stepped up Wednesday as Hizbullah officials said the resistance would not disarm as long as the Israeli occupation of Lebanese territory continues.
"Our legitimized resistance has an international, human and legal right to resist and it will practice this right whenever it decides and in the right field and at the right time," Hizbullah MP Mohammad Raad said. Raad also lashed out at the Cabinet, describing it as "incapable of protecting Lebanon's interests amid the foreign hegemony."
"The national unity government is the only authority capable of providing real, fair and balanced protection of the Lebanese; everything else leads to strife," he said.
Separately, Energy and Water Minister Mohammad Fneish said the challenges facing Lebanon require the formation of a national unity government.
The Hizbullah minister, one of two in the government, said such a Cabinet would not "eliminate the presence of any political party" but establish a balanced political representation and participation in the decision-making process.
"We don't want to replace one political line with another, but to create harmony among them to have a real dialogue on the national level and reach
solutions that serve our country," Fneish said, following a meeting with former Minister Suleiman Franjieh.
Recalling Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's recent proposal to build a strong, capable and just state, Fneish said the first step in implementing the resistance leader's plan was "national consensus, a fair parliamentary electoral law and a national unity government."
In response, March 14 MP Walid Eido said the Cabinet represents the majority of the Lebanese and is therefore "Lebanon's government."
"It is the government that succeeded and that resisted politically and the government that is reconstructing; thus we don't see a justification for calls to change it," Eido added.
Army prevents demonstration at border
More israeli warplanes violate lebanese airspace
Compiled by Daily Star staff
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Lebanese Army troops prevented a group of Hizbullah supporters from reaching the border with Israel to stage a protest on Wednesday, witnesses said. Soldiers recently deployed in the Lebanese border town of Kfar Kila stopped buses carrying about 100 Hizbullah supporters, mostly young boys, who were traveling to the nearby Fatima Gate border fence to stage a demonstration.
The troops told the demonstrators they could not go further and blocked the road with two armored personnel carriers.
After an hour of negotiations, the troops allowed a small group of up to 12 boys to hang up a large caricature poster mocking US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on the border fence, the witnesses said.
The incident took place as Rice was on her way to Israel from Cairo, Egypt, on Wednesday. It was the first time the army was known to have intervened to stop a demonstration along the volatile border. After Israeli troops withdrew from South Lebanon in May 2000, the Fatima Gate became a meeting place for Hizbullah supporters who came to throw stones at Israel. Also on Wednesday, an Israeli patrol situated on the Israeli side of the Blue Line launched flash bombs and shot at six trawlers fishing in Lebanese territorial waters Wednesday, Army reports said.
The Lebanese Army committee responsible for investigating on the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territories carried out field inspections of Israeli violations in the Khiam region in Southern Lebanon Wednesday. This was the first time the Lebanese Army investigated the Southern borders without the ushering of the UN peacekeeping force. Israeli warplanes entered Lebanese airspace at medium altitude Wednesday over the towns of Marjayoun and Kfar Kila in conjunction with a state of high alert on the Israeli side of the border in the region stretching from Fatima Gate, the Khiam valley, and Adaysseh-Kfar Kila road. A number of Hummers transporting high-ranking Israeli Army officials were seen patrolling the borders next to the Fatima Gate and Adaysseh. As Lebanese Army personnel started to assume responsibility in the South, German ships arrived in Cyprus on Wednesday before sailing here to help enforce a UN-brokered cease-fire that ended the conflict.
Germany is taking charge of the multinational naval force tasked with preventing weapons from reaching Hizbullah.
An Italian force is currently operating in the area. "The Italian force was an interim force, which was aimed largely at motivating Israel to lift the embargo," said Ulrich Reineke, commanding officer of the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the German frigate that leads the naval detachment.
"After a good hand over in the area, which will take a couple of days, we will be replacing most of the Italian ships." The 139-meter Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, docked in Limassol in the morning and was joined shortly afterward by a second frigate, the Karlsruhe.
Two frigates, two supply ships and four fast patrol boats began to dock at Limassol before dawn.
Eight ships including the two frigates with about 1,000 soldiers on board left Germany September 21.
"We already have offers from other troop contributing nations like Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey, which will augment our force," Reineke said.
The German-led naval force has a mandate to remain in the area for one year.
The German Navy will be using Limassol for refueling and re-supply during its mission which is mandated to continue until August 31, 2007.
Cyprus has offered its ports, airports and infrastructure to help facilitate the movement of UN peacekeepers and equipment to Lebanon.
Swedish, Danish and Norwegian ships are expected in the country soon as part of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), a UN source said.
"We need Cyprus for logistical support and also for troops to rest," Reineke said.
