LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS
BULLETIN
January 27/17
Compiled
& Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
The
Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletins17/english.january27.17.htm
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Bible Quotations For Today
Nicodemus
asked, Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to
find out what they are doing, does it
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 07/40-52/:"When they
heard these words, some in the crowd said, ‘This is really the prophet.’Others said, ‘This is the Messiah.’ But some
asked, ‘Surely the Messiah does not come from Galilee,
does he?
Has not the scripture said that the Messiah is descended from David and comes
from Bethlehem,
the village where David lived?’ So there was a division in the crowd because of
him. Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him. Then the
temple police went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them,
‘Why did you not arrest him?’ The police answered, ‘Never has anyone spoken
like this!’Then the Pharisees replied, ‘Surely you
have not been deceived too, have you? Has any one of the authorities or of the
Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd, which does not know the law they are
accursed.’Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus before,
and who was one of them, asked,
‘Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out
what they are doing, does it?’ They replied, ‘Surely you are not also from Galilee, are you? Search and you will see that no prophet
is to arise from Galilee.’"
Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret,
but worldly grief produces death."
Second Letter to the Corinthians 07/02-10/:"Make room in
your hearts for us; we have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have taken advantage of no one. I do not say this to condemn you, for I
said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together. I
often boast about you; I have great pride in you; I am filled with consolation;
I am overjoyed in all our affliction. For even when we
came into Macedonia,
our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted in every way disputes without and
fears within. But God, who consoles the downcast, consoled us by the arrival of
Titus, and not
only by his coming, but also by the consolation with which he was consoled
about you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so
that I rejoiced still more. For even if I made you sorry with
my letter, I do not regret it (though I did regret it, for I see that I grieved
you with that letter, though only briefly). Now I rejoice, not because
you were grieved, but because your grief led to repentance; for you felt a
godly grief, so that you were not harmed in any way by us. For godly grief
produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but worldly
grief produces death."
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis
& editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 26-27/17
Aoun insists on new vote law to govern
elections, rejects term extension/The Daily Star/January 26/ 2017
Lebanon: Civilians Tried in Military Courts/NNA/January 26/ 2017
Hezbollah's road to regaining legitimacy goes through Israel/ Yasser Okbi/Maariv Hashavua/Jerusalem
Post/26 January 2017
Is Ivanka Trump Jewish? In Israel, she has a trump
card/The Associated Press, Petah Tikva/January 26/
2017
Canada/Radicalization in Public Schools...Why We are Concerned/Maha Soliman/Gatestone
Institute/January 26/17
The Two "Islamophobias"/Denis MacEoin/Gatestone Institute./January 26, 2017
What Is Iran Regime's Policy-Making Mechanism? – Op-Ed.]/NCRI
Iran News/Thursday, 26 January 2017
Tsarist performance on the Iranian and Turkish fronts/Ghassan
Imam/Al Arabiya/January 26/17
An ode to the prisoners of happiness/Yasser Hareb/Al Arabiya/January 26/17
The hottest year on record was not a Chinese hoax/Yossi
Mekelberg/Al Arabiya/January
26/17
Egypt-Russia relations: Reviving the unstable/Mohammed Nosseir/Al
Arabiya/January 26/17
Op-Ed: How Trump can end illegal immigration right now—without a border
wall/Steven Kopits/ PoliticsCNBC.com/January 26/17
Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News
published on January 26-27/17
HRW Urges Lebanon to End Military Trials of Civilians
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Kaidanow
Concludes Visit to Lebanon
Aoun Meets Mogherini:
Legislative Polls to be Held on Time
Bassil Meets Mogherini,
Announces Conference on Fighting Terrorism Next Week
Heavy Security Deployment in North in Search of 'Bomb-Laden Pickup'
Geagea Says LF, PSP Want New Electoral Law, 1960 Law
Cannot Continue
Zahra Says Pressure to Endorse New Election Law Will Yield Soon
MP SamiGemayel Holds Talks with Jumblat
in Clemenceau
Army Refers Costa Would-Be Bomber to Judiciary
Syria to Hand al-Hashem Killer Over to Lebanon for
Trial
Jumblat Says Ultimatums on Election Law are
'Illogical'
MP, Sami Gemayel Throws Support behind Aoun in Electoral Law Battle
MP Nadim Gemayel urges to
conduct election on time
Kanaan: Christian convergence over election law
Bonne visits military posts in Arsal, Laboueh: Lebanese Army deserves all our support
Cazeneuve cables Machnouk:
For swift legislative elections
Abi Khalil: five oil
exploration blocks open for bidding
Aswad: President Aoun is
keen on endorsing new election law
Charles Ayoub 'Barred from Leaving UAE'
Berri, Mogherini tackle
most recent developments
Lebanon: Civilians Tried in Military Courts
Aoun insists on new vote law to govern elections,
rejects term extension
Hezbollah's road to regaining legitimacy goes through Israel
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For
Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 26-27/17
Arabs in Uproar After Saudi Prince Poses With Israel's Tzipi Livni
Several senior diplomats resign as Trump admin takes shape
First Official US Visit to Israel of the Trump Era
Trump claims torture works but experts warn of its 'potentially existential'
costs
Turkey: Waiting for outcome of Syria safe zones call
Facing extremist attack, Syrian rebels join bigger faction
Russia urges caution on US plan for safe zones in Syria
Rouhani's Advisor Implicitly Ruled out Prospect of
Iran's Economic Growth
Iran: 12000 die in traffic accident in 9 months
One of the Biggest Financial Corruptions in Iran
The Appointment of the Qods Force Deputy Commander as
the Ambassador to Iraq Is to Continue and Expand Meddling in This Country
US lawmaker says she met Assad on secret Syria trip
Protests held in NY against Trump immigration plans
Jihadists Lose Ground around Libya's Second City
Hamon Pitches Fresh Ideas to French Socialists
'Mexico Leader Cancels U.S. Trip in Border Wall Row with Trump
Links From Jihad Watch Site for on January 26-27/17
Muslim
writer claims Trump’s immigration policies are “racism and Islamophobia
at its most basic level”
AFDI
Women’s March Video Reveals Leftists’ Ignorance and Indifference Regarding Sharia Oppression of Women
Make
“The Establishment” Obsolete
Germany:
Muslim migrant killed “infidel” landlady, scrawled Qur’an verses on wall
Germany:
Berlin truck jihad mass murderer’s mosque to be shut down
Trump
to terminate funding to UN agencies that give full membership to Palestinian
Authority
Trump:
US shouldn’t admit those who practice “‘honor’
killings, other forms of violence against women”
Sweden:
Two Afghan Muslim migrants revealed as those who streamed 3-hour rape on Facebook
Trump:
“We cannot, and should not, admit…those who would place violent religious
edicts over American law”
Video:
Robert Spencer on Hamas-Linked CAIR and Fake Anti-Muslim Hate Crimes
Hamas-linked
CAIR: Refusing refugees is equivalent to slavery
Child
jihadi arrested in Austria just latest example of
jihad groups’ child abuse
Hamas
top dog says Trump will “entice Israelis to become more radical”
“The
wrong kind of Muslim leaders have been gaining inroads into government circles”
Latest Lebanese Related News
published on January 26-27/17
HRW Urges Lebanon to End
Military Trials of Civilians
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January
26/17/Lebanon tried hundreds of civilians in military courts last year,
including children, Human Rights Watch said Thursday, urging an end to a
practice it said undermines fair trial rights. The rights group said Lebanese
civilians can end up in military courts for any interaction with security
services or their employees. The courts are under the defence ministry's
jurisdiction and conduct closed sessions, and their judges are often military
officers who are not required to have any legal training.
"It has become abundantly clear that civilians cannot get a fair
trial in Lebanon's military
courts," said Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at HRW. "Military courts have
no business trying civilians, and Lebanon should end this troubling practice."The group said hundreds of civilians were
tried before military courts in 2016, but a precise figure was not available.
The Union for Protection of Juveniles in Lebanon said the figure included
355 children. HRW said it had received reports that defendants were being
tortured during military interrogations and forced confessions, including from
children, were being used as evidence. And it said the courts "have used
their broad jurisdiction to intimidate or retaliate against individuals for
political reasons and to stamp out dissent". Among those facing trial
before military courts are activists arrested in 2015 for protesting government
inaction over a waste collection crisis. Fourteen protesters face up to three
years in prison during a trial scheduled for later this month. HRW urged Lebanon to open
military courts up to public observers, and noted that international law
prohibits the use of military courts for civilians when ordinary courts are
still functioning. "The least Lebanon can do is ensure that its
citizens aren't being sentenced in secret by a specialised court behind closed
doors," Fakih said.
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Kaidanow Concludes Visit to Lebanon
Naharnet/January 26/17/Acting Assistant Secretary for
Political Military Affairs Tina Kaidanow concluded a
one-day visit to Lebanon on
January 25, the US
embassy said in a statement on Thursday. Kaidanow's
visit came as the United
States continued its support for the
Lebanese Armed Forces, including the delivery on Monday of an additional $3.2
million in equipment for ground troops. Ambassador Kaidanow
met with a range of representatives from Lebanon’s political and security
institutions, including Lebanese Armed Forces Commander General Jean Qahwaji, Minister of Defense Yaaqoub Sarraf, and a group of
Lebanese Parliamentarians. On January 25, Kaidanow
visited the headquarters of the Lebanese Armed Forces. While there, she
underscored the United States’
long-standing commitment to Lebanon’s
security and stability, said the statement. The United
States is proud to be the Lebanese army’s top security
partner and has provided over $1.5 billion in training and equipment to Lebanon’s
military since 2006, it added.
Aoun Meets Mogherini:
Legislative Polls to be Held on Time
Naharnet/January 26/17/President Michel Aoun met with European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on Thursday where he stressed that Lebanon's
parliamentary elections will be held on time. “The legislative polls will be
held according to an electoral law that meets the aspirations of the Lebanese
and guarantees correct representation without excluding anyone,” said Aoun. On the situation in Syria,
Aoun told Mogherini that
only a political and peaceful solution would end the crisis in Syria and the
suffering of displaced Syrians.
Bassil Meets Mogherini, Announces
Conference on Fighting Terrorism Next Week
Naharnet/January 26/17/Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil announced on
Thursday following his meeting with European Union foreign policy chief,
Federica Mogherini, that a conference to fight
terrorism would be held next week and that efforts will be coordinated with the
EU to strengthen the economy. Bassil called for a
quick solution for the Syrian crisis and for the repatriation of Syrians to
their homeland. For her part, the EU chief praised the election of President
Michel Aoun and the formation of a new government."We are working on helping Lebanon to carry the burden of Syrian
refugees," Mogherini said, adding that she offered
a message of solidarity and support from Europe
to the Lebanese authorities.
Heavy Security Deployment in North in
Search of 'Bomb-Laden Pickup'
Naharnet/January 26/17/The North district was on
Thursday evening witnessing a massive security mobilization involving
checkpoints, patrols and raids after information was obtained about a possible
pickup truck bombing in the region, state-run National News Agency reported.
LBCI television said shops closed in Tripoli's
al-Nour Square and security forces deployed in the
northern city after the circulation of an alleged security memo about a
possible suicide bombing at the entrance of a military post in the North
region. Earlier in the evening, al-Jadeed TV said
security forces had deployed heavily in al-Nour Square
and near Tripoli's
serail “over fears of a security incident, amid
strict security measures around Jabal Mohsen.”The circulated security document says information
was obtained about a bombing at the entrance of a military post in the North
that would be carried out on Thursday night with a bomb-laden, white and navy
blue Toyota pickup carrying the registration number 1985321/M. Earlier in the
day, NNA said the army raided two Syrian refugee encampments in the northern Akkar province where it arrested 24 people for not
possessing legal identification papers. The developments come six days after a
would-be suicide bomber was arrested at Costa cafe in Beirut's bustling Hamra
district and after several terror suspects were arrested in the North.
Geagea Says LF, PSP Want New Electoral Law, 1960 Law Cannot
Continue
Naharnet/January 26/17/Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea announced Thursday
that both the LF and the Progressive Socialist Party want a new electoral law,
while stressing that the 1960 electoral law “cannot continue.”“The
situation in Mount Lebanon is essential for the situation in Lebanon and we're keen on
preserving the historic reconciliation that took place during patriarch (Nasrallah) Sfeir's tenure,” Geagea said in Maarab after a
meeting with a Democratic Gathering delegation led by Taimur
Jumblat. “Several electoral laws have been proposed
and over the next two days we will mull the available choices and choose the
best among them,” Geagea added. “We will reach an
agreement with the other parties on the law, seeing as we are all convinced
that the 1960 law cannot be endorsed from now on but also that we cannot devise
an electoral law that excludes any group,” the LF leader went on to say. He
also stressed that any new law must "take into consideration the demands
and concerns of all parties" and that it should "relieve" the
PSP. MP Walid Jumblat's PSP
has warned that any law containing proportional representation would
“marginalize” the minority Druze community. Hizbullah
has repeatedly called for an electoral law fully based on proportional
representation but other political parties, especially Mustaqbal
and the PSP, have rejected the proposal, arguing that Hizbullah's
weapons would prevent serious competition in the Iran-backed party's strongholds.
Mustaqbal, the LF and the PSP had proposed a hybrid
electoral law that mixes the proportional representation and the
winner-takes-all systems but the PSP eventually withdrew its support for the
proposal. Speaker Nabih Berri
has also proposed a hybrid law. The country has not voted for a parliament
since 2009, with the legislature instead twice extending its own mandate. The
2009 polls were held under an amended version of the 1960 electoral law and the
next elections are scheduled for May 2017.
Zahra Says Pressure to Endorse New
Election Law Will Yield Soon
MP Antoine Zahra said on Thursday that intensified efforts are underway
to reach a soon agreement on a new election law for the May parliamentary
polls. "It's very possible to reach agreement over a new electoral law
that pleases all parties before long," Zahra told the Voice of Lebanon
radio station (93.3), hoping that this formula will also eliminate the concerns
of the Progressive Socialist Party. "Contacts between the Lebanese Forces,
al-Mustaqbal Movement and the Free Patriotic Movement
are ongoing. The LF and FPM are relentlessly studying law drafts to come out
with a new law, especially that the LF has a mixed law proposal which could be
merged with Speaker Nabih Berri's
proposal," Zahra explained, warning from the nearing electoral deadline.
The country has not voted for a parliament since 2009, with the legislature
instead twice extending its own mandate. The 2009 polls were held under an
amended version of the 1960 electoral law and the next elections are scheduled
for May 2017.
MP SamiGemayel
Holds Talks with Jumblat in Clemenceau
Naharnet/January 26/17/Kataeb Party chief MP Sami
Gemayel on Thursday visited Progressive Socialist
Party leader MP Walid Jumblat
at the latter's residence in Clemenceau.A terse
statement issued by the PSP said talks tackled “the current political developments.”The issue of the electoral law was likely the
focus of the meeting between the two leaders. While Gemayel
has called for an electoral law based on small electoral districts or the one
person, one vote system, Jumblat's PSP has backed
down from its previous support for a hybrid law that mixes the proportional
representation and winner-takes-all systems. The PSP, which is now in favor of the winner-takes-all system, has recently warned
that any law containing proportional representation would “marginalize” the
minority Druze community.
Hizbullah has repeatedly called for an
electoral law fully based on proportional representation but other political
parties, especially Mustaqbal and the PSP, have
rejected the proposal, arguing that Hizbullah's
weapons would prevent serious competition in the Iran-backed party's
strongholds. The country has not voted for a parliament since 2009, with the
legislature instead twice extending its own mandate. The 2009 polls were held
under an amended version of the 1960 electoral law and the next elections are
scheduled for May 2017.
Army Refers Costa Would-Be Bomber to
Judiciary
Naharnet/January 26/17/The army's Intelligence
Directorate on Thursday referred the Costa cafe would-be suicide bomber Omar
Hassan al-Assi, who hails from Sidon, to the relevant
judicial authorities, an army statement said.“He
confessed to all the details of the terrorist operation, since the moment he
pledged allegiance to the terrorist Islamic State group to the moment he
received the order from the Raqa-based aforementioned
organization, all the way to the moment he reached his target to stage a
suicide bombing at Costa cafe,” the statement added. Assi,
25, was arrested inside Costa cafe in Hamra on
Saturday night while wearing a belt containing around eight kilograms of
powerful explosives and metallic pellets. The cafe is on the main street of the
bustling area. The man was being tracked by security forces according to media
reports. Assi was injured during the arrest, with
several soldiers holding him down to ensure he was not able to detonate the
explosive belt. According to Costa employees, the man ordered coffee and
chocolate and sat down inside the cafe for around ten minutes before going
outside to make a phone call. Only then the undercover security agents pounced
on him and removed the suicide belt. Media reports said Assi
was injured fighting alongside Ahmed al-Asir's group
against a Hizbullah-affiliated group in Sidon in 2013. He later
became affiliated with the extremist IS group which ordered him to carry out
the failed Costa attack. The Hamra neighborhood, a district known for shopping and nightlife,
has not previously been hit by an attack. But in June 2016, the army said it
had arrested IS jihadists planning attacks against busy areas, including Hamra.
Syria to Hand al-Hashem
Killer Over to Lebanon for Trial
Naharnet/January 26/17/The Syrian authorities
arrested a Syrian national who was found to be involved in the killing of
Lebanese national Majid al-Hashem,
before fleeing to Syria, and said they will hand him in to Lebanese authorities
for trial, the National News Agency reported Thursday. Syrian authorities
notified Lebanon
that it has arrested the culprit. They said they will hand him over to Lebanon, NNA
said. “Lebanon
was informed that Syrian authorities have detained Khaled
Slim over his involvement in the killing of al-Hashem
in Akoura. He will be handed to Lebanese authorities
in the coming hours paving way for his trial,” added NNA. Earlier, President
Michel Aoun gave instructions to make contacts in
order to capture the man who fled shortly after his crime. After two days of
search operations, the dead body of Lebanese citizen Majid
Raji al-Hashem, 61, was
found Tuesday buried in sand at a stone factory in the Jbeil
town of Akoura.
