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You are from your father the devil, and you choose to do your father’s desires
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 08/41-45: "You are indeed doing what your father does.’ They said to him, ‘We are not illegitimate children; we have one father, God himself.’Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now I am here. I did not come on my own, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot accept my word. You are from your father the devil, and you choose to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me."

It is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but the doers of the law who will be justified
Letter to the Romans 02/09-16: "There will be anguish and distress for everyone who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honour and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality. All who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but the doers of the law who will be justified. When Gentiles, who do not possess the law, do instinctively what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, to which their own conscience also bears witness; and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them. on the day when, according to my gospel, God, through Jesus Christ, will judge the secret thoughts of all."

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 18-19/15
How serious are Hezbollah’s compromises in Lebanon/Myra Abdallah/Now Lebanon/November 18/15
Why the world, including Lebanon, grieved for Paris and not Beirut/Michelle Ghoussoub/Now Lebanon/November 18/15
Acting on secret Obama-Putin Syria deal, Moscow’s air strikes focus first on rebels, next on ISIS/DEBKAfile Special Report November 18/15
Video By Iranian Leader Khamenei's Office: U.S. And Its Allies Were Behind Paris Attacks/MEMRI/November 18/15
Iran: Nuclear Deal Going, Going, Gone/Lawrence A. Franklin/Gatestone Institute/November 18/15
The True Cost of Europe’s Muslim “Enrichment”/George Igler/Gatestone Institute/November 18/15
Raymond Ibrahim: Obama administration Refuses to Arm Persecuted Christians Fighting ISIS/By Raymond Ibrahim on November 18/15
Netanyahu: 'In Israel, as in France, terror is terror'/Akiva Eldar/Al-Monitor/November 18/15
Why Paris attacks will create backlash for migrants in Europe/Brenda Stoter/Al-Monitor/November 18/15
Will Rouhani and Zarif defy Khamenei by holding direct talks with US on Syria/Ali Omidi/Al-Monitor/November 18/15
Democrats warn Syrian refugee ban would empower Islamic State/Julian Pecquet/Al-Monitor/November 18/15
Paris ‘mastermind’ not arrested in police raid/By Asma Ajroudi Al Arabiya News/18 November 2015
This is no World War III – ISIS is still weak/Chris Doyle/Alarabiya?November 18/15
The ISIS ‘Storm’ and policy implications/Dr. Theodore Karasik/Alarabiya?November 18/15
A Syria intervention the world will be forced into/Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Alarabiya?November 18/15
ElBaradei and an Arab renaissance plan/Jamal Khashoggi/Alarabiya?November 18/15
Comparing live coverage between Paris and Beirut/Diana Moukalled/Alarabiya/November 18/15

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin for Canadian Related News published on November 18-19/15
Canada: Police shoot Muslim wearing apparent suicide vest and holding triggering device
Peel cops shoot suspected suicide bomber,
Family of mentally-ill Mississauga man question police shooting

Canada: Police shoot Muslim wearing apparent suicide vest and holding triggering device
Jihad Watch/November 18, 2015
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/11/canada-police-shoot-muslim-wearing-apparent-suicide-vest-and-holding-triggering-device
His family, however, says that he was mentally ill and that they are “shocked” by the whole thing, and that police unfairly targeted the poor man. You might almost think they were reading out of some playbook.
Peel cops shoot suspected suicide bomber,
Chris Doucette, Toronto Sun, November 17, 2015:
Hours after the horrific terror attacks in Paris, a stand-off unfolded between police officers and a suspected suicide bomber in a Mississauga neighbourhood, the Toronto Sun has learned.
French officials were still counting their dead when Peel Regional Police officers ended a frightening confrontation by opening fire on the 26-year-old man at Golden Orchard Dr. and Grand Forks Rd. — near Bloor St. and Dixie Rd. — shortly after 2 a.m. Saturday.
In the aftermath of the shooting, police downplayed the incident saying only that the call involved “an emotionally disturbed person.”
But the presence of the service’s Explosive Disposal Unit and heavily armed Tactical officers at the scene suggested a far more serious threat was afoot.
A source, who asked not to be named, revealed to Sun on Monday that the bomb squad responded because the man in question was wearing what appeared to be a suicide vest and holding what looked like a triggering device.It was not immediately known if the vest actually contained explosives.
But suicide bombers and gunmen killed 129 victims in Paris less than eight hours earlier. So police, who were on heightened alert, took the threat seriously.
source said.
Fortunately, the shooting was not followed by an explosion.
The man, whose nationality was not immediately clear, was rushed to the trauma centre at St. Mike’s hospital in Toronto. He is expected to survive.
Another source said investigators have since determined the vest was not real….“

Family of mentally-ill Mississauga man question police shooting
CBC News, November 17, 2015:
The family of a man shot by police Saturday is upset that some media are referring to him as a suspected suicide bomber.
Peel Police say the incident unfolded after they responded to call about a suicidal man in the Grand Forks Road and Golden Orchard Drive in Mississauga early Saturday morning.
They say “there was an interaction with a male, he was shot by police,” and then taken to a trauma centre.
According to the Toronto Sun, the bomb squad also responded to the call “because the man in question was wearing what appeared to be a suicide vest and holding what looked like a triggering device.”
Police are not confirming that, but one neighbour told CBC News police called her and directed her to move her family to a safe place in the house.
The family of Hamza Abdi is upset about how police handled the situation.
They believe the 26-year-old, who suffers from bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and anxiety, left the house because he was anxiously looking for cigarettes.
Abdi’s family said he was wearing a winter jacket when he left the house and the only thing they know he had with him was an electric shaver.
Why did he take an electric shaver with him to buy cigarettes?
They claim Peel police knew about Abdi’s mental health issues because of previous calls. And they believe tensions following the Paris attacks may have played a role in how police responded.
Hamzi’s older brother, Mohamoud Abdi, told CBC News he was “puzzled and shocked and couldn’t believe” media reports calling his brother a suspected suicide bomber.
Shocked!“My brother is Canadian as you can get, he came here at a young age,” Mohamoud said, adding that Hamzi was never violent toward anyone.
Hamzi has since been released from hospital. He faces several charges, including uttering threats, failing to comply and a charge of possessing an imitation weapon.

Raouche Rock Bathed in Colors of French, Lebanese Flags amid Protest
Naharnet/November 18/15/Beirut's famous Pigeons' Rock, better known as the Rock of Raouche, was illuminated Wednesday in the colors of the French and Lebanese flags in homage to the victims of the latest terrorist attacks. French Ambassador to Lebanon Emmanuel Bonne took part in the illumination ceremony at Raouche's seaside corniche. The initiative was launched by Beirut Governor Ziad Shbib. Thanking “all Lebanese” for their solidarity with his country, Bonne expressed his appreciation of the move. “Today is a day for solidarity and friendship between Lebanon and France,” he said. Stressing that all countries have rejected terrorism, the envoy called on everyone to “unite in the face of this terrorist threat.”For his part, Shbib said Lebanon must confront terrorism through “resorting to the state of law.” Bonne, Shbib and the rest of the participants were separated by a police human chain from a protest organized by relatives, friends and supporters of jailed Lebanese militant Georges Abdallah.
The activists demanded the release of Abdallah from French jails and denounced the French state while expressing solidarity with the Paris victims. He was jailed for life in 1987 after being convicted in the 1982 murders of U.S. military attache Charles Robert Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov.Last year, a French court annulled a parole granted to Abdallah, after postponing its final decision several times. Abdallah has been eligible for parole since 1999, but seven previous applications were all rejected. The illumination initiative comes four days ahead of Lebanon's Independence Day, which marks the end of the French mandate over the country in 1943, after 23 years of colonial rule.It also comes several days after Islamic State attacks killed 44 people in the Beirut southern suburb of Bourj al-Barajneh and 129 people in the French capital Paris. Hundreds of people were also injured in the Dahieh bombings and the France shootings and blasts. Several Arab and Western cities had expressed their support for France and Lebanon in a similar fashion in recent days. On Sunday, the Great Pyramid in Egypt was bathed in French, Lebanese and Russian colors in homage to the victims of attacks in Paris and Dahieh and the Sinai plane crash. In Dubai, meanwhile, the world's tallest building the Burj al-Khalifa was lit up Sunday in the colors of the French national flag. Elsewhere in the Gulf, Kuwait City's landmark towers were also illuminated in the red, white and blue of France. On Saturday, the iconic sails of the Sydney Opera House and New York's One World Trade Center were also lit in the French national colors.

Bomb-Making Material Seized as 1 Lebanese, Many Syrians Held in Nationwide Raids
Naharnet/November 18/15/A quantity of bomb-making material and arms was seized Wednesday and a Lebanese suspect was captured as several Syrians were arrested in raids across the country, as part of a massive crackdown launched in the wake of the Dahieh blasts. “The Intelligence Bureau managed today to seize 150 kilograms of steel balls and material and tools used in the making of suicide vests,” the Internal Security Forces said in a statement. It also arrested Lebanese national Kh. Sh., “who has ties to the terrorist network involved in the Bourj al-Barajneh bombings.”In an earlier statement, the ISF said four Lebanese were arrested and around 180 kilos of explosives and three suicide vests were seized during the raids that were staged Tuesday in the Tripoli districts of al-Dam wal Farz and al-Qobbeh. Weapons, steel balls, detonators, and fuses used in the making of suicide belts were also confiscated in the raids. The ISF noted that “more than 50 suicide vests” could have been produced from the seized bomb-making material. The four arrested on Tuesday are accused of having communicated with the detainee Ibrahim al-Jamal, who was arrested around a week ago in al-Qobbeh carrying a suicide belt. The five men are members of the Islamic State network that carried out a twin suicide bombing on Thursday in the Beirut southern suburb of Bourj al-Barajneh. The blasts killed 44 people and wounded 239 others, in the worst such attack in years. Security forces have in recent days also raided apartments in Bourj al-Barajneh, Ashrafieh and Tripoli, arresting a number of Syrian and Lebanese suspects. On Wednesday, state-run National News Agency said army intelligence agents arrested several Syrians in Tripoli, the southern city of Sidon, and the Beirut districts of Hamra and Gemmayze. Six Syrians were arrested in Gemmayze as several others were apprehended in Hamra, NNA said. It later reported that army intelligence agents had also arrested four Syrians in a raid in Sidon's al-Bawaba al-Fawqa area and several Syrians in a raid in Tripoli's al-Mutran Street. The agency did not say if the army's arrests were linked to the Bourj al-Barajneh attacks.

Top ISIS official’s aide coordinating Lebanon cells: report
Now Lebanon/November 18/15/BEIRUT – An aide for a top ISIS official has been coordinating the extremist group’s terror cells in Lebanon, according to a local newspaper. Al-Akhbar reported Wednesday that a Raqqa-based ISIS member named Abu al-Walid has served as the liaison officer who has ordered Lebanon-based suicide cells into action. “The name of this man recurred in the statements of a number of the detainees linked to the terrorist cells,” the paper cited a well-informed source as saying. Most prominent among the detainees, Ibrahim Barakat—ISIS’s purported top official in Lebanon’s Tripoli—had mentioned Abu al-Walid under interrogation, the pro-Hezbollah newspaper added. Al-Akhbar provided a brief profile of Abu al-Walid, reporting that he serves as an aide to Abu Mohammad al-Adnani, ISIS’s official spokesperson and head of Syria operations. “This Abu al-Waleed is currently in the Syrian city of Raqqa. It should be noted that he has previously entered Lebanon… via an illegal border crossing in Wadi Khaled to receive treatment in Tripoli after he was injured in his thigh,” the report said. Al-Akhbar said its source believed Abu al-Walid was probably “the extremist group’s security official in the Lebanese arena.” “Information suggests that he is from the Qusayr area, has previously lived in the city of Aleppo and is one of ISIS spokesperson Abu Mohammed al-Adnani’s aides.”ISIS claimed credit for the twin bombings in Beirut’s Bourj al-Barajneh quarter that left at least 46 people dead in the deadliest terror attack to hit Lebanon’s capital since the 1975-1990 Civil War. The country’s security forces have sprung into action to round up the cell responsible for the attack, with Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk announcing Thursday that the Internal Security Forces had arrested “the entire network behind the Bourj al-Barajneh bombings within 48 hours.”Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces also rounded up a cell in the northern city of Tripoli preparing terrorist attacks. The ISF Information Branch late Tuesday afternoon conducted a wide-scale raid in Tripoli’s Qobbe, seizing a large cache of explosives a week after arresting a would-be suicide bomber in the same neighborhood of the city.

10-Member Parliamentary Panel Formed to Devise Electoral Law
Naharnet/November 18/15/A parliamentary committee was set up Wednesday to devise a new electoral law, as part of the political settlement that had led to holding a legislative session on Thursday and Friday after around a one-year interruption. “The panel is comprised of 10 members and it can convene with the presence of only six members,” Deputy Speaker Farid Makari announced after a meeting for the parliament bureau. “Should it agree on a law, it will be submitted to parliament for a vote,” he added. Makari noted however that the committee “has nothing to do with the previous laws.”“It will seek an agreement on the characteristics of the new law … It will not study the 17 draft laws” that have so far been submitted to parliament, Makari pointed out. He added: “There is an inclination in the country to devise a law that mixes the proportional representation and winner-takes-all systems, and this has been agreed on.”
Makari reminded that “the Free Patriotic Movement and the Lebanese Forces had agreed to attend the legislative session on the condition that the electoral law would be discussed in the next sessions.”Speaker Nabih Berri told An Nahar newspaper in remarks published Wednesday that he wants the committee to be truly representative of the parliamentary blocs in order to avoid complaints from the parties over being left out of the process. Ministerial sources told the daily that forming the panel will meet a Christian demand and help revitalize the work of cabinet. Ongoing disputes among the rival political parties over the electoral law forced parliament to extend its term the first time in 2013 and a second time in 2014.Previous media reports had said that the committee would have two months to reach an agreement over the electoral draft law.

Saqr Charges Hujeiri, 8 others for Belonging to IS
Naharnet/November 18/15/State Commissioner to the Military Court charged on Wednesday nine people with belonging to the Islamic State group, reported the National News Agency.The suspects include detainee Mohammed Ibrahim al-Hujeiri, who is charged with carrying out terrorist attacks, including bombing a meeting of the al-Qalamoun Muslim Scholars committee in the northeastern border town of Arsal on November 5.He is also accused of tossing a grenade at ant army patrol in Arsal. He faces the maximum sentence of the death penalty if convicted. Other suspects include four Lebanese and three Syrians. They are charged with plotting to form an Islamic emirate in the North and bombing the Shekka tunnel for the aim of separating the North from the rest of the Lebanese areas. They may also face the death penalty if convicted. Saqr has since referred their case to First Military Examining Magistrate Judge Riad Abou Ghida. At least six people were killed in a bombing that targeted a meeting of the al-Qalamoun Muslim Scholars committee in Arsal. The Qalamoun Muslim scholars committee is concerned with aiding Syrian refugees and catering to the needs of their encampments. Hujeiri had confessed to his involvement in the blast earlier this week, announced the army on Tuesday.

