LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِMay 18/2010

Bible Of the Day
Luke16:19 “Now there was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, living in luxury every day. 16:20 A certain beggar, named Lazarus, was laid at his gate, full of sores, 16:21 and desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. Yes, even the dogs came and licked his sores. 16:22 It happened that the beggar died, and that he was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died, and was buried. 16:23 In Hades, he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far off, and Lazarus at his bosom. 16:24 He cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue! For I am in anguish in this flame.’ 16:25 “But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that you, in your lifetime, received your good things, and Lazarus, in the same way, bad things. But now here he is comforted and you are in anguish. 16:26 Besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, that those who want to pass from here to you are not able, and that none may cross over from there to us.’ 16:27 “He said, ‘I ask you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house; 16:28 for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, so they won’t also come into this place of torment.’ 16:29 “But Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.’ 16:30 “He said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 16:31 “He said to him, ‘If they don’t listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if one rises from the dead.’” 17:1 He said to the disciples, “It is impossible that no occasions of stumbling should come, but woe to him through whom they come! 17:2 It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, rather than that he should cause one of these little ones to stumble. 17:3 Be careful. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him. 17:4 If he sins against you seven times in the day, and seven times returns, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.”

Free Opinions, Releases, letters, Interviews & Special Reports
Quebec Says 'Non' to the Niqab/by Barbara Kay/May 17/10
Lebanese-American from Michigan Crowned Miss USA/Naharnet/May 17/10
Withdrawal: Right for the wrong reasons?/By Moshe Arens /Ha'aretz/May 17/10
STL's Bellemare to press charges in Hariri case by fal /By Michael Bluhm/Daily Star/May 17/10
New Opinion: The laugh is on us/Now Lebanon/ May 17/10
A 'last chance' for Iran?/Daily Star/May 17/10
Dr.Walid Pharis: Time Square message: Many 'lone wolves' attempts makes it a terror/May 17/10

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for May 17/10
Iran-Turkey fuel swap deal may not avert sanctions, Western diplomats say/Now Lebanon
Turkey and Iran sign nuclear fuel deal/Now Lebanon/Now Lebanon
Sfeir praises coexistence during visit to north Lebanon/Daily Star
Hariri: Kuwaiti Emir's Visit to Lebanon Extraordinary/Naharnet
'Ghost' Scuds refocus attention on armed status of Hizbullah/Irish Times
World Bank projects Lebanon's real GDP growth at 6 percent in 2010/Daily Star
Israel says Russian arms sales to Syria 'don't help peace/AFP
Four Lebanese abducted in south Nigeria/Daily Star
Hariri meets Saudi monarch for talks on bilateral ties/AFP
Corpses of two Syrians dumped outside hospital/Daily Star
Stand up to Iran at the nonproliferation review conference/Foreign Policy
Morin Says Situation in the South 'Seems Stable,' Would Return to France with 'Relative Optimism'/Naharnet
Ahmed Hariri: We Chose Al-Saudi because He is Independent/Naharnet
FPM-Hizbullah Alliance to Compete with LF-Kataeb in Jezzine Elections/Naharnet
Mustaqbal Confident of Garnering Shiite Votes in Sidon Elections, Convinced of Grabbing Victory/Naharnet
Hariri Meets Jumblat ahead of Saudi Trip/Naharnet
Hariri Launches Tour to Garner Arab-Turkish Support to Spare Lebanon Israeli Threats/Naharnet
Fadlallah: Security Agreement Hasn't Been Put on a Shelf/Naharnet
Suleiman, Hariri Launch Clean-Up Beach Day/Naharnet
Sidon Faces Election Battle after Announcement of 2 Separate Alliances/Naharnet
Israel: It's Naïve to Think Syria would Cut Ties with Iran, Hizbullah in Exchange for Golan Heights/Naharnet
Geagea: Sticking to 'Resistance Path' led to Failure to Resolve Palestinian Plight/Naharnet
Sfeir from Akkar Urges Lebanese to Renew Trust in Each Other and Their Country/Naharnet
MESS Report / Hezbollah and Lebanon have different agendas/Ha'aretz

A 'last chance' for Iran?
Monday, May 17, 2010
Daily Star/Editorial
The meeting currently taking place between Iran and Brazil is being labeled by Western powers as the “last chance” for Iran to avoid crippling sanctions against it. While this statement is doubtless intended as an exercise in persuasion, it should serve us to take stock of how the dispute between Iran and the West over its nuclear program currently stands.
Aside from Brazil, there are a number of world powers who have maintained good relations with Iran, and whose influence has the potential to break the impasse of the past few months.
Turkey and Japan have both acted as mediators in various forms, each with their own motivation of course. Turkey looks for political stability in the region which will in turn translate into economic stability. Japan relies heavily on Iran for its oil imports. But will the self-interest of these powers be enough to convince Iran of the need for a new approach to the dispute?
For the United States, the military option to solving this crisis is seemingly unforeseeable for the time being, if only for the economic consequences such an action would have. Of course Washington would never say never when it comes to the use of force to achieve their aims, but one can surmise that the mantra of “all options on the table” is no more than a stick to prod Iran. If that is the case, then where is the carrot? It is true that the general attitude of the United States toward Iran improved when Barack Obama became president, but in substance there has been little change from the Bush administration. Obama has asked Iran to unclench its fist, but has yet to do the same. There has been no serious attempt at negotiations, but rather a set of demands and ultimatums backed upped by thinly veiled threats. That leaves it to those powers with a more direct interest in Iran to broker an agreement between it and the West. If the three powers closest to Iran can convince it to behave with more transparency and to stop posturing, then avoiding sanctions is a possibility. Another round of crippling sanctions would do tremendous damage to Iran’s already weakened economy, and a weakened Iranian economy harms its economic partners. Conversely, if the United States could be persuaded to offer more than just threats they might receive a better response. It is clear that the failure to reach an agreement at these latest negotiations would be detrimental to all parties. Talks between Iran and its powerful economic allies seem to be the best chance of diffusing this protracted crisis, but following that, an eventual solution relies on the reaction of the US and its allies to whatever Iran offers

