LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
September 18/09

Bible Reading of the day
John 12/30-36: Jesus answered, “This voice hasn’t come for my sake, but for your sakes. Now is the judgment of this world. Now the prince of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” But he said this, signifying by what kind of death he should die. The multitude answered him, “We have heard out of the law that the Christ remains forever.* How do you say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up?’ Who is this Son of Man?” Jesus therefore said to them, “Yet a little while the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, that darkness doesn’t overtake you. He who walks in the darkness doesn’t know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become children of light.” Jesus said these things, and he departed and hid himself from them.

Free Opinions, Releases, letters & Special Reports
Lebanon must avoid the crimes of Gaza/By Michael Young/ September 17/09
Mideast players may not shape up, but the field they play on can be improved/Daily Star/September 17/09
'Greatest threat to U.S.' coming south of the border/NEUX/September 16/09
Trans Atlantic Legislators gather to discuss Jihadist Terrorism/By: Dr. Walid Phares/September 17/09

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for September 17/09
New light shed on Iraq-Syria political stand-off-Xinhua
TURKEY, SYRIA: Nations sign historic accord, end visa requirements-Los Angeles Times
Sfeir Heads to Rome, Says Crisis Would Drag if there is No Goodwill-Naharnet
Damascus Urges U.N. to Probe Alleged Attempts by Mehlis to Frame Syria in Hariri's Murder-Naharnet
Bellemare: STL Not Ready to Indict but there is Major Progress-Naharnet
Sayyed: Hariri Must Be More Careful of Close Aides-Naharnet
Aoun Adopts Wait-and-See Approach on Cabinet, Says Sfeir has Joined the Lebanese Forces-Naharnet
Fatah al-Islam prisoners on hunger strike over security-Daily Star
Mitchell: Mideast peace will not come at expense of Lebanon-Daily Star
Sfeir questions inclusion of defeated candidates in cabinet-Daily Star
Hariri vows communication after re-designation as PM-Daily Star
Palestinians convicted for attacking UNIFIL peacekeepers-Daily Star
New Special Tribunal registrar ready to take up the challenge-Daily Star
Aref warns of Palestinian camp troubles-Daily Star
Israels open fire on fishing boat in Lebanese waters-Daily Star
]South Beirut municipalities sign Kuwaiti funding deal-Daily Star
Authorities arrest adult-movie-thea ter owners-Daily Star
Siniora announces gove rnment closure for Eid al-Fitr-Daily Star
Zouk power plant struck by b laze, no injuries-Daily Star
Top American judge assesses Leba non's legal aid system-Daily Star
Poorest Lebanese hit by Ramadan price hikes-Daily Star
Lebanon growth forecast raised to 6 percent-Daily Star
Turkey to hold quadrilateral meeting to ease Syria-Iraq tensions-Xinhua

Sfeir questions inclusion of defeated candidates in cabinet
-Daily Star staff/Thursday, September 17, 2009
BEIRUT: Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir said Wednesday that granting seats in the next cabinet to candidates who lost the race to Parliament in the June 7 polls “raised question marks,” since their nomination opposed the will of the public who did not vote for them. However, Sfeir told reporters at his seat in Bkirki that such an issue should be agreed upon between political parties, adding that “if there is an accord on appointing unsuccessful candidates, so be it and if not, the issue should be dropped.”
March 14 officials and Premier-designate Saad Hariri have expressed on several occasions their refusal to appoint in the next cabinet candidates who did not win parliamentary seats.
Nevertheless, Free Patriotic Movement MP Michel Aoun has tied his party’s participation in the cabinet to the re-appointment of his son-in-law, caretaker Telecommunication Minister Jebran Bassil, for a second term. Bassil, who ran for one of two seats in his hometown Batroun, lost to March 14 MPs in the elections. In a swift response to Sfeir, Aoun said that the patriarch joined the Lebanese Forces party when he demanded not to grant candidates who lost the elections a seat in the cabinet, adding that he would not judge the patriarch since the latter was free to express his opinion.
“The Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir has joined the Lebanese Forces Party and [LF MP] Antoine Zahra since he is now demanding not to grant ministerial portfolios to failed candidates,” Aoun said. Aoun stressed that his demand to be granted the Telecommunication Ministry was “not the mother of battles,” but rather a won battle.
Tackling the cabinet-formation issue, Sfeir stressed that democracy called for a majority that governs and a minority that opposed, adding that “matters [were] mixed up when the opposition and the majority took part in the same government.”“We do not oppose consensus democracy and what was agreed upon in the Taif accord; however the accord should be implemented and it is not the case in the presence of an [armed] resistance,” the patriarch said in reference to Hizbullah’s weapons.
“However if there is an agreement on a cabinet which embraces the opposition and the majority, we welcome it, but if it turned out that there is no consensus then what is the solution?” Sfeir asked. The patriarch said that despite the divergence in political stances, all Lebanese factions should work toward preserving the country’s sovereignty, independence and economic progress, adding that the cabinet issue was influenced by foreign intervention. When asked about the fate of the halted inter-Christian reconciliations due to accusations by a number of Christian groups of the Maronite Patriarchy of taking sides, Sfeir said the patriarchy stood by all parties. “Bkirki has its doors open to all people, but those who do not come to us because we diverge on certain issues are wrong; we welcome anyone who wishes to come to us but we will not force them to,” Sfeir added. – The Daily Star

