Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for October 18/12
Russian S-400s relocated near Turkey. Hizballah shifts units, rockets into Syria
Egypt: 2 girls punished for not veiling
Muslim Gang Attempts to Kidnap Egyptian Christian Mother, 4 Dead
Egyptian Teacher Cuts Girls' Hair For Not Wearing Headscarf
US counter-terror experts visit Israel
FBI arrests man in NY Federal Reserve bomb plot
Largest US-Israel missile defense drill to kick off
Op-ed: It’s a holy war, stupid
Gantz: IDF has devastating power
Commander: If Iran is attacked, Israel will be hit
Ahmadinejad calls for ceasefire, dialogue in Syria
Turkish artillery strikes back after Syrian mortar bomb hit
Toxic gas leak from oil well sparks Kuwait alert
UN Syria envoy calls on government to start truce
Rebels forcing Syrian jets to bomb from high altitude: France
Rebels blow up oil and gas pipelines in Syria
Russia says 'realistic' to hold new Iran nuclear talks in November
Greece holds general strike as EU leaders meet
New wave of air raids on key Syrian town
Geagea: We Will Not Tolerate Berri as Speaker in 2013
Pro-Hezbollah fighters and rebels clashing in Syria, residents say
Report: Syria Conflict Deepens Sectarian Rifts in Lebanon
Lebanon's Arabic press digest - Oct. 18, 2012
Lebanon: Schools, public sector strike over pay raise delay
Pro-Hezbollah fighters, rebels clash in Syrian border towns: residents
Tunnels linking Lebanese-Syrian border towns: source
Strikes could lead to total collapse of economy: Mikati
Syrian workers attacked in Beirut, suspects detained
Beirut airport nabs two with 13 kg of cocaine

Geagea: We Will Not Tolerate Berri as Speaker in 2013
Naharnet/Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea indirectly admitted that the March 14 forces had committed a mistake by agreeing to maintaining Speaker Nabih Berri in his position after the camp won a majority in the 2009 parliamentary elections, reported al-Akhbar newspaper on Thursday.
He told the daily: “With all due respect to Berri, we can no longer tolerate him as parliament speaker. We must form a harmonious government just as the other camp did.”
He revealed that discussions with former Prime Minister Saad Hariri in Jeddah last week tackled the parliamentary elections, the formation of a new government, but not the presidency in Lebanon.
“What would be the point of the 2013 elections if we committed the same errors as the ones in 2009?” asked the LF leader.
Geagea said: “Discussions with Hariri addressed potential candidates for parliament speaker and prime minister.”
“It is too soon to speak about the presidency,” he added.
The presidential election is set for 2014.
On the 2013 parliamentary elections, Geagea warned that the other camp may be seeking to postpone approving the electoral law in the new year
He added that Hariri voiced to him his rejection of proportional representation in the electoral law.
“He is very flexible in discussing variations of the adoption of small-sized electoral districts, but he is completely against proportional representation,” he stressed.
“At first we were not in agreement over our view of the electoral law, but after a second and third meeting, we agreed that the draft law based on small-sized districts is good,” revealed the LF leader.
“We will now await discussions with other parties in order to garner their agreement. We cannot adopt it without consulting others,” he remarked.
“We believe it to be a very good law. We will continue our efforts with other Christian factions and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat. I believe the most important talks over the elections will be limited to the MP and Hariri,” noted Geagea.
“We will also contact Jumblat to overcome current obstacles,” he said without going into details.
Opposition MPs George Adwan, Sami Gemayel and Butros Harb proposed an electoral law based on 50 small-sized districts in a winner-takes-all system, while a plan suggested by MP Michel Aoun’s Change and Reform bloc would allow every sect to elect its own MPs under a proportional representation system with Lebanon as a single district.
In August, the cabinet approved an electoral draft law based on proportional representation and 13 districts.

Report: Syria Conflict Deepens Sectarian Rifts in Lebanon
Naharnet/Residents of Arsal, a Sunni Muslim town of 40,000, say they have strong motives to help those trying to topple Syria's regime: they themselves were harassed and abused by it during three decades of de facto Syrian control of Lebanon. But in siding with the rebels, many of them fellow Sunnis, Arsal is also deepening rifts with its Shiite Muslim neighbors in the Bekaa Valley that runs along Lebanon's eastern border with Syria. Large areas of the scenic valley are controlled by Hizbullah that is supporting and — according to the U.S. and the Syrian opposition — also fighting alongside Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces. For now, Lebanon's rival political and religious groups have largely tried to keep a lid on domestic tensions stoked by the conflict next door, with collective memories here still scarred by Lebanon's own 15-year civil war that ended in 1990. But any major escalation in Syria or miscalculation by the combatants' Lebanese supporters could ignite Lebanon's explosive sectarian mix.
Unlike some parts of Lebanon, the Bekaa has not been hit so far by sectarian violence linked to the bloodshed in Syria, although a drive along the valley's bustling main thoroughfare and the string of towns that line it, shows where the region's Shiite and Sunni loyalties lie.