Shehayyeb: My Trash Disposal Plan was Obstructed for Political Reasons
Naharnet/November 18/15/Agriculture Minister Akram Shehayyeb criticized how his plan to end the country's garbage disposal crisis was managed, reported the daily An Nahar on Wednesday.He told the daily: “My proposal was obstructed for political reasons, as well as reasons linked to various areas in the country.”“There are other causes that I will not divulge,” he added.Various municipalities had rejected the establishment of landfills in their areas as proposed by the minister's plan. The country was plunged in a waste disposal crisis following the closure of the Naameh landfill without finding an alternative for it. Progress had been made in setting up a landfill in the North and another in the South, but obstacles have hindered this plan. Commenting on the possibility of exporting the waste, Shehayyeb replied: “We have not taken a decision on the matter.” “We are studying the health, legal, and environmental aspects of the proposals,” he explained. Media reports had spoken of the possibility of sending the trash to Syria or the Turkish part of Cyprus. Exporting the waste to Europe is not possible because Lebanon does not have the means needed to turn the garbage into the standards demanded by these countries. Shehayyeb and the concerned committee tackling the garbage crisis are expected to meet with Prime Minister Tammam Salam at the Serail later on Wednesday to discuss proposals to resolve the issue, revealed al-Joumhouria newspaper. Media reports on Tuesday said that the national dialogue conferees had agreed to “export the waste” and the need to “schedule a cabinet session” to approve this step upon the completion of the preparations.

Change and Reform Wants 'Change and Solutions' President, Urges Fair Electoral Law
Naharnet/November 18/15/The Change and Reform bloc led by MP Michel Aoun on Wednesday called for electing a president who would bring “change and solutions,” as it stressed that the electoral law for parliamentary polls must be “fair” for Christians.“We are advocates of a change and solutions presidency,” said the bloc in a statement issued after its weekly meeting. The statement was recited by former labor minister Salim Jreissati. “There will be no leniency regarding the National Pact and the Constitution, in order to rescue the State,” the bloc said. Turning to the issue of the electoral law, the bloc emphasized that it must ensure “fairness, equality and proper representation.” “The subcommittee is asked to focus on the constitutional standards in order for the law to be fair,” it said. Earlier in the day, a 10-member parliamentary panel was set up to devise a new electoral law, as part of the political settlement that had led to holding a legislative session on Thursday and Friday after around a one-year interruption. Ongoing disputes among the rival political parties over the electoral law forced parliament to extend its term the first time in 2013 and a second time in 2014.Media reports have said that the subcommittee would have two months to reach an agreement over the electoral draft law.

Rocket Hits al-Labweh as Army Bombs Militants in Outskirts of Nearby Towns
Naharnet/November 18/15/A rocket fired from an unidentified place landed Wednesday in an open field in the northern Bekaa town of Labweh, causing no casualties, state-run National News Agency reported. Earlier in the day, the Lebanese army fired heavy- and medium-caliber weapons at suspicious movements by militant groups in the outskirts of the northern Bekaa towns of Arsal and Ras Baalbek, NNA said. The shelling left several militants dead or wounded in the vicinity of the Arsal amusement park, the agency added. The developments come amid a major security crackdown in the country in the wake of a twin suicide bombing in the Beirut southern suburb of Bourj al-Barajneh that killed 44 people and wounded around 240 others. The attack was claimed by the jihadist Islamic State group. The town of Arsal was the scene of fierce fighting in August 2014 between the Lebanese army and jihadists from the IS and al-Qaida's Syria affiliate al-Nusra Front. As they withdrew from the town, the jihadists took dozens of Lebanese police and soldiers hostage and are still holding them in the hilly terrain on the town's outskirts.

Army Arrests more than 20 in Baalbek, Confiscates Trucks and Motorbikes
Naharnet/November 18/15/The Army Intelligence arrested on Wednesday more than 20 individuals in raids on encampments and residents of Syrian refugees in the eastern city of Baalbek, the state-run National News Agency said. The army raided encampments and residences of Syrian refugees in the towns of Hosh al-Arab and Hosh Sneid and confiscated several motorbikes, NNA added. The detainees of Hosh al-Arab had no identity cards in their possession and have illegally entered the country, it said. The army also raided Syrian encampments in Hosh al-Nabi and confiscated the load of two trucks that contained motorcycles, and three other trucks used to transport Syrian workers. Lebanon hosts around 1.5 million Syrians fleeing their country's four-year war. Fears that Jihadists could use the encampments as a safe haven and conduit to carry out terrorist acts in Lebanon triggered intensified security measures.

Salam to Attend Climate Summit in France
Naharnet/November 18/15/Prime Minister Tammam Salam is expected to attend the climate summit set to be held in France at the end of the month, reported al-Joumhouria newspaper on Wednesday. The summit is scheduled to be held on November 30. Head of state from over 40 countries are set to attend the meet, which would be a form of support for the country in the wake of the Paris terror attacks should it decide against postponing it for security reasons.Islamic State gunmen and suicide bombers killed 129 people on Friday in an attack in the French capital.

Lavrov: Moscow to Prevent Spread of Terrorism to Lebanon
Naharnet/November 18/15/Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated on Wednesday that his country will do all it can to prevent terrorism from fanning out to Lebanon, the National News Agency said. “Russia will do everything it can to prevent terrorism from spreading to Lebanon,” said Lavrov prior to a meeting with his Lebanese counterpart Jebran Bassil in Moscow. “Russia is ready to support the Lebanese army. It is crucial to mobilize a broad front against the Islamic State and to push the political operation in Syria,” said Lavrov in a press conference afterward. “We respect Lebanon's sovereignty and fortify its security. We will help it with all means possible to preserve its security,” added the FM. For his part, Bassil: “I praise the positive role of Russia in combating terrorism in Syria. “A political resolution is the only solution for the crisis in Syria. It is what everyone agrees on,” he added. “The Syrian people must decide their own country's destiny. The influx of migrants to neighboring countries is a real concern and can even change the region,” stated Bassil. “The Islamic State is no longer a threat solely to the region, but it has become a threat to the whole world and the latest incidents in France are the best proof of that.” “Security measures to combat terrorism are always present,” he concluded. Bassil arrived in Moscow on Tuesday on a two-day official visit for talks with Lavrov on combating terrorism, as well as resolving the presidential deadlock in Lebanon. Last week a twin terrorist bombing rocked the Bourj al-Barajneh neighborhood south of Beirut that killed at least 43 and wounded over 200. The bombing was claimed by the Islamic state. Lebanon has been without a president since May 2014 when the term of Michel Suleiman ended without the election of a successor.

How serious are Hezbollah’s compromises in Lebanon?
Myra Abdallah/Now Lebanon/November 18/15
“Let’s come together and discuss the main issues and reach a settlement,” said Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah during a speech he delivered on 11 November. Nasrallah delivered another speech on 14 November following the terrorist attack that struck Burj-al Barajneh, leaving at least 43 people dead. The speeches he delivered were unusually calm and positive, calling for cooperation between various political parties in Lebanon and taking the initiative of offering a settlement in internal Lebanese politics. This positivity in Nasrallah’s speech has not been sensed before, at least not since Hezbollah’s intervention in Syria.“Nasrallah’s positive speech and his readiness for an internal settlement happened because of the Russian intervention in Syria,” analyst Ali al-Amin told NOW. “Russia became the decision maker in Syria, making Iran, and consequently Hezbollah, a secondary power. The Russian intervention suppressed the Iranian intervention in being the most powerful side in any decision.” However, it was in Iran’s favor to encourage Russian intervention in Syria due to all the burdens Iran has had to shoulder. Russia’s intervention seemed to be encouraged to minimize Iranian losses in Syria more than maximizing its gains. Regardless, this intervention was not in Hezbollah’s favor. “The party interfered in Syria to support the Syrian regime; the regime somehow abandoned Hezbollah for the alliance with Russia,” Al-Amin told NOW. “Therefore, Hezbollah became a small player in the Syrian equation and knew that a victory or any gain for the party in Syria became impossible.”
Analysts NOW spoke to say that Nasrallah’s position is part of a larger settlement. “When Hassan Nasrallah suggests a settlement, and when Naim Qassem explains this settlement to Hezbollah’s crowd as accepting to make mutual compromises, it means that Hezbollah is looking at an image larger than Lebanon only,” said analyst Lokman Slim. “Similar to compromises that have been suggested in Yemen and Syria, if there is one to happen in Lebanon, it should be based on mutual compromises between parties.”
However, although some of March 14 politicians consider Nasrallah’s speech a positive initiative, Lebanese political parties are trying to ensure the settlement takes their own demands into account. “Some of the Lebanese politicians asked Hezbollah practical steps. They want a settlement, but they want it to happen according to their terms,” said Al-Amin. “This will hardly happen because Hezbollah will not abandon Michel Aoun in the current time. The settlement can’t start by abiding to this condition while other politicians think that this should be the first step.”The presidential vacuum is a very important struggle for a number of Lebanese politicians who think that resolving this issue should be a priority to prove that Hezbollah has good intentions regarding the Lebanese situation. “What is positive about Nasrallah’s speech is that, for once, he started caring about Lebanese interests and abandoned the idea of the constituent convention he previously suggested,” said Future Movement MP Ahmad Fatfat. “However, the position of Hezbollah’s leaders — specifically Mohammad Raad and Nawar al-Sahili, who will not accept a president other than General Michel Aoun — neutralizes Nasrallah’s position. Hezbollah needs to gain back our trust through their position regarding the presidential elections.”
However, the presidential elections do not seem to be a priority for all Lebanese politicians. According to Slim, each political party is trying to do what is in its interests. “For example, the second Nabih Berri heard about a positive initiative, he started mentioning the oil and gas sector again. The presidential elections are not a priority for Hezbollah or any other party, except for General Aoun,” he said. “In addition, more than 50% of [Nasrallah’s] speech was meant to alarm Hezbollah’s crowd about the danger of conflicts between Sunnis and Shiites or Lebanese and Palestinians, and that not any Syrian or Palestinian is a potential terrorist. This reflects the current Lebanese situation too.”Furthermore, given Hezbollah’s losses in Syria, Nasrallah’s speech was also seen as a preparation for the return of Hezbollah fighters from Syria. “Hezbollah started to prepare for its comeback to Lebanon by fortifying its internal relations. Nasrallah’s initiative reflects Hezbollah’s willingness for an internal settlement after it lost its strength to effect decisions in Syria, making him a marginal player,” Al-Amin said.
But Hezbollah’s willingness to prepare the ground in Lebanon does not necessarily mean offering compromises regarding the presidential elections. Whether Nasrallah will offer practical steps or not, Slim says that aside from some minor issues, basically related to corruption, Hezbollah will not offer practical steps especially since Nasrallah’s positivity is not the fruit of a Lebanese power dynamic but rather is related to regional power dynamics. “I don’t think that the presidential elections will be discussed now. This is the silver bullet. Also, it is true that Nasrallah’s positivity is a direct recognition that Hezbollah’s power has limits, but the other Lebanese powers do not have another choice than accepting his initiative. It is obvious that these political sides do not have any power in objecting to Hezbollah’s decisions. Their objection is only verbal but never practical.”Hezbollah prefers to settle back in now rather than later. What the party can achieve today regarding the presidential elections is definitely better than what it can achieve later when the consequences may not be in its favor anymore. “We have a bad experience with Hezbollah,” said Fatfat. “Hezbollah never respected the agreements we had in 2006 or in Doha. The presidential elections are a very important starting point for Hezbollah to gain back our trust.”
Myra Abdallah tweets @myraabdallah

Why the world, including Lebanon, grieved for Paris and not Beirut
Michelle Ghoussoub/Now Lebanon/November 18/15
As Friday’s terrorist attacks in Paris unfolded, people around the world tuned in to watch blanket coverage of the events. Facebook activated a feature allowing Parisians to check in as “safe.” By Saturday, millions of people had added a filter of the French flag to their profile pictures to show solidarity with Paris.
The bombings that killed 43 people in Beirut the day before were not met with an international outpouring of sympathy, a discrepancy that was pointed out by many bloggers and journalists, including the New York Times. For most Lebanese, it came as no surprise that cedar trees were not projected on national monuments around the world, or that late night news conferences were not called to condemn the attack on Beirut. Having experienced 29 bombings since 2011, no one in Lebanon expected that Facebook would create an option to add a Lebanese flag to their profile pictures. Many on social media asked why, according to so many viral hashtags, we are all Paris, and yet we are never all Beirut or Baghdad? Some pointed fingers at journalists, asking why the media fails to cover violence in other parts of the world (often linking to an article written by a journalist while doing so). Others talked of the “selective outrage,” orientalism and racism that permeates so much mainstream news coverage of the Middle East.
Why the world collectively mourned the victims of Paris and not those in Beirut is likely a combination of all of the above, coupled with the reality that most westerners are simply accustomed to hearing about violence taking place in the Middle East. Western audiences are not, on the other hand, used to hearing about bomb attacks in cities that they consider their own. Media framing of events does matter. The attacks in Paris drew shock and sympathy because the victims were presented as the innocent bystanders that they were. Western media headlines referred to “terror and confusion” in Paris, and described residents of the city as “seeing chaos and looking for hope.”Meanwhile, Reuters’ headline about Beirut read “Two suicide bombers hit Hezbollah bastion in Lebanon,” seeming to imply that ISIS hit a military target rather than a street crowded with civilians. The New York Times’ initial headline referred to Burj Al-Barajneh, the location of the attacks, as a “Hezbollah stronghold.” It was then changed to “Hezbollah Area” and later altered to “Deadly Blast hits Crowded Neighborhood.” Western media often represents the residents of Beirut as plastic surgery-obsessed party-goers, ignoring the fact that the majority of the population lives below the poverty line. However when the story is about bombs, the Lebanese are represented as members of a sect or supporters of a political party, as though this somehow makes them less innocent, and less deserving of sympathy.
This dynamic also plays out among Lebanese audiences. Some Lebanese who expressed sympathy for Paris were silent about the attacks in Beirut. Many likely reacted this way because it is shocking to hear of a major attack in a European capital, or because there was no fast track way of adding a Lebanese flag filter to social media accounts. (Bizarrely, some Facebook users uploaded an image that combined the French colors with the Lebanese cedar, not realizing that this is a flag that dates back to France’s mandate years over Lebanon.) Many Lebanese who expressed sympathy with Paris were well meaning, likely expressing solidarity with family and friends who live there. After all, if there is any group who can relate to the numb disbelief that comes after a bomb attack, it is Beirutis. But Lebanon’s deep sectarian divide means that some Lebanese may have felt more sympathy towards French victims than those in Burj al-Barajneh, seeing them as less innocent because of the neighborhood in which they found themselves. These politics of division are as much a source of danger to Lebanon as they are a product of it.
As reactions to the events in Paris and Beirut continue to unfurl, some are calling out those who drew attention to Lebanon’s plight, accusing them of “grief shaming.”However the discrepancy between the reactions to Paris and Beirut is echoed when the world applauds European countries for welcoming a few thousand refugees while Lebanon hosts 1.1 million. It was reflected when a heartbreaking image of Alan Kurdi lying face down on a beach broke many hearts, while the thousands of Syrian children who roam Beirut’s streets go unnoticed. It is what motivates people to blame refugees for the Paris attacks, rather than trigger sympathy for them as Europeans personally experience the very violence that refugees are fleeing. It is the same double standard that reminds Beirutis that while they may be labeled the Paris of the Middle East, they are not Paris.

