LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
October 23/12

Bible Quotation for today/Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
Matthew 13/01-09: "That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the lake. Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: ‘Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.Let anyone with ears listen!’

Iran’s global cyber war-room is secretly hosted by Hizballah in Beirut
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report October 21, 2012/Iran’s secret cyber war-room is located at Hizballah’s secret internal security apparatus headquarters in the Shiite Dahya district of South Beirut, debkafile’s exclusive intelligence and counterterrorism sources reveal. The hackers and cyber experts who recently attacked American banks and Saudi oil sites and which guided an Iranian stealth drone into Israeli airspace on Oct. 6, operate from Hizballah’s premises in Beirut and its secret bunkers.
Wafiq Safa is head of the security apparatus and also deputy of the Iranian general, Hossein Mahadavi, who serves as the liaison and coordination officer with Hizballah in Lebanon.Safa’s son is married to the Hizballah chief Hassan Nasrallah’s sister.
Cyber intelligence experts explain Tehran uses its Lebanese surrogate to host its global digital war-room - firstly, to disguise the source of its cyber offensives and keep Iran clear of blame; secondly, because the Hizballah facility is protected from electronic penetration by exceptionally efficient firewalls.
They were strong enough to keep Israeli cyber experts from discovering the electronic center which dispatched the UAV over their country and reaching its controllers. Whenever Israel experts tried manipulating the drone’s movements, they found an external force overrode them and recovered control. Eventually, the Israeli commanders gave up and ordered the drone brought down with as little damage as possible.
The drone’s components have given up to its captors many secrets about Iran’s stealth UAV technology and capabilities, but very little about the Iranian cyber team operating out of the Hizballah facility in Beirut and their equipment.
By cutting away from the captured UAV, the Iranian controllers also locked their operation away from outside access and any possible evaluation of their capabilities.
The Americans encountered the same difficulty in early October when they tried to locate and identify the hackers who disabled 10 major US bank websites, attacked Saudi Arabia’s Aramco’s websites with a virus called Shamoon that replaced data with burning American flags, and invaded the computers of Qatar’s gas industry.
Six days after the drone’s penetration of Israel, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta talked to reporters in New York about “a pre-9/11 moment” for the United States. He did not come right out and name Iran or mention its cyber war headquarters in Beirut. He did, however, warn “the attackers are plotting,” and that recent electronic attacks in US and abroad demonstrate the need for “a more aggressive military role in defense and to retaliate against organized groups or hostile governments.”

Watchdog: Turkey treats journalists worse than Iran
US-based Committee to Protect Journalists says around two-thirds of detained reporters were writing about largely Kurdish southeast; criticizes PM Erdogan's public disparagement of journalists
Reuters Published: 10.22.12/ynetnews
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government has waged one of the world's biggest crackdowns on press freedom in recent years, jailing more journalists than Iran, China or Eritrea, a leading media watchdog said on Monday.
The damning report from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) added to a chorus of criticism from the European Union and rights groups of the EU-candidate country's mass detention of reporters, most of whom are kept in detention while their cases are dealt with.
Around two-thirds were journalists writing about the largely Kurdish southeast, where the government is fighting a separatist rebellion.
The US-based watchdog criticized Erdogan's public disparagement of journalists, the use of pressure tactics to encourage self-censorship, and the launching of thousands of criminal cases against reporters on charges such as "denigrating Turkishness."Turkey's press freedom situation has reached a crisis point," the watchdog said in a 50-page report.
"The CPJ has found highly repressive laws ... a criminal procedure code that greatly favors the state; and a harsh anti-press tone set at the highest levels of government," it said.
Erdogan was first elected a decade ago with an overwhelming majority and has presided over a period of unprecedented prosperity, winning him admirers among Western nations keen to portray Turkey as an example in a troubled region.
But that success story has been undermined by growing criticism of the authoritarian style of his rule.
Hundreds of politicians, academics and journalists are in jail on charges of plotting against the government, while more than 300 army officers were convicted last month of conspiring against Erdogan almost a decade ago, and handed long jail terms. Erdogan's government says most of the detainees are being held for serious crimes, such as membership of an armed terrorist organization, that have nothing to do with journalism.
"Turkey is making an effort to strike the right balance between preventing the praising of violence and terrorist propaganda, and the need to expand freedom of speech," the CPJ quoted Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin as saying.
