LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS
BULLETIN
May 07/08
Bible Reading of the day.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to
Saint John 17,1-11. When Jesus had said this, he raised his eyes to heaven and
said, "Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your son, so that your son may
glorify you, just as you gave him authority over all people, so that he may give
eternal life to all you gave him. Now this is eternal life, that they should
know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ. I
glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do. Now
glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the
world began. I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world.
They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
Now they know that everything you gave me is from you, because the words you
gave to me I have given to them, and they accepted them and truly understood
that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. I pray for them.
I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me, because they are
yours, and everything of mine is yours and everything of yours is mine, and I
have been glorified in them. And now I will no longer be in the world, but
they are in the world, while I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your
name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are.
Free Opinions, Releases, letters & Special Reports
An Ordinary Matter for Hezbollah- By:Diana Mukkaled -Asharq Al Awsat
04/05/08
Don't overstate the Syrian-Israeli track.By
Mahdi Abdul Hadi 06/05/08
Latest News Reports From
Miscellaneous Sources for May 06/08
Late-night clashes break out in and around Beirut,
Bekaa Valley-Daily Star
Sfeir says Qatar has larger role to play in resolving
crisis-Daily Star
Welch says Syria interfering in Lebanon-Daily
Star
US daily reports Hizbullah training Iraqis in Iran-Daily
Star
Peace process shows signs of life after 'very
serious' Abbas-Olmert meeting-AFP
Qabalan calls for truce in politicians' war of words-Daily
Star
UNIFIL holds meeting with Israeli, Lebanese armies-Daily
Star
Tueni, Mokheiber announce endorsement of Butros
electoral law-Daily Star
Judiciary probes allegations against Hizbullah -
report-Daily Star
Aoun wants peaceful rally alongside Wednesday strike-Daily
Star
Lebanon looking into alleged Hezbollah cameras at airport-The
Associated Press
US charge d'affaires tours northern border-Daily
Star
Wahhab says Saudi Arabia interfering in Lebanon-Daily
Star
Sfeir to talk about Lebanese crisis with Ban Ki-moon and George Bush.AsiaNews.it
Lebanese prosecutor probes reports Hezbollah has surveillance ...International
Herald Tribune
Aoun For Demonstration to Topple Government, Supports Hizbullah in ...Naharnet
Media heavyweights pay tribute to slain journalists-Daily
Star
In death as in life: Lebanon's dueling visions of
martyrdom-AFP
Fatah vows to control refugee camps on Lebanese soil-By
IRIN News.org
In commemoration on Martyrs of the Press Day-Daily
Star
LebaneseCabinet
'set to hike minimum wage by 50 percent-Daily Star
Welch: Hizbullah, Others Trying to Tamper with Lebanon-Naharnet
Five Wounded by Gunfire in Separate Clashes, House Burnt Down
Beirut-Naharnet
March 14: Iranian
Ambassador Became High Commissioner Overseeing Creation of Hizbullah State-Naharnet
Hizbullah Warns against
Messing with Private Telephone Network-Naharnet
Peres: Nuclear Iran
Would be 'Nightmare'-Naharnet
Lebanese Army, UNIFIL
Draw Up Plan to 'Curb' Israeli Violations-Naharnet
Lebanon's Martyrs-Naharnet
Hizbullah Trains Iraqis in Camp Near
Tehran-Naharnet
Qabalan to Rival Political Leaders: Be
Wise-Naharnet
U.S. Congress Discusses Draft Bill to
Punish Syria-Naharnet
March 14, Jamaa Islamiya: Saadiyat
Incident Evidence of Hizbullah Expansion-Naharnet
Hariri Meets Kuwaiti Emir-Naharnet
U.N. to Seek Speedy Implementation of 1559
after Report Hizbullah is Spying on Airport-Naharnet
Lebanon's martyr past lives on-AFP
Welch: Hizbullah, Others Trying to Tamper with Lebanon
Naharnet/U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Welch
has accused Hizbullah and elements from different nationalities of trying to
tamper with Lebanon. He also told El Shark daily in remarks published Monday
that the Bush administration, along with its "European partners" and Arab
allies, was trying to put pressure on Syria so that it stops meddling in
Lebanon's internal affairs. The U.S. was trying to extend help to Lebanon so
that it rises "economically and politically," Welch said, adding that his
country was also assisting the Lebanese army to keep security. He said Syria's
interference in Lebanese politics was hindering the process of Lebanon's rise
from the devastation of the 1975-1990 civil war. Asked whether Hizbullah was
behind the bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut in 1983, Welch stressed that in
addition to Hizbullah there are Saudis, Iraqis and terrorist elements from
Pakistan trying to tamper with Lebanon and nail down its independence. Beirut,
05 May 08, 11:32
Five Wounded by Gunfire in Separate Clashes, House Burnt Down
Naharnet/Five people were wounded by gunfire in separate overnight clashes in
Beirut and east Lebanon and security sources reported Monday that assailants set
a house on fire. The sources said three people were wounded when members of
Speaker Nabih Berri's Amal movement fought it out with supporters of MP Saad
Hariri's al Mustaqbal party in Beirut's Corniche Mazraa neighborhood. They were
identified as Nabil Zaidan, Mohammed Omran and a third from the al-Tal family.