Al-Hashem had gone missing at dawn Sunday. Several of
the stone factory's Syrian workers had been detained on charges of involvement
in al-Hashem's kidnap and murder.
Jumblat Says Ultimatums on Election Law are 'Illogical'
Naharnet/January 26/17/Progressive Socialist Party
leader MP Walid Jumblat
criticized comments as for preferring vacuum at the parliament over endorsing a
proportional representation system in the upcoming parliamentary elections, and
stressed the need for dialogue. “It is illogical to say that it is either (Lebanon
adopts) proportional representation or let vacuum be,” said Jumblat
in a tweet on Thursday.“There
are many other possibilities other than this unilateral vision. Dialogue is the
solution instead of exclusion,” he added. Jumblat's
comments came after an announcement made by President Michel Aoun during Wednesday's cabinet session, where he said he
could choose vacuum over the extension of the parliament term. “If I'm to
choose between the extension of parliament's term or
vacuum, my stance is clear in this regard -- I will choose vacuum,” TV networks
quoted Aoun as saying. Aoun
addressed the ministers and justified his stance saying: “Where is our potency
and credibility should we fail throughout eight years to pass an electoral law
although all politicians have agreed that it should be approved?”Jumblat's
call is not the first. He has reiterated on more than one occasion that he
rejects proportional representation. Political parties are bickering over
amending the current 1960 election law which divides seats among the different
religious sects. The current parliament has failed to amend the law, and has
extended its mandate twice amid criticism. New elections are scheduled for May
2017.
MP, Sami Gemayel
Throws Support behind Aoun in Electoral Law Battle
Naharnet/January 26/17/Kataeb Party chief MP
Sami Gemayel threw his support Wednesday behind
President Michel Aoun's latest stances regarding the
electoral law. “The president's stance on the electoral law is advanced and the
president is obliged to use all means at his disposal to press for the approval
of a new electoral law,” Gemayel said in an interview
on MTV. Earlier in the day, Aoun had announced that
he prefers parliamentary "vacuum" over the 1960 electoral law or
another extension of the parliament's term.
“If I'm to choose between the extension of parliament's term or vacuum,
my stance is clear in this regard -- I will choose vacuum,” Aoun
said during a cabinet session. “Let no one threaten us with vacuum or extension
and the oath of office was clear on the need to reach an electoral law and we
must work on that,” Aoun said. Gemayel
said Kataeb is counting on the role that the
president is playing to “take the country to a new phase.”“The
new phase begins with a new electoral law and we stressed to the president
yesterday that we are standing by him,” Gemayel
added. “We share the same stance with the Free Patriotic Movement regarding the
electoral law,” he went on to say. Gemayel warned
that “keeping the 1960 law would be a four-year extension of the current
situation and for a political state that has failed to run the country.”Kataeb's chief also hailed Aoun's
visit to Saudi Arabia and Qatar and described his remarks about Lebanon's
“neutrality” as “a very advanced step.” “I hope he will continue this policy,
and as long as there are no steps that harm sovereignty, we will remain
positive,” Gemayel added.
MP Nadim Gemayel urges to
conduct election on time
Thu 26 Jan 2017/NNA - The Kataeb Party organized a
reception on Thursday evening at its headquarters in Sassine Square
- Achrefieh, in the presence of MP Nadim Gemayel and ranking
dignitaries. In a word delivered during the ceremony, Gemayel
urged "to conduct the parliamentary elections on time, no matter
what." "We should prevent institutional vacuum and thus hold the
elections even if no agreement is reached over a new law. We must face the
challenges and maintain the rotation of power, because the two-year
presidential vacuum has left us with a single option, and we were then forced
to go ahead with it. For this reason, we must insist on conducting the
elections on time," Gemayel said.
Kanaan: Christian convergence over election law
Thu 26 Jan 2017/NNA - Secretary of the Change and Reform bloc, MP Ibrahim Kanaan, said there no longer are contradictions in the
Christian forces' approach of the election law.
"There is a convergence over this matter, and a common suggestion
may come up in the next few days. Consultation is underway with the various
blocs and powers, and the wait will not be long for an agreement between all
parties on a new law, otherwise we will have a decisive stand," he said.
Bonne visits military posts in Arsal, Laboueh: Lebanese Army
deserves all our support
Thu 26 Jan 2017/NNA - The Ambassador of France to Lebanon, Emmanuel Bonne, on
Thursday made a trip to the Arsal region on the
Lebanese-Syrian border, the French embassy said in a statement.
"Accompanied by General Joseph Aoun, commander
of the 9th Lebanese Army Brigade, and officers, Bonne inspected an army post in
Wadi Hmayed (...) as well
as an observation post overlooking the village of Arsal and the surrounding
mountains," the statement read. Earlier this morning, the Ambassador
visited the command post of the 9th Brigade in Laboueh
and listened to a briefing of the local security situation and ongoing
operations. Speaking to military personnel, he reiterated France's
standing by their side: "We know the difficulty of your mission and the
commitment of your men. The Lebanese Army deserves all our support,"
concludes the statement.
Cazeneuve cables Machnouk: For swift
legislative elections
Thu 26 Jan 2017/NNA - Prime Minister of France, Bernard Cazeneuve,
called on Thursday for a swift holding of legislative elections in Lebanon, to
ensure fair representation of all parties. French PM Cazeneuve
confirmed, in his message to Interior and Municipalities Minister Nouhad Machnouk, that the consolidation
of Franco-Lebanese relations and the deepening of bilateral cooperation were a
priority for the French Government. The French Premier did not fail to
congratulate Machnouk for maintaining the Interior
Ministry's portfolio in Hariri's government. Cazeneuve
also hoped that the revitalization of Lebanese institutions, which began with
the election of President Michel Aoun, will continue,
reiterating France's
commitment to Lebanese sovereignty and unity. "France
will stand next to Lebanon
to help it deal with the repercussions of the Syrian crisis and
terrorism," he concluded.
Abi Khalil: five oil
exploration blocks open for bidding
Thu 26 Jan 2017/NNA - Minister of Energy and Water, Cesar Abi
Khalil, announced "in the name of the Lebanese State the opening of blocks 1-4-8-9-10
for bidding within the first licensing cycle for oil exploration in the
Lebanese waters."The Minister revealed a road
map to be followed, starting with the completion of the first cycle of
licenses: "opening a pre-qualification cycle, from February 2 to March 31,
while retaining the results of the previous stage, and announcing the results
in April 13, 2017.""Receiving offers from the petroleum sector
management will take place on 15 September 2017 at the latest, and the said Authority
will take a month to conduct the evaluation of offers and the preparation of
the report, and will then submit it to the Minister who, in turn, will refer it
before the cabinet. In a month period, the Cabinet will take a decision and
determine the winning companies," the minister said.
Aswad: President Aoun is keen on
endorsing new election law
Thu 26 Jan 2017/NNA - MP Ziad Aswad stressed that President of the Republic, Michel Aoun, shall not draw back from his determination to reach a
new election law, saying that the President shall work on restoring the rights
of Christians who have endured long years of political injustice. "Yet,
the President has no intention to exclude anyone," MP Aswad
said on Thursday in an interview to Voice of Lebanon Radio Station's
"Online Hiwar" Program. The Lawmaker
underlined that the Free Patriotic Movement shall remain the spearhead of the
fight against corruption, stressing the FPM's
continued adherence to the reform policy it is upholding.
Charles Ayoub
'Barred from Leaving UAE'
Naharnet/January 26/17/Ad-Diyar newspaper owner and
editor-in-chief Charles Ayoub is barred from leaving
the United Arab Emirates due to a lawsuit filed against him, the head of
Lebanon's Syndicate of Press Editors said on Thursday. “We thought that the
case of our colleague Charles Ayoub had ended
yesterday after he was released by Dubai Police, but we have learned that Mr. Ayoub has been barred from returning to Lebanon due to
a lawsuit filed against him,” Elias Aoun said in a statement.“He is not against
appearing before the Lebanese judiciary, especially that the case of the
lawsuit had occurred in Lebanon,”
Aoun added. “Accordingly, we call on the competent
authorities in the UAE, which we respect, not to treat a journalist in this manner
and not to deny him freedom,” he urged. Ayoub had
been interrogated on Wednesday Dubai Police, which denied media reports that he
was “arrested” and said he was “summoned for a limited period to testify
regarding a libel and threats lawsuit filed by the director of the Rotana company.”
“In line with legal norms, the case will be referred to the public prosecution
should the two parties fail to reach a reconciliation,” Dubai Police added. Ayoub's daughter is a resident of Dubai.
Berri, Mogherini tackle most
recent developments
Thu 26 Jan 2017/NNA - House Speaker, Nabih Berri, met on Thursday at the Parliament European Union
foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, and EU
Ambassador to Lebanon,
Christina Lassen, over most recent developments and
the election law.
In the wake of the meeting, Mogherini said that talks
focused on relaunching Parliament's work and
important projects for Lebanese people, the region and the Europeans.
"The EU accords utter support to the revitalization of constitutional
institutions following Presidential elections and government formation,"
he said. "We are confident that under the leadership of President Berri, the Parliament will find a way to agree on the
electoral law and hold the legislative elections," she concluded.
Lebanon: Civilians Tried in Military
Courts
Thu 26 Jan 2017/NNA - "Human Right Watch" launched the following
report on Thursday during a meeting at Riviera Hotel in the presence of MP Elie Keirouz and representatives
of HRW in Lebanon and the region, as well as a large number of personalities:
"Civilians in Lebanon, including children, face trial in military courts,
Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Such trials do not respect
due process rights and violate international law. In one prominent case
scheduled for January 30, 2017, 14 people protesting the government's inability
to resolve a waste management crisis in 2015 face up to three years in prison.
The 37-page report, "'It's Not the Right Place for Us': The Trial of
Civilians by Military Courts in Lebanon," documents the due process
deficiencies inherent in trying civilians before military courts, the use of
confessions extracted under torture, and allegations that Ministry of Defense or army officials have used the courts' broad
jurisdiction to intimidate individuals or retaliate against critical speech or
activism. Children have also reported being tortured while awaiting prosecution
in these courts.
"It has become abundantly clear that civilians cannot get a fair trial in Lebanon's military courts," said Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East
director at Human Rights Watch. "Military courts have no business trying
civilians, and Lebanon
should end this troubling practice."
Those who have stood trial at the military court describe incommunicado detention,
interrogations without the presence of a lawyer, ill-treatment and torture, the
use of confessions extracted under torture, decisions issued without an
explanation, seemingly arbitrary sentences, and a limited ability to appeal.
Civilians, and children in particular, should not be tried before military
courts under any circumstances, Human Rights Watch said. The structure of the
military courts undermines the right to a fair trial, including the right to be
tried before a competent, independent, and impartial court and the right to a
public hearing, Human Rights Watch said. Many of the judges are military
officers, appointed by the defense minister, who are
not required to have a law degree or legal training. Military personnel serving
as judges remain subordinate to the defense minister.
Human rights organizations and journalists cannot monitor trials without the
presiding judge's prior approval.
The military court system is a separate judicial system situated within
the Ministry of Defense. It has broad jurisdiction
over civilians, including in cases involving espionage, treason, draft evasion,
unlawful contact with the enemy (Israel), or weapons possession; crimes that
harm the interest of military or security forces, or the general security; as
well as any conflict between civilians and military or security personnel or
their civilian employees. According to the Union for Protection of Juveniles in
Lebanon,
355 children were tried before the military courts in 2016. In recent years,
the military prosecutor has brought charges against outspoken human rights
lawyers and activists.
"It was the first time that I learned I could be treated this
way," said Tamara, one of the protestors facing trial before the courts on
January 30. "We were in a protest, what did we do? I had no idea that I
could end up in front of a military court."
Human Rights Watch and Lebanese organizations have for years documented a
pattern of torture by Lebanese military forces. Human Rights Watch documented
eight cases in which civilians tried before the military courts on terrorism or
security related offenses said they were tortured into confessing, and the
coerced confessions were used as evidence against them in court. None had
access to a lawyer or their families during interrogations.
Torture survivors described beatings, psychological torture, electric
shocks, being hung by the wrists with hands tied behind the back, and orders to
sign statements while blindfolded. In some of the cases, the coerced confession
was the only evidence presented.
Lawyers who represent clients at the military courts and staff at
Lebanese human rights organizations said that there is a higher incidence of
torture in the military courts because interrogations are conducted by military
personnel, the types of allegations involved - such as terrorism - increase the
likelihood of torture, and the often incommunicado nature of pre-charge
military detention.
In two of the cases documented, children said that military personnel
extracted confessions from them through torture. One mother said: "I
screamed from under the ground when I saw him…. I couldn't believe this was my
son. You can't describe it. His face was all bloodied, swollen, and blue."On October 19, 2016, Lebanon's parliament passed a law
to establish a National Human Rights Institute, which will include a committee
to investigate and monitor the use of torture and ill-treatment in places of
detention. But Lebanon
has still not passed legislation to criminalize all forms of torture as required
by the Convention against Torture. Of the 10 cases in which Human Rights Watch
documented alleged torture during military interrogations, none of the accused
said they were able to contact a lawyer before or during interrogation. In many
cases, detainees said they were not allowed to speak with their relatives or a
lawyer before they appeared in front of an investigative judge. Lawyers said
that they often needed to use personal connections to locate clients in
military detention.
Four Lebanese lawyers said that sentencing in the military courts is
inconsistent and seemingly arbitrary, and that they have come to expect guilty
sentences regardless of the evidence against their client.
According to Lebanese lawyers, there is only a limited right to appeal within
the military court system, and the use of confessions extracted under torture
in order to obtain a conviction is not considered grounds for appeal.
Under international law, governments are prohibited from using military
courts to try civilians when civilian courts can still function.
The United Nations Human Rights Committee, the international expert body
authorized to monitor compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, hasexpressed concern "about
the broad scope of the jurisdiction of military courts in Lebanon" and
their procedures. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has found that"military courts should not have jurisdiction to
try civilians, whatever the charges they face." Civil society
organizations in Lebanon
have long advocated for removing civilians from the jurisdiction of the
military courts because of fair trial concerns.
Human Rights Watch sent letters detailing the findings to the Defense Ministry, Armed Forces, Military Police, Military
Intelligence, and Military Court,
and submitted a request to attend the January 30 trial. The Defense
Ministry responded on January 5, 2017, writing that, "The military
judiciary in all of its statutes respects all national and international rules
of law, especially what concerns respect for human rights." Human Rights
Watch has not received a response to the request to attend the military court
trial.
Lebanon
should urgently remove civilians and children from the military courts'
jurisdiction, and ensure that judges deem inadmissible all confessions and
evidence obtained under torture. It should expressly guarantee the right to a
lawyer during interrogation and criminalize all forms of torture. Lebanon should
also ensure that all judges are fully independent and impartial. The Defense Ministry should refer all torture allegations to
the public prosecutor and ban all forms of torture and inhuman or degrading
treatment.
"The Defense Ministry should immediately
open up the military courts to public observers without prior permission,"
Fakih said. "The least Lebanon can do is ensure that its
citizens aren't being sentenced in secret by a specialized court behind closed
doors."---------
Aoun insists on new vote law to govern elections, rejects
term extension
The Daily Star/January 25/ 2017
BEIRUT:
President Michel Aoun Wednesday blasted Lebanese
factions over their inability to agree on a new electoral law, rejecting the
possibility of a new extension to the current Parliament's term. Aoun's remarks were made in response to Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk during
Wednesday's Cabinet session, who tackled the formation of a 10-member body
tasked with overseeing the upcoming parliamentary elections. The president
refused to discuss the matter before rival parties reach an agreement on a new
electoral law. "It is our duty to approve a new [vote] law before
appointing the commission's members," Aoun said,
adding that he favors a parliamentary vacuum over new
legislative term extensions. The last parliamentary elections were staged in
2009, after which the Parliament extended its term twice, in 2013 and 2014,
despite widespread outcry. "All factions had agreed on adopting a new
electoral law for [the upcoming] elections,” the president said. “If, after
eight years, we have failed, then our credibility is at stake." A source
at the Baabda
Palace told The Daily
Star that talks on the electoral law are deliberating two options: a hybrid
electoral law that includes provisions from the majoritarian
system and proportional system, or a new law based on the majoritarian
system. The upcoming parliamentary elections, scheduled for May, have been at
the center of debate between rival politicians, who are deeply divided on the
nature of the law that will govern the polls. The source said that parties
insisted on soothing Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid
Jumblatt's fears on the matter. It added that rivals
will tackle the possibility of forming a senate in order to satisfy Jumblatt. The 1989 Taif
Agreement, which ended Lebanon's
1975-1990 Civil War, calls for the establishment of a senate in Lebanon.
Security concerns
At the beginning of the Cabinet session, Aoun stressed that security agencies in Lebanon should "take all
measures to prevent the reoccurrence of abductions and firmly control the
situation in the Bekaa."“Preventing such acts
doesn’t require a new security plan but the swift implementation of active
security measures amid coordination between security agencies,” he said.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who met with Aoun on the sidelines of the meeting, called for
"punitive sentences against the culprits." East
Lebanon man Saad Richa,
74, was freed Saturday after being abducted and held for three days. The
circumstances behind his abduction remain unclear. Hariri also praised Lebanon’s security agencies, which prevented a
would-be suicide bomber night from detonating an explosives belt in a Beirut café late Saturday
night."Our government will not tolerate any
attempts to destabilize Lebanon."The would-be bomber, Omar Hasan
Assi, 25, is currently in custody and the Lebanese
Army has arrested a number of his suspected accomplices.
Hariri urged media outlets to positively contribute to Lebanese security by
“ending the skepticism that negatively impacts
security and stability in Lebanon.”Aoun also discussed with ministers his recent visits to Saudi Arabia and Qatar
and the diplomatic flurry in Lebanon.
Oil and Gas tenders to be launched soon
Cabinet ministers approved a decree to activate the first round of tenders to
kick off offshore oil and gas exploration, according to a statement read by
Culture Minister Ghattas Khoury.