In predominantly Shiite Baalbek, one of the Bekaa's larger towns, a downtown billboard shows Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah next to Assad, who is decked out in a military uniform and aviator glasses. "They will not weaken our resolve," reads a defiant caption.
The presence of Iran, the region's Shiite power and a patron of both Hizbullah and Assad, is also visible: A poster of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, with the slogan, "We can," hangs from roadside poles along a four-lane highway that signs boast was partially funded by Tehran.
A turn off the highway and down a winding uphill road, leads east toward the Syrian border and Arsal.
Homes here are bare-bones, made of raw gray cinderblock, without stone facades. A spray-painted Syrian rebel flag — with green, white and black horizontal stripes and three red stars on the white — decorates one of the walls in the center of town.
Bassel Hojeiri, principal of the local middle school, said people in Arsal back the rebels as fellow Sunnis fighting a regime controlled by Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, but also because of deep-seated hatred of Syria's rulers.
As a border town, Arsal suffered under a particularly oppressive Syrian military presence when Damascus held sway in Lebanon from 1976 to 2005. Syrian troops at checkpoints near Arsal would sometimes beat area residents, arrest them without reason, demand cash or even seize cars, said Hojeiri, 37, a former mayor of Arsal.
"People hated them," Hojeiri said of the Syrian occupiers. "Now hopefully their time is ending."
The town has stood by the rebels from the start, and now is deeply involved in the conflict. Last month, Syrian warplanes in pursuit of rebels fired missiles that struck near Arsal. Lebanese media have also suggested weapons smuggled from Lebanon to the rebels go through Arsal; residents acknowledge there's a rich tradition of smuggling in Arsal, but say they don't know anything about arms smuggling.
Volunteers from Islamic charities have sneaked scores of wounded rebels into Lebanon, driving them from there to hospitals in Tripoli, a Sunni stronghold in northern Lebanon, and bypassing clinics in Heizbullah-run areas in the valley, said Mohammed Hojeiri, a local activist.
Arsal has also taken in hundreds of Syrian refugee families, most from villages in Homs province, about 25 kilometers to the northeast. Some of the refugees rent apartments, while others live with Arsal families or in a small camp on the outskirts of town, where tents are being replaced by cinderblock shacks to prepare for the harsh mountain winter.
Rebel fighters have also used Arsal as a temporary haven to rest from the fighting across the border.
Peach farmer-turned-fighter Mohammed Yousef left his village of Zara in Homs province late last month after airstrikes destroyed his home and many others in the village. He reached Arsal after a seven-hour cross-border trek across mountainous terrain, he said, adding that several dozen of his fellow rebels do the same from time to time.
"Arsal is the ... mother of the revolution," the 25-year-old said affectionately of his Lebanese hosts who have sheltered his extended family of 10 in an empty building.
Yousef dismissed Syrian troops as largely ineffective, saying most can be bribed, but swore to exact revenge from Hizbullah, which he blamed for the destruction in his village.
Hizbullah denies that it is fighting alongside regime forces, and a spokesman declined further comment Monday.
Lebanese security officials have said a number of Hizbullah activists recently buried in the Bekaa Valley had been killed in fighting in Syria, while Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told the U.N. Security Council on Monday that "Nasrallah's fighters are now part of Assad's killing machine."
Hojeiri, the school principal, said tensions between Shiites and Sunnis in the valley have been rising since the start of the Syrian revolt. Each side is aware of the other's loyalties, and people are careful not to talk about politics when someone from the other sect is present, he said.
"People here don't want another (sectarian) war," he said.
In the past, ties between the communities were civil and even warm, he said, noting that some 200 men in Arsal are married to Shiite women from nearby villages.
For years, religious differences seemed unimportant, he said. Even during Lebanon's civil war, with its frequently shifting alliances, Shiites and Sunnis were partners more often than they were foes.
Timor Goksel, a former official in the U.N. peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, said he believes the two sides have too much to lose by bringing the Syrian conflict home.
"Sunnis are very much involved in stone quarrying and the Shiite families are mostly involved in the hashish business," he said. "Both sides respect each other's turfs and have their own livelihoods, hashish and stone."Perhaps that's why the valley has not seen sectarian clashes — unlike the majority-Sunni Tripoli, where sporadic fighting between pro- and anti-Syrian groups has killed more than two dozen people since May. However, Sarkis Naoum, a columnist for Lebanon's An Nahar daily said the sectarian tensions bubbling under the surface could erupt at any time.
"If anything major happens, what is happening in Syria could expand into Lebanon," he said.
*Associated Press

Lebanon's Arabic press digest - Oct. 18, 2012
October 18, 2012/The Daily Star
Lebanon's Arabic press digest.
Following are summaries of some of the main stories in a selection of Lebanese newspapers Thursday. The Daily Star cannot vouch for the accuracy of these reports.
An-Nahar
Salary crisis in a whirlpool of taxes and strikes
Two global warnings to Lebanon against Syria and earthquakes
Cabinet warns against pressuring Treasury, adopts procrastination policy
A visit to Beirut Wednesday by U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi only affirmed Lebanese fears of the widening repercussions of the Syria crisis on neighboring countries, including Lebanon.