Turkey and Iran sign nuclear fuel deal
May 17, 2010
On Monday, three-way talks in Tehran between Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan culminated in the signing of an agreement that would send low-enriched Iranian uranium to Turkey in exchange for enriched reactor fuel.
Under the deal, 1,200 kilograms of low-enriched Iranian uranium will be shipped to Turkey. The low enriched uranium will remain Iranian property while it is stored in Turkey, and its safekeeping may be monitored by IAEA observers. The agreement stipulates that Iran will formally notify the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of the deal within one week.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters that it would then be up to the IAEA to inform "the Vienna group" -- the United States, France and Russia -- of the proposal. Should the Vienna group accept the deal, the new accord says Iran would deliver the uranium to Turkey within a month and would expect to receive the nuclear fuel from the world powers within a year. In recent days, both Russia and the US made it clear that they considered Lula's visit to Iran as Tehran's last chance to avoid international sanctions. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmed Davutoglu told reporters after Monday's signing that Anakra now sees "no need" for further UN sanctions against Iran. Israel, however, immediately accused Tehran of "manipulating" Turkey and Brazil over the deal, suggesting that Iran was merely maneuvering to avoid harsher international sanctions and would not follow through on the deal.
-AFP/NOW Lebanon

Iran-Turkey fuel swap deal may not avert sanctions, Western diplomats say
May 17, 2010 /By agreeing to ship some uranium to Turkey, Iran has not removed the case for further UN nuclear sanctions against it, western diplomats close to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Monday, speaking to the AFP on condition of anonymity. According to the source, the sanctions are due to Iran’s continuing enrichment program, and not its quest to obtain reactor fuel. Iran signed an agreement with Turkey on Monday that will store low-grade Iranian uranium in Turkey in exchange for a supply of reactor fuel from Western countries. However, Tehran insists it will go ahead with enrichment despite the deal. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmed Davutoglu said there was "no need" for further UN sanctions against Iran in the light of the deal. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said that UN Security Council discussions on Iranian sanctions are making progress, and that the IAEA must be the first body to respond to the Iran-Turkey agreement. The German government said Monday that nothing could replace a deal between Iran and the IAEA on its disputed nuclear program in heading off new sanctions against Tehran.-AFP/NOW Lebanon

New Opinion: The laugh is on us
May 17, 2010
Now Lebanon/An air defense missile is driven past Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and top military commanders (back) during the Army Day parade in Tehran on April 18, 2010. (AFP photo/Behrouz Mehri)
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has had a busy weekend telling the world what he thinks. In an interview with Al-Jazeera, he boasted that no one would dare attack Iran, and that his country is being persecuted by the US-led international community simply for protecting Arab – specifically Palestinian, Lebanese and Iraqi – interests against Zionist aggression. The interview came amid rapidly deteriorating relations between the West and Iran over the latter’s stated intent to be a nuclear power and its refusal to stop uranium enrichment on home soil.
On Sunday, Ahmadinejad met with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has in the past opposed international pressure to deny Iran’s right to nuclear power, and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in a final attempt to avoid new UN sanctions. The high-level diplomacy was, according to the US State Department “the last big shot at engagement” in a crisis that could plunge the region into war. Quite simply, time is running out for Iran. After recent talks with the US, Russia is close to being sold on the idea of sanctions, leaving only China as the one veto-holding member of the UN Security Council still undecided.
The stakes are high. Iran, with its junior partner Syria – which has just agreed to buy Russian MiG-29 fighter jets, Pantsir short-range air defense systems and armored vehicles – is essentially involved in a standoff, not only with the West and Israel, but with moderate Arab states such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt and the Palestinian Authority. Iran has styled itself as the savior of the oppressed and the opponent of the corrupt by supporting Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Shia militants in Iraq.
If sanctions don’t work, as Ahmadinejad predicts, then the military option becomes very real. The nation that will bear the brunt of this showdown, arguably more so than Iran, will be Lebanon, a country with a parliamentary majority that cannot rule and where Hezbollah, with Iranian financial and spiritual support, continues to raise regional pulses in its own way with its quiet but determined policy of arming for what many analysts are calling an inevitable conflict with Israel.
While many would argue that this is a reason to speak out against Western opposition to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, tacitly allowing Hezbollah to amass a huge arsenal will cost Lebanon more in the long run. If the doomsday scenario unfolds and Iran is attacked by Israel, Hezbollah will undoubtedly open a front on Israel’s northern border. This time the party has said that it will not be content just to sit still on Lebanese soil. Cross-border raids are expected, taking the conflict with Israel to a new and potentially apocalyptic dimension. Israeli retaliation will be swift and it will be firm.
The Lebanese have a tough decision to make. Too many prefer to support the Resistance rather oppose its non-state activities by using the argument that its fighters defend Lebanese territory in the face of a permanent Zionist threat. This is the safe position; it avoids a major internal confrontation, but it also created the 2006 war, the downtown sit-in and murderous civil violence of May 2008. Later on Sunday, Ahmadinejad, no doubt feeling bullish after his talks, declared that capitalism was “dead.” He also boasted that the Middle East was the most important region in the world and Iran is its most powerful country. The international community has laughed at such leaders in the past, only to find the joke is on them.
In Lebanon, we might feel it more than most.

Sfeir from Akkar Urges Lebanese to Renew Trust in Each Other and Their Country
Naharnet/Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir urged on Sunday the Lebanese to renew their trust in each other, their nation, and the future of their country. He also called on them to "unite their national will over the principles of solidarity, freedom, sovereignty, balanced development, and respect for human rights." The Patriarch made his statements during his trip to Tripoli's Maronite Parish. He hoped that "Akkar would remain an example of national unity and mutual respect within the values of justice and equality."
Prior to heading to the Parish, Sfeir arrived in Halba where he met with Akkar Mufti Oussama al-Rifai, who said: "Lebanon cannot rise without its Christian and Muslim wings as Prime Minister Saad Hariri said yesterday." He praised Sfeir's "unifying national stands and his wise steps towards reaching a unified Lebanon." Sfeir was accompanied throughout his visits by Tripoli's Maronite Pastor, Archbishop Georges Abou Jawde, a number of religious officials and businessmen, and William Mjalli, the general manager of the Issam Fares Foundation.
The Patriarch will then head to Tleil and then the town of Qbeyyet where he will set the foundation stone of the first Maronite archbishopric center in Akkar.
The center is set to take up 40,000 meters, will occupy the highest hill in Qbeyyet and overlook several villages in Akkar. The Maronite Patriarch will then hold the Sunday sermon at Qbeyyet. He will then head to the northern village of Baino at an invitation from former Deputy Prime Minister Issam Fares where he will be welcomed by Fares' business associate, Sajii Atieh. In Baino, Sfeir will be given a tour of Fares' developmental projects in the village. Beirut, 16 May 10, 13:48

