LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
February 05/08

Bible Reading of the day.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 5,1-20. They came to the other side of the sea, to the territory of the Gerasenes. When he got out of the boat, at once a man from the tombs who had an unclean spirit met him. The man had been dwelling among the tombs, and no one could restrain him any longer, even with a chain. In fact, he had frequently been bound with shackles and chains, but the chains had been pulled apart by him and the shackles smashed, and no one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the hillsides he was always crying out and bruising himself with stones. Catching sight of Jesus from a distance, he ran up and prostrated himself before him, crying out in a loud voice, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me!"(He had been saying to him, "Unclean spirit, come out of the man!") He asked him, "What is your name?" He replied, "Legion is my name. There are many of us."And he pleaded earnestly with him not to drive them away from that territory. Now a large herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside. And they pleaded with him, "Send us into the swine. Let us enter them." And he let them, and the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine. The herd of about two thousand rushed down a steep bank into the sea, where they were drowned. The swineherds ran away and reported the incident in the town and throughout the countryside. And people came out to see what had happened. As they approached Jesus, they caught sight of the man who had been possessed by Legion, sitting there clothed and in his right mind. And they were seized with fear.
Those who witnessed the incident explained to them what had happened to the possessed man and to the swine. Then they began to beg him to leave their district. As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed pleaded to remain with him. But he would not permit him but told him instead, "Go home to your family and announce to them all that the Lord in his pity has done for you."Then the man went off and began to proclaim in the Decapolis what Jesus had done for him; and all were amazed.

Free Opinions, Releases, letters & Special Reports
Ghassan Tueni to Arabs: Lebanon's Fires Would Eat Up Your Dry Stalks. January 04/08
Hezbollah trying to demoralize the Lebanese Army.By W. Thomas Smith, Jr. January 04/08
More protests would expose Lebanon to unacceptable risks-The Daily Star-January 04/08

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for February 04/08
Suspicion over Suleiman Embarrasses Moussa-Nahaernet
Hizbullah Vows Retaliation After Deadly Border Shooting Incident-Nahaernet
Search for Man Thought to Have Killed Amal Official During Riots-Nahaernet
Houri: Moussa's Return Not Linked to Sunday's Riots-Nahaernet
Salvation Front Accuses Syrian Regime of Lebanon Sabotage-Nahaernet
Jumblat Discusses Lebanon with Saudi King-Nahaernet
Lebanon's Forgotten Children-Nahaernet
Troops Held For Investigation, Civilians arrested on Charges, Agitators Hunted Over Bloody Riots-Nahaernet
Syrian Speaker: Settlement of Crisis is for the Benefit of Lebanon, Syria-Nahaernet
France to Evacuate Lebanese Trapped in Chad-Nahaernet
Saniora Telephones Saudi FM-Nahaernet
Iran Unveils First Space Center-Nahaernet
Suicide Bomber Targets Dimona-Nahaernet
Report: US OKd pursuit into Iran, Syria-Earthtimes
Lebanon's Forgotten Children-Naharnet
A Lebanese Diva, Performing in Syria, Creates Drama in More Ways ...New York Times
Jewish state's troops kill one man, wound another along Blue Line-Daily Star  
Lebanon's 2 main Shiite groups welcome arrest of 11 soldiers over- International Herald Tribune
Judiciary charges 11 soldiers, six civilians over deaths at protest-Daily Star  
Amal, Hizbullah encouraged by shootings probe-Daily Star  
Lebanese Army says attacks on it serve Israel-Daily Star  
Ex-officers say Israelis should have 'rocket rooms-AFP
Internal Israeli military probe blames wartime failures on poor communication-AFP
Barak stands by Olmert after war report devoid of heavy criticism-AFP
Arab interior ministers to hold next meeting in Beirut-Daily Star  
French to evacuate Lebanese trapped in Chad-Daily Star  
Probe says 2006 deaths of UN observers preventable-Daily Star  
Canada whitewashes the death of its own-Daily Star  
Sfeir highlights need to mend ties with Syria-Daily Star  
Winograd failed to address Israeli war crimes - Amnesty-Daily Star  
Political crisis dampens trading on Beirut bourse-Daily Star  
Lebanese banking group calls for sharp rate cut to match US-Daily Star  
Lebanese block Israeli attempt to divert rain water-Daily Star  
For Monnot and Solidere, crisis is a party pooper-Daily Star
Two Lebanese Wounded by Israeli Fire-Naharnet
Amal, Hizbullah Welcome Arrest of 11 Soldiers over Riots-Naharnet
Syrian Speaker: Settling Crisis is for Lebanese, Syrian Benefit-Naharnet
French to Evacuate Lebanese Trapped in Chad-Naharnet
Saniora Telephones Saudi FM-Naharnet
Lebanon orders arrest of 11 soldiers over shootings. AP
Jumblat's Partisans Ambushed, Two Wounded-Naharnet
Christian 'Militia' Sings God Protect Beirut-Naharnet