Damascus Urges U.N. to Probe Alleged Attempts by Mehlis to Frame Syria in Hariri's Murder
Naharnet/Damascus has filed a complaint with the U.N. against former chief investigator Detlev Mehlis and his aide Gerhard Lehmann for allegedly trying to frame Syria in the assassination case of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri, an official source in New York told al-Akhbar newspaper. The complaint says Mehlis "fabricated, forged and created politicized information to hit at Syria and its reputation," according to the source. The complaint added that the former head of the investigation commission and his aide "came up with wrong information aimed at involving Syria at any cost in that heinous crime." The letter asked U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon and President of the Security Council, U.S. ambassador Susan Rice, to launch an official investigation into the case. A diplomat following the case, said that Syria was planning to file the complaint after the indictment by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon of those involved in Hariri's assassination. However, delay in the trials prompted Damascus to move on with its decision in order to remind the U.N. that "politicization of justice won't go unaccounted for."Al-Akhbar said Syria is planning to push for a discussion of the issue at a U.N. session most probably when the president of the STL delivers to the Security Council his bi-annual report on developments in the tribunal. Beirut, 17 Sep 09, 09:14

Sayyed: Hariri Must Be More Careful of Close Aides
Naharnet/Brig. Gen. Jamil Sayyed said Thursday that PM-designate Saad Hariri must be more careful of close aides in view of recent statements made by Special Tribunal for Lebanon Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare. Hariri "must be more conscientious about holding those close to him responsible if Bellemare was forced to respond to them," Sayyed said in a statement issued Thursday. Sayyed, and three other top Lebanese generals, were released in April after nearly four years in captivity without charges over the assassination of former PM Rafik Hariri following a ruling to that effect by the STL. Sayyed was responding to remarks recently made by Bellemare in which he said that the "one who committed these crimes is a professional group that hides facts skillfully." Bellemare said the four generals could be summoned to court if evidence was found against them in the Hariri murder case. "We will knock on their doors if we have evidence against them," Bellemare had said, adding that the generals haven't been prosecuted in order to be found innocent. They were released because we don't have enough evidence against them to keep them in prison." Beirut, 17 Sep 09, 13:07

Bellemare: STL Not Ready to Indict but there is Major Progress
Naharnet/The Special Tribunal for Lebanon has seen a "surge" in progress, the court prosecutor said Wednesday, adding however that the court is "not ready to file an indictment."
"Yes, we've made progress, but I can't give any particulars," prosecutor Daniel Bellemare said in an interview aired on Future News.
Bellemare denied reports that he had gathered enough evidence to issue an indictment for the February 14, 2005 bombing which killed Hariri and 22 others.
"It was reported that I had a full file, that I was ready to move an indictment. We have information, but we are not ready to file an indictment. "Now what I have to satisfy myself is that the evidence that we have now is evidence that is admissible in court according to international standards that are contained now in the rules of procedure," Bellemare said.
The U.N. Security Council set up the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in 2007 to investigate the Hariri murder and a chain of assassinations targeting anti-Syrian figures and military officials between 2005 and 2007. The tribunal, based in The Hague, started its work on March 1, 2009. The Hariri murder was widely blamed on Syria, which withdrew its troops from Lebanon in April 2005 after a 29-year military presence, but Damascus has consistently denied involvement. The tribunal has no suspects in custody since it ordered the release in April of four pro-Syrian generals held in Roumieh prison for nearly four years without charge.(AFP-Naharnet) Beirut, 17 Sep 09, 09:47

