LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
February 19/08

Bible Reading of the day.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 6,36-38. Be merciful, just as (also) your Father is merciful. Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you."

Free Opinions, Releases, letters & Special Reports
Road of Perdition-Arab Times.18/02/08
Radical Disorder Over Lebanon. By: Rubin, Barry. 18/02/08
Unintelligence on Iranian Nukes.Appalling gamesmanship at the CIA. By: Michael Rubin. MEF 18/02/08

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for February 18/08
Moussa Confirms Quartet Meeting to Take Place Feb. 24-Naharnet
Intelligence Meeting over Security Concerns Ends Militants' Immunity-Naharnet
Iran Predicts 'Destruction' of Israel by Hizbullah-Naharnet
Kuwait Pledges Support For Lebanon during Saniora Visit-Naharnet
Presidential Void Could Lead Saudi, Egypt to Boycott Arab Summit-Naharnet
Syrian Force Shoots and Wounds Lebanese Man-Naharnet
2006 War Prompted International Conference on Banning Cluster Bombs-Naharnet
Olmert Denies Planning to Declare 2 Hizbullah-held Soldiers Dead-Naharnet
State of Emergency or Military Zone-Naharnet
Hizbullah to target top-ranked Israelis-Jerusalem Post
Delegates at Cluster Bomb Conference Hope for Decisive Action-Voice of America
Khamenei: God will Reprimand Iranians if they Give up Nuclear Activity-Naharnet
Barak: Syria, Iran may aid Hizbullah retaliation- Daily Star
Interior Ministry provides citizens with safety instructions for earthquakes-Daily Star
Human Rights Watch says Israel's use of cluster bombs illegal-Daily Star
Moussa to return to Beirut before session to elect president-Daily Star
Lebanese Army calls for calm after clashes in capital-Daily Star
Qatar donates $5.5 million to help rebuild Bint Jbeil-Daily Star
Investigating Magistrate Hajj quits 'Black Sunday' case-Daily Star
Rizk expresses hope tribunal will unite Lebanese-Daily Star
Israel plans to declare its two captured troops dead-Daily Star
Sfeir warns against 'widening gap' in Lebanon-Daily Star
Portuguese president visits UNIFIL contingent in South Lebanon-Daily Star
Israel 'broke law' with use of cluster bombs Human Rights Watch details war crimes-Daily Star
Beirut Stock Exchange continues to sink under weight of political deadlock-Daily Star
'I never said it would be a knockout'-Jerusalem Post
Kosovo declares independence from Serbia-AFP
20 injured in Beirut street clashes-Independent Online
Two Wounded in Beirut Shootout as Tensions Escalate-Naharnet
Kouchner on Mughniyeh's Killing: Assassinations don't Resolve Conflicts-Naharnet
Premier Fouad Saniora Visits Kuwait, Plans European Tour-Naharnet
Kuwaiti Lawmakers Denounce Mughniyeh Rally-Naharnet
US Intelligence Chief Says Hizbullah, Syria Eliminated Mughniyeh-Naharnet
McConnell: Hezbollah Threat 'Serious'-The Associated Press
Pope Benedict XVI appeals for dialogue and reconciliation in Lebanon-International Herald Tribune
Bracing for revenge-International Herald Tribune
Barak: Syria, Iran might aid retaliation against Mughniyeh killing-International Herald Tribune
Saudi king may miss Syria Arab summit over Lebano-Reuters
Syria Denies Joint Iran Investigatio-Guardian Unlimited
Lebanon has ‘no interest’ in open war with Israel-Gulf Times