Earlier this month, the Cabinet approved two decrees seen as a crucial step
toward accessing Lebanon’s
offshore resources after previous cabinets had shelved the issue of the gas
exploration over deep political divisions in the country. The decrees paved the
way for the first licensing round of offshore oil and gas exploration in Lebanon’s
Exclusive Economic Zone by designating which blocks would be open for bidding.
They are also necessary to determine which blocks are up for auction and
develop a revenue-sharing model. The Cabinet also approved the country’s
request to join the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, following
recommendation by the Petroleum Administration, the Ministry of Energy and
Water and the Finance Ministry.
طريق
حزب الله لإسعادة
الشرعية تمر
من خلال
إسرائيل
Hezbollah's road to regaining
legitimacy goes through Israel
Yasser Okbi/Maariv Hashavua/Jerusalem
Post/26 January 2017
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2017/01/26/jerusalem-post-hezbollahs-road-to-regaining-legitimacy-goes-through-israel%d8%ac%d9%8a%d8%b1%d9%88%d8%b2%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%8a%d9%85-%d8%a8%d9%88%d8%b3%d8%aa-%d9%82%d8%b5%d8%a9-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%ad/
Hezbollah's legitimacy in the Arab world and Lebanon has taken a serious
hit due to its involvement in the Syrian civil war. Nasrallah
knows that the threat he serves to Israel can fix this.
Armored cars, American APCs,
Russian tanks and hundreds of soldiers in uniform: this is what Hezbollah's
military parade in the Syrian town of Al-Qusayr in November looked like.
The impression given by the images that arrived from the event was that this is
no longer a terror organization, but rather a full-fledged army, and it seems
that the message that Hezbollah's leaders were sending was received loud and
clear: We came to Syria
in order to win. We are here to stay.
"The military parade sends a three-fold message," political
analyst Qassem Kubir says.
"An internal Lebanese message, that the fighting
alongside the Syrian regime is not up for debate; a message to Israel, that Hezbollah is continuing to develop
its military capabilities; and a message to the international community, that
the organization and its allies are ready for any development in Syria."
And perhaps this parade holds an additional message, directed within the organization, that tells its fighters they have the
important role of protecting the Syrian regime. This led to Hezbollah's massive
military and political influence in the country and to the fact the group is
considered the leading force in the battles against the rebels and is seen as
an active ally that can be trusted.
The Shi'ite organization laid down roots in the
Sunni country long before 2011, when riots broke out that eventually led to the
ongoing civil war. Hezbollah has been in Syria since before the Arab Spring.
It was already there in June 2000, when Basher Assad took power.
"In the years 2000-2003 the Lebanese organization's operatives
passed through Syrian Intelligence checkpoints in the Beqqa Valley without being checked," a
Syrian officer who defected from the regime said. "In 2005, when the
Syrian army withdrew from Lebanon,
I started serving in the southern suburbs of Damascus. There I saw Hezbollah flags.
Pictures of Hassan Nasrallah waved in Homs as well. Many
communities were established in the area under the auspices of the district's
governor, Daher Younis, who
was close to Tehran.
Homs lost its
identity."
Homs was
marked as an area in which it would be possible to stop the Arab Spring. From
testimony of senior Syrian military officials who defected, it has emerged that
in 2011, when the winds of change had already arrived in Tunisia and Egypt, a "crisis cell,"
consisting of some 100 members was established. There it was agreed, among
other things, that those who would spill the blood of the Syrians in order to
stop the rebellion would be Hezbollah. The organization would focus on the
areas of Homs, Tartus and the Syrian Golan - this was the ideological
center - Wabal Kusair, Asal al-Warad, Zabdani and Madaya, which had
Sunni majorities.
"When the revolution started, you couldn't call what Syria had an
army. It was a destroyed army, that wasn't capable of handling tough battles,
like the sectarian one or the civil war," Col. Mustafa Ahmed al-Sheich explained. He served as the head of the Free Syrian
Army's military council at its beginning, and served, up until his defection,
as the head of the chemical weapons branch and as the security officer of the
country's northern provinces. "When the army fell apart, Hezbollah was the
regime's first savior," he added. "The
organization saw the protection of the regime as a matter of life or death - Nasrallah even said so publicly. The Syrian people saw
Hezbollah's presence everywhere, spreading the word of Shi'ite
Islam in the Iranian fashion."
Why did Hezbollah set out to protect the Syrian regime? In a speech by
Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah on
"Marty's Day" in May 2015, he explained that it was a matter of
defending the border towns of Baalbek
and al-Hermel, which have a Shi'ite
majority, from what he called the Syrian "takfiri
challenge." He was referring to the salafi-jihadi
groups, such as the Nusra Front and ISIS, who were
active in both Syria and Lebanon. Nasrallah warned that these organizations were being used
by Israel
and "Arab supporters," including the Saudis, in order to sow discord
and sectarianism. However, the danger posed by these groups to Hezbollah,
including attacks on its supporters, the assassination of senior Hezbollah
member Hassan al-Laqqis and suicide attacks against
the Iranian Embassy, as well as other civilian targets in Beirut and the Beqqa Valley, did not begin immediately with the outbreak
of the Syrian rebellion.
"When Hezbollah began to intervene in the Syrian crisis in 2011, it
was not yet facing the challenge of [danger to] the villages. This did not
appear until the end of 2012," claims Bashir Nafa, a modern Arab history scholar. "The transition
from a grassroots rebellion to an armed revolution was only at its beginning
then. The rebels began to have weapons on a small scale in August 2011, months
after the start of the rebellion and after the regime spilled a great deal of
the people's blood."
According to Nafa, this was when the first
accounts of Hezbollah involvement in the conflict surfaced. In the days prior
to the "takfirim," the leadership of the
Syrian National Council, who led the National Coalition for Syrian Revolution
and Opposition Forces, had close relations with the leaders of Hezbollah.
In the beginning, Hezbollah did not rush to publicly announce its
involvement in Syria.
It did so gradually. Its exposure increased as the Syrian army lost more
territory in fighting.
"Hezbollah envisioned the geo-political situation precisely,"
says Dr. Nasser al-Laham, the bureau chief of
Lebanese television station Al-Mayadeen's offices in
the Palestinian Authority and Israel.
"When hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees flooded Lebanon and
when car bombs began exploding, killing dozens of victims, the Lebanese
understood that the Syrian issue was actually a Lebanese issue. At that time,
there was a concrete danger of Lebanon's
collapse, and this worked in Hezbollah's favor."
He added that the group's way of marketing its involvement in Syria to the
Lebanese public was by warning against the existential threat posed by the takfiri groups.
While Hezbollah was trying to sell its involvement in Syria to the
Lebanese public and the wider Arab world, the rebels themselves began to
understand the importance of explaining their moves. In 2013, they made
declarations that tried to pose the fighting in Syria as a legitimate struggle
against a regime that was murdering its people. Their way of achieving their
goals was carried out on multiple levels: Use of television channels to
convince the Arab world that the fall of Bashar Assad
was nearing; a battle for hearts and minds in Lebanon against Hezbollah and its
involvement in Syria; a thorough explanation of the importance of providing
them with arms, money and logistic support in order to enlist tens of thousands
of fighters from Arab countries to fight the Syrian regime; and public
diplomacy aimed at convincing the world of the need to establish a Western-Arab
coalition against Hezbollah and the Syrian regime.
According to al-Laham, Israel was the one leading the public relations
battle against Hezbollah's involvement in Syria. "You can see that this
battle was based on two assumptions that Israel created during the Second
Lebanon War in 2006: Personal attacks on Nasrallah
that posed him as a military adventurer, and presenting Hezbollah as a Shi'ite organization under Iranian patronage and not as the
leader of Arab resistance."
Hezbollah did not let the attacks against it slide and acted to regain
its control over Arab hearts and minds by separating the military front from
the media discourse. Despite the difficulty, Nasrallah
succeeded in preserving good relations with Sunni organizations like Hamas and
Islamic Jihad, and found allies to stand shoulder to shoulder with in Lebanon:
the Druse community led by Walid
Jumbalatt; the Christians, led by then-Lebanese
president Michel Auon and former president Emile Lahoud, who announced that he was standing by Hezbollah in
its fight against Saudi Arabia and Israel.
The love story between Hezbollah and the Assad regime came to an end in
May 2013. An investigative report by Kurdi-Iraqi
journalist Roshun Kassem,
which was published last year in the pro-Saudi Alsharq
al-Awasat, showed that the group decided to separate
its forces from those of the Assad regime, and subsequently each group began to
fight independently. In conversations with Kassem,
commanders who defected from the Syrian army emphasized that Hezbollah was
interested in gaining control over Syria "commensurate with its
sacrifices." According to the report, Hezbollah believed that Assad was
surviving solely because of the support of the Lebanese group's fighters,
whereas the regime saw Hezbollah as a unit of the Syrian army's military
forces, and under no circumstances could it serve as the boss.
There are those who claim that the Iranian control of Hezbollah was the
source of the tensions on the battlefield. According to the hierarchy, Iranian
officers give orders to Hezbollah commanders who in turn give orders to Syrian
officers and soldiers. This tension even led to a direct clash between the
forces in June of last year when the Syrian air force bombed a Hezbollah
outpost. According to reports, which were denied by Hezbollah, dozens of
fighters were killed and wounded in the attack.
In his book Hezbollah and Pleasure Policy: From Terrorism to Terrorism,
Lebanese author Fadi Akoum
broke down the Hezbollah forces fighting in Syria: the conscription forces that
had been active in south Lebanon, including the special forces "Al-Nokhba" and Unit 901, which carries out missions
outside of Lebanon, as well as Shi'ite militias that
support Hezbollah that consisted of young Lebanese members and those from
abroad, whose role was to guard the holy sites.
In addition, military units made up of mercenaries enlisted in Lebanon were sent to the front in Syria.
"According to Lebanese witnesses who live in the Dahiya
neighborhood of Beirut, in the south and in the Bekaa Valley, in 2015 the organization started enlisting
non-Sh'ite youths to fight in Syria in exchange for
$500 a month and socioeconomic help for their families," Akoum wrote. "Because of the difficult economic
situation in Lebanon, many
youths joined the group, fought in Syria and in many cases lost their
lives, leading Hezbollah to declare them martyrs, as if they were part of the
organization and not mercenaries."
Another Hezbollah unit fighting in Syria was the "National Defense Militia," made up of Syrian fighters that
joined military training exercises led by Hezbollah or under the command of the
Syrian army. This unit is supported by Iran's
Revolutionary Guard, is spread throughout Syria,
and includes foreign Shi'ite fighters from Iraq, Iran,
Afghanistan, Pakistan and Palestinians from refugee camps in Lebanon.
The idea to form an official Hezbollah delegation to Syria did not
come to fruition, according to Col. Imad Rahel, one of the senior officers who defected and helped
form the Free Syrian Army. He points the finger at Israel, who he says assassinated
Mohammad Ali Allah-Dadi , a senior commander in the Revolutionary Guards, and Jihad
Mughniyeh, a senior Hezbollah official, in January
2015. "When Samir Kuntar
was appointed commander of the Golan sector, Israel assassinated him as
well," claims Rahel, who today serves as a
military and strategy commentator. "Thus the idea of a Syrian Hezbollah
was buried for good."
Iran's involvement in Syria can also be learned about from Iranian
media, which published in December 2016 pictures of General Qassem
Suleimani, who since 1988 has served as the commander
of the Quds Force, responsible for Revolutionary
Guard operations outside of Iran's
borders. In the picture, Suleimani can be seen
touring with Syrian officers in Aleppo,
which was reconquered by the Syrian Army the same
week. Alongside this, residents of the besieged city issued harsh accusations
that Iranian militias supporting Assad's regime repeatedly tried to prevent
civilians and opposition fighters from leaving the city.
Unlike Western, Israeli and some Arab intelligence agencies, Nasrallah did not envision the fall of the Assad regime. He
set out on a rearguard battle that saved the outdated Syrian army, and he won a
number of battles for strategic areas. However, now, everything is dependent on
the intervention of world powers in Syria's future, specifically in the
future of the Assad regime. It is no longer in Hezbollah's hands - it is no
coincidence that the organization kept silent when the Russians announced that
they were withdrawing forces from Syria.
At the beginning of the year, the London-based newspaper Al-Arab reported
that Hezbollah is awaiting orders from Iran
before it begins to withdraw forces from Syria in accordance with Russian
instructions. Leaks from a cease-fire agreement in the works
stating that "all of the foreign fighters must withdraw from Syria
as a trust-building measure prior to talks between the Syrian regime and
rebels," put Hezbollah on alert.
Sources close to the Shi'ite organization
claimed that its leadership understood that the Syrian president has no interest
in being held hostage by tens of thousands of fighters and by militias from Iraq, Afghanistan
and Pakistan.
They know that Assad will be free from all moral or political obligations to
Hezbollah, especially since the one winning the battle in Syria are Putin's forces, not Iran's. The
Syrian president wants to rid himself of Iran's militias, who have recently
had tensions with the Syrian army on the battlefield.
On New Year's Eve, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut
Cavusoglu announced that "all of the foreign
fighters will have to leave Syria,
and Hezbollah will have to go back to Lebanon." Based on this
declaration, it appears that one of the clauses in the Russian-Turkish
agreement holds for a withdrawal of all Hezbollah forces from Syrian cities.
"The withdrawal of Hezbollah from Syria will bring on disaster,"
an editorial in the newspaper Al-Arab contended. "Tehran
will be forced to respond in order to prove that it is a serious player in Syria and that
it cannot be ignored."
Despite the fact that the head of Hezbollah's Political Council, Ibrahim Amin a-Sayyed, stated that the
Turks would not determine if there would be a Hezbollah presence in Syria, Arab
media commentators claim that the decision is in the hands of the ayatollahs in
Tehran, who are trying to please the Russians because of their support for the
Iranian nuclear deal. They contend that the militias acting on Iran's orders will lead to renewed fighting in Syria by
provoking the rebel groups.
It appears that most of the players in Syria - including the Turks,
Russians and Assad - believe Hezbollah has played its part and should now go
back home.
Since the civil war began, Hezbollah's political and security
surroundings have become much more complicated. Despite the fact that it
remains the strongest military group in Lebanon,
its deep involvement in the Syrian civil war has gradually served to undermine
its status in Lebanon
and has limited its options and abilities to forcefully deal with its
opponents.
"Hezbollah has become a target for Sunnis in Lebanon, who have even now made it to the heart
of the capital, Beirut,"
Jeffrey White of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy said.
"Hezbollah's entry into fighting in Syria
has caused major tension with the Sunni sector in Lebanon. The organization, who was
the darling of the Arab world during its war against the IDF, has turned today
into the enemy of the Sunnis for many."
There is no doubt that Hezbollah's activities abroad have caused tensions
among Lebanon's
Shi'ites, who serve as the group's main pool of
recruits. Its support is cracking because of involvement in the war to defend
Assad's tyrannical regime. Many Shi'ite voices see
the war as an illegitimate one taking Lebanon and the whole Arab world
into chaos. These voices can be heard in the opposition press, even in
Hezbollah's own stronghold of southern Lebanon.
"What sort of victory is it that comes after a siege, exile and
starving of citizens," asked Subhi al-Tufayli, one of the organization's founders and its first
secretary-general in an interview with the Turkish news agency Anatolia in
which he discussed the reconquering of Aleppo. Tufayli claimed that the group's involvement in Syria serves Israel. "How is the
destruction of Syria and the
murder of its citizens the way to liberate Jerusalem?" he wondered. "Hezbollah
is sacrificing the Shi'ites in Lebanon in order to please Iran."
Hezbollah is dealing with challenges from abroad and at home
simultaneously. In Lebanon,
which is now more divided than ever between Assad supporters and detractors,
the organization is facing chronic instability. The conflict in Syria is putting further strain on Lebanon, with
the arrival of Syrian refugees to its territory. By the end of 2016, there
number had reached 2.2 million, more than a third of Lebanon's total population.
Lebanese commentators believe that the goal of Hezbollah's positive
stance toward its traditional enemies in Lebanon, led by Prime Minister Sa'ad Hariri and Samir Geagea, is meant to prepare the ground for the return of
the group's fighters and to regain the legitimacy as a defender of the country.
Despite the problems facing Hezbollah, the group makes sure never to
forget the enemy to the south. In its eyes, Israel
will always be the last refuge against its dropping status in the Arab world,
including the group's being outlawed in the Gulf states and by
most of the Arab League countries.
Al-Laham agrees with this assumption, holding
that Nasrallah remains aware of the political and
public discourse in Israel.
"In his speeches he makes sure to focus on the main enemy - Israel,"
he said. "Every leader in the Arab world who is concerned with winning
hearts and gaining support has to present Zionism and Israel as enemy
number one."
Hezbollah's obsession with Israel serves to remind the group's
supporters, and its opponents, that the principle of resistance is engraved on
its flag. In his speeches, his threats and his warlike declarations, Nasrallah is reminding the Arab world that only he can hurt
"the entity," as he calls Israel, on its homefront.
And it appears that he is correct. According to a study by the Institute
for National Security Studies published this month, Hezbollah poses the most
serious conventional threat to Israel.
The estimates are that the power of the group, which lost more than 1,000
fighters on the Syrian battlefield, is greater than that of the Syrian army.
Perhaps because of this, it is reported occasionally that, according to foreign
reports, the Israeli Air Force strikes in Syria in order to prevent weapons
transfers to Hezbollah.
The current situation should concern, not only Israel,
but also Lebanon.
It could be that Nasrallah will withdraw his forces
from Syria
eventually. However, it is not likely that he will give up easily on the deep
roots he has set down there.
http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Analysis-Hezbollahs-road-to-regaining-legitimacy-goes-through-Israel-479565
Latest LCCC Bulletin For
Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 26-27/17
Arabs in Uproar After Saudi Prince Poses With Israel's Tzipi
Livni
Israel Today/Thursday, January 26, 2017 | Yossi Aloni/All those Arabs who claim to want peace were in an
uproar this week after Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal
acted peacefully toward former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi
Livni. The two were in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic
Forum. They participated in a panel, along with Jordan’s
foreign minister, regarding the future of the Middle East.