Jewish School Teacher Stabbed by 3 Attackers in France's Marseille
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 18/15/A history teacher at Jewish school in the southern French city of Marseille was stabbed by three people shouting anti-Semitic obscenities on Wednesday evening, the local police chief said. The attack on the teacher, who is himself Jewish, took place around 8:00 pm (1900 GMT), police prefect Laurent Nunez said. His life was not in danger, Nunez said, adding that a large number of police were combing the area for the attackers. The stabbing comes as France is on heightened alert following the Islamist attacks that killed 129 people in Paris at the weekend. The terror attacks, which were claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group, were the worst in French history.

Suspect sought in Sweden for ‘planning terrorist act’: police
By Agencies Wednesday, 18 November 2015/Swedish police were hunting Wednesday for a man wanted for “planning a terrorist act,” security services said, with the country on high alert following the deadly terror assault in Paris last week.An arrest warrant has been issued for the suspect, whose identity has not been revealed, the head of domestic intelligence and counter-terrorism Anders Thornberg told a press conference, saying no link had yet been proven with the Paris attacks. On Wednesday, Sweden’s security police (SAPO) raised their terrorist threat assessment by one step, to four on a scale of five, following the attacks in France.“One of the reasons for the increase is that the Security Police have received concrete information and made a judgement that we need to act within the framework of our counter-terrorism operations,” SAPO said in a statement.Level four means that there is a high probability that “persons have the intent and ability to carry out an attack.”(With Reuters and AFP)

Putin sets up commission to combat terrorism financing
Reuters, Moscow Wednesday, 18 November 2015/President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday set up a commission to combat terrorism financing, the Kremlin said, in another sign of the Russian leader’s heightened focus on what he says is a fight against Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants.After attacks in Paris killed 129 people on Friday, security dominated the G20 summit at the weekend, where the group’s leaders, in a rare departure from their usual focus on the global economy, agreed to step up border controls and aviation security and crack down on terrorist financing. In a decree, effective immediately, Putin ordered the prosecutor general’s office, the central bank and regional authorities to submit any information they may have on suspicious activities to the commission. On Tuesday, the Kremlin said a bomb brought down the Russian passenger plane that crashed in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt last month, killing all 224 people on board. The decree orders submission to the commission of any information on suspicious activities of organisations and individuals who are not on a list of those against whom there is sound information about their involvement in extremist activities or terrorism, in order to freeze their assets.

Pope says church doors must stay open despite terror fears
AFP, Vatican CityWednesday, 18 November 2015/Pope Francis said Wednesday that the doors of Catholic churches around the world must remain open, despite increased security fears in the aftermath of the Paris attacks. “Please, no armoured doors in the Church, everything open,” the 78-year-old pontiff told pilgrims in St Peter’s square, Italy’s AGI news agency reported. “There are places in the world where doors should not be locked with a key. There are still some but there are also many where armoured doors have become the norm. “We must not surrender to the idea that we must apply this way of thinking to every aspect of our lives ...” Francis said.“To do so to the Church would be terrible.”The pope did not explicitly refer to last week’s attacks on Paris, which he has condemned as “inhuman”.His comments came in the context of intense discussion in Italy about the security of the Vatican and Rome, which are seen as potential targets for Islamist militants. Francis’s comments also had a spiritual significance -- he has urged the Church to keep its doors open to lapsed believers who are considering returning and to the hundreds of thousands of migrants arriving in Europe from Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. Italy announced this week that it would close airspace over Rome to drones for the duration of the upcoming Catholic jubilee year, which is expected to bring more than a million extra visitors to the Italian capital. The move reflects fears a remote-controlled aircraft could be used by Islamic State or other militant groups to stage a potentially spectacular attack on the home of the Catholic church. Security has also been stepped up at airports and train stations and some 700 extra troops deployed in public spaces in Rome. Individuals purporting to be Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants have made a number of threats against Rome on social media and in the group’s propaganda outlets. Italian officials say they take such statements seriously but that they have never received evidence of a credible, specific plot to bomb Rome, the Vatican or the Pope.

CIA chief blasts Snowden in wake of Paris attacks
By AFP, Washington Wednesday, 18 November 2015/CIA Director John Brennan on Wednesday blasted former analyst Edward Snowden, saying his intelligence leaks had undermined U.S. security. The comments from Brennan come at a time of growing debate following last week’s attacks in Paris about whether intelligence services have enough tools at their disposal to deal with tech-savvy jihadists as they plan attacks. “Any unauthorized disclosures that are made by individuals who have dishonored the oath of office that they raised their hand and attested to undermines this country’s security,” Brennan said at a Washington event in response to a question about Snowden. “Hero-izing such individuals I find to be unfathomable as far as what it is that this country needs to be able to do again in order to keep itself safe.”Brennan on Monday made a pitch for reviewing curbs placed on intelligence services’ surveillance capabilities, saying leaks and “handwringing” had made international efforts to track down terrorists more challenging. The New York Times said in an opinion piece on Wednesday that the comments by America’s top spy were “disgraceful” and that the issue in last week’s attacks in Paris was not was not a lack of data, “but a failure to act on information authorities already had.” “Law enforcement agencies should have the necessary powers to detect and stop attacks before they happen,” the Times said. “But that does not mean unquestioning acceptance of ineffective and very likely unconstitutional tactics that reduce civil liberties without making the public safer.”When asked whether the United States was doing enough to share information with other countries, Brennan said the CIA had been working closely with other nations including Russia to discuss the threat of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group. “Over the last five weeks or so, I have had a number of conversations with my Russian counterpart, despite the policy difference we may have in Syria and Ukraine,” he said.
“These have been discussions about how we can in fact share more information about this threat from” ISIS.

Obama calls Putin a ‘constructive partner’ in Syria talks
AFP, ManilaWednesday, 18 November 2015/U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday praised Russia’s role in talks to end the Syria crisis and offered the prospect of better ties if Moscow focused military strikes on the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group. Obama said Russia had been a “constructive partner in Vienna in trying to create a political transition,” referring to international talks in Austria. But, he said, there were still differences over the fate of Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad, and Moscow’s current military focus on defending him. “There is obviously a catch, which is Moscow is still interested in keeping Assad in power,” Obama said. But he added: “Those differences have not prevented us at looking at how we could set up a cease fire.”Obama also expressed hope that Russia may shift the military focus from defending Assad to attacking ISIS.Obama slams U.S. ‘hysteria’Obama also on Wednesday slammed domestic “hysteria” about the security risks posed by Syrian refugees, accusing his political foes of demonizing “widows and orphans.” In an unusually fierce rebuke, Obama struck out at American politicians who have called for migrant curbs in the wake of the Paris terror attacks. Describing calls for different rules for Christian and non-Christian migrants as “offensive and contrary to American values,” Obama said shrill election-fueled debate on migration was only helping ISIS.

Paris Mosque urges Muslims to join ‘anti-terror’ protest Friday
AFP, ParisWednesday, 18 November 2015/The Great Mosque of Paris urged French Muslims on Tuesday to gather at the country’s most important mosque Friday to say “No to terror” and “We are all Paris!”.A statement called on “all Muslim citizens and their friends” to gather at 2:00 pm (1300 GMT) to say “no to terror” and voice “their deep attachment to Paris, its diversity and the values of the Republic.”The gathering of French Muslims after Friday prayers was “the best response to those seeking to instill the venom of discord and suspicion within the national community,” the statement added.
The rector of the Great Mosque earlier this week called on all French imams to lead the faithful in Friday prayers for the victims of the country’s worst ever terror attacks. Rector Dalil Boubakeur voiced “horror” at the “unspeakable acts” which had targeted “absolutely innocent” Parisians. “We, Muslims of France, can only insist on the need for national unity in opposing this misfortune which has afflicted us and which attacks indiscriminately,” he said. “We are all victims of this barbarity,” he said. The suicide bombers behind Friday’s attacks on the national stadium, a packed music venue and bars and restaurants were “people who call themselves Muslims but who should, by rights, be called barbarians.”The body representing Muslims in France said it would ask all 2,500 mosques in the country to condemn “all forms of violence or terrorism” in prayers this Friday, following the Paris attacks. The message will condemn such acts “unambiguously”, the French Muslim Council (CFCM) said.

Man arrested for anti-Islamic threat in U.S.
By AFP Wednesday, 18 November 2015/The FBI on Tuesday arrested a man who allegedly made a threat against a Florida Islamic center because he was angry about the Paris attacks, authorities said.
Shortly after learning of the attacks in the French capital that left at least 129 people dead, Martin Alan Schnitzler left a message late Friday with the Islamic Society of Pinellas County, according to the criminal complaint against him. In his message, Schnitzler said his call was made in light of what happened in France, warning that he was “going to personally have a militia that is going to come down to your Islamic Society of Pinellas County, firebomb you, and shoot whoever is there.” Police had no trouble finding Schnitzler via the cell phone he used to place the call. In questioning over the weekend, Schnitzler said he was “very mad” about the terror attacks and had searched on the Internet for Islam and Pinellas county. A search of his home, however, turned up no evidence of any dangerous materials, the court document said. Still, he faces up to 10 years in jail on the threat by telephone charge, if convicted.

Paris attacker may have had accomplice on journey through Balkans
Aleksandar Vasovic and Lefteris Karagiannopoulos, Reuters, Belgrade/AthensWednesday, 18 November 2015/One of the Paris suicide attackers may have had an accomplice with him as he travelled through the Balkans to western Europe after entering Greece posing as a Syrian refugee, counter-intelligence and police sources say. The assailant may also have reached Paris faster and more easily than expected because asylum seekers were rushed across some national borders at the height of the migration crisis in Europe this year to avoid bottlenecks after Hungary closed its borders, ironically to keep out suspected militants. The man, who blew himself up near the Stade de France stadium in Friday’s attacks that killed 129 people, has been identified from a Syrian passport found near his body as 25-year-old Ahmad al-Mohammad from the northwestern city of Idlib. The true identity of the attacker has become a key line of inquiry for French investigators, with the focus on whether the passport is genuine, sources close to the investigation say. Despite media reports that it may be counterfeit, investigators are also looking at the possibility that it is genuine - but could have been stolen or bought from a refugee after he made his way into Europe and subsequently used by the attacker, they say. The passport’s holder was registered as arriving alongside 198 refugees by boat from Turkey on Oct. 3 in Leros, a small picturesque Greek island. French authorities have said the fingerprints of the attacker who blew himself up matched those of the man who landed on Leros. Greek officials said on Sunday that Mohammad seemed not to be travelling with anyone specific, despite arriving with others. But a counter-intelligence source in Macedonia, one of the countries he passed through, spoke of a “massive investigation in the Balkans about the route of two of the terrorists.” The source, who declined to be named, indicated to Reuters that Macedonia was coordinating its action with Greece, and that a companion was with Mohammad by the time they bought ferry tickets taking them to Piraeus on the Greek mainland. A Leros travel agent said that on Oct. 4 he issued two tickets costing 51.50 euros ($54.90) each to the men for a ferry departing the following night from the nearby island of Kalymnos, which is reached from Leros by a local service. The 23:10 sailing reached Piraeus on the morning of Oct. 6. The owner of the Kastis travel agency in Leros, 42-year-old Dimitris Kastis, remembers selling tickets to Mohammad and a man who was with him. “He didn’t do or say anything that caught my attention,” Kastis said, adding that both men had paid in cash. He said the man travelling with him had a similar surname. Greek media have published a photograph of the second man’s ticket which gives his family name as al-Mahmod, and the initial of his given name as M. Kastis said he recognized this as the name the second man provided when purchasing the ticket. A Croatian police official, who declined to be named, also told Reuters that an investigation was under way into Mohammed’s journey which was focusing on whether he was travelling with anyone and, if so, with whom.
Balkan route
In Leros, Mohammad was registered as required under European Union rules, with his fingerprints recorded in a European database known as Eurodac. Because his passport looked authentic and there was no police record on him, he was given a permit allowing him to stay in Greece for six months.A copy of Mohammad’s permit was distributed to journalists by Immigration Minister Yannis Mouzalas. Written in Greek only, it states that its holder should not leave the city of Corinth for the whole period without alerting police. But within days, Mohammad had gone at least as far as Croatia. The counter-intelligence source in Macedonia said Mohammad was still travelling with a companion two days after reaching Piraeus. They registered together at a refugee camp in the backyard of an old tobacco plant in the Serbian town of Presevo, though Serbian officials have not mentioned an accomplice. Mohammad then went on to Croatia, either by train or bus, and was registered on Oct. 8 at the Opatovac refugee camp.
Reuters has been unable to determine what route Mohammad took after this, or whether he was accompanied by anyone. Croatian police said he almost certainly left for Hungary within 24 hours, though Budapest has no record of him entering from Croatia, which at the time was offloading thousands of migrants every day across its northern border with Hungary. Mohammad’s most likely destination from Hungary would have been Austria. In early October migrants were being sent in trains with locked doors to Hegyeshalom on the Austrian border, where Reuters journalists said they were ushered into the country without having their documents checked. Austrian Interior Ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundboeck said it was “conjecture and speculation” that a man going by the name of al-Mohammad had passed through Austria which, like France, is part of the EU’s Schengen zone where routine internal border controls have been removed. But Vienna has confirmed that another of the attackers, Belgian-born Frenchman Salah Abdeslam, entered Austria from Germany on Sept. 9. Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs told reporters on Tuesday that Budapest had no information as to whether Mohammad traversed Hungary. At that time Hungary was not registering migrants because Croatia had already done so. Both countries are EU members but, unlike Croatia, Hungary is in the Schengen zone and had sealed its frontier with Serbia to migrants on Sept. 15. This forced the migrants into Croatia, which infuriated Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban by busing them north across its own border with Hungary, in many cases without checks.
Orban’s touch stance
The irony of an Islamist militant moving quickly through the Balkans into western Europe and the heart of the 28-nation EU will not be lost on Hungary, where Orban based his tough stance on the flow of migrants on concerns that many were immigrants rather than refugees fleeing poverty or war, and that some could be "terrorists". The issue is also sensitive in Germany, where Chancellor Angela Merkel has been criticized for her welcoming policy on refugees. And some far-right and populist leaders have seized on the possibility that any of the eight Paris attackers reached Western Europe by posing as a migrant, using it to step up their anti-immigration message. Any security lapses are also a potential embarrassment for the countries Mohammad passed through, but authorities say the influx of migrants in recent months has made it almost impossible for them to keep out would-be attackers. “We take fingerprints, but how do we check them? Against which database? If there’s nothing on that person in the information we received or if he’s not wanted by Interpol he can go ... He could be a shaven Osama bin Laden for all we know,” said a senior Serbian law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Video confirms ninth assailant in Paris attacks
By AFP, Paris Wednesday, 18 November 2015/Investigators have obtained a video confirming there was a ninth attacker in Paris among the men who opened fire on bars and restaurants, sources close to the inquiry told AFP on Tuesday. The video indicates a second unidentified attacker could be on the run along with 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam, unless the man in the video is one of two suspected accomplices being held in Belgium. French and Belgian police have launched a manhunt for Abdeslam in connection with Friday’s carnage in Paris, which left at least 129 people dead in the worst attacks in French history.Abdeslam is believed to have fled after gunning down people at bars and cafes in Paris’ 10th and 11th arrondissements alongside his brother Brahim Abdeslam, who later blew himself up outside a bar on Boulevard Voltaire, seriously wounding one person.