Fighting soon quelled when army troops and police deployed in the area and
dispersed the gunmen. Al Mustaqbal newspaper, however, said that Omran was
kidnapped and brutally beaten by Amal members before they handed him to the
army's intelligence. Omran, the paper said, is being treated at the military
hospital.
A separate quarrel took place in Beirut's Jnah district between members of the
Abdel Hay family and others from the Salameh family that quickly developed into
exchange of gunfire. Both families are supporters of Hizbullah. Security sources
reported no casualties, but said a member of the Salameh family soon set the
house of Bilal Abdel Hay in the nearby Ouzai neighborhood on fire. Security
forces quickly stepped in and opened an investigation into the incident.
Al Mustaqbal said security forces arrested 12 suspects. In the Western
Bekaa Valley town of Mashghara, fighting between Amal gunmen and Hizbullah
militants left two Amal members wounded, according to the sources. Beirut, 05
May 08, 07:36
March 14: Iranian Ambassador Became High Commissioner
Overseeing Creation of Hizbullah State
Naharnet/The ruling March 14 coalition warned that Hizbullah's
scheme which is aimed at setting up a state within the state has reached a
"decisive stage."
"After occupying downtown (Beirut) and crippling the economic cycle and
government operation; and after cleaning up the area under their influence of
any legitimate Lebanese security presence, it (Hizbullah) shifted to a new stage
by directing a strong blow to the government through its attempt to place the
airport under its direct security control together with setting up a private
communication network which links the capital with the rest of Lebanon all the
way to Syria," said a statement issued by the March 14 general secretariat. The
statement accused Iranian ambassador to Lebanon Mohammad Reza Shibani of
becoming a "high commissioner" entrusted with overseeing the creation of the
Hizbullah state. March 14 said "these developments require speedy steps to
salvage the country, including adherence to the Taef Accord and U.N. Security
Council resolutions on Lebanon and the immediate election of a president.
Beirut, 05 May 08, 10:19
Hizbullah Warns against Messing with Private Telephone
Network
Naharnet/Hizbullah said that an illegal telephone network the
group had set up was part of the "resistance arms," and warned the government
and the ruling camp against messing with it. "It is no secret that the
resistance has a private communication network," Hizbullah MP Hasan Fadlallah
said. He said Hizbullah "prevented the Israeli enemy from penetrating" the
network which also "played a role in achieving victory in the last (2006) war."
"This limited network … is part of the weaponry that should not be harmed," he
warned. Beirut, 05 May 08, 08:51
Lebanese Army, UNIFIL Draw Up Plan to 'Curb' Israeli
Violations
Naharnet/Lebanese army troops and U.N. peacekeepers deployed in
the eastern sector of UNIFIL's area of operations reportedly drew up a plan
aimed at "curbing" Israeli violations in the highlands of Jabal al-Sheikh. The
daily As Safir, which carried the report Monday, said the plan has been put into
action.
It said the plan includes setting up permanent checkpoints, conducting early
morning patrols and constructing new military roads. Beirut, 05 May 08, 12:06
Hizbullah Trains Iraqis in Camp Near Tehran Hizbullah militants have been
training Iraqi militiamen in Iran, according to American interrogation reports
that the United States has supplied to the Iraqi government, The New York Times
said. The report quoted an American official as saying the account of
Hizbullah's role was provided by four Shiite militia members who were captured
in Iraq late last year and questioned separately.
The United States has long charged that the Iranians were training Iraqi militia
fighters in Iran, which Tehran has consistently denied, and there have been
previous reports about Hizbullah operatives in Iraq. But the Americans say
the reports of Hizbullah's role at the camp near Tehran offer important details
about Iranian assistance to the militias, including efforts Iran appears to be
making to train the fighters in unobtrusive ways.
Material from the interrogations was given to the Iraqi government, along with
other data about captured Iranian arms, before it sent a delegation to Tehran
last week to discuss allegations of Iranian aid to militia groups, according to
The New York Times. It said it is not known if the delegation confronted
its Iranian hosts with the information, or how the Iranians responded. Prime
Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki's government announced Sunday that it would
conduct its own inquiry into accusations of Iranian intervention in Iraq and
document any interference. "We have experienced in the past that Iran interfered
and has special groups in Iraq, but Iran also had evidence that they were
participating in positive ways in security," Ali al-Dabbagh, a senior Iraqi
government spokesman, said in an interview. "We would like the Iranians to
keep their commitment, the commitments they made in meetings with the prime
minister and with other groups that have visited them," he said. "They had made
the promise that Iran would be playing a supportive role."