Brahimi deliberately chose Beirut to issue his warning of the dangers of the widening Syria crisis, which will "consume everything and everybody."
His remarks did not obscure the complexities of the salary crisis and the whirlpool of strikes caused by it.
Another issue that raised concerns during the "Conference of Natural Disaster Management” was the risk of earthquakes.
U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Robert Watkins warned in an interjection during the conference that Lebanon is highly vulnerable to earthquakes and tsunamis in addition to natural disasters.
However, he underlined the need for a number of measures that would reduce the risk.
In remarks to An-Nahar late Wednesday, Moeen Hamzeh, the secretary-general of the National Council for Scientific Research, said that Watkins meant to “urge the Lebanese government to hasten the establishment of the Independent Disaster Management Committee in Lebanon.”
Al-Joumhouria
Government increases taxes on bank interest, cars, construction, water and UCC does not trust [Cabinet]
Lebanon will see strikes Thursday by the Union Coordination Committee after a draft proposal for a salary hike entered the negotiations bazaar.
Cabinet’s procrastination prompted the UCC to observe a daylong strike today, which includes the public sector and schools – even though educational institutions, especially Catholic schools, tried to distance themselves from the strike, insisting on having a normal teaching schedule.
Under the slogan “Let’s take our time so that we don’t take a step that will lead to a vacuum" the government continued to look into a list of tax measures submitted by Finance Minister Mohammad Safadi that has 20 tax clauses.
Safadi’s list is not even complete, pending the drafting of legal texts expected to be settled by the Finance Ministry prior to the Oct. 31 Cabinet meeting which will be dedicated to finalizing the pay hikes before referral to Parliament.
Al-Joumhouria has learned that the Cabinet approved 15 of the 20 tax clauses. These include taxes on bank interest, construction permits, water investment licenses, coastal property and additional taxes on motor vehicles.
By adopting this approach, the government aims to secure LL2,125 billion to cover the pay scale and the 2013 budget deficit?
Al-Anwar
Government doubles taxes and fails to address Thursday’s strike
As was expected, the government did not find a way out of the impasse, apart from imposing taxes and fees on citizens.
Nonetheless, the government remained unable to fund a salary hike and gave itself additional time - till Oct. 31 - to finalize the issue.
The Union Coordination Committee, not convinced with the deadline, stressed that schools, the Lebanese University and public departments would observe a strike Thursday.
The Cabinet discussed Wednesday proposals for the salary increase. Information Minister Walid Daouk said following the meeting that the government considered raising taxes on bank interest – from 5 percent to 7 percent – on motor vehicles – from 10 percent to 15 percent – and on construction licenses.
The proposals also included doubling fees charged by notaries.
Al-Mustaqbal
Brahimi warns of expansion of Syria crisis, Assad’s ambassador questions call for cease-fire
Strike today and demonstrations next week
From Beirut, U.N envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi sounded the alarm as he warned that “the Syria crisis could consume everything and everybody if not contained."
However, the humanitarian response to Brahimi’s call for a cease-fire on the eve of Eid al-Adha also found criticism in Beirut: Syria’s Ambassador [to Lebanon] Ali Abdel-Karim Ali said the call for a cease-fire “does not reflect good faith.”

Pro-Hezbollah fighters and rebels clashing in Syria, residents say
October 17, 2012 /Now Lebanon
There are near daily clashes in Syria close to the Lebanese border between rebels and fighters loyal to the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, an ally of the Syrian regime, local people report.
Activists have long accused Hezbollah, a long-time recipient of support from Syria, of joining the fight to crush the 19-month insurgency against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
The fighting is taking place in Syrian villages inhabited mainly by Lebanese, in an area where the common border is not well-defined and where many villages actually straddle the frontier.
"Our villages are being attacked by rebels who want to enter, and we defend ourselves," a resident of Zeita, whose village has seen frequent clashes, told AFP on Wednesday, requesting anonymity.
Clashes are taking place "in some 20 Shiite villages in [the central Syrian province of] Homs, which are inhabited by some 30,000 people," he added.
Assad is an Alawite, a sect that is an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
"More than 5,000 armed men are protecting our villages, and most of them are close to Hezbollah," the resident said. "Some 16 fighters have been killed since the start of the conflict."
Rebels also report frequent clashes.
"Hezbollah transports weapons and ammunition across the border in ambulances, day and night," said Fahd al-Masri, a spokesperson for the rebel Free Syrian Army's joint command.
"They take the international road, without stopping at the border post."
Asked by reporters in Beirut on Wednesday about Hezbollah's role in Syria, international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said: "Nobody has discussed this with me, not today, not previously."
