LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِJuly 30/2010

Bible Of the Day
The Good News According to Luke/12:1 Meanwhile, when a multitude of many thousands had gathered together, so much so that they trampled on each other, he began to tell his disciples first of all, “Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. 12:2 But there is nothing covered up, that will not be revealed, nor hidden, that will not be known. 12:3 Therefore whatever you have said in the darkness will be heard in the light. What you have spoken in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops. 12:4 “I tell you, my friends, don’t be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. 12:5 But I will warn you whom you should fear. Fear him, who after he has killed, has power to cast into Gehenna. Yes, I tell you, fear him

Exodus 14:13
And Moses said to the people, "Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today."
Today's Inspiring Thought: Fearless Faith in God
God doesn't change. He protects his people today just as he watched over the Israelites thousands of years ago. Remember that when you feel afraid. The One who controls the universe is on your side, helping you and strengthening you. When you can't see him work, he is moving powerfully behind the scenes.
You can overcome your fears when you accept the truth that God works on behalf of those he loves, bringing them through heartache and trouble.

Free Opinions, Releases, letters, Interviews & Special Reports
Delusion instead of solution/By: Yoram Ettinger/July 29/10
Guess who’s coming to Baabda?/By: Matt Nash/ July 29/10
Danny Ayalon: The Flotilla Farce/By: Danny Ayalon/Wall Street Journal/29 July/10
Playing three-ball billiards in BeirutBy Michael Young July 29/10
Reading into the region's future: A summer special offer/By: Osama al-Sharif/Al-Arabiya/July 29/10

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for July 29/10
UN-backed Lebanon tribunal rejects Hezbollah outcry/Reuters
Sfeir Says Tribunal is Fair, Calls for Guaranteeing Freedom of Operations/Naharnet
US advice to Assad: Pay attention to what Abdullah has to say/Now Lebanon
Washington Urges Assad to 'Listen' to Abdullah/Naharnet
Preparations for Lebanese-Saudi-Syrian Summit Reach Climax/Naharnet
King Abdullah kicks off Arab tour in EgyptظAssad to accompany Saudi Monarch to Lebanon/Daily Star
German in spy probe released - officials/ Daily Star
Judge interrogates man over Sleiman slurs on Facebook/Daily Star
March 14: STL objections should be submitted before court/Geagea claims Hizbullah looking to transform lebanon into ‘war zone/Daily Star
Lebanon charges 2nd telco worker with Israel spying/Reuters
Deep undercurrents stir in the Middle East/Asia online Times
Police destroy dozens of buildings in unrecognized Bedouin village in Negev/Haaretz
Hariri-Assad-Nasrallah meeting is under review/Ya Lubnan
The two sides of one 'peace advocate/Jewish Tribute
Tribunal takes Lebanon closer to crisis
Jumblat Returns to Beirut/Naharnet
Financial Times: Lebanon Closer to Crisis Over Tribunal/Naharnet
Abdullah Kicks off Regional Tour, Discusses Lebanon with Mubarak/Naharnet
Hariri Calls for Dialogue and Cooperation to Avoid Division/Naharnet
Report: Hariri Criticizes Hizbullah for Addressing Him 'Through Screens'/Naharnet
Berri Out of Hospital After Procedure to Fragment Kidney Stones/Naharnet
Report: Ahmadinejad in Beirut After Eid al-Fitr/Naharnet
German Engineer Not Arrested, Only Questioned/Naharnet
Arslan: Some March 14 Statements Coincide with Our Skeptical Stances on STL's Integrity/Naharnet
Geagea: We Must Wait for Indictment to Find Out whether There Really were False Witnesses/Naharnet
Aoun Says Meeting with Hariri Doesn't Need Efforts: We'd Willingly Meet if Necessary/Naharnet
March 14: Objections against STL Must Be Brought Up Before It According to Legal Mechanisms/Naharnet
Keyrouz: State Has the Right to Extend its Sovereignty across its Territory, Including Refugee Camps/Naharnet
Hajj Hasan: STL an American Product in Every sense of the Word/Naharnet
Al-Moqdad: The STL is the Second Crime after Hariri's Assassination/Naharnet
Qaouq: Any Accusation against Leaders or Members of the Resistance is a Form of Aggression against it/Naharnet

Sfeir Says Tribunal is Fair, Calls for Guaranteeing Freedom of Operations
Naharnet/Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir has called for guaranteeing the freedom of operations of the international tribunal without influencing its decisions. "The international tribunal is fair and righteous," Sfeir told al-Liwaa daily in remarks published Thursday. "Lebanon needs to know the truth to achieve justice and the court should be fair." The patriarch also said that all Christians and Muslims should overcome attempts to stir troubles between them and "launch sincere dialogue that solves their problems." Sfeir hoped Arab leaders visiting Lebanon on Friday would succeed in their missions. Asked about the stances of Christian opposition members, Sfeir said: "Maybe some want us to support them but this is difficult" to achieve.
Whether he would visit Syria and pray at Saint Maroun church in Aleppo, the patriarch told al-Liwaa: "We have Saint Maroun in Lebanon." Beirut, 29 Jul 10,