Sfeir praises coexistence during visit to north Lebanon
Daily Star correspondent
Monday, May 17, 2010
Antoine Amrieh
AKKAR: Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir paid a historical visit on Sunday to north Lebanon in a bid to encourage coexistence between different sects as well as development in the rural areas. The patriarch’s first stop was in the coastal city of Tripoli, were he was welcomed by a number of political and religious figures, along with huge crowds hailing from different regions of north Lebanon. Sfeir’s visit was the first to the northern coastal city since he was appointed as head of the Maronite church in 1986.
Sfeir was accompanied by the head of the Tripoli Maronite Archdiocese Archbishop Georges Bou Jaoude and several priests, as well as French and Lebanese businessmen.
Mufti of Tripoli and the North Sheikh Malek al-Shaar, acting North Lebanon Governor Nassif Qalosh and a representative of Economy Minister Mohammad al-Safadi were among the figures who greeted the patriarch.
Sfeir received masses along with political figures in the headquarters of the Tripoli Diocese.
Bou Jaoude delivered a speech in which he stressed that “families of the north and especially Tripoli are used to coexistence and brotherly ties, and they became an example for all Lebanese areas in this field.”
For his part, Sfeir thanked his hosts for their “sincere greeting that reflects the true face of Tripoli, the face of overture, concurrence and coexistence within mutual respect.”
Sfeir noted that the Lebanese were able to overcome difficulties through uniting their ranks and will.
Meanwhile, Shaar dubbed Sfeir “the pillar of the nation.”
“Lebanon is a message for the world and Lebanese should grasp this meaning, for the nation straightens up with love and cooperation,” said Shaar.
Sfeir also led prayers in the in Notre Dame church in the Akkar town of Kobayat along with bishops Roland Abu Jaoude, Semaan Atallah and a number of religious figures.
The north Lebanon governorate of Akkar is believed to be among the most deprived and neglected areas in Lebanon.
Addressing political and local figures, Sfeir delivered a sermon in which he urged Lebanese Christians to love each other as preached by Christianity.
The patriarch thanked Lebanese businessman Nehme Tawk for opening a branch for his French telecommunications company “Soft Solution,” which according to Sfeir was a move that provided Kobayat youth with job opportunities enabling them to earn their living while staying in their village.
Sfeir laid cornerstones for the Maronite Diocese in the north, located on a hill overlooking the town of Kobayat, and the branch of Soft Solution in the town.
He then headed to the Carmelite monastery where he had lunch and cut a cake celebrating his 91st birthday.
On another note, the head of the Maronite church visited Dar al-Fatwa in the Akkar province town of Halba, where he called upon the Lebanese to cement coexistence.
“All Lebanese are invited to renew trust among each other, in their nation and in the future of coexistence,” said Sfeir.
He urged the Lebanese to “unite national will based on principles of solidarity, freedom, sovereignty, balanced development and respect of human rights.”
In return, Akkar Mufti Sheikh Osama al-Rifai praised Sfeir’s “uniting national stances and his wise steps for the sake of a single united Lebanon.”
“The Muslims and Christians of Akkar welcome him,” added Rifai in reference to Sfeir.
Sfeir toured several projects funded by the Issam Fares Foundation, before heading to Fares’ residence in the Akkar village of Baino.
Fares’ manager Sajeh Atieh delivered a speech on behalf of Fares in which he praised Sfeir’s commitment to the “state of law and justice.” He highlighted the Lebanese culture that embraced Christians and Muslims. Sfeir commended developmental and social projects carried out by Fares. “His name inside and outside Lebanon became a synonym for goodness, love and donation,” said Sfeir.

Geagea: Sticking to 'Resistance Path' led to Failure to Resolve Palestinian Plight
Naharnet/Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Sunday believed there is no such thing as the "path of the resistance."
"The other path which stands opposed to the moderate Arab path and calls itself the 'Resistance Path' is actually not a path of the resistance because failure to resolve the Palestinian plight … goes to this action method that had been adopted by the other team – a populist and chaotic manner that evokes instincts without objective grounds, a matter which obliterates the Palestine issue," Geagea said in a television interview. "The so-called line of Arab moderation, even if it did not play its role in a dynamic way, is the only path capable of bringing the Palestinian issue to a just and effective solution," Geagea thought. He noted that the word "resistance" is an "honest, beautiful and poetic word," accusing Hizbullah and its allies, however, of using it for other purposes. Beirut, 16 May 10, 16:37

Israel: It's Naïve to Think Syria would Cut Ties with Iran, Hizbullah in Exchange for Golan Heights
Naharnet/Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Sunday criticized Russia for supplying arms to Syria, saying the move did not help efforts to bring peace to the region.
"The sale of these weapons does not contribute to building an atmosphere of peace," Lieberman told Israel's public radio in what was an unusually muted statement from the outspoken minister. Lieberman's remarks came just days after a top Russian military official said Moscow was supplying Syria with MiG-29 fighter jets, Pantsir short-range air defense systems and armored vehicles. He also insisted the regime of Bashar al-Assad was not interested in peace, and described as "naive" anyone who believed Syria would be ready "to cut ties with Iran and Lebanon's Hizbullah militia" in exchange for a return of the Golan Heights, which Israel occupied during the 1967 Six Day War. Israel and Syria remain technically in a state of war, and Russia's arms sales and possible nuclear cooperation with Syria, which has close ties to Iran, is unnerving for both the Jewish state and Washington. Israel has also accused Syria of supplying Hizbullah with Scud missiles. Lieberman also fired a further salvo of criticism over Russia's "hypocritical" stance on terrorism after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev held talks with exiled Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal during a visit to Damascus. Following the visit, Medvedev and his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul called for the radical Islamist movement, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, to be included in the peace process -- in a move which drew a furious response from Israel. "Russia, but also Egypt and Turkey as well as other countries, have a policy of differentiating between 'good' and 'bad' terrorism, between that which targets Israel and that which targets others," Lieberman said. "We will not accept any ultimatum with regard to Hamas, and we won't let this movement take part in any peace process," he said.(AFP)

Detainee charged with Israeli espionage
May 17, 2010 /On Monday, the National News Agency (NNA) reported that the Government Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr charged Lebanese national Mahdi Ali al-Mustarah with collaborating with Israel, including providing Israeli intelligence with information on Hezbollah as well as entering enemy territory. The charges are based on Articles 274, 275, 278, and 285 of the penal code that carry the death penalty, said the NNA. -NOW Lebanon