Acting on secret Obama-Putin Syria deal, Moscow’s air strikes focus first on rebels, next on ISIS
DEBKAfile Special Report November 18/15/
The secret deal for a political solution for the Syria conflict reached by Presidents Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Antalya over the weekend has radically changed and intensified Russia’s air strike tactics in the last 24 h ours.
For the first time since the intensified Russian military intervention in the Syrian civil war in the last week of September, Russian air force planes took off Tuesday, Nov. 17 for attacks on Syrian rebel and ISIS targets, from a home base, the Morozovsk airbase in the southern Rostov district. Until now, the Russian bombers had taken off from Hmeymim airbase near Latakia.Also for the first time, they lofted Tupolev Tu-160 and Tupolev Tu-95 bombers. The Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack is a long-range strategic bomber and the biggest combat aircraft in the world, while the Tu-95 Bear is a huge strategic bomber with four turboprop-powered engines that is also used to launch missiles. debkafile’s military sources note that that the entry of these heavy bombers marks an increase in the frequency of the attacks and in the firepower used by Russia against the rebels and ISIS. Together with the firing of advanced Russian Kalibr cruise missiles at targets in Syria – also for the first time on Tuesday - these changes substantially escalate the Russian military effort in Syria.
Western sources take these changes to mean that Putin is driving hell-bent to settle accounts with the Islamic State after the downing of the Russian plane over Sinai on Oct. 31, and that he will coordinate this effort with French President Francois Hollande, who is due in Moscow in the coming days.
However, debkafile reports that the new, stepped up Russian aerial offensive is fact bringing forward certain - not necessarily jihadist - Syrian rebel groups as Moscow’s priority targets, with ISIS only in second place. In their 30-minute conversation on Sunday, Nov. 15, our sources reveal, Obama secretly accepted most points of Putin’s plan for a political resolution of the Syrian conflict (first revealed by DEBKA Weekly earlier this month), with the exception of the point relating to Bashar Assad’s future. The White House and the Kremlin consequently announced a joint decision on a cease-fire in Syria to be followed by UN-mediated negotiations between the rebels and the Assad regime.
The first point of the Russian blueprint called for intensified air strikes by the US and Russia against rebel groups refusing to enter into these negotiations in order to force them to toe the line. As a result of the deal between the two presidents, 75 percent of Russian attacks in Syria Tuesday were aimed against various rebel groups (around Hama and Aleppo), and only 25 percent against ISIS (at its Raqqa headquarters) and Al-Nusra Front targets. Obama agreed to Russian expanding its air campaign to this end for at least three weeks. It was also decided that Russia would beef it up with another 25 heavy bombers and addition warplanes. Meanwhile, also on Tuesday, Russia released the findings of its investigation into the downing of a Russian airliner on October 31 in the Sinai Peninsula that caused the deaths of all 224 passengers and crew. Putin and the heads of the Russian intelligence community have concluded that the destruction of Metrojet Flight 9268 soon after takeoff from Sharm El Sheikh was the result of a bomb planted on board by terrorists. Egypt quickly rejected the conclusion, claiming there was no proof of it whatsoever. But thes conclusion led Putin to offer an unprecedented $50 million reward for information leading to the capture of those who planted the bomb. According to our counterterrorism sources, Russian intelligence chiefs are convinced that certain top Egyptian military and security service officers know exactly who was responsible. The enormous reward was offered to draw them out and tempt them to break ranks with Egyptian President Abdel-Fatteh El-Sisi’s dogged resistance to the charges of a terrorist hand at work behind the Russian air disaster. After all, 50 million dollars must be hard to resist.

Video By Iranian Leader Khamenei's Office: U.S. And Its Allies Were Behind Paris Attacks
MEMRI/November 18/15
https://bay174.mail.live.com/?tid=cmvcXD81uN5RG0egAhWtfBug2&fid=flinb ox
A video posted November 17, 2015 on an IRGC-affiliated Facebook page, titled "Who Was Behind the Paris Attacks" and produced by the office of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, claimed that the real culprits behind the attacks were the U.S. and its allies, who, it said, had created ISIS and provided it with arms and training in order to further its own goals in the world.
The thumbnail preceding the video shows Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, U.S. President Obama, and Islamic State (ISIS) leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi in collusion.
The following are excerpts from the video, which was narrated in computer-generated English:
Thumbnail preceding the video showing Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, U.S. President Obama, and ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi in collusion.
Narrator: "France is going through sad bloody nights. Bloodiest blood has been shed on the streets of Paris, reportedly by the ISIS terrorists. Many express condolences. Even the Saudi king and the U.S. president. The same ones whose involvement in creating the ISIS project is being exposed more than ever.
"All right, we’d better have a flashback to find out where the ISIS emerged from.
"Western media on November 2014 revealed that the ISIS was established as a results of a mistake by the government of the United States in Camp Bucca [in Iraq] during the process of creating an alliance between Al-Qaeda and the Ba'th party. When [ISIS leader Abu Bakr] Al-Baghdadi was released from the American Bucca prison in Iraq, he had already turned from a typical Ba'thi fellow into a super professional terrorist who had established a deep and rare relationship with both [the] Ba'th party and the Al-Qaeda in Iraq.
"Considering that this story happened in an American prison and through a special process, the relationship could not be regarded as a mere coincidence.
"After the creation of ISIS, which was an outcome of creating an alliance between the Ba'th party and the Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the U.S. dropped weapons for ISIS forces and claimed it was done by accident.
"Through a similar process, the United States trained forces in the name of moderate Syrian rebels who would join the ISIS through two or three intermediaries. The process did not end there and reports reveal that ISIS had been enjoying financial adds [sic] from the U.S. and its allies.
Wesley Clark, former NATO supreme commander, in CNN interview (undated): "Look, ISIS got started through funding from our friends and allies, because, as people will tell you in the region, if you want somebody who will fight to the death against Hizbullah, you don’t put out a recruiting poster and say, you know, sign up for us, we're gonna make a better world. You go after zealots and you go after these religious fundamentalists. That’s who fights Hizbullah."
Narrator: "Of course, no one should be surprised by U.S. support for ISIS, as this was not unprecedented and American politicians had already admitted having supported Al-Qaeda."
Hillary Clinton Testimony (undated): "I mean, let’s remember here, the people we are fighting today, we funded. We funded."
Narrator: "When the 9/11 tragedy occurred in the U.S., and while the main perpetrators of this event have not yet been introduced to the world, the U.S. government launched attacks Iraq and Afghanistan as a response, and started to spread insecurity and terrorism in the region for a decade.
"This act of war, in turn, distracted public opinion from Israeli crimes, the spread of terrorism in West Asia, and set many Muslim countries against one another.
"What are we going to witness after the Paris attacks?"
On screen: "Khamenei.ir" (website of Supreme Leader Khamenei)

Iran: Nuclear Deal Going, Going, Gone?
Lawrence A. Franklin/Gatestone Institute/November 18/15
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6891/iran-nuclear-deal-gone
Iranian military commanders, security chiefs and conservative media outlets are coming close to questioning the competence and loyalty of those in the Iranian regime who favor the JCPOA.
The surreal irony, of course, is that President Obama keeps assuring the world -- as recently as last week again, when he met with Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu -- that he is "preventing" Iran from getting nuclear weapons, while the truth is that his "deal" -- if the Iranians ever sign it -- not only green-lights Iran's nuclear program, but in fact finances it.
Iran's hardliners are pressing their attack on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which has not yet been approved by Iran. Iran's opponents of the JCPOA have succeeded in halting any steps toward implementation of Tehran's responsibilities under the July14 settlement reached in Vienna by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- the US, the UK, France, China and Russia, plus Germany (the so-called P5+1). But who appointed them?
While some reports indicated that Iran was beginning to take off the production line some of the uranium-enrichment centrifuges in the Natanz and Fordow facilities, contradictory reports suggested that any such action was halted due to pressure from Iran's hardliners, and that dismantling the centrifuges had not been authorized by Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and was therefore premature. Another report suggested that only a small number of outdated centrifuges had been decommissioned.
However, a stern letter of warning was dispatched to President Hassan Rouhani from 20 key members of Iran's Majlis [Islamic Consultative Assembly], many of whom have close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), informing him to cease any dismantling activity.[1]
In addition, Iranian military commanders, security chiefs and conservative media outlets are coming close to questioning the competence and loyalty of those in the Iranian regime who favor the JCPOA.[2] These personal assaults have implied that some officials are trying to whitewash the reputation of the United States in order to improve relations with the "Great Satan."[3] The targets of those criticisms appear to be Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as well as President Rouhani.
The Iranian military's Deputy Chief of the General Staff, Major General Gholam Ali Rashid, said that there are two types of officials that favor the JCPOA, and that their goal is "embellishing America's despicable image -- the "simple-minded, which includes some government officials as well as spiteful, traitorous, infiltrators."
General Rashid's comments dovetailed with other cautionary statements -- by the Chairman of the Basij [a volunteer militia], Professor Sohrab Salahi[4] and Majlis deputy Ali Reza Zakani -- warning against allowing the JCPOA to serve as a channel to increase foreign influence in the Islamic Republic.[5]
President Rouhani, in an attempt to reassert his authority on the issue, has criticized the conservative newspaper Keyhan, edited by Hossein Shariatmadari, who has often been associated with expressing the will of Ayatollah Khamenei. On 8 November, Rouhani indirectly criticized Keyhan for its threatening article that equated support for the JCPOA as helping America to increase its influence inside the Islamic Republic. The hardliners, however, quickly struck back against Rouhani in the person of Tehran's interim Friday prayer leader, Hojjat ol Eslam Sedighi.
Rouhani also attempted to burnish his image by meeting publicly with a senior Shia theologian, Grand Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi Golapayegani, and eliciting from him a statement of tentative support for the airing of all opinions on the JCPOA.[6]
It seems that the hardliners are gaining the upper hand by piling new requirements on the shoulders of the P5+1 nations, possibly in order to extinguish the JCPOA altogether. Conservatives are also claiming that any new sanctions imposed in response to Iran's human rights violations or foreign policy operations will void the JCPOA altogether.
It also appears that President Rouhani and his political allies are losing ground amid the Iranian hardliners' attack on the JCPOA arrangement and the prospects of a possible opening to the West. Rouhani has attempted to appease the hardliners by now demanding that President Obama personally apologize for America's hostile behavior towards Iran.
The surreal irony, of course, is that Obama keeps assuring the world -- as recently as last week again, when he met with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- that he is "preventing" Iran from getting nuclear weapons, while the truth is that his "deal" -- if the Iranians ever sign it -- not only green-lights Iran's nuclear program, but in fact finances it.
*Dr. Lawrence A. Franklin was the Iran Desk Officer for Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. He also served on active duty with the U.S. Army and as a Colonel in the Air Force Reserve, where he was a Military Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Israel.
[1] Bozorg Mehr Sharfedin, edited by Yara Bayoum and Raissa Kasakovsky.
[2] Ali Shamkhani Secretary/Supreme National Security Council speaking to Iranian Student News Agency.
[3] Tasnim News Agency, 12 November 2015, via "The Iran Project."
[4] Sohrab Salahi also warns that publicity about Iran's scientists could help target them for assassination.
[5] Ali Reza Zakani, Majlis Commission to Review the Nuclear Deal.
[6] Golpayegani/Rouhani meeting, 12 November 2015.