Following the panel, al-Faisal posed for a picture with Livni,
which the Israeli then posted to Twitter. And then the
storm began. The post garnered thousands of angry responses from social media
users and Arab commentators who oppose normalization between Israel and the
Arab world. Al-Faisal has been a major proponent of the Saudi peace initiative.
Israel
previously accepted the initiative as a starting point for negotiations, but
said there were numerous terms it could not accept. Livni,
too, has promoted the initiative as the best way forward toward peace. But in
her previous role as foreign minister, she also raised concerns over some of
the clauses. For instance, the initiative calls for Israel to open its gates to
millions of so-called “Palestinian refugees.” The Palestinian Authority
insisted that term was a red line, and refused to come to the table if it was
up for negotiation. Rather than talk these issues out, as al-Faisal seems willing
to do, many Arabs refuse to even sit at the table with Israel unless it surrenders to 100
percent of their demands.
Several senior diplomats resign as Trump
admin takes shape
JOSH LEDERMAN and MATTHEW LEE,Associated Press Wed,
Jan 25 /17
WASHINGTON (AP) — A handful of senior U.S. diplomats are resigning their
posts during President Donald Trump's first week on the job, creating more
high-level openings that the new president must fill. State Department
Undersecretary for Management Patrick F. Kennedy, a career foreign service
officer, planned to retire effective Friday, the State Department said. He was
joined by two assistant secretaries, Joyce Barr and Michele Bond, who both
resigned Wednesday. Gentry Smith, who directs the Office of Foreign Missions,
was also departing. The four join a growing list of long-serving diplomats
declining to stay on into the Trump administration. That list includes Victoria
Nuland, the assistant secretary for European and
Eurasian Affairs, and Gregory Starr, the assistant secretary for diplomatic
security. Starr retired on Inauguration Day. Although none of the officials has
linked his or her departure explicitly to Trump, many diplomats have privately
expressed concern about serving in his administration, given the unorthodox
positions he's taken on many foreign policy issues. Trump has yet to fill many
top diplomatic jobs, including the deputy secretary roles. His nominee to be
secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, is expected to be
confirmed by the Senate next week. Kennedy, relied upon by both Democrats and
Republicans, was tapped for the undersecretary post in 2007 by President George
W. Bush. Kennedy stayed on throughout President Barack Obama's term. His
position oversees the department's budget and finances, security, global
facilities and consular services.
Kennedy, a diplomat since 1973, was criticized for the department's
insufficient security at the diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya,
where four Americans were killed in 2012. In testy congressional hearings,
Kennedy defended then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's handling of the
situation and insisted there was no "stand down" order to the U.S. military during the attack,
Bureau records also showed Kennedy asked for the FBI's help in 2015 to change
the classification level of an email from Clinton's
private server. The FBI ultimately rejected the request./AP
Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report.
First Official US Visit to Israel of
the Trump Era
Tuesday, January 24, 2017 | Israel Today Staff/The first official from the
Trump Administration to visit Israel arrived on Tuesday for a meeting with
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a close
adviser to President Donald Trump and new head of America’s cyber security program,
was warmly welcomed by Netanyahu. At a press briefing ahead of Giuliani’s
arrival, the prime minister said: “This is the time for responsible diplomacy
and education with our friends, the time diplomacy which will strengthen our
cooperation, and increase our trust between the State of Israel and the new
government in Washington.”Netanyahu rejected calls from right-wing members of his
coalition to take the opportunity afforded by Trump’s inauguration to annex
areas of Judea and Samaria
where hundreds of thousands of Jews live. “This is not the time for knee-jerk
reactions, impositions, or surprises,” said Netanyahu, insisting that he
prefers to work with Trump to achieve Israel’s goals.
Trump claims torture works but experts
warn of its 'potentially existential' costs
Matthew Weaver and Spencer Ackerman/The guuardian/Thursday
26 January 2017
Donald Trump has used his first TV interview as president to say he believes
torture “absolutely” works and that the US should “fight fire with fire.”
Speaking to ABC News, Trump said he would defer to the defence secretary, James
Mattis, and CIA director, Mike Pompeo,
to determine what can and cannot be done legally to combat the spread of
terrorism.
But asked about the efficacy of tactics such as waterboarding,
Trump said: “absolutely I feel it works.”“When Isis is doing things that nobody
has ever heard of since medieval times. Would I feel strongly about waterboarding.
As far as I’m concerned we have to fight fire with fire.”Trump
said he asked intelligence chiefs earlier this week whether torture works. “The
answer was yes, absolutely,” he said.
It is difficult to gather useful information through torture, and attempting to
do so can have far-reaching consequences
He added that terrorist groups “chop off the citizens’ or anybody’s heads in
the Middle East, because they’re Christian or Muslim or anything else ... we
have that and we’re not allowed to do anything. We’re not playing on an even
field.”
The interviews come after reports that Trump is preparing to sign an executive
order that would reinstate the detention of terrorism suspects at facilities
known as “black sites”.
This would remove limitations on coercive interrogation techniques set by a
longstanding army field manual intended to ensure humane military
interrogations, which is mostly compliant with the Geneva Conventions. Mattis and Pompeo were
“blindsided” by reports of the draft order, Politico said citing sources.
However, Trump faces resistance to the prospect of the reintroduction of
torture.
On Wednesday, Steve Kleinman, a retired air force
colonel and senior adviser to the FBI-led team that interrogates terrorist
suspects warned that weakening US prohibitions against torture was dangerous
and ignorant.
“A lot of these people who weigh in heavily on interrogation have no idea how
little they know, [and do so] because of what they see on television,” said Kleinman, chairman of the research advisory committee to
the High Value Detainee Interrogation Group (HIG).
“There is, at best, anecdotal evidence to support torture,” said Kleinman, who emphasized that he was not speaking for the
HIG.
“There is, on the other hand, a robust body of scientific literature and field
testing that demonstrates the efficacy of a relationship-based, rapport-based,
cognitive-based approach to interrogation, as well as a robust literature that
would suggest torture immediately undermines a source’s ability to be a
reliable reporter of information: memory is undermined, judgment is undermined,
decision-making is undermined, time-references are undermined. And this is only
from a purely operational perspective; we can’t take the morality out of
strategy.”
“If the US
was to make it once again the policy of the country to coerce, and to detain at
length in an extrajudicial fashion, the costs would be beyond substantial –
they’d be potentially existential,” Kleinman said.
Senator John McCain, a torture survivor and co-author of a 2015 law barring the
US security agencies from
using interrogation techniques that surpass the prohibitions beyond those set
out in the US
army field manual, signalled his defiance. “The president can sign whatever
executive orders he likes. But the law is the law. We are not bringing back
torture in the United States
of America,” said McCain, the Arizona Republican
who chairs the Senate armed services committee. McCain referenced explicit
guarantees from Pompeo and Mattis
during their Senate confirmation proceedings to follow the interrogations law
and the army field manual. “I am confident these leaders will be true to their
word,” McCain said. The former CIA head Leon Panetta, who gave the orders to
close the agency’s black sites told the BBC that it would be a “mistake” to
reintroduce enhanced interrogation techniques and “damaging” to the reputation
of the US.
Panetta said torture was violation of the US values and the constitution.
Analysis Will Trump return USA to dark days of 'war on terror'
black sites?
President appears to believe ‘torture works’ – raising prospect of reviving
techniques the CIA had moved away from
Mark Fallon, who was the deputy chief of Guantánamo’s
Bush-era investigative taskforce for military tribunals, said: “It does appear
like a subterfuge to enact more brutal methods because that was what candidate
Trump campaigned on during the election.” Fallon warned that the field manual’s
appendix M, which allows extended “separation” of a detainee from other
captives, represented a “slippery slope that could bring back torture”. Britain’s prime minister,
Theresa May, has been urged to by her own MPs to make Britain’s
opposition to torture clear to Trump when she visits him on Friday. At prime
minister’s questions Andrew Tyrie, a senior Tory MP,
said: “President Trump has repeatedly said he will bring back torture as an
instrument of policy. When she sees him on Friday, will the prime minister make
it clear that in no circumstances will she permit Britain to be dragged into
facilitating that torture, as we were after 11 September?”Since
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Turkey: Waiting for outcome of Syria
safe zones call
Reuters Thursday, 26 January 2017/Turkey is waiting to see the outcome of
United States President Donald Trump’s pledge to order safe zones in Syria, but has
long advocated such a plan, Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Huseyin Muftuoglu said on
Thursday. Trump said on Wednesday he “will absolutely do safe zones in Syria” for
refugees fleeing violence. According to a document seen by Reuters, Trump is
expected to order the Pentagon and the State Department in the coming days to
craft such a plan. “We have seen the US President’s request for
conducting a study. What’s important is the results of
this study and what kind of recommendation will come out,” Muftuoglu
told reporters at a briefing in Ankara.
He also said some elements in Syria
may be frustrated by progress made at peace talks in the Kazakh capital Astana
and may seek to disrupt a ceasefire. It was incumbent on guarantor countries,
which include Turkey, Russia and Iran, to prevent that from
happening, Muftuoglu said.
Facing extremist attack, Syrian rebels join bigger faction
Reuters Thursday, 26 January 2017/Syrian extremist rebel group Ahrar al-Sham said on Thursday six other rebel factions had
joined its ranks in northwestern Syria in order
to fend off a major assault by a powerful extremist group. The hardline Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, once allied with al Qaeda and formerly known
as the Nusra Front, attacked Free Syrian Army (FSA)
groups west of Aleppo this week, accusing them of conspiring against it at
peace talks in Kazakhstan this week. Ahrar al-Sham,
which presents itself as a mainstream Sunni extremist group, sided with the FSA
groups and said Fateh al-Sham had rejected mediation
attempts. The Ahrar statement said that any attack on
its members of was tantamount to a “declaration of war,” and it would not
hesitate to confront it. Rebel factions Alwiyat Suqour al-Sham, Fastaqim, Jaish al-Islam’s Idlib branch, Jaish al-Mujahideen and al-Jabha al-Shamiya’s west Aleppo
branch said in a statement they had joined Ahrar
al-Sham. The Ahrar al-Sham statement also mentioned a
sixth group, the Sham Revolutionary Brigades, and “other brigades” had joined
alongside these five. Ahrar al-Sham is considered a
terrorist group by Moscow
and did not attend the Russian-backed Astana peace talks. But it said it would
support FSA factions that took part if they secured a favorable
outcome for the opposition. The attack by Fateh
al-Sham had threatened to wipe out the FSA groups which have also received
backing from countries opposed to Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad such as Gulf Arab states, Turkey
and the United States.
Internationally viewed as a terrorist group, Fateh
al-Sham has been excluded from all diplomatic efforts to end the Syrian
conflict, including the recent truce brokered by Russia
and Turkey.
Since the new year, the group has been targeted by a
spate of US air strikes. While Jabhat Fateh al-Sham has often fought in close proximity to FSA
rebels against Assad, it also has a record of crushing foreign-backed FSA groups
during Syria’s
complex, almost six-year conflict.
Russia urges caution on US plan for
safe zones in Syria
By Zeina Karam/ AP
January 26 /17
BEIRUT — The Trump administration’s expressed interest in setting up safe zones
for civilians in Syria was greeted Thursday with caution by Russia and Turkey,
who have taken the lead in the latest peace efforts to end the Mideast
country’s devastating six-year war.
Turkey said it had always
supported the idea, but both Ankara and Moscow said such plans
would require careful consideration while a senior European Union official said
the bloc would consider such plans “when they come.”
The idea of safe zones, proposed by both Republican candidate Donald Trump and
Democrat Hillary Clinton during the U.S.
election campaign, was ruled out by the Obama administration for fear it would
bring the United States into
direct conflict with Syrian President Bashar Assad
and Russia,
which has been waging an air campaign to aid Assad’s forces since September
2015.
What's most important from where the world meets Washington
In October, the Russian military specifically warned
the U.S. against striking
Syrian government forces, saying its air defense
weapons in Syria
would fend off any attack.
The recent rapprochement between Russia and Turkey, a key backer of Syrian
rebels which now has thousands of troops in northern Syria, in theory makes the
creation of safe zones more achievable. So does Trump’s
pledge to mend ties with Moscow.
But enforcing them could risk pulling in the U.S.
deeper into Syria’s conflict
and heightens the risk of an inadvertent clash in Syria’s
crowded skies involving warplanes from various countries bombing targets in Syria.
There was no indication on how a safe-zone would look or how it would be
enforced.
Asked to comment on a draft executive order that President Trump is expected to
sign this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said it was
important to “weigh all possible consequences” of the measure.
Dmitry Peskov said in a conference call with reporters
that the U.S. hasn’t
consulted with Russia
on the subject and noted that “it’s important not to exacerbate the situation
with refugees.”
While suspending visas for Syrians and others, the order directs the Pentagon
and the State Department to produce a plan for safe zones in Syria and the
surrounding area within 90 days. It includes no details.
A Turkish official said his country has always supported the idea of safe zones
in Syria but would need to
review any U.S.
plans before commenting. Foreign Ministry spokesman Huseyin
Muftuoglu told reporters that Turkey has “seen the reports on a
request for a study on the safe zone,” adding that “what is important is to see
the result of these studies.”
He pointed to the Syrian city of Jarablus, near the Turkish border,
where thousands of Syrians have returned after Turkish-backed opposition forces
drove out the Islamic State group, as a good example of what can be achieved.
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini,
speaking at a press conference in Beirut
on Thursday, said it was too early to comment.
“I will not comment on things ... that are for the moment reports of the
beginnings of a process of reflection,” she said. “We will consider plans when
they come.”
She said the EU was mainly concerned with pushing a political solution to
Syria’s six-year-old war so
that a political transition can start so that “every single Syrian inside or
outside Syria”
can return.
“We need to turn this from a proxy war to a proxy peace and our role is
to facilitate,” she said. Russia
has welcomed Trump’s pledge to mend ties with Moscow and potentially partner with it
against the Islamic State and other extremist groups.
But Trump has provided few details about how he plans to approach Syria’s
complex conflict, and the Kremlin, which was bitterly at odds with the Obama
administration, has said that rebuilding trust will take time.
Peskov said no agreement has been reached on a
Trump-Putin phone call and that there have been no contacts between their
administrations yet beyond routine diplomatic exchanges.
**Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and
Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.
Rouhani's Advisor Implicitly Ruled out Prospect of Iran's
Economic Growth
Thursday, 26 January 2017/NCRI - Speaking about different scenarios for Iran’s
economic growth, the senior economic advisor to Iranian regime’s President has
said that Iran’s gross domestic product has started its downtrend since 2007,
reaching a negative growth in 2012.Masoud Nili emphasized
that these years are coincided with the unprecedented increase in oil revenues
so that between 2008 and 2011, Iran’s foreign exchange revenues reached 535
billion dollars, based on 2015 fixed prices. Thus, the decreased GDP growth has
not been due to lack of resources. Rouhani’s advisor
has not explained, however, how Iran
was faced with a long-term recession and even a negative growth despite
hundreds of billion dollars of unprecedented oil revenues.
Masoud Nili then added that
the most important question now is how Iran’s economic growth will be from
2017 onwards. He implicitly called the prospect of Iran’s economic growth ‘unfavorable’ and said that with a GDP growth one percent
and an economic growth of 2 -2.5 percent, the country will be faced with an
economic slowdown similar to that of 2008-2012, which, as Masoud
Nili points out, will cause problems for the Iranian
regime. Masoud Nili had
previously acknowledged that ”if country’s 2016
economic growth fails to reach at least six percent, Iran’s economic situation will not
improve in the next couple of years.” He also recently acknowledged that Iran’s economic
growth is not possible with sharply reduce oil revenues. According to the Sixth
Development Program recently approved by the Iranian regime’s parliament, Iran’s economy
will need 325 billion dollars in foreign investment in the next five years.
Iran: 12000 die in traffic
accident in 9 months
Thursday, 26 January 2017/NCRI - The state coroner office in Iran has said
in a report that 12,751 people have lost their lives in traffic accidents in
the first nine months of in the Iranian calendar year that began on March 20.
In a report on Tuesday January 24, the state-run IRNA news agency has cited the
organization as announcing that 263,904 people have also been injured during
the same period. According to the report, 1140 people were killed and 26,370
people were injured in just one month in the same period. These figures point
to quite a disaster in Iran.
The number of traffic deaths in Iran
is 25 times that of Japan
and two times compared to Turkey.
The number of traffic accidents in England
is 322 times less than that of Iran,
despite the fact that there are three times more vehicles in England compared to Iran. In Netherlands
with a 17-million population, the annual number of traffic deaths is only 200,
whereas this figure is nearly 20,000 in Iran. So, we see that compared to Iran,
there are much less traffic accidents in countries
with several times more vehicles on the roads. There are three factors
contributing to traffic accidents, namely human, road and vehicle. But Iranian
regime’s officials have always attempted to highlight the human factor so as to
put the blame on people. According to scientific studies, Iran’s high
number of traffic deaths is due to poor road conditions, so that 73.8 percent
of fatal accidents have happened due to narrow roads. According to regime’s
Minister of Roads and Urban Development, “too little investment has been done
in country’s road maintenance so that today, 40 percent of country’s roads are
in poor conditions.” Another factor in traffic accidents is the vehicle.
Poverty has forced people to turn to old, worn-out cars which
raises the rate of accidents. On the other hand, domestic automakers
produce very low-quality vehicles, so that the Pride vehicle, for instance has
been involved in 24 percent of car accidents. Ranked 189 among 190 countries in
road accidents, indicates a growing disaster, of which only people pay the
price.