Hariri: Kuwaiti Emir's Visit to Lebanon Extraordinary
Naharnet/Prime Minister Saad Hariri described a visit by Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Jaber al-Sabah as "extraordinary at various levels."Hariri believed the Emir's visit to Beirut on Tuesday would "enhance cooperation between the two countries and consolidate the existing understandings." He stressed that Lebanon "relies heavily on the implementation of Lebanese-Kuwaiti agreements," and considers it a new chapter in the development of relations. Hariri's comments came in an interview the Kuwaiti news agency KUNA on the eve of a visit by Sheikh Sabah. Beirut, 17 May 10, 14:24

Morin Says Situation in the South 'Seems Stable,' Would Return to France with 'Relative Optimism'
Naharnet/French Defense Minister Herve Morin wrapped up his three-day official visit to Beirut on Sunday by saying that he would return to Paris with "relative optimism" on the situation in Lebanon. "The region in its nature is unstable," he told a press conference at Rafik Hariri international airport when asked about Israeli threats to Lebanon and the possibility of a new war. "Up till now, the situation seems calm and stable." Morin also said he was "relatively optimistic" although he warned that "things could change any minute." About French military assistance to Lebanon, Morin said: "We are ready to provide Lebanon with helicopters but the same willingness should exist on the Lebanese side as well."During his short press conference following a visit to the French contingent working as part of UNIFIL in the southern town of Deirkifa, Morin said that postponement of Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner's tour of the region was "only linked to his working schedule." "I think the visit will take place in the next few days," the French defense minister said. About Israeli accusations that Syria had transferred Scud missiles to Hizbullah, Morin told reporters: "We have no specific information that backs the idea of the presence of Scuds in the south." During his stay in Beirut, Morin met with President Michel Suleiman, Premier Saad Hariri and Defense Minister Elias Murr. Official sources told An Nahar daily that Morin had the same impression as that of Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, who also visited Lebanon last week. Both European officials have reportedly ruled out war. Beirut, 17 May 10, 08:46

Lebanese-American from Michigan Crowned Miss USA
Naharnet/A 24-year-old Lebanese-American from Michigan beat out 50 other women to take the 2010 Miss USA title Sunday night, despite nearly stumbling in her evening gown.
Rima Fakih of Dearborn, Mich., won the pageant at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip after strutting confidently in an orange and gold bikini, wearing a strapless white gown that resembled a wedding dress and saying health insurance should cover birth control pills. When asked how she felt about winning the crown, she said, "Ask me after I've had a pizza." Fakih, a Lebanese immigrant, told pageant organizers her family celebrates both Muslim and Christian faiths. She moved to the United States as a baby and was raised in New York, where she attended a Catholic school. Her family moved to Michigan in 2003. Pageant officials said historical pageant records were not detailed enough to show whether Fakih was the first Arab American, Muslim or immigrant to win the Miss USA title. The pageant started in 1952 as a local bathing suit competition in Long Beach, Calif.
Fakih told reporters she sold her car after graduating college in Michigan to help pay for her run in the Miss Michigan USA pageant. She said she believed she had the title on Sunday after glancing at pageant owner Donald Trump as she awaited the results with the first runner-up, Miss Oklahoma USA Morgan Elizabeth Woolard. "That's the same look that he gives them when he says, 'You're hired,'" on Trump's reality show "The Apprentice," she said. "She's a great girl," said Trump, who owns the pageant with NBC in a joint venture.
In a moment that was replayed during the broadcast, Fakih nearly fell while finishing her walk in her gown because of the length of its train. But she made it without a spill and went on to win. "I did it here, I better not do it at Miss Universe," she said. "Modeling does help, after all."
Fakih replaces Miss USA 2009 Kristen Dalton and won a spot representing the United States this summer in the 2010 Miss Universe pageant. She also gets a one-year lease in a New York apartment with living expenses, an undisclosed salary, and various health, professional and beauty services.
During the interview portion, Fakih was asked whether she thought birth control should be paid for by health insurance, and she said she believed it should because it's costly.
"I believe that birth control is just like every other medication even though it's a controlled substance," Fakih said.
Woolard handled the night's toughest question, about Arizona's new immigration law. Woolard said she supports the law, which requires police enforcing another law to verify a person's immigration status if there's "reasonable suspicion" that the person is in the country illegally. She said she's against illegal immigration but is also against racial profiling.
"I'm a huge believer in states' rights. I think that's what's so wonderful about America," Woolard said. "So I think it's perfectly fine for Arizona to create that law."
"The Office" actor Oscar Nunez was booed as he asked the question and asked the audience to wait until he finished the question before they reacted. The panel of judges came up with the questions themselves. Miss Virginia USA Samantha Evelyn Casey was the second runner-up, Miss Colorado USA Jessica Hartman was third runner-up, and Miss Maine USA Katherine Ashley Whittier was the fourth runner-up. Most of the field of contestants from all 50 states and the District of Columbia were eliminated just after the pageant began and the entire group danced onstage to "TiK ToK" by Ke$ha. A panel of eight judges, including NBA star Carmelo Anthony, Treasure Island casino-hotel owner Phil Ruffin and Olympic figure skater Johnny Weir, were judging the girls throughout the night. After 15 contestants strutted in swimsuits, five were eliminated. Another five were eliminated after the evening gown competition.
Miss Nebraska USA Belinda Renee Wright won the Miss Congeniality award, roughly one week after her father was killed in a farm accident. Miss Alabama USA Audrey Moore won Miss Photogenic after an online fan vote. The pageant aired live to East Coast viewers on NBC. The competition, which is not affiliated with the Miss America pageant, was hosted by celebrity chef Curtis Stone and NBC correspondent Natalie Morales.(AP) Beirut, 17 May 10, 07:29

FPM-Hizbullah Alliance to Compete with LF-Kataeb in Jezzine Elections
Naharnet/Jezzine was preparing for a tough battle between two rival groups – one backed by the Lebanese Forces and the Phalange party and the other supported by Hizbullah and the Free Patriotic Movement. The Jezzine-Ain Majdline list, which is supported by the FPM along with Camille Serhal, was announced Sunday in the presence of Serhal, and MPs Ziad Aswad, Michel Helou and Issam Sawaya. The competing alliance, which enjoys LF and Kataeb support, is headed by incumbent Jezzine municipal head Saeed Abu Aql. His list is expected to be announced in the coming hours. Beirut, 17 May 10, 10:06