US Intelligence Chief Says Hizbullah, Syria Eliminated Mughniyeh
The U.S. intelligence chief said Sunday that internal Hizbullah or Syria may be to blame for the killing of a top Hizbullah commander that has led the FBI to put domestic terror squads on alert in the United States. Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell said on the television show "Fox News Sunday that the United States is still reviewing the case following the death last Tuesday of Commander Imad Mughniyeh in a car bombing in the Syrian capital of Damascus.
Hizbullah blamed Israel and has pledged to attack Jewish targets worldwide in retaliation. That led the FBI last week to be vigilant for possible threats in the U.S. against synagogues and other potential Jewish targets.McConnell said he considers the threat to be primarily against Israel. But he said U.S. intelligence officials are keeping a close watch and taking any necessary action to protect the United States because Mughniyeh has been "responsible for more deaths of Americans and Israelis than any other terrorist with the exception of Osama bin Laden.""It is a serious threat," McConnell said. "There's some evidence that it may have been internal Hizbullah. It may have been Syria. We don't know yet, and we're trying to sort that out."
McConnell reiterated his belief that the U.S. is at "increased danger" of a terrorist attack and "it will increase more and more as time goes on" because Congress did not quickly renew an eavesdropping law that expired at midnight Saturday. He also Contended that the threat of Iran developing nuclear weapons has not changed much despite a U.S. intelligence report released in December that concluded Tehran halted its nuclear weapons ambitions in 2003. McConnell said Iran had terminated one aspect of a technical design but "they could have turned it back on now and we wouldn't necessarily know.""They could do it by 2009 -- unlikely," he said, referring to the ability to make a nuclear bomb. "The range is 2010 to 2015. And the best guess is about the middle range there for having a nuclear weapon."(AP)

Two Wounded in Beirut Shootout as Tensions Escalate
Two people were wounded in a shootout in Beirut's district of Sabra on Sunday, police and hospital officials said.
It was not immediately clear who fired or what caused the clash near the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila, but a police official said two people -- a Palestinian and a Lebanese -- were lightly wounded and taken to the nearby Makassed hospital.
The state-run National News Agency reported a shootout between a group of Palestinians and Lebanese, adding that army troops intervened to restore order. It gave no further details on the cause of the clash but said the gunmen fled to an unknown location.
Clashes have become common in recent weeks as tensions escalate between rival Lebanese camps and the country's 15-month-old political crisis deepens.
But a police official, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said it was not immediately clear whether Sunday's clash had a political background.
After the Sunday violence, the military warned against more such clashes and pledged firm action.
"The army command warns of the dangerous situation and will act firmly against anyone who tries to destabilize security," a military statement said.
A Shiite opposition protest over electricity cuts in south Beirut neighborhoods last month degenerated into a riot, prompting troops to open fire. Seven people were killed in that violence.(AP) Beirut, 17 Feb 08, 19:13

Britain's Daily "Times": Mossad Killed Mughniyeh with Headrest Bomb
Britain's daily Times reported in its Sunday edition that the Israeli foreign intelligence service, Mossad, carried out Hizbullah's top commander's assassination in Damascus through an explosive planted in the headrest of the driver's seat in his car. The British newspaper said that Mughniyeh was attending a reception to mark the 29th anniversary of Ayatollah Khomeini's Iranian revolution the night he was killed. "He had grown accustomed to living dangerously and there was no reason he should have feared for his safety last Tuesday as he sipped fruit juice at the party at the Iranian cultural centre. Mughniyeh was on fairly good terms with everybody present – almost all the leaders of the Damascus-based militant groups were represented" the newspaper said. It added "At 10.35pm he (Mughniyeh) decided to go home. Having exchanged customary kisses with his host, Hojatoleslam Ahmad Musavi, the newly appointed Iranian ambassador, Mughniyeh stepped into the night". "Minutes later he was seated in his silver Mitsubishi Pajero in a nearby street when a deafening blast ripped the car apart and killed him instantly".
"According to Israeli intelligence sources, someone had replaced the headrest of the driver's seat with another containing a small high-explosive charge" the Times reported.The British daily quoted One witness as saying : "I held his head in my hands, kissed him farewell. His face was burnt but intact and he had received serious injuries to his abdomen," in a hint that Mughniyeh's head was ripped apart from his body following the deadly explosion.
The noted newspaper quoted a close friend of Mughniyeh, Anis Al-Nackash, as saying that a Hizbullah's retaliation to Mughniyeh's death will be "Most likely… a one that had been planned and masterminded by Imad himself"Al Nackash, the newspaper said, confirmed that "Mughniyeh had prepared a variety of "spectacular" attacks to be executed by Hizbullah if one of its top leaders was assassinated. These were now being dusted off and updated".
The Times claimed that on the day Mughniyeh was buried Israel's Premier Ehud Olmert summoned Mossad chief Meir Dagan from his cottage in Galilee to Jerusalem. "It was a one-on-one meeting," said a source. But it is believed that Dagan was complimented by his boss and told that he would stay as head of Mossad until the end of 2009, the newspaper alleged. Beirut, 17 Feb 08, 22:06