The island served as an evacuation center for thousands of foreign nationals during the conflict in Lebanon before being transformed into a hub for shipping UN humanitarian aid into war-ravaged Beirut. Although Germany has sent a maritime fleet to Lebanon, having UN troops on the ground is a more sensitive issue. "We want to avoid any kind of conflict with Israel ... it is understandable to everybody," said German Navy captain Dirk Koch.
Also Wednesday, Ireland approved plans to send troops to Lebanon as part of UN forces, the country's defense minister said Wednesday. Willie O'Dea said details had to be worked out, but 150 soldiers will likely be sent as a joint unit of Irish and Finnish troops. - Agencies
Statement from the publisher -Jamil Mroue Publisher of The Daily Star newspaper
Thursday, October 05, 2006
To the News Director at the esteemed Al-Manar Television channel
Dear Sir:
I respectfully request that you air the following clarification during your news broadcasts, in line with the values and laws that govern our shared profession:
"During its nightly news bulletin on Tuesday, Al-Manar Television broadcast a commentary on statements I made as a panelist at a political seminar held recently in Washington, D.C. The statements were necessarily reduced to sound-bites, and thus denuded of their original context, leading to a misrepresentation of my remarks once they were set in Al-Manar's commentary. My participation at the conference aimed to defend Lebanon and its right to resist. What I said about peace with Israel in my speech explicitly supports the role of Hizbullah in light of Israel's mishandling and maltreatment of the commander and soldiers from the South Lebanon Army who evacuated with the Israeli military at the end of its occupation of South Lebanon. This came after they had risked their lives in the service of the Israeli occupation for many years. The point being: Under such circumstances, what good would come of a peace made with such an enemy, even if we hoped for it?
The participation of any Lebanese or Arab persons in international conferences, in particular those held in the United States, inevitably brings participants into face-to-face encounters with people who are enemies or allied to our enemies. Such circumstances do not cause me to waiver in my professional resolve as a journalist, or to abandon my commitment and dedication as a Lebanese national. The Daily Star newspaper, which I have the honor to lead, has advocated Arab and Lebanese causes for more than 50 years (in English) - and we persist in this steadfast policy.
I have shared my views with many Arab and Lebanese officials, including Hizbullah officials, on the proceedings of such seminars in the past. Consequently, I have no hesitation about holding consultations on the matter at hand with any official or unofficial party."
I trust that my response will receive an appropriate amount of airtime and thank you in advance.
Respectfully yours, Jamil Mroue Publisher of The Daily Star newspaper
UN rebuffs criticism from both Israel, Hizbullah
2 sides react to report on human rights violations
By Agence France Presse (AFP)
Thursday, October 05, 2006
GENEVA: A group of United Nations experts on Wednesday brushed aside criticism from both camps in response to a report in which they called Israel and Hizbullah to account for human rights violations during the Lebanon conflict. After finding themselves under fire from Muslim nations, Israel and the United States when they presented their report to the UN Human Rights Council, the experts hit back. "Today I felt that the council missed the chance to address the plight of the victims," Walter Kaelin, the UN secretary general's representative on internally displaced persons, later told journalists. "There was much debate about whether the report was balanced or not, whether it went sufficiently into the causes of the conflict. But there were no specific remarks on our recommendations" of what to do for the victims in the wake of the fighting. In a string of speeches to the council, Muslim countries, which make up around a quarter of the 47-nation UN watchdog forum, said the report went too far in its criticism of Hizbullah. Israel, as a state, bore the greatest responsibility for human rights breaches, they said. "We did not draw any comparison, saying this is worse, this is less bad. Ours is a victims' perspective. And a victim of human rights violations remains a victim even if on the other side even worse atrocities have been committed," Kaelin said. UN housing rights expert Miloon Kothari, who examined the war damage in both Israel and Lebanon during the experts' mission to the region from September 7-14, also said such criticism was wrong-headed. "Suffering is suffering, wherever it is. You cannot barter it away," he said. Israeli Ambassador Itzhak Levanon chastised the experts for making "a troubling equivalence" between Israel and Hizbullah, "a non-state terrorist actor," because of their direct recommendations to the Lebanese Shiite militia. They had given Hizbullah "unwarranted legitimacy" by urging it to train its fighters in international human rights law and to hold them responsible for failing to respect the rules, Levanon said. But Kothari said: "It shouldn't be construed in any way that we are giving parity to Hizbullah as opposed to Israel." - AFP
Taamir gunbattle results in death of 10-year-old bystander
By Mohammed Zaatari
Daily Star staff-Thursday, October 05, 2006
SIDON: A 10-year-old child became latest victim of the lawlessness that has in recent years plagued the Taamir neighborhood, located on the outskirts of Ain al-Hilweh. Ezzideen al-Asmar was fatally struck by a stray bullet on Tuesday night during a dispute between local youths.