Fadlallah: Security Agreement Hasn't Been Put on a Shelf
Naharnet/MP Hassan Fadlallah denied that a review of the so-called security agreement between the Lebanese government and the U.S. has been put on hold.
"Because the country was busy with municipal elections, this doesn't mean the agreement has been put on a shelf. We have done our part in unveiling what this agreement includes as dangers," Fadlallah told As Safir newspaper in remarks published Monday. "We have referred the issue to the speaker and are awaiting the recommendation that he would in his turn refer to the cabinet," the head of parliament's media committee said. He said the government should be fully responsible for either making a categorical change in it or to cancel it in preservation of the country's sovereignty. The agreement constitutes a dangerous violation of Lebanon's national sovereignty, Fadlallah added. Beirut, 17 May 10, 11:01

Time Square message: Many 'lone wolves' attempts makes it a terror campaign
By Walid Phares
Time Square security deployment
In the first few hours following the discovery of the car bomb in Time Square and the subsequent arrest of Faisal Shahzad at the airport, New York’s Governor David Patterson labeled the foiled car bomb attack in Times Square an “act of terror.” Janet Napolitano, our secretary of Homeland Security described it as “potential (then) act of terror.” Gradually US officials agreed, as information was gathered and more arrests were made, that this was an attack with the goal of mass killing in an urban area. Indeed, if the three propane tanks, fireworks, two filled 5-gallon gasoline containers, and two clocks with batteries, electrical wire and other components found in the back of the Nissan Pathfinder, had exploded they would have –in the words of Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly “caused a significant ball of fire.” New York’s Mayor Bloomberg said the explosion could have caused “huge damage on a block of Broadway theaters and restaurants teeming with tourists.” In short, federal and local officials understand clearly that the SUV-bomb was aimed at killing a large group of New Yorkers and visitors, causing severe damage to the area and a shock to the public (who would be traumatized by the sight of such pictures), had the “act of terror” been successful.
The watchful citizen who alerted authorities emerges as the hero in this counter- terrorism act. And also the men and women of New York law enforcement who rushed to secure the area and disable the device, while others proceeded to arrest the suspect. In that sense it was a success story for New York's counter terrorism efforts, one of the cities targeted most by terrorists in the Western world.
What follow will be intense investigations and many questions on two tracks: Technical inquiries and identity reconstruction. On the one hand officials have figured out why didn’t the bomb explode and how was it assembled and where. This line of investigation could tell us more about the capacity of terrorists to copycat this attempt in the future, to move material of the same sort across city limits, or worse, build such a weapon inside Manhattan or any other U.S. city. There’s no doubt that the findings will be sobering. The capacity of potential terrorists to build urban-laden bombs, move them through cities, and choose their strategic targets easily would mean that such “acts of terror” can be repeated and launched again in the same city or in other locations across the nation. If the perpetrators did it in New York City, they could do it anywhere.
On the other hand authorities are in the process of determining the identity of the terrorist perpetrators, including suspect Shazad, other arrested suspects but also potential links showing a wider circle of planners and decision centers involved in this operation, and perhaps in future ones. The link to the Taliban-Pakistan, the Jihadi groups who recruits US citizens or residents, and potential links between them leading to a bigger picture.
The public has already received several confusing messages in the past year and a half regarding government’s quick reactions to previous terror attempts. In the most recent cases of the deadly attack at Ft. Hood and the unsuccessful Christmas Day “underwear bombing” attempt, officials rushed to call these acts “isolated extremists” only to discover there was more to the attacks in terms of links to a greater circle of terror. That’s why it is important to be cautious and move from evidence to evidence. "Amateurish" or not, as Bloomberg described the attempted terrorist attack, it was designed to have devastating effects. It was indeed an “act of terror.” Now comes the next part. We’ll need to know more about the minds behind the Time Square fatal plan. Was it designed by a war room using less sophisticated Jihadists so to elude attention?
In any of these scenarios, we’re talking about another “terror act” taking place on U.S. soil, it’s about the fifteenth since the beginning of 2009, five of which targeting or linked to New York. By empirical methods multiple terror acts are a “terror war” waged against this country – and New York City is its prime target. Thus the counter terrorism community, both inside the Government and in the private sector is invited to determine the characteristics of the ongoing campaign targeting the homeland: For one matter is settled: Many lone wolves attacks make it into a wave.

Beirut ceremony honors slain Grand Mufti Khaled
By The Daily Star /Monday, May 17, 2010
BEIRUT: A ceremony was held on Sunday at the Mohammad al-Amin Mosque in Downtown Beirut to mark the 1989 assassination of Grand Mufti Sheikh Hassan Khaled. Beirut MP Mohammad Qabbani praised the late mufti’s openness. Qabbani said Khaled was a supporter of dialogue among confessions and of women’s rights. Sunday’s ceremony was attended by an array of political and religious figures including Grand Mufti Mohammad Rashi Qabbani. On May 16, 1989, a 136-kilogram car bomb was detonated next to Khaled’s car as he drove through Beirut. Khaled and 21 others were killed. – The Daily Star