Mitchell: Mideast peace will not come at expense of Lebanon
Compiled by Daily Star staff /Thursday, September 17, 2009
US Middle East envoy George Mitchell sought to reassure President Michel Sleiman on Wednesday that his country’s efforts toward peace would not come at the expense of Lebanon. The envoy said that the US adheres to the idea that any solution to the problem of Palestinian refugees should not be at Lebanon’s expense.
Mitchell met Sleiman on Wednesday to discuss the stalled Arab-Israeli peace process and the thorny issue of Palestinian refugees, according to a statement released by the Lebanese presidency. There are concerns among many in Lebanon that a peace deal could prompt many Palestinian refugees to stay permanently, altering the country’s delicate sectarian balance. The majority of the refugees are Sunni Muslims. Mitchell, who travelled to Beirut from occupied Jerusalem, made no comment after his 20-minute meeting with Sleiman.
The Lebanese presidency said the two men discussed US efforts to reach a comprehensive Mideast peace, and the fate of the 400,000 Palestinian refugees who live in Lebanon.
Mitchell’s stop in Beirut on Wednesday evening took place shortly after the Lebanese head of state reappointed Saad Hariri as prime minister, giving him a second chance on forming a new government. As The Daily Star went to press, it was unclear whether Mitchell planned to meet with any other officials Wednesday evening or whether he planned to stay in Beirut overnight.
Mitchell’s stop in Beirut took place after a round of meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Mitchell’s meeting with Netanyahu on Wednesday morning revealed no sign yet of a deal on an occupied West Bank settlement freeze, but the two plan to meet again on Friday.
The decision to extend discussions kept open the possibility of a meeting next week involving Netanyahu, US President Barack Obama and Abbas, who all plan to attend a UN General Assembly meeting. Failure to arrange at least an informal encounter between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders would be a setback for Obama, who has been trying to wring a settlement housing construction freeze from Netanyahu and restart peace talks.
Diplomats and officials in the Israeli and Palestinian camps said some form of trilateral meeting in New York seemed likely. This might signal a resumption of some form of “peace process” but not necessarily resolve any key disputes. “There’ll probably be some kind of handshake because this is what Obama wants,” one Israeli official said.
“But it’s not going anywhere longer term,” he added, citing Abbas’ internal opposition from Islamists and Netanyahu’s pro-settler allies.
A photo opportunity at the start of Netanyahu and Mitchell’s Wednesday meeting appeared to speak volumes. After a stiff handshake for the media, Netanyahu turned his back on Mitchell with scarcely a word and strode into his office, leaving Obama’s envoy to follow behind. Mitchell has been trying to work out a deal with a defiant Netanyahu, who has resisted Obama’s call to halt settlement construction in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, in the most serious rift in US-Israeli relations in a decade. Netanyahu has said he would be prepared to limit temporarily the scope of building but projects under way would continue. Obama also wants Arab nations to take steps toward recognizing Israel. They have so far expressed reluctance. A statement issued by Netanyahu’s office after Wednesday’s meeting with Mitchell gave no indication any substantive progress was made: “The prime minister and Senator Mitchell had a good meeting this morning,” the statement said. “They decided to continue their discussions in a meeting that will take place this coming Friday, after Senator Mitchell returns to Israel from visits to countries in the region.” Mitchell was expected to hold talks in Cairo on Thursday and plans to visit Jordan.
Abbas has made a resumption of peace negotiations with Israel, suspended since December, conditional on halting settlement activity as stipulated by a US-backed 2003 peace “road map” charting a course toward Palestinian statehood. But an aide to Abbas said he would find it hard to refuse a request from Obama to meet with Netanyahu, despite pressure from Fatah party allies who felt a gesture toward Israel without a halt to settlement would hand a tactical victory to Hamas Islamists who run the Gaza Strip. – AFP, Reuters