The CPJ identified 76 journalists being held in jail as of August 1, and said at least 61 had been detained in relation to their published work or news gathering. In the other 15 cases the evidence was less clear. More than three-quarters of the imprisoned journalists had not been convicted but were awaiting resolution of their cases.
"Today Turkey's imprisonments surpass the next most repressive nations, including Iran, Eritrea, and China," the CPJ said.
Around a third of the journalists in jail are accused of involvement in anti-government plots or membership of outlawed political groups, with several linked to the alleged "Ergenekon" nationalist underground network, which has been accused of conspiring to overthrow the government.
Some 70% were Kurdish journalists charged with aiding terrorism by covering the views and activities of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), designated a terrorist group by the European Union and United States as well as Turkey. "The government conflated reporting favorable to the PKK or other outlawed Kurdish groups with actual assistance to such organizations," the CPJ said.
"Basic newsgathering activities — receiving tips, assigning stories, conducting interviews, relaying information to colleagues — were depicted by prosecutors as engaging in a terrorist enterprise," the report said. It said Erdogan had urged media outlets to discipline or fire critical staff. He has also launched a number of personal defamation suits. As an example of his intervention in the media, CPJ cited a multi-billion dollar tax fine imposed in 2009 on Turkey's largest media group, Dogan Yayin. The case was widely seen as motivated by the group's forthright criticism of Erdogan, although the government denies this. Turkey told the CPJ that reforms adopted in July would improve press freedom, cut penalties for offences such as "attempting to influence a fair trial", and curb censorship of periodicals accused of producing propaganda. "We firmly believe that guaranteeing fundamental freedoms is vital for our democracy," Namik Tan, Turkey's ambassador to the United States, said in one of the letters.
"This is even more important now as Turkey is setting a significant example for many other countries in our region, especially those undergoing major popular upheaval and transformation."

U.N., Western countries to support Lebanon: Plumbly
October 22, 2012 /The Daily Star
BEIRUT: U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly Monday underlined his organization and Western countries' solidarity with Lebanon. “The United Nations Security Council will stand by Lebanon during these hard times,” Plumbly said following an emergency meeting held with President Michel Sleiman at Baabda Palace. The meeting was attended by ambassadors of five foreign countries to Lebanon – France, Britain, China, Russia and the United States. The five countries are permanent members in the U.N. Security Council. Plumbly’s remarks come amid a tense and violent atmosphere in the country after the recent killing of Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan, head of the police’s Information Branch. Hasan was killed by a car bomb in the Beirut neighborhood of Ashrafieh Friday. The U.N. official also urged all Lebanese sides to reach a deal that would preserve national unity. “The United Nations calls on all Lebanese sides to move forward on a peaceful political path to preserve stability and security in their country,” he said. He added that the Cabinet should continue to preserve stability and security in Lebanon. "The U.N., and the five countries representative that attended the meeting expressed their determination to support the government of Lebanon to put an end once and for all to impunity in Lebanon," Plumbly said. Condemning the “terrorist attack” in Ashrafieh, Plumbly said the U.N. stressed the need to refer those involved in the bombing to the judiciary. “The U.N. reiterates once again its condemnation of any attempt that aims at destabilizing Lebanon through political assassinations,” said Plumbly.

Lebanese Army warns security a ‘red line’
October 22, 2012/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: The Lebanese Army said that security in the country is a “red line” and urged politicians to help reduce what it described as “unprecedented” levels of tension in parts of the country.
“The Army leadership stresses that security is a red line in deeds and not in words,” a statement from the military said, adding that state institutions and public and private property were also off limits.
Clashes erupted Sunday between security forces and hundreds of anti-government protesters attempting to storm the Grand Serail, the country’s government house, in Beirut.
The clashes s intelligence chief Wissam al-Hasan who was killed Friday in a Beirut neighborhood. In its statement, the military warned that in some parts of the country “levels of hatred were rising to unprecedented levels.” It said it would take the necessary measure to prevent the escalation of tensions in parts of the country. “[The Army recognizes] the sensitivity of this period and the disputes between political sides and it will have decisive steps, particularly in the areas where there is escalating sectarian and religious friction, to prevent Lebanon turning into a place for settling regional scores and to prevent Maj. Gen. Wissam Hasan’s assassination from being taken advantage of and turning it into an opportunity to assassinate the nation.” The Army urged politicians to “exert caution while expressing stances and views and mobilizing people because the fate of the nation is at stake.” The military also urged citizens to “exert the highest levels of national responsibility during this stressful period and not to allow emotions to overtake the situation.”It also called on people to vacate the streets and to reopen roads that were blocked.