The True Cost of Europe’s Muslim “Enrichment”
George Igler/Gatestone Institute/November 18, 2015
The United Nations, in 2000, advocated the “replacement” of Europe’s population by Muslim migrants.
There seems to be an economic premise underlying this view: that importing the Muslim world en masse into Europe is mutually beneficial. For decades, the mass immigration of Muslims into Europe has been labelled “enrichment.” Shouting “Islamophobia” does not negate how it is virtually impossible to think of a country actually made richer by it.
Even in a country with an established Islamic population such as Britain, Muslim unemployment languishes at 50% for men, and 75% for women.
Those using an economic rationale to implement Europe’s demographic transformation fail to recognize the complexities of Islam: they ignore the fundamentalist revival that has been ongoing for over a century. One feature of this growing embrace of literalism is a belief — validated by scripture — that Muslims are entitled to idly profit from the productivity of infidels.
The idea that with time, Islam’s religious tenets will somehow moderate and dissolve, merely by being lodged in Europe, is wishful thinking, especially in communities where Muslim migrants already outnumber indigenous Europeans.
The “blind eye” turned towards polygamy in Britain, France, Belgium and Germany has ensured that some Muslim men have upwards of 20 children by multiple wives, almost always at state expense. This suggests that families with fundamentalist views are outbreeding their more moderate coreligionists.
The word “refugee” is a legal term, one defined by several international treaties. These documents brought the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) into existence, and sustain the relevance of the United Nations agency responsible for refugees to this day.
The contents of these treaties, however, sit oddly with how the UNHCR has comprehensively sought to hoodwink the European public about the predominant status of the demographic influx into their continent this year.
None of these documents — the 1951 Refugee Convention; the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, or the EU’s own Dublin Regulations — grants the right of refugee status to those traversing several safe countries, and illegally crossing multiple borders, to shop for the best welfare state.
Even a legitimate refugee from Syria now living, for example, in Turkey or Lebanon, loses his refugee status by paying a people-smuggler to travel to Europe. According to international law, that refugee then becomes an “asylum seeker.” Only when his asylum claim has been investigated and judged to be valid by a requisite domestic agency, is he once again a “refugee.”
So far, the world’s media has dutifully followed the false narrative established by the UNHCR. Those concerned by an unchecked and unlimited flood of Muslims into Europe — concerns grimly validated by Friday’s jihadist atrocities in Paris — have mostly been accused of heartlessness towards alleged refugees.
The press, however, has been far from alone in defining the welcome of the illegal Muslim influx as a moral obligation. Economic arguments have also been systematically deployed, to legitimate this year’s humanitarian flood, given the ageing populations across European nations.
Hailing the findings of the World Bank’s Global Monitoring Report, “Development Goals in an Era of Demographic Change,” published last month, its president, Jim Yong Kim, confidently announced that:
With the right set of policies, this era of demographic change can be an engine of economic growth … If countries with aging populations can create a path for refugees and migrants to participate in the economy, everyone benefits.
Although having a governance structure different from that of the UN, the World Bank is nevertheless part of the United Nations system.
The words “Development Goals” in the title of the World Bank’s report are telling. They refer to the Millennium Development Goals, a comprehensive agenda devised under the leadership of former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, to transition the United Nations Organization from a body primarily concerned with limiting international warfare, into an engine of global “social justice.”
While media organizations, NGOs, morally-driven activists and celebrities have all followed the UNHCR’s lead, many major financial institutions have equally mimicked the World Bank’s declaration: that the migrant influx into Europe should be welcomed.
One global banking giant, for example, HSBC, predicted firm fiscal benefits for the countries of the European Union, after a “period of adjustment.” A research note issued by HSBC, on October 8, and authored by a team of forecasters led by Fabio Balboni, concluded:
From an economic perspective, Europe needs more workers. It is well known that most parts of Europe have rapidly ageing populations. This results in slower growth and thus tax receipts, while simultaneously increasing government spending through pensions and healthcare. The eurozone, in particular, is about to embark on this demographic challenge with a mountain of debt. The easiest way to support more pensioners is to have more taxpayers.
HSBC’s European macroeconomic research group went further, drilling down into numbers:
Out of a working age population of 220 million, we estimate that one million more immigrants per year could boost eurozone potential growth by 0.2% per year, and cumulatively potential GDP by 2025 could be EUR300bn higher than it would have otherwise been. Whilst it takes time to integrate immigrants into the labor force, even in the short term, higher public spending needed to cope with the crisis could support growth.
That these predictions fly in the face of all the available evidence is problematic.
Even in a country with an established Islamic population such as Britain, Muslim unemployment languishes at 50% for men, and 75% for women.
Furthermore, Muslims in Britain represent the demographic with the highest birth rates. Coupled with their levels of unemployment, these imagined saviors of a moribund European social welfare model are, as a group, the recipients of the state’s revenue, rather than contributors to it.
Successive generations of Muslims Europe-wide, as Christopher Caldwell noted in 2009, are not normalizing toward the birth rates of their host populations, as previous immigrant groups have done. That trend might admittedly be useful in boosting Europe’s population numbers, but it also highlights an alarming pattern.
As recently announced by Baroness Caroline Cox, the “blind eye” turned towards polygamy in Britain — and in France, Belgium and Germany – has ensured that some Muslim men are having upwards of 20 children by multiple wives, almost always at the state’s expense. This is grim news indeed for integration: families with fundamentalist views are outbreeding their more moderate coreligionists.
Even if the demographic influx currently overwhelming Europe were composed entirely of genuine Syrian asylum seekers, who have somewhat lower birth rates than South Asian or African Muslims, the economic news would be worse.
A recent study in Denmark pinpointed that, of the full range of backgrounds of migrants who had settled there, Syrians had the lowest levels of employment of all (22.8%). A separate longitudinal study from Denmark also showed that, of those Muslim migrants who had come to Denmark claiming to be refugees: only one in four had actually succeeded in finding a job after a decade.
Despite there being four million persons displaced from Syria by conflict, and despite the ready availability of counterfeit Syrian identity documents, of those who entered Europe this year, Syrians are estimated to be only 20% of the current — still-rising — total.
The large numbers of non-Syrians, who have exploited illegal passage to access Europe’s welfare states and live at the expense of the continent’s taxpayers, led one MEP to condemn the EU’s migrant relocation quotas. So far, the relocation quota plan is the only solution put forward to address the enormous numbers of migrants already in Europe. It is a measure, however, that effectively “contracts out” the continent’s immigration policy to people-smugglers.
As a result of the jihadist attacks in Paris last week, the EU’s quota scheme, which forces member states to accept the illegal migrants imposed on them by EU institutions, lies in tatters. As predicted at the Gatestone Institute, the newly-elected Polish government, citing security concerns, has unilaterally refused to participate.
Other countries appear destined to follow suit, especially after the announcement this week by Greece that one of the suicide-bombers in Paris had, on October 3, crossed as a “refugee” from Turkey to the Greek island of Leros.
The persistence of the mandatory quota policy in every EU summit convened this year gave particular pause to the President of Lithuania. At a European Council meeting in Brussels, on September 23, Dalia Grybauskaitė told journalists of her confusion. Europe’s leaders, she said, had, since February, been discussing “strategic” measures to tackle the migrant issue, with a view to stemming the rising numbers pouring across the EU’s frontiers, and trying to secure its borders.
Instead, she reflected, ever-climbing relocation quota numbers, aimed at the “distribution” of Muslim migrants across member states, always seemed — for some reason — to top their agendas. Consequently, on September 22, the European Commission had been legally empowered to spread the rising number of migrants from Islamic countries throughout the continent. Members of European countries who objected were overruled.
Unfortunately, the financial costs — based on flawed macroeconomic forecasts that are divorced from geopolitical realities — have kept piling up against the one nation upon which the stability of Europe’s common currency is anchored: Germany.
Initially, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government claimed that this year’s migrant wave would cost Germany only an extra €5 billion. Then a Japanese bank, Mizuho, cited a prediction of €25 billion over two years. Even that calculation, however, had failed to account for the near-guaranteed doubling of migrant numbers in 2016. The latest forecast — issued by the Association of German Cities on October 29 — of €16 billion for every year going forward, is already fragmenting unity within the German’s beleaguered leadership.
Given Germany’s shrinking pool of working-age citizens, industrial powerhouses such as Mercedes-Benz have added their own voices to the chorus welcoming the human influx into Europe. But if 80% of the migrants are unskilled, and 20% are illiterate, they can be employed in industry only if they receive an education. Standards in German schools are already declining; officials recognize that, as a pragmatic response to the sheer scale of migrant pressure, standards will have to be lowered.
Often, the question of Europe’s failure to integrate Muslims has been put down to accusations of inherent indigenous racism. This charge, however, seems largely unfounded on a continent whose institutions have mainlined multiculturalism for decades.
Germany’s experience is a case in point. Middle-class parents from its pre-existing, and primarily Turkish, Muslim population would much rather send their children to the dwindling number of schools in which German children predominate. These Muslim parents are apparently concerned that wherever there are mostly pupils of Turkish origin who barely acquire basic literacy — in any language — at home, the academic attainment of their offspring will plummet.
Nevertheless, Europe’s government agencies have largely responded to this year’s Muslim invasion by chartering ferries and hiring buses to help speed it along. Those in charge of the EU’s border security describe such incursions as inward “migration flows” that should be “managed” in the continent’s best interests.
One insight into this radical change in border policy, now being applied by EU institutions, might lie in a detailed proposal published in 2000 by the United Nations. It advocated the “replacement” of Europe’s population by Muslim migrants from the Third World.
Since then, those who have speculated on the inevitable social, cultural and security consequences of Europe’s demographic transformation as outlined by the UN — such as Egyptian-born author Gisèle Littman, French writer Renaud Camus, and Norwegian essayist Peder Jensen — have largely been condemned as deluded and bigoted fantasists.
Setting aside such controversy, and how mass involuntary repopulation policies seem worryingly close to breaching Article 2, clause (c), of the UN’s own 1948 Convention against genocide, there is an unaddressed economic premise underlying the view: that importing the Muslim world en masse into Europe is mutually beneficial.
The reasoning appears to be that once a country has a welfare state, the social spending of that nation can only be maintained by perpetually increasing the size of its population — an economic assumption with far-ranging consequences amply demonstrated across Europe this year.
The larger problem seems to be that both the UN and the EU, these twin transnational bureaucracies of extremely limited democratic legitimacy, have much more in common with each other — in the visions and “solutions” they promote — than they do with the wishes of the populations who have to live with the results.
The results of 2015 point to how extensively the critical faculties of the EU’s leaders have been blindsided by multiculturalism. It is doubtless an unwelcome and caustic truth, given how frequently they accuse both their own, and Islam’s, sternest critics — such as the Dutch PVV party leader, Geert Wilders — of a two-dimensional understanding of the Muslim faith, lacking in nuance.
Those using an economic rationale to implement Europe’s demographic transformation, fail to recognize the complexities of Islam: they ignore the fundamentalist revival that has been ongoing for over a century. One feature of this growing embrace of literalism is a belief — validated by scripture — that Muslims are entitled to idly profit from the productivity of infidels. This view puts the entitled conduct of a great many migrants into an unexpected, but much needed, context.
Anjem Choudary (center), a prominent British Islamist, has urged his followers to quit their jobs and claim unemployment benefits so they could have time to plot holy war. “We [Muslims] take the Jizya, which is ours anyway. The normal situation is to take money from the kuffar [non-Muslim]. They give us the money. You work, give us the money, Allahu Akhbar. We take the money.”
For decades now, the mass immigration of Muslims into Europe has been labelled “enrichment.” Shouting “Islamophobia” does not negate how it is virtually impossible to think of a single country actually made richer by it.
The idea that with time, Islam’s religious tenets will somehow moderate and dissolve, merely by being lodged in Europe, is wishful thinking, especially in communities where Muslim migrants are already outnumbering indigenous Europeans.
Finally, is it not a grim irony that population growth in Europe — with its responsibility for female emancipation — is now to depend entirely on importing a culture in which women have far less freedom over their fertility, and much else?
It also seems ironic that, despite Europe’s need to increase the number of women having children, the vast majority of new arrivals, for “repopulation purposes,” are young, often openly aggressive males.
Given such a gender disparity, with whom will these Muslim men expect — and be expected — to procreate?
Europe’s females, as demonstrated by a number of recent unattractive incidents mostly ignored by the mainstream media, have good reason to be alarmed by the realities of the current crisis and the vision of their future that the continent’s political masters have chosen for them.
George Igler, a political analyst based in the City of London, is the Director of the Discourse Institute.
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6915/europe-muslim-enrichment

أداة الرئيس أوباما الإيرانية النوى والداعشية النهج
الياس بجاني/11/15
إدارة الرئيس اوباما ترفض تسليح الميليشيات المسيحية في سوريا والعراق وهي مجموعات متطوعين تسعى للدفاع عن مجتمعاتها وقراها في مواجهة داعش. ادارة اوباما التعيسة تسلح إيران بالمال والحماية لإحتلال الدول العربية ولنشر الإرهاب وتتخلى عن من يدافع عن نفسه. في أسفل تقرير يشرح هرطقات هذه الإدارة.
Raymond Ibrahim: Obama administration Refuses to Arm Persecuted Christians Fighting ISIS
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2015/11/18/raymond-ibrahim-obama-administration-refuses-to-arm-persecuted-christians-fighting-isis/
By Raymond Ibrahim on November 17, 2015 in Muslim Persecution of Christians, Other Matters
In recent months, Mideast Christians have been forming militias to fight the Islamic State (IS) and other jihadi groups in both Iraq and Syria—even as the Obama administration, which arms the “opposition,” refuses to arm them.
In Iraq, some of the few remaining Assyrian Christians have formed militias under the name Dwekh Nawsha (literally meaning “self-sacrifice” in Christ’s native tongue of Aramaic). Most of these fighters are from among those Christians displaced from the Ninevah Plain due to the atrocities committed by IS and are on the frontlines fighting the jihadis.
They were formed soon after the U.S.-supported Kurdish Peshmerga, which is leading the fight against IS in the region, retreated from many Christian villages without a struggle last summer, declining to protect them from the IS advance which led to the usual atrocities.
According to the Christian Science Monitor, “Christians have taken up arms because they want to protect their own land, and many no longer trust the Kurds to do it for them.” Indeed, the Kurds, including the Peshmerga, have been known to abuse and even persecute Christians. Like IS, Kurds are Sunni Muslims too.
“We will stay here, and Christians will protect Christians. Not Arabs or Kurds protecting us, but Christians,” said local commander Fouad Masaoud Gorgees.
In neighboring Syria, approximately 500 Syriac Christian fighters recently assembled and managed to prevent the Islamic State from entering the ancient Christian settlement of Sadad. But on October 30, IS captured a town less than five miles away, leaving Sadad vulnerable to continued assaults.
Even the Patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox church, Ignatius Aphrem II, traveled to Sadad to boost the morale of Christian defenders. Said Aphrem:
It was emotional but it was also very encouraging to see our young people determined to defend their land and stay in their homeland. To see them ready to fight and to sacrifice for their land, I think that’s what’s very meaningful, that made me very proud of them.
There’s a reason why Christians are frantically trying to save Sadad from the clutches of IS. As one Syriac Christian fighter put it, Sadad “is a symbolic place for us and we will not allow it to fall again.”
He is referring to the events of October 2013, when the U.S.-supported Free Syrian Army—widely touted as moderate but in fact working with al-Qaeda’s Al Nusra Front—captured the town. They made a graphic video (with English subtitles) of those whom they killed, the “dogs of Assad”—“dog” being an ancient Islamic epithet for Christians—while shouting Islam’s victory-cry, “Allahu Akbar” (which John McCain equates to a Christian saying “thank God”) and praise for the Free Syrian Army.
During their one week occupation of Sadad, the moderate/radical coalition tortured, raped, and murdered 45 Christians; the bodies of six people from one family alone, ranging from ages 16 to 90, were found at the bottom of a well (an increasingly common fate for “subhuman” Christians).
At the time, Syriac Archbishop Selwanos Boutros called it Syria’s “largest massacre of Christians.” Even so, this massacre was wholly ignored by the Obama administration and so-called mainstream media in an effort to maintain the narrative that the Free Syrian Army was “moderate.”
Concerning the Sadad massacres, the archbishop had asked in 2013:We have shouted aid to the world but no one has listened to us. Where is the Christian conscience? Where is human consciousness? Where are my brothers?
As persecuted Mideast Christians have well learned since, most Western governments—the Obama administration at their head—could care less about their fate. They care only about one thing: overthrowing Assad—at any cost, including by directly or indirectly arming the Islamic terrorists that persecute Christians in horrific ways, including slaughtering those who refuse to renounce Christ for Muhammad.
Yet truly “moderate” Christian militias fighting the Islamic State are denied arms from Washington: “Lobbyists in D.C. are blocking weapons and equipment from reaching Dwekh Nawsha, the Christian militia force that has been fighting ISIS in Iraq’s Assyrian Nineveh plains.”
Retired Lt. Col. Sargis Sangari, an Iraq war veteran who served 20 years in the army, says: “As much as you’re giving money to all these individuals who are killing each other [the “moderate” terrorists, Kurds, etc.], why don’t you try to give it to the Assyrians?”…. Currently, their [Christians’] lack of resources prevents them from launching an offensive.” U.S. funding, training, and equipment would allow these Christian militias to take the fight to IS, added Sangari.
Of course, all of this assumes that U.S. leadership actually wants the Islamic State and other “moderate” jihadis to be defeated in an offensive by anyone—a dubious assumption.
Still, persecuted Christian pleas have not totally fallen on deaf ears. A few Western Christians, mostly Americans, have traveled to the Middle East to help the indigenous Christians fight the jihadis.
Seeing their governments, which possess the military capability to annihilate the Islamic State, do next to nothing—not even help arm Christians—against IS, these Western Christians have decided to take it on themselves to fight the good fight on behalf of the weak and oppressed.
Brett Felton, a former American soldier who once served in Iraq, now sees himself as a “soldier of Christ” and has returned to help train Dwekh Nawsha against IS.
According to the 28-year-old, “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. But here we’re actually fighting for the freedom of the people … to be able to live without persecution, to keep the church bells ringing.”
U.S. vet Jordan Matson, who has the words “Christ is Lord” inscribed in his vest, said: “I decided that if our government wasn’t going to do anything about it, I would… We’re getting shot at [by IS/jihadis] on pretty much a daily basis…. We don’t have the technology that the United States military has to push our enemies away.”
First the Christians of Iraq and then Syria implored the West for help against the Islamic persecutors that the United States unleashed by overthrowing secular strongman Saddam Hussein and now against Bashar Assad.
Brutally persecuted Christians were totally ignored by both government and media—even as Obama and media now try to pull on the heartstrings of Americans to accept tens and hundreds of thousands of Muslims.
Then Christians implored the Obama administration to simply stop arming their persecutors. When that too fell on deaf ears, vastly outnumbered and underequipped Christians gathered to fight the Islamic State head on, hoping the U.S., which showers the “opposition” with weapons, would help equip them against IS.
No such luck. As a result, a few Western Christians who believe in religious freedom are risking their personal lives to help their Mideast brothers against the scourge of “ISIS.”
In light of all this, to still fail to understand which “side” U.S. leadership is on—they currently claim to be on the side of “democracy,” “freedom,” and “human rights”—is to be beyond naïve.