Hariri vows communication after re-designation as PM
Aoun hinges cabinet particapation on demands
By Elias Sakr /Daily Star staff
Thursday, September 17, 2009
BEIRUT: President Michel Sleiman designated on Wednesday Future Movement leader Saad Hariri as Prime Minister for the second consecutive time following two days of binding parliamentary consultations. Following his re-designation, Hariri vowed to communicate with all parties, “so no one would say we refrained from deliberating with them.” “Also I will be more patient, much more patient than the previous time,” he said. A statement by the presidency’s press office said Sleiman appointed Hariri as premier “in accordance with the Constitution and as a result of the parliamentary consultations’ outcome and after deliberating with Speaker Nabih Berri.” At the end of two days of consultations on Wednesday, 73 MPs had nominated Hariri to head the cabinet, including 71 lawmakers of the parliamentary majority along with two from the opposition’s Armenian Tashnag party.
Hariri, who stepped down last Thursday accusing the opposition of hampering his efforts to form a cabinet upon his first-time designation, said on Wednesday he would kick off major deliberations with all political parties following Eid al-Fitr, a three-day celebration that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
“I would work toward establishing the right basis for a logical and responsible dialogue that would push the formation process forward,” Hariri said in a statement issued following his re-designation. He also expressed his openness to all suggestions “to form a cabinet that reflects Lebanon’s image of unity.”
“The formation process should stem from the Constitution’s essence based on democratic principles and the outcome of the June 7 elections as well as convey the Lebanese will for coexistence,” Hariri said. Tackling the cabinet’s structure, Hariri hinted that he was examining several possibilities. Opposition groups endorsed the already agreed upon 15-10-5 cabinet formula. The 15-10-5 structure grants the majority 15 ministers, the opposition 10 and Sleiman five seats, guaranteeing the president the tipping vote. Both the majority and the opposition are respectively denied absolute majority or veto power. Hariri stressed that whether it was a unity cabinet, a technocrat government or one formed of political leaderships, eventually it should be capable of solving the Lebanese people’s everyday issues and face Israeli threats.
Speaking at an iftar banquet in Qoreitem later Wednesday, Hariri saluted his allies in the March 14 Forces for nominating. He said this proved they were” a united entity with one outlook over the future of Lebanon.” Meanwhile, Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun said on Wednesday that his party would not partake in the next cabinet if its demands were not met. Aoun stressed that his party’s participation in the next government was tied to a set of conditions and demands.
“Our participation in the government has a price, thus if the majority deemed our participation necessary, let them pay, if not let them form a majority cabinet,” Aoun said.
But he stressed that he agreed with Hariri on several important issues but differed on approaches to solving them.
Aoun insists that his son-in-law caretaker Telecommunication Minister Jebran Bassil be re-appointed for a second term while Hariri refused to grant candidates who lost the race to Parliament a seat in the cabinet. Bassil lost the elections in his hometown of Batroun to March 14 MPs. “The Telecommunications Ministry is now within our hands and we have so far uncovered four major scandals,” Aoun said following a meeting of his Reform and Change parliamentary bloc. “I don’t know what will happen when those scandals are made available to the public,” he added. Aoun said he “reluctantly” agreed to the 15-10-5 cabinet formula, adding that he won’t endorse any other formula.
Future Movement MP Nuhad Mashnouq told The Daily Star on Wednesday that the 15-10-5 cabinet make-up was still applicable, adding that talks about a technocrat government were not founded on solid basis. “The 15-10-5 make-up turned from an imperative structure into a bargaining card but was not withdrawn from the negotiations table,” Mashnouq said.
Opposition forces as well Democratic Gathering bloc leader MP Walid Jumblatt have expressed their commitment to the agreed-upon 15-10-5 formula following Hariri’s resignation.
March 14 officials have said it was up to the new premier-designate to decide upon the continued validity of the 15-10-5 formula, stressing the need to resume deliberations on the cabinet issue from scratch. Future Movement MP Amar Houri said on Wednesday that opposition groups “killed” the 15-10-5 formula since they imposed unconstitutional conditions on the premier-designate with regard to the cabinet’s formation.
According to the Constitution, the president and the premier-designate sign the cabinet’s formation decree.
It is the constitutional right of the Development and Liberation bloc to refrain from nominating a candidate for the post of premier and it is Hariri’s right to make use of his constitutional prerogatives to form a cabinet,” Houri said. On Tuesday, Berri’s Development and Liberation parliamentary bloc did not name Hariri for the post of prime minister during consultations with Sleiman. Liberation and Development bloc MP Ali Hassan Khalil said on Wednesday his bloc’s decision not to nominate any candidate to head the cabinet was “not a personal stance but rather a political conviction that the safeguarding of Lebanon necessitated a national-unity government.”
On Tuesday, following consultations with Sleiman, the Amal Movement MP said his bloc did not name Hariri because the latter “did not commit to form a cabinet based on the 15-10-5 formula” prior to his re-designation. Berri’s bloc had named Hariri in the first round of consultations in June.
Houri, however, said that Hariri would pursue his efforts to form a government capable of facing regional threats and domestic challenges.
Houri’s ally Lebanese Forces MP Antoine Zahra said on Wednesday that the decision of the Liberation and Development bloc not to nominate Hariri “liberated the premier-designate from the burden of those who did not facilitate the process.” Zahra added that if Hariri’s efforts to form a national-unity cabinet hit a dead end, other cabinet formulas are negotiable such as a technocrat government. He also slammed Syria for attempting to hinder Hariri’s efforts and tie the government to conditions and complications prior to its formation.
Meanwhile, Hizbullah’s Loyalty to Resistance bloc, headed by MP Mohammad Raad, issued a statement on Wednesday saying that only a national-unity cabinet would guarantee real partnership and preserve the country’s stability and face foreign threats.
“The formation of a national-unity cabinet necessitates that parties give up their desire to unilaterally govern or take monopoly over power no matter the circumstances,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, the March 14 Forces General Secretariat slammed on Wednesday conditions imposed by the opposition on Hariri, adding that they constituted a violation to constitutional norms and would lead to “a regime crisis.” “The obstructing team is attempting to make up for its loss in the parliamentary elections by imposing conditions on the cabinet line-up,” the statement said. The secretariat also urged all political parties to resort to the state’s institutions and implement the Taif Accord.