Suicide Bomber Targets Dimona
Naharnet/A suicide bomber on Monday blew himself up in the southern town of Dimona that houses Israel's secretive nuclear reactor, killing at least three other people and wounding five, Israeli rescue officials said. The explosion took place in an industrial area about 10 kilometers from the reactor site.
"We heard a large explosion and people started to run. I saw pieces of flesh flying in the air," a witness identified only by her first name, Revital, told Army Radio. Israel vowed to "continue to fight terrorism by all necessary means" after the blast. "Israel will continue to fight terrorism by all necessary means," foreign ministry spokesman Arye Mekel told Agence France Presse.  "Terror organizations have again shown their true face and just like the indiscriminate rocket fire against southern Israel, they strike civilian population centers with the intention of killing innocent civilians in shopping centers and residential areas," he said.
Police said there were two attackers, although only one managed to detonate his explosives belt. A police bomb squad was on the scene defusing the belt. The Haaretz daily reported that the second attacker was shot dead before he could explode himself.
Southern Israel has been on alert against militant attacks since the Gaza Strip's Islamic Hamas rulers breached the border with Egypt on Jan. 23. Egypt managed to reseal the border only on Sunday. The breach made Israel's Negev desert, where Dimona is located, more vulnerable to penetration by Palestinian militants who could enter through Egypt's Sinai desert. Dimona is about 60 kilometers northeast of the porous Egyptian border.(AP-AFP-Naharnet) Beirut, 04 Feb 08, 10:59

Sfeir highlights need to mend ties with Syria
Fadlallah warns of fresh war with israel
By Maroun Khoury
Daily Star correspondent
Monday, February 04, 2008
BKIRKI: Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros called on Sunday for mending Lebanese-Syrian relations "for the welfare of both countries." "If the nature of the ties between Lebanon and Syria is not once and for all determined, this is likely to reflect negatively on both countries," Sfeir said in his annual Lent address.
The prelate accused Lebanese politicians of lacking "any sort of national sense," and "mixing the personal with political."
"Some politicians think about their personal interests and totally overlook the interests of their country," he added. Sfeir also criticized foreign intervention in Lebanon's internal affairs and politicians "who serve as tools in the hands of foreign powers." "Some politicians ally with foreign forces to serve their personal interests ... and this is the worst of behaviors," Sfeir added. He also warned that political rhetoric has "sunk way too low and this contradicts all principles of freedom."  Sfeir warned on Sunday against attempts to harm the Lebanese Army. "Despite vehement attacks launched against the Lebanese Army in the past few weeks, the army is clearly aware of its mission, which is that of preserving the nation and all its components," Sfeir said during his sermon at the Notre Dame Church in Bkirki. Sfeir also warned against "paralyzing the Lebanese Army after all constitutional institutions, including the government and the Parliament, have been either paralyzed or alienated." "We thank the Lord that our national army is still united and strong after all that it has gone through ... and let us all pray for God to preserve our beloved country," he said. On Sunday, a number of delegations visited Bkirki to express solidarity with Sfeir after former Cabinet Minister Suleiman Franjieh had strongly criticized the prelate last month.  Speaking to a delegation of mayors from the Batroun region, Sfeir said he did not fear criticism "as long as it is objective and free from libel." "We should all gather forces and experience for the welfare of Lebanon," he added.
Franjieh had called Sfeir biased and urged him to resign. "Sfeir is a rattle in the hands of foreign powers and the ruling coalition," he had said in an interview with NBN television. "They will realize sooner or later that Bkirki only embraces national stands," the patriarch told a delegation from the Lebanese Forces on Sunday.
Meanwhile, senior Shiite cleric Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah called on the Lebanese government to consider the last day of the summer 2006 war a national holiday."Lebanon defeated Israel on August 14 ... This moment should be celebrated, and honoring our martyrs is the least we can do," he added in a statement issued Sunday. Fadlallah added that Israel's recent Winograd inquiry into the summer 2006 war "is a precursor to new wars and conflicts."
"Various Israeli factions are currently considering various war scenarios likely to defeat the Arabs," Fadlallah said.
 