The incident marks the 10th deadly clash in a span of two years in an area that has made headlines with frequent armed clashes, the latest involving youths from rival Palestinian factions Jund Al-Sham and Al-Shaabie Al-Nasri. Tuesday's tragedy began when children from the neighborhood began to set off firecrackers in celebration of sunset, a regular occurrence at iftar during the holy month of Ramadan. One of the children, Ali Betakji, was setting off fire crackers and running around the camp, according to witnesses. A separate group of youths from the Barakat family, and who belong to Jind Al-Sham, was bothered by the noise from the firecrackers and began to "bully" Betakji, witnesses said. Betakji sought the help of his older brother, Mustapha, a member of Al-Shaabie Al-Nasri. A fight soon broke out between Mustapha and the Barakat youth, with the hurling of insults quickly escalating into to an exchange of gunfire between the two groups. Asmar, who was standing nearby at the time, was struck in the head by a stray bullet. He later died on the way to Hammoud hospital. According to his family, Asmar was playing with relatives near the house when the fighting started and ran to see what was happening.
A choice Christians can't afford to make
By Michael Young
Daily Star staff
Thursday, October 05, 2006
In the increasingly small canvas that is Lebanese Christian politics, the last 10 days have been telling. Two Sundays ago, the Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea presided over a high political mass bringing together his followers in Harissa, in an effort to regain lost ground among his coreligionists. And last Saturday, Michel Aoun organized a spirited riposte at a gathering for the wartime displaced, in Hadeth, where he revived familiar tropes about Christian marginalization. That both men are fishing in the same pond was only half of what made their exertions interesting; the other is that they are moving their community in the wrong direction.
Take Geagea's Harissa speech. The Lebanese Forces leader reaffirmed the centrality of the Taif Accord as a way out of Lebanon's divisions, which was to his credit. He well knows that the document of national reconciliation was built on a redistribution of power away from the Christians, and that its abuse by the postwar Syrian-led apparat only made it more antipathetic to his own electorate, as well as to Aoun's. So it took, and will continue to take, audacity on his part to back Taif. The proof, however, will be in whether Geagea can help persuade Christians to move toward political deconfessionalism, at least in Parliament - with compensation coming elsewhere, perhaps through the creation of a confessional Senate.
But did Geagea really need to mention that, before Hizbullah's resistance in the South, the Lebanese resistance started in Ain al-Remmaneh? He was referring to how the Christian militias fought the Palestinians and their local allies there at the beginning of the Civil War in 1975. For the Lebanese Forces, or more accurately its predecessor militias, that moment was a seminal one. But Ain al-Remmaneh has a different meaning today than it did three decades ago. Today the quarter is a front line against the Shiite community, a place where Christians and Shiites stand across from each other with barely concealed distaste. In conjuring up that image, Geagea, intentionally or not, substituted the Shiites for the Palestinians.
This harshening of the ideological dividing line is to be expected from a leader who still evokes misgiving among many Christians. Geagea's war record, like that of the other former militia leaders, is one he will not easily break away from, so he has had to recast his past in light of present realities. In this, Geagea has benefited from the fact that he has been able to recruit among mostly young followers, with no memory of the war; that Aoun has lost support thanks to what many see as his unnatural alliance with Hizbullah; and that Lebanon's Christians are facing an existential crisis of historical proportions, with no clear sense of where they are heading.
Geagea's problem, however, is that those very same realities that feed Christian angst threaten to undermine the best means the Lebanese Forces have for alleviating them. Geagea's approach has been based on an alliance with the March 14 movement, but more specifically with the Hariri camp. In the sectarian political context, this has effectively translated into an alliance with the Sunnis; and, with Geagea so keen to mark off his territory and ways from Hizbullah, a de facto alliance against the Shiites.
Aoun has behaved in much the same single-minded way, though leaning in the other direction. His followers will applaud when the general describes himself as the custodian of a national project, however the sectarian rhetoric among Aounist supporters is as hardened as among other groups and communities. And it just so happens that it has been directed mainly against the Sunnis - or more specifically against what was deemed to be Sunni haughtiness under the late Rafik Hariri, helping prop up a Syrian order that marginalized both Aoun and the Christians. One can debate the accuracy of this interpretation, but it certainly did no good for Saad Hariri to back an election law last summer that confirmed the worst Christian fears in this regard - fears that Aoun later exploited to justify shifting his movement away from Hariri and closer to Hizbullah.
So, what we effectively have today is the two largest Christian parties disagreeing over many things, but most importantly over their relationship with the Sunni and Shiite communities. This is a recipe not only for ensuring that Christians are sidelined further, it shows an utter absence of clarity about where the community stands in Lebanon's future.