Last Thursday, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said the party had taken no decision to enter the fighting in Syria but that some Lebanese living there had taken up arms to support the regime "in order to defend themselves.""The party has nothing to do with their decision, but I cannot tell them not to go fight," said Nasrallah.-AFP

Russian S-400s relocated near Turkey. Hizballah shifts units, rockets into Syria
http://www.debka.com/article/22446/Russian-S-400s-relocated-near-Turkey-Hizballah-shifts-units-rockets-into-Syria
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report October 17, 2012/Hizballah has begun depleting line of rockets and fighting units it has facing Israel from the Litani River of South Lebanon and moving them to the Syrian front line at Homs to strengthen Assad’s forces, debkafile's military sources reveal. Hizballah’s forward line against Israel is still in place among the southernmost Shiite villages, but a part of their artillery back-up is gone and, for the first time, Hizballah’s ground-to-ground rockets are moving in an eastward direction into Syria. This is a striking reversal of the usual direction taken by Hizballah hardware which, for years, headed from east to west to reach Lebanon from Iran and Syria.
This step attests to the scope, fury and determination of the Syrian army’s current land and air offensive against the rebels.
It also means that Hizballah has no fear of Israeli retaliation for the infiltration of an Iranian stealth drone from Lebanon into its air space on Saturday, Oct. 6 - even after HIzballah leader Hassan Nasrallah promised more unmanned interlopers would intrude on Israel’s skies.
Tuesday, Oct. 16, America’s UN Ambassador Susan Rice told a Security Council meeting on the Middle East that Nasrallah’s fighters were now part of “Assad’s killing machine.” Hizballah’s leaders, she said, continue to plot with Iran new measures “for propping up a murderous and desperate dictator.”
The Assad regime has found succor in another, more powerful quarter: Moscow has announced the deployment starting Wednesday, Oct. 17, of advanced S-400 interceptor missile batteries in Russia's southern military region opposite Turkey.
Russian military spokesman Col. Igor Gorbul described those missiles as “targeting Turkey” against its involvement in NATO’s missile shield program. He emphasized that the S-400s are capable of destroying all types of airplanes, as well as ultra-stratospheric and ballistic missiles.
debkafile's military sources say that, beside the issue of the NATO missile defense system to which Russia is firmly opposed, Moscow is relaying a double warning to Ankara on two additional scores:
One, that any more interceptions of Syria-bound aircraft coming from Russia after the incident of Oct. 10 would bring forth a Russian military response; and two, that Moscow will not tolerate aerial intrusion in the Syrian conflict by Turkey or any other NATO member. This warning was directed specifically against the imposition of a no-fly zone over Syria which Turkey is in the process of enforcing.
Col. Gorbul said the Russian army would finish relocating the S-400 interceptors in their new positions by the end of the year.

Iran: Drone infiltration proves Israel can’t defend itself
Dudi Cohen Published: 10.18.12/ynetnews
Deputy Revolutionary Guard commander says infiltration of unmanned Hezbollah aircraft showed Israeli defense systems 'vulnerable.' US: Iranians resumed cyberattacks on banks
The infiltration of an Iranian-made drone into Israeli airspace some two weeks ago indicates that Israel would not be able to defend itself in the event of an attack by Iran and its allies, said Hossein Salami, deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The Iranian Fars news agency quoted Salami as saying Thursday that the Islamic Republic has the ability to develop drones capable of flying hundreds of kilometers and in the future will be able to build drones with a range of thousands of kilometers.
"The Zionist regime has introduced a series of psychological measures and diplomatic bluffs against the Islamic revolution, but the infiltration of Hezbollah's drone into the occupied territories showed that these psychological measures were ineffective and only intensified the will of the Zionists' enemies," Salami told a press conference in Tehran. "Now the initiative to act against the Zionist regime is in the hands of the Islamic revolution."
Salami said an Israeli attack on Iran would "present us with a historic opportunity, as Israel's defense systems are vulnerable in the face of an all-out assault by Iran and the Islamic revolution's allies," meaning Hezbollah in Lebanon and the terror groups in Gaza. The senior Iranian commander said Iran currently possesses the capabilities to develop unmanned aircraft that can fly for hundreds of kilometers, adding that, "inshallah, in the near future we will have the technology to develop drones with a range of thousands of kilometers.
"We saw how after the Zionist regime's leaders threatened Islam the Hezbollah fighters sent an unmanned plane and showed the enemy how weak it is," he said.
On Tuesday a senior Iranian military official claimed that Iranian-made surveillance drones have made dozens of apparently undetected flights into Israeli airspace from Lebanon in recent years to probe air defenses and collect reconnaissance data. An Israeli official rejected the account.
Meanwhile, senior US officials involved in the investigation into Iranian cyberattacks against American banks said Iranian hackers renewed the campaign this week, targeting Capital One Financial Corp. and BB&T Corp. and openly defying U.S. warnings to halt, U.S. officials and others involved in the investigation into the attacks said. The officials told The Wall Street Journal that the cyberattacks were sponsored by the Iranian government.

Schools, public sector strike over pay raise delay
October 18, 2012/ The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Many schools and government agencies across Lebanon shut Thursday to protest a government delay in implementing salary increases.
The daylong strike came in response to a call by the Union Coordination Committee, a coalition of private and public schools and the public sector, in protest at the government’s failure to send the salary scale draft law to Parliament for approval.