Hezbollah trying to demoralize the Lebanese Army
By W. Thomas Smith, Jr
http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/WThomasSmithJr/2008/02/03/hezbollah_trying_to_demoralize_the_lebanese_army?page=full&comments=true
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Arrest warrants were issued Saturday for 11 Lebanese soldiers over the shooting deaths of several Hezbollah and Amal rioters during last week’s clashes in Beirut (the clashes instigated by Hezbollah, which also spread to other areas around the country). Six civilians were also arrested and charged with, among other things, “bearing unlicensed firearms.”
Investigations continue, more arrests will probably follow, and Mahmoud Koumati, the deputy commander of Hezbollah’s political-wing, has called for the execution of anyone found guilty.
WHAT’S SAD is that the arrests of the soldiers – three officers and eight enlisted men – may have been a sacrifice on the part of the Lebanese Army (LA) leadership in an attempt to salvage the hope that Gen. Michel Sleiman might become Lebanon’s next president (The country has been without a president since November, and the complexities of Lebanese politics, death threats from Hezbollah, and the equally threatening hand of Iran and Syria have created an environment that makes it nearly impossible for the parliament to elect a chief executive.).
WHAT’S SADDER is that Hezbollah – the increasingly dangerous Iranian-funded, Syrian-backed, Lebanese-based terrorist army – has been pushing for the legitimate Lebanese army and police to fall on their swords since the rioting ended last week.
Hezbollah contends the clashes stemmed from “protests” over electricity shortages in Hezbollah zones of Beirut: Keep in mind Hezbollah often launches protests over electricity shortages, the rising cost of bread, the rising of a full moon, whatever – any opportunity to block roads, burn tires, and generally test and probe legitimate army and police defenses – but conveniently arranges those protests to coincide with other events like last week’s summit between Arab foreign ministers in Cairo.
Lebanese Army insiders and a parliamentary official have said the “so-called protests” last week had more sinister objectives.
Hezbollah has stated its protests stemmed from public angriness over electricity shortages, but “the areas Hezbollah's militants are coming from have the same ratio of electricity as other areas in the capital,” said an Army officer who chose not to be named. “In addition, Hezbollah has enough generators to sustain electrical power for months.
“Many in the Western media were deceived into believing it was about electricity shortages, when in fact, it was a carefully planned and orchestrated operation aimed at strengthening the terrorists’ hand and position in Lebanon.”
The officer added, Hezbollah also was first to open fire, and it did so on Lebanese Army forces and civilians.
SADDEST OF ALL: Gen. Sleiman – the pro-Syrian commander-in-chief of all Lebanese armed forces, who previously made excuses for the continued existence of Hezbollah when that organization should have long-been disbanded under UN Security Council Resolutions 1559 and 1701 – has apparently now tossed some of his young riflemen to the curb.
Though Sleiman’s sacrificing of his men and playing politics with Hezbollah is unfortunate, it’s not surprising:
Sleiman tried to justify Hezbollah’s existence as a “legitimate resistance” during the time I spent with him in private conversation at his Ministry of Defense office, last fall, as did the commander of strategic intelligence and several of Sleiman’s subordinate generals during subsequent conversations. The only general who didn’t try to convince me that Hezbollah should exist was Gen. Francois Hajj, the late chief of operations for the LA and senior planner of the operation that wiped out the forces of al-Qaeda affiliate Fatah al Islam during the battle to regain control (from the Fatah fighters) of the Palestinian refugee camp at Nahr al-Bared.
Hajj was one of my best sources while in Lebanon. I had more contact with him than any other general there. He arranged access for me when other generals said, “no.” And in December, the terrorists killed him in a car-bomb attack (It’s since been speculated that Fatah al Islam elements were responsible for the assassination, but the bombing was surely coordinated through Hezbollah with the blessing of the latter’s Iranian-Syrian overlords. In fact, Hezbollah’s secretary general Hassan Nasrallah warned in May 2007 against the LA’s storming of the camp, referring to Nahr al-Bared as a “red line” and some analysts have suggested the Hajj killing was payback for crossing that line.)
Several times during a Sept.-28 conversation with Sleiman – three weeks after the LA claimed victory over Fatah al Islam -- I brought up the issue of Hezbollah; and each time the general become agitated, attempted to change the subject, and wanted to know why I wanted to talk about Hezbollah.
When Hajj was killed two months later, many Middle East experts said his assassination was a coordinated strike by Syrian agents, Hezbollah, and Fatah al Islam, all hoping to strip the army of its fighting spirit, particularly after the victory at Nahr al-Bared.
That’s also one of the goals today.
Hezbollah and its Iranian-Syrian overlords obviously planned for the rioting to:
a) Place the Lebanese Army in an impossible, untenable position.
b) Test the leadership of Hezbollah and its ability to mobilize and direct forces.
c) Force the LA’s hand, and make the LA’s combatants appear heavy-handed.
d) Push the LA to defend itself both in street fighting and eventually in the courtroom.
e) Force Sleiman to choose between a chance at the presidency and his loyalty to the LA in the aftermath of the clashes.
f) Demoralize and weaken the LA in the process. For the terrorists, the arrest of the LA 11 was just icing on the cake.
According to one government official: “This reinforces the fact that if the UN does nothing to put a stop to this – if they do not intervene with military force under ‘Chapter VII [of the UN Charter]’ – for the sake of Lebanon’s sovereignty and the safety of the Lebanese people, Hezbollah will become the Taliban of Lebanon. The Lebanese Army cannot compete with the Iranian money pouring into Hezbollah’s accounts, and it cannot adequately defend the country when its soldiers are forced to choose between either defending themselves and the civilian population on the streets in riotous combat against a terrorist militia, or defending themselves in courtroom battles proffered by those same terrorists who attack Lebanon’s soldiers over rules-of-engagement, while those same soldiers are thrown to the curb by their senior commander.”
Though it has not been widely reported, limited attacks also have been launched against Lebanese Army posts in recent days.
**W. Thomas Smith Jr. is a former U.S. Marine infantry leader, parachutist, and shipboard counterterrorism instructor and co-author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Pirate