US advice to Assad: Pay attention to what Abdullah has to say
July 29, 2010 /Some advice from US State Department spokesperson Philip Crowley to Damascus ahead of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz’s visit to Beirut on Friday: “Listen carefully to what King Abdullah has to say,” the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) reported late Wednesday. King Abdullah is meeting with Assad in Damascus on Thursday before the two men head to Lebanon. Crowley also said Syria should distance itself from Iran and “move in a more constructive direction.” Damascus gets very little out of its relationship with Tehran, but now it has the opportunity to play a more constructive role in the region, which Syria failed to do in recent years, KUNA quoted Crowley as saying. The US official told reporters that the Saudi king’s trip to Damascus and Beirut is “consistent with his search for peace and his promotion of the Arab Peace Initiative.”King Abdullah kicked off his regional tour in Egypt on Wednesday, meeting with President Hosni Mubarak. -NOW Lebanon

Guess who’s coming to Baabda?
Matt Nash, July 29, 2010
Now Lebanon/Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz are expected to visit Beirut together on Friday to mediate and likely manipulate the game of brinksmanship undoubtedly going on behind closed doors, now that the word “crisis” is again appearing alongside “Lebanon” in headlines around the world.
Talk of tension intensified this month, particularly since Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said on July 22 that Prime Minister Saad Hariri told him some party members would be indicted by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in the 2005 assassination of Hariri’s father by year’s end, which Hariri allegedly denies.
The two heads of state, according to media reports and politicians’ statements, are first and foremost concerned with calming the situation in Lebanon and ensuring that renewed speculation that civil war is a formal charge away remains just that.
Even if the men – two of the three top regional patrons of local political parties – do not meet in Beirut, Abdullah is in Damascus Thursday to meet with Assad, where Lebanon will certainly be on the table, if only metaphorically, along with their own slowly-thawing relationship. (As of press time, Syria had not confirmed that Assad would attend.)
Should the meeting here take place, Rosanna Bou Mounsef, senior staff editor at An-Nahar, told NOW Lebanon, “what [the foreign heads of state] can do is bring all [Lebanese politicians] together to be calm and preserve the stability of Lebanon,” adding she’s not sure if that is just hopeful thinking.
Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center, told NOW Lebanon he saw the regional maneuvers as a way for key players to brainstorm ways of handling what is arguably now an anticipated indictment.
After Nasrallah said Hariri would publically recognize that any Hezbollah members indicted were acting in an “undisciplined” way, Hariri himself told As-Safir on July 23 that he would divorce his personal reaction from his response “in my quality as the prime minister of Lebanon,” keen to maintain stability.
However, sweeping an indictment of Hezbollah members under the rug might not be enough, Salem said, depending on reactions from not only Arab states, but also Iran, Israel, the US and Europe, particularly given the row over Iran’s nuclear program and frequent talk of war with Lebanon coming from the south.
“If the indictments come out [as expected], Hezbollah cannot simply ignore everything as if it didn’t exist or as if it’s all an Israeli plot,” he said. “If the indictments are very serious, this will require backdoor negotiations with Hezbollah and Syria to see what sort of compromise or middle-of-the-road” approach can be taken.
Talk of clipping Hezbollah’s wings militarily – though not disarming it – might arise, and regional states might demand Hezbollah take a more moderate tone toward Israel.
The message from Abdullah and his regional allies in the coming weeks and months may be willingness to help Hezbollah and its allies absorb a shock from the tribunal, but only if met halfway, Salem said.
“Now this may be put on the table, but at the end of the day it’s up to Iran and Hezbollah if they want to negotiate their way out of this or simply rebuff everything and just hold tight,” he said, adding he expected negotiations.
“If they’re indicted, it’ll be hard for the Arab world, for Turkey, for Europe, for anybody to stand by them if they don’t respond,” he added.
Bou Mounsef, Salem and Andrew Tabler, the Next Generation Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who worked for years as a journalist in Syria, agreed that nudging Syria away from Hezbollah and Iran – the talk of the town late last year as Riyadh and Damascus began mending fences – is not only unlikely to be on Abdullah’s agenda, but also unlikely in the long term.
“The relationship between Syria and Iran is very, very strategic,” Bou Mounsef said. “It’s fruitful for Syria, and why not; it has not harmed [Syria] until now.” Just as Iran and Turkey are beneficial allies for Syria, Tabler noted the economic perks Damascus – which has unemployment concerns, falling oil revenues and is dealing with water problems related, though not exclusively, to a drought that has internally displaced 300,000 – can secure from closer ties to Saudi.
“The Saudis are very good because they just have cash,” Tabler said. “When you have an economy that is opening but not reforming, not rapidly changing, like Syria’s, you need these cash injections to keep the system going.”

Washington Urges Assad to 'Listen' to Abdullah
Naharnet/The United States has said that Syrian President Bashar Assad should "listen" to Saudi King Abdullah whose visits to Damascus and Beirut come as part of his peace efforts.
"King Abdullah has played a significant leadership role in the region. So his prospective travel to Syria and to Lebanon is consistent with his search for peace, (and) his promotion of the Arab Peace Initiative," State Department Spokesman Philip Crowley said Wednesday. Washington also believes that Abdullah's visit "reflects his concern about other regional security developments, including his … well-known concerns about Iran," he told reporters. He hoped that Syria would play a more constructive role in the region. When asked about Damascus' ties with Tehran, Crowley said: "It would be much better for Syria to distance itself from Iran and move in a more constructive direction." "We think that President Assad and other Syrian leaders should listen very attentively to what King Abdullah will tell them," he added. Beirut, 29 Jul 10,