One of the Biggest Financial Corruptions
in Iran
Thursday, 26 January 2017/NCRI - An amount of 19 billion Tomans
(US $5.4 Million ) was deposited in the Teachers Investment Fund Corporation
(TIFCO) from the monthly income of the teachers so that they will be paid
pension at the time of retirement. Nevertheless, this organization became
involved in one of the biggest financial corruptions in Iran. On 25th
of January 2017, Tasnim News Agency Affiliated with
the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) reported that a financial
corruption with an amount of $2.3 billion was revealed from the Teachers
Investment Fund Corporation. Following such incident and the complicity of the
Attorney General of Iran Mohammad Jafar Montazeri with this matter, some employees including the
former Director of TIFCO, Shahabeddin Ghandali were arrested for further investigations. It is
worth noting that the massive loans had been particularly granted to 30 people
without any difficulty or receiving the required collaterals. As some MPs
stated, among those 30 people that received massive loans to an amount of $2.3
billion, some of them also received loans from $143 to $286 Million for the
shell companies. These people were given huge loans backed by a cheque and they
have spent these loans for building constructions and personal objectives.
These violations are the biggest financial abuse in Iran's recent history. The former
Minister of Education Morteza Haji
and a member of the Board of Trustees of TIFCO believe that there are two major
problems in this matter. They said that some people are accused of inaccurate
pricing. On the other hand, a letter of guarantee to an amount of $126 Million
was issued in favor of some people whom they only
have a total of $600 investment. Tasnim News agency
further posed questions that, why one of the biggest financial corruption of Iran's history belongs to TIFCO and
if the relevant authorities were aware of these corruptions in TIFCO and Sarmayeh Bank or not? Is the Board of Trustees of TIFCO
responsible for monitoring the performance of this organization or not? And why
these supervisions are not provided precisely? The complicated structure and
the lack of an accurate monitoring have caused corruption in TIFCO. The lack of
supervision caused the 19-bilion-Toman deposits of Teachers to TIFCO become as
one of the biggest financial corruption of Iran's history. In fact, TIFCO
which was supposed to use the profits of its subdivision companies to provide
services for the retired teachers. Nevertheless, instead,
provided ground for financial abuse.
Although the new authorities of this organization are trying to restore the
lost trust of teachers by changing the members of the board of directors and
depositing interests to accounts of teachers it would be quite difficult to
restore the trusts.
The Appointment of the Qods
Force Deputy Commander as the Ambassador to Iraq Is to Continue and Expand
Meddling in This Country
NCRI Statements/ Wednesday, 25 January 2017 /Khamenei,
in order to continue and expand its criminal meddling in Iraq, has appointed
Revolutionary Guard Brigadier General Iraj Masjedi, deputy commander of the terrorist Qods Force, as the new ambassador to that country. In the
past 30 years, Masjedi has always played a key role
in terrorist operations of the clerical regime outside Iran, particularly in Iraq
and Syria.
1. Masjedi was Chief of Staff of Ramadan garrison
during the Iran-Iraq war, which later became the Qods
Force. In an interview with Mehr News Agency on June
25, 2016, Masjedi said: “Ramadan garrison was formed
during war for irregular, guerilla, special,
intelligence operations” and organizing and supporting Iraqi groups and “this
is exactly what the IRGC Qods Force is doing today.”
2. After official formation of the Qods Force in
1990, Masjedi became the commander of the First Corp
of the Qods Force that replaced Ramadan garrison and
was responsible for terrorist operations in Iraq. Terrorist groups such as Badr 9 Corps and Supreme Council were under his command.
3. After the invasion of Iraq
in 2003, Masjedi was one of the main commanders of
the Qods Force in relation to Iraq and traveled regularly to Baghdad
and other Iraqi cities such as Nasiriyah, Basra, Amarah, Najaf and Karbala. Through Iraqi
agents of the Qods force, including Hadi al-Ameri, Abu Mahdi Mohandes, Hashem al-Mousavi, Abu Bilal Adib, Hassan Alsary, etc. he was advancing the policy of hidden
occupation of Iraq.
4. Many terrorist acts in Iraq,
such as roadside bombs, including the headquarters of US forces in Karbala on January 20, 2007 and the kidnapping of five
British citizens in Baghdad
on May 29, 2007 were carried out under the supervision of Masjedi.
5. With the deployment of elements affiliated with the Qods
Force in political and military posts in Diyala Province, this criminal Revolutionary
Guard was paving the way for exerting pressure and repressive measures against
the PMOI in Ashraf. A mercenary named Uday Khedran, the governor of Khalis, was one of these people who was actively involved
in the mobilization and organization of mercenaries to attack Ashraf in different occasions. Five rocket attacks on Camp Liberty
also took place under his command and by the handmade terrorist groups of the Qods Force.
6. After Maliki’s attacks on popular sit-ins in Al-Anbar province in 2013, Masjedi
along with other Qods Force commanders entered Iraq and
executed his suppressive plans to massacre and to forcibly displace the Sunni
population of this province.
7. Masjedi became in charge of the Iraq file in
the Qods Force in March 2014. Hassan Danaifar, the regime’s then ambassador to Iraq, was
working under the auspices of Masjedi. One of the
tasks of Masjedi was preparation for the third round
of Maliki as Prime Minister, which failed.
8. Masjedi has had a major role in the formation of
the Iraqi criminal militias and Hashd Al-Shabi. The arrival of these criminals in Sunni areas and
killing innocent people has also been fully under Masjedi’s
monitoring.
9. In addition to Iraq, Masjedi played a major role in crime and warmongering in Syria and the deployment of Iraqi militias in Syria. On
January 13, 2017, on the anniversary of a number of Iranian Revolutionary
Guards killed in Syria,
he said: "Our frontline yesterday was in the Arvand
Roud (Shatt Al-Arab) and Shalamcheh
and Mehran and Haj Omran. Today the frontline has been transferred to Damascus and Aleppo and Mosul and Fallujah."
While many Iraqi political currents and many Arab countries have recognized Iraj Masjedi as a war criminal, Faleh al-Fayad, Iraq's national
security adviser, said the Iraqi government agreed to the appointment of Masjedi as ambassador, and "he has contributed to the
formation of Hashd al-Shabi"
NCRI - Security and Anti-Terrorism Committee/January 25, 2017
US lawmaker says she met Assad on secret Syria trip
AFP, Washington Thursday, 26 January 2017/The
US congresswoman who made a recent secret trip to war-torn Syria said
Wednesday she met there with President Bashar
al-Assad as part of her effort to end the years-long conflict. House Democrat Tulsi Gabbard this month traveled
to Damascus and the decimated city of Aleppo on a fact-finding
mission, where she met with refugees, Syrian opposition leaders and relatives
of fighters on both sides of the divide, in addition to Assad. “Originally, I
had no intention of meeting with Assad, but when given the opportunity, I felt
it was important to take it,” Gabbard said in a
statement. “I think we should be ready to meet with anyone if there’s a chance
it can help bring about an end to this war, which is causing the Syrian people
so much suffering.”
Also read: What is this US
congresswoman doing in Syria?In an interview on CNN, she
added: “Whatever you think about President Assad, the fact is that he is the
president of Syria.
In order for any possibility of a viable peace agreement to occur, there has to
be a conversation with him.”Gabbard, 35, was a member
of the Hawaii National Guard and was deployed to Iraq in 2005. Two weeks after
Donald Trump won the November 8 election, she met with him to discuss Syria, raising
speculation that he might consider her for a position at the Pentagon or State
Department. Gabbard, who often clashes with her own
party on issues related to Syria, has long opposed a US policy of regime change
there, arguing that the country would descend further into chaos should Assad
be ousted.
Protests held in NY against Trump
immigration plans
AFP/Reuters, New York/Washington Thursday, 26 January 2017
More than a thousand people took to New
York streets Wednesday to condemn President Donald
Trump’s border wall and immigration plans. The US leader ordered officials to
start designing and building a physical wall along the southern border earlier
in the day. He is also said to be floating the idea of a ban on refugees from
Muslim-majority countries, including Syria. Demonstrators of all stripes
turned out to rally after 5:00 pm (2200 GMT) in Manhattan’s
Washington Square Park.
“No ban, no wall, New York
is for all,” demonstrators chanted. Many of their signs called for the defense of Muslims’ rights and the continued reception of
refugees from Syria
and other Muslim countries in conflict. “It’s really scary,” said Thariha Choudbury, a Muslim from Bangladesh.
“Since he (Trump) was elected, I really feel that Islamophobia
has increased, and it can only continue because it has given power to racists
in this country.” The president earlier in the day promised to cut funding to
jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate with the federal government on its
policies. “I am married to an immigrant, my friends are immigrants... We are a
city of immigrants and we must defend our communities,” another protestor,
Austin Guillem, stressed at the rally.
Children ‘shouldn’t be worried’
President Donald Trump said that illegal immigrants brought to the United
States as children, known as “dreamers,” should not be worried about
deportation. “They shouldn’t be very worried,” Trump said in an interview
broadcast on ABC News on Wednesday. “I do have a big heart. We’re going to take
care of everybody,” Trump said, adding: “Where you have great people that are
here that have done a good job, they should be far less worried.”
“We’ll be coming out with policy on that over the next period of four weeks,”
he added.
Torture works but will follow advice
President Trump also said Wednesday he thinks waterboarding
and other interrogation techniques widely seen as torture – and prohibited by
law – “absolutely” work, but would defer to his CIA and Pentagon chiefs on
whether to reinstate them.
When asked about waterboarding in an interview with
ABC News at the White House, Trump said it was necessary to “fight fire with
fire” in the face of the beheadings of Americans and other atrocities by ISIS militants.
The comments from the new Republican president – which echo statements he made
on the campaign trail – come as reports suggest his administration may be
considering the reinstatement of secret CIA “black site” prisons overseas.
“When they’re chopping off the heads of our people, and other people... when ISIS is doing things that nobody has ever heard of since
medieval times, would I feel strongly about waterboarding?
As far as I’m concerned, we have to fight fire with fire,” he said.
But he said he would rely on the advice of Pentagon chief James Mattis and Central Intelligence Agency director Mike Pompeo. In February 2016, Trump said “torture works” and
pledged to bring back waterboarding and “much worse.”
Jihadists Lose Ground around Libya's
Second City
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January
26/17/Forces loyal to Libyan Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar battling jihadists around second city Benghazi said
Wednesday they had taken one of the last remaining strongholds of the
militants. Haftar's self-declared Libyan National
Army (LNA) "liberated all of Qanfouda", an
area 15 kilometres (nine miles) west of the centre of Benghazi, spokesman Ahmed al-Mesmari posted on Facebook.
Two other LNA officials confirmed to AFP that Qanfouda,
the scene of fierce fighting since June, had fallen from jihadist hands. One of
the officials said there were still militants from the Al-Qaeda-linked Ansar Al-Sharia group present
near Qanfouda. Meanwhile a car exploded late
Wednesday in the centre of Benghazi,
leaving six wounded including five civilians and a soldier, according to the
city's Al-Jala hospital. A security service source
told AFP that it was not yet known whether the explosion was due to a suicide
bombing or a car bomb, adding that the attack was likely aimed at a military
convoy travelling along the road. Libya's unrest since the 2011
ousting of strongman Moamer Kadhafi
allowed extremist organisations including the Islamic State group to gain a
foothold in the country.
For nearly three years Benghazi
has been the scene of bloody attacks and fighting between these groups and
forces loyal to Haftar. The country has fallen into
chaos, with the UN-backed Government of National Accord based in Tripoli failing to assert
its authority over the country. The GNA is opposed by a rival administration
that is based in Libya's
far east and backed by military strongman Haftar. Haftar has managed to
retake a large part of the eastern coastal city from jihadists since Benghazi came under their
control in 2014.
But jihadists still control the central Benghazi
districts of Al-Saberi and Souq
al-Hout, according to the LNA. These jihadist groups
include the Revolutionary Shura Council of Benghazi, an alliance of
Islamist militias that includes the Al-Qaeda-linked Ansar
Al-Sharia.
Hamon Pitches Fresh Ideas to French Socialists
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January
26/17/French Socialist Benoit Hamon urged voters to
support his bold leftist ideas for revitalizing the country on Wednesday as his
party prepares to pick its presidential candidate this weekend. In a final
televised debate with his rival, ex-prime minister Manuel Valls,
Hamon urged the left to "turn its back on the
old regime, at these solutions that didn't work yesterday and won't work in the
future."Hamon, 49, has emerged as the surprise
frontrunner to lead the Socialists into elections in April and May after their
five years in power which has seen their popularity plummet. Whoever clinches
the nomination on Sunday would finish a humiliating fifth if the vote was held
today, polls suggest, as the country grapples with low growth and fears about
terrorism and immigration. Hamon has pitched himself
as a man of fresh ideas, promising to bring in universal basic income -- a
state handout to all adults, irrespective of income -- and new environmental
protections. He also wants to tax robots to raise income, legalize cannabis,
introduce stricter rules to ban more chemical products, and introduce a new
corps of state inspectors to combat discrimination. "I accept saying that
we can have bigger deficits," Hamon said when
asked about the impact of his plans on public finances, which were last
balanced in France
in the 1970s. Valls, a tough-talking prime minister
under unpopular President Francois Hollande until
December, has portrayed Hamon as a dreamer who would
condemn the left to certain defeat. "It's not enough to make people dream,
you need to be credible," he said in one of several sharp exchanges
between the former cabinet colleagues. Valls
underlined how Hamon's program which also includes
building a second aircraft carrier, was unthinkable
without major tax increases. In a pithy put-down to his former education
minister, Valls said he wanted to be the
"candidate for your payslip", while Hamon
would be the "candidate for the tax form."
Two factions
Hamon won the first round of voting in the Socialist
primary last weekend, with 36 percent of the vote, and has
since picked up an endorsement from third-placed Arnaud Montebourg.
The battle in the second-round run-off this Sunday has been widely depicted as
a struggle between the centrist, pro-business wing of the party represented by Valls and the leftist faction behind Hamon.
This ideological split has caused tension throughout Hollande's
five years in power and has led to what could be fatal fractures ahead of the
vote. Two other formerly Socialist candidates are set to appear on the ballot
in April, namely 39-year-old centrist ex-economy minister Emmanuel Macron and
Communist-backed Jean-Luc Melenchon. Hamon's success in the primary could open up more space in
the center ground for Macron, a former banker who has been drawing large crowds
at rallies around the country. France's election has been portrayed by polls as
a battle between the front-running rightwing Republicans party candidate
Francois Fillon and the far-right leader Marine Le Pen.But many analysts caution that it is still highly
unpredictable. Fillon was hit Wednesday by a
potentially damaging investigation into the employment of his wife as a
parliamentary aide following revelations in a newspaper.
Radical welfare
Hamon's proposal to introduce universal basic income
took center stage in Wednesday night's discussion. His medium-term plan --
sometime after 2020 -- is to introduce a payment of around 750 euros ($800) a month to everyone in a radical overhaul of
the welfare system. The payments would be introduced progressively, however,
with young people set to be the first beneficiaries during his term in office
if he is elected. "We should encourage work," retorted Valls on Wednesday, criticizing the "exorbitant
cost" the measure would entail. Hamon estimates
it at around 300 billion euros a year, but an
analysis by a research group at Sciences Po university
in Paris puts
it at 480 billion euros. The two candidates also gave
starkly contrasting views on France's
strict rules on secularism, with Hamon suggesting
they had been used to stigmatize Muslims in France. Both candidates found
common ground on the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, however, which
they said would require Europe to be more
united and to pool their military resources.
Mexico Leader Cancels U.S.
Trip in Border Wall Row with Trump
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January
26/17/Tensions between Donald Trump and Mexico's
Enrique Pena Nieto over the U.S.
leader's vow to make Mexico
fund a new wall on the neighbors' border boiled over
Thursday with the cancellation of talks in Washington set for next week. Trump had been
scheduled to receive Pena Nieto at the White House on Tuesday, for their first
meeting since the inauguration. Instead, the Republican president is managing a
foreign policy spat during his first week in office. The escalating war of
words over who would pay for the proposed border wall -- a central pledge made
by Trump during his successful presidential campaign -- hit the breaking point
on Thursday. "If Mexico
is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to
cancel the upcoming meeting," Trump said on Twitter in the morning. Pena
Nieto didn't take long to rise to the challenge. "We informed the White
House this morning that I will not attend the working meeting scheduled for
next Tuesday" with Trump in Washington,
the Mexican leader responded on Twitter. "Mexico
reiterates its willingness to work with the United States to reach agreements
in both nations' interests." Hours later, Trump told Republican lawmakers
at a retreat in Philadelphia
that the cancellation was by mutual agreement. "Unless Mexico is going to treat the United States
fairly, with respect, such a meeting would be fruitless, and I want to go a
different route. I have no choice," he said. White House spokesman Sean
Spicer earlier told reporters that the "lines of communications"
would remain open and Washington
hoped to "schedule something in the future."
Big price tag
The initial salvos between the two presidents came
Wednesday, when Trump ordered officials to begin to "plan, design and
construct a physical wall" along the 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer)
U.S.-Mexico border. Stemming immigration was a central plank of Trump's
election campaign, but he has struggled to articulate how the wall will be paid
for, beyond saying "Mexico
will pay." Republican leaders announced Thursday they would try to carve
out $12-15 billion worth of U.S.
taxpayers' money for the project. Trump also ordered a survey of the border to
be completed within 180 days. Much of the land needed to build the wall would
have to be seized from private citizens in Texas,
the state of Texas
or tribal authorities.That could result in long court
battles and hefty expropriation payments.
Mexico will not pay for any wall
Trump's wall order had put Pena Nieto under fierce domestic pressure to hit
back, and hit back the Mexican leader did in a video message to the nation late
Wednesday. "I regret and condemn the decision of the United States
to continue construction of a wall that, for years, has divided us instead of
uniting us," Pena Nieto said. "I have said it time and again: Mexico will not
pay for any wall," he added. Around two in three Mexicans have a favorable opinion of the United
States, according to Pew surveys, but anti-American and
anti-Trump sentiment is not uncommon.Pena Nieto saw
his own approval rating slide late last year, after he hosted Trump -- then
still a White House candidate -- in Mexico
City.
NAFTA a 'one-sided deal'?