Netanyahu: 'In Israel, as in France, terror is terror'
Akiva Eldar/Al-Monitor/November 18/15
“In Israel, as in France, terror is terror,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting Nov. 15. “Behind it is radical Islam and its desire to destroy its victims.” Netanyahu’s message was quickly picked up by social media and the public discourse in the aftermath of the murderous Paris terror attacks Nov. 13: Here’s your proof, spelled out with the blood of at least 129 dead and hundreds injured, that we are all victims of vicious Islamist terror, that those who fired at innocents in the heart of the French capital are the same Muslims who stab innocents in the heart of the Israeli capital, and they all have the same goal: to destroy anyone who is not part of extreme Islam.
The message that “terror is terror is terror” runs like a thread throughout Netanyahu’s demagogic rhetoric. In a statement to the cameras at the start of the Cabinet meeting, he spoke in the same breath about the Palestinian who shot dead a father and son (Ya'akov and Netanel Litman) near the settlement of Otniel in the Hebron Hills Nov. 13, and about Europe becoming a terror target several hours later.
“We are not to blame for the terrorism directed against us, just as the French are not to blame for the terrorism directed against them,” Netanyahu said in barely veiled mockery of Israel’s critics in Europe’s capitals. “It is the terrorists who are to blame for terrorism, not the territories, not the settlements and not any other thing.” The root cause of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, according to Netanyahu, is “the desire to destroy us.”
From there it is but natural to resort to preaching morality to the “world,” which does not condemn terror attacks against Israel the way it condemns terrorism everywhere else. And how can one not mention Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who thinks that condemning terrorism in France is enough and does not act to stop the incitement motivating terrorism in the occupied territories. “The terrorists who attack us have the same murderous intent as those in Paris,” Netanyahu added. But unlike those French weaklings, we know how to handle them. “Thanks to our aggressive policy against terrorism … we succeed many times in frustrating and preventing more serious disasters." That justifies, Netanyahu says, soldiers going into Palestinian villages, the demolition of family homes and most importantly, “control of the ground,” meaning continued occupation.
According to Netanyahu’s warped logic, criticism of Israel’s occupation policy hurts the victims of terrorism. On Nov. 11, he said the European Union should be “ashamed” of its decision to approve the labeling of Israeli products made in the West Bank and the Golan Heights. “The EU decision is hypocritical and constitutes a double standard; it singles out Israel and not the 200 other conflicts around the world.” The prime minister forgot to mention that eight years ago Israel had already agreed to disclose the provenance of products made in the settlements that are exported to Europe. Netanyahu ignored the fact that the EU’s current move was, in fact, designed to provide European consumers with the right to know where the snack displayed on the kosher foods shelf was manufactured.
Condemning the decision was not enough for him, although Netanyahu himself said that its economic impact is negligible. The prime minister took the opportunity to portray the occupier as a victim. The EU, he claimed, has decided to label only Israel and is “not prepared to accept the fact that Europe is labeling the side that is being attacked by terrorism.” In other words, Europe’s decision to label settlement products is a reward for terrorism and not a reaction to the settlement policy. Two days later, as though echoing Netanyahu’s criticism about the blow to the “side being attacked by terrorism,” a father and son, residents of the settlement of Otniel, became victims of a murderous attack.
In a Nov. 4 article published in the Israeli Haaretz' Peace Conference publication, Economic Nobel Prize laureate and psychology professor Daniel Kahneman explained that it is easier to attribute European reservations about Israeli policy to an expression of anti-Semitism than to see it, at least in part, as opposition to policy that deviates from the norms of progressive states. “If they are anti-Semites, then no matter what we do, they will treat us the same way.” In the same manner it is easier to explain the Palestinian attacks as an expression of eternal hatred than to internalize that the hatred, at least in part, is a reaction to the prolonged occupation and its attendant abuses. “If external hatred suffices as an explanation," notes the Israeli-born psychologist, "then it doesn’t matter what we do to the Palestinians in the territories. In any case, our deeds do not determine their attitude toward us.”
In Kahneman’s view, the resolution of national conflicts depends to a crucial extent on a leader’s ability to overcome such simplistic thinking. He cites the example of late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who told the Israeli public that “peace is made with enemies,” and who signed the Oslo Accord with Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat. Netanyahu tells the public that with enemies, one makes war. Only war.
Parisians will not let themselves be cowed by terrorism. They are equipped with a resilience that enables them to get back to normal on the morning after the terror attacks at their neighborhood cafe. Their normal lives do not include the oppression of other nations. Late French President Charles de Gaulle understood more than 50 years ago that to lead normal lives, the French must vacate their settlements in Algeria and grant independence to its inhabitants. Cruel terror attacks will not change the standpoint of France and of other enlightened countries vis-a-vis colonialist countries.
Netanyahu is determined to hold onto the settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and believes global terrorism will divert Europe’s attention from the occupation. To Israelis he pledges the vision of eternal life “by the sword." The Islamic State and al-Qaeda can translate this vision into Arabic and print it on their flags.

Why Paris attacks will create backlash for migrants in Europe
Brenda Stoter/Al-Monitor/November 18/15
AMSTERDAM — The world did not need to speculate long to find out why the Islamic State (IS) randomly killed at least 129 people and wounded hundreds in Paris, most of them young adults in the prime of their lives. In an online statement released the day after the attacks, the group explained its motives, in line with its usual habit of claiming responsibility for attacks. IS claimed that the attacks were meant as revenge for Paris’ participation in the US-led coalition of nations, which bombs IS.However, the statement also revealed another reason why they targeted a soccer stadium, a number of cafes and restaurants, as well as a rock concert: because Paris is “the capital of prostitution and obscenity.” The young Parisians who died during the attacks were labeled in the statement as “crusaders,” as well as “apostates” who had gathered in a “profligate prostitution party.” The term crusaders apparently, according to IS, refers to indigenous non-Muslim Parisians, while the term apostates apparently refers to Parisians with an Islamic background. To IS, it makes no difference; in their eyes, they are all sinners deserving death.
They added, “The result of the attacks was the death of no less than 100 crusaders and the wounding of more than those, and unto Allah is all praise and gratitude.”
But these motives might not be their most important goals. Apart from more short-term motives, such as retaliation and the killing of those it regards as sinners, the attacks also might fit into the more long-term strategic goals of the group, which are to sow chaos and to create a backlash against Muslims living in or migrating to the West. This would fit in well with the strategy that has been outlined in a document written by al-Qaeda strategist Abu Bakr Naji titled “The Management of Savagery: The Most Critical Stage Through Which the Umma [Islamic Nation] Will Pass” and which is reportedly mandatory literature for IS commanders as well.
In the document, Naji describes the need for jihadi groups to launch terrorist attacks in order to create as much havoc and chaos as possible. This chaos will not only terrorize its enemies, but it will also create a more polarized environment; it forces people to choose sides, creating an “us vs. them” situation, which is more attuned to the jihadi narrative and in which the jihadis can more easily thrive. Because in this chaos people constantly live in the fear of death, the thinking goes, they will become more receptive to the jihadis' religious message of holy war and martyrdom. As such, the strategy aims to fundamentally reshape the environment, making it easier for IS to spread its message and to expand.
The attacks in Paris will have consequences for the refugee debate in the West, an outcome that might not have been intended but which could benefit IS. After the attacks, it emerged that one of the attackers carried a Syrian passport, probably a fake one, and registered as a refugee in Europe, the Wall Street Journal reported, and that six of the attackers had traveled to Syria before. For years, there have been discussions in Europe on whether Western jihadis pose a security threat back home. And for a couple of months, this debate has focused on whether these jihadis — Western or Middle Eastern militants from IS — use migrant routes to return to Europe.
However, many European countries, particularly Germany, showed an overall welcoming attitude toward the refugees, especially those from Syria. Until now, almost 800,000 refugees entered Europe illegally. This number is expected to rise to 1 million refugees this year, with another 3 million next year. This seems to contradict IS’ vision of a world in which believers and unbelievers can only be in a state of war with each other.
Syrian refugees fear that the Paris attacks will most probably create an anti-Muslim backlash in the West. More than two dozen US states said that Syrian refugees are no longer welcome due to security fears after the Paris attacks. And in Europe, the free movement of people within the EU is under pressure.
“If Europe cannot control its borders, we will see the return of barbed wire and walls between us,” French President Francois Hollande said.
Also, some European refugee shelters immediately got extra security guards, as people expected revenge attacks from the far right. Since the start of the European migrant crisis this summer, the European right-wing parties gained a lot more support as a result of their anti-immigration agenda. In The Netherlands, for example, the party of Geert Wilders is now leading the polls. Wilders’ Freedom Party is well-known for its anti-Islam and anti-immigration rhetoric.
Obviously, the refugee crisis in Europe has not gone unnoticed within the ranks of IS as well. In an issue of Dabiq, the IS online propaganda magazine, the group published an article in which it used the death of Aylan Kurdi, a Kurdish boy who drowned after his boat capsized on the way to Europe, to brand migrants as “apostates.”
The article stated the following, “It should be known that voluntarily leaving Darul-Islam [the land of Islam] for darul-kufr [the land of unbelief] is a dangerous major sin, as it is a passage towards kufr [disbelief] and a gate toward one’s children and grandchildren abandoning Islam for Christianity, atheism or liberalism.”
IS would rather not see refugees leave the region, nor does it want them to be sheltered by a welcoming Europe, where, as they say, they will find themselves “under the constant threat of fornication, sodomy, drugs and alcohol.” It may not have been their main goal, but one could suspect that IS wants to exploit the refugee crisis in order to sow division, increase existing tensions and more sharply polarize Europe. This undoubtedly benefits IS, which seeks to create chaos and a religious war between Muslims and non-Muslims.

Will Rouhani and Zarif defy Khamenei by holding direct talks with US on Syria?
Ali Omidi/Al-Monitor/November 18/15
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s supreme leader plainly stated on Oct. 7 that “negotiations with America is forbidden,” seemingly addressing President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. Speaking before Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commanders, he argued that the prohibition stems from the many disadvantages it has. Indeed, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei believes that the United States’ true intention with negotiations is to “infiltrate” Iran, and that only “carefree” and “simple-minded” people who are indifferent to “national interests” would support talks because they “don’t understand the matter correctly.” Thus, Ayatollah Khamenei’s opinion on Syria is that “there is no sense in other nations getting together and deciding on a system of government and the head of that government. This is a dangerous innovation which no government in the world would accept to be imposed on itself.”It appears that Rouhani has taken the supreme leader’s red lines on board, as displayed in his recent interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. Addressing the topic of Iran-US relations, Rouhani said he sees no link between holding nuclear talks with Washington and having relations with it. Yet he added that “one day, these [Iranian and American] embassies will reopen, but what counts is behavior. The Americans hold the key to this.” Through his further statement that “if they [the United States] modify their policies, correct errors committed in these 37 years and apologize to the people of Iran, the situation will change and good things can happen,” Rouhani has in effect adopted the same approach as his predecessors Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami. However, Rouhani has put all eggs, including bilateral talks on Syria, in the basket of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — and its implementation. Indeed, Rouhani has said that “if the agreement is implemented well, it can be the basis for fewer tensions with the US and pave the way for a new era [in bilateral relations] … and after that, it may be possible for the two countries to enter talks on other issues.” This is while US officials, including President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry, have on various instances supported the idea of dialogue with Iran on issues other than its nuclear program.
The key question here is whether Iran’s policies in practice are different from those it declares. It appears that there is indeed such a discrepancy. After the signing of the JCPOA, a joke began circulating in Tehran which pointed to the inevitability of Iran-US talks on other issues, and indicating a thaw in bilateral relations. The content of the joke was that Iran would change the name of its central city of “Arak” to “Barack,” in honor of Obama, and that in return, the United States would change the name of Manhattan to “Mash Hassan,” which is a very casual way of referring to Rouhani.
Such a trajectory of cooperation has precedence in the history of diplomacy and international relations. For instance, the founders of the European Union started their cooperation with functional and technical issues, and the success they achieved in these fields was extended into cooperation on political, social and cultural matters. Indeed, functional “spillover” is a theory in international relations coined by David Mitrany and Ernest Haas that has been proven in practice. Although Ayatollah Khamenei prefers that there be no diplomatic contact between Iran and the United States on issues other than the nuclear program — including Syria — in practice, this will not be possible for several reasons.
First, given the multilateral nature of the talks on Syria that have been held in Austria, the Iranian delegation — led by Zarif – is able to negotiate with its American counterpart in the context of this multilateral setting, and there is nothing that Iranian conservatives can do about it. Conservative forces neither have an excuse to impose pressure on Zarif or Rouhani over such engagement. During his years of teaching at the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s School of International Relations, Zarif wrote a book entitled “Multilateral Diplomacy: Theory and Performance of Regional and International Organizations"; it now seems that he is engaged in applying his own theories.
Second, considering that Russia, the principal ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, is actively participating in the talks in Austria, Iran believes that it will become isolated and singled out if it fails to engage in dialogue with the main parties to the conflict — including the United States. Experience has also shown Iran that it will not be able to steer the crisis alone. In addition, Iranian officials have realized that inaction on their behalf may cause developments in Syria to move in an unfavorable direction.
Third, executive power is in the hands of Rouhani, and therefore, any initiative or diplomatic maneuvering during talks in Austria fall within his purview, thus placing Iranian conservatives in a passive position.
Fourth, the implementation of the JCPOA is a time-consuming process. Therefore, any negotiation with the American side on the matter can be used as a pretext to discuss Syria or other issues on the sidelines. Indeed, any interview by an Iranian official that might follow such talks would simply announce that discussions have been held with the Americans on the JCPOA, which is not a lie.
Fifth, Iranian public opinion and political culture view a lack of serious negotiations with foreign actors — including the United States — as a sign of weakness. There is also currently the expectation that if consultations can resolve a complicated matter such as the nuclear issue, why can’t they resolve the crisis in Syria? What’s wrong with engaging in talks with the American side if it will reduce the pain and suffering of the Syrian people? A wide spectrum of political and scientific elites inside Iran, including Rouhani, is now using the political history of Islam to prove this point. The precedents in Islamic history that are being presented by Rouhani’s supporters to justify talks with the United States include the negotiation and reconciliation of Imam Ali, the first Shiite imam, with Muawiyah, the caliph of his time — with Ali obviously representing Iran and Muawiyah representing the United States. Other examples of such precedent include the acceptance of Imam Hassan, the second Shiite imam, to forge peace with Muawiyah, or even Imam Hussein, the third Shiite imam, negotiating with Yazid, Muawiyah’s son and the caliph at the time, before the historic battle in Karbala. Finally, the most important precedent being brought up is the Hudaybiyyah peace treaty between the Prophet Muhammad and his enemies in Mecca. It should be noted that such interpretations of the history of Islam, by a religious government, are very significant.
As stated by former Iranian diplomat Seyed Hossein Mousavian, “It’s strange that while [the officials] of both countries consider each other their No. 1 enemy, the improvement of bilateral relations [between any two states] has not had as many external enemies as that between Iran and the United States, and neither have they been met with such internal opposition [in both Iran and the United States].”
In sum, Iran and the United States will hold bilateral talks on Syria, but this will probably take place in the form of discreet diplomacy accompanied by admissions and denials. Despite the rhetoric, the road to talks between the two nations on issues other than the JCPOA is open — but may be bumpy and fragile.