Hariri Calls for Dialogue and Cooperation to Avoid Division
Naharnet/Prime Minister Saad Hariri stressed during a cabinet session on Wednesday on the language of dialogue as the only communication means among all Lebanese sides.
"We all want to preserve Lebanon" Hariri told the ministers at the start of the session at the Grand Serail on Wednesday, according to Information Minister Tareq Mitri.
"We should all cooperate for what falls in the interest of the country and work together to avoid divisions," Mitri quoted the premier as saying. "The language of dialogue is the best means to communicate and reach an understanding among each other."Ministerial sources told al-Liwaa daily in remarks published Thursday that the cabinet did not discuss the latest political crisis that was sparked following statements by officials about the possible indictment of Hizbullah members by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. The newspaper said that the ministers stressed the importance of Lebanese unity against repeated Israeli threats and violations of the country's sovereignty. Beirut, 29 Jul 10,

Report: Hariri Criticizes Hizbullah for Addressing Him 'Through Screens'
Naharnet/A meeting between the prime minister and Hizbullah leader's political assistant Hussein Khalil on Tuesday started with a severe argument after Saad Hariri criticized what he called a campaign by the Shiite party against the international tribunal, pan-Arab daily al-Hayat reported. The newspaper said Thursday that Hariri criticized Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's way of addressing him "through screens." A crisis erupted in Lebanon after Nasrallah accused the court of writing a charge sheet before the interrogation of Hizbullah members. "There is a dangerous project that is targeting the resistance," Nasrallah said via video link. According to al-Hayat, Hariri told Khalil that the issue of the court should be discussed in a calm atmosphere away from the media spotlight. The newspaper quoted informed sources as saying Khalil stressed to Hariri that Hizbullah does not accept accusations of involvement in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's murder "that's why it cautioned against plots." Despite the argument, political sources told al-Hayat that a meeting would most probably be held between Hariri and Nasrallah. Al-Liwaa newspaper's sources described the Hariri-Khalil meeting as good although they said more contact is needed between the two sides. They said Khalil told Hariri that everyone wants to know the truth behind Hariri's assassination but politicization of the court is rejected. The premier, in his turn, said that he would refuse any indictment that is not backed by evidence. According to the sources, Hariri also told Khalil that he does not accept his father's soul to become a source of strife in Lebanon. Beirut, 29 Jul 10,

Aoun Says Meeting with Hariri Doesn't Need Efforts: We'd Willingly Meet if Necessary
Naharnet/Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Wednesday commented on media reports that efforts were underway to set up a meeting between him and Prime Minister Saad Hariri, stressing that "such a matter doesn't need efforts." In a phone interview with the FPM-affiliated OTV, Aoun added: "We would willingly meet if necessary, and we wouldn't hesitate over the considerations of time and place." Beirut, 28 Jul 10,

Jumblat Returns to Beirut
Naharnet/Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat returned to Beirut on Thursday following a several-day visit to France.Jumblat was in Paris on a private visit.
Beirut, 29 Jul 10, 13:43

Financial Times: Lebanon Closer to Crisis Over Tribunal
Naharnet/Lebanon is braced for another political crisis as the Special Tribunal for Lebanon appears to be heading towards indicting Hizbullah members, the Financial Times reported.
The alleged involvement of undisciplined Hizbullah members in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's assassination "is a perilous outcome for the country: the movement is now part of the coalition government led by Saad Hariri, the prime minister and son of the dead leader," the newspaper said. "The tribunal apparently reached a conclusion that is the worse-case scenario, so at a minimum this is likely to cause a major government crisis," says Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East Centre in Beirut. "The government would be cooperating with an institution which others (Hizbullah) say is an Israeli agency." The Financial Times quoted analysts as saying that Hizbullah, whose military organization is more powerful than the Lebanese army, will not hand over any suspects. Nor will the government be in a position to arrest anyone. Beirut, 29 Jul 10,