Hizbullah Vows Retaliation After Deadly Border Shooting Incident
Naharnet/Hizbullah MP Hussein Hajj Hassan on Monday warned to retaliate against the deadly shooting by Israeli forces of a man across the border in southern Lebanon. "This matter definitely will not pass in a way that the people will remain silent," Hajj Hassan said on LBC television. "It is the right of the resistance to respond one day by any means."
The lawmaker decried the lack of international criticism of the Israeli firing. He said if the situation had been reversed, with an Israeli killed by fire from Lebanon, "you wouldn't imagine how many condemnations would have been issued ... as if a citizen on our side has no value."
Hajj Hassan did not threaten immediate retaliation. However, Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned in a recent speech that the group's patience was wearing thin with what he described as repeated Israeli violations of Lebanese territory.
A Lebanese man was killed and another was wounded when Israeli troops opened fire on them near the border, security officials said Sunday.
A Lebanese security official told Agence France Presse: "We believe that the two men were involved in a drug smuggling operation."
A Lebanese military spokesman said that the two men were unarmed at the time of the incident and were on the Lebanese side of the border town of Ghajar.
But an Israeli army spokesman said that an Israeli patrol had come under fire from the Lebanese side of Ghajar.
The Israeli military said it was responding to fire apparently from drug smugglers on the Lebanese side. Such shootings have been rare since the 2006 war between Israel and Hizbullah. The Israeli military said its soldiers came under fire in Ghajar, which is split between the two countries by a U.N.-demarcated line. The soldiers returned fire and identified a hit. There were no Israeli casualties.
Lebanese security officials said the two people were shot late Sunday along the Wazzani River in the southeastern corner of Lebanon across from Israeli positions in Ghajar. They were taken to a hospital in Marjayoun, where officials confirmed they had received one body and another person who was wounded.
U.N. peacekeeping troops, deployed in south Lebanon, said there was a "shooting incident in the area of Ghajar" and that it has started an "immediate investigation to ascertain the facts, looking into initial allegations of smuggling." Yasmina Bouziane, spokeswoman for the 13,000-strong force, known as UNIFIL, said in a statement that a Lebanese man was evacuated by peacekeepers to a hospital in Marjayoun, where he was later declared dead. Another individual was evacuated by the Lebanese army, the statement said. Bouziane said the UNIFIL commander, Maj. Gen. Claudio Graziano, "is in contact with senior officers on both sides, urging them to show maximum restraint." In November, Israeli troops in Ghajar opened fire, slightly injuring one of two men trying to infiltrate Israel. The injured man was carrying a bag of illicit drugs, the Israeli military said at the time.
There have been other incidents along the border since 2006 but most have been resolved quietly with UNIFIL's intervention.
The most serious incident involved a shootout between Lebanese army troops and the Israeli army in February 2007 at Maroun al-Rass, an area of the border that was not clearly demarcated. Ghajar, at the foot of Mount Hermon straddling the border between Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, is perched on a cliff overlooking the precious Wazzani spring, which has been a source of continuous dispute between Israel and Lebanon.
It is inhabited mainly by Alawites, most of whom have obtained Israeli citizenship even though they consider themselves Syrian.
According to a U.N.-drawn "blue line" marking the border between Israel and Lebanon following the May 2000 withdrawal of Israeli troops, two-thirds of the village is on Lebanese soil, while the other third is part of the Golan which Israel seized from Syria in 1967 and unilaterally annexed in 1981.(AP-AFP-Naharnet) Beirut, 04 Feb 08, 07:52

Houri: Moussa's Return Not Linked to Sunday's Riots
Naharnet/Al Moustaqbal MP Ammar Houri said Monday parliamentary elections will be held on time, adding that there was no link between the probe into last week's bloody riots and the return of Arab League chief Amr Moussa to Beirut. In an interview with the Voice of Lebanon radio station, Houri said Moussa's return was "related to Arab efforts toward Damascus which is blocking" a settlement to the ongoing political crisis. "The army has conducted a transparent investigation" into the Jan. 27 incidents which left seven people killed when demonstrations against extended power cuts in Dahiyeh quickly turned violent. "The nomination of army commander Gen. Michel Suleiman has become firmer than any time before and popular support for him is best evidence," Houri said. He said that parliamentary elections scheduled for 2009 will be held on time. Beirut, 04 Feb 08, 12:09