“We call on all public and private school teachers to observe the strike and not be intimidated by the threats of the private school administrations to fire the insubordinate teachers,” the UCC said in a statement. However, a good number of private schools – mainly Catholics and Evangelical – did not comply with the request of the UCC.
The head of the Catholic schools said all institutions under its administration would remain open.
But the picture was not the same in north Lebanon where all public and private school teachers, including Catholics, took part in the strike. Public institutions were also shut across the north.
“The school opened today in line with head of the Catholic schools’ decision, but teachers and students did not show up,” said St. Theresa School principle in Amyoun, north Lebanon.
Since the UCC announcement was made late Wednesday, many parents in Beirut, the provincial capital of south Lebanon and elsewhere sent their children to schools.
But students were sent home as many teachers did not attend their classes in compliance with the strike.
In east Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, public schools and only 50 percent of private schools were closed for the day.
Also, activity at government departments in the Bekaa was semi-normal as not more than 10 percent of public servants abided by the strike.
Last week, only a handful of private schools in Beirut remained open during the general strike called by the UCC.
The pay scale draft had been delayed despite a preliminary Cabinet decision to raise certain taxes to fund the wage increase for civil servants and public school teachers.
The UCC has said it refuses to finance the salary increases through taxes that affect ordinary citizens, claiming the increment could be easily funded if the Cabinet cut waste, combated corruption and improved tax collection, most notably from Beirut Port.
The Cabinet agreed in principle Wednesday to raise taxes on imported cars from 10 percent to 15 percent; increase taxes on interest on customer deposits from 5 to 7 percent; and increase the fiscal stamp fee on construction permits. A source told The Daily Star that the Cabinet contemplated raising tax on luxury items such tobacco and alcoholic beverages.
“Raising taxes on luxury items should in principle generate annual revenue of $70 million a year,” the source said.
But the government will consider other taxes to secure sufficient funds for the higher wages of public sectors employees,” the source added.
Prime Minister Najib Mikati has repeatedly said Cabinet has no intention of raising taxes on limited-income families, although some economists are skeptical that the government will be able to raise enough cash to fund the salary scale. Cabinet would hold another meeting on Oct. 31 to finalize the taxes and sources of funding pay increases. Most ministers expressed their displeasure at the behavior of the UCC and stressed that the teachers and civil servants should exercise self restrain and avoid escalating the situation.

Egyptian Teacher Cuts Girls' Hair For Not Wearing Headscarf
LUXOR, Egypt (AP) -- A teacher in southern Egypt punished two 12-year-old schoolgirls for not wearing the Muslim headscarf by cutting their hair, the father of one girl said Wednesday, in an incident that stokes concerns over personal rights following the rise of Islamist political movements.
The governor of Luxor province where the incident occurred called the teacher's actions "shameful" and said she had been transferred to another school. But rights groups say that some Islamic conservatives have been emboldened by the success of groups like Muslim Brotherhood and the ultraconservative Salafi trend in parliamentary and presidential elections and have been increasingly brazen about forcing their standards on other Egyptians.
The incident follows a surge in legal cases against Egyptians, mostly Christians, who allegedly showed contempt for religion. The trial of one, Alber Saber, opened Wednesday but was postponed.
It also comes amid a fierce debate over how the role of religion will be defined in the country's new constitution. The preponderance of Islamists on the panel drafting the document has alarmed liberals and religious minorities.
In the village of Qurna in Luxor province, 500 kilometers (300 miles) south of Cairo, Berbesh Khairi El-Rawi said the teacher forced the two girls to stand with their hands above their heads for two hours and then cut their hair in their school.
El-Rawi, the father of one of the two girls, told The Associated Press that he filed a complaint after the Oct. 10 incident with the prosecutor's office in Luxor. He had no further comment.
The prosecutor's office declined to comment on the case. Provincial governor Ezzat Saad confirmed the teacher had been transferred for a "shameful" act but did not otherwise comment.
The teacher, Eman Abu Bakar, could not be reached. She told the Egyptian semi-official newspaper al-Ahram that the amount of hair she cut off of the girls' heads "did not exceed two centimeters" (one inch)
Abu Bakar was quoted as saying she only resorted to cutting her students' hair after warning them repeatedly to cover their heads. After these repeated warnings, a student handed her a scissors from his bag, and that he and other students asked her to "implement" her threats.
In a photo published by Al-Ahram, Abu Bakar is shown wearing the niqab, a garment that covers everything but a woman's eyes.
Most Muslim women in Egypt wear the headscarf, but increasing numbers now wear the more conservative niqab.
Ziad Abdel Tawab of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights said the incident was alarming but not surprising.
"Whether in schools or outside schools, the general sentiment is that any abusive action, if it is justified as protection of Islam, is tolerable," he said.
Meanwhile, a Cairo court postponed proceedings in the trial of 27-year-old Coptic Christian activist Alber Saber, who faces charges of insulting religion, to November 14.
Saber was arrested last month after neighbors complained he had posted an anti-Islam film that has sparked protests across the Muslim world to his Facebook page, but investigators didn't find them. Nonetheless, Saber was put on trial and now faces a six-year prison sentence and fines.