The Flotilla Farce
By: DANNY AYALON
Wall Street Journal/29.07.10
Whether they are from Turkey, Ireland or Cyprus, those that participate reek of hypocrisy..
A couple of years ago, a Palestinian refugee camp was encircled and laid siege to by an army of tanks and Armored Personnel Carriers. Attacks initiated by Palestinian militants triggered an overwhelming response from the army that took the life of almost 500 people, including many civilians. International organizations struggled to send aid to the refugee camps, where the inhabitants were left without basic amenities like electricity and running water. During the conflict, six U.N. personnel were killed when their car was bombed.
Government ministers and spokesmen tried to explain to the international community that the Palestinian militants were backed by Syria and global jihadist elements. Al Qaeda condemned the government and the army, declaring that the attack was part of a "crusade" against their Palestinian brothers.
.While most will assume that the events described above took place in the West Bank or Gaza, they actually took place in Lebanon in the summer of 2007, when Palestinian terrorists attacked the Lebanese Army, which struck back with deadly force. The scene of most of the fighting was the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in Northern Lebanon, which was home to the Islamist Fatah al-Islam, a group that has links with al Qaeda.
At the time, there was little international outcry. No world leader decried the "prison camps" in Lebanon. No demonstrations took place around the world; no U.N. investigation panels were created and little media attention was attracted. In fact, the plight of the Palestinians in Lebanon garners very little attention internationally.
Today, there are more than 400,000 Palestinians in Lebanon who are deprived of their most basic rights. The Lebanese government has a list of tens of professions that a Palestinian is forbidden from being engaged in, including professions such as medicine, law and engineering. Palestinians are forbidden from owning property and need a special permit to leave their towns. Unlike all other foreign nationals in Lebanon, they are denied access to the health-care system. According to Amnesty international, the Palestinians in Lebanon suffer from "discrimination and marginalization" and are treated like "second class citizens" and "denied their full range of human rights."
Amnesty also states that most Palestinian refugees in Lebanon have little choice but to live in overcrowded and deteriorating camps and informal gatherings that lack basic infrastructure.
In view of the worsening plight of the Palestinians in Lebanon, it is the height of irony that a Lebanese flotilla is organizing to leave the port of Tripoli in the next few days to bring aid to Palestinians in Gaza. According to one of the organizers, the participants are "united by a feeling of stark injustice."
This attitude exposes the dishonesty of the whole flotilla exercise. Whether it is from Turkey, Ireland or Cyprus, those that participate in these flotillas reek of hypocrisy. There are currently 100 armed conflicts and dozens of territorial disputes around the world. There have been millions of people killed and hundreds of millions live in abject poverty without access to basic staples. And yet hundreds of high-minded "humanitarian activists" are spending millions of dollars to reach Gaza and hand money to Hamas that will never reach the innocent civilians of Gaza.
This is the same Gaza that just opened a sparkling new shopping mall that would not look out of place in any capital in Europe. Gaza, where a new Olympic-sized swimming pool was recently inaugurated and five-star hotels and restaurants offer luxurious fare.
Markets brimming with all manner of foods dot the landscape of Gaza, where Lauren Booth, journalist and "human rights activist," was pictured buying chocolate and luxurious items from a well-stocked supermarket before stating with a straight face that the "situation in Gaza is a humanitarian crisis on the scale of Darfur."
No one claims that the situation in Gaza is perfect. Since the bloody coup and occupation by Hamas of Gaza in 2007, in which more than 100 Palestinians were killed, Israel has had no choice but to ensure that Hamas is not able to build up an Iranian port on the shores of the Mediterranean. Until Hamas meets the three standards laid out by the international community, namely renouncing violence, recognizing Israel's right to exist and abiding by previously signed agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Hamas will continue to be shunned by the international community.
While Israel's policy is to continue to see that all civilian needs are addressed, it can not allow Hamas to rearm and use Gaza as a base to attack Israel and beyond. For this reason, Israel initiated a blockade, fully legal under international law, to ensure that no items can be appropriated by Hamas to attack innocent civilians. Organizations that wish to join the U.N. and the Red Cross to deliver goods or aid to Gaza are welcome to do so through the Kerem Shalom crossing or even through Egyptian ports. Those that refuse and seek to break the legal blockade to boost Hamas are interested in provocation. If Israel allows these confrontational flotillas to successfully open up a shipping lane for arms smuggling for an Iranian proxy, then the region will suffer from continuous conflict. Actions that embolden the extremists will be at the cost of the moderates and this will pose a grave danger to moving the peace process forward.
The latest flotilla preparing to leave from Lebanon fully exposes not only the hypocrisy but the danger of these provocative vigilante flotillas. The Lebanese flotilla, whose organizers claim injustice while ignoring the dire human rights situation of the Palestinians in Lebanon, amply demonstrate that these flotillas have nothing to do with humanitarian concerns and everything to do with delegitimizing Israel.
**Mr. Ayalon is Israel's deputy minister of foreign affairs.

German in spy probe released - officials
By The Daily Star
Thursday, July 29, 2010
BEIRUT: Judicial officials say authorities have released a German engineer detained on suspicion of spying for Israel.
The man, who worked at a dairy factory, was detained Monday. The engineer was suspected of involvement in passing on sensitive security information to Israel.
The Lebanese officials said Wednesday no arrest warrant was issued for the man and that he was released late Tuesday after questioning. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. German Foreign Ministry spokesman Dirk Augustin said Lebanese authorities had questioned the man but launched no proceedings against him.
Lebanese officials said the man had been living in Lebanon for some 12 years and had been working at Liban Lait, a dairy factory in the eastern Bekaa Valley, since August 2009.
Executives at Liban Lait confirmed the man had been interrogated on the premises and that his work station’s internet connection had been cut off. Since April 2009, when the government launched a nationwide crackdown on alleged rings working for the Israeli Mossad spy agency, close to 100 people, including members of the security forces and telecom employees, have been arrested on suspicion of spying for Israel. Three men have been sentenced to death, including one found guilty of aiding Israel during its devastating 2006 summer war against Lebanon. Israeli forces bombed Liban Lait during the month-long war that killed some 1,200 Lebanese, mainly civilians, and 160 Israelis, mainly troops.Lebanon remains technically in a state of war with Israel and convicted spies face capital punishment if found guilty of contributing to the death of Lebanese citizens. – AP, with The Daily Star