E.U.'s Ashton to visit Lebanon during Mideast tour
October 22, 2012/Daily Star /BRUSSELS: European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton kicks off a five-day Middle East tour with a stop Monday in Jordan where she visits Zaatary refugee camp, home to some 36,000 Syrians, her office said. During the stop, she will also meet King Abdullah II and Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh, whose country is sheltering tens of thousands of Syrians fleeing the 20-month conflict. UN figures show more than 85,000 refugees registered in Jordan, with another 36,000 awaiting processing. Ashton goes on to Beirut on Tuesday, then Jerusalem on Wednesday.
There she meets Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before holding talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. She will meet Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas on Thursday.
Ashton said in a statement that the trip aimed to take forward the existing cooperation between the EU and its partners in the region.

Beirut/Ashrafieh residents begin rebuilding
October 22, 2012/By Alex Taylor, Wassim Mroueh /The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Shaken Ashrafieh residents, skeptical of government promises of assistance, began repairing their homes and shops this weekend after the damage caused by Friday’s blast killing Lebanon’s top intelligence official. The car bomb that exploded Friday assassinating ISF Information Branch Chief Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan also killed at least two others and wounded more than 100 people.
Information regarding the others killed by the explosion was still emerging Sunday, but one of the victims was identified as Georgette Sarkissian. Sarkissian, 42, was the mother of two and worked in the BEMO Bank office that was hit by the explosion.
Four patients remained at Hotel Dieu Sunday of the 38 that had been treated at the hospital. Two of the patients were in stable condition and two were still in intensive care – a woman with a severe eye injury and a Syrian man.
Staff at St. George Hospital said they treated 19 injured in the blast. All but one had been discharged by Sunday.
Laure Gergi Khoury, 80, remained in St. George hospital, attended to by her sister, Renee. The two live together in a building very close to the site of the explosion.
“I was at home when the explosion went off, we [my sister and I] made our way through rooms until we reached the ambulance,” said Laure, who was being treated for head injuries.
“Shards of glass hit my head and I was bleeding,” she said. “I am fine now but still feeling dizzy.”
Laure, who is set to leave the hospital Monday, expressed anger over the trauma of Friday’s bomb.
“Let these politicians take care of their people ... they sit [safe] at home and we suffer,” she said.
Ibrahim Monzer street, the site of the explosion, was blocked by police Sunday. Due to the ongoing investigation, only residents whose homes were within the cordoned area were able to enter once registered with police.
Gebran Abi Aad, 55, stood with family members at the edge of the street after being denied entry, even though it is the most direct route to his home.
“When the bomb exploded there was glass breaking and it felt like an earthquake,” said Aad, whose apartment is one street down from the center of the explosion and suffered extensive damage.
“We hope that the state will pay compensation because we are poor people and we cannot afford it,” said the father of five.
After an emergency Cabinet meeting Saturday, Prime Minister Najib Mikati asked the Higher Relief Committee to fully compensate those whose homes and businesses had suffered damage in the Ashrafieh bombing.
The HRC said that assessments will commence Monday, but frustrated residents have already started their own repairs, expressing doubt that the government would follow through.
Yasmina Jreissati, whose building backs onto Ibrahim Monzer Street, was busy replacing all of the windows in her apartment.
She decided to go ahead with repairs before hearing from the HRC.
“I don’t want to be cynical but I’m not expecting anything,” she said, explaining that her home also serves as an office for her and her husband.
She said that living in Lebanon, one never thinks that an event like this is impossible, but “you postpone it in your head, you don’t think it will happen where you live.”
In an adjacent building, also backing onto the site of the car bomb, resident Salah Matar sat in his damaged apartment where he lives with his wife, mother-in-law and 1-year-old daughter.
As with many other neighborhood residents interviewed by The Daily Star, he had no idea that a senior intelligence officer had a safe house in the area.
“No one knew Wissam al-Hasan was living here. He was very low profile,” Matar said. “But we found out in an awful way.”
The crater caused by Friday’s car bomb, now partially covered by a tarp, is visible from the rooftop of Matar’s building. Police officers were still roaming the site littered with the carcasses of burnt cars Sunday evening.
The buildings immediately next to the explosion had been gutted. One was missing massive chunks of concrete and had cracks running from the ground floor up to the roof.