STL's Bellemare to press charges in Hariri case 'by fall'
Tribunal president: Heads of State not immune from international law
By Michael Bluhm/Daily Star staff
Monday, May 17, 2010
BEIRUT: Special Tribunal for Lebanon prosecutor Daniel Bellemare plans to file charges this fall, tribunal President Antonio Cassese told The Daily Star in an exclusive interview on Saturday. “Prosecutor Bellemare announced that he is likely to issue an indictment between and September and December of this year,” Cassese said. “This is what he said … This is my expectation.”
Cassese added that he did not have any information about the potential culprits or the details of Bellemare’s probe. “I have no idea, because we are very strict … The prosecutor does not tell anything [about the investigation] to anybody within the tribunal,” Cassese said. Bellemare’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
The UN Security Council established the court to try suspects in the February 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, although the tribunal has a mandate to pursue the perpetrators behind assassinations, attempted killings and political violence from October 2004 through January 2007. Hariri’s killing sparked a wave of popular demonstrations which brought about the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon after a 29-year presence. Syria has always denied any involvement in Hariri’s assassination.
At the same time, Cassese believes the tribunal will struggle to find enough donations for its budget next year, because the added costs of a trial would run into state budgets shrunken by the economic crisis afflicting the Western nations bankrolling the court. Lebanon pays 49 percent of the tribunal’s annual budget, which for 2010 amounts to $55.35 million.
“There is no problem [with financing] this year,” said Cassese who also served as the first president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. “The problem will be next year, because if next year – as I very much hope – we have a trial, then we will have to recruit staff.”
Critics have assailed the tribunal as a political tool for the US and its allies to pressure Damascus and Hizbullah. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem has said that Syria had received offers to terminate the tribunal in return for facilitating a presidential election in Lebanon. Cassese said that no one had spoken to him about political goals for the tribunal and that charges of politicization were “totally wrong.”
Since the UN voted in May 2007 to form the court, “the whole process has never been political or politicized,” said Cassese, who added that when he headed the Yugoslav tribunal and the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur he rejected ambassadors’ requests for political favors.
“When we are going to pronounce upon a case brought before us, this will be done by us without any political considerations. We will never attach any importance to the political repercussions. I don’t care about political grounds. I go ahead and do my job.”
Experts on international law have said it remains unclear how far the tribunal could go in any case to pursue high-ranking politicians, because the court’s statutes do not address whether heads of state enjoy immunity from the court. While Cassese said he could not comment on his court’s jurisdiction, he added that he had previously published his opinion that international tribunals did not have to respect diplomatic immunity because of the serious nature of the crimes they deal with.
“As an academic studying international law, I am on record … I have always argued that, as the International Court of Justice rightly pointed out, heads of state do not have functional immunity – that means that immunity because of the exercise of their functions while they were incumbent,” Cassese said.
“They enjoy personal immunities, however, before national courts. Before international tribunals they don’t enjoy any immunity whatsoever.”
The tribunal has also battled negative perceptions over the exodus of key personnel. Since being officially established in a suburb of Holland’s The Hague in March last year, the tribunal has witnessed the exits of the chief of investigations and two registrars – the officials who act as the court’s chief executive. Cassese said that all international courts experienced high rates of staff turnover, but the departures were usually connected to outside issues such as family or more lucrative job opportunities.
“I know that when [registrar Robin Vincent] left and then when [Vincent’s successor] David Tolbert left, people said, ‘So there is something wrong with this tribunal,’” Cassese said. “This happens all the time because these are international institutions where people are, in a way, taken away from their own countries. You don’t have friends. You don’t make friends in The Hague. I only go out to dinner with ambassadors or judges. So you get fed up.”
Cassese resigned from his post as president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia because his wife threatened him with divorce, even though he relished the work, he said. “I myself left after seven years because my wife said, look, either you come back or I will divorce you,” he said. “I had no choice. I was very happy to work there. I enjoyed my job very much, but then I had a family problem.”

Hariri meets Saudi monarch for talks on bilateral ties
By The Daily Star and Agence France Presse (AFP)
Monday, May 17, 2010
BEIRUT: Prime Minister Saad Hariri met with Saudi King Abdullah Sunday evening after arriving in Riyadh on an official visit to discuss bilateral ties.Hariri left Beirut to Saudi Arabia Sunday and arrived in Riyadh the same day. Hariri met with King Abdullah and the two figures discussed bilateral relations between the two countries and regional and international issues of common interest. As The Daily Star went to press on Sunday, no statement about the talks was issued. Hariri is scheduled to visit Damascus on Tuesday and he will continue his tour of Arab countries, which will lead him to Turkey. According to a well-informed source quoted by the Arabic newspaper An-Nahar, Hariri’s visits were “a result of the dangerous situation in the region, a situation which calls on the international community to assume its responsibilities.” It was in Hariri’s interest to head to Washington on May 24 armed with an Arab and Turkish stances that supported Lebanon’s opinion of Israel’s need to move from war threats to getting involved in peace efforts, the source explained. “This way Hariri can assemble as much support as possible and Washington will take it into consideration,” it added. The premier will make his first official visit to the United States at the end of May to meet with President Barack Obama and address the United Nations Security Council.Lebanon is currently heading the rotating chair of the Security Council.
Hariri’s five-day visit, which will kick off in Washington on May 24, comes amid mounting concerns in the region of a renewed conflict between Israel and Lebanon’s Hizbullah which fought a devastating war in the summer of 2006. Before his departure, Hariri gave a speech during a celebration held at the Universite Antonine on the occasion of the university’s 14th anniversary on Saturday. He stressed the need to achieve Muslim-Christian parity and said coexistence was a key value in Lebanon. “When I speak of parity, I don’t speak of making compromises in numbers from one sect to the other. I speak of an obligation Muslims have toward Christians in Lebanon and of an obligation Christians have toward Muslims in Lebanon regardless of numbers,” the premier said. He added that coexistence in Lebanon was a political virtue and one of many qualities that made the country “a message.” He called for conserving the value of coexistence in order to preserve Lebanon and to influence the Arab world and the whole world. Hariri explained that while the whole world was seeing radicalism rise, Lebanon was almost becoming an oasis of openness, justice, forgiveness and dialogue. Hariri stressed the constant need for dialogue and called on everyone to work together “to preserve the oasis” because they all had responsibilities toward themselves and toward their country. – The Daily Star, with AFP