There has been debate among experts about the extent to which Iran is
responsible for instability in Iraq, The New York Times went on to say. But
President Bush and other American officials, in public castigations of Iran,
have said that Iran has been consistently meddlesome in Iraq and that the
Iranians have long sought to arm and train Iraqi militias, which the American
military has called "special groups."
In a possible effort to be less obtrusive, it appears that Iran is now bringing
small groups of Iraqi Shiite militants to camps in Iran, where they are taught
how to do their own training, American officials told The New York Times. It
said the militants then return to Iraq to teach comrades how to fire rockets and
mortars, fight as snipers or assemble explosively formed penetrators, a
particularly lethal type of roadside bomb made of Iranian components, according
to American officials. The officials describe this approach as "training the
trainers."
The training, the Americans told The New York Times, is carried out at several
camps near Tehran that are overseen by the Quds Force of the Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Command, and the instruction is carried out by Hizbullah,
which has long been supported by the Quds Force. They said Hizbullah militants
perform several important roles for the Iranians. First, they say, the Iranians
believe it is useful to have Arabs train fellow Arabs. Second, Hizbullah has
considerable experience in planning operations and using weapons and explosives
in Lebanon.
According to American officials, the four Shiite militants who provided the
information on Hizbullah's role were captured between last September and
December after they had returned from training in Iran. They were questioned
individually and provided similar accounts, they said.
The captured men described themselves in the accounts as part of a class of 16
militants who crossed into Iran from southern Iraq and were taken to a camp near
Tehran, where they studied in a classroom and in the field, the report said. It
said some had been in Iran several times as part of a program that American
officials said was aimed at turning them into "master trainers" and which could
last several years. According to their interrogation reports, the militiamen
believed that militants from other countries were also being trained at the
camp, an impression based on hearing snippets of conversations in other dialects
and languages. But the group was kept separate and was not allowed to mingle
with others. American officials said that they believe that similar classes have
been arranged for other groups of Iraqi militants, but that the effort appears
to be compartmentalized to ensure security. Beirut, 05 May 08, 07:03
Qabalan to Rival Political Leaders: Be Wise
Naharnet/Deputy Head of the Supreme Shiite Council Sheikh Abdul
Amir Qabalan said Sunday that political bickering will only aggravate the
political crisis, and called on the warring political leaders to be wise.
"Political bickering will only complicate the political crisis in Lebanon,"
Qabalan said. "While the soft speech sets the stage for a quiet dialogue that
would reinforce the march of communication among the Lebanese and abolishes
everybody's fears," he added. "For this, politicians should be wise and practice
good ethics and patience in dealing with political issues – away from angry
reactions," Qabalan advised.
"Lebanon can only be built through partnership," Qabalan said, adding that
dialogue is the only way out of the crisis. Beirut, 04 May 08, 18:08
U.S. Congress Discusses Draft Bill to Punish Syria
Naharnet/The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee has
reportedly discussed a draft bill presented by Republican senator John Cornyn
that called for "punishing Syria and liberating it." The daily Al
Mustaqbal, which carried the report, said the draft bill aimed at increasing
sanctions against Damascus and preventing it from carrying out its "intimidation
policy." The draft bill, according to the paper, also called for a democratic
transformation of the Syrian government.
Al Mustaqbal said the draft has been referred to the House Financial Services
Committee. The document sees that the U.S. national security and global peace
are threatened as a result of Syria's continuous support of terrorism, including
activities in Iraq and development of long-range missiles and weapons of mass
destruction.
The bill set tough conditions for lifting sanctions against Syria. It said
sanctions would be lifted only after:
- a democratic government that would "stop practicing and backing terrorism" is
formed.
- Damascus stops supporting Palestinian terrorist groups for five years.
- dismantling of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons program.
- undertaking visible measures to combat the spread of such weapons.
- respecting borders and sovereignty of neighboring countries.
- supporting human rights and respecting freedom of its people. Beirut, 05 May
08, 09:34
De Freij: Committee Summoned During my Absence ... Berri is
a Dictator
Naharnet/Nahaernet/MP Nabil de Freij accused Speaker Nabih Berri
of being a "dictator," saying Parliament's economic committee had been summoned
for a meeting during his absence. De Freij, in an interview with Naharnet, said
Berri is "the person most (responsible for) blocking presidential elections in
Lebanon."
"When I was away, Berri summoned the economic committee which I head through
(MP) Ali Bazzi," de Freij said. "And when I asked Bazzi why Berri called for the
meeting, he replied by saying: 'I did not call for the meeting.'""They do things
that they are ashamed of. Then they lie to cover up their deeds," he said.