Blown out window frames and collapsed roofs revealed scenes of domestic disarray. Overturned washing machines, bedroom sets and kitchen cabinets blasted onto the floor were all covered in a layer of shattered glass.
George Osta, another resident of the area, said he is waiting for the HRC to assess the damage in his apartment.
“The doors were blown off, glass was completely shattered and shutters were destroyed, everything is ruined in the house,” said Osta, who has lived in the same apartment for 40 years.
“It will be very hard if they do not help us ... the cost [of repairing] is at least $10,000,” he estimated, adding that because he lives on the first floor, for the moment “it is as if we are sleeping outside [on the street], with no glass and shutters.”
“We will compensate for all the damage to the apartments and shops. We will help people with accommodations until they can move back into their homes,” HRC operations coordinator Elie Khoury said.
Until assessments have been conducted, he could not estimate how much money the HRC will be able to spend on compensation or when repairs will begin.
“We have no idea yet about the extent of the damage. We estimate that about 20–30 buildings were affected.”
To fill the gap in the meantime, citizens have banded together to collect donations, raise money and provide shelter for their neighbors.
Tinia Nassif, 25, created the Facebook group “Ashrafieh for all” Saturday, a nonpartisan, youth initiative simply “looking to help the people of Ashrafieh out” in the aftermath of Friday’s bomb.
By Sunday evening, the group had more than 2,250 members, was working on establishing the victims’ needs, and was accepting donations of food, clothes and blankets at the Naswiya Cafe in Mar Mikhael.
Telecommunications Minister Nicolas Sehnaoui and Ziad Abs, a Free Patriotic Movement member from Ashrafieh, have reserved and personally paid for 35-40 hotel rooms at the area’s Hotel Alexandre and the Padova Hotel in Sin al-Fil for victims who cannot yet return to their homes.
“We really felt the urgency of this matter,” Abs told The Daily Star, expressing hope that within the week the government system will mobilize to help these individuals.
Other private citizens have offered to shelter families in their own homes via Twitter and Facebook. The Club of Music at St. Joseph University, in collaboration with the Focalare Movement, has organized a concert Oct. 25 at the USJ-Mathaf CIS campus to raise money for those displaced by the explosion.
Despite the destruction just 200 meters down the road, Sassine Square was surprisingly busy with people filling the patios of cafes.
Standing with his wife and three of his five children, Aad looked out at the square and expressed his determination to move past the havoc wreaked just days before.
Having lived through Lebanon’s 15-year Civil War, Aad said he would not let this incident drive him from the country he loves.
“We don’t want to leave this country,” the Ashrafieh resident said. “We will stay here forever.”
“With everything that happens we stay.” – Additional reporting by Niamh Fleming-Farrell

Army kills gunman as it restores order in Beirut
October 22, 2012/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: The Lebanese Army shot and killed a man who opened fire on a military patrol as troops attempted to restore order in and around Beirut following raids of militant hideouts.
A military statement said Palestinians Ahmad and Abed Qwaider opened fire on a Lebanese Army patrol in Qasqas, prompting soldiers to return fire.
“Ahmad died as a result of his wounds,” the statement added.
Security sources told The Daily Star that Ahmad's brother was taken to the local Makassed hospital for treatment of serious wounds.
The military raids, which began around 10 a.m., were heavily concentrated in the areas of Tayyouneh, Qasqas and Beshara al-Khoury.
The Army crackdown came after six people were wounded in overnight clashes in Beirut’s Tariq al-Jdideh neighborhood following the funeral of slain police intelligence chief Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan.
The sources said the six men, including a Syrian and a Palestinian, were wounded in the exchanges of machine-gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades between the predominantly Sunni Tariq al-Jdideh and nearby Barbour, a neighborhood controlled by the Amal Movement and Hezbollah.
The wounded, all from Tariq al-Jadideh, were taken to the local Makassed hospital for treatment.
Fighting stopped at about 2 a.m. when the Lebanese Army managed to deploy and calm returned to the embattled areas.
Stray bullets hit several west Beirut homes outside the areas of tension.
“This is crazy. A real war was going on. My father could have been killed in his bedroom,” said Rola Riashi, a resident of Wata Mosseitbeh.
She said a stray bullet pierced her father’s bedroom window late Sunday as the family huddled together in the corner of another room for safety.
There was very little traffic on the roads of west Beirut Monday morning and many parents did not send their children to school.