The irony is that when he returned to Lebanon, Aoun had a different view. It took months for him to heave himself into the "Shiite camp," and among his entourage he had at first made the sensible argument that Christians should not take sides when it came to the Sunni-Shiite divide. But like so much else the general has said in the past, this was forgotten when he concluded that his presidential aspirations required taking sides: Hizbullah suddenly seemed a necessary patron in the face of strong resistance to an Aoun presidency from the March 14 coalition and the Maronite patriarch.
But can the Christians remain neutral? Being neither here nor there, neither in March 8 nor March 14, is hardly feasible. Neutrality can often be an anteroom to irrelevance. There is also the fact that, for now, March 14 is the only serious domestic force denying a return of Syrian hegemony over Lebanon, while Hizbullah's agenda is too tied in with those of Iran and Syria to provide any real reassurance of Lebanese independence.
That's why any redefinition of a Christian role requires two steps: for all the parties, including the Lebanese Forces, to open systematic contacts with all political and religious groups, to the exclusion of none, even if the ride is a bumpy one. That includes Hizbullah. But also for the Aounists to terminate their Pollyannaish repetition that Syria has left Lebanon for good. Nothing in the behavior of Bashar Assad's regime in the past year suggests this is true. Lebanon as a sovereign entity from Syria remains in danger, thanks partly to the consent of Assad's local allies, notably Hizbullah. The aim of a Christian-Shiite dialogue should be, in part, to anchor Hizbullah in the national consensus on relations with Syria.
A second step requires defining where Christians expect to be in the coming decades. In seeking to remain equidistant from the Sunnis and Shiites, Christians need, first, to shape a philosophical underpinning guiding this. It must be defined by the community as a whole, through an exchange of ideas, a national Christian round-table, and probably some founding document that all can refer to. The high points of such a document must include a flexible interpretation of Taif, leaving the door open to consensual moves toward partial or total deconfessionalization; a statement of principle that Christians will be a bridge between Lebanon's other communities; and a broader vision for how Lebanese and other Middle Eastern Christians see their future in a region where religious intolerance is on the rise.
Such a multifaceted approach is far more advisable than what we have today: Christian mobilization through polarization, of which both Geagea and Aoun are guilty. But most important, Lebanon cannot long last as it is if the Christians feel they have to choose between Muslim partners. For them all Muslims are partners, and must continue to be.
**Michael Young is opinion editor of THE DAILY STAR.
Only among friends, Rice will not get much done
By David Ignatius
Daily Star staff
Thursday, October 05, 2006
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is in the Middle East this week, trying to bolster America's allies to confront enemies list that includes Iran, Syria, Hizbullah, Hamas and the all-party anarchy in Iraq. My worry is that Rice is becoming a traveling version of Baghdad's "Green Zone," talking about hopeful strategies that are disconnected from events on the ground.
The focus of Rice's trip is to talk with moderate Arab governments - Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf states - about how to form a united front against Iranian-backed extremism. This mission of containing Iran has become increasingly urgent with growing signs that Iran is resisting a diplomatic compromise over its nuclear program. In recent weeks, European diplomats have offered various formulas to finesse the West's demand that Iran suspend uranium enrichment as a precondition for talks, but so far the mullahs in Tehran haven't budged.
Talking to your allies is always a good idea, but consider the parties Rice isn't engaging on this trip: Syria, Hamas, Hizbullah and Iran - the sources of the trouble. The idea of traveling to a Mideast in crisis and talking only to your friends is, I'm sorry to say, the equivalent of meeting Iraqi leaders in the protected Green Zone and imagining that you are thereby stopping the brutal killing out in the "Red Zone," which is the term American officials have been using in Baghdad for the real world.
US officials talk hopefully about how the recent war in Lebanon "clarified the fissures" in the region and encouraged the moderate Arab states finally to take decisive action to curb Iran and its allies. They hope the squeeze on the Hamas government will finally embolden Palestinians to embrace the moderate leadership of President Mahmoud Abbas and resume negotiations with Israel. To which a cynic would respond: Are you kidding? This is the Middle East.
The lesson for Rice should have been clear after the war in Lebanon: Left to themselves, our moderate Arab allies will make the deals that are necessary for their survival. They will quietly cheer for America in Iraq and Israel against Hizbullah - until it's clear that the extremists are winning. Then, for self-protection, they will lean in the other direction. I'm told that Sunni women from Bedouin tribes in Jordan were carrying amulets of the Shiite militia leader Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah at a wedding in Amman last week. That's a small sign of which way the wind is blowing.
America needs to break out of its diplomatic Green Zone, or it will become prisoner of events beyond its control. What's needed is aggressive, innovative policy that, to use a favorite Israeli term, "creates new facts on the ground." To me, that means a process of engagement - especially now, when the mullahs in Tehran and their allies in Damascus and Beirut seem so afraid of it.