King Abdullah kicks off Arab tour in Egypt
Assad to accompany Saudi Monarch to Lebanon
By The Daily Star /Thursday, July 29, 2010
BEIRUT: Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah held talks on Wednesday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Sharm el-Sheikh, with talks mainly focusing on recent developments in Lebanon and the peace process. Meanwhile, Lebanese ministers have received an invitation to attend a lunch at the Baabda Presidential Palace held in the honor of Saudi King Abdullah and Syrian President Bashar Assad, well-informed ministerial sources told The Daily Star on Wednesday.
The Saudi and Syrian leaders will visit Beirut on Friday as part of a flurry of diplomatic efforts to contain a potentially explosive situation in Lebanon where there are fears of a new sectarian conflict. “We have been informed that President [Bashar] Assad will travel to Beirut with King Abdullah,” a high-ranking Lebanese government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP on Wednesday. King Abdullah and Assad are expected to meet Lebanon’s three top officials and the heads of parliamentary blocs.
There was no immediate confirmation from Damascus. Assad’s visit will be his first since the 2005 assassination of Lebanese ex-Premier Rafik Hariri, when relations between Damascus and Beirut took a sharp downturn. At the time, Syria was widely blamed for the murder, but it has consistently denied any involvement.
Relations have been on the mend since 2008 when diplomatic ties were established for the first time between Beirut and Damascus, and Prime Minister Saad Hariri, son of the slain leader, has made four trips to Syria in the past eight months. Assad will be travelling to Beirut along with the Saudi monarch, who is due in Damascus on Thursday as part of a regional tour that includes stops in Egypt and Jordan. Also coming to Beirut on Friday will be the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani.
The diplomatic ballet is widely seen as an attempt to ease tensions after Hizbullah said last week that the UN tribunal probing Hariri’s murder was set to indict members of the Shiite party.
The announcement prompted fears of a new conflict between Hizbullah and its Sunni rivals similar to the one that shook the country in 2008.
There is also concern a new conflict might be looming between Hizbullah and Israel. The two archfoes fought a devastating war in 2006 that left much of Lebanon’s infrastructure in ruins.
“I think the next two weeks will be crucial,” said Shadi Hamid, research director at the Brookings Doha Center, a think-tank. “There is a risk of escalation, of sectarian violence, and all players involved realize that risk and are taking pre-emptive action to defuse things before they get out of hand in the next weeks and months,” Hamid told AFP.
Hariri and 22 others were killed in a massive bombing on February 14, 2005. The killing sparked international outcry and forced Damascus to withdraw its troops from its neighbour following a 29-year presence. The UN tribunal set up to investigate Hariri’s assassination is expected to issue indictments in the case by the end of the year.
Saudi-Syrian ties deteriorated after Hariri’s murder but have since warmed, with Riyadh playing a key role in the recent rapprochement between Assad and Saad Hariri.
The Saudi king is expected to press Assad to use his influence over Hizbullah to avoid a conflict. Assad last visited Lebanon in 2002 when he attended an Arab summit. The Saudi monarch also attended that summit but was crown prince at the time. – Agencies with The Daily Star

Judge interrogates man over Sleiman slurs on Facebook
By The Daily Star /Thursday, July 29, 2010 /BEIRUT: Beirut First Investigative Magistrate Ghassan Oueidat interrogated on Wednesday Ali Ahmad Shuman, suspected of defaming Lebanese President Michel Sleiman on social-networking website Facebook. Shuman was arrested on Tuesday as soon as his Ukrainian International Airlines plane, arriving from Kiev, landed at Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut. He was immediately transferred by security forces to the Roumieh prison, where he awaits trial on charges of libel, slander and defamation of the Lebanese president on the popular Facebook website. Shuman’s attorney demanded the release of his client during the interrogatory session.
An arrest warrant was issued against Shuman at the end of June after he allegedly posted derogatory comments against Sleiman on Facebook. The posts were made inaccessible on Facebook after judicial authorities were charged with the case. Three other suspects – Naim George Hanna, Antoine Youssef Ramia and Shebel Rajeh Qasab – were arrested for the same reason but were released after approximately a week and their files were transferred to the prosecutor’s office at the Beirut Court of Appeals. General Prosecutor Saeed Mirza was the magistrate who ordered the arrest of the three men and issued an arrest warrant against Shuman. Despite the fact that Lebanese law allows the general prosecutor to take action in libel cases against the president, the arrests raised controversy inside and outside the country as they were considered a violation of freedom of speech. – The Daily Star

March 14: STL objections should be submitted before court
Geagea claims Hizbullah looking to transform lebanon into ‘war zone’
By Elias Sakr /Daily Star staff
Thursday, July 29, 2010
BEIRUT: The March 14 Secretariat General responded on Wednesday to Hizbullah’s criticisms of the UN-backed tribunal’s credibility, saying that objections should be submitted before the court itself. The Secretariat General also reiterated its confidence in the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) and praised the Future Movement’s commitment to upholding the strength and unity of the March 14 alliance. “The Secretariat General stresses that the STL is a Lebanese demand which March 14 parties have made many sacrifices to defend, and reiterates its full confidence in the tribunal,” said a statement by the Secretariat General after its weekly meeting. “The Secretariat General believes that objections against the tribunal should be proposed before the tribunal itself in line with legal procedures,” the statement added, in reference to Hizbullah’s proposal to form a Lebanese committee to investigate false witnesses in investigations by the STL. Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has questioned the validity of phone records used in the case, in view of the recent arrests of spies for Israel at the state-run phone company Alpha. He has also complained that the tribunal based its investigations upon the testimonies of false witnesses to fabricate an indictment against the resistance.
Nasrallah was referring to Zuheir Siddiq, a former key witness who later recanted his testimony in the investigation of the 2005 killing of former Premier Rafik Hariri among others.
In unprecedented harsh criticism of Hizbullah, Lebanese Forces (LF) leader Samir Geagea said the party “sought to transform Lebanon into a war zone” to serve Iranian interests.
“This is my political opinion backed by the fact that Iranian President Ahmadinejad has repeatedly said two Arab states would be subjected to a war in a bid to pressure Iran,” Geagea said following a meeting with Egypt’s Ambassador to Lebanon Ahmad al-Bidawi.
Separately, a statement issued by Geagea’s press office after he met with US Ambassador to Lebanon Michele Sison expressed full US support for the STL. “Attendees discussed the issue of the STL, which the US fully supports since it considers the STL to possess high levels of experience in judicial work,” the statement said.
It added that Sison expressed the US commitment to “provide the Lebanese Cabinet with all that is necessary to spread its sovereignty over all its territories and preserve civil peace.”
Commenting on the issue of false witnesses, Geagea said only judicial authorities were entitled to decide whether those were false witnesses or not.
“All claimed false witnesses are Syrians as the majority of them work for Syrian intelligence services starting with Hussam Hussam and concluding with Zouheir Siddiq,” Geagea said, stressing that those witnesses were supported by Damascus to mislead investigations. Regarding media reports highlighting a disagreement between Syria and Hizbullah over the STL, Geagea said that Damascus and Hizbullah adopted the same stances but “the Syrians were more clever than Hizbullah in announcing their position in an elegant manner.”
Syrian President Bashar Assad and Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdel-Aziz are expected to arrive in Beirut Friday in a bid to ease sectarian tensions among domestic parties.
The meeting is expected to be held in Baabda Palace with the participation of the country’s major political figures. King Abdullah is expected to hold talks with Assad in Damascus on Thursday. Opposition and Hizbullah officials have over the past few days pitched a proposal to form a committee tasked with discussing steps to strengthen national unity, curb sectarian tensions and preserve stability. Minister of State Adnan Sayyed Hussein said President Michel Sleiman was in the process of drafting a report covering the outcome of his recent round of talks with the country’s political leaders. Sayyed Hussein added that the report would be subject to discussion during the national dialogue committee’s meeting on August 19.