Fatah al-Islam prisoners on hunger strike over security
Daily Star staff/Thursday, September 17, 2009
BEIRUT: Detainees of the Al-Qaeda-inspired Fatah al-Islam militant group started on Wednesday at 1 p.m. a hunger strike at Roumieh prison east of Beirut to protest intensive security measures that have been put in place by the prison’s security officers. According to the state run National News Agency (NNA), the detainees planned and initiated riots on the third floor of the prison’s bloc B, as they smashed the cells’ windows in protest against intensive examination of food meals provided by their families. However, according to the NNA, security forces managed to keep the security situation under control and prevented the riots from spreading to further sections of the prison. Last month, Taha Ahmad Haji Suleiman, a Fatah al-Islam militant, escaped from Roumieh prison, but was found in the nearby village of Bsalim the next day. Seven other Fatah al-Islam prisoners also attempted to flee but their efforts were thwarted by prison guards. The prisoners sawed bars off of their cell windows, scaled the prison walls using blankets they had tied together, and then stood on one another’s shoulders to help Suleiman jump over a wall and escape. The Al-Qaeda inspired Fatah al-Islam militant group fought a fierce three-month battle with the Lebanese Army Forces in 2007 in the northern Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared, which left some 400 people dead, including 168 soldiers, and left the sprawling refugee camp in ruins.Fatah al-Islam also reportedly claimed responsibility for several explosions that occurred in different Lebanese regions in 2007. The fate of Shaker al-Abssi, former head of Fatah al-Islam, remains unknown given conflicting media reports on his death or escape to Syria. – The Daily Star, with AFP