Withdrawal: Right for the wrong reasons?
Hezbollah, which had ruled southern Lebanon until the withdrawal, began to take over all of Lebanon, its missiles deployed not only in the south.
By Moshe Arens
17.05.10/Haaretz
Chief among the assumptions underlying the decision to withdraw unilaterally was that once Hezbollah had achieved its stated goal of freeing southern Lebanon from Israeli occupation, it would restrict its activities to the Lebanese political arena and abandon further military operations against Israel.
Secondly, should Hezbollah, nevertheless, continue military actions against Israeli targets after the withdrawal, Israel believed it would then be free to respond with drastic military actions that would dissuade Hezbollah from engaging in further military activities against Israel.
Well, wrong on both counts. After the Israeli withdrawal, Hezbollah not only did not disband its militia but intensively armed itself, including the acquisition of large numbers of long-range rockets, and developed from a guerilla band into a well-trained and -equipped military force.
As Barak's predecessor as defense minister, my policy was to use the Israel Air Force to attack Lebanon's infrastructure in the north in retaliation for Hezbollah attacks - so as to change the rules of engagement with Hezbollah, a decision that brought about a cessation of Hezbollah's Katyusha rocket attacks. That policy was canceled by Barak as soon as he came into office.
Moreover, when less than five months after the Israel Defense Forces' unilateral withdrawal Hezbollah ambushed an army patrol on the Israeli side, killing three soldiers and taking their bodies into Lebanon, the harsh Israeli response that had been promised by Barak never took place.
Was the withdrawal still the correct decision, even if made for the wrong reasons?
Let's look at the balance sheet for Israel during the intervening 10 years. The first item on the debit side is the betrayal of our allies, the South Lebanon Army. They had fought shoulder to shoulder with the IDF against Hezbollah for years, suffering considerably higher casualties than us.
They were peremptorily abandoned. Some managed to escape to Israel, while others fell into the hands of Hezbollah. Betraying one's allies is a serious matter. It will have long-term ramifications for Israel, which has no small need for regional allies.
Has anybody forgotten Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah's speech after the IDF's withdrawal, calling Israel no more than a spider's web? The image the withdrawal created, of Israel being forced to retreat under pressure, unable to hold out for an extended period of time, had almost immediate consequences, when Palestinian terrorists launched the second intifada with the aim of duplicating Hezbollah's success in the north.
Three years of bloody terror in Israel's streets followed that withdrawal. Whatever deterrent capability Israel possessed was lost to the winds and had to be restored at considerable cost.
And Hezbollah, which had ruled southern Lebanon until the withdrawal, began to take over all of Lebanon, its missiles deployed not only in the south.
This fundamental change in the strategic balance in the area, which has long-term consequences, was permitted to develop under the mistaken impression that the withdrawal had brought peace to northern Israel. Instead, it brought on the Second Lebanon War with death and destruction in the north. Not only is the threat still there, but it is growing all the time.
And what appears on the credit side of the balance sheet? The reduction in the number of IDF casualties, which had been running at an average of two soldiers lost a month until the withdrawal, and might well have continued had the IDF maintained its positions in the security zone.
But here too, the overall loss of life, after the withdrawal - during the intifada, and during the Second Lebanon War - makes for a very negative bottom line. The withdrawal, carried out for the wrong reasons, was the wrong move.
The reasons the decision to withdraw unilaterally had popular support at the time - his promise to withdraw probably won the prime ministerial election for Barak - is the same reason why many to this day, despite all evidence to the contrary, consider it to have been a good decision.
An Israeli presence beyond the 1949 armistice lines, "the occupation," is by many considered to be the cause of all of Israel's misfortunes. This mindset led to the withdrawal from the security zone in Lebanon, to the tragic disengagement from Gush Katif in Gaza, the failure in the Second Lebanon War, the years of Hamas rockets hitting southern Israel, and the continuing pressure to withdraw from Judea and Samaria and from the Golan Heights - consequences be damned. It clouds the judgment of the public and politicians alike.