Playing three-ball billiards in Beirut
By Michael Young
Daily Star/Thursday, July 29, 2010
Lebanon is caught up in a game of political billiards these days, each side playing a second ball against the third. And who is benefiting most from this situation? Syria’s President Bashar Assad. For Prime Minister Saad Hariri, the alignment with Syria has brought dividends. Hizbullah has never felt so isolated, and Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s speech just over a week ago was, above all, a reminder of the favors the party rendered to Damascus. Hariri has been under no undue pressure to terminate Lebanon’s relationship with the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, despite Nasrallah’s charge that it is “an Israeli project,” and that is because he knows that Syria will not allow Hizbullah to change the rules of the game in Beirut.
But if Hariri is using the Syrian ball against Hizbullah, what advantage do the Syrians have in using Hariri against Hizbullah? Simply, to bring the party squarely under Syria’s sway, after five years when it was Syria that depended mainly on Hizbullah – because it held the ground – to defend its Lebanese stakes. During that time, Iran’s influence in Lebanon expanded, denying Syria the paramount role it had played in the country for decades. Assad now wants to reverse that equation, and is doing so by exploiting his new Sunni alliance, with Hariri for sure, but chiefly with Saudi Arabia, whose King Abdullah will alight in Beirut this week to bless the new order.
Hizbullah, in turn, hoped to use its denunciation of the special tribunal to weaken Hariri. The Syrians are of two minds on the matter. Their Lebanese spokesmen are calling on the prime minister to turn against the tribunal, while Assad appears not to have made such a request. The Syrians are keeping several irons in the fire. They know that an accusation against Hizbullah may eventually hit them, a fact of which they were reminded by Walid Jumblatt, himself a corsair plying the uneasy seas between Syria, Hariri and Hizbullah. But they are also aware that the tribunal’s prosecutor, Daniel Bellemare, will not soon indict Syrians (if anyone), so they can use the prospect of legal accusations to make Hizbullah more dependent on Damascus.
Hizbullah can be reassured by the fact that Syria wants the party to bend to Syrian priorities, but it has no desire to see Hizbullah decisively damaged. Nor for that matter is Assad likely to oppose a war in southern Lebanon if Hizbullah is required by Iran to retaliate against an Israeli or American attack against the Islamic Republic. In fact, Syria could well view a conflict as an opening to enhance its control over Lebanon, perhaps even return to the country militarily.
How so? Assad would point out that only Syria can stabilize Lebanon in the aftermath of a war that devastates lives and infrastructure, discredits the government (as wars tend to do), tears down the United Nations security edifice in the south, and confirms Hizbullah as a major regional headache. If the party manages to resist Israel for several weeks – and Syria has every intention of ensuring it does – this would alarm the Arab states, Israel and the United States, whose approval is needed to sanction some sort of Syrian comeback.
As the columnist Hazem Saghieh wrote last week in Al-Hayat, Syrian leaders have been good at reversing their alliances in Lebanon for Syria’s greater benefit. In 1976, the Syrian Army entered Lebanon at the request of the Maronite leadership to fight the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Lebanese National Movement. President Hafez Assad sought to avoid Lebanon’s becoming a PLO base, which might have forced Syria into a confrontation with Israel. So he used the Maronite invitation to invade Lebanon and bring the PLO to heel, before turning against the Maronites and reconciling with the Palestinians when Egypt began talks with Israel.
You have to assume that the Syrians, in the way they bludgeoned the PLO, will seek to do the same to the Sunni community in the not too distant future. A feature of Syria’s presence in Lebanon was the suffocation of independent Sunni political activity that could threaten Damascus’ hold over Lebanon – all the more important given its potential repercussions on the Sunni-Alawite rapport in Syria. Saad Hariri has sought to challenge that rule, most recently by pursuing the institutionalization of the Future Movement, which may emerge as a Sunni “big tent.” Yet this is not a move that Syria will accept lightly.
For Syria to play a regional balancing role, it needs to continue maneuvering between the Arab world and Iran – in other words it cannot afford to see Iran marginalized. That should be a further source of comfort to Hizbullah, but also a thought American policy-makers must bear in mind when assuming that it is possible to play Damascus off against Tehran. But then again as a prominent official remarked in Beirut recently, Washington is in a “coma” regionally, by so downgrading its presence, a major factor in pushing the Arab states, Turkey and Iran to compete over the ensuing vacuum.
Syria’s objective in Lebanon is to re-impose the hegemony it once had – without its army if it has to, and with if it can manage that. Among its immediate priorities is to place its people in key security and administrative posts, which may lead to friction with Hizbullah, which has power over the main security agencies. Administrative nominations appear to be stalled, and reports suggest that Syria is responsible for this, only increasing its leverage in the future.
Lebanon may be a game of billiards, but it is Bashar Assad who is holding the cue. And one can use a cue for many things, not least striking the Lebanese at the knees, an old Syrian specialty.
**Michael Young is opinion editor of THE DAILY STAR. His “The Ghosts of Martyrs Square: An Eyewitness Account of Lebanon’s Life Struggle” (Simon & Schuster) was recently published.