Lebanon must avoid the crimes of Gaza
By Michael Young /Daily Star staff
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Even before a United Nations fact-finding mission led by the South African judge Richard Goldstone released its report on the Gaza war earlier this week, accusing Israel and Hamas of having perpetrated war crimes and crimes against humanity, you knew what direction the ensuing discussion would take: Israeli officials, like supporters of Israel all over, would condemn the report as biased, while Hamas and its enthusiasts would sidestep blame, insisting the movement acted in self-defense. The members of the mission also called on Israel’s government and the Palestinian Authority (which, in reality, has no jurisdiction over Gaza) to conduct independent investigations within six months, otherwise the UN should take the matter to the International Criminal Court.The debate over war crimes can be tiresome, shot through with self-righteousness and deceit. When Hamas, to defend itself, insists that its rockets during the Gaza war were primed to hit Israeli military positions, but because of their shoddiness veered off course to hit civilian targets, this is nonsense. From the start, the movement’s rocket arsenal served no purpose but to be a terror weapon against civilians. Attacking nonmilitary targets has long been a cornerstone of Hamas’ deterrence capability, as when it dispatched suicide bombers to Israeli cities. By the same token, officials in Israel will intentionally miss the forest for the trees when defending their state’s military actions. Most Israeli war crimes, it seems, have some overriding justification. But anyone who has been on the receiving end of Israeli attacks knows that the targeting of civilians and of nonmilitary objectives is also a vital component of Israel’s deterrence strategy. Nothing, for example, could possibly validate Israel’s malicious firing of many thousands of rounds of cluster munitions into southern Lebanon in the final days of the 2006 war, except to make large swathes of the border area inaccessible to civilians.
The Gaza mission is but one in a long line of fact-finding missions investigating conflicts between Israel and the Arabs. Israel itself has examined its misdeeds on occasion, most significantly in the devastating Kahan commission report on the Sabra and Shatila massacre of September 1982. Much has been made of how the report stated that Israel’s then-defense minister, Ariel Sharon, bore “indirect responsibility” for the massacre. In fact that misunderstood statement only delimited who executed the victims and who stood back and allowed it to happen.
In a devastating passage, the writers made their meaning clear: “When we are dealing with the issue of indirect responsibility, it should also not be forgotten that the Jews in various lands of exile … suffered greatly by pogroms perpetrated by various hooligans … The Jewish public’s stand has always been that the responsibility for such deeds falls not only on those who rioted and committed the atrocities, but also on those who were responsible for safety and public order, who could have prevented the disturbances and did not fulfill their obligations in this respect.” Ultimately, Sharon resigned after the report’s release, only to be elected two decades later as Israeli prime minister. However, what the UN report on Gaza, like the Kahan report, shows, is that even a simple document can rip away the veneer of false rectitude in wartime. We shouldn’t overstate things. While a more developed international architecture is in place than ever before to impose humanitarian laws and standards, future wars may be as brutal as they are today. What behavior does this impose on states?
Lebanese officials should be asking that question more urgently than others. A war with Israel may or may not happen in the coming years, but if there is one place in the Middle East where such a probability remains high, it’s Lebanon. The 2006 war brought about efforts by some groups to formally blame Israel for war crimes, just as the Israelis pointed out that Hizbullah’s targeting of civilians also constituted a violation of the laws of war. Both sides had a case, even though the burden in terms of victims tilted very much more the Lebanese way, with some 1,200 people, mostly noncombatants, killed and hundreds of thousands displaced. If the Lebanese ever discuss the UN report on Gaza, their first aim should be to determine how it can be used to limit the fallout in Lebanon in the event of a new conflict. With present and former Israeli officials promising that the country will pay an onerous price, there is a need to lay the groundwork internationally to make this more difficult. And such an effort must not only include governments, but public opinion. Beirut must also examine its options with respect to the International Criminal Court However, for the Lebanese case to have any real meaning, there must be a commitment from Lebanon’s side to avoid breaching the laws of war. The chances of Hizbullah respecting these are as slim as the Israelis doing so. But that doesn’t prevent the next Lebanese government from taking a clear position on the matter in its ministerial statement, to the effect that Lebanon’s right to defend itself will not preclude its respect for the Geneva Conventions and the protection of civilians. Hizbullah will resist this, since its ability to bombard Israeli population centers defines its brand of asymmetrical warfare. However, the party could find it difficult to oppose such a step if it were framed as a way of protecting the hundreds of thousands of Shiites who would suffer most from an Israeli onslaught. The UN Gaza report may well be filed away like most other documents on wartime abuse. But it can be used imaginatively, particularly by Lebanon. To avoid becoming a victim also means to avoid victimizing others, and even if that rule is almost certain to break down in a new confrontation with Israel, doing nothing about this today is indefensible.
**Michael Young is opinion editor of THE DAILY STAR.

South Beirut municipalities sign Kuwaiti funding deal
Daily Star staff/Thursday, September 17, 2009
BEIRUT: A memorandum of understanding was signed on Wednesday between the Union of Municipalities of the Beirut Southern Suburbs and the Kuwaiti Fund for Arab Economic Development to fund four education and healthcare projects in the region. The concerned municipalities include Ghobeiri, Haret Hreik, Bourj al-Barajneh, Mreijeh, Laylaki and Ghadir. The memorandum calls for the building of a health center in Bourj al-Barajneh, a sports and social center in Mreijeh, a school in Haret Hreik, and a school and an auditorium in Ghobeiri. Ghobeiri Mayor Mohammad Saeed al-Khansa said all the projects would be executed in the next 18-24 months. – The Daily Star