De Freij said Berri's call for the committee meeting was aimed at directing
media attention to "show embassies that he is carrying out his duties in
Parliament."
"Nabih Berri is a dictator. He believes he can cheat the world by using this
method, when this is all a lie," he went on to say.
"Ali Bazzi was the one who signed the paper calling for the committee meetings.
This is what I've been told," de Freij said. "Yet, he (Bazzi) denied the matter
when I spoke to him." De Freij accused Berri of closing Parliament doors as
"part of the scheme aimed at hitting all institutions in Lebanon."
He said a May 13 parliament session set to elect a president is unlikely to take
place because there is no "green light" from Damascus to Lebanon elections.
De Freij believed that the opposition's main objective was to "amend" the Taef
Accord in order to achieve a tripartite distribution of equal shares in a new
cabinet that would give the Shiites "more power and influence in return for
settling the issue of Hizbullah arms in the future." Beirut, 04 May 08, 20:29
An Ordinary Matter for Hezbollah
04/05/2008
http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=2&id=12647
Diana Mukkaled -Asharq Al Awsat
Commenting on the recent detention of the French delegate to the French
Socialist Party, Karim Pakzad, in a southern suburb in Beirut for four hours,
Hezbollah stated that the matter "would have passed normally" had it not been
for the media making an issue of the incident. The party believes that those who
stirred up the controversy harbour ill intentions towards the resistance.
Hezbollah is wrong to think that the detention of the French politician who was
taking photographs in an area under Hezbollah's control is an incident that
could have passed without much fuss – and the paradox lies in causing uproar
over this matter.
Ever since the end of the Lebanese civil war in 1990 and following Hezbollah's
armament under Syria's patronage, all areas have become difficult for reporters
and photographers to access without permission, regulations and security
measures that are imposed by Hezbollah, which alone has the right to challenge
and undertake practices in its strongholds.
Accounts of reporters and photographers who have been detained, subjected to
investigation and whose equipment and videotapes have been confiscated by
Hezbollah are countless to the extent that it has become a common media security
practice in Lebanon.
The position of the press, which is subjected to interruptions and pursuit,
vacillates between two sides: the desire to obtain journalistic material, which
accordingly means taking into account the status quo and turning the blind eye
to the reality that a party – not an official body – is capable of practicing
such a high level of security control, or to reject and protest against it. The
latter position is normally the prominent one amongst Western journalists who
recount their experiences following their return to their states to prepare
their material.
Ever since Hezbollah succeeded in extending its influence over the suburbs, the
south and some of the local districts in the heart of Beirut, it has practiced
strict and meticulous control over interviews, photographs and any media
material leaving these areas. The party justifies such measures by saying that
it is confronting "potential risks posed by the Israeli enemy," as it claimed in
its recent statements and as it always declares to justify its policies.
It is only natural that such strict security control has resulted in imposing
images and positions that are carefully selected and ever changing so that many
who live under this influence have come to practice self-censorship, and in many
cases refrain from openly expressing what they want to say.
What led to the absence of effective journalistic coverage of a region that was
plundered in 2006 required the establishment of a construction company to
rebuild it ('Waad' company). And although the inhabitants of the southern
district unanimously agree that reconstruction has yet to effectively begin;
still, no questions have been asked about reconstruction.
The Lebanese media is incapable of obtaining information about the crisis in the
suburbs because of the imposed media blockade, which has extended to include the
inability to access or observe any movements in Hezbollah's general
surroundings.
The area is strictly off-limits to the media.
The recent incident involving the French Socialist delegate could have passed
without much ado had the delegate not hailed from a prominent state. It is
likely that dozens have been subjected to similar treatment without it causing
any uproar or protest.
Perhaps this is what Hezbollah meant when it said that the incident would have
been an ordinary matter had it not been for the malicious intentions
****Diana Mukkaled is a prominent and well respected TV journalist in the Arab
world, thanks to her phenomenal show "Bil Ayn Al Mojarada" (By The Naked Eye), a
series of documentaries around controversial areas and topics which airs on
Lebanon's leading local and sattelite channel "Future Television". Diana also is
a veteran war corrependent, covering both The War in Iraq and in Afghanistan, as
well as the Isreali "Grapes of Wrath" massacre in southern Lebanon. Daring to do
superb investigative work in Afghanistan, Iran, Yemen and Iraq (prior to the
collapse of the Saddam's regime) and dedicating entire episodes of "Bil Ayn Al
Mojarada" to issues such as "Honour Crimes" in Jordan, Diana has gained world
wide recognition and was named one of the most influential women in a special
feature that ran in Time Magazine in 2004. Diana writes a weekly coloumn for
Asharq Al Awsat Media's Supplement, where she discusses current affairs in Arab
and world media