Democrats warn Syrian refugee ban would empower Islamic State
Julian Pecquet/Al-Monitor/November 18/15
Democrats in Congress are warning that slamming the door on Syrian refugees would hurt the US-led campaign against the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS).
The argument comes as Republican leaders and more than half of state governors have announced their opposition to President Barack Obama's plan to admit up to 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next 10 months. Democrats on Nov. 17 denounced a knee-jerk reaction to the attacks in Paris that they say would undermine US efforts to build an international coalition against IS and feed into the terrorist group's ideology of a civilization war between Muslims and the West.
“Refusing to help those who have passed repeated vettings will not keep us safer,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee member Tom Udall, D-N.M., said in a statement. “It will fuel the terrorists' hateful anti-Western ideology.”
Sen. Martin Heinrich, a fellow New Mexico Democrat whose father fled Germany before World War II, slammed what he called the “anti-immigrant logic” of Syrian refugee opponents.
“Let's remember that the enemy in the current scenario is [IS], not the refugees who flee from their destruction,” Heinrich said in a statement. “We simply will not have the moral standing as a nation to lead in this international crisis if we ignore those who have lost everything at the hands of these barbaric terrorists.”
The top Democrat on the House intelligence panel agreed.
“Being a constructive part of the refugee crisis is vital to our coalition partners,” Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., told Al-Monitor. “It's hard for us to call on them to do more in terms of refugees, in terms of the war effort, if we're unwilling to take on some component of this humanitarian crisis ourselves.”
And Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said the United States would do well to avoid a “direct clash” with IS on ideological grounds by singling out only non-Muslims for resettlement.
“We want to make sure that we don't act like we're against all Muslims, and yes, if we say we won't take any, it aggravates it at least a little bit,” Smith told Al-Monitor. “There is a component [of the war effort], yes, that says it's not us versus the Muslims.”
The comments come as Republican leaders in the House and Senate have called for a moratorium on Syrian refugee resettlement after one of the Paris attackers was discovered to have entered the country posing as a refugee fleeing the war in Syria.
Newly elected House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., tweeted Nov. 17 that Syrian refugees should be barred “unless we can be 100 percent confident that they are not here to do us harm” — an impossible metric.
“Our nation has always been welcoming,” Ryan said at a press conference. “But we cannot allow terrorists to take advantage of our compassion. This is a moment where it is better to be safe than to be sorry. So we think the prudent, the responsible thing is to take a pause in this particular aspect of this refugee program in order to verify that terrorists are not trying to infiltrate the refugee population.”
The House is expected to vote this week on legislation that would require the Obama administration to certify that none of the potential Syrian refugees being admitted pose a security threat.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., also called for a “pause or moratorium” on the president's resettlement proposal Nov. 17. Meanwhile, at least 27 states have also objected to the president's proposal.
Administration officials counter that intense screening is already in place for Syrian refugees and point out that they are vetted over an 18- to 24-month period, negating the fear of a sudden deluge. They say that half of the fewer than 2,000 refugees accepted since the civil war broke out four years ago have been children, half have been women and a quarter have been older than 60.
Technically, they add, state leaders cannot stop the influx of refugees, who are granted residency status and a pathway toward citizenship. But State Department officials have been particularly frank about their reluctance to see a historically popular program turned into yet another partisan hot potato.
“We don't want to send refugees anywhere where they would not be welcomed,” a senior administration official said in a conference call with reporters Nov. 17.
The issue has already become clearly partisan, however, for a variety of domestic political reasons.
Republican voters are more than twice as likely than Democrats to say they wouldn't vote for a Muslim president — 73% versus 35% — according to a September poll by Rasmussen Reports. And Republicans are also less likely to trust Obama's ability to keep the nation safe.
“The fact that a number of governors, charged with their states’ safety, have rejected Syrian refugees should be a signal to us all: Many Americans do not believe they can trust this administration to properly vet these refugees,” Sen. Ron Johnson, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Committee, said in a statement. “The administration must address these legitimate concerns.”
The committee has scheduled a hearing on the issue for Nov. 19.
Some Republicans, including presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush, have argued for only allowing Christians from Syria. A number of Democrats vigorously denounced that idea.
“It's against US principles — it's against universal principles — to discriminate,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Ben Cardin, D-Md., told Al-Monitor. “Any time the United States does something that is easily recognizable as wrong, it can affect the effectiveness of our international strategy.”
Cardin did raise concerns about US screening and visa-free travel from Europe. But he played down any direct link with the anti-IS effort.
“US leadership is not just because we have a strong military — it's because we have universal values that we stick up for, and part of that is dealing with a crisis such as the Syrian refugees,” he said. “I think it does deal with our credibility.”
Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, resisted tying IS’ appeal to anything the United States does.
“I think [IS] is evil, and I think the people who would find [IS] appealing are frankly also evil,” Engel said. “They will recruit, they will find people, they will tell lies about the United States and the West. They will find a way to do it. I don't think anything that we do or don't do aids and abets them.”
But he also endorsed the refugee resettlement proposal, drawing parallels to the US reluctance to take in fleeing Jews in the 1930s. At the time, Jewish communities were widely perceived as hotbeds of dangerous political ideologies, including anarchism and Bolshevism.
“A lot of these people are victims of [IS],” Engel told Al-Monitor. “And if we're going to fight [IS], we need to help its victims.”

Paris ‘mastermind’ not arrested in police raid
By Asma Ajroudi Al Arabiya News/18 November 2015
The suspected mastermind of the Paris attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was not among a number of people arrested in a huge police raid on Wednesday, the city’s prosecutor said.At least two bodies were found in the apartment in Saint-Denis after the shootout with police, but they have not yet been identified, prosecutor Francois Molins told a press conference.
Monlins also said “commando” of people arrested or killed in a massive police raid in a Paris apartment Wednesday were a terror unit capable of staging a fresh attack. “A new team of terrorists was neutralized and all indications are that given their arms, their organizational structure and their determination, the commando could have struck,” he added. He also said police had found a cellphone belonging to one of the gunmen and suicide bombers who staged France’s worst-ever attacks Friday, killing 129 people and injuring over 350. The phone was found in a dustbin outside the Bataclan music venue, scene of the worst violence, where 89 people were gunned down. A text message showed one of the gunmen had sent a message saying “we’re ready, let’s go.”The message was sent at 9:42 pm (2042 GMT), before the attack, Molins said, adding that police were investigating who the message was sent to.
After the raid
Earlier, a woman died after detonating a bomb at the scene, the prosecutors' office said, adding that three people in the apartment had been arrested and two others were seized nearby. Several police officers were wounded in the raid.
The raid, which started at dawn, ended seven hours after the operation started, but there was still no word at the time on whether the mastermind was caught. French President Francois Hollande also urged the nation not to “give in to fear” or excessive reactions in the wake of the jihadist attacks on Paris. “No anti-Semitic or anti-Muslim act can be tolerated,” he told a meeting of the nation’s mayors after police carried out the massive assault in Paris. A French security forces officer stands by near the site of the dawn raid (Asma Ajroudi / Al Arabiya News). Around 50 French soldiers had been deployed in the raid. Security forces at the scene were unwilling to talk to members of the media, who had gathered at the site where the pre-dawn raid took place. Schools and shops were shuttered in the suburb, home to many people of North African descent, as authorities ordered residents to stay at home. Soufiane Belaribi, a young man of Algerian origin who lives in the suburb, said he had heard explosions while on his way to work in the morning. “I never imagined they would be hiding here. I didn’t see any suspicious movement in this neighborhood. I have been living here for 12 years,” Belaribi told Al Arabiya News. French medical teams at the scene in Saint-Denis, in northern Paris (Asma Ajroudi / Al Arabiya News) Karim Boujima, another resident in the suburb, said: “We heard fire in the morning. We immediately linked it to Friday’s events.
“I was very scared. I never thought France would be living this. Another Saint-Denis resident said that “we are paying for their doing,” in reference to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which carried out Friday’s attacks. “I never thought they would be hiding here. Life was normal,” said the resident, who gave only his first name, Lahouari. “This is sad for us because we are not [thought of] well in comparison with the rest of French society… It is bad. We are not scared for us, we are scared for our children and wives.” Another French policeman stands by the scene in the suburb of Saint-Denis (Asma Ajroudi / Al Arabiya News)
The area is home to the Stade de France, one of several places hit by gunmen and suicide bombers on Friday in the worst ever attack on French soil, which was claimed by the militant group. French prosecutors have identified five of the seven dead assailants from Friday - four Frenchmen and a man who was fingerprinted in Greece last month after arriving in the country via Turkey with a boatload of refugees fleeing the Syria war. Police believe two men directly involved in the assault subsequently escaped, including Salah Abdeslam, 26, a Belgian-based Frenchman who is believed to have played a central role in both planning and executing the deadly mission. Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who French authorities believe is the 'mastermind' of last week's Paris attacks (Twitter)
Until Wednesday morning, officials had said Abaaoud was in Syria. He grew up in Brussels, but media said he moved to Syria in 2014 to fight with Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Since then he has travelled back to Europe at least once and was involved in a series of planned attacks in Belgium foiled by the police last January.

This is no World War III – ISIS is still weak
Chris Doyle/Alarabiya?November 18/15
The attacks in Ankara, Sinai, Beirut and Paris, all claimed by ISIS, highlight a step change in the group’s strategy, taking its barbarism overseas and into the skies. This might suggest an increased potency but equally some argue it highlights that, as it is being squeezed in its Syrian and Iraqi heartlands, ISIS is lashing out. Despite all the overblown rhetoric about World War III and existential threats, ISIS is weak and those arrayed against it are strong when united and determined.
Out of every series of disasters there is an opportunity. Hitherto, the key international and regional actors have failed to coalesce either around an anti-ISIS strategy or solutions for Syria. This might be changing. Defeating ISIS and solving Syria are becoming more pressing issues for the major actors. Russian and French strikes on ISIS highlight a shared desire to hit back. Putin cannot afford to be engulfed by Syria and is likely to ditch President Assad if it means he can exit the crisis whilst retaining Russia’s pre-eminent status. Iran has for the first time ever signed up the Geneva communiqué of June 2012 that envisages a transition. Europe has backed France but also knows the refugee crisis will not go away unless Syria is resolved. Two rounds of talks in Vienna show that an international consensus on the way forward is inching closer with a tentative perhaps unrealistic timetable for transition and elections. Solving the conflict will be the biggest possible blow to those in Raqqa.
Despite all the overblown rhetoric about World War III and existential threats, ISIS is weak and those arrayed against it are strong when united and determined.
A feature of the Syria crisis is that the merest hint of political progress has been met by an increase of violence. The danger is that the attacks in Paris and other cities could also derail these fledgling diplomatic moves. The reactions to these may determine success or failure. So how should the international community go forward not backward?
The blood had barely dried on the streets of the French capital before calls for full-scale war and destruction were being heard. Calmer heads must come to the fore.
So many Parisians have reacted with dignity and resilience. They are not being cowed by the murderers at all. This reminds me of the atmosphere at the attacks in London in 2005. Despite endless provocations and attacks over the recent years, Lebanon has not been spit apart as many feared. This united collective defiance is precisely what ISIS does not want to see, this is what these people want to break.
United collective defiance
That said, vile anti-Muslim attacks have happened. Add to these, pretty much every comment by American Republic Presidential candidates and Governors on the Paris attacks will please the ISIS hordes. All efforts must be made to deter and prevent the huge quadrupling of attacks on Muslims and mosques in the sixth months after January’s Charlie Hebdo attacks.
Understanding what ISIS wants out of these attacks is highly informative about just how the international community should proceed.
ISIS wants to be at war. As Peter Neumann from the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation has stated: “I fear that if you start talking about war, you are almost playing into the hands of ISIS, because of course ISIS believes of course it is at war and it wants its enemies to be at war.” As he said, ISIS wants the choice to be solely - "I'm with the West or I'm with IS."
Escalating attacks on ISIS in Syria and Iraq can only achieve so much especially when only from the air. The military route is all too well travelled and its shortcomings have been all too well exposed in the past. ISIS has very much invited these attacks – indeed it is counting on them. Ground troops are needed but ideally from the region. But any military advances will mean nothing if functioning state institutions are not established in area areas taken and security restored. ISIS is banking on its enemies relying on Assad for help and in the process alienating huge swathes of the Syrian population who will feel betrayed.
We have to expect more attacks in Europe but see these as a sign of rank desperation. Intelligence and security cooperation has to be upgraded. Addition human and financial resources are being promised. Aviation security has to be tightened. Contrary to Donald Trump’s call for arms, far from allowing all of Europe to rack up a vast arsenal of AK47s and handguns, tighter controls on access to weapons will be needed. Questions need to be asked as to why it is possible to acquire gins so easily in Molenbeek. According to one expert “with 500-1000 euros you can get a military weapon in half an hour.”
Turning on the Syrian refugees and blaming them is another trap ISIS has laid in front of Europe and the US. ISIS loathed the fact that Syrians fled to Europe and did not seek sanctuary inside their ‘Caliphate.’ Be in no doubt that ISIS did abuse the refugee routes into Europe, precisely to advance Trojan horse fear mongering. Far right and ultranationalist parties in Europe have all too predictably played ISIS’s tune. The fear must be that, even if ISIS does not achieve this goal with the Paris attacks, future atrocities will likewise be designed to create a greater backlash against Syrian refugees. Europe must not ditch its humanity when dealing those who have left everything, many of whom are already victims of ISIS.
Muslim communities in Europe will be another target with ISIS seeking to exploit any grievances. Feelings of exclusion are precisely what ISIS and Al-Qaeda have profited from. Muslims have much to lose and will need to work hard within their communities to keep extremism at bay. The authorities have to engage with such communities more effectively adopting an attitude of partnership not suspicion. We need to find ways of increasing decent employment opportunities in such areas as Molenbeek in Belgium, where these attacks seem to have been planned. Too many leaders in Europe and the United States are not prepared to enter into a meaningful working relationship with Muslim communities and for many bashing Muslims is a vote winner. Well it is a vote winner of sorts for ISIS too.
Across the world Muslims are watching how Europe reacts. So are ISIS recruiters. Politicians would be best advised to remind their constituents, some of whom are genuinely scared, that Muslims have been the greatest victims of Al-Qaeda and ISIS. Highlight how ISIS violates Islamic principles and values every single day. Point out that Muslims are fully pledged citizens and the overwhelming majority are genuinely patriotic. A 2011 survey in Britain showed that patriotic feelings averaged higher in Muslim communities than in the overall population. The huge outpourings of solidarity with Paris must be replicated when non-western cities are similarly blighted. They are not lesser victims.
The best antidote to ISIS and Al-Qaeda is our unity and our values. Ditch either of these and they start to win. Stand firm and these merchants of death have no chance.