Top American judge assesses Lebanon's legal aid system
Daily Star staff/Thursday, September 17, 2009
BEIRUT: Judge Steven Swanson from the United States has spent the past several weeks conducting an assessment of the Lebanese legal aid system, according to a statement issued by the US Embassy Wednesday. Swanson’s mission is part of the US government’s program aimed at “strengthening judicial independence and citizen access to justice” in Lebanon.
“Judge Swanson has been evaluating policies for recruiting and assigning lawyers to cases, reviewing and analyzing Beirut Bar Association procedures, and studying training offered to legal aid lawyers,” the embassy statement said. According to the statement, Swanson’s report will provide recommendations to the Justice Ministry and the Bar Association to ensure greater access to justice, improved legal representation, and a sustainable structure for legal aid. The American judge’s visit is a part of a broader $8 million program funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Implemented by the National Center for State Courts (NCSC), this program supports the efforts of the Lebanese judiciary to strengthen judicial capacity and infrastructure, increase independence and transparency, improve legal training, and expand access to justice for all. USAID and the NCSC have also begun a $750,000 project to rehabilitate the Beirut Executions Court. The project will finance the reconstruction and refurbishment

Mideast players may not shape up, but the field they play on can be improved
By The Daily Star /Thursday, September 17, 2009
Editorial
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan deserves credit for the fact that his country has tried to defuse the dispute that has emerged in recent weeks between Syria and Iraq. But he can’t be blamed if these efforts have failed, because no outside power can bring civility to such crude regimes. Evidence of the two states’ unskilled diplomacy emerged almost immediately after the deadly August 19 Baghdad bombings, which touched off their latest feud. Both sides turned the tragedy into a hostile public sparring match, with Baghdad accusing Syria of harboring the plotters of the attacks and Damascus denouncing Iraq’s accusations as “immoral.”
They also both swiftly withdrew their ambassadors, thereby impeding any opportunity for a state-to-state solution to their spat and empowering the non-state actors that stand to benefit from their newly re-opened rift.
Of course, weak diplomacy is only one aspect of these two regimes’ crude behavior. Both countries have a long history of doing damage across the Arab world, mostly by exporting ideologies that they fancied would change the face of the region. They also share a long tradition of internal rule with an iron fist – a trend that they have justified by citing insecurity, even though they themselves have frequently been the cause of internal and regional destabilization. The main players in Baghdad and Damascus may have changed in recent years, but the strongman mentality remains the same.
Turkey is playing an important role in trying to mediate the quarrel, and is performing a duty that ought to have been fulfilled by the ever-absent Arab League. But neither the League nor Turkey can ever hope to fully rehabilitate these two defective regimes.
Any reconciliation is likely to be temporary until the two countries repair the crippled state institutions that have failed to hold leaders to account, especially their judiciaries.
But one thing that both Turkey and the Arab League can do to help alleviate the problem would be to redouble their efforts to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Part of the reason that the regimes in both Syria and Iraq have felt so free to behave belligerently toward their own people and their neighbors is that they operate in a region that is beset by so much violence and instability. A resolution to the Middle East conflict would alter the rules of the region and raise the bar for what constitutes acceptable behavior. It would also deny the region’s autocrats their favorite excuse for oppressing their own people and/or threatening other states. Mediators may never be able to take the thuggish mentality out of the leaders in the Middle East, but they can surely change the lawless terrain on which they operate.