Quebec Says 'Non' to the Niqab
by Barbara Kay
Pajamas Media
May 13, 2010
http://www.meforum.org/2655/quebec-says-non-to-the-niqab
Whether they admit it or not, virtually all Westerners hate the niqab and burqa for the anti-democratic ideology and misogynistic gender relations they signify. Many are increasingly willing to say so.
Why does political correctness fall away when it comes to the niqab? Because other Islamist inroads, like Shari'a banking, happen offstage, so to speak. They are not "seen" by the public. But the niqab is open to the collective public gaze. Individuals responding to their own discomfort observe that discomfort mirrored in other people's faces, which in turn emboldens them to protest. Politicians know grassroots support when they see it and several Western leaders have seized the moment for legislating partial or full niqab bans.
Parallel to the parliamentary efforts now advancing in France and Belgium, Quebec recently tabled a new law, Bill 94, which will ban the niqab — or any face cover — when extending and receiving public services in such institutions as courts, hospitals, schools, and licensing bureaus.
It is no accident that Quebec is leading the way in North America on this file. Quebec, apart from multicultural Montreal and its diffuse northern native populations, is the last bastion of ethnic homogeneity on the continent (with a not-unrelated tendency amongst ethnic québécois to politically incorrect candor), a province where obsession with cultural preservation drives the political agenda.
Since the Quiet Revolution in the 1960s, cultural preservation has become synonymous with the linguistic hegemony of French. But Catholicism, however vestigial in terms of practice and influence, still rallies the loyalty of québécois in the face of perceived challenges to their cultural security.
Because the controlling hand of the Catholic Church fell particularly heavily on women in the past, Quebec is also the most militantly feminist of Canadian provinces. Female politicians exert a powerful influence over all social and cultural policies and disbursements here. The galling sight of veiled, depersonalized women in this women's rights stronghold arouses far more animus than any multiculturalist ideal can counter.
The decisive move, approved by 95% of Quebecers (a rare moment of political accord uniting federalists and nationalists) and 75% of all Canadians, followed a cultural tipping point, arrived at in November 2009, when a niqab-clad Egyptian woman, Naema Ahmed, was expelled from a government-run French class. This was done for pedagogical reasons, not religious ones; hostile to suggested compromises in advancing phonological competencies for which the teacher's direct observation of her mouth is crucial, she exhausted the administration's patience. Notable in her case, however, is the fact that the school felt so hamstrung by political correctness and dithered so long, the government stepped in to order the expulsion.
Ahmed's indifference to the sensibilities of her classmates and her general belligerence were helpful in reinforcing the public's impression that she was making a political rather than a religious statement. That she later tried to re-enroll, still veiled, in another French course — unsuccessfully — and promptly filed a complaint with a human rights commission gives the whole caper the earmarks of an Islamist shot across the bow.
Ahmed's rebarbative attitude happily precluded the kind of public sympathy elicited by another Montreal case in which a veiled Indian Muslim woman, "Aisha," was removed from a French course. Aisha tried to cooperate and was heartbroken, not angry, when expelled. Her story served to make a reasonable law seem draconian to sentimentalism-driven commentators.
Quebec has been poised for some time to draw a line in the unstable sands of "reasonable accommodation." Justifying the Ahmed expulsion, Quebec immigration minister Yolande James was forthright in making it plain that "if you want to integrate into Quebec society, here are our values. We want to see your face."
The road to Bill 94 can be said to begin in Hérouxville, Quebec, a tiny rural hamlet of 1,300 souls, with nary a niqab in sight, or likely to be. In January 2007, following a number of controversial cases involving the reasonable accommodation of religious sensibilities in Montreal, one of its outspoken councilors, André Drouin, published a "code of conduct" for immigrants including bans on the stoning of women and female circumcision, while privileging in public institutions the Christian symbols that are familiar to the 95% of Quebecers who identify themselves as Catholics. The retired engineer was pilloried as a racist at the time, but today he feels vindicated by Bill 94. The manifesto served to reveal the fault lines between elite theorists and the population, as well as to kindle passionate debate on the limits of reasonable accommodation.
Embarrassed by the worldwide attention the manifesto received, with its attendant images of Quebec as a redneck backwater, Premier Jean Charest instituted the costly ($7 million) yearlong Bouchard-Taylor commission in February 2007, its mandate to investigate and make recommendations on the treatment of religious minorities in Quebec. The expressed goal was to avoid French-style minority ghettoization and encourage integration.
The commission, headed by earnestly paternalistic academic multiculturalists who were totally out of sync with the mood of the population and visibly affronted during public hearings by outspoken expressions of resentment against religious minorities — chiefly Hasidim and Muslims — arrived at their foreordained conclusion that Quebec culture was not threatened by minorities and that their pet concept, "interculturalism," which maximizes tolerance for individual choices, deserved further study. The public was not buying any of it.
Is Quebec racist? Polls indicate Quebecers admit to racist attitudes disproportionately to other Canadians, but there is no hate crime evidence to suggest heritage québécois are more racist in practice than other provinces. Is Quebec xenophobic? Yes, somewhat, although it is a mild version that asserts itself in grumbling, not in organized vituperation, vandalism, or violence.
Quebec is a distinct society, culturally isolated in North America and understandably defensive around realistic threats of cultural dilution. Elevated xenophobia relative to other provinces has not, however, made inroads on Quebec's record as a peaceful, democratic, and behaviorally tolerant society.
Xenophobia is reflexively condemned as a cultural sin amongst our intellectual bien-pensants. But what if another cultural group really is out to dominate your own group? In that case, benign xenophobia — the kind that aligned with feminism to produce Quebec's Bill 94 — is what one might call an atout, a trump card in the grim cultural war games to which all democratic societies have been co-opted, where victories that do no harm to democracy, like the niqab ban, are few and should be regarded as precious.
Barbara Kay is a weekly columnist in the comment pages of Canada's National Post newspaper. This article was sponsored by Islamist Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum.
Related Topics: Immigration, Muslims in Canada, Sex and gender relations
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Arab Media Cheer Obama for De-Linking Muslims from Terror
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu/Arutz Sheva
A leading international Arab newspaper has hailed U.S. President Barack Obama for officially removing the description “Muslim terrorist” as part of his campaign “to reach out to the Muslim world.” The op-ed did not note the radical Muslim bacgkround of the terrorists and reasoned they are equal to other terrorists whose religion is not connected with their acts.
Osman Mirghani, the deputy editor-in-chief of 'Al-Sharq Al-Awsat,' which is owned by a Saudi Arabian company and published in London, wrote an op-ed last week under the headline "Why Didn't Obama Mention Islam?." The Obama administration has broken from the Bush government’s policy of using the term “Islamic terrorism” in official documents and "no longer [is] responding to extremist voices" that call for targeting home countries of terrorists, he explained.
He said the president is carrying out his pledge in his “reaching out to Muslims speech” at Cairo University in June 2008. Regarding Obama's statements on the botched Times Square bombing, the editor praised President Obama for not once referring to prime suspect Faisal Shahzad’s being Muslim and for not “mentioning Islam in discussing the terrorist operation."
The same approach was taken after the failed Christmas Day bombing by Nigerian Muslim Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalib. “Obama spoke about the detained terrorist as a member of the Al-Qaeda organization but he did not speak about him being a Muslim,’ Mirghani wrote. “Even when he spoke about Al-Qaeda, Obama noted that it was not the first time that the network had targeted America, ignoring the links that were made in the past between the organization and Islam or when it was put in the context of 'Islamic extremism.'"
Similarly, after the Fort Hood, Texas attack by a Muslim terrorist who murdered 13 people last November, “President Obama 'cautioned against jumping to conclusions’” and did not refer to the terrorist's Arab origin or religion.
The article did not mention that most, if not all, Arab terrorists are indoctrinated by Muslim extremism. Instead, the editor argued that describing terrorists as Muslims actually provokes more terror. “There is recognition today of the fact that terrorists are benefiting from the creation of an anti-Islamic and anti-Muslim atmosphere after any terrorist operation, and that issuing statements or taking steps that target Muslims employed by extremist groups further spreads hostility against the U.S., the West, and even moderate Islamic states,” he reasoned.
Th writer argued that “the identity of the terrorist does not necessarily implicate the country he belongs to, in the same way that other adherents of the religion the terrorist follows should not be condemned."
He accused former President George W. Bush of being “captive to the Big Stick policy and slogans of 'you're either with us or against us,' which caused the popularity of the U.S. to wane, not only in the Islamic world but in numerous countries around the world." In contrast, he continued, “The new president has extended his hand to the Islamic world,… and the tendency to link every terrorist operation to the religion of the perpetrator has disappeared.”

Noam Chomsky Barred from Entering Israel
by Gil Ronen/Arutz Sheva
Ultra-leftist MIT professor Noam Chomsky was denied entry from Jordan to Israel at the Allenby Bridge Sunday.
Chomsky, a leading linguist, was scheduled to speak at Bir Zeit University near Ramallah. He reportedly spoke on the phone with an activist in an NGO called Right of Entry and said that his passport had been stamped with the words “entry denied.” He said that when he asked Israeli authorities for the reasons for the decision to block his entry, he was told that it would be sent in writing to the US embassy.
Chomsky has described his views as 'anarchist' and has been a proponent of ultra-leftist politics since the 1960s, when he opposed US involvement in the Viet Nam war.
In a recent interview with Democracy Now, Chomsky appeared to justify the development of nuclear weapons by Iran:"Israel actually is sending the nuclear submarines and other warships through the Suez Canal, with the tacit agreement of Egypt, the Egyptian dictatorship, another US client in the region. Well, those are all threats—constant, verbal, actual.
And the threats do have the effect of inducing Iran to develop a deterrent. Whether they’re doing it or not, I don’t know. Maybe they are. But if they are, the reason, as I think almost all serious analysts would agree, is not because they intend to use nuclear weapons and missiles with nuclear weapons. If they even loaded a missile [with] nuclear weapons, assuming they had them, the country would be vaporized in five minutes. And nobody believes that the ruling clerics, whatever one thinks about them, have a kind of a death wish and want to see the entire country and society and everything they own destroyed." Chomsky visited Lebanon in 2006 and was hosted by Hizbullah. He stated at the time that “Hizbullah's insistence on keeping its arms is justified... I think [Hizbullah leader Sheik Hassan] Nasrallah has a reasoned argument and [a] persuasive argument that they [the arms] should be in the hands of Hizbullah as a deterrent to potential aggression, and there is [sic] plenty of background reasons for that.”
One month after his visit, Hizbullah launched an attack against the IDF, sparking the Second Lebanon War.