We should send an ambassador back to Damascus, tomorrow. We should encourage the widest possible contacts with Iran, leading to an eventual resumption of diplomatic ties. We should treat reconstruction of postwar Lebanon with the urgency we should have applied to postwar Iraq. We should deepen our contacts with a Lebanese government that includes two Hizbullah ministers. We should designate a special presidential envoy for the Middle East - the obvious choices would be former Secretary of State James A. Baker III or former President Bill Clinton.
Absent more aggressive action, the situation will keep slipping away from the United States, day by day. Iraq shows the price of the Green Zone mentality. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki says all the right things about a "government of national unity," but every night dozens more bodies are dumped in the streets. Tragically, Maliki can't connect his upbeat unity talk with reality. A good example of the disconnect is the fundamental economic issue of oil: Maliki's central government has been stalled working out the details for sharing Iraq's potentially massive future oil revenues. Meanwhile, the regional government in Kurdistan is about to sign new oil drilling agreements with three companies, including one in the US, with more deals pending. The Kurds' argument is simple: The Green Zone government is a fiction. It's time to move on our own.
To escape a traveling Green Zone mentality in the Middle East, Rice needs to create a process for engaging America's friends and adversaries. This is not a time for holding back, for testing the waters, for "staying the course" of current diplomacy. If we keep doing what we have been doing, we will keep getting what we've got - which is a mess.
**Syndicated columnist David Ignatius is published regularly by THE DAILY STAR.
Rice Calls for Rearming the Lebanese Army, Strengthening Government
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has stressed the need to rearm the Lebanese army and strengthen Premier Fouad Saniora's government to counter Hizbullah.
She said she discussed with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al Faisal in Riyadh Tuesday the necessity to support Lebanon which she said is "under considerable pressure" after the Israel-Hizbullah war. "We have talked also about the need …to support its rearming and reform of its armed forces, which now are being used to extend Lebanese authority throughout the country," Rice said about the deployment of the army in south Lebanon, Hizbullah's stronghold. Rice also slammed Syria for not being part of moderate forces in the Middle East and for transferring arms to Hizbullah.
"The Syrian regime has not been one of the regimes that are supporting those moderate forces, in fact, quite the opposite. Syria has been a major transshipment point for weapons from Iran to Hizbullah. Syria's negative role in Lebanon is well known," she said.
She said that despite the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon under international and local pressure in the aftermath of ex-premier Rafik Hariri's murder, "Syria continues to be a force that could stabilize Lebanon and that engages in continued intimidation of those leaders."
She said it was in Syria's hands the choice of becoming part of countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan that see no place for "stabilizing forces" in the region. "And so it's extremely important that Syria make a choice. This is not a choice for the United States to make, it's a choice for Syria to make," she said. On the second leg of her Middle East tour, Rice met with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit.
She said during a joint news conference in Cairo that she discussed with her Egyptian counterpart ways to strengthen Saniora's government "against the state within the state that is the activity of Hizbullah that led to the conflict this summer, how to help the Lebanese government fully implement 1701."
U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 brought an end to Israel's 34-day offensive on Lebanon. It calls for a weapons-free south Lebanon and urges the deployment of the Lebanese army along with U.N. peacekeepers in the south to maintain the truce.
Rice also called on Islamic militants to cooperate with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, saying the Hamas government cannot govern in the region.
Rice was to meet Wednesday with Abbas as part of her visit to the Middle East. She is seeking to boost Abbas in his standoff with Hamas radicals who control part of the Palestinian government. Saudi Arabia and Egypt both said the Middle East's many volatile conflicts are hinged to Israel's long conflict with the Palestinians. Rice met in Cairo with diplomats from Egypt and seven other Arab allies in hopes of reviving the moribund Arab-Israeli peace process and making headway on other regional issues. During that session the ministers of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council and Egypt and Jordan gave broad support to Abbas, Rice said.(Naharnet-AP) Beirut, 04 Oct 06, 08:26
UNIFIL Will Act 'Forcefully' Against Any Hostile Activity or Threat
The U.N. peacekeeping force has moved to strengthen its hold on south Lebanon -- which had been under Hizbullah control until the July-August war with Israel -- by announcing it will "forcefully" act against any hostile activity or threat. The U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said Tuesday it could resort to the "use of force beyond self-defense," but did not give details on practical means to prevent "hostile activities" in the area.
UNIFIL's announcement signals a new strategy to establish security and assist the Lebanese army in patrolling a weapons-free zone between the Israeli border and the Litani River, 30 kilometers deep. It comes after Hizbullah boasted it is still in the south, and Israel warned that it will not tolerate armed fighters along the border as was the case when fighting broke out July 12 after guerrillas crossed the frontier and captured two Israeli soldiers.