'Greatest threat to U.S.' coming south of the border
JJ Green, wtop.com
NEUX/September 16/09
http://www.wtop.com/?sid=1760789&nid=226
WASHINGTON - Narcotics traffickers have found a new source of profit: Helping terrorists.
Current and former U.S. government officials say drug traffickers are assisting international terrorists trying to penetrate U.S. borders. Dave Gaubutz, a former U.S. military officer and self-styled sleeper cell tracker, says "they're already in the United States -- they've been here for many years." He says terrorist organizations have set up shop in a number of U.S. locations, including Michigan, Florida, Texas, Nashville, Richmond, Knoxville and California. They are doing what Hezbollah operative Mahmoud Khourani was doing before his arrest near Detroit.
"Khourani's specialties appeared to be weaponry, spy craft, counter-intelligence," says Tom Diaz, a former congressional crime subcommittee staffer and an author. Khourani was recruiting people who would be trained. They were going to be trained "to make things go bang and to attack," he says. The alliance between terrorists and narco-traffickers has exploded into a global network of sophisticated and ruthless America-hating operatives that are flooding Latin America, Central Asia and the Middle East. But another problem has emerged that could have a devastating impact on the U.S. "This poses the greatest strategic threat that faces our country right now," says Mike Braun, former DEA operations chief, who paints a very vivid picture of the problem. "As we speak, because of the explosive increase of cocaine abuse in Europe, Colombian and Mexican cartels are all over West Africa."
Cocaine from Colombia, Peru and Bolivia is being moved across the Atlantic, he says.
"Into west Africa, places like Guinea-Bissau, the quintessential example of ungoverned space or permissive environment."
And not only are the cartels there, but Braun says they've got "operatives from Al Qaida, from Hezbollah and Hamas that are occupying the same space at exactly the same time."
Why is he worried?
"This potpourri of global scum is hanging out in the same seedy bars, the same sweaty brothels -- and they're staying in the same shady hotels and they're talking business."
Creating relationships that he believes will come back to haunt the U.S.
"Rest assured, you're going to have a Hezbollah operative that built a personal relationship with a Mexican cartel member in West Africa when they were young. Four or five or 10 years down the road, he's going to pick up the phone and say, 'hey can you help me get my guy into the U.S. or can you help me move some items in the U.S. that I desperately need to move?'"
Whether they're coming from Africa, South Asia or the Middle East, terrorist operatives need a travel plan. Mexican smugglers have it. It starts on the U.S.-Mexican border with families of smugglers who own gateways into the U.S.
"There are probably somewhere between 30 and 40 gatekeepers along our southwest border."
"If you happen to move something across that border unbeknownst to them and they find out about it, there will be hell to pay. If they can't hunt you down -- they'll hunt your family down. They'll torture you first and ultimately kill you."
Braun says they don't care who they bring across the border.
"An operative from Al Qaida or Hezbollah, dark complexion, dark eyes, dark hair. At 2 in the morning, when the coyote is moving you across the border, there's not much due diligence going on out there. If you've paid your fee, he or she is going to move you."
Former CIA director Mike Hayden says that's just what al Qaida needs -- a way to move people from the training camps in Pakistan to here. We were seeing people undergoing training there -- people who would not draw attention to themselves if they were next to you in the customs line at Dulles airport."
** In the next installment, worries about Weapons of Mass Destruction.
(Copyright 2009 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)

Trans Atlantic Legislators gather to discuss Jihadist Terrorism
By Walid Phares
http://counterterrorismblog.org/2009/09/trans_atlantic_legislators_gat.php
Next week, an important summit will be held by a number of legislators from the European Parliament, the US Congress and the Canadian Parliament to discuss "al Qaeda's and other Jihadi forces' campaigns worldwide against Democracies." The closed meeting, to take place in the US, is sponsored by the newly formed "Transatlantic Group on Counter Terrorism (TAG)," launched in Washington and Brussels last year. TAG was launched in the winter of 2008 by Members of the European Parliament, led by MEP Jaime Mayor Oreja, Vice Chairman for Policy of the EPP Group at the European Parliament (present majority Party) and Members from both Parties of the US Congress, led by Representative Sue Myrick, Co-Chair of the Anti-Terrorism Caucus in the US House of Representatives. The goal of TAG is to create a working relationship between legislators from Europe and the United States (North America) to address terrorism and the threat it poses to democracies.
The founding leaders of TAG, members of US Congress and the European Parliament (UK, Spain, Czech Republic, Finland, Sweden) in 2008:
The first TAG summit was held April 30, 2008, in Washington, DC, where participants signed a joint declaration of principles. The Third summit of TAG will take place in Brussels. The Second summit to be held in Washington is comprised of meetings between US Members and Senators and Members of the European parliament as well as one member of the Canadian Parliament to discuss issues surrounding Jihadi terrorism and radical Islamists.
These meetings are important steps in forming a strong counter-terrorism trans-Atlantic partnership. It will allow legislators on both sides of the Atlantic to share insights and best practices, as well as talk about how can Democracies address terror threats, not only as individual countries, but as an international community.
The European delegation will include MEPs from France, Spain, Netherlands, Hungary, Germany, Italy, Austria, Bulgaria, Portugal, Romania, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The North American delegation will include a Canadian MP and members of the US Congress.
The subjects to be addressed, are divided in three categories:
1) Terrorism and International Relations: Ideological Radicalization, the so-called “Islamophobia,” and the role of international organizations in mitigating extremism.
2) International Jihadist Threats: Discussion of the Terror strategies and counter strategies in several areas such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon and Somalia. European and North American legislators will address and analyze these various issues in their respective realms.
3) "Trans Atlantic Threats" Discussion on new strategies being employed by terrorists and radical Islamists, and the counter-terror strategies to combat them, inside Europe, Canada and the United States. European and American legislators will address and analyze these various issues in their respective realms.
A press conference will take place on the Hill to issue the resolutions. For more information contact: transatlanticgroup@gmail.com
Updates and material will be posted on CTB after the meeting
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Dr Walid Phares is a Co-Secretary General of the Trans Atlantic Legislative Group on Counter Terrorism