Suspicion over Suleiman Embarrasses Moussa
Naharnet/Well-informed sources said the return of Arab League chief Amr Moussa to Beirut will be determined after contacts with the various Lebanese leaders, particularly Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. The sources said Berri informed Moussa during a telephone conversation on Saturday that he rejects the "negative stances" by some sides regarding the Arab League initiative. The speaker asked Moussa to inquire about why the United States did not respond to the Arab initiative, particularly after he received information from European diplomatic sources that said Washington rejected the Arab plan.
The sources said Berri also stressed to Moussa that Free Patriotic Movement leader Gen. Michel Aoun was willing to resume talks that could be sponsored by the Arab League chief. Lebanese leaders contacted by Moussa said he is expected to return to Beirut this week to supervise a meeting between Aoun, former President Amin Gemayel and MP Saad Hariri to discuss the three-point Arab plan.
The plan calls for the election of army commander Gen. Michel Suleiman president, formation of a national unity government in which no one party has veto power, and adoption of a new electoral law.  The sources said the Moussa-sponsored discussions were also expected to focus on a point stated in a statement by Prime Minister Fouad Saniora's government which calls for recognizing Lebanon's right to "resist the Israeli occupation" – a position that satisfies the Hizbullah-led opposition -- and at the same time "respect international resolutions" – a stance that pleases the majority.
Another point to be discussed, according to the sources, is related to providing mutual guarantees between the warring political camps "to facilitate confidence-building" efforts. A leading Hizbullah figure said these two points could be considered as "factors assisting in building trust," without indicating whether they could lead to a settlement. Electing Suleiman in line with a parliamentary session scheduled for Feb. 11, however, tops Moussa's agenda, according to the sources.
Meanwhile, a ministerial source saw that stances by some opposition leaders, who continued to view Suleiman with deep suspicion following bloody riots in Beirut last week, slimmed chances of success for Moussa. Beirut, 04 Feb 08, 11:26

Search for Man Thought to Have Killed Amal Official During Riots
Naharnet/A search was underway for a man believed to have shot and killed Amal movement official Ahmad Hamzeh during violent riots in Beirut's southern suburbs on Jan. 27. The daily As Safir on Monday quoted security sources as saying that the suspect was believed to have shot Hamzeh with an AK-47 assault rifle that was left behind along with laser-operated night vision binoculars inside the room of a genitor at a building in Ein el-Rummaneh. It said investigation showed that the genitor had nothing to do with the incident. At least seven people were killed and more than 40 wounded in the riots which started at Mar Mikhael-Shiyah in the southern suburbs and quickly degenerated to reach other areas of Beirut. On Saturday, military court magistrate Jean Fahd issued arrest warrants for 11 soldiers, including five officers, and six civilians in connection with the clashes after questioning 120 soldiers and 85 civilians, according to court officials. Beirut, 04 Feb 08, 09:14

Jumblat Discusses Lebanon with Saudi King
Naharnet/Druze leader Walid Jumblat has discussed Lebanon's deepening political crisis with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. Jumblat, a prominent lawmaker from the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority and leader of the Progressive Socialist Party, arrived in the oil-rich kingdom late Friday accompanied by Information Minister Ghazi Aridi.  The Saudi Press Agency said King Abdullah met Jumblat and Aridi on Sunday where they "reviewed the current crisis in Lebanon." Saudi Arabia has been actively involved in trying to end Lebanon's gravest political crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war, with parliament paralyzed in a power struggle between the government and the opposition

Salvation Front Accuses Syrian Regime of Lebanon Sabotage
Naharnet/The National Salvation Front, a Syrian opposition group founded in exile, has accused Damascus of embarking on a "systematic sabotage" of Lebanon.
In a statement at the end of its meeting in Brussels Sunday, the group said that the Assad regime "is continuing to paralyze institutions and creating a constitutional vacuum" in Lebanon "through a systematic sabotage" and the assassination of members of the March 14 coalition and the armed forces.
It also said that the Syrian government was using the "blood" of Lebanon's martyrs to reach its "narrow objectives." The Front was created in 2006 by around 50 opponents including outspoken former vice-president Abdel Halim Khaddam and Muslim Brotherhood leader Ali Sadreddin al-Bayanouni. Khaddam, who is living in exile in Paris, is wanted for high treason and corruption by Assad's regime after he accused the Syrian president of ordering the Feb. 2005 assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri. Beirut, 04 Feb 08, 10:28