President Emile Lahoud emphasized UNIFIL's mission was one of "peace." "Consequently, it (UNIFIL) should remain neutral … and should not take sides with or against any group," Lahoud told a visiting Australian Parliamentary delegation on Tuesday. "It is not UNIFIL's task to disarm the Lebanese resistance or confront its men." Defining the rules of engagement, UNIFIL's statement warned that U.N. commanders "have sufficient authority to act forcefully when confronted with hostile activity of any kind." "Should the situation present any risk of resumption of hostile activities, UNIFIL rules of engagement allow U.N. forces to respond as required," said the statement issued by the command in southern Lebanon.
"UNIFIL commanders have sufficient authority to act forcefully when confronted with hostile activity of any kind," it said.
"All UNIFIL personnel may exercise the inherent right of self-defense. In addition, the use of force beyond self-defense may be applied to ensure that UNIFIL's area of operations is not utilized for hostile activities," the statement warned. It said the peacekeepers can "resist attempts by forceful means to prevent UNIFIL from discharging its duties under the mandate of the Security Council." UNIFIL asserted the right to use force beyond self-defense, including the protection of "U.N. personnel, facilities, installations and equipment; to ensure the security and freedom of movement of U.N. personnel and humanitarian workers; and to protect civilians under imminent threat of physical violence in its areas of deployment, within its capabilities."
The U.N. force and the Lebanese army have previously declared they do not intend to pursue and disarm Hizbullah or go after hidden weapons. Israel has demanded the disarmament of the fighters. But UNIFIL, with some 5,200 troops in the volatile south, says that it along with the Lebanese military will crack down on the flow of weapons into and around south Lebanon. The Lebanese military has deployed 15,000 troops.
The statement said UNIFIL, whose task is to support the Lebanese army which has been deployed in the south for the first time in 30 years, "has set up temporary checkpoints at key locations within its area of operations." Lebanese troops are establishing "permanent checkpoints ... to stop and search passing vehicles," it said, and would act if "specific information is available regarding movement of unauthorized weapons or equipment.
"However, in situations where the LAF (Lebanese Armed Forces) are not in a position to do so, UNIFIL will do everything necessary to fulfill its mandate in accordance with Security Council Resolution 1701," it said. Resolution 1701, which ended the Israel-Hizbullah war on August 14, calls for peacekeepers to ensure the south Lebanon border area with Israel is "free of any armed personnel and weapons other than those of the Lebanese armed forces and UNIFIL." Since the ceasefire, Hizbullah fighters have kept out of uniform, with their weapons out of sight.
Lebanese troops and U.N. peacekeepers have already deployed in most of the areas vacated by Israel, after it withdrew Sunday from nearly all of south Lebanon in line with the cease-fire resolution. UNIFIL is required to eventually beef-up its forces on the ground in south Lebanon to 15,000 soldiers under the U.N. resolution. But Israeli troops are still present on the Lebanese side of one border village. UNIFIL has said it was working with both sides to settle the dispute over Ghajar and hopes to resolve it this week. The National News Agency said Wednesday that Israeli warplanes flew over the southern towns of Marjayoun and Kfar Kila. A Lebanese army statement on Tuesday also said four Israeli jets overflew southern towns and villages as well as areas in northern Lebanon. UNIFIL has asked Israel to end this practice that violates the cease-fire. Israeli officials said previously that air patrols would continue. A military spokesman declined comment on the latest overflight reports.(AP-AFP-Naharnet) (Outside AFP photo shows French U.N. military convoy patrolling along the Lebanese-Israeli border near the southern town of Marjayoun and inside AFP photo shows Spanish soldiers patrolling the southern town of Kfar Kila) Beirut, 03 Oct 06, 17:45
Have Turkish Agents Penetrated
Highest Echelons of US Government?
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
The Vanity Fair magazine published last year an investigative article alleging that the American Turkish Council (ATC) and the Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA) had conspired, among other things, to make illegal campaign contributions to the Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, in return for blocking a congressional resolution on the Armenian Genocide. The article also mentioned that Turkish agents had infiltrated the highest echelons of the U.S. government.
The main source for some of the Vanity Fair revelations was Sibel Edmonds who had worked as a Turkish translator for the FBI. Unfortunately, she could not disclose most of what she knew on this sensitive subject, as she is legally prohibited from making public the confidential FBI documents that she had translated in the course of her work. All attempts by U.S. courts or Members of Congress to get out the full facts have been quashed by the Bush Administration, using the cover of protecting national security.