Unintelligence on Iranian Nukes
Appalling gamesmanship at the CIA
by Michael Rubin
Weekly Standard
February 25, 2008
During his February 5 testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell backpedaled from the December 2007 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) and its claim that, "in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program."
Not only did McConnell testify that the Islamic Republic was working to master the enrichment of uranium - "the most difficult challenge in nuclear production" - but he also acknowledged that, "because of intelligence gaps," the U.S. government could not be certain that the Iranian government had fully suspended its covert nuclear programs. "We assess with high confidence that Iran has the scientific, technical, and industrial capacity eventually to produce nuclear weapons," he testified. "In our judgment, only an Iranian political decision to abandon a nuclear weapons objective would plausibly keep Iran from eventually producing nuclear weapons - and such a decision is inherently reversible."
The NIE was no accident, and McConnell's pirouette does more than confirm the intelligence community's sloppiness. The 2007 NIE was built on geopolitical assumptions as much as any hard intelligence, and historians will deem it important not because it was accurate, but because it made utterly clear the collapse of the intelligence community. While the crudeness of its assault on the president's Iran policy makes it the best example of the intelligence community's agenda politics, it is far from the only one.
My initiation into CIA policy plays came less than a week after Baghdad's fall to coalition forces in April 2003. In the months before the war, U.S. government officials had assessed thousands of Iraqi political activists and technocrats in order to prepare to fill the Iraqi political vacuum. Representatives from State, the Pentagon, and the National Security Council were meeting to vet invitations for the Nasiriya Conference where Iraqis would discuss post-liberation governance.
Rather than simply present the biographies of the various Iraqi figures, the CIA sought to be a privileged policy player. Its representative announced that not only would Langley be inviting its own candidates outside the interagency consensus, but the CIA would not be sharing the names or backgrounds of its invitees. Putting aside the ridiculousness of the CIA belief that it could invite delegates anonymously to a public conference, more troubling was the principle. Far from limiting its work to intelligence, the CIA leadership was unabashedly involving itself in major policy initiatives.
The reverberations of Langley's policy games haunted reconstruction. CIA officials would promise governorships to Iraqis without any coordination. Often, diplomats, military officials, and Pentagon civilians would learn of such deals only after other Iraqis had been appointed or elected to such offices. (Some U.S. servicemen surely paid the price as spurned Iraqis responded to what they saw as betrayal.) Once the son of a Kurdish leader remarked how ridiculous State-Defense bickering was when the CIA had implemented and funded a decision on the policy issue months before without any coordination whatsoever.
Many of the agency's senior analysts are arrogant after years behind their computers, believing they know far better what U.S. policy should be than the policymakers for whom they draft reports. The recourse of the disgruntled, bored, or politicized analyst is the leak - the bread and butter of any national security correspondent. Journalists who fulfill the leakers' objectives win ever more tantalizing scoops; those who maintain professional integrity and question the agenda behind any leak, find their access cut. The result is a situation in which journalists who might otherwise double-check sources, take a single intelligence analyst at his word, even if he is using them to fight a policy battle.
Iraq again provides a case study. In order to shield themselves from accountability over flawed intelligence or to bolster their Iraqi proxies at the expense of competitors, CIA officials provided a steady stream of leaks to favored correspondents like the New Yorker's Seymour Hersh or McClatchy's Warren Strobel. Such leaks ranged from allegations that the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans - a policy shop - was a rogue intelligence operation to misattributions of the provenance of prewar intelligence.
It was not uncommon, for example, to see false or exaggerated intelligence attributed to the Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmad Chalabi when it had actually come from Kurdish officials. This was never more clear than in a July 17, 2004, New York Times correction. The paper was retracting three stories which alleged a connection between Chalabi and an Iraqi source code-named Curveball, whose information later turned out to be bogus. The editors explained that their correspondent had "attribute[d] that account to American intelligence officials who spoke on condition of anonymity." They continued: "Those officials now say that there was no such established relationship." In other words, intelligence officials lied to a reporter to achieve a policy aim.
Such behavior is not limited to debates over policies impacting countries thousands of miles away. W. Patrick Lang, a former Defense Intelligence Agency official, told the American Prospect in 2005 that his intelligence community colleagues used leaks to try to influence the 2004 presidential election. "Of course they were leaking. They told me about it at the time. They thought it was funny. They'd say things like, 'This last thing that came out, surely people will pay attention to that. They won't reelect this man.' " The intelligence leadership did not refer the matter to the judiciary, unlike the leak concerning Valerie Plame.
To deflect criticism of the NIE, intelligence officials reached out to reporters. "Hundreds of officials were involved and thousands of documents were drawn upon in this report making it impossible for any official to overly sway it," the Wall Street Journal was told. Wayne White, a former analyst in State's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, suggested it was "absolutely disgusting" that anyone could impugn the professionalism of lead author (and his former colleague) Thomas Fingar. This is disingenuous. Personnel are policy. Half of Washington's battles involve who writes the first and last drafts of any paper or memo.
McConnell's testimony undercut the idea that the intelligence agencies deserve a reputation for either professionalism or integrity. A tolerance for political gamesmanship has besmirched the entire community. With the NIE giving Iran what President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared its "greatest victory during the past 100 years," the consequence for U.S. national security is grave.
In the wake of the Iraq war, many Democrats accused the Bush administration of politicizing intelligence. It was a false charge, but good politics. But the fact is, the problem was the opposite: an intelligence community driven by the desire to conduct policy.
**Michael Rubin, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and editor of the Middle East Quarterly, was an Iran country director at the Pentagon between September 2002 and April 2004.