His lawyer Ahmed Ezzat said in an emailed statement that all proceedings against Saber have involved serious legal breaches that should result in the nullifying of any evidence put forward against him.
Ezzat also said that after Saber's arrest on September 13, a police officer incited others detained in the station to attack Saber, resulting in detainees beating him and cutting him with a razor blade. A police officer at the station denied the report, speaking anonymously as he was not authorized to talk to the media.
Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui of Amnesty International said in a statement Wednesday that blasphemy cases like the one against Saber "set a dangerous precedent for the Egyptian authorities' tolerance of freedom of expression in the country."
"Criticism of religions and other beliefs and ideas is a vital component of the right to freedom of expression," Sahraoui said. "Laws - such as blasphemy laws - that criminalize such criticism violate human rights."The rights group said that Saber's lawyers "fear for his safety in prison and outside if released. They also fear for the safety of his mother and sister who have been threatened and forced to leave their home which was surrounded by angry mobs."
In another incident that raised concerns over the freedom of expression, a top parliamentarian suspended the editor-in-chief of a state-owned newspaper for publishing a report deemed an offense to the military. Ahmed Fahmy, the head of the Islamist-dominated Shura Council upper house of parliament, named a replacement for Gamal Abdel-Rahim after his paper, al-Gomhuria, published a Wednesday report claiming that authorities would soon bar the country's former top military leaders from traveling abroad pending an investigation into alleged corruption and the deaths of protesters during their 17 months in power. The paper quoted an unnamed judicial source. The report was later denied by the Ministry of Justice, and a member of the armed forces protested what he called an "offense" to the military, the state Middle East News Agency said.
The move to replace Abdel-Rahim prompted criticism from journalists and media watchdog groups. Although the state-owned media formally belong to the Shura Council, which appoints the editors, journalists say it is not the business of the council to take disciplinary measures for publishing offenses.
A group of Abdel-Rahim's colleagues gathered at the paper's offices to protest the decision and declared a strike. Abdel-Rahim told them that he will not abide by the decision. He said that Egypt's union of journalists should decide if there is to be an investigation into the matter.
Fahmy, a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood's political party, could not be reached for comment.
The state-owned papers, run for years by secular-leaning editors, had a reputation as a mouthpiece for President Hosni Mubarak, who was deposed last year.
Gamal Eid, the head of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information media watchdog, said the decision was "arbitrary" and is a continuation of the same "mistakes" of the previous regime.
By Haggag Salama
© 2012, Assyrian International News Agency. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use.

Muslim Gang Attempts to Kidnap Egyptian Christian Mother, 4 Dead
Assyrian International News Agency
(AINA) -- Ali Hussein, a 35-year-old Muslim gang leader, entered the home of a Coptic Christian family in the village of Abdelmassih in Deir Mawas on at 7 A.M. on Sunday and demanded that Hiyam Zaki Zaher, the 25 year old mother of two children, come live with him. Ali Hussein was accompanied by his two brothers, both ex-convicts. Two weeks before Ali Hussein told the Marzouk family that he would either take the woman or they would have to pay him 1,000,000 Egyptian pounds.
"The family managed to get Hiyam out of the village one day before Ali Hussein came to their house," said Roshdy Ibrahim, a relative of the Marzouk family. He said that when Hussein went into the home he was met by 24-year-old family member Ephrem, a university graduate, who rejected his demand, upon which Hussein shot him twice, killing him instantly. Roushdy said that Hussein had instructed 120 of his men to wait outside and come in and start shooting if they heard gunfire.
After the shooting of Ephrem the gang broke into the house. They encountered the father, 61 year-old Ibrahim Marzouk, a retired village bank manager, and killed him. They shot everywhere, wounding another three family members on the roof. Although Hussein was also killed under the hail of bullets, it is not clear who shot him.
To terrorize the inhabitants of the village, before the Muslim gang went into the Marzouk home they went to the stables and killed all the animals.
The body of Hussein was removed from the scene to the morgue in Mallawi General Hospital amid tight security as a large number of Salafis and his supporters surrounded the hospital and demanded revenge for the Christian killing of a Muslim man. The Muslims chanted that Hussein is "the beloved of the Prophet."
The body of Coptic Ibrahim Marzouk and his son Ephrem was kept at Deir Mawas hospital for security reasons, and was buried after the funeral church service on Sunday amid tight security. Thousands of Copts from all neighboring villages attended that burial. According to a Christian Dogma News reporter from Deir Mawas, Hussein's supporters threatened the Copts, telling them not to bury the two dead men "otherwise they would all be buried with them."
Even after the death of Ali Hussein, who had terrorized the Copts in the area since January 2011, raping women, kidnapping children for ransom and demanding extortion money (AINA 4-6-2011), nearly 9000 Copts are still living in terror because of the threats of revenge from his nearly 300-man strong gang, his two brothers and Salafist Muslims who are angry at the killing of a Muslim by a Christian. Copts have asked for police protection.
Enraged Copts blame the police for conspiring with Ali Hussein and his gang, by arriving 9 hours after the villagers asked for police help and 4 hours after the Awlad Marzouk crime took place.