There have been several disclosures in recent months, mostly from anonymous sources, which shed further light on this matter. A few days ago, investigative journalist Wayne Madsen posted a special report (WMR) on his website which included alarming allegations about the extent of illegal activities by Turkish groups in the United States. As the report is based on confidential intelligence sources, there is no way of independently verifying its content. Here are excerpts from that report:
In 2001, "the FBI counter-intelligence operation was investigating a weapons smuggling and influence-peddling ring that was centered on the activities of the American Turkish Council (ATC), a major Turkish lobbying organization in Washington, DC headed up by George H. W. Bush National Security Adviser, retired Gen. Brent Scowcroft. According to U.S. intelligence sources, a principal player in the ring was [Marc] Grossman, a career foreign service officer who served as U.S. ambassador to Turkey from 1994 to 1997 and then moved back to Washington where he served as Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs." In June 2001, Grossman, by then-Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, made two phone calls to two foreign intelligence agents in Washington, DC. "The calls were intercepted by the FBI."
"At the end of June 2001, the FBI learned, through its surveillance of the ring, Beyaz Enerji (White Energy), a Turkish energy firm, told its ATC interlocutors in Washington that it was sending a high-level team to the United States to negotiate the procurement of nuclear materials for Turkey's nuclear power program. In turn, the ATC contacted four individuals who had access to Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and Los Alamos National Laboratories in New Mexico and asked them to arrange a three month visit to the labs by the Turkish nuclear specialists (October through December 2001) to ascertain Turkish requirements.
"The Beyaz Enerji group also made known its desire to purchase U.S. nuclear energy consulting firms that maintained access to facilities like Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, and Lawrence Livermore in California. However, at the same time Beyaz Enerji was making its play for access into U.S. nuclear labs, Brewster Jennings and Associates, the CIA cover company of Valerie Plame Wilson, was very close to penetrating the Beyaz Enerji ring, known to the CIA as part of a major nuclear black market operation involving key players in Turkey, Pakistan, Israel, Iran, and the former Soviet Central Asian states. According to CIA sources, the ring also involved a key ATC ally in Washington -- the America Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a group that provided important access to top U.S. political leaders for Turkish military and industrial chiefs.
"When Beyaz Enerji began to encounter ‘consultants’ with Brewster Jennings, they expressed an interest to their ATC interlocutors in buying the firm along with other energy consulting companies. In the two phone calls intercepted by the FBI, Grossman told the called parties to ‘stay away from Brewster Jennings . . . they're the government . . . they're nothing but a cover.’ One of the calls was to a Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) top agent in Washington. The other call, bearing an almost identical message, was made to a Northrop Grumman official who was a key player with the ATC. The Northrop Grumman official made a phone call to his ATC handler, stating, ‘Our guy warned us off Brewster Jennings.’ A U.S. intelligence source stated that ‘Grossman's name was all over the FBI wiretaps in 2001.’
"Grossman, who now works for the Cohen Group of former Defense Secretary William Cohen, was, according to U.S. intelligence sources, a subject of interest to counter-intelligence agents since his stint as U.S. ambassador in Ankara. One of Grossman's embassy officials was U.S. Air Force Major Douglas Dickerson, who worked in the embassy's military attaché office and was responsible for logistics matters with the Turkish military. While in Ankara, Dickerson met and later married Melek Can Harputlu, who U.S. intelligence sources claim was on the payroll of the MIT -- the Turkish Intelligence Agency. U.S. intelligence sources confirmed that Grossman ordered Dickerson to assist International Advisors, Inc. (IAI), a lobbying firm registered in 1989 by Douglas Feith [former Under Secretary of Defense] under the stewardship of Richard Perle [former Assistant Secretary of Defense]. The main task of IAI was to represent the government of Turkey in the United States and ‘promote the objective of U.S.-Turkey defense industrial cooperation.’ IAI, for which Feith was CEO and sole stockholder, also steered hundreds of thousands of dollars to Feith's law firm, Feith and Zell (FANZ).
"Soon, Dickerson, under Grossman's aegis, was promoted to handle all U.S. weapons procurement for Turkey, Azerbaijan (where Richard Armitage was heading up the U.S.-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce), Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan. In 1996, the Defense Department's Inspector General's office launched an investigation of a U.S. military officer at the Ankara embassy who was caught receiving a bribe from MIT agents. Shortly after the investigation started, Dickerson was transferred to a U.S. Air Force base in Germany. Dickerson's wife, Melek Can worked for the German-Turkish Business and Cultural Association, known to be a cover for MIT activities in Germany.
"In 2001, after George W. Bush became president, Dickerson was promoted and placed in charge of weapons procurement for Turkey, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington. Melek Can obtained positions with the ATC and ATAA.