Report: U.S. OK'd pursuit into Iran, Syria
Posted : Mon, 04 Feb 2008
Author : World News Editor -UPI
WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 U.S. rules of engagement permitted American military forces in Iraq to cross Iranian and Syrian borders in pursuit of terrorists, a published report said. Citing a 2005 document posted on Wikileaks, a Web site that promotes posting of leaked information, The New York Times said U.S. forces were authorized to go into Iran and Syria to follow terrorists and former members of Saddam Hussein's government. U.S. officials said the document appeared to be authentic, the newspaper said. It contained rules of engagement for the American division that was based in Baghdad and central Iraq in 2005. Wikileaks says its "primary interest is in exposing oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East," but the it alos wants to help reveal unethical behavior in ... governments and corporations" elsewhere. In the past, the site has posted U.S. documents including the military manual for prison operations at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The U.S. military command in Baghdad Sunday declined to comment on whether the rules of engagement document was authentic, but a spokesman told the Times "the deliberate release of what Wikileaks believes to be a classified document is irresponsible and, if valid, could put U.S. military personnel at risk."Copyright 2008 by UPI

Tueni to Arabs: Lebanon's Fires Would Eat Up Your Dry Stalks
Naharnet/Lebanon's leading columnist Ghassan Tueni on Monday paid tribute to efforts by the army to contain the aftermath of the Jan. 27 rioting in Mar Mikhael district and warned against attempts to ignite a new civil war in Lebanon. "History would not be repeated," Tueni insisted in an editorial published by the daily an-Nahar in reference to the 1975 civil war that broke out in the same area that witnessed the Jan. 27 riots, which killed seven people and wounded scores.
"The authority, represented by the Army this time, has opted to declare that justice is the base. The army and its commander have chosen the track for punishment and reward … that led all Lebanon to respond positively to a call by the Patriarch (Nasrallah Sfeir) for unity and alertness and to remarks by the parliament speaker who welcomed the investigation," Tueni wrote. Addressing "our Arab Brethren," Tueni wrote: "Beware of playing with fire. Lebanon's fire this time would save no dry stalks."He concluded by noting: "Plenty of Arab dry stalks await fire … the first victims of the blaze would be small magicians" who start the fires. Beirut, 04 Feb 08, 11:59

Troops Held For Investigation, Civilians arrested on Charges, Agitators Hunted Over Bloody Riots
Naharnet/Examining military magistrate Jean Fahed ordered the arrest of 17 people, including 11 military personnel, over last week's riots in Beirut's southern district of Mar Mikhail and ordered law enforcement agencies to identify and arrest three suspected agitators.  The servicemen arrested "pending completion of the investigation", included three officers, two non-commissioned officers and six privates, according to Fahed's statement that summed up measures adopted "in light of the current stage of investigations." The six civilians were arrested on charges of rioting and the illegal possession of weapons, the statement added.
The examining magistrate also ordered the identification and arrest of three suspected "civilian agitators," the statement noted.
In light of the current stage of investigations, three civilians were released unconditionally, 21 civilians and five minors were conditionally released pending completion of the investigation, the statement added.
The statement termed the events of last Sunday "acts of violence" that resulted in the death of seven civilians, wounded other civilians and a number of military personnel in addition to inflicting property damage. "Investigation persists with a large number of civilian witnesses and a large number of military personnel," the statement noted. The statement does not indict the arrested military personnel because they were held pending completion of the ongoing investigation.
The civilians, however, were clearly charged with rioting and illegal possession of weapons, a step that leads to indictment.
News reports said one of the military personnel arrested is a ranking officer.
The reports quoted unidentified informed sources as saying Ahmed Hamzi, an AMAL official who was the first victim of the Jan. 27 riots, was shot in the back with an AK-47 Kalashnikov rifle bullet, a weapon that is not used by the Lebanese Army force deployed in the area.
Other victims, according to the reports, fell due to M-16 bullet wounds. The U.S.-made assault rifle is the standard weapon used by the Lebanese Army.
The reports said victims, other than Hamzi, were hit after escalation of the protests into a confrontation with the Army, which included attacking soldiers and attempting to strip them of their weapons.
An AK-47 Kalashnikov assault rifle fitted with a telescope was found deserted near the Hayat Hospital, at a distance of 800-1.000 meters from the confrontation grounds. "Investigations are underway to determine why the rifle was deserted there and who deserted it and efforts are underway to determine if it was the weapon used against Hamzi," the report said.
The report noted that the AK-47 is not a weapon designed for sniping. The rifle's operational range is 500 meters.
The reports quoted sources as saying the investigation dropped the probability of targeting army troops and rioters with sniper fire by a third party, especially from the adjacent Christian district of Ein Rummaneh.
No snipers were positioned on rooftops during the confrontation, the reports said, noting that army troops had deployed on the roofs of two to three buildings overlooking the confrontation grounds.
"Investigators are trying to establish if such troops deployed on roof tops had opened fire on the rioters," one report said.
The report added that two Lebanese Army vehicles were targeted by rifle fire. Beirut, 03 Feb 08, 10:03