The Education Ministry called on schools located in the areas of tension to make their own decision about whether to open to students.
Around midday, the Lebanese Army issued stern warnings to gunmen to withdraw from the streets or face arrest.
Troops in Qasqas and Tariq al-Jdideh were seen blaring warnings to gunmen through loudspeakers. Soon afterwards, no gunmen could be seen on the streets and the military began removing barricades used to block the roads.
Before the situation returned to normal, a Qasqas resident said she could see "a lot of gunmen in the streets and a lot of soldiers."
"We are hearing gunfire, too,” said the resident, who spoke to The Daily Star on condition of anonymity.
The clashes came shortly after the funeral of Hasan, who was killed in a car bomb attack in Beirut Friday.
Many Lebanese politicians in the March 14 coalition have blamed Syria for Hasan’s killing.
Tensions remained high Monday in Tariq al-Jdideh and surrounding Sunni-dominant neighborhoods of Corniche Mazraa, Wata Mosseitbeh, Cola and the area where the Camille Chamoun Sports Stadium, commonly known as the Cite Sportive, is located in west Beirut.
Hasan, from north Lebanon’s Koura region, was close to the anti-Syrian March 14 coalition and former Prime Minister Saad Hariri.
Police and the Lebanese Army blocked several roads of the capital early Monday, including Salim Salam passageway, for “security considerations,” according to one source. The roads were then re-opened around 10 a.m., with security forces patrolling the area.
The Beirut fighting coincided with armed clashes that raged well into the morning hours between the neighborhoods of Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabanneh in Tripoli, north Lebanon.
The Tripoli clashes tapered off Monday morning, but heavy fighting renewed around midday.
Security sources in Tripoli said at least three people were killed and 17 wounded in the first round of clashes Sunday, triggered after Akkar Mufti Sheikh Ossama Rifai delivered a fiery speech during Hasan’s funeral and leading to the death of a 15-year-old resident of Jabal Mohsen.
Rola Fakhro’s death sparked armed clashes between supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assad in Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh, whose residents tend to support the uprising against President Bashar Assad.

Fighting rages in north Lebanon, more killed
October 22, 2012/The Daily Star
TRIPOLI, Lebanon: Fighting raged Monday in the northern city of Tripoli between the rival neighborhoods of Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh, raising the number of fatalities of the clashes that erupted over the weekend to five, security sources said.
The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also said more than 20 people were wounded as a result of the clashes between Jabal Mohsen, residents of which support Syrian President Bashar Assad, and Bab al-Tabbaneh, which largely supports the uprising in Lebanon’s neighbor.
On Sunday, Gunmen opened fire in the air after a fiery speech by Akkar Mufti Sheikh Ossama Rifai in Beirut during the funeral of police Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan, killing a 15-year-old resident of Jabal Mohsen. The death of Rola Fakhro triggered the armed clashes between the rival neighborhoods.
Assad supporter Rifaat Eid, the head of the Arab Democratic Party, urged the Lebanese Army Monday to respond to the sources of fire and take control of the situation, the sources said.
Meanwhile, the military was out en masse in Tripoli’s main Nour Square to prevent any possible escalation by Future Movement supporters who have set up at least eight tents outside Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s residence.
The tents are part of a sit-in launched Sunday by Akkar MP Mouin Merhebi, a member in the Future parliamentary bloc.
On Sunday, Future parliamentary bloc leader MP Fouad Siniora, speaking at the funeral of Hasan in Beirut, called on Mikati to resign.

2012 is not 2005, but the terror is the same
Hanin Ghaddar/Now Lebanon/October 22, 2012
Wissam al-Hassan was killed for trying to keep the Syrian regime out of Lebanese affairs. (AFP photo)
We need a miracle. Now that anger has won over rationality, and vengeance over prudence, Lebanon has left itself exposed to danger. The Syrian regime succeeded in transporting its crisis to Lebanon, and the Lebanese failed to face it with responsibility or strategy.
The Ashrafieh bomb that killed Wissam al-Hassan on Friday was a reality check for the Lebanese. It was a slap on the face warning us that Lebanon cannot stay isolated from what is happening in the region, mainly in Syria. But mostly it revealed how fragile our stability is. We’ve been living an illusion.
Two realities are too severe to ignore. One, as long as the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad stays in power, and as long as its allies in Lebanon are not held responsible for the recent tragedies, Lebanon will fall deeper and deeper into the abyss. And two, the opposition needs to pull its act together.