Reda Marzouk, a relative of the Christian victims, blamed security for failing to protect them and all Christians, because Hussein started seizing the homes and property of Christian in the villages of Deir Mawas in Minya and took control over other villages such as Awlad Marzouk without resistance from the authorities. "He was so emboldened so as to go and ask for a Christian woman to sexually abuse her, which led to the bloody events of Sunday," wrote activist Nader Shukry, who first broke the story of the gang leader in 2011.
Ali Hussein was reported to the Attorney General last year by rights groups and several times to the police without any success. He used force to make his Coptic victims withdraw their complaints against him.
By Mary Abdelmassih
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Muslim Mob Attempts to Lynch 14-Year-Old Christian for Urinating on Quran
Mob Destroys Churches When Police Intervene
Washington, D.C. (October 17, 2012) - International Christian Concern has learned that several churches were burned down in Tanzania due to an incident in which a Quran was urinated on by a Christian boy.
On October 10, a Muslim boy met with a Christian boy in the village of Mabagala, about 12 miles from the city center of Zanzibar. He told the Christian boy that if someone urinates on the Quran it will either turn into a snake or a rat. "The Christian boy got interested with this kind of scenario and without giving [it] a second thought he urinated on the Quran," said Bishop Fabian Obeid, the chairman of the Pastor's Fellowship in Zanzibar.
When the Muslim boy told his parents, they reported the matter to a nearby mosque. On October 12, a mob formed at a mosque and planned to kill the boy. Police were alerted and took the boy to Chamanzi police station for protection.
When the mob discovered that the boy was being protected by the police, they rioted and burned down three churches: the Seven Day Church (SDA), the Anglican Church and the Assemblies of God Church. Other property belonging to the members of these churches was also damaged in the violence. The riot erupted around midday and continued until around 8 p.m. The damage caused by the riot is estimated to cost $31,000, said Pastor Lucian Mgaywa.
On Saturday October 13, the Evangelical Assemblies of God-Tanzania Church (EAGT) was pulled down during the night. "A flag belonging to the Uamisho group was raised at the scene of the incident," said Bishop Fabian Obeid, Chaiman of Pastors' Fellowship in Zanzibar.
Police have arrested over 120 members of UAMSHO (Association for Islamic Mobilization and Propagation), an Islamic separatist group, and suspect they had a hand starting the riot that burned down the churches. Tensions in the area remain high. "There is a lot of tension in Mbagala, and the churches are in great fear from Uamisho separatist Islamist group fearing riots can erupt again," said Pastor Lucian Mgaywa.
ICC's Regional Manager for Africa, William Stark, said, "Although Tanzania has a long history of religious tolerance, incidents of Christian persecution in Zanzibar and other parts of East Africa are on the rise. Extremist groups like al-Shabaab and Uamisho are taking root throughout East Africa's coastal regions and are creating tension between Christian and Muslims communities. Often incidents like this are used by these groups to promote religious intolerance by fostering violence in communities that have traditionally coexisted peacefully in the past."

Helping to hurt
Tony Badran/Now Lebanon/October 18, 2012
A cartoon depicting Bashar al-Assad thumbing his nose at Turkey, while shells were fired from his fingers. (Al-Hayat)
Over the last two weeks, the Syrian regime has directed mortar and artillery fire at Turkish villages. The US ambassador to Turkey, Francis Ricciardone, might have stated, in response, that the United States stands behind its ally, Turkey, however it sees fit to protect itself. Instead, he confidently declared that Washington sees no possibility of war between Turkey and Syria. What the ambassador couched as a benign prediction was, in fact, an obvious instruction to Turkey.
Many have wondered whether the Assad regime’s shelling was meant to provoke Ankara. A cartoon in the daily al-Hayat depicted the Syrian president thumbing his nose at Turkey, while shells were fired from his fingers.
Assad’s aggression is an expression of his contempt not just for Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan but, in addition, the United States. He sees, on the one hand, Iran rallying all the members of its alliance network in the region (Hezbollah, Iraqi Shiite militants, and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki) to prop him up and to isolate their common adversary, Turkey. On the other hand, Assad sees the US leaving its Turkish ally and the Syrian opposition alone in the cold.
Assad correctly interpreted the US position and concluded that he could attack Turkey with impunity. Washington not only had no interest in coming to the defense of its NATO ally, but also did not want to see any escalation from the Turkish side.
Reading Obama’s preferences is easy for Assad. The US president has been advertising his inhibitions for many months. Last March, when the Turks came to plead with the administration to take the lead on more assertive measures in Syria, the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, shot them down repeatedly. The Turks tried again in August and were once more rebuffed.
The more the US has signaled its intent, no matter what, to stay out of the game in Syria, the more aggressive Assad and his Iranian patrons have become.
Since as early as last summer, the Iranians have been showing the Turks that they would use the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) against them. Tehran has shown its ability to reach a tactical alliance with the PKK in order to exploit one of Ankara’s principal vulnerabilities: the Kurdish issue. They first released the PKK’s commander, Murat Karayilan, in July of last year. A year later, Iran was allowing the PKK to use its soil to launch operations against Turkey.