Lebanon's Forgotten Children
Naharnet/It is early morning and eight-year-old Ibrahim Khodar Arja is already hard at work, his face and hands covered with dirt as he repairs a car at the mechanics shop where he works six days a week, 10 hours a day. Ibrahim should be at primary school but his job leaves him no time for that.
Like thousands of children across Lebanon he has joined a growing force of child laborers whose fate is as much dictated by their family's dire economic situation as by the country's turbulent politics. Officials estimate that at least 100,000 children, or one in 10 up to 18 years of age, work in Lebanon, mainly in the agriculture sector or as mechanics as well as in jewelry workshops and sweatshops.
"The 10 to 15 age group is the most affected," Nabil Watfa of the International Labor Organization office in Beirut told Agence France Presse. "But children as young as eight have also been noted to work. "These kids, the majority of them boys, work in garages, in metal-welding shops, carpentry, marble cutting and in farms where they are exposed to pesticides."
Most of the child laborers hail from the northern regions of Akkar and Tripoli, where many families live below the poverty line.
Others work in the eastern Bekaa Valley and in the south of the country, where poverty is also endemic and the main industry is agriculture, including tobacco plantations. In Bab al-Tebbene, a rough neighborhood in the northern city of Tripoli, a majority of the mechanics or scrap metal shops that line the streets employ children, including Ibrahim. The kids can be seen welding, using dangerous machinery, or handling toxic chemicals, all with no protective gear.
More than a dozen children interviewed between the ages of eight and 16 seem resigned to the fact that theirs is a future of hard work rather than play. Their tough gaze betrays a lost childhood. Mustafa Yassin, 13, entered the work force last year as an apprentice mechanic. He earns 10 dollars (seven dollars) a week, working 10 hours a day, six days a week.
"School was not for me and I prefer to learn a trade so that I can help my family and maybe one day open my own garage," he said shyly.
Social workers say many of the children drop out of school and seek work as they come from needy families, often of 10 children or more.
They also point to appalling conditions in state schools where standards are poor and where children are often left to fend for themselves.
"We are placed in these schools which are like prisons and many of the kids are dismissed or drop out because no one looks at them," said Rabih Saifeddin Danash, 25, who began working at age 15 at his father's garage. His brother Ahmed, 14, worked as a blacksmith for a year before recently joining the family business.
Iman Nuwayhid, who teaches occupational health at the American University of Beirut, conducted a study three years ago on working children in Lebanon and found that the chemicals they handle affect their neurological development.
"Children who are exposed to solvents and chemicals often used to de-grease car parts and tools, perform much worse than schoolchildren or children who work in shops where solvents are not used," he told AFP. Watfa said that although Lebanon in 2001 signed on to the ILO convention on child labor, it has been unable to efficiently implement it for lack of resources. Nationwide there are a mere 91 inspectors tasked with enforcing labor laws in general, said Naha Shallita, head of the child labor unit at the labor ministry. She added that no money has been allocated in the state budget to specifically combat child labor.
"We are trying to instill the notion that children have rights but that is not part of people's mentality," said Social Affairs Minister Nayla Moawad.
"We have made progress but we still have weaknesses in our legislation as far as public awareness" is concerned.
Social workers warn that if the state fails to seriously take on the issue, many children could fall prey to extremist groups known to recruit in poor areas of Lebanon.
They also cautioned that prostitution and drug use was prevalent among working children.
"These kids are being denied their most basic rights," said Fatma Odaymat, of the Rene Moawad Foundation, a non-governmental organization. "We are finding that sexual and physical abuse have become a major issue."
She said although there are success stories and efforts to provide children with vocational training, the country was far off from overcoming the scourge of child labor. "The success stories are a drop in the bucket," Odaymat said. "When you go down to these communities and see the situation, you realize we have a long way to go.(AFP) Beirut, 04 Feb 08, 08:51