Editorial: Road of Perdition
18 February 2008
The Lebanese Army’s intervention between rival factions in Beirut to break up street clashes raises questions about the role of the fractured country’s armed forces. Despite its reputed neutrality, the army has found itself confronting the supporters of one side in the current political deadlock.
The army has so far been seen as neutral in the political crisis but the clashes, between Sunni and Shiite neighborhoods, have raised fears that some might be trying to drag the army, which many believe to be the country’s last hope, into a confrontation with the Shiite which could lead to the collapse of the military.
The clashes are only one more problem in the long list of woes triggered by the country’s not having a president since November. Fouad Siniora, the man who became prime minister at a turning point in Lebanon’s history, has perhaps one of the most difficult tasks of any politician anywhere. He has to run whatever government is left while keeping the country afloat. On the surface, Lebanon is barely functioning. Under the surface it’s not much better — a snake pit of sectarian strife, foreign intervention and endless plotting and assassinations.
Lebanon’s strength was in its openness and pluralism. Now the same things are its undoing. The country has become a target for meddling foreign powers, a victim of personal agendas and an arena for vendetta. French, American and Arab initiatives have failed. Electing Gen. Michel Suleiman as president is a reasonable option by any normal standard. Suleiman has been backed by all sides as the favored consensus candidate to take over the presidency. But there are people in Lebanon who won’t listen to reason. They would sooner drag the country into the abyss than let it survive. Lebanese leaders cannot continue calculating how many people each side can mobilize in a show of strength that inevitably leads to ever-heightening tension backed by ever more vitriolic rhetoric. Once the street takes over, it picks up a violent logic all its own.
A breakthrough in the deadlock might come about on Feb. 26, the next date set for a parliamentary session to elect a president. An agreement on the election of a president is allegedly being concluded. The March 8 and March14 F ronts and the president will be allocated 10 Cabinet seats each. In addition to the likely election of military chief Michel Suleiman, a new elections law will be put in place. The four most sensitive Cabinet portfolios will be divided between opposition and government while the Interior Ministry will be allocated to the president. But will it work?
During the 1975-1990 civil war, the army fragmented along sectarian lines. If it were to do so again, many Lebanese would lose hope of averting another largely sectarian civil war between the factions supporting and opposing the Beirut government. Today’s Lebanon is a shadow of its former self. It is heading down the same road of perdition that is now so common in the region. It seems to have forgotten that freedom is a blessing, not a curse.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7&section=0&article=106889&d=18&m=2&y=2008