Reading into the region’s future: A summer special offer
By: Osama al-Sharif
Saudi Arab News
Wednesday, 28 July 2010
This is the second installment of my summer special wholesale reading of the region’s future. In this segment I tackle Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Lebanon.
Iran: The United States, Europe and now Russia are united in their approach to force Iran into giving up on enriching its own uranium while committing to transparency over other aspects of its nuclear program. Additional international sanctions have been adopted and while President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appears unyielding and suspicious of Western intentions, there are signs that Tehran is giving diplomacy one more chance.
It is now ready to resume unconditional talks on nuclear fuel swap. The United States had rejected an earlier compromise deal worked out through Turkish and Brazilian mediation few months ago. Sanctions will definitely hurt the Iranian economy and put pressure on an unpopular government. Iran needs Russian help to launch its nuclear reactor which is already behind schedule.
While the possibility of a military confrontation over the issue remains slim, it cannot be ruled out altogether. A threatened regime will take risks, especially when it can influence events in neighboring countries like Iraq and Afghanistan where the US and its allies are fighting difficult wars.
The international pressure on Iran is fueled mainly by Israel, which is pushing the US and Germany, among others, to derail Tehran nuclear ambitions. Israel has threatened to take matters into its own hands —militarily. The problem with the Iranian situation is that it is getting complicated every day. Iran is shifting resources to buttress its army, navy and Revolutionary Guards. It has developed its short, medium and long-range missile capabilities, and it is today the biggest regional power in the Gulf.
It has allies in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza, not to mention its considerable sway over Iraqi Shiites. Recent press reports suggested that Iran is arming and funding the Taleban in Afghanistan. Any military confrontation with Iran will have unpredictable regional reverberations.
The US and its European allies must think this one very carefully. The next few weeks will be imperative. The more Tehran is pushed into isolation the more dangerous it can become. Washington can make good use of Turkey and Brazil, both of whom have good working relationship with Iran, in resolving this matter.
In the post Iraq-Afghanistan era of dealing with rogue or rebellious regimes, the Obama administration must tread carefully when it comes to Iran. The line defining what Tehran is entitled to and what it is not, when it comes to its nuclear program, must not get blurred, even though Israel would love to see the West take this case into a bloody conclusion!
Afghanistan: After Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s gaffe, which cost him his job as top military commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, the situation there remains untenable for the Obama administration. Since Gen. David Petraeus took over few weeks ago he scrapped the military strategies of his predecessor. And this is exactly what Afghanistan is turning to be; a war between generals and Taleban chiefs with no room for politicians and diplomatic breakthroughs.
Afghanistan is quickly becoming Obama’s Vietnam as Americans become more weary and tired of its human and other tolls. America’s allies are also looking for excuses to leave, and they will. Unlike Iraq, Afghanistan is a war that must be won on other fronts, like Pakistan. The recent leaking of secret military documents showing dubious links between the Taleban and Pakistan’s intelligence service, ISI, only adds to Washington’s woes.
Gen. Petraeus latest strategy shift centers on replicating the Awakening (Sahwat) experiment in Iraq. He wants to recruit locals to fight the Taleban. That could have worked three, five or nine years ago — when the Americans first invaded the country — but with so many civilian casualties — apparently more than was first revealed — and general distrust of the Karzai regime, the strategy is doomed from the start. It is now a matter of time before the Americans and others realize that Afghanistan is a war that cannot be won. Washington politicians can set deadlines for troop withdrawal and pour billions of dollars into that ruined and corrupt country, but claiming final victory against the Taleban is unlikely to happen.
Losing Afghanistan may prove to be a major milestone for America’s hegemony as a superpower in the second decade of this century. Moreover, it will be a cataclysmic event for West Asia, particularly Pakistan; a nuclear country suffering from ethnic and tribal divisions and a victim of Islamist militancy. In the coming months Pakistan will become the big story while Afghanistan will linger in an endless war.
Lebanon: It is hard to figure out Lebanese politics. This country has remained intact in spite of a bloody 15-year-long civil war, full-scale Israeli invasion, Syrian occupation and numerous assaults by Israel, the last of which took place in 2006. It has withstood assassinations of presidents, prime ministers and key politicians. Even now, when there is talk of yet another war against Lebanon, the country is teeming with tourists and investors.
But Lebanon is about to undergo one more grave test, when in September a special tribunal on the 2005 assassination of late Prime Minister Rafik Hariri will announce its findings. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah believes the politically motivated probe will indict Shiite members of his militant organization. It’s becoming a cloak and dagger story, but the sectarian realities of that country, and its troubled past, point to a stressful autumn.
The issue at hand is not who killed Hariri. That mystery may never be solved. It is the fact that Hezbollah is armed to the teeth and is aching to cross swords with Israel, again, no matter the price. Disarming the resistance, which happens to be allied with Syria and Iran, has become not only an internal concern but an international one as well.
Israel fears Hezbollah more than any other Arab regime and it is bent on destroying it. A war in Lebanon is not so unlikely to happen this year. And Hezbollah, facing domestic and regional pressures, will not shy away from the challenge. This is a recipe for disaster for Lebanon and the region. Next week my summer special continues with a reading into what the coming months have in store for Sudan, Egypt and Jordan.
*Published in the Saudi Arab News on July 27, 2010.