Canada whitewashes the death of its own
By Marc J Sirois -Daily Star staff
Monday, February 04, 2008
FIRST PERSON by Marc J. Sirois
Canada's official report on the deaths of four United Nations peacekeepers - including a Canadian officer - at Israeli hands during the summer 2006 war in Lebanon is a slap in the face to those who died and their families, to those who wear the same uniforms, and to those who selflessly serve the UN around the world. In essence, it took an official board of inquiry almost 17 months to determine less than what was obvious within hours of the attack: that the incident was "tragic," that the deaths were "preventable" and that the Israeli military was "responsible."
Many facts of the case are not in dispute. On July 25, 13 days after Israel began making war on Lebanon in response to Hizbullah's capture of two of the Jewish state's soldiers in a cross-border raid, Major Paeta Hess-Von Kruedener and three colleagues were on duty at Patrol Base Khiam, operated by the UN Truce Supervision Organization's Observer Group Lebanon (OGL). In the hours preceding the fatal attack, 14 aerial bombs landed within 500 meters of their position, and 19 artillery shells impacted within 150 meters. Some munitions actually hit the compound, resulting in severe damage. Repeated protests were lodged with the Israeli military, but the firing continued. In fact, the last thing the observers did was to report three consecutive incidents of "firing close" at 7:15 p.m, 7:16 p.m., and 7:17 p.m.
A few minutes later an air strike destroyed the base's main building, killing Hess-Von Kruedener and his colleagues. The weapon involved was a "Joint Direct Attack Munition" (J-DAM), a high-precision, satellite-guided 500-kilogrambomb supplied to Israel by the United States. When efforts to reach the position by radio failed, an evacuation plan that had been scheduled for the next morning was moved up, and a team from the Indian Battalion of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon headed for Patrol Base Khiam. There they found the main building in ruins and spent the next several hours recovering bodies; they located three (including Hess-Von Kruedner's) but had to call off the search the next night because special equipment was needed and because the area remained under fire. The fourth body was recovered in early August.
According to the report, neither the Israeli military nor the UN was "fully" cooperative with the investigation. Especially in the case of the former (seeing as how it was Israeli fire that killed the victims), one expects to find at least a degree of resentment in the relating of this refusal to be forthcoming. Instead there is only the bland prose of the cautious bureaucrat. And in other parts of the document, every effort is made to excuse questionable Israeli actions, to ignore them altogether, and even to shift the blame elsewhere.
One example has the board bending over backward to rationalize Israeli firing habits of the sort that killed the four OGL officers - and more than 1,000 Lebanese civilians - by concluding that Israeli ground attacks supported by air and artillery strikes were "typically focused on specific operations against a specific target," that these were "directed toward Hezbollah positions, lines of communication and infrastructure;" and that the resistance placed non-combatants at risk by being "well integrated with the civilian population and infrastructure." In other words, in spite of considerable evidence to the contrary, the report insinuates that the Israelis did not mean to destroy Patrol Base Khiam or even to blast away indiscriminately, only to root out enemies hiding among civilians.
Two paragraphs later, the report gets to the crux of the matter - and here a new standard of absurdity is established. Throughout the document, the names of interviewees have been widely but ineffectively censored from the public version, including the removal of the names but not the positions of UN peacekeeping officers whose identities are a matter of public record. But under the rubric "Cause" on pages 23 and 24, the board has outdone itself: Here the passage has been excised in its entirety. A similar glaring white space follows another tantalizing (albeit misspelled) entry on pages 51 and 52: "Ordinance [sic] dropping on the Patrol Base."
Where it is impossible to do otherwise, the report is straightforward: An Israeli bomb killed the men involved, the UN communications network functioned as intended, liaison with the Israelis sufficed to end earlier bombardments but not the fatal one, etc. In virtually every other way, though, an obvious effort is made to avoid mention of facts that suggest Israeli culpability on some level and to expand on those that have less (or even no) relevance, for example:
Plenty of space is dedicated to communicating the confusion that can envelop "non-linear combat" as a conventional military confronts a non-conventional one on a battlefield with few if any front lines. This sounds suspiciously like the stock excuse commonly trotted out by the Israelis whenever they kill civilians - which, needless to say, is often.
There are also explanations of the day-to-day operations undertaken by UN peacekeeping units in the region, of the general environment in which they operate, and of what they were doing on July 25, 2006. There is much less explanation (to be precise, none) of the repeated occasions on which Israeli forces have harassed, endangered and killed UN personnel in Lebanon and other countries where peacekeeping and/or observer missions are present.
There is also an explanation of why, after UN commanders determined that Patrol Base Khiam was "no longer safe," they put off the evacuation mission until the following morning. "The decision," the report says, "was based on several considerations including waiting for the situation to become less tense, allowing time to coordinate movement through the liaison network, and conducting the move during daylight." There is, however, no allusion to the actual source of the danger involved: i.e. the Israeli attack helicopters and fighter-bombes that were making a habit of blowing up anything that moved (and many things that did not) in South Lebanon, including ambulances, clearly marked media vehicles, and civilian cars.
Where the really important findings of the lengthy investigation should be, there is only blank paper. The recommendations only make matters worse: Nowhere do they meaningfully address the real issues at stake, or even some of the - pointedly Israeli - failings acknowledged earlier in the document.
For these and other reasons, the report is not just an insult to all those who read it. It is also raises more questions than it answers. If the board was not even willing to mention the possibility that the Israeli military acted with, at best, wanton disregard for the welfare of UN personnel (not to mention civilians), or to reveal what is sees as the "cause" of the incident, what options are we left with? Were Major Hess-Von Kruedener and his colleagues deliberately assassinated because they reported or witnessed atrocities, were they the unfortunate victims of an unintended (although obviously not unpredictable) mistake, were their deaths due to the latent hostility that marks much of Israel's interactions with the UN, or is the truth a mix of these and/or other possibilities?
Until someone has the guts to risk being tarred as an "anti-Semite" because he or she is willing to take the Israelis to task, we will never know. Just ask the survivors of the USS Liberty, a US Navy ship in international waters that Israeli forces attacked for several hours in June 1967, killing 34 American servicemen. They have never obtained justice, and the careers of many of those who have tried have been forever damaged.
**Marc J. Sirois is managing editor of THE DAILY STAR.