Radical Disorder Over Lebanon
By: Rubin, Barry
Monday, February 18, 2008 - ----
The assassination of Imad Mugniyah, arguably the world's second most dangerous terrorist after Usama bin Ladin, has riveted world attention on the story. But few are aware of the dramatic aftermath.
Here are some dramatic trends to watch:
While I believe this is NOT true, Hizballah is wracked with rumors that Syria killed Hizballah's chief of international terrorist operations who was also a close collaborator with Iran. All three partners are now suspicious of each other, which may not disrupt their alliance but won't help either . Whether Mugniyah's death in Damascus was due to Syrian incompetence (more likely) or complicity (less likely), the Iranians want to be involved in the investigation. This is humiliating for Syria, which has denied any Iranian involvement. Still, the deputy Iranian foreign minister insists that Tehran will be participating and since Tehran pays so many of Syria's bills, the Bashar al-Assad regime probably will have to accept what Iran wants.
The Syrians are hinted that there was Arab state involvement in the killing, which also means they are going to claim an Arab government worked with Israel on this operation. Again, I don't believe it but if the Syrians accuse Jordan or Saudi Arabia, these neighbors will be very angry at Damascus, further isolating the radical regime there.
Syria has been preparing for the big Arab summit, whose success would be a big victory for Damascus and undermine the isolation that most Western governments have been trying to use as leverage against it. There are already hints that the Saudis may not send a top-level delegation because of anger over Syrian subversion in Lebanon and is encouraging other Arab governments to do the same suit, turning the summit into a failure. Reuters quoted an analyst with strong Saudi ties as saying the Saudis “will reduce their presence to the lowest representation possible as a means of protest. This will encourage others in the Gulf not to go, or to lower their representation. It will have an impact," he said.
Hizballah threats to attack Israel in revenge for Mugniyah's killing have brought the most open and explicit rejections ever from Lebanon's government and its supporters. They are saying in advance that they will not let Hizballah drag them into war.
Meanwhile, Hizballah has continued its bad strategy of antagonizing everyone else in Lebanon. Syria and the Shia Muslim Hizballah group had so alienated Sunni Muslims that they could only ally with a marginal, very extreme Sunni Islamist, Fathi Yakan, who was simultaneously pro-Syria and pro-al-Qaida. And, of course, Hizballah also sided with Syria, who most Lebanese Sunni accused of murdering the popular Lebanese and Sunni leader Rafiq Hariri.
Now they have weakened and angered their remaining Christian allies. First, Syria and Hizballah broke their promise to support former general Michel Aoun for the presidency. In turn, Aoun is unable to muster his demoralized and deserting supporters in the street during the battle of rallies between the pro-independence coalition and pro-Syrian Hizballah.
To make matters worse, by clashing with Lebanese army soldiers, Hizballah activists have seemed to make themselves an open enemy of the last remaining cohesive national institution.
After an 18-month effort to gain hegemony in Lebanon, the tripartite Iran-Syria-Hizballah alliance has made virtually no progress, a fact which is discrediting their power.
The damage inflicted by all these developments equals or even exceeds that inflicted by the death of Mugniyah himself.
The opinions and views articulated by the author do not necessarily reflect those of Israel e News.
http://www.israelenews.com/view.asp?ID=1105

Car bomb kills 35 Afghan civilians 
AP/KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A suicide car bomber targeting a Canadian military convoy killed 35 civilians at a busy market in southern Afghanistan, a police official said. At least 28 people were wounded in the attack in Spin Boldak, a town in Kandahar province near the border with Pakistan, said Abdul Razeq, the Spin Boldak border police chief. Three Canadian soldiers were lightly wounded, he said. The attack comes one day after Afghanistan's deadliest bombing since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. More than 100 people were killed by a suicide bomber outside Kandahar city on Sunday.
The back-to-back bombings could indicate a change in tactics by militants. Though attacks occasionally have killed dozens, insurgents in Afghanistan have generally sought to avoid targeting civilians. The country saw a record level of violence last year, and analysts and military leaders here have predicted that 2008 could turn even deadlier.One of the Canadian military vehicles was heavily damaged in the attack, as were several shops and civilian vehicles, said Abdul Razeq, the Spin Boldak border police chief. Khalid said several of the wounded were in critical condition and that the death toll could rise. Though the Afghan-Pakistan border had been closed Monday because of elections in Pakistan, several of the wounded were taken to Chaman, Pakistan, for treatment, Razeq said.