"Following the 9/11 attacks, Melek Can applied for a translator job at the FBI's Washington Field Office. In a Justice Department Inspector General report, it is stated that Melek Can failed to list on her application her prior jobs with ATC, ATAA, and the German-Turkish Business and Cultural Association. When FBI translator Sibel Edmonds (a Turkish, Farsi, and Azerbaijani translator who worked with Melek Can) complained publicly about MIT's penetration of the FBI, Senators Patrick Leahy and Charles Grassley pointedly asked the FBI why no Special Background Investigation (SBI) was conducted on Melek Can. The FBI's responded that Melek Can entered the FBI ‘through the backdoor’ with her husband's Top Secret/SBI being sufficient grounds to grant Melek Can access to FBI classified information. At the same time, the Dickersons were, according to U.S. intelligence sources, working closely with the ATC.
"Edmonds' charges against the Dickersons were highlighted in a June 2002 Washington Post article. On September 9, 2002, the Dickersons left Washington for Belgium, where Major Dickerson was assigned to the U.S. Air Force NATO office. Soon, there were three separate investigations of Edmonds' espionage charges against the Dickersons: the Justice Department IG probe, a similar probe by the Department of Defense IG led by Joseph Schmitz, and a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee investigation led by Leahy and Grassley.
"Two weeks after the Dickersons arrived in Belgium, Schmitz sent a letter stating that Major Dickerson's relationship with the ATC while at DIA was ‘within the scope of his duties.’ The DOD IG terminated the investigation.”
Attorney General John Ashcroft then "invoked the State Secrets Privilege and imposed a ‘gag order’ on Edmonds' making any further comments to the media about her wrongful termination suit against the FBI, which was prompted by her raising concerns about the Dickersons. The invocation of the State Secrets Privilege by Ashcroft was specifically requested by the Defense and State Departments.
"Upon publication of a Vanity Fair article in August 2005 about the Edmonds case and those of other national security whistleblowers, the Department of Defense and U.S. Air Force opened a joint IG investigation of Major Dickerson and Edmonds' charges, who was still safely ensconced at the NATO office in Belgium.
"When the DoD/USAF IG investigators asked Major Dickerson once again about the allegations that had re-surfaced against him, U.S. intelligence sources report he told them that he would ‘start talking’ if the investigation proceeded. The DoD/USAF IG investigation of Dickerson was once again quickly terminated. In January 2006, Dickerson was promoted in rank to Lieutenant Colonel and transferred to the U.S. Air Force base in Yokota, Japan, where he was assigned as the 374th Logistics Readiness Squadron’s acting commander.
"U.S. intelligence sources stated that the ‘same people’ who have continually protected Perle and Feith since the 1980s were also protecting Dickerson and Grossman. CIA sources, including those who served in Istanbul tracking nuclear smuggling in the late 1980s, also confirm that the Turkish-U.S. nuclear black marketeering ring was directly tied to the Abdul Qadeer Khan nuclear smuggling ring in Pakistan, an operation that sold sensitive nuclear technology to Iran, North Korea, and Libya. The ATC and ATAA in Washington are directly tied to and supported by AIPAC and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), reported a U.S. counter-intelligence source. In fact, JINSA is an ‘Aegean’ member of the ATC. The source said that Valerie Plame Wilson was targeting the ATC and Turkey at the height of her counter-proliferation work in 2001, but special interests associated with AIPAC and JINSA, which the source claims control ATC, scuttled Plame Wilson's operation by exposing Brewster Jennings as a CIA front company.
"The CIA's counter-narcotics division is also keenly interested in ATC and its connections to NATO. A Turkish hashish kingpin, Huseyin Baybasin, now jailed in the Netherlands for narcotics smuggling, stated that the Turkish military and its NATO interlocutors are totally involved in the drug trade in Turkey. He said the Turkish military uses MIT and Turkish embassies, consulates, military missions (particularly the Turkish military attaché offices in London and Amsterdam) as drug smuggling facilitators. The Turkish military also reportedly uses its hated Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) enemies to help transport drugs throughout Western Asia, especially heroin now being produced in Afghanistan at record high levels….
"Since Grossman joined the Cohen Group as Vice Chairman in January 2005, the firm has become a top client for the ATC. In October 2005, Grossman was appointed a board member of Ihlas Holding, a media corporation that recently sold its TGRT Television network to Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp. U.S. law enforcement sources confirm that Feith remains under a DoD IG investigation that is being spurred by North Carolina Republican Rep. Walter Jones."
There is a clear need for a congressional hearing to expose all the facts of this very serious matter. However, it would be impossible to hold such a hearing as long as the White House and the Congress are controlled by Republicans who are eager to protect not only their own leadership in the House but also many top officials in both the Pentagon and the State Department who are allegedly involved in these illegal activities.
Furthermore, while the Bush administration is aggressively confronting the Korean and Iranian nuclear programs, shouldn’t the American public expect a similar concern for Turkey’s efforts in this regard, particularly since it is alleged that high ranking current and former administration officials are covertly assisting Turkey to go nuclear?