But the most brazen attack came in July with the shooting down of a Turkish F-4 jet over international waters off the Syrian coast. The Turks were enraged, but once again, word immediately came from Washington that left no doubt about the Obama administration’s preferences. In comments to the Wall Street Journal, an anonymous senior US defense official not only did not endorse the Turkish account of what happened, but also seemed to lend credence to the Syrian version.
The Turks, rightly, saw this leak as a calculated American effort to tarnish their credibility. The purpose of the sleight was clear: the Obama administration did not want this incident to become a slippery slope to US involvement in Syria, on the side of Turkey. The downing of the jet, therefore, had to be papered over, and Turkey had to swallow its pride. That was, in effect, the point made by US Chief of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, who admitted publicly that he impressed upon the Turks the importance of not being “provocative.”
This display was not lost on the Russians. At the time, the Obama administration was in the middle of its ill-conceived attempt to coax Moscow into supporting a “peaceful transition plan” for Syria. Seeing that the Americans had thrown the Turks under the bus, the Russians piled it on. They upheld the Syrian account, and then rubbed Erdogan’s nose in it by offering to provide him with “objective observation data” about the incident. They then advised the Turks not to allow the incident to “ignite passions.”
Ambassador Ricciardone’s comments on Tuesday repeated Dempsey’s message: The US will not support Turkey escalating its response against Syria’s provocations.
Riacciardone’s comments are a perfect distillation of the US position on Turkey and Syria. After encouraging Turkey to take the lead on the Syria policy, the Obama administration has now opted to leave the Turks alone in facing Assad’s Iranian and Russian allies.
The American policy is short sighted. At stake is the balance of power in the region that is favorable to US interests. Iran is marshaling all the elements of its national power to support its Syrian ally and pressure Turkey. By urging restraint on Ankara, Washington is inadvertently helping.
In Moscow, in July 2009, Obama said that powers forging “competing blocs to balance one another” was an antiquated “19th century view.” Two months later, he again asserted at the UN General Assembly that “no balance of power among nations will hold.”
Power politics may be dead and buried in Washington, but for Assad and his allies, it is alive and well.
**Tony Badran is a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He tweets @AcrossTheBay.

Why lie to the Syrians?
By Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Alawsat
There have been countless plans to send observers, mediators and envoys, as well as promises to send peacekeeping forces to protect civilians, and most recently it was said that combat troops were to be sent to deter the Syrian regime’s forces. So here is an interesting question: What happened to all these ideas? What happened to the idea of sending Arab troops, put forward three weeks ago? What has Lakhdar Brahimi actually done since being assigned the task of resolving the Syrian crisis? What did his predecessor envoys do? And what became of the plan to support the Syrian opposition with arms, to enable them to overthrow Bashar al-Assad’s regime?
The most notable idea has been to send Arab troops to fight al-Assad. Qatar proposed it, the Egyptian President and Turkish Prime Minister seized upon it, and then it died down. Was this an idea that simply came and went? Or was it merely passionate rhetoric to go along with the Turkish Justice and Development Party conference?
An idea is a good one if – first and foremost – it is not attached to the crippling condition of requiring the approval of the UN Security Council. This council has failed to issue one single resolution in favor of the Syrian people. In fact, in order for Bashar to sleep soundly in his palace throughout these past months, he has only needed Russia and China to raise their hands every once in a while, thus vetoing any genuine action.
Even if the Security Council approved the proposal [to send Arab troops to Syria], then we would face another problem: There are no Arab states willing to send their troops to Jordan or Turkey, in order to enter Syrian territory and engage in combat. Those who fought Gaddafi’s forces in Libya were NATO troops with symbolic Arab participation. Furthermore, even if there were Arab forces ready to fight, I am not confident that Turkey and Jordan would allow Arab forces to cross through their territory into Syria, fearing that they might become embroiled in the warfare.
The proposal to send Western forces to fight is closer to the reality than sending Arab troops, even though the West has explicitly stated that it will not engage in conflict against al-Assad’s forces, despite its political stance in favor of the Syrian revolution. The real hope lies with the Syrian people themselves, not in Arab or Western forces, to determine their own destiny and fight the Syrian regime, no matter how long this takes and at whatever cost. The situation in Syria has not changed much; Bashar al-Assad is not prepared to leave the capital Damascus peacefully, the rebels are not tired of fighting him, and the general public are not weary of demonstrating against him, although it seems strange for peaceful demonstrations to take place against a regime that uses heavy weaponry and warplanes to bomb its own cities.
With all due respect to an international mediator who is appreciated by everyone, Lakhdar Brahimi will not be able to do anything to change the situation on the ground, unless the rebels start to threaten al-Assad in Damascus. This is the only possible scenario to transfer power from al-Assad to the Syrian people. Hence we return to the fundamental truth: Supporting the rebels will secure the downfall of the regime and put an end to the Syrian people’s tragedy, and the time has come to stop the lies about mediators, envoys and promises.