Trump also took to Twitter on Thursday to gripe about the trade gap between Mexico and the United States. "The U.S. has a 60 billion dollar trade deficit with Mexico. It has
been a one-sided deal from the beginning of NAFTA with massive numbers of jobs
and companies lost," he said. That deficit for the trade in goods is
slightly higher than the overall trade deficit -- including services -- of $49
billion in 2015. Trump has vowed to renegotiate the 23-year-old North American
Free Trade Agreement between Mexico,
the United States and Canada. That
renegotiation could provide one way for Trump to claim victory, through
increased tariffs on Mexican goods or higher border transit costs. But it could
also risk retaliatory tariffs or blowback from U.S. firms who export $267 billion
a year south of the border. Another threat is to finance the wall by tapping
into remittances that Mexican migrants send home, which last year amounted to
$25 billion. Trump has also ordered officials to scour U.S. government
departments and agencies in search of "direct and indirect" aid or
assistance to the Mexican government and report back within 30 days. The United States is expected to provide about $134
million worth of assistance to Mexico
this year, with much of the spending wrapped up in the "Merida
Initiative" to combat drug cartels.
Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis
& editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 26-27/17
Is Ivanka
Trump Jewish? In Israel, she has a trump card
The Associated Press, Petah Tikva Thursday, 26
January 2017
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2017/01/26/ap-is-ivanka-trump-jewish-in-israel-she-has-a-trump-card/
Is Ivanka Trump really Jewish?
Last summer, Israel’s
religious authorities issued a ruling that raised doubts about her conversion
to Judaism. But since her father was elected president, they have changed their
tune, raising eyebrows among activists who have long lobbied the rabbinical
establishment to be more tolerant toward converts.
President Donald Trump’s daughter converted to Judaism under a prominent
Orthodox rabbi in Manhattan
before her 2009 marriage to Jared Kushner, an observant Jew.
In their ruling last July, an Israeli government religious court rejected the
legitimacy of another conversion by the same rabbi. Although it didn’t directly
affect Ivanka Trump, it raised questions as to
whether Israel’s
powerful religious establishment would recognize her as being Jewish.
But in early December, just weeks after Trump’s election victory, Israel’s chief
rabbis said they would work to change the rules for recognizing conversions
performed abroad - and they singled out Ivanka Trump.
“According to the new proposed plan ... her conversion will be certified
without the need for additional checks,” the announcement said.
Israeli activists say the sudden policy change appears to be an attempt to
curry favor with the new US president. Ivanka
Trump’s husband has been appointed a senior adviser to Trump and is expected to
focus on Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.
An Israeli rabbinic committee has already met several times to discuss
conversion policy, a speedier pace than usual, activists say.
“The timing is certainly suspicious,” said Rabbi Seth Farber, director of ITIM,
an organization that represents converts seeking recognition from the
rabbinate. “My biggest fear is that the rabbinate will find some way to find
Ms. Trump kosher, to recognize her conversion, but leave thousands of other
converts behind, simply saying they’re not Jewish enough for us.”
The Jewish Week, a New York newspaper, quoted
an anonymous source with ties to Trump’s presidential transition team as saying
high-ranking aides had expressed concern to Israel
regarding the legitimacy of Ivanka Trump’s
conversion, and that Israeli efforts to recognize her conversion would foster a
closer relationship between the Trump family and Israel.
A spokeswoman for Trump did not return a request for confirmation, and Rabbi
Levi Shemtov, a rabbi in Washington who is close to Ivanka Trump, declined comment.
A spokesman for one of Israel’s
chief rabbis said the proposed changes were a long time coming and not a direct
result of Trump’s election. “Even before Ivanka
Trump, it was talked about,” said spokesman Pinchas Tennenbaum, adding that the media attention “added
problems, and we take it to heart.”
Since Ivanka Trump does not live in Israel, for her
the issue is largely hypothetical. But for converts in Israel, the
rabbinate’s ruling affects their daily lives. If they are not recognized as
Jewish, they are not permitted to marry in Israel, and they are technically
ineligible for a religious burial when they die.
Israel’s
Orthodox establishment does not recognize conversions performed by the more
liberal Reform and Conservative streams of Judaism, to which most American Jews
belong. But immigration officials have more relaxed guidelines and do allow
Reform and Conservative converts to gain citizenship in Israel as Jews.
These days, many Israelis simply wave off the rabbinate as irrelevant. Secular
Israelis often wed in civil ceremonies abroad to avoid the rabbinate, while
many ultra-Orthodox Jews dismiss the rabbinate’s certification of kosher food
as too lax. Some Israelis perceive the rabbinate as corrupt: A former Israeli
chief rabbi was sentenced to three and a half years in prison this week
following charges of corruption and bribery.
“The rabbinate is a fossil of an institution that does not succeed in grappling
with modern needs,” said Nahum Barnea, a leading
Israeli columnist. “Most Israelis see the recognition of Ivanka
Trump’s Judaism, or lack of recognition, as a joke.”
Under the proposed reform, the rabbinate would establish clear guidelines for
which rabbis abroad are deemed fit to perform conversions, rather than the
current practice of evaluating each individual convert.
All foreign-born Jews seeking a marriage license in Israel must first be checked by the
rabbinate to ensure they are indeed Jewish. Between 2013 and 2015, some 5,000
people asked the rabbinate to recognize them as Jews, according to rabbinate
figures.
Critics say Israeli rabbinical courts reject dozens of converts each year,
claiming their Orthodox conversions were not stringent enough and in some case
questioning their motives and levels of observance. The issue reached a boiling
point last year when an Israeli rabbinical court refused to recognize the
conversion of a 31-year-old American, Nicole Zeitler.
While working in New York, she converted to Judaism after a year and a half of
study that included Hebrew lessons, a weekly questionnaire on Jewish topics and
twice-a-week meetings with Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, a senior rabbi in the U.S. Orthodox community
who also oversaw Ivanka Trump’s conversion.
“It was intense. I learned it and I lived it,” Zeitler
said. She moved to Israel
and became engaged to an Israeli, but a rabbinical court would not grant her a
marriage license, dismissing Lookstein’s credentials.
The move created an uproar in Israel, with the speaker of the Israeli
parliament and head of Israel’s
Labor party, who know Lookstein
personally, petitioning the rabbinate to reconsider. In the end, the supreme
rabbinical court persuaded Zeitler to undergo a
quickened conversion by reciting a special declaration of faith, rather than
recognize Lookstein’s conversion.
“The Israeli rabbinic establishment is an ultra-conservative establishment.
Rabbi Lookstein is considered a more open-minded
Orthodox rabbi,” Farber said. “It rubs some of the rabbinical authorities the
wrong way.” Lookstein declined comment and deferred
to Farber to speak on his behalf.
Elad Kaplan, a lawyer for ITIM who represented Zeitler in the religious court, believes the rabbinate’s
promise to resolve the conversion controversy is directly connected to Trump’s
election. “It would definitely be embarrassing to the state of Israel and the rabbinate if Ivanka
Trump’s family were to visit Israel
and for the official Jewish authorities in Israel to not recognize their
Judaism,” Kaplan said.
As for Zeitler, she acknowledged it was “a little
fishy” that the rabbis were suddenly interested in changing the rules on
conversions.
“On the other hand, I’m happy that Trump is president, and that this may change
things in the system,” she said. “I mean, isn’t this how things happen in the
world anyway? Someone super famous and important has to come up and, in this
case, be Jewish, to make a big change?”
Canada/Radicalization
in Public Schools...Why We are Concerned
Maha Soliman/Gatestone
Institute/January 26/17
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2017/01/26/canadamaha-solimangatestone-institute-radicalization-in-public-schoolswhy-we-are-concerned/
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9786/radicalization-public-schools
Radicalization is not only manifested through the use of violence, but also
through desiring to live by and impose sharia law on
society.
One reason for the increased popularity of sharia is
the radicalization of second- and third-generation Muslims in Western
societies.
The school board said it believes that the checks and balances put in place
will ensure that the Friday sermons are not used for radicalizing Muslim students;
however, as laws against "Islamophobia"
become a reality in Canada,
and attempts to raise a concern are labelled hate speech, one should not count
on it. With the passing of time, vigilance will be abandoned and people who
express concern will find themselves vulnerable to bullying and defamation if
they try to address an issue or crack down on a violation.
Saied Shoaaib, a Muslim authority and expert on
political Islam, points out that the dilemma for Western societies is that the
only version of Islam available to them is the radical version, mostly in
mosques and Islamic schools, and also in public libraries.
The ongoing demand for the accommodation of Muslims in Western societies is a
situation worth understanding. In the documentary "The Third Jihad",
Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, an
American Muslim who dedicates his life to fighting radicalization, explains
that it is a cultural jihad that is meant to destroy our society from within --
slowly and gradually to impose the sharia way of
life.
On January 10, 2017, I attended the Peel District School Board's meeting where
recommendations for allowing Muslim students to write their own sermons (khutbah) for congregational Friday (Jumma)
prayers in public schools were received. For more than 15 years, students were
allowed to pray in the school but not in a congregational setting. In June
2016, the Jumma prayer was officially adopted but the
students were only allowed to read from a list of pre-approved sermons.
Mississauga is one of three cities in the Peel
region and the sixth largest city in Canada with high ethnic diversity
and a population nearing one million. One of Mississauga's
calls to fame is that it is home to at least eight members of the "Toronto 18" -- the first terrorist cell uncovered in
2006 and that aimed to create an Al-Qaida type of operation in Canada. Some of
the 18 attended public schools: Saad Khalid, for
example, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for pleading guilty to a
single count of acting "with the intention of causing an explosion or
explosions that were likely to cause serious bodily harm or death or damage
property". He was known to have attended the Meadowvale Secondary School.
There, he had started an Islamic Club and, in the lecture hall, had led Friday
prayers, which he attended with fellow arrestees Fahim
Ahmad and Zakaria Amara. If
people like Khalid are the champions of organizing Jumaa
prayers and Khutbah in their schools, it is no wonder
that pre-scripted sermons were the way to protect public safety while allowing
Muslim students still to practice their faith.
Today, radicalization in Western societies is becoming epidemic. It has become
a reality of life in general, and an everyday concern to parents in particular
-- especially parents who want their kids safe from terrorism as well as
parents who want their kids safe from radicalization.
This crisis could not be more highlighted than by a segment recently aired by
1010 News Talk, ironically on the same day, the morning January 10, 2017:
"What do you do if your child decides to join ISIS?"
-- a topic that was probably unimaginable a few years ago, when protecting
public safety trumped sensitivity, but has become a reality today as
sensitivity seems to overpower protecting public safety.
The school board said it believes that the checks and balances put in place[1]
will ensure that the Friday sermons not be used for radicalizing Muslim
students; however, as laws against "Islamophobia"
become a reality in Canada, and attempts to raise a concern are labelled hate
speech, one should not count on it. With the passing of time, vigilance will be
abandoned and people who express concern will find themselves vulnerable to
bullying and defamation if they try to address an issue or crack down on a
violation.
While the case of Ghada Sadaka,
a principal in the York Region District School Board, is slightly different.
She was forced to apologize for postings on Facebook
and comments such as:
"A good start, but where is the voice of Muslims who are not extremists
and of which they condemn these acts of terrorism. This is the time of
vocalizing "where you stand"!!!"
Sadaka was simply posting her thoughts on social
media without addressing a particular issue at schools. Yet, the purportedly
moral war launched against her is only a pilot project: it is a warning to any
other principal who tries to create awareness about radicalization or condemn
it.
Radicalization is not only manifested through the use of violence, but also
through desiring to live by and impose Sharia law on
society. Under Sharia, polygamy is legal, honour
crimes and female genital mutilation (FGM) are not punishable, amputations are
welcome as a form of punishment, gays and apostates should be killed, and
women's rights are no more.
A 2016 survey noted that one in four UK Muslims prefer to live under Sharia. This troubling finding led to former head of the UK
Equality and Human Rights Commission, Trevor Phillips, who popularized the term
"Islamophobia", to admit that he was wrong.
He said: "I thought Muslims would blend into Britain... I should have known
better." Today, the UK
is plagued with having two parallel legal systems: the UK courts and
the Sharia courts.
One reason for the increased popularity of sharia is
the radicalization of second and third generation Muslims in Western societies.
Uncovering the root cause of that radicalization can be found in the book
Lovers of Death, authored by the Muslim authority and expert on political
Islam, Saied Shoaaib. In his book, Shoaaib points out that the dilemma for Western societies
is that the only version of Islam available to them is the radical version,
mostly in mosques and Islamic schools, and also in public libraries. Even when
he visited the Ottawa
public library and handed them books that represent a more peaceful outlook on
Islam to balance out what is already there, the library never considered
including them in their Arabic language collection.
The idea of increasing the Islamic content in the public sphere is pathetic;
especially in a society where so many people seem to have agreed that the
founding Judeo-Christian values should take a back seat in an attempt to make
everybody feel "included". These accommodations result in the immense
risk to our freedom of speech and way of life. There is also an economic penalty,
as in the reduced opportunities for employment and lost business recently
highlighted by the closure of the Peugeot auto plant, due to the excessive
prayer breaks requested by Muslims who constitute the majority of the workers.
The ongoing demand for the accommodation of Muslims in Western societies is a
situation worth understanding. In the documentary "The Third Jihad",
Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, an
American Muslim who dedicates his life to fighting radicalization, explains
that it is a cultural jihad that is meant to destroy our society from within -
slowly and gradually to impose the Sharia way of
life. Produced exactly 10 years ago, the documentary was re-released in 2017,
to demonstrate how his accurate predictions of societal transformation have
come to pass. Now, for an accurate prediction of where Canada will be in 2026 if we
continue on the same path, one need to look no farther
than the report, "The Islamization of Britain in
2016" at Gatestone Institute, by the meticulous
scholar, Soeren Kern.
*Maha Soliman is based in Canada.
[1] Recommendations included:
All prayer spaces will continue to be supervised by school staff.
Prayer will be led by students only, on Friday, for Jummah
prayer.
Two or more students can pray together on any other day but prayers would not
be led nor include a sermon.
Students may write their own sermon (khutbah) or can
use a sermon (khutbah) from a bank of prewritten
sermons, obtained from the school MSA or a local faith leader.
Sermons will be presented in English, except for any verses quoted directly
from the Quran.
Sermons must comply with the school code of conduct, the Education Act, its
Regulations and the Ontario Human Rights Code.
As with all student activities in schools, appropriate disciplinary and
corrective action will be taken where there are any contraventions of the
Ontario Human Rights Code or the school code of conduct.
© 2017 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The
articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of
Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced,
copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone
Institute.
The Two "Islamophobias"
Denis MacEoin/Gatestone Institute./January 26, 2017
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9588/two-islamophobias
While it is not surprising to find Muslims offended by certain words or images,
it is distressing to find Western courts and other bodies only too willing to
turn "Islamophobia" into a criminal offence
in countries that otherwise value free speech and open expression.
When the Dutch politician Geert Wilders was brought
to court on a hate speech charge, all he had done in fact was to ask a simple
question about Moroccan immigrants -- should the Netherlands take in more or fewer?
That is a question with many potential answers based on political, social, or
demographic grounds. It is a rational question that is, almost by definition,
one that could be asked in the Home Office of any state that receives
immigrants.
"Forty percent of Moroccan immigrants in the Netherlands between the ages of 12
and 24 have been arrested, fined, charged or otherwise accused of committing a
crime during the past five years, according to a new report commissioned by the
Dutch Ministry of Interior." – Dutch-Moroccan Monitor 2011.
We, and not our opponents, must place ourselves in a position to define what is
and what is not real "Islamophobia."
If we cannot do that, others will conflate criticism and hatred, and clamp down
on both at once.
If we had to choose one thing that has obstructed many Westerners from
understanding modern Islam and undermined our ability to handle its excesses,
it would be our perception of Islamophobia. How many
times have fair and honest criticisms of one aspect or another of Islam,
rebukes of behaviour, or literary and artistic expressions of Muhammad or other
figures been loudly shouted down or banned on the grounds that such criticism
was "Islamophobic"? In Europe,
individuals have been arrested, tried and sentenced for "Islamophobic" utterances. As Judith Bergman recently
commented, in Europe it is becoming a criminal
offence to criticize Islam.
In 2011, Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, for example, a
former Austrian diplomat and teacher, was put on trial for "denigration of
religious beliefs of a legally recognized religion [Islam]," found guilty
twice, and ordered to pay a fine or face 60 days in jail. Some of her comments
may have seemed extreme, but the court's failure to engage with her
historically accurate charge that Muhammad had sex with a nine-year-old girl
and continued to have sex with her until she turned eighteen -- its regarding
the historical record as somehow defamatory -- and the judge's decision to
punish her for saying something that can be found in Islamic sources,
illustrates the betrayal of Western values of free speech. A charge of "Islamophobia" was enough to confine the freedoms that
most Westerners take for granted.
Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, a former Austrian
diplomat and teacher, was put on trial for "denigration of religious
beliefs of a legally recognized religion [Islam]," found guilty twice, and
ordered to pay a fine or face 60 days in jail, simply because she made the
historically accurate statement that Muhammad had sex with a nine-year-old girl
-- something that can be found in Islamic sources.
Sabaditsch-Wolff is not the only person to suffer for
this "offence". Danish author Lars Hedegaard
suffered an attack on his life and lives in a secret location. Kurt Westergaard, a Danish cartoonist, suffered an axe attack
that failed, and is under permanent protection by the security services. In
2009, in Austria,
the politician Susanne Winter was found guilty of "anti-Muslim incitement",
for saying, "In today's system, the Prophet Mohammad would be considered a
child-molester." She was fined 24,000 euros
($31,000) and given a three-month suspended sentence. The phrase "child
molester", like the charge made by Sabaditsch-Wolff
was based on the fact, recorded by Muslim biographers, that Muhammad had sexual
relations with his new wife A'isha when she was nine
years old (after marrying her when she was six).
Neither historical fact nor literary sophistication (as the British author Salman Rushdie learned to his cost) are
able to deflect charges of Islamophobia.