Besides the ISF Information Branch, which was headed by Hassan, Lebanon’s other main security institutions are controlled by Hezbollah and its backers in the Syrian regime. Therefore, whether they were directly behind the assassination or not, they have to be held responsible. There are many ways to hold them responsible, preferably through the actions of state institutions and allowing the Lebanese people freedom of speech. Violence to counter violence can only lead us to bad scenarios, the worst of which is sectarian clashes in mixed Sunni-Shiite areas.
Pushing the investigation into the case of former Minister and Syrian lackey Michel Samaha, who was exposed by Hassan for plotting terrorists acts on Lebanese soil, would be the best way to pay tribute to the man who paid his life in order to protect Lebanon from the Syrian regime’s destabilization plot. It would also help us hold the criminals accountable, instead of fighting each other in the streets.
But before moving in this direction, the opposition needs to understand that 2012 is not 2005 and that history doesn’t always repeat itself. Creating the same moment as on March 14, 2005 does not mean that the same results will be achieved. In 2005, all Lebanese gathered together in Martyrs’ Square as one body under the Lebanese flag. Today, the Lebanese are more fragmented than ever, and there should be a serious process of reconciliation among them, and between them and their politicians, before asking them to go to the streets and expecting them to heed the call without hesitation.
Also, in 2005, the international community backed the Lebanese in Martyrs’ Square in their quest to topple the government. Today, almost every Western ambassador in the country rushed to visit PM Najib Miqati to make sure he does not resign. Miqati has certainly proved to the international community that he is not as bad as they expected him to be. On the contrary, he, along with President Michel Suleiman, have made serious efforts to preserve Lebanon’s fragile stability in the past few months, distancing themselves from Hezbollah and the Syrian regime on a number of occasions.
Last but not least, Druze leader Walid Jumblatt is not behind March 14’s demand to topple the government. Jumbaltt prefers a fragile stability to a dangerous void, especially since March 14 did not provide a clear vision of what it wants to come after Miqati resigns. Nobody knows what kind of government or PM it has in mind. Plus, who knows how Hezbollah would react.
But this does not mean that we should treat the killers and victims equally. There is a huge difference between the inept opposition and the criminals threatening and hurting them at every possible turn.
Yes, attacking the Serail Sunday afternoon was a mistake, but it is not fair to compare a half hour of stick throwing to 18 months of the heavily armed Hezbollah surrounding the Serail from 2006 to 2008. It is nothing compared to the May events of 2008 and the “black shirts” of 2010. Intimidation comes in many shades.
March 14 should do two things: go back to the drawing board and start thinking of a strategy as an opposition, while at the same time making sure its supporters in Tripoli, Beirut and Sidon stop fighting immediately. The Syrian regime wants to see more violence in Lebanon, and the Lebanese should not give in. More clashes and violence in Lebanon would be a great service to Assad and co.
And next time, if circumstances call for the presence of a religious figure, please make sure he does not insult half of the country’s population. During Hassan’s funeral Sunday, Sunni cleric Osama al-Rifai described non-violence as womanly. “Stop crying like women and take out your swords,” he said in front of hundreds of women attending the funeral.
Stopping him from uttering such insults could be the first step toward regaining some credibility. Rifai, also, should be held accountable, to some degree. These small things make a difference, and March 14 desperately needs every single opportunity to politically survive what is coming.
It might not be too late, but we need every brain cell in our heads now to survive the coming madness. In other words, we need a miracle.
**Hanin Ghaddar is the managing editor of NOW Lebanon. She tweets @haningdr

Enough Assassinations and Chios In Lebanon
October 20, 2012
Now Lebanon
The scene of the blast that killed Wissam al-Hassan and at least seven others in Beirut on Friday. Hassan was murdered because he stood for a free and sovereign Lebanon. (AFP photo)
Lebanon is once again at a crossroads. It took an atrocity in a peaceful neighborhood of the capital to convince us that the battle for Damascus has finally reached Beirut. Only the Syrian Social Nationalist Party had the arrogance (or is it stupidity?) to blame Israel for Friday’s bomb blast in the Beirut neighborhood of Ashrafieh that killed Brigadier General Wissam al-Hassan and at least seven others. Only a party that that has lost all its political relevance and is still under the sway of the depraved regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his mafia family can still, with a straight face, place all the region’s woes on the doorstep of the Zionist state.