Delusion instead of solution
By: Yoram Ettinger
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3926519,00.html
Op-ed: Western preoccupation with engaging Iran must make way for tougher approach
: 07.29.10, 11:43 / Israel Opinion
Western policy-makers grow increasingly reconciled to coexistence with a nuclear Iran. They assume that notwithstanding the radical rhetoric, the Iranian leadership is pragmatic, cognizant of its limitations, unwilling to expose its people to devastating Western retaliation and considering nuclear capabilities as a tool of deterrence – and not as an offensive means – against the US, NATO and Israel.
However, a nuclear Iran would constitute a clear and present danger to global security and peace, which must not be tolerated. In order to avert such a wrath, it is incumbent to disengage from illusions and engage with realism.
Unlike Western leaders, the Iranian revolutionary leadership is driven by ideological and religious conviction, bolstered by ancient imperialist ethos:
1. Jihad is the permanent state of relations between Muslims and non-Muslims, while peace and ceasefire accords are tenuous.
2. The Shihada commits every Shiite to kill and be killed, in order to advance Shiite Muslim strategy.
3. The strategic goal of Shiite Islam – which replaced the” illegitimate” Judaism and Christianity – is to convert humanity to Islam.
The religious Shiite zeal is intensified by the Persian-Iranian ethos, shared by secular and religious Iranians, who consider Iran a regional and a global power during the last 2,600 years.
Iran’s religious/imperialistic strategy has guided Tehran’s tactical policy toward the US (the “Great Satan” and the key target for Iran’s terror and nuclear efforts), Central & South America (an anti-US terror platform), Iraq (the chief Sunni rival in the Persian Gulf and an arena to weaken the US), Saudi Arabia (an apostate regime), Gulf States (targeted for revolution and takeover), Afghanistan and Pakistan (an arena to erode America’s image), international terror organizations and terror cells in the US and Europe (weakening Western societies), Syria, Lebanon, Hezbollah and Hamas (threatening Israel and advancing regional hegemony) and Israel (the “Little Satan,” a Western outpost in the Abode of Islam, the source of Judeo-Christian values.)
Western leaders are top heavy on “pragmatism” and low on ideology and religion. Therefore, they are preoccupied with Iranian global tactical policy, minimizing the study of Iran’s strategic infrastructure of religion, ideology and history, which consider Shia, Jihad, Shihada and Persian imperialism as Tehran’s Pillars of Fire.
Debunk ‘Linkage Theory’
Western leaders believe in engagement – and not in confrontation – with Iran. However, Tehran’s revolutionaries regard such an attitude as a symptom of Western fatigue, of a tendency to “blink first” and of a modern version of the defeatist European slogan: “Better Red than Dead.”
Moreover, Tehran considers the US a superpower in retirement and retreat, adopting gradually the European state-of-mind and losing its posture of endurance since 1973 (retreat from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia), 1979 (terrorist takeover of the US embassy in Tehran), 1983 (retreat from Lebanon following the blowing up of the US embassy and Marines headquarters in Beirut) until 2011 (announced US withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan.)
At the same time, Iran demonstrated its willingness to pay a brutal price for its principles and interests when sacrificing some 500,000 persons on the altar of the 1980-1988 war against Iraq, including about 100,000 children who were dispatched to clear minefields.
Tehran is encouraged by Western preoccupation with engagement and sanctions, which constitute a delusion and not a solution. For instance, Russia and China consider the US a rival and do not share US assessment of Iran. They benefit from a weakened US and therefore they do not cooperate in the implementation of sanctions. Europe employs tough rhetoric, but displays frail action. And, the UN will not support tough US policy toward Iran. The longer the sanctions and engagement process, the more time available to Iran to develop and acquire nuclear capabilities.
Tehran benefits from Western adherence to a supposed linkage between the Palestinian issue and a successful campaign against Iran. However, there is no linkage between the Palestinian issue – or the Arab Israeli conflict or Israel’s existence – and the pillars of Iran’s strategy. The more entrenched the “Linkage Theory,” the heavier the pressure on Israel and the weaker the pressure on Iran.
In 1978, President Carter’s policy toward the Shah was perceived as the backstabbing of a US ally, producing a tailwind to the anti-Shah opposition and facilitating the Iranian Revolution. In 2010, Western policy toward Iran is perceived as an acknowledgment of the potency of the revolutionary leadership, thus serving as a headwind to a weakened domestic opposition and minimizing the possibility of a domestically generated regime-change.
A sustained Western policy toward Iran would confront the Free World with a brutal dilemma: Accepting radical diplomatic, economic, military and religious demands presented by a nuclear Iran, or facing a series of vicious wars, including a rapidly escalated nuclear race among rogue regimes.
In order to avoid such a dilemma, it is incumbent to disengage from the illusive options of deterrence and retaliation and engage with the realistic option of military-preemption/prevention. Furthermore, the cost of military inaction would dwarf the worst case cost of preemptive military action against Iran.