The ISIS ‘Storm’ and policy implications
Dr. Theodore Karasik/Alarabiya?November 18/15
ISIS attacks in Paris, Beirut, Iraq, in the past weeks, and about two weeks ago against a Russian airliner in the Sinai are all spectacular attacks against regional countries and international powers under the guise of ISIS’s “Storm” operation. The attacks of late carry the hallmark and lessons learned of violent extremists who have launched successful attacks not only in Mumbai (2008) but also Chechen terrorist attacks against a hospital in Budennovsk (1995), a theater Nord-Ost (2002), and a school in Beslan (2004). The Westgate Mall Attack (2013) by Al-Shabaab in Kenya is also notable for its viciousness. The summation of this violence is now seen. ISIS’s Storm is about sending waves of fighters and target commercial aviation to exacerbate tensions in key countries and arenas. In Paris, the attacks focused on gathering places including a stadium, restaurants, and bars. In Beirut, the suicide bombings targeted a Palestinian refugee camp in a Shiite zone of Lebanon’s capital. The targets in Iraq also focused on Shiite pilgrims. Of course, Metrojet flight 9268, brought down by what appears to be an ISIS bomb, killed Russian citizens.
Let’s also note that Boko Haram, who pledged allegiance to ISIS is on a roll in Cameroon, Chad, and Niger in the past few weeks including the deploying female suicide bombers. This wave from Western Africa is meant to destabilize North Africa. Combined with ISIS’ province in Libya, a multi-prong push is obvious.
Thus, ISIS’s Storm is found in the group’s recent statements that, I believe, were not taken seriously by intelligence officials or analysts of ISIS. This lack of reading and analysis is tragic and cannot be repeated again. Electronic monitoring may not have picked up any traffic regarding potential attacks. It may be that ISIS is using better encrypted messaging platforms or had possibly gone back to the old way of face to face communications. Drone attacks to target ISIS leaders is not going to deter ISIS one iota.
Let’s be clear: the recent release of two ISIS messages to the world show the group’s intent. ISIS’s Russian language “Soon Very Soon” video clearly showed threats to Russia and to Europe:
These are our words
In your major cities
We will corner you.
You won’t be able to escape.
Nor spread your corruption.
You will live a life of humiliation
Only from now on.
In the hereafter,
Hellfire awaits you.
Hellfire is an important word: In connotes the end times, part of ISIS’s horrific apocalyptic outlook. The ISIS claim on the Paris attacks specifically target the UK and other countries in the same violent language including Rome.
Old threats
The Rome threat is not new. In February 2015, “A Message to France” that threatens not only Paris but all French speakers and also Belgium, and “A Message Signed in Blood to the Nation of the Cross” targeting Christians, significantly France and Italy and especially Copts, was a clear warning. The execution of 21 Egyptian Copts in one of the videos repeated in the “Soon Very Soon” video. In August, a Croatian national was beheaded by ISIS who worked for a French company in Egypt. What is clear is that there is warning of coming attacks and there needs to be more serious analysis of these pronouncements.
Drone attacks to target ISIS leaders is not going to deter ISIS one iota.
These attacks are meant to inflame and incense communities and their respective governments to attack ISIS in their heartlands, which are spread out from the Levant to other geographical areas where ISIS has a strong and growing presence. The reach is impressive because of the air-borne nature of ISIS ideology from Africa to Southeast Asia to Europe and Eurasia. This is what I call “the splatter effect” where continued aerial bombing and ground attacks by Russian and American-led forces through Operation Inherent Resolve are sending new waves of assailants with the dissemination of orders to conduct heinous attacks. Unfortunately, more attacks are likely imminent as the ability for ISIS to spread its message to its anti-social, anti-civilization base is strong and robust.
The splatter effect is not new. In June 2015, the violence featured a mix target set; a demonstration killing in France through decapitation and mutilation, automatic weapons fired upon European beach tourists in Tunisia, and a targeted suicide bombing on a Shiite mosque in Kuwait. Together the attacks sent multiple messages of ISIS's capabilities and reach plus the fervent nature of ISIS followers. It is important to remember that ISIS is achieving a cult-like status, and so there is a real and serious coordination that is ongoing across ISIS’s geo-strategic reach even before the events of the last few days. Thus, the latest attacks are not a shift in tactics. They are an ongoing Storm that requires new thinking and action.
What are the current requirements to fight this scourge? International cooperation including more regional assistance in drawing up a dragnet to track individuals of interest. Monitoring of social media helps immensely but with new encrypted communication technologies is making it more difficult for intelligence and law enforcement to monitor everyone in their two way communications. If ISIS is now using word of mouth to help inspire cell formation and ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance), the job is crystal clear: Act now on issues such as migration, border control, and most importantly, pay close attention to what ISIS is saying. We know the targets, we know the means and the motives, so why not act on them in a robust manner. A new, international gold standard for security and intelligence needs to be the new norm besides kinetic options.

A Syria intervention the world will be forced into
Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Alarabiya?November 18/15
The terrorist attacks in Paris have further emphasized the importance of intervening in Syria and putting an end to chaos that is a threat beyond the Middle East. At the recent talks in Vienna, instead of proposing to resolve the Syrian conflict by intervening, the suggestion is for a perfect friendly political solution. Proponents of this must live in a fantasy world to believe it is possible in a country where more than 300,000 people have been killed.
The proposal calls for a gradual transition, reassuring President Bashar al-Assad that he will not exit power until after the implementation of several phases that may extend for a long time. Fighting will not stop until he steps down, but he may refuse to do so.
International intervention makes it possible to arrange for the return of refugees, support those in need, stop proxy Turkish-Saudi-Iranian clashes, and limit Russian and U.S. involvement
Therefore, intervention is inevitable. The only acceptable intervention today would be that carried out under a U.N. flag, and in which most concerned countries participate militarily and financially. This intervention must establish a system that unites all the country’s components and parties, and must prepare for governance based on elections. An international war against terrorist groups in Syria must also be immediately launched.
Banishing Assad and all armed and terrorist groups may require a year or two, or more. Regardless, this remains the best and fastest solution compared with the Geneva and Vienna plans. International intervention makes it possible to arrange for the return of refugees, support those in need, stop proxy Turkish-Saudi-Iranian clashes, and limit Russian and U.S. involvement.
Wasting time
However, Western politicians are wasting their time. The Vienna meetings only prolong the extent and duration of threats. The number of those fleeing death and destruction has increased as a result. There are currently more than 12 million Syrians displaced! Thousands are trying to escape to Turkey en route to Europe, while many refugees have become easy targets for recruitment by terrorist groups.
All this amid a useless debate about whether Assad or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) should be banished first. The regime, which is the enemy of most Syrians, is the cause of this war. It has become so weak that it can neither govern the country nor defend itself.
Militias that Iran has brought from Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon to fight for the regime have failed to win the war. Russia’s recent intervention in aid of the regime has only succeeded in increasing the number of displaced, as 250,000 Syrians have fled Aleppo and Hama. As the situation in Syria quickly deteriorates, Iran wants to prevent international intervention by wasting more time suggesting solutions that further complicate the crisis.
Controlling the situation has become an international demand. To control it, the international community must understand the importance of acting quickly to banish Assad and fight terrorist organizations at the same time. With the approval of such a solution, most of the region’s countries will volunteer to implement it alongside U.N. troops, as the United Nations can manage the situation in Syria until the transition to a new phase is complete.
Syria has become the biggest threat to the world. There have been explosions in mosques and squares in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Turkey; the Russian plane bombing over Egypt; and most recently the terrorist attacks in France. Worse may be underway. It will be impossible to eliminate terrorism before ending chaos in Syria, and before returning the displaced to their homes and cities instead of looking for shelter for them in Europe and America.
Negotiators have lost their concentration due to their attempts to give warring parties the chance to suggest solutions that prolong the crisis. Even if negotiators listen to Iran’s or others’ solutions for resolving the crisis over several phases, they will fail because developments on the ground are quickly escalating and threats have extended beyond Syria.
The Vienna transition plan requires patience and time to implement, as well as the various parties’ approval to cease fire, which needs to be arranged and monitored. It also requires launching a gradual political process. Even if this is implemented according to a reasonable schedule, results cannot be guaranteed as Assad may refuse to exit power, in which case terrorist organizations will thwart all attempts to resolve the situation.
After the Vienna plan fails, negotiators will meet again to search for another solution. However, by then the world will have had enough as terrorism expands. Millions more will be displaced. In that case, everyone will accept international intervention - Syria would have been less tragic had this been accepted two years ago.

ElBaradei and an Arab renaissance plan
Jamal Khashoggi/Alarabiya?November 18/15
We are still far from ending the conflicts in Syria, Yemen and other countries, but we are on the right path. So is it the right time to talk about a renaissance project that, after all these wars end, can push the Arab world toward a reality different than that prior to the start of the Arab Spring in 2011? According to Dr Mohammed ElBaradei, we must do so.
The Nobel Prize winner has been extremely frustrated because despite his attempts to make his country Egypt a better place, he was accused of treason by both sides of conflict in his home country . Haunted by images of death the pain of unfulfilled promises, he sees what is happing there as a reflection of the struggles across the Arab world.
“I have everything I need, but I know for a fact that millions of Arabs and Egyptians dream of coming to Europe, even as refugees. This isn’t a fair choice,” he said last week as we headed to his favourite restaurant in Vienna.
I wish we would listen to ElBaradei and bring together Arab specialists in economy, development and technology to discuss a renaissance plan for the Arab world.
Recounting his experience at Google’s Zeitgeist events - a series of intimate gatherings of top global thinkers and leaders - which he attended few weeks ago, he said he felt like the Arab world was the fuel tank being detached from the a space racket that fly high into space while fuel tank fall back to earth with no significant , abandoned fuel tank .
Saudi leadership?
ElBaradei said Saudi Arabia should lead a plan toward an Arab renaissance because it is a stable country. However, he has not lost hope in Egypt. Last week’s agreement on a coordination council between the two countries is good news to him.
However, he said this coordination was only linked to the military and investment fields, but to achieve renaissance, three major plans were needed: to reform education, to reform healthcare, and to spread tolerance by the rule of law. This is how Japan, China and Singapore achieved their renaissances.
I told him I did not expect Saudi Arabia to begin working on a renaissance project now. “So what will happen next?” asked ElBaradei. Do we go back to the way it was before the Arab Spring? Do we go back to the phase of underdevelopment in all fields? We must understand that before the Arab Spring, the Arab world was in an extremely bad situation that is neither worth maintaining nor restoring.
Arab Marshall Plan?
During World War II, a group of American researchers and European scientists was commissioned to establish economic and political plans to make Europe a better place after the war. Arabs must do the same to avoid restoring the circumstances that led to the collapses of 2011.
The Arab world should have paid more attention to the imminent danger when a U.N. human development report in 2000 highlighted the miserable situation of Arabs. There have been several reform attempts since.
An Arab economic summit was held for the first time, and a project for reforming the Arab League was presented. Late Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud called for an Islamic summit on sciences, and many countries and prominent Arab figures launched several renaissance projects.
Qatar opened branches of the best global universities. Saudi Arabia founded the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. These were great ideas, but Arab policies killed them.
We cannot escape from politics, or from searching for a formula for good governance. However, until then, I wish we would listen to ElBaradei and bring together Arab specialists in economy, development and technology to discuss a renaissance plan for the Arab world.
I do not think ElBaradei will be able to stay away from politics, but let us not listen to him as a politician, but as a scholar who is hurting because of what is happening in his beloved homeland.

Comparing live coverage between Paris and Beirut
Diana Moukalled/Alarabiya?November 18/15
Like the rest of the world, the Lebanese people were preoccupied with following up on the terrorist attacks in Paris. The Lebanese people’s interest in these developments in France seemed like an echo of what happened a day earlier in Beirut’s southern suburb of Borj al-Barajneh, where suicide bombers killed at least 40 and injured others.
It’s true that the attacks in Paris resulted in more human losses and that they were more dangerous than the level of the entire world; however, this did not prevent Lebanese people and other Arabs from comparing the two attacks - particularly in regards to media coverage.
Comments implied some sort of jealousy and joy, even though it’s about death here. A Lebanese girl called Teema wrote that if she’s destined to die in a terrorist attack, she’d rather be a victim in Paris and not in Lebanon - because in the French capital she may find someone to cover her body before taking pictures of her as she lies dead.
“Photos of me would thus not circulate on Facebook, and I’d be categorized as a victim regardless of my identity and religion,” she said. This comment, and many others like it, may not be exaggerated.
Our countries are full of security incidents, wars and explosions, and this has pushed all local and Arab media outlets towards fierce competition on their level of coverage, and particularly on the level of live coverage. Therefore when an explosion happens in the Arab world, live coverage often includes scenes of death, blood and human remains.
We’re almost incapable of counting the number of times when our hearts ache due to ‘live coverage’
Coverage thus gets out of control as cameramen on field violate the sanctity of the dead and the privacy of the injured.
Filling the hours
Live coverage lasts for long hours - so how can they fill these hours? They therefore find it okay to unleash the emotions of angry citizens who’ve failed to control their anger and voice their hatred towards others. All this poisons the atmosphere.
We’re almost incapable of counting the number of times when our hearts ache due to “live coverage” which in fact has become “live chaos” as coverage lasts for hours under the excuse of following up on a security incident.
We’d see reporters struggling as they try to provide information or interview survivors or control broadcasting gruesome and bloody images. What’s disappointing is that most of the times, there are no real efforts to control this and coverage ends up full of tensions, fear, hatred and empty political analyses of a fresh event. We, until this day, still find someone who’d ask a child who just lost his parents in an explosion: “Where’s your mommy?”
The number of victims of the Paris attacks stands at almost 130, and all French and global media outlets covered the developing story. And although there are no restrictions there and no security monitoring like the situation in our countries, we did not see photos of dead people or human remains during the coverage of this incident. This reminds me of the September 11 attacks - until this day, we have not seen a single photo of blood or of a body.
No justification
There are no justifications at all as to why we haven’t yet learnt the lesson. We know the lesson well and all media outlets know their duties and responsibilities.
This is not about lack of experience and it’s neither about being under pressure nor seeking the element of surprise which leads to improper live coverage. Laziness and maliciousness - as well as the absence of professional deterrents and accountability - are what push some to disregard people’s lives and feelings.

News Bulletin Achieves Since 2006 Click Here to go to the LCCC Daily English/Arabic News Buletins Archieves Since 2006

News Bulletin Achieves Since 2006
Click Here to go to the LCCC Daily English/Arabic News Buletins Archieves Since 2006