Hezbollah’s secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah, will no doubt also, albeit more skillfully, muddy the waters when giving his opinion on who brought mayhem and murder to a busy Beirut street. His cocktail of blame will no doubt also include Israel. But why blame the woes of the region on the West when the most deadly virus emanates from the heart of a Syrian regime that has conned generations into believing that it is a sturdy defender of Arab dignity and freedom. Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun has told us to not jump to conclusions. But what else can he say?
Friday’s bomb blast was not a result of the Israeli-Arab conflict, a struggle for which we have put our lives on hold for over half a century. Historic precedent (one only has to look at the past 37 years to see which country is suspected of murdering the most Lebanese politicians) suggests it was a desperate attempt by a regime on its last legs to destabilize its neighbor and hit back at a skilled and loyal security chief. For was it not Hassan who exposed former minister Michel Samaha as one of Syria’s most important operatives, one who was allegedly planning to murder fellow Lebanese at the behest of his masters in Damascus? There are no coincidences in the Middle East.
Given his government’s record of monumental incompetence—not to mention dubious loyalty—PM Najib Miqati should throw in the towel and resign. If he doesn’t, it will just confirm where the roots of this particular administration were planted. In any case, elections are a little over six months away. By then the electorate should have a crystal-clear picture of just how useless this government has been since it seized power in January of 2011. It surely cannot win at the polls after this fiasco.
In a country where patriotism is a moveable feast, Hassan was doing his job. He was a state servant who sought to rid his country of those who would undermine its very foundations, and he was murdered, like those before him, because he stood for a free and sovereign Lebanon.
And so today we honor Wissam al-Hassan and the other victims. In doing so we rekindle the memory of Rafiq Hariri, Basil Fleihan, Samir Kassir, Georges Hawi, Pierre Gemayel, Gebran Tueni, Antoine Ghanem, Walid Eido, Francois Hajj, Wissam Eid and the dozens of other victims who have fallen since the Cedar Revolution and Lebanon’s subsequent struggle for full statehood and sovereignty. We also remember the 168 soldiers who fought and died in the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon in the summer of 2007.
And if we are to talk of Resistance, it should be in the name of all Lebanese who want security, freedom and self-determination against all regimes that are sustained by repression and brutality.

Killing and nothing but killing
Hazem Saghiyeh/Now Lebanon/October 22, 2012
ISF information Branch Chief Brigadier General Wissam al-Hassan’s assassination redefines Lebanese politics as being a conflict between a killer and his victim. Hassan had dared the killer by arresting Michel Samaha, thus daring “the right to assassinate” according to an expression coined by Ahmad Baydoun on Facebook.
This conflict between the killer and the victim now rings louder than any other conflict. It pits a first party, which is primarily a killer regardless of his presumed advantages, against a second party, which is primarily the victim regardless of his presumed shortcomings.
Anything else would be lying to us and insulting our intelligence, which – as such – is a mark of pure moral decadence.
This blatant deterioration and stooping to such lows coincided over the past few years with a lethal language that took the shape of intimidation and libel, of calls to “leave us alone” and of death threats that were clearly made on TV every now and then. The bodies of those who have been assassinated since 2005 gave those threats some credit at least: Yes, they did it many times in the past.
Amazingly, the killing stage was devoid of any ideas, as both Syria and Lebanon merely had room for some corny folklore rhetoric about “fighting Israel”. Shallow and deceitful though it is, this remains a lethal rhetoric nonetheless, as it not only justified killing, but also urges the victim to remain silent when killed.
Usually, it would have been enough to retort: You are not really fighting Israel. This is a good – yet insufficient – pretext, at least since 1974 in Syria and the end of the 2006 [July] War in Lebanon. The time has maybe come to say: The issue is not about whether or not you are fighting Israel. Rather, the issue is that you are killing [us]. As for your fighting Israel, it certainly does not justify anything, least of all not killing us, knowing that no one asked for our opinion on fighting Israel and the costs resulting from it in the first place.
In other words, and regardless of some taboos some would like to impose, the time has come to consider killing the only central criterion in political life and even in national unity. Indeed, whoever kills is a traitor and treason is to kill, assist in killing, and justify or cover killings. If we don’t admit to that, the nation will remain more of a jungle and coexistence would be tantamount to granting the wolf a license to slaughter the sheep, while talking – any kind of talking – would be just lies. No sane person would hang on to that, let alone defend it.
*This article is a translation of the original, which appeared on the NOW Arabic site on Monday, October 22, 2012