What is worse is that, while it is not surprising to find Muslims, especially
those from unsophisticated backgrounds and little education, offended by
certain words or images, it is distressing to find Western courts and other
bodies only too willing to genuflect to those charges and turn "Islamophobia" into a criminal offence in countries
that otherwise value free speech and open expression.
Recently, the Dutch politician Geert Wilders, a man
who could very well become Prime Minister of the Netherlands in 2017, was found
guilty of "inciting discrimination and insulting a minority group,"
merely for asking voters whether they favoured larger or fewer numbers of
Moroccan immigrants – a legitimate if controversial political question.
Wilders, of course, is known for his antipathy towards Islam, but pertinent
concerns about its influence in a democracy do not make him an "Islamophobe", despite repeated accusations of it.
Fear of being "Islamophobic" affects not
just the lives of outspoken individuals but the lives of whole populations.
Because leading politicians are desperate not to offend Muslims, they often
shape public and foreign policies to avoid even the appearance of "Islamophobia". This is, at the domestic level, done to
avoid giving offence to growing numbers of Muslims in countries in Europe and North America. Giving offence invariably results in
outraged Muslims chanting death threats in the streets; outraged but
well-controlled leaders of Muslim organizations appearing in radio and TV
interviews masquerading as victims of government or police intolerance, and
demands for banning this newspaper, that book, or the resignation of a
politician who said something unwise.
A careless word of offence may ruin trade relations with a Muslim state or
threaten the cancellation of lucrative arms sales to a human rights-abusing,
obscenely rich oil-state in the Gulf. A controversy like this happened to the
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson in early December, when he condemned Saudi Arabia and Iran
for their sectarian proxy wars in Yemen and elsewhere -- only to have
his views angrily rejected by the Prime Minister, who had just returned from
the Gulf on a visit to promote British goods and services. In a shifting world
-- with Britain
pulling out of the EU and desperate for trade deals anywhere it could find them
- hurting the feelings of people who can buy you up and spit you out is hardly
advisable.
And this is where accusations of "Islamophobia"
come into their own. Fear of it results in leaders
such as Barack Obama, John Kerry, David Cameron, and Pope Francis repeating
"Islam is a religion of peace" or "terrorism has nothing to do
with Islam", when, in fact, Islam has never been free of religiously-inspired
violence and the terror attacks we see around the world today have everything
to do with Islam and its call to jihad. Denying that involvement for fear of
giving offence or encouraging further violence means that Western powers have handicapped
their own ability to recognize the source of conflict, target it, and end it.
President Obama's history of avoiding offence and staying apart from direct
action in the Middle East was the result of such woolly thinking -- not just
woolly thinking but lying through his teeth.
Those of us who express sincere concerns about Islam in general or specific
beliefs and actions committed in the name of the religion, yet wish to have
respect for Muslims as people and for those aspects of their lives that are not
a cause for concern (prayer, alms-giving, celebrations, pilgrimages, social
work, mysticism and so forth), have to speak and write in a manner that shows
we are not "Islamophobes". We need to do
this if we are to be taken seriously, allowing our thoughts the chance to be
heard and not dismissed as "bigoted" or "racist".
Much critical work is, however, greatly undermined by a vast quantity of
bigoted, racist and genuinely Islamophobic comment on
social media and elsewhere. This material, some of which will be quoted here,
comes from a deeply worrying trend associated with the far-right, as well as
associations of white supremacists. While a great many of these comments or
videos on YouTube clearly come from people who seem semi-literate or poorly
educated, this is by no means universally true. Many have obviously made
limited efforts to educate themselves about Islam. But their efforts at
self-education fall short. They repeatedly make factual errors or leap to wild
assumptions. They do not know an Islamic language, have never consulted primary
sources, nor have they read serious academic studies or reference books such as
the Encyclopedia of Islam. But when someone with
qualifications challenges their ignorance, they become angry and call their
critics "apologists for Islam", something that has happened to the
present writer more than once. It is never enough to point out that one may be
personally critical of Islam, for they do not seek rational debate or moderate
opinion, only hardline condemnation.
For such people, it is never acceptable to point out that a majority of Muslims
are good people, honest, charitable, spiritual. No,
for them, all Muslims must be evil, Satanic (a common term), liars and
murderous terrorists. Both their language and attitudes betray them as being
close to, if not at times, also anti-Semites. Much the same sort of slurs,
falsehoods, and calls for murder are increasingly used again about Jews; and it
is an understanding of anti-Semitism that acts as a measure for judging these anti-Muslim
rants. Anti-Semites create stereotypes about Jews, that
they are liars, money-grabbers, conspiratorial enemies of Gentile society. So
too, real Islamophobes stereotype Muslims, claiming
they are all violent, bent on the overthrow of Western governments, deceivers
using the principle of taqiyya [dissimulation] to lie
to non-Muslims. Both forms of hatred stem from fear of people who are different, both find their most loyal following in the same
parts of society where the Nazi party found its supporters.
In 2015, an Australian body named the Online Hate Prevention Institute, led by
Andre Oboler, a British Zionist who has fought hard
against anti-Semitism, carried out research on anti-Muslim hate on social media
sites. On December 10, 2015, the Institute published an interim statement
entitled the Spotlight on Anti-Muslim Internet Hate Report and intended to
publish a full report in March 2016. Sadly, the Institute has been unable to
find further funding for this work with the result that this valuable research
may never be made fully public or available to government ministries.
In the introduction to the interim report, we read:
This report is based on over 1,100 items of anti-Muslim hate in social media
reported and categorised by the public through our FightAgainstHate.com
reporting tool. The vast majority of the hate this report is based on was found
on Facebook. The report indicates the volume of
content by category, and how effective Facebook has
been in responding to content in each category. The vast majority of this hate
has not yet been removed.
This author was given access to a considerable part of these 1,100 items and
can testify that many of them are genuinely disgusting and filled with hatred.
Here is a short selection of comments taken from them and from other websites,
including YouTube. They are self-explanatory. Even to suggest that there are
reform movements within Islam is beyond the pale to someone whose username is
"IzlamIsTyranny". Some of the milder
comments include:
totenkopf999
Nuke mecca.
tamething1
Islam is satanic. The evidence is e v e r y w h e r e.
BN
Islam encourages criminal acts every day, every month, every year, in every
mosque, by every imam, on every corner of earth.
Repeated calls to drop a nuclear bomb on Mecca,
for example, or calling on others to stab Muslims, calling Muslims "sandmonkeys" -- statements one can find in several
places -- are deeply offensive. Have these bigots forgotten how many Muslim
preachers call Jews "the sons of apes and pigs"? Imitating the people
you despise can hardly be an intelligent policy or one calculated to win
friends in places of influence.
When the Dutch politician Geert Wilders was brought
to court on a hate speech charge, all he had done in fact was to ask a simple
question about Moroccan immigrants, should the Netherlands take in more or fewer.
That is a question with many potential answers based on political, social, or
demographic grounds. It is a rational question that is, almost by definition,
one that could be asked in the Home Office of any state that receives
immigrants. Governments make such decisions regularly, and many have to answer
similar questions since the influx of vast numbers of refugees into Europe since 2015. Wilders's
concern about Moroccans has a rational basis in the Dutch-Moroccan Monitor 2011:
Forty percent of Moroccan immigrants in the Netherlands between the ages of 12
and 24 have been arrested, fined, charged or otherwise accused of committing a
crime during the past five years, according to a new report commissioned by the
Dutch Ministry of Interior.
In Dutch neighborhoods where the majority of
residents are Moroccan immigrants, the youth crime rate reaches 50%. Moreover,
juvenile delinquency among Moroccans is not limited to males; girls and young
women are increasingly involved in criminal activities.
But when someone says we should stab Muslims in the throat or, "slaughter
all Muslims", there can be no question that this is hate speech, and hate
speech with murderous intent. Our problem is that politicians, church leaders,
and decent people in general may be led to conflate the two forms of utterance
-- the intelligent and critical as against the bigoted and violent. For Wilders
and others who want to criticize Islam or ask questions about some Muslim behaviour,
the presence of genuine Islamophobia is no help at
all. It muddies the waters everywhere. Before the matter gets out of hand,
responsible critics of Islam badly need to act to silence this hate speech by
joining forces with governmental and social media administrations to clamp down
heavily on it. We, and not our opponents, must place ourselves in a position to
define what is and what is not real "Islamophobia."
If we cannot do that, others will conflate criticism and hatred, and clamp down
on both at once.
**Dr. Denis MacEoin is the author of a forthcoming
book on causes of concern about Islam. He has degrees in Islamic studies and is
a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone
Institute.
© 2017 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The
articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of
Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced,
copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone
Institute.
What Is Iran Regime's Policy-Making
Mechanism? – Op-Ed
NCRI Iran News/Thursday, 26 January 2017
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2017/01/26/what-is-iran-regimes-policy-making-mechanism-op-ed/
Iran’s regime, with Hassan Rouhani as its president,
has been eager to portray an image of a government mending fences with the
international community; however, no beginning of true political change has
occurred in Iran despite Rouhani’s deceptive smiles,
according to an op-ed which appeared in the American Thinker on January 25.
The op-ed went on to state:
The so-called “reformist-moderate” initiative in Iran has only further strengthened
and secured Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and
the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) in power.
There is a misleading notion of two divergent political trends in Iran, one
pursuing a so-called “hardline” approach led by the Khamenei-IRGC camp, and another claiming a more “reformist”
attitude by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his
mentor and fierce Khamenei rival, the late former
president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Yet the harsh reality is that these seemingly competing trends are quietly
harmonious in practice. Khamenei continues to monopolize
power in Iran,
while in need of the rival camp to portray a satisfactory canvas of his regime
to the outside world.
Khamenei has the last word on all national security
and foreign policy matters. Concern at times raised by outside analysts over
escalating tensions between the two sides over subjects such as the nuclear
deal are the result of Iran’s deceptive propaganda machine at work. The regime,
in its entirety, focuses on swaying all attention far from the true
policymaking mechanics at work deep in Tehran.
Rouhani only became president with Khamenei’s personal blessing, as the latter understood
fully the potential of another 2009-style uprising brewing in Iran. The
Guardian Council, Khamenei’s lever to control all
elections by vetting each and every candidate, enjoys the authority to bar any
individual considered unpalatable. Rest assured that Khamenei
considered Rouhani useful, or else he would have
joined the long list of disqualified others.
Khamenei saw his regime facing a massive
economic crisis threatening to spark a major uprising after former Iranian
president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,
described as a firebrand, plunged Iran into serious international
isolation. Sanctions were frustrating the Iranian population and the global oil
price nosedive added insult to injury.
At first glance the IRGC, taking control over a large portion of Iran’s economy,
was benefiting as sanctions burdened private sector competitors. Yet little by
little even the IRGC’s profits began to plunge, and Khamenei realized his desperate need for sanctions reliefs
at the price of taking a major step back from his nuclear ambitions.
Tehran is taking advantage of the Iran nuclear
deal as a medium to calm domestic unrest and to revive the IRGC’s
former economic stature. To this end, Khamenei needed
a figure such as Rouhani to help convince the
international community to make the deal. Of course, Tehran also enjoyed a major lifeline through
the pro-appeasement dogma adopted by U.S. President Barack Obama.
In the meantime, Khamenei also needed to
preserve his domestic image, as kowtowing to foreign pressure would be recipe
for disaster. This is where the regime pursued a two-faced approach. While Rouhani and his top diplomat, Mohammad Javad
Zarif, played “good cop” shaking hands with the
“Great Satan,” Khamenei remains the “bad cop” in
resorting to blatant rhetoric against America and Co.
This double-standard policy, pursued in parallel, has become the doctrine
for the Iranian regime to maintain control over increasing domestic agitation
while presenting an appealing portrait to the outside world.
While regime loyalists stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran
and Khamenei threatened Riyadh
with “divine revenge,” five American hostages were released in return for the
United Nations declaring Iran
in compliance with the nuclear pact.
A further in-depth evaluation proves Iran’s new economic exchanges with
the West are not parallel to any political improvements. In fact, safeguarding
the IRGC’s grip on the economy is considered vital to
enhancing their political position.
The IRGC has also been described as “a major force when it comes to
controlling Iran’s
economy. Many Iranians in and out of the country have called the Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps ‘Iran’s
mafia.’”
The elimination of 99% of so-called “reformist” candidates in the
February 26 parliamentary elections can provide a preview to the upcoming
presidential elections, with higher stakes at play.
No pragmatic behavior by Iran will
render any meaningful change within. Nor will Tehran
ever abandon regional ambitions in which it has invested billions, including Syria, Iraq,
Yemen, and Lebanon. In
fact, boosting efforts to realize such objectives is necessary to maintain Iran’s
political status quo.
While Khamenei remains in control, recent
developments in Syria, with Russia and Turkey
spearheading a ceasefire agreement, are completely against Iran’s
interests. This is parallel to snowballing dissent inside Iran on the
verge of intense times prior to the May 2017 presidential election. This leaves
Khamenei before a major dilemma over how to play his
cards.
“The 37-year-old experience of the destructive and murderous mullahs’
regime in my country has shown that no degree of political and economic
concessions, which have been carried out at the expense of the Iranian people,
have led to a change of behavior or policies of the
Iranian regime either inside or outside of Iran,” said Iranian opposition
leader Maryam Rajavi,
President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an umbrella group of
dissident entities including the People’s Mojahedin
Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).
Sanctions relief providing temporary life-support for Tehran will not last long. The international
community, and the new administration in Washington,
should take advantage of the nuclear deal to increase pressure on Tehran, forcing it to
start actually abiding by international laws and standards.
Tsarist performance on the Iranian and Turkish fronts
Ghassan Imam/Al Arabiya/January
26/17
In the Russian circus, President Vladimir Putin performed a tsarist number,
while riding both the Iranian and Turkish horses. His Syrian subject ran after
him, searching again for his fate and future. The representative of the popular
American school, Donald Trump, was also invited to attend Putin’s performance.
The tsarist number was rendered in Astana,
Kazakhstan. It
represented a peaceful Russian turn in its policies regarding the Syrian war
that Putin has waged in the last two years. Putin tried a truce at the end of
last year that the UN agreed on, without being involved in its execution. In
civil and sectarian wars, there is no winner or loser. The hellish game leads
to everyone’s defeat. This is what is happening in Syria. However, at one stage of
this long war, some of the parties involved will imagine that they have
triumphed over the others.
In the current tsarist phase, the Iranian black horse considered himself the
winner of the Battle of Aleppo, in which its militias participated, as well as
the battle of both the Eastern and Western countryside of Damascus, where Bashar
took advantage of the truce to expand the borders of the capital against
moderate religious organizations.
Although these organizations have, in turn, exploited the Aleppo
war that they have lost to expand the countryside areas of Homs
and Hama in central Syria,
Iran
has exaggerated in assessing the gains.
The Iranian showoff somehow reached the extent of
imposing veto on the participation of Arab countries in sponsoring Astana meet.
It seems that the tsar has agreed on the Iranian condition, even if it would
mean locking up the Russians under Iranian cover that it is trying to put up
with the secular plan for Syria
drawn by the tsar.
Would the Turkish participation in the Russian festival be enough to act on
behalf of the official participation of Arab countries in a conference that has
a sole mission of addressing an Arab issue? It seems that Gulf regimes are not
even willing to participate in a conference that does not fall under the
legitimacy of the United Nations.
They have also allowed the moderate Syrian armed opposition to participate in
the conference. Turkey has
also asked the Syrian oppositions under its control to attend it for the sake
of Russia
that organized this festival. The half pessimistic half optimistic vision is
based on the idea that the Sunni religious and political bloc has lost the war
for several reasons: first, its political and armed organizations have given up
their Arab identity, which encouraged the Kurds to split in northeastern
Syria, neighboring
Iraq and Turkey
A secular democracy?
I will ask once again if the black Iranian horse accepted the
Russian/international settlement of the war in Syria on the basis of a secular
democracy and not a religious one? It is obvious for a
secular country to reject this settlement. It might think that it is able to
tip it over through 15,000 militiamen in Syria, including Lebanese Shiite
Hezbollah’s mercenaries. This means that Russia
and Iran are moving toward a
conflict of interests and ideologies in Syria. Russia will not accept any Iranian
role that would destabilize the peace that it is trying to impose in this Arab
country. Even its close comrade Trump will not accept to “burry Syria”.
This is perhaps why Iran’s
Foreign Minister, Javad Zarif,
called upon Saudi Arabia at
the World Economic Forum in Davos,
Switzerland, to make peace
with Iran.
He was responding to Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir
who said that it was unlikely for Iran to restore peace with Arab
countries, after its continuous violation of Gulf, Syrian and Yemeni
sovereignty. How can the Iranian minister fall for this great contradiction
between his peacemaking position in Davos and the
position of the Iranian horse refusing the participation of Gulf states in
Astana Festival?! This would perhaps reveal the Iranian policy towards the
peace in the region and the international settlement in Syria and Yemen.
Amid all these questions, it is also logical to ask if Russia’s peaceful turn will be able to achieve a
political settlement in Syria,
in collaboration with the United Nations? The answer
is that there are some who are optimistic about the Russian initiative relying
on its air and ground forces abilities.
Also, there are some who are pessimistic and they only see the empty half of
the cup. Then there are those who are half pessimistic half optimistic, who are
observing the Iranian map in Syria.
The half pessimistic half optimistic vision is based on the idea that the Sunni
religious and political bloc has lost the war for several reasons: first, its
political and armed organizations have given up their Arab identity, which
encouraged the Kurds to split in northeastern Syria, neighboring Iraq and Turkey.
The brutality of raids
In fact, the Syrian armed groups were not serious in the fighting. They failed
to recruit tens of thousands of young Syrians, they
limited themselves to their areas exposing their small troops to the brutality
of the Syrian and Russian raids. Finally, these organizations turned away all
Sunni and Christian communities due to their conservative religious practices.
As for ISIS and Nusra, the Arab regimes and Sunni
religion are all against them because they misinterpreted the Sharia and Arab civilization.
All of these reasons that are threatening the cohesion of the Sunni Arab bloc
in Iraq and Syria, are on one side, and the Shiite settlement is on the other
side. Armed Sunni communities are now being displaced to Idlib;
they are being targeted by Russian and Syrian aircraft.
The main reason behind this displacement is to provide a place for Afghan and
Iraqi Shiite militias in two regions: Qalamoun that
is adjacent to the Shiite region in Lebanon
and the besieged villages of Damascus
eastern and western countryside. In the countryside of Damascus, they have also seized the shrine of
Sayeda Zeinab,
granddaughter of the prophet. Those who observe the Shiite settlements map will
see that there is a determination in establishing Shiite settlements in the
heart of the Sunni regions, because there is near absence of Shiites in Syria. Iran is aware of the impossibility of occupying Syria, so it
resorted to the sectarian settlements.
I am highlighting the sectarian Shiite project that is currently prevailing in
the Arab Mashreq, to ask if the Alawite
community (that was rejected in Khomeini’s Iran)
will accept the Shiite settlements against it in Syria? If the Alawites accepted, will
Putin accept to receive the long awaited Mehdi in Syria, on the Black Iranian Horse while still
claiming that the peaceful solution in Syria will be secular and won’t
accept a sectarian settlement or a religious regime? If he accepts Iranian role
in Syria, would Trump also
accept it, especially that he will be reviewing the nuclear deal between
Obama’s administration, Europe and Iran?
**This article is also available in Arabic.
An ode to the prisoners of happiness
Yasser Hareb/Al Arabiya/January
26/17
An American doctor who has lived in Dubai for a long time told me how he worked
long hours at the clinic without an apparent logical explanation, just as he
did back in the States. He discovered that the long years he spent in the
clinic, was in order to buy an expensive watch, a luxurious car and to go to
fancy restaurants. At Harvard
University, a large group
of scientists conducted one of the longest studies in history on the subject of
happiness. In the thirties of the last century, they choose two groups of boys
(724 people), the first belonging to the upper class in the city of Boston and
the second from the poorest neighborhoods who did not
have hot water in their homes. They spent 75 years studying all the aspects of
their lives, they examined their blood and their
brains, and read the results of their medical tests to their relatives
according to the signed agreement. They studied their psychology, their
problems, their dreams and aspirations, and they put cameras in their homes to
watch their behavior with their families, all
throughout seven decades.
The study witnessed four generations of scientists. Among the group, there was
someone who ended up working in a factory, a doctor, a
lawyer, John F. Kennedy, President of the United States, an alcoholic, a drug
addict, and someone with mental illness.
They discovered that true happiness lies in one thing “good human relations”,
that does not mean the number of friends or family members you have, since you
could feel lonely even when you’re surrounded with people. You could be married
and still feel lonely. It means the quality of your relationships with others.
As they read the results of the study, they discovered that those who have
lived in good health until the age of 80 had stable social relationships, and
it had nothing to do with their cholesterol level or their blood pressure.
In their death bed, no one wishes if he had bought more clothes, or worked late
hours at the office, most of them wish to spend more time with their loved ones
The happiest family
In an interview with the happiest family in the group, they discovered that
when the 80-year-old couple was in physical pain, their feelings and their mood
remained the same. The saddest family said that their torment was compounded;
because the psychological agony and frustrations of the strained relations
inflated the physical illness. The Fourth supervisor of the study asserted that
happy relationships lead to a better memory, but unhappy relationships speed up
dementia and other brain diseases. Although happy families are not happy all
the time, since they have disagreements and problems, yet they can rely on
their partners. The research team asked a group of young boys and girls, a few
years ago, what they wanted to be when they grow up and 80 percent said that
they want to be rich. They asked a second group and 50 percent said they want
to be celebrities. When comparing the annual income of a person who earns
$75,000 and another who makes $75 million, they discovered that their happiness
and health were at a very tight level.
I say to the prisoners of happiness, who are working day and night, and
suffering from appearances mania that hard work is something noble, being
elegant is beautiful, social welfare is a human right, but remember this
sentence: In their death bed, no one wishes if he had bought more clothes, or
worked late hours at the office, most of them wish to spend more time with
their loved ones.
**This article is also available in Arabic.
The hottest year on record was not a
Chinese hoax
Yossi Mekelberg/Al Arabiya/January 26/17
Interestingly and coincidentally, Donald Trump was
sworn in as the new US
president the same week that two leading US science agencies jointly
declared that last year was the hottest year on record. Considering that this
is the third consecutive year that soaring temperatures have surpassed the
previous year’s record, it may give the new president some food for thought
about the possibility of the existence of climate change.
Trump infamously called the phenomenon of climate change a Chinese hoax,
tweeting that “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese
in order to make US
manufacturing non-competitive.” This tweet could have been ignored as just
another Trumpesque outburst, intended to score a
political point by mixing ignorance with belligerence. It is, however,
difficult to let this slide as he assumes office as the leader of one of the
countries, with China
being the other, of the two biggest polluters on planet earth.
Making things worse in his first hours in charge, the White House website
announced that the new president is planning to eliminate Barack Obama’s
Climate Action Plan. It was almost an instant declaration of war on any
sensible approach to countering climate change.
Among his last-ditch attempts to secure his legacy in the White House,
President Obama in tandem with China,
formally ratified the Paris
climate change agreement back in September of last year. The agreement sets out
a global action plan to put the world on track to avoiding dangerous climate
change by limiting global warming to well below 2°C, as compared to the
temperature level in pre-industrial times. From the outset, joining the
agreement was on a voluntary basis, with the expectation of all 194 signatory
states ratifying it.
Since December 2015 when a consensus was reached on the treaty, even before the
US and China ratified
the agreement, it had already been ratified by 73 nations. These nations
account for more than 57 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emission, and by
doing so met the minimum threshold to activate this agreement.
Among those who adopted the agreement were the European Union, Canada and India. Though by now 124 parties
have ratified it, any change in US
policy under the new administration would put it under severe risk, potentially
nullifying it.
Burning fossil fuels is not the only way to maintain economic development. On
the contrary, it is bound to lead to the destruction of humanity
Climate change denials
Those who dismiss the existence of climate change out of hand, or question who
is responsible for it and its long term implications, do it out either due to
being uniformed or because they have vested economic and political interests in
denying it.
Some flatly refute that climate change, or global warming exist at all, while
others deny that humans’ behavior is heavily
contributing to it. Those who take either of these views put their cognitive
dissonance on overdrive. After all, there is a wide consensus within the
scientific community that climate change is real and is the result of our daily
habits.
The official journal of the US National Academy of Sciences published a survey
comprised of 1372 of the leading climate researchers, 92 percent of whom
concluded that “greenhouse gases have been responsible for “most” of the
“unequivocal” warming of the Earth's average global temperature over the second
half of the 20th century.” Moreover, their scientific research led to an
additional broad agreement that human activity is contributing to this change.
Unless all these scientists collaborated with China in an elaborated hoax, there
must be very convincing and alarming evidence that without global leadership on
climate change the world will face some calamitous consequences. The average
global temperature is currently 1.0ºC higher than it was at the pre-industrial
level. Scientists regard an increase of 2°C, compared to the temperature at the
pre-industrial level, as the threshold that if crossed would potentially result
in catastrophic changes in the global eco-system.
According to NASA, climate change results in a rise in sea level and global
temperature, in warming oceans, shrinking ice sheets and extreme events such as
hurricanes and tornados. Floods, famine, droughts, extinction of species,
decreasing crop yields, sea and river defenses are under threat. This in turn might cause human
misery and a wide range of political instability, including mass migration and
even armed conflicts.
American way of life
The US is not only one of the biggest consumers of fossil fuels, but also one
of the biggest producers of them. Any change in the status quo has far reaching
political implications on the American way of life. Their love for cars,
preferably with excessive engines, and cheap patrol embodies this. Not many
politicians would like to interfere with this way of life and potentially pay a
price in the ballot box.
Nevertheless, by avoiding to do so it can only be regarded
short-sighted, running away from tough decisions with long term consequences.
Recent warnings by scientists provide an opportunity for leaders of all walks
of life to change the discourse and highlight not only the dangers of climate
change, but also the endless opportunity to move to greener more
environmentally friendly sources of energy.
Burning fossil fuels is not the only way to maintain economic development. On
the contrary, it is bound to lead to the destruction of humanity. The
alternative is not to return to the pre-industrial revolution, but to start a
new revolution in which human ingenuity is mobilised full steam ahead to
develop clean energy and a low carbon infrastructure.
Lord Nicholas Stern from the London School of Economics said this week that
“There is no long-term, high carbon, growth story, because destruction of the
environment would reverse growth.”
Much of the knowhow required to lead this new revolution exists in the United States,
but not only there. Trump’s version of making America great again is through
protectionism and isolationism, which will achieve the exact opposite. It is
actually the danger posed by climate change that requires global collaboration,
a meeting of minds and souls, and the mobilisation of science and resources
from all corners of the world to reverse it before it becomes too late.
Egypt-Russia relations: Reviving the
unstable
Mohammed Nosseir/Al Arabiya/January
26/17
It was an attempt to revive a long-broken relationship
that, sooner rather than later, will culminate in an even longer estrangement –
one that will be clear-cut and unambiguous. Our country may end up paying a
high price for seeking to revitalize its relations with Russia in
response to the downturn in United States-Egyptian relations. Indeed, Russia has been sending Egypt a clear signal; playing the role of
substitute for the United
States comes at a higher price than
expected. Over the past few years, Egypt has decided to develop a
nuclear power plant for peaceful uses. Quite apart from the question of the
feasibility of building a nuclear plant, (I personally reject the idea as a
matter of principle, regardless of whether Russia is the best choice of country
to install and operate the plant safely – which I don’t have a clue about), the
decision for this kind of development has major political connotations.
Egypt’s principal objective
in selecting Russia
for this deal was to revive an old, fragile relationship – an extremely high
price to pay for restoring an inevitably short-lived affiliation!
In fact, Russia is not the
partner that Egypt
should rely on for completing long-term projects, nor is it a country with
which it is worth forging closer ties! Its overreaction to the downing of the
Russian plane in the Sinai in October 2015 is proof that Russia plays politics
at the expense of its own innocent citizens who lost their lives in this
tragedy and, obviously, to the detriment of Egypt’s tourism industry.
Squeezing to the maximum
Given that Russia
has maintained its relationship with other countries that experienced similar
terrorist attacks on its people, its claim that it is protecting its citizens’
safety is patently ridiculous. Russia
wants to squeeze Egypt to
the maximum prior to resuming its tourist flights to Sharm
El Sheikh, which Egypt
desperately needs. The Russian regime took advantage of President el-Sisi’s eagerness to rebuild a constructive relationship
with Russia to place added
pressure on Egypt.
El-Sisi was mistaken in trying to compensate for the
decline of over four decades of solid and crucial relations with the United States by strengthening relations with Russia – which, in turn, doubted the sincerity
of the president’s attempts to reinstate the relationship and reacted quite
recklessly to the Egypt’s
efforts.
The Egyptian-Russian relationship is extremely vulnerable and may be perceived
as the reparation of a relationship between a flailing state and a
confrontational nation
President el-Sisi’s attitude regarding strengthening Egypt’s
relations with other nations is somewhat hasty. He would do well to consider
slowing down his approach, particularly with regards to Russia. While
it is certainly a strong regional player, Russia does not wield any influence
beyond its territories. Due to political instability, Egypt, which
used to be a regional influencer, has lost its edge in recent years – but it
can easily regain its leverage. On the other hand, aside from its involvement
in the Syrian war, Russia
does not have any footprint in the Middle East.
Unfortunately, this is exactly what Egypt is currently offering it on a
silver platter. Furthermore, bureaucracy and corruption are common denominators
in both countries. Strengthening our relationship with Russia,
especially for the development of a crucial project such as the nuclear plant,
may result in having more of what we need to get rid of.
Temporary partner?
Meanwhile, Russia suspects Egypt of trying
to reinstate it as a new international partner only temporarily – to fill the
gap created by the deteriorating relations between Al Sisi
and Obama. Nevertheless, President-Elect Trump’s explicit expression of support
to Al Sisi should prompt the latter to revisit his
political overtures vis-à-vis Russia.
The Egyptian-Russian relationship is extremely vulnerable and may be perceived
as the reparation of a relationship between a flailing state and a
confrontational nation. Egypt
needs to expand and develop its relations with advanced nations who can share
their technology and universal values. Russia
is certainly not the most advantageous choice of long-term partner for Egypt to rely
on.
What we must do today is to call off the assignment to Russia of the
building of our peaceful nuclear plant. Additionally, Egypt needs to
gather its internal national forces before rushing to re-establishing a new,
fundamental international relationship, which is often realized at the expense
of Egyptian citizens.
Op-Ed: How Trump can end illegal
immigration right now—without a border wall
Steven Kopits/ PoliticsCNBC.com/January 26/17
During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump promised not only to 'build a
wall' to seal the southern U.S. border, but to make Mexico pay for it, at a
cost of some $10 billion to $38 billion. Mexico on Thursday reiterated it's
refusal to foot the bill.
Yet, a market-based immigration policy allowing Central Americans who passed a
background check to purchase work visas at market rates (instead of paying
thousands to human smugglers) could generate revenues for the federal
government in excess of $40 billion, or more than enough to pay for that wall.
You can read the details i n an earlier article I
wrote for CNBC.
But here's the best part: With a market-based visa system, President Trump
could materially end illegal immigration within a month or two, even without a
wall. Here's how it would work.
Illegal immigration is a variety of black market. Black markets always arise as
the direct result of government policy, when governments either cap prices or
restrict volumes. For example, during Super Storm Sandy, a number of East Coast
governors put price caps on scarce gasoline, creating a black market within a
matter of hours.
Young men with gasoline cans would stand in line at gas stations and wait their
turn. As soon as they filled up, they would walk around the corner and sell the
gasoline to motorists at a 200 percent profit. When governments allowed market
prices to prevail again, black market activity disappeared just as fast. The
black market existed only because of government policy.
In the case of immigration, the sorry truth is that the government provides
only about one third as many visas as needed by U.S. businesses, primarily in
agriculture and construction, even as these businesses are unable to find
Americans to fill these jobs. President Trump argues that Americans want 'good
jobs'.
Well, illegal immigrants do not get 'good jobs'. They are taking the jobs no
one else wants. This includes almost anything outdoors (not involving a
football), for example picking fruits and vegetables, dairy and other
agriculture, construction, lawn work, and indoors, house cleaning. Most of
these jobs pay around the minimum wage, and often involve travel and difficult
working conditions. Very few Americans aspire to these jobs anymore—that's how
we know we're a rich country.
But the need for labor hasn't gone away. Indeed,
about half of the farm workers in California
are undocumented. Illegals are not a nice-to-have, they are an essential component of the agricultural
business model in the U.S.
Now, Mexicans have no love manual outdoor labor,
either. But the reality is that US farm work pays about four times as much as
those Mexicans could make in Mexico.
If lawyers or investment bankers in New York
could earn four times their wage picking strawberries in Guadalajara, there would be no shortage of
recruits.
The black market in labor therefore exists because
certain businesses in the U.S.
are desperate for low-end labor and because unskilled
Mexican workers can earn multiplies of their income by coming to the U.S. The U.S. government
has, for decades, actively tried to prevent these two sides from coming
together by enforcing the border. After all, if the border were open,
conservatives argue, we would be inundated with Mexicans. And that's absolutely
true.
However, if we issued an appropriate number of visas, then we would cover
domestic needs and Mexicans would no longer have an incentive to jump the
border. We could do that by selling visas at market rates to eligible Mexicans
and other Central Americans and monitoring the prices of visas and field wages
to get the number more or less right.
The system does not have to be perfect. As long as Central Americans can buy
visas at will and U.S.
employers can obtain low-end labor on demand—even if
it may be a bit costly at some times—both Mexicans and the U.S. businesses
sectors would have an incentive to use the system.
This would eliminate the need to jump the border. The decision to come to the U.S. would come
down to economics. An eligible Mexican could go online—in Mexico—and check available U.S. jobs and
the cost of a visa. If the numbers work, they could apply for the job and buy a
visa. If not, they stay home.
If entering the U.S. legally is easy—as long as the applicant has passed a
background check and has the money to pay for the visa—then virtually every
Central American migrant will be using a visa. Why risk your life in the desert
if you can pay a fee and hop on a bus? It is the ease of complying with the
law—not enforcement—which guarantees compliance. But once compliance is
universal, companies will not hire workers who fail to comply. If employers can
obtain documented labor, they will avoid illegals.
Undocumented immigrants will find their situation untenable. Not only will
employers will shun them, President Trump can declare that any immigrant caught
crossing the border illegally will be ineligible to purchase a visa in the
future. Border jumping will be quickly transformed into the single worst way to
enter the U.S.
If legal entry for a fee is easy and border jumping disqualifies an applicant
from the legal labor market, then illegal entry by
economic migrants will all but cease. A wall will not be necessary. To make it
all happen, Trump needs only signal his credible support for a fee-based visa
system and tweet that crossing illegally will disqualify an applicant from
obtaining a visa. If Mexicans believe a reasonable market-based visa system is
coming in relatively short order, many will defer a difficult, risky and
illegal desert crossing. It's that simple.
Many Americans regard President Trump with a mixture of hope and fear. If the
President chooses to focus on making deals, on applying business principles to
policy problems, he could be a great success. He has the flexibility to look at
programs in terms beyond the sterile left-right vocabulary which has ossified
the Washington
political class.
Want to work in my backyard? You've got to pay an entry fee. Any businessman
could understand that. So can any immigrant. A market-based visa program could
generate $33 bn in net revenues, and create value for
U.S.
business, migrant labor and social conservatives at
the same time. It could be a spectacular win for the Trump administration.
Commentary by Steven Kopits,
managing director, Princeton Energy Advisors.
For the latest commentary on markets in the U.S. and around the world, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter.