LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
September 01 31/12

Bible Quotation for today/
John 8:32/And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
Today's Inspiring Thought: Truth Will Set You Free
Spiritual freedom is found in knowing the truth, and truth is essentially a person—Jesus Christ. As we get to know Jesus, we begin to know truth, and he sets us free ... from slavery to sin, from deception, from legalism, from dead religion and ritual, from guilt, from works, from the lies of the enemy, and ultimately, from the power of death and hell! (about.com)

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
Syria and the tale of two civil wars/By Amir Taheri/Asharq Alawsat/August 31/12
Syria: A profound lack of perception/By Emad El Din Adeeb/Asharq Alawsat/August 31/12
Neologism and Nationalism/by Alexander H. Joffe/Jewish Ideas Daily/August 31/12
'Insider Killings' in Afghanistan/by Mark Durie/FrontPageMagazine/August 31/12

Gen. Martin Dempsey, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,: “I don’t want to be complicit” if Israel attacks Iran
DEBKAfile Special Report August 31, 2012/In its bluntest message yet, the US administration under Barack Obama, declared that Israel is on its own if it decides to go for Iran’s nuclear program with a military operation. Thursday, Aug. 30, Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, offered the view for the third time in as many weeks that an Israeli attack would “clearly delay but probably not destroy Iran’s nuclear program.” But this time, talking to journalists in London, he added impatiently: “I don't want to be complicit if they [Israel] choose to do it."
Dempsey then astonished his audience by saying he did not know Iran's nuclear intentions, “as intelligence did not reveal intentions.” What was clear, he said, was that the "international coalition" applying pressure on Iran "could be undone if [Iran] was attacked prematurely."Sanctions against Iran were having an effect, he said, and they should be given a reasonable opportunity to succeed.
The general’s timing on this assertion was unfortunate. As he spoke, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported a 31-percent jump in Iran’s 20 percent enriched uranium to 189.4 kilograms from 145 in May.It was therefore obvious to the world that Iran has not been deflected by sanctions one whit from its gallop towards a nuclear weapon capacity, a race that will continue so long as nothing effective is done to stop – or even delay - its progress.The mistimed Dempsey remarks, say debkafile’s military sources, are the clearest sign yet that President Obama is fed up with hearing about Iran and its nuclear aspirations. He wants to be left alone to make his own judgments and decisions on the intelligence put before him – even though he might be too slow to stop Iran becoming a nuclear-armed power.
Israel, which is in direct line of an explicit Iranian threat of destruction, was therefore publicly slapped down by its best friend. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak and their predecessors were shown to have wasted three years in tireless efforts to solve the Iranian nuclear peril in accord with that friend. Washington has just dumped them. debkafile suggests that unless Gen. Dempsey spoke off the cuff (unlikely), he would certainly have been obeying a White House directive – even if Washington later issues a softening remark. That directive may have been prompted by information that Israel is on the point of attacking Iran, which Obama would seek to head off.The latest IAEA quarterly report published Thursday must have seriously embarrassed the Obama administration by making nonsense of its dependence on diplomacy and sanctions.The top US soldier may have been deployed for an authorative answer. But Iran’s leaders must be laughing up their sleeves at America’s futile efforts to isolate them, as they race toward their nuclear goal while showcasing Tehran as the stage for the Non-Aligned Summit attended by dozens of world leaders.

Romney: Obama threw Israel under the bus
Yitzhak Benhorin/08.31.12/Ynetnews
In speech accepting Republican presidential nomination, Mitt Romney says he wishes to 'restore promise of America,' criticizes Obama for abandoning Israel, US allies
WASHINGTON – Mitt Romney accepted the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday night with a promise to "restore the promise of America."
In what is the most important speech of his career so far, Romney pledged to make US energy independent, cut the deficit, negotiate new free trade agreements and create 12 million jobs.
In his speech he made an attempt to appeal to two of the weaker Republican demographics – women and Hispanics, and criticized US President Barack Obama for throwing "allies like Israel under the bus."
This was the only time the republican nominee mentioned Israel, claiming Obama abandoned Israel and other American allies even as he has relaxed sanctions on Castro’s Cuba.
"He (Obama) abandoned our friends in Poland by walking away from our missile defense commitments, but is eager to give Russia’s President Putin the flexibility he desires, after the election. Under my administration, our friends will see more loyalty, and Mr. Putin will see a little less flexibility and more backbone."
The nominee also mentioned Obama's Iran stance, turning praise for the assassination of Osama Bin-Laden to censure: "Every American was relieved the day President Obama gave the order, and Seal Team Six took out Osama bin Laden. But on another front, every American is less secure today because he has failed to slow Iran’s nuclear threat.
"In his first TV interview as president, he said we should talk to Iran. We’re still talking, and Iran’s centrifuges are still spinning."
Earlier, the Republican National Convention in Tampa heard from a series of Romney's friends and relatives who painted a picture of a humane, compassionate man - part of a three-day effort to humanize a candidate often accused of being cold and formal.
Romney urged voters to help him rebuild the US economy and create millions of new jobs, asking them to overcome their disappointment in President Obama and join him in restoring the promise of America. "What is needed in our country today is not complicated or profound. It doesn't take a special government commission to tell us what America needs. What America needs is jobs. Lots of jobs," Romney said. Romney's speech, which launches a two-month dash to the November 6 election, was seen by tens of millions of television viewers and gave some their first extended look at the former Massachusetts governor. It could be a defining moment for Romney, who has struggled to win over conservatives and connect with independent voters in a campaign against Obama that has been dominated by the sluggish economy and lingering high unemployment.
Romney says his experience as a business executive is the cure for the ailing economy and he promised to create 12 million jobs. He drew a sharp comparison between the promise of Obama's election in 2008 and the results of the last four years.
Romney said Americans wanted to believe in Obama but have suffered from his failures of leadership.
"Hope and change had a powerful appeal. But tonight I'd ask a simple question: If you felt that excitement when you voted for Barack Obama, shouldn't you feel that way now that he's President Obama?"
"You know there's something wrong with the kind of job he's done as president when the best feeling you had, was the day you voted for him.
In an effort to inject a shot of Hollywood glamour into the convention, actor Clint Eastwood spoke before Romney. His appearance fired up the crowd, although his long, rambling and sometimes incoherent blast at Obama frequently fell flat.
"When somebody does not do the job we've got to let them go," Eastwood said.
Democrats alternately portray Romney, 65, as a heartless corporate raider, wealthy elitist, tax evader and policy flip-flopper who should not be trusted with the keys to the White House.
To counter that image, the convention heard emotional testimonials about Romney's work as a Mormon leader that made many convention delegates in the Tampa Bay Times Forum cry.
One couple talked of how Romney befriended and comforted their dying teenage son. A woman, Pam Finlayson, recalled how he prayed with her in hospital when her premature baby daughter was close to death. "His eyes filled with tears and he reached down tenderly and stroked her tiny back," Finlayson said.
Romney also tried to show a softer side, describing his parents and family and defending his work at Bain Capital, the private equity company that critics have accused of raiding companies and cutting jobs.
"That business we started with 10 people has now grown into a great American success story. Some of the companies we helped start are names you know," he said, naming Staples and Sports Authority.
Romney and Obama have been running close in polls ahead of the election, but the convention so far has given Romney a boost. The latest Reuters/Ipsos online poll showed him moving into a narrow lead over Obama – 44 percent to 42 percent among likely voters. The Republican had entered the week trailing Obama by four percentage points.

US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey: Israel attack would delay, not destroy, Iran nuclear programme
31/08/2012
http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=1&id=30882
By Mohammed Al Shafey
London, Asharq Al-Awsat – US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, stressed that “we are collaborating with neighbours of Syria in a number of ways in intelligence sharing and military cooperative planning. We have been in consultation with them about humanitarian safe zones and what it would take to do so and what would be the implications” adding “for the most part we have been looking at that inside Turkey or inside Jordan to help them with their refugee problem.”
However the US general also acknowledged that “I have not had any conversations about the establishment of a safe zone inside Syria. That would, of course, be a significant decision that would have implications for the law of armed conflict.”
General Dempsey, who was in London to attend the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games, revealed that “I have had consultations with my Turkish opposite number and he has indicated that any broader discussion of activities inside Syria would need to be conducted through NATO…and they have not done that yet, to my knowledge.”
Responding to an Asharq Al-Awsat question, the senior US military general stressed that “if you establish a humanitarian zone you would need to protect it…that could mean a no-fly zone or inderdicting missile systems.” He stressed that “if you establish a humanitarian zone you obligate yourself to protect those who seek shelter in it.”
As for the possibility of arming the Syrian opposition, General Dempsey said “I have not been asked if I would advocate lethal aid, but…if the conflict turned into a proxy war, that would be a tragedy for the Syrian people.”
Answering an Asharq Al-Awsat question regarding the possibility of Israel attacking Iran, the US General stressed that such an attack would “delay, but probably not destroy, Iran’s nuclear programme.” He added that he thought it unlikely that the Israelis would inform their allies, including the US, prior to carrying out such an attack.
As for the recent interview given by al-Assad, during which the Syrian president acknowledged that there is no end in sight to the country’s 17-month old civil war, General Dempsey said “there was a degree of arrogance in that interview that causes me concern that he won’t seek to resolve this thing through a political process.”
When asked how long the Syrian crisis may endure, Dempsey said “there is a wide discrepancy of though on how long this conflict can go on. There is consensus that the longer it goes on the worse it is for the Syrian people in the sense that you do approach that point where the institutions of Syria begin to falter and you have the risk of a failed state.”
Commenting on fears regarding what will happen to Syria’s chemical and biological weapons stockpile should the regime collapse, he stressed “we have been very clear that we hold the regime responsible for securing that stockpile” adding “we have planning teams working with regional partners in the event that the al-Assad regime does fall.” He added “the planning effort is how to ensure the security and stability of that stockpile whatever circumstance occurs. But as you know it is a significant stockpile spread over a number of sites…so it’s a difficult challenge.”
As for US President Barack Obama’s recent warning that the use of chemical weapons by Syria is a “red line” and that there would be “enormous consequences” if there is any movement in this regard, General Dempsey stressed that “the president was not saying use of chemical weapons would automatically lead to the use of force. He said those who choose to use WMDs against the population would be held accountable” adding “he was also not suggesting that anything up to that point was acceptable.”
As for the US presence in the region, General Dempsey said “US military assets in the region are not there with regard to Syria. They are there to support the NATO effort in Afghanistan and secondarily to deter Iran form any activity…to close the Strait of Hormuz or interdict maritime resources.”
Moving on to other issues, the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff revealed that he was just back from Afghanistan, adding that in his opinion, “the development of Afghan security forces is ahead of what we expected.”
Commenting on so-called “green on blue” attacks, the US General said “for years the Taliban has been calling on Afghan security forces to rise up against foreign forces. The upsurge in such attacks is because we increased recruitment very rapidly.” He added that these attacks have exposed “vulnerabilities” in the vetting process, whilst also acknowledging that “the Taliban has increased its effort to reach out to young men via social media.”
He stressed that “if our objectives [in Afghanistan] are sound, and I haven’t heard anyone challenge the objectives, then the path is clear. We have to develop the Afghan security forces in order to pass transition to them responsibly by the end of 2014 – and we will.”
General Dempsey added “We have not decided on the size of our presence post 2014. After 2014 there are ways to scope the mission and lower our exposure.”
He also asserted that “we have to work with, encourage and insist that our Afghan partners help us solve this problem. This is not one we can solve by ourselves.”
Commenting on these so-called “insider” attacks on US and foreign troops in Afghanistan by members of Afghan security forces, Dempsey agreed that “75 percent of attacks stem from personal and cultural differences and 25 percent from Taliban initiative.”
He revealed that “the Afghans are changing the way they recruit and vet their forces. In the past soldiers who went absent without leave were assumed to be at home, but some were being radicalized.
He added “the Afghans have to take action to understand what is going on inside their formations. We cannot do much with that…they have to be as serious about this as we are.”
General Dempsey complained that “the attack gets all the notoriety…but in half to two-thirds of cases the soldier that reacts to the attack is an Afghan soldier trying to protect us.”

UN Council warns against attempts to destabilize Lebanon
August 31, 2012 /The UN Security Council on Thursday warned against attempts to destabilize Lebanon as it renewed the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force in the country for another year.
The renewal of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon came amid mounting concerns about the impact of the 17-month-old war in Syria on its neighbor. More than 150,000 Syrians are said to have fled to Lebanon where factions for and against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad have fought deadly clashes. The UN Security Council condemned "all attempts to threaten the security and stability of Lebanon, reaffirming its determination to ensure that no such acts of intimidation will prevent UNIFIL from implementing its mandate," said the council resolution on the UN force. The council also expressed "deep concern" at violations of the 2006 resolution that ended the war between Israel and Iranian-backed Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. A roadside bomb wounded five French peacekeepers in southern Lebanon in December. There have been other attacks on the UN force. UNIFIL has been in southern Lebanon since 1978 and was expanded after the 2006 war so peacekeepers could deploy along the border with Israel. The resolution, passed unanimously by the 15-nation council, extended the force's mandate until August 31, 2013.-AFP

U.N. Extends UNIFIL Mission for Another Year
August 31, 2012/The Daily Star /UNITED NATIONS: The U.N. Security Council has voted unanimously to extend the peacekeeping mission in Lebanon for another year, saying the situation there remains a threat to international peace and security. The council expressed “deep concern” at violations of the 2006 resolution that ended the war between Israel and Hezbollah. The resolution adopted Thursday by the council extends the force’s mandate until Aug. 31, 2013. The force has an authorized strength of 15,000 troops. The U.N. says 11,530 troops were on the ground at the end of July.

Hopes high among relatives of missing
August 31, 2012/By Van Meguerditchian/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: When several armed men stormed the house of Iskandar Zakharia in May 1985, they asked him to join them on a ride to answer some questions.
Instead he was handed to the Syrian army, who in turn transfered him to a prison in the country. Iskandar’s sister, Lina Zakharia says: “27 years is a lot of time for some questions, but I am not giving up, he will return home.” Since the day he walked out of the house with the men, Lina says neither she nor any of her family saw Iskandar again. “He was 26 then, he is 53 now.”
Lina’s 80-year-old mother, Samira, has joined other mothers of missing Lebanese in demonstrations and campaigns in Beirut, calling for the establishment of an international body to help free their sons from Syrian jails. “After all these years, she [Samira] still has hope, she has entrusted my brother’s fate to God,” Lina says.
According to Lina, her brother was a Business Marketing graduate of the Lebanese American University in Beirut and was working at HSBC bank in Hamra. “He was a very smart guy and he had many friends on both sides of the city [East and West Beirut],” she says.
Several former prisoners who managed to leave Syrian jails recognized Iskandar and told Lina that her brother was “alive and in a Syrian jail.”
Twelve other Lebanese working in various banks in Beirut were also kidnapped the same month as Iskandar and forcibly taken to Syria.
“Although we never knew which jail he was in, a Lebanese state security officer visited us back in 2007 and he said he was 90 percent sure that Iskandar was in a prison in Syria,” Lina told The Daily Star.
Hundreds of Lebanese are believed to be serving life sentences in some of Syria’s most notorious prisons including Mazze, Sidnaya and Tadmor.
Former prisoners have recounted horrific descriptions of torture they experienced in those prisons.
The recent popular uprising in Syria has given many families of missing Lebanese hope that their sons could be freed soon.
Ghazi Aad – founder and head of Support of Lebanese in Detention and Exile – says that his foundation has the names of 600 Lebanese who are still missing in Syria, but he believes that there could be many more. Clutching an old photograph of her son at 21, Mary Babikian still hopes Noubar will surprise her by coming home, 26 years after his disappearance.
“I wait every day for him. I wait for him to surprise me although I don’t know if I would believe it if I saw him,” 81-year-old Mary says as she walks around a tent in front of the U.N.’s Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia’s building in Downtown Beirut. Noubar, an electrician, was kidnapped in Dora in broad daylight.
“We didn’t hear anything of him until a Lebanese guy who left the Syrian jail told us that he saw Noubar in a prison in Syria and they spent a lot of time together in the jail until they were put in separate prisons,” Noubar’s sister Zarouhi says.
Having held a permeant sit-in in Downtown Beirut for many years, SOLIDE and the families of the missing say they have all but given up on the prospect of establishing an international body to advocate for the issue. Now, the families have turned their focus to the government.
But many government officials have downplayed the case of the missing citizensin Syria, fearful that public support for such a cause would stir up difficulties with a key strategic neighbor.
Hneineh Abu Nakad’s brother Joseph is another Lebanese in a Syrian prison. “He had just started a new job as a truck driver and was not involved with any political party,” Nakad says.
Joseph was kidnapped in 1983. Hneineh is among 30 people holding a sit-in next to the tent in Downtown Beirut, waiting for good news about their relatives and the government’s probe into their abductions. She says her brother was kidnapped while driving the truck in Metn’s Dhour Choueir. Hneineh, like many others, tried to hire a Syrian lawyer in attempt to see her brother in Syria, but they were not granted a visit. “We paid a lot of money to be able to see him ... but we don’t have any more money,” she says. “We were told 12 years ago that Joseph was in Tadmor prison but that was it.” Another woman is still hopeful to see her son, who was 16 years old when he was kidnapped in Tripoli. She fears she might not recognize him once he comes out, she says.
Moustafa Zakzouk, a student in Tripoli, was kidnapped and taken to Syria in 1988. “He was just a student and they took him on his way to school ... Everyone who was released from the Syrian prisons gave me a different account of my son ... Some told me he was in Saadnaya, others told me he was in Tadmor,” his mother laments. She hasn’t give up hope of seeing him again though, and believes that her son as well as the hundreds of othersmissing will return home safely only once the Syrian regime collapses

Dad: Missing reporter likely in Syrian custody
August 31, 2012/ AP/HOUSTON: The father of American journalist Austin Tice, who went missing while working in one of Syria's most volatile regions, said he believed his son is alive and being detained by the Syrian government. From his home in Houston, Marc Tice said Thursday he was working with his son's editors at The Washington Post and McClatchy Newspapers.
"We have a belief that he's in Syrian custody, but we have not heard from the only people who would know for sure. That's the Syrians," he told The Associated Press in a Thursday telephone interview.
The father expressed gratitude to those working on his son's behalf but declined to comment further on the situation. However, in a statement to The Post and McClatchy, the Tice family said, "Austin is our precious son, and we beseech the Syrian government to treat him well and return him safely to us as soon as possible."
Austin Tice worked as a freelance journalist for both media organizations. They reported Thursday that the Czech Republic ambassador to Syria had reported that Tice was alive.
"Our sources report that he is alive and that he was detained by government forces on the outskirts of Damascus, where the rebels were fighting government troops," Ambassador Eva Filipi was quoted as telling Czech television. The Czech embassy staff in Syria will continue to seek information about Tice, she said.
A State Department official says the U.S. is seeking information through Czech officials, who represent U.S. interests in Syria since the U.S. closed its embassy in Damascus.
The Czechs have yet to provide the U.S. with any information, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
Tice recently spent time with rebel fighters in Syria and has not been heard from in nearly three weeks.
The 31-year-old former Marine was living in Washington before heading overseas, and had been attending law school at Georgetown University between deployments and his latest reporting trip, his father has said. "We welcome any news about Austin, after three long weeks without word," Anders Gyllenhaal, McClatchy vice president for news, said in a statement. "If he is in fact being held by the Syrian government, we would expect that he is being well cared for and that he will quickly be released."In a statement of his own, Post Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli said, "If the reports are true, we urge these authorities to release him promptly, unharmed."

Al-Qaeda threat against Lebanon Shiites genuine, serious
August 31, 2012/By Hussein Abdallah/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: The recent warning by the Abdallah Azzam Brigades against Shiites in Lebanon amounts to a serious threat of violence that could spark off a resurgence of sectarian conflict in Lebanon.
The statement, which appeared as an audio message on a jihadist website on Aug. 17 and was recently picked up by the media, warned Shiites in Lebanon that “the positions of Hezbollah and the Amal Movement vis-à-vis the Syrian revolution do not serve the sect’s best interest ... If you maintain your arrogant attitude, you will be punished, and you will pay. You only have yourselves to blame.”
The message said Shiites in Lebanon would bear the consequences if they insist on linking themselves to the Syrian President Bashar Assad.
“If you stay with him, you shall go with him,” it said.
The statement was attributed to the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, an alleged Al-Qaeda branch that is active in Lebanon and Syria. It has claimed rocket attacks from Lebanon into Israel in the past.
Stephen Tankel, an assistant professor at American University in Washington, D.C., and a non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the statement by the group was not at all surprising.
“The Abdallah Azzam Brigades is certainly not ideologically opposed to targeting Shiites, and we shouldn’t be surprised to see that type of behavior escalate in line with sectarian violence in Syria,” he said. “It’s unclear whether that will mean going after Hezbollah and Amal specifically. This wouldn’t be the first time a group of jihadists threatened actions they weren’t able to back up, or bit off more than they could chew,” he added.
Tankel, a terrorism expert, said the Abdallah Azzam Brigades “has likely got some connectivity with militants based in North Lebanon and possibly a small foothold for itself as well.”
The Al-Qaeda threat is genuine and serious, according to Ahmad Moussalli, political science professor at the American University of Beirut and an expert on political Islam. “The Abdallah Azzam Brigades are active in the North [of Lebanon], and they have been moving freely between Lebanon and Syria as a result of the Syrian crisis,” Moussalli said.
“They consider this to be a golden opportunity to strike against targets that were far from their reach in the past ... Looking at the border situation now, they can transfer militants from Syria to Lebanon in order to carry out attacks against Hezbollah and Amal Movement,” he added.
Sheikh Shadi Jebara, a Tripoli-based Salafist leader, denied any presence of the Abdallah Azzam Brigades in northern Lebanon.
“I can assure you, and I know what I am talking about, that Abdallah Azzam Brigades are not present in the north,” he said.
“I was accused in the past of being affiliated with Al-Qaeda, and I happen to know most of the Salafists and Salafist jihadists in Lebanon, and I know as a matter of fact that we do not have Al-Qaeda people among us,” he added.
Salafism is a form of Islam that advocates a return to the roots of the religion by following the lifestyle of the Prophet Mohammad and his companions. It is a nonviolent movement in its origin, however, a new form of Salafism – often referred to as Jihadist Salfism – emerged with the birth of Al-Qaeda in the late 1990s.
Salafist jihadists believe that the use of violence is legitimate to achieve social and political goals and have previously threatened and carried out attacks on Shiites in various countries.
Jebara condemned the Al-Qaeda statement and said it does not serve the interests of Salafists in Lebanon. “Salafists have a clear agenda. We want to topple the Syrian regime and we are not interested in stirring violence in Lebanon, especially when it comes to targeting an entire sect,” he said.
“Yes, we fought against pro-Syrian regime militants in Jabal Mohsen because we came under attack ... The problems with Jabal Mohsen are not new, but this has nothing to do with the Alawites. We are not targeting Alawites,” he added.
Clashes between anti-Assad Sunnis of Bab al-Tabbaneh and pro-Assad Alawites of Jabal Mohsen rocked the northern city of Tripoli earlier this month, leaving at least 16 people killed and more than 120 wounded, before a cease-fire was agreed.
Jebara, who took part in the Tripoli clashes, said he believed Al-Qaeda was not interested in taking its fight from Syria to Lebanon.
“Al-Qaeda’s strategy is to focus on Syria and unify its efforts to target the Syrian regime. I do not think they are interested in opening a new front here in Lebanon,” he explained.
Tankel, however, said it remains unclear whether “it makes sense for the Sunni jihadist movement to shift the focus from Syria at this stage.”
“Depending on the degree that Al-Qaeda and associated movements benefit from instability, they may see helping to spread that instability throughout the region as a net plus for them. That said, there are arguably wiser ways of doing so than taking on Hezbollah,” he added.
Meanwhile, Qassem Qassir, an expert on Islamist movements, said Lebanese security forces had received information in the past two months about possible terrorist operations that target Lebanese religious and political figures.
“We all heard about the threats against Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, so in that context I would not be surprised if Al-Qaeda tries to launch attacks in Lebanon,” he said.
Berri, the head of the Shiite Amal Movement, was allegedly on a hit-list and was warned by security forces about possible attempts against his life.
“I think Hezbollah is aware of such threats and is taking pre-emptive measures,” Qassir said.

Assir cancels anti-Hezbollah protest to avert clash in south Lebanon
August 31, 2012/The Daily Star /SIDON, Lebanon: Sheikh Ahmad Assir cancelled his usual Friday protest in order to avert a clash with Hezbollah and Amal Movement supporters on their way to southern town of Nabatieh to commemorate the 34th anniversary of the disappearance of Imam Musa Sadr.
A security source told The Daily Star that it would have been a risk for Assir and his supporters to carry out their weekly protest and block the road connecting Sidon to south Lebanon, since the Lebanese Army would have had difficulties intervening in any clashes. Assir and his supporters held a monthlong sit-in between July and August in protest against Hezbollah’s arms, during which the northern entrance to Sidon was blocked. The sheikh ended the sit-in after he received a promise from President Michel Sleiman that the issue of Hezbollah’s arms would be resolved via National Dialogue. Assir proceeded to hold weekly protests against Hezbollah and, at times, the Syrian government.During his Friday sermon in the Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque, Assir said: “Everyone was waiting for us today to see whether we would take to the streets or block the road.” Referring to Sader, who disappeared on a visit to Libya in 1978, Assir said: “He is a generous imam and we support the oppressed and there is freedom of speech in Lebanon.”“It is time our partners realize that we should live as partners and side by side in this country,” Assir said, reiterating his opposition to what he described as Hezbollah’s “hegemony.”
But he voiced disappointment over the failure of Sleiman to address the issue of Hezbollah’s arsenal, saying: “We received a promise from the leaders but they failed us.”
“Don’t ask me when or where, but we will resume our protest,” he added. One of the main items on the National Dialogue agenda between rival leaders is the issue of resolving the issue of Hezbollah’s arms. Earlier this months, Berri failed to attend the session, prompting Sleiman to postpone discussion on the party’s weapons.

Hezbollah rejects deployment of international force to Lebanon-Syria border
August 31, 2012/The Daily Star /BEIRUT: Hezbollah will not assent to the deployment of international troops to Lebanon’s northern border with Syria, deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem said Friday, describing such a move as a method to destroy the country. “Hezbollah refuses to allow Lebanon to intervene in Syrian affairs and categorically rejects the deployment of international forces to the northern borders. That is a Zionist project to destroy Lebanon in the same way as Syria,” Qassem said in a ceremony in south Lebanon. Some March 14 politicians have publically called for the deployment of an international force to the poorly demarcated border between Lebanon and Syria, although there has been no indication of high-level talks of such a move. “When they lost the ability to influence the Syrian equation, they began proposing suspect projects like deploying international forces to the north to support the buffer zone,” Qassem said. The proposal from March 14 figures came following several incidents of shelling on Lebanese border towns, which have claimed the lives and wounded several Lebanese in recent months. In his speech, Qassem also said that the fact March 8 was the majority in government prevented chaos from reigning over Lebanon, given the action of his rivals in the March 14 coalition. He accused March 14 of trying to use Lebanon as a “platform for the U.S.-Israeli project against Syria and its people.” Hezbollah has repeatedly accused their rivals of financing and arming Syrian rebel groups fighting against the regime in Damascus via Lebanon. “Tensions in the northern region are because of them [March 14] smuggling arms to Syria, sheltering Syrian gunmen, and attempting to push Lebanon into strife,” Qassem said, adding that their failure to push Lebanon into conflict could be attributed to the existence of the March 8 majority. “If the March 14 group stops sabotaging Lebanon's north with arms, smuggling and militia work, stability would reign. They are responsible for tensions that hit our people in Tripoli, Akkar and the north in general,” Qassem said referring to recent clashes in the northern city of Tripoli. Supporters and opponents of President Bashar Assad engaged in fierce clashes for a week earlier this month that left at least 17 killed and over 120 wounded including soldiers and a foreign journalist, raising concerns of spillover of conflict from Syria

LF denies agent in Samaha case has taken refuge in Maarab
August 31, 2012/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: The Lebanese Forces (LF) denied a local newspaper report Friday that the key witness in former Information Minister Michel Samaha’s case, undercover agent Milad Kfouri, has sought sanctuary in Maarab, Kesrouan, near LF leader Samir Geagea's residence. Quoting a March 8 official, Ad-Diyar daily reported that Kfouri and his companions are staying in Maarab, following an agreement between the LF, the Internal Security Forces (ISF) Information Branch and Qatari intelligence.“Ad-Diyar’s report is totally wrong and we will file a lawsuit against the newspaper before the appropriate court,” the LF statement said. Kfouri provided incriminating video footage in the Samaha case. According to media reports, he was flown out of Lebanon sometime before the Aug. 10 police raid on Samaha’s residences in Beirut’s Ashrafieh and Metn’s Khanshara-Jwar, over fears for his safety. Samaha, who is close to Syrian President Bashar Assad, was arrested Aug. 10 on charges of plotting terror attacks in Lebanon along with Syria’s National Security chief Brig. Gen. Ali Mamlouk and another senior general identified only by the first name of Adnan.

SSNP hands over assailants to ISF
August 31, 2012 / The Daily Star
BEIRUT: The Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) handed over two men Friday who attacked security forces Thursday night and stole a gun, security sources told The Daily Star.
The two men have been identified as Ramzi Abdou and Mahmoud Awwad. The ISF surrounded the SSNP offices in the Beirut district of Hamra for hours, demanding the handover of the assailants. Once the party surrendered the two men, head of the Internal Security Forces (ISF) Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi ordered the 300-plus ISF members to withdraw from the street. Security sources told The Daily Star that the ISF had given the party an ultimatum: hand over the assailants or security forces will storm the SSNP offices. Four members of the SSNP attacked at least one member of a five-man Internal Security Forces patrol Thursday night and stole his weapon, the sources said. The assailants reportedly hid in the SSNP offices in Hamra for protection. The party returned the stolen gun to the ISF Friday. A member of the SSNP's political bureau said Friday that his party had nothing to do with the incident. "There was a problem on Hamra Street and the Syrian Social Nationalist Party had nothing to do with it," Wael Hasaniyeh told Al-Jadeed TV. He maintained that the ISF's security measures were not directed at the SSNP. The SSNP’s media office reiterated that the party had not been involved in the incident Thursday night, asking media outlets not to exaggerate the incident in their reports. “There is no problem at all with the security forces ... none of the party's offices or branches has been surrounded,” the media office said in a statement. It added that the “the individual incident” is being resolved in a calm manner, saying: “We hope the media are precise and do not exaggerate in things.”

Shifting power of Baalbek-Hermel clans
August 31, 2012/By Rakan al-Fakih The Daily Star
BAALBEK, Lebanon: Former minister Mohsen Dalloul recalls the day an irate Progressive Socialist Party member from Hermel, Abu Turki Dandash, demanded a meeting with then-Interior Minister Kamal Jumblatt. The Hermel police were attempting to arrest Dandash’s son for shooting his own wife. Threatening to kill the police himself, Dandash asked Jumblatt to call them off. He said the government had no business interfering in the private affairs of his son, and he considered their attempt to detain him a flagrant attack on his clan. That was in 1961.
Three weeks ago, 26-year-old Bilal Hajj Hasan was shot dead while stepping out of a shop in the Hermel neighborhood of Maali. He was killed by the father of 21-year-old Ali Marada, who himself had been murdered only 10 minutes earlier by a member of Hajj Hasan’s family.
Bilal Hajj Hasan did not know Ali Marada, but was the first Hajj Hasan that Marada’s vengeance-bound father came across.
Separated by five decades, the two events highlight the customs for which the clans of Baalbek-Hermel are known. The customs have become de facto law, and long ruled the lives of area residents.
Shiite families began moving to the Baalbek-Hermel strip in the early 1900s from Jbeil and Batroun. Each clan settled into one of the semi-arid valleys there, often making a living raising sheep and selling wood. Today’s clans stem from two original groups. The first, the Shamasiya, is comprised of the Shamas, Allaw, Dandash, Allam, Awwad and Nassereddine families. The Zeaitariya group includes the Zeaitar, Jaafar, Amhaz, Shreif and Hajj Hasan families. Among the Zeaitariya are also the Meqdads, who have recently gained notoriety for their kidnapping spree and claim to have their own military wing.
Geographic isolation and a lack of development provided the ideal social and economic conditions for the clans to develop and live by their own rules. According to Mahfouz Mahfouz, the secretary of Hermel’s Culture and Development Organization, these include a requirement to take vengeance for perceived offenses and to retaliate against relatives if the perpetrators themselves can’t be found.
Clans close ranks to protect family members who have killed, and will shelter members of other families too.
There is also a traditional emphasis on the protection of women’s “ord,” a concept that gives a woman’s first cousins priority in marrying her, followed by other relatives.
Much is done to prevent women from marrying outside of the clan and in some cases girls are forced to leave school after they physically mature to prevent them from meeting other men.
Women are occasionally are dealt death sentences for marrying men of other clans.
Disputes among clans are resolved without resorting to state authority. Leaders perform reconciliations that can include monetary compensation for killings.
Clan members customarily answer to one leader, who has the last word in all matters.
Mohib Hamadeh, a professor of history at Lebanese University, says that these practices have dominated social and political life in the Baalbek-Hermel area since the end of Ottoman rule, but of late the clans have become fragmented and life is changing. He offers a brief political history of the families.
At Lebanon’s independence, both the Shamasiya and the Zeaitariya were headed by the Hamadeh family, which was allied with neither strain.
The Hamadeh’s first represented the clans in politics, starting with former Parliament Speaker Sabri Hamadeh. With the start of the Civil War in 1975, the family gave way to the Allaws and Nassereddines, who governed with the support of the Palestinian factions and the Kamal Jumblatt-led Lebanese National Movement.
The Syrian Army’s arrival changed the area’s dynamics, and Syrian intelligence showed their preference for the Jaafar family by installing its head, Ali Jaafar, as MP in the first post-Civil War Parliament.
Hamadeh says all Lebanese governments have attempted to tame the clans by splitting them or installing weak leaders, with limited success.
In the early ’60s, the late President Fouad Chehab attempted to integrate the families into mainstream society by building roads and schools in Baalbek-Hermel, as well as by employing members in government institutions. This effort ended with Chehab’s exit from power in 1964.
In the early 1970s, Lebanese Shiite cleric Imam Musa Sadr’s Movement of the Deprived tried to develop a pact between the families which included a commitment to the principles of citizenship, security and stability, a rejection of inter-clan violence and an elimination of coverage for criminals. This endeavor ended with the Civil War and Sadr’s disappearance.
Hezbollah now dominates the mostly Shiite area, and has absorbed parts of families who had drifted from the clan structure. There are a few families who remain outside of Hezbollah’s influence, remaining economically independent some by legal work, but many by planting marijuana, smuggling drugs, committing robberies and kidnapping for ransom.
The Dandash clan’s current leader, Hasan Dandash, says “the clan, as an ideological and historical concept, ended with the decline of its economic, social and political power. Now the Baalbek-Hermel area lacks basic living conditions,” and most members have moved to Beirut’s suburbs or other big cities to work and live.
Dandash says these days, “when marginalized people, who happen to be clan members, commit crimes out of their political and economic interests, they no longer represent the tribe as a whole.”
Ali Jaafar, a leader of the Jaafar clan, agrees that the tribe as a coherent structure with specific traditions and answerable to one leader, is over.
As an example, he gives his own family, one of the largest and last dominant families.
“They used to answer to one leader, for decades, former MP Ali Jaafar. However, after his death last year influence was distributed among several leaders in the family,” he says.

Lebanon Set to Restore Disputed EEZ with Israel
Naharnet/31 August 2012/Prime Minister Najib Miqati, who is scheduled to represent Lebanon at the United Nations General Assembly meetings in September, will reportedly discuss Lebanon’s Exclusive Economic Zone with international officials.
According to An Nahar newspaper published on Friday, Miqati will head to New York in the second half of September and is expected to tackle with U.N. leaders the dispute between Lebanon and Israel over a zone that consists of about 854 square kilometers and suspected energy reserves there that could generate billions of dollars.
One of the experts, who is informed about the matter, told As Safir newspaper that Lebanon has a “historical chance” to narrow the distance of the disputed Zone.
The expert confirmed media reports that said Lebanon was able to restore around 500 square kilometers of the maritime zone that it considers it to be within its EEZ, which was acknowledged during the tripartite meetings in al-Naqoura between Lebanese and Israeli officials under the auspices of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.
According to the expert, Lebanon can prove its right to control the 500 square kilometers if the cabinet approves a report submitted by the Foreign Ministry over the matter.
However, AMAL movement and the Free Patriotic Movement are quarreling over the matter.
The FPM argues that there is no need to re-discuss Lebanon’s EEZ when the cabinet had previously resolved the matter but AMAL insists on the government to defend every inch of Lebanon’s rights in its EEZ.
The cabinet approved in September the proposed borders of Lebanon’s EEZ in the Mediterranean.
Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat expressed remorse over the handling of the natural resources off Lebanon’s shore.
“Every day that passes by and Lebanon doesn’t kick off the process to dig for its offshore wealth will affect the next generations, which will have a negative impact on the country’s economy,” Jumblat told An Nahar newspaper.
Concerning the appointment of the oil regulatory authority members, that AMAL and Hizbullah are allegedly having sharp differences on, Hizbullah’s Minister of Administrative Development Mohammed Fneish denied in comments published in As Safir that the two parties are bickering over the name of the Shiite candidate.
He called on the cabinet to swiftly appoint the members.
According to the daily the names of the candidates to the oil regulatory authority are: Baheej Abu Hamza, who is Druze, Nasser Hteit, a Shiite, Wissam Shbat, a Maronite, Wissam al-Zahabi, a Sunni, in addition to an Orthodox and a Catholic.

Jumblat Says March 8 to Increase 'Valium' Intake over Feltman-Khamenei Meeting
Naharnet/31 August 2012/Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat mocked March 8 majority leaders for needing anti-depressant pills after U.N. Under-Secretary General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman met with Iran’s Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“What was the impact of Sayyed Khamenei’s meeting of Feltman on some March 8 members?” Jumblat wondered in remarks published in An Nahar daily on Friday. “Some of them are uncomfortable and will increase their consumption of Valium pills when they go to sleep,” the PSP chief mocked.
Feltman attended on Wednesday a meeting between U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon and Khamenei on the sidelines of the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Tehran.
The Hizbullah-led March 8 coalition is backed by Iran and has repeatedly accused Feltman, who was U.S. assistant secretary of state for near eastern affairs before taking the U.N. job, of inciting the March 14 opposition against the Shiite party.
On Lebanon’s chairmanship of the Arab League Ministerial Council on Sept. 5, Jumblat warned that such a move would reflect negatively on the Lebanese government.
“The coming days will prove my words,” he told An Nahar. Reports have said that top Lebanese officials were divided on whether Lebanon to assume that role.
As Safir daily quoted on Tuesday a cabinet minister loyal to Jumblat as saying that the PSP ministers and those loyal to President Michel Suleiman prefer to reject Lebanon’s mission in the Arab League and ask Libya to take over the chairmanship of the Ministerial Council. The centrist parties believe that this role would further instigate tension in Lebanon which has been reeling from a political and security crisis, the newspaper said. An Nahar also asked Jumblat about a rally that the PSP is organizing near Samir Kassir Square in downtown Beirut on Friday afternoon to demand Syrian Ambassador Ali Abdul Karim Ali’s expulsion.
But the Druze leader refused to comment, saying he gives the organizers the “freedom to decide” what statement to issue during the rally.
He also denied that the ministers loyal to him had ties to the call by the PSP youth movement for Ali’s expulsion.

Syria: A profound lack of perception
By Emad El Din Adeeb/Asharq Alawsat
I urge you to watch the interview that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad conducted with the Syrian Addounia television channel. Afterwards, you will be able to identify the reasons behind the acute political crisis engulfing Syria and the region, as well as the high volume of victims of civil war massacres in the country.
The highlights of the Syrian President's interview were as follows:
He claimed that the defections that have taken place in the regime recently are a positive sign, for they indicate the “self-cleansing of the government firstly and the country generally”. Commenting on his military operations, Bashar al-Assad added that a military resolution to the conflict has not yet been fully carried out by the Syrian army, but this will happen soon.
He also added "the situation in Syria now is much better than a year ago".
The interview did not lack references to a regional and international conspiracy against Syria, in its capacity as the “main resistance state” in the region.
Finally, President al-Assad emphasized that any citizen who serves his people cannot relinquish his position at a time of challenge, in a clear indication that he rejects the principle of stepping down from power. Hence the Syrian President’s rhetoric can be summarized as follows: the current situation is better than a year ago, a military end is imminent, defections have had a positive impact, and I will remain as President! If this is indeed the essence of President al-Assad’s vision, then this undoubtedly means that the man lives on a different planet to the rest of us.
President al-Assad's rhetoric suggests that his interpretation of the Syrian political scene locally, regionally and internationally is completely wrong.
The gravest mistake a political or military leader can commit is to live in an "illusionary victory"; whilst the tangible reality on the ground confirms that he has suffered a "resounding defeat."
Such a disparity between victory and defeat, and between success and failure, prompts the leader to feel an overwhelming desire to remain in power, although the fact is that he must leave. His mind is deeply convinced that he must continue, whilst reality necessitates that he must step down immediately.
The crisis in the mindset of Bashar al-Assad does not lie in the fact that he is governing in the wrong manner, because deep down he is aware of this, rather the crisis lies in the fact that he strongly believes that he is doing a great service to his people and is bringing glory to his nation, and will go down in the history books as a result. This is what psychiatrists call a "profound lack of perception"; a case that eventually prompts one to destroy himself and everyone around him.
All this confirms that the problem runs very deep indeed.

Syrian rebels targeting fighter jets on the ground - FSA commander
30/08/2012
By Paula Astatih
Beirut, Asharq Al-Awsat – Syrian rebels on Thursday claimed to have shot down a MiG fighter jet in the northwest province of Idlib, demonstrating their renewed focus on targeting al-Assad’s fighter jets and helicopter gunships. The Free Syrian Army [FSA] has also announced a new strategy to target Syrian regime aircraft on the ground in order to destroy the largest possible number of targets.
Speaking exclusively to Asharq Al-Awsat, FSA Commander Colonel Riad al-Asaad revealed that Syrian rebels had shot down between 8 and 10 regime helicopters, whilst activists had also been able to document and photograph the downing of two MiG warplanes. Al-Asaad revealed that the first MiG warplane was shot down on 13 August near the Iraqi border, with its pilot being captured by the FSA, whilst the second MiG was shot down earlier this week in Idlib province. The Ahrar al-Sham battalion, which claimed responsibility for shooting down the two MiGs, claimed to have downed the warplanes utilizing a 14.5 mm heavy machine gun.
As for the shooting down of the MiG on Thursday, the warplane was reportedly shot down shortly after taking off in an attack on the Abu Zohur airbase by “hundreds of rebels”. The FSA claimed that 11 grounded MiGs at the airbase were also destroyed, and that the Syrian soldiers manning the base either fled or were killed in the attack.
On Wednesday, a spokesman for the Ahrar al-Sham brigade claimed that the FSA had attacked the Taftanaz military base in Idlib, destroying 10 Syrian helicopter gunships. Activists claimed that the FSA launched an attack on the Taftanaz military airport, which is located between the northern cities of Aleppo and Idlib, utilizing medium and heavy arms. Reports also claimed that the FSA has successfully gained control of a military base in the Aftrees area of Damascus governorate, seizing a number of missiles.
According to the "Global Security" website that specializes in military affairs, the Syrian army possesses more than 441 MiG warplanes, 4,707 surface-to-air missiles, and around 200 military helicopters.
Observers have claimed that Syria’s aerial capabilities are “exhausted” as a result of the intensive aerial campaign launched by the al-Assad regime over the past months and due to the lack of required “maintenance” as a result of the international sanctions that have been imposed on the Syrian regime. This explains why al-Assad’s forces are increasingly utilizing older aircraft such as Sukhoi-24 bombers.
Brigadier General Mustafa al-Sheikh, chairman of the FSA Military Council, stressed that all the warplanes and helicopters downed by the FSA have been shot down by 23 mm and 14.5 mm heavy machine guns, not surface-to-air missiles. He informed Asharq Al-Awsat that the FSA seized these heavy machine guns from the al-Assad regime forces and have installed them on a number of trucks as mounted-weaponry. He said “militarily, this is a basic way to confront the regime, however this is all that is available to us.” He added that he was well aware that such weaponry is only effective when aircraft and helicopters are flying at low altitudes, stressing that the most effective way to bring down low-flying al-Assad regime warplanes and helicopters is to target their fuel tank.
He stressed that the FSA is now focusing on targeting grounded Syrian regime fighter jets and helicopters at military bases, pointing to the successful FSA attack on the Taftanaz military airport on Wednesday. Brigadier General al-Sheikh stressed that this policy does not include occupying the military base, but rather attacking it, destroying targets, and then withdrawing.
Al-Sheikh also asserted that the FSA are seeking to secure shoulder-launched fire-and-forget missiles, such as the Nag missile, adding this would meet the FSA’s needs for surface-to-air missiles, whilst also granting the Syrian rebels anti-tank capabilities. He claimed the FSA possessing surface-to-air missiles would impose a new reality on the ground in Syria, whilst also threatening the al-Assad regime’s aerial superiority. The FSA Brigadier General also did not rule out the al-Assad regime utilizing all arms in its possession, including chemical weaponry. He told Asharq Al-Awsat “the entire international community, in addition to all international intelligence services, is well aware that Al-Assad will not step down until he has burnt and destroyed the entire country.”
For his part, strategic expert Hisham Jabir, a retired Lebanese army general, informed Asharq Al-Awsat that the Syrian regime only resorted to utilizing its Air Force after the opposition's strength on the ground increased, and after the Syrian rebels began to threaten vital areas like Damascus and Aleppo. He stressed that warplanes that are usually utilized in conjunction with land forces are today being used exclusively to target rebel strongholds and operating bases.
He said “the opposition forces succeeded in carrying out a qualitative move at the military level by shooting down helicopters and MiG fighter jets, and they now possess 24 surface-to-air Stinger missiles and sophisticated MILAN anti-tank light infantry missiles.”
The retired Lebanese army general said that whoever supplied the FSA with 24 surface-to-air missiles are capable of supplying them with more, which would severely limit the Syrian Air Force’s activity. He added that there are reports that 6,000 surface-to-air missiles are missing from the Libyan arsenal. However he also stressed that “for its part, the Syrian air defense must not be underestimated as it possesses 60,000 elements, including around 400 MiG warplanes and 800 surface-to-air missiles.”

Syria and the tale of two civil wars
By Amir Taheri/Asharq Alawsat
Having started as a popular uprising against a despot, the Syrian crisis has become a full-fledged civil war with potentially serious consequences for the future of the Middle East.
Although history seldom repeats itself, on occasions, parallels can be drawn between different events. Thus, without equating the rival sides involved at the time with those fighting today, the Syrian crisis shares some features with the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39.
As in the Spanish one, the Syrian civil war is fought between remnants of a weakened regime and breakaway units from the regular armed forces. In Spain, the regime was a Communist-dominated set-up backed by Stalin. It promoted secularism in defiance of Spain’s attachment to the Catholic faith. The al-Assad regime in Syria is a proto-Fascist set-up waving the banner of secularism against the Sunni Muslim majority.
Ironically, al-Assad is backed by the Khomeinist regime in Tehran which claims to be based on religious foundations, and Vladimir Putin who hopes to cast Russia as a standard-bearer of “true Christianity” with Moscow playing the “Third Rome”.
In the Spanish Civil War the rebels, initially led by Generals Jose Sanjuro and Emilio Mola, attracted support from Italy and Germany. The Western democracies stayed on the sidelines in the name of non-intervention in the domestic affairs of independent nations.
Great Britain which at the time had the leadership of Western democracies argued that there were no good choices in Spain. Victory by the Communist-dominated regime would strengthen the Soviet Union while a win by rebels would mean triumph for Mussolini and Hitler.
France used another argument for non-intervention: involvement by Western democracies could trigger a larger European war.
As events were to show, the decision by Western democracies to watch the Spanish drama unfold from the sidelines produced exactly the effects they had feared.
Although his protégés lost in Spain, Stalin emerged as the standard-bearer of revolution in Europe. For their part, Mussolini and Hitler interpreted the rebels’ victory as a win for themselves and an endorsement of their theory of “Might is Right”. The Western democracies’ lack of resolve helped trigger the European war they had hoped to avoid.
The Spanish Civil war attracted volunteers from all over Europe fighting on opposite sides. In Syria, too, fighters from several Arab countries have joined the rebels while elements from the Lebanese branch of Hezbollah are siding with al-Assad.
A glance at the map of Syria today reveals striking similarities with the map of Spain in the first year of its civil war. Broadly speaking, the al-Assad regime still controls around 25 to 30 per cent of Syrian territory including chunks of Damascus and Aleppo.
The al-Assad-controlled areas look like an “archipelago” of 13 to 15 “islands” stretching from Suwayda on the Jordanian border to Idlib close to the border with Turkey. The largest “island” is the area between the central mountain range and the Mediterranean, the hinterland of Tartus, the strategic port with a growing Russian military presence.
However, control of a territory does not mean governing it. Thus, in some areas still under al-Assad’s control, normal functions of government have all but ceased.
Elsewhere, the anti-Assad forces control their “archipelago” of 10 to 12 chunks of territory, mostly in the southern and central areas. At least two “islands” close to the borders with Iraq and Turkey could be regarded as “liberated zones”. Here, too, control does not mean effective government. In fact, as in Spain in the late 1930s, a worst-case scenario for Syria is systemic collapse, turning it into a stateless jumble of territories held by rival factions.
The Spanish Civil War lasted almost three years. Will the Syrian one last that long? That is a hard question to answer because it is like asking how long is a piece of thread. As things stand the al-Assad camp may get enough money and arms from Iran and Russia to continue fighting at the present level for some time. For their part, the rebels too get enough support to sustain the present tempo of their campaign. Al-Assad’s latest claim that he would do “whatever needed” is a coded threat to use chemical weapons. It is also a sign of desperation.
Without outside support no civil war could continue for long if only because the collapse of the local economy makes it hard to keep war machines whirring.
As far as Syria is concerned, two questions are posed.
First, would Western democracies, now led by the United States, be prepared to provide the rebels with a level of support that Russia and Iran would be unable or unwilling to match?
The second question is whether the West and its allies would intervene to stop the flow of weapons and materiel to al-Assad?
Opponents of humanitarian intervention in Syria use some of the arguments their predecessors used over Spain. They claim that Western intervention could lead to a larger war involving Russia, Iran and Israel not to mention Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan. However, I doubt that, if the stakes are raised high enough, either Iran or Russia would stay in the game.
Yet, the danger of a regional war by osmosis cannot be ruled out. Like fire, war has a habit of spreading from one neighborhood to another. The longer the Syrian crisis continues the greater that danger. Western pusillanimity cannot prevent a larger regional conflict. A timely, massive and determined humanitarian intervention can. This crisis must not be allowed to threaten the very architecture of regional stability at a time when the Middle East needs to focus on making the "Arab Spring” a success.

Islamists Demand Placing Coptic Church Funds Under Egyptian State Control
31-2012 0:10:2
Assyrian International News Agency
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(AINA) -- Demands raised this week by Islamists in the Constituent Assembly, which is drafting the new Egyptian constitution, for placing the Church's funds under state financial control were categorically rejected by church leaders and Copts at large. Anba Pakhomious, Acting Patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church, condemned the action of Salafist groups. "The mere submission of such a proposal is totally unacceptable, and if it is approved, this proposal has only one meaning, that Copts are clearly persecuted." He added that the church will not accept the monitoring of its money or donations by any entity, and should not pay taxes to the state because all its activities fall within the provision of the needs of orphans and needy Copts, and therefore the state cannot claim taxes because they are not investment projects.
Counselor Edward Ghaleb, one of the three Coptic Orthodox Church representatives in the Constituent Assembly, said that if the government does not fund the church in any way, how can it demand monitoring its resources. He said that it was illogical to take permission from Central Auditing Authority to budget for the food for the monks in monasteries, and in the ordination of priests, as well as the numerous services provided by the Coptic Church, which are completely funded by collections from Copts.
Father Matthias Nasr, priest of the Church of the Virgin Ezbet el Nakhl, said the state has never funded churches, unlike mosques, which get funding from the taxpayer money paid by Muslims and Christians. He said this new Salafist proposal is aimed at allowing the Muslim Brotherhood to dominate all institutions and exercised control on churches and Christians.
Khaled Saeed, spokesman for the Salafist Front, said the proposal of state monitoring of church funds came after the "insistence by some people" to monitor funds of the Muslim Brotherhood, stressing that the Salafist front does not interfere in the religious beliefs. "There should be control over church funds," he said during a debate over the issue with Ramses El-Naggar, legal adviser to the Coptic Church, which was aired on the Egyptian independent TV Channel Al Hayat on August 28.
Saeed said the smallest monastery in Egypt is larger than the Vatican or Al-Azhar Mosque, which leads to concerns over the presence of a "church state within the Egyptian civil state."
Although assuring all Copts not to fear state control over the church, as the Copts are "part of the Egyptian people," he said that "still it is necessary to know where does its money go and if it is on the right track or not," pointing out that the new constitution will put rules governing all state institutions.
For his part, Ramses Naggar said that comparing the Church with the Muslim Brotherhood is an error, because the MB has a political aim while the church is a spiritual institution. He added that church charities like orphanages or senior citizen homes are subjected to state control and sees no harm in having limited control over churches, but church donations cannot be monitored, pointing out that mosques and churches are not monitored unless they transgress public order and morality.
Coptic intellectual Kamal Zakher, founder of the Secular Front, said that church funds are already controlled by the Coptic Endowment organization and the Milli Council, explaining that the Islamist proposal is a political message to the church to force it to take certain positions or "to seize its funds to control the imbalance in the state budget," reported El-Watan newspaper.
"They are trying to divert our attention from the public demands which went out demonstrating on 24/25 August to legalize the status of the MB and expose the sources of its funding," said the Free Copts statement. "If you want to control me then fund me from the tax payer as the mosques, then you have the right to monitor me," the statement continued.
The Copts Without Chains organization described calls made by political Islam as attempts of " cheap political blackmail and political thuggery." The movement demanded from them to look instead for ways to investigate suspicious sources of funding of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafist groups and the Sharia societies as well as the civil mosques that receive billions of dollars from third parties, which are used in supporting extremism, terrorism and Islamization of Christian minors.
By Mary Abdelmassih
Copyright (C) 2012, Assyrian International News Agency. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use.

Egypt's Salafi Party Objects to Banning Sex Slavery
by Raymond Ibrahim/Jihad Watch
August 30, 2012
http://www.raymondibrahim.com/12209/egypt-salafi-party-objects-to-banning-sex-slavery
Considering that the abduction, enslavement, rape, and trafficking of Coptic Christian girls, especially minors, in Egypt is at an all time high—according to U.S. lawyers, 550 such cases have been documented in the last five years—Egypt's Constituent Assembly to the Constitution met yesterday to consider the inclusion of a new article, #33, in the section dealing with Rights and Freedoms, that would expressly criminalize "forced labor, slavery, the trafficking of women and children, human organs, and the sex trade." Yunis Makhiyun deems human trafficking laws pointless, since "such things do not exist" in Egypt.
Yet some members on the assembly are grumbling. According to Masrawy, Muhammad Saad Gawish, a member of the Constituent Assembly, wondered: "How can an article [#33] mention human trafficking when this is not happening in Egypt?" Likewise, Yunis Makhiyun, another Constituent Assembly member complained that "this article will give [Egypt's] citizens the impression that things like slavery, trafficking in females and children, are happening in Egyptian society, when such things do not exist." Rather tellingly, both of these men are also members of Egypt's Salafi Nour Party, which closely patterns itself after the example of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his companions—who owned and sold infidel slaves, and advocated deceiving the enemy. Moreover, it is those called "Salafis" who are most associated with the abduction, enslavement, and selling of Christian women and children in Egypt. This should be no surprise considering that Egyptian Salafi preacher Huwaini urges Muslims to abduct, enslave, and sell infidels as a Sharia-approved way of making a good living. Yet here are the Salafis—out of Egypt's prisons and sitting in Egypt's parliament—complaining about the outlawing of human slavery and trafficking, and insisting (with a straight face) that "such things do not exist."

Neologism and Nationalism
by Alexander H. Joffe/Jewish Ideas Daily
August 30, 2012
http://www.meforum.org/3326/zionism-neologism-nationalism
There has never been agreement about Zionism. Not only is the idea of Jewish nationalism controversial, the very word "Zionism" arouses unique passions, as a recent controversy highlights. It was recently reported that the Jewish Federation of North America had dropped the word "Zionism" from a planning document. In a vehement denial, the Federation clarified that this was not so: It was merely a single individual on a subcommittee who proposed dropping the phrase "Zionist enterprise." The proposal, the Federation emphasized, went nowhere.
So, the word Zionism, uniquely among terms related to nationalist movements, arouses attacks and defenses. But is "Zionism" even a useful or relevant term in the 21st century? And what does the answer to this question say about the state of the Jews and the Jewish state?
The term Zionism was invented in 1890 by Nathan Birnbaum in his periodical Selbstemanzipation! (Self-Emancipation!) to describe a national-political movement for the restoration of Jews to "Zion." The term was popularized by Theodor Herzl, then used to characterize movements ranging from cultural to labor-oriented, from religious to secular.
The plasticity of the term is not just a modern phenomenon. The term "Zion" appears in the Bible over 100 times. It referred originally to the Jebusite fortress in Jerusalem conquered by David, then to a hill in Jerusalem. Most commonly, it was a synonym for the land as a whole, especially in exilic times. Israel and Judah were the names of the biblical-era kingdoms of the north and south, respectively, one destroyed by the Assyrians in 722 B.C.E. and the other by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.E. But, unsurprisingly, the exilic authors—like Birnbaum and his successors—found "Zion" a more encompassing term to describe the national movement, since it blends the religious, territorial, and national dimensions of the aspiration to restore Jewish sovereignty.
Zionism was among the last European-based nationalist movements. It had odd features, including the fact that it was based initially only in a diaspora. Even stranger was its success: A Jewish national home was created. The name "Zion" was rejected, and the state was named Israel; but the term for the national movement, Zionism, has remained. Thus the neologism invented to describe a national movement was retained after the nation-state was successfully created under a different name. The term Zionism is now an anachronism, only slightly less so than "self-emancipation." But what could possibly take its place?
Most national movements do not have associated neologisms. There is no specific term for Brazilian nationalism, at least one known in the broader world. The Breton nationalist movement—Emsav—and Kemalism, the "six-arrowed" national ideology of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the father of modern Turkey—are equally unknown outside their countries' borders. But Zionism is known globally, and reviled globally.
Since the beginning, Zionism's enemies have made a uniquely concerted effort to wrest control of the term from its proponents, to besmirch the brand. The infamous 1975 United Nations General Assembly resolution declaring that "Zionism is racism" was the culmination of over two decades of patient Soviet propaganda, eagerly consumed and amplified by the Muslim, Arab, and non-aligned worlds. Since then, Zionism has become the paradigm of "extreme nationalism," imperialism, and "settler-colonialism" in the eyes of intellectuals and activists alike. The term "Zionist entity" so favored by Palestinian and Arab spokesman is an explicit statement that the idea and reality of a Jewish state are illegitimate. To defend Zionism is, in some circles, to defend an almost mythically evil concept.
Attacks on Zionism are thus clarifying. Enemies of "Zionism," as a term and a concept, attack not just the actual state of Israel but the aspirational aspect of Jewish nationalism and Jewish sovereignty. That is, it attacks the very idea of a Jewish state as illegitimate, not simply the manner in which the state conducts itself. If such attacks were founded in uniform opposition to all nationalism, they would at least have some consistency and intellectual foundation—but, of course, they are not.
It should be said simply that attacks directed solely at Zionism and not at any other national movement are anti-Semitism. When Jewish—not Breton or Turkish, Irish or Iraqi—nationalism is deemed illegitimate and the actual state of Israel condemned to extinction in the name of "historical justice" or some other Orwellian euphemism, this is an especially pure example of anti-Semitism. So, too, is the relegation of Jews to a permanent diaspora and, thus, perpetual minority status. Whether or not such condemnations come from Jews is irrelevant. Jews need not live in Israel or even support Israel, but to deny the idea of a Jewish state is to deny Jews their past and future.
The sad reality is that defending the term Zionism—not "Israelism" or some still newer neologism to describe the Israeli nation-state, as opposed to the Jewish nation—defends the past and future of the Jewish people, history and aspiration as well as the present reality. Equally sad is that Zionism must always be on the defensive, always responding to yet another attack or lie, always patiently explaining Jewish history and Jews' rights to a state in their own land.
But there is another, prospective dimension. All national projects are works in progress. The term Zionism must be retained; but the content is continually reformulated, consciously or not. The challenge is to make the process of reformulation conscious and explicit.
Israelis hotly debate Zionism as it relates to culture, to the religious-secular divide, to Arab minorities, and much more. But the term has not been much debated by American Jews, many of whom caught between their knee-jerk defenses and embarrassed evasions, or even vicious attacks, and whose understanding of the diversity of Zionist movements and the state of Israel is minimal or, worse, shaped by their enemies or equally ignorant media.
The opportunity is to reinvent Zionism and reclaim it as a proud description of a multifaceted concept that now, fortunately, has a state of its own. The first step to remaking Zionism in the future is learning what Zionism meant in the past.
*Alexander H. Joffe is a Shillman/Ginsburg Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

'Insider Killings' in Afghanistan
by Mark Durie/FrontPageMagazine.com
August 24, 2012
http://www.meforum.org/3328/afghanistan-insider-killings
In the past two weeks at least nine Americans have been killed by their Afghan allies in what is known to as "insider killings." Members of the Afghan army, having been trained and armed by NATO forces, are turning their weapons in increasing numbers against their foreign allies, killing at least 40 NATO troops this year so far.
These killings are demoralizing, not only for the troops, but also for the folks back home. They make people war-weary. Mrs. Marina Buckley, the mother of Lance Corporal Gregory Buckley who was killed by one of his Afghan allies just before he was due to return home, spoke for many when she said: "Our forces shouldn't be there. It should be over. It's done. No more."
These killings have been blamed on foreign spies and Taliban infiltrators, but such theories have been discounted by military investigators, who could only link one in ten killings to Taliban infiltration.
The generals seem to be mystified, for Colonel Lapan, spokesman for the US Joint Chiefs of Staff commented, "we don't know what's causing them, and we're looking at everything."
They could also look at Islam, and at history.
Let us wind the clock back 120 years to Aceh, today part of Indonesia. In 1892 the sultanate of Aceh, a staunchly Islamic region, had been under Dutch military occupation for twice as many years as the Americans have been in Afghanistan. When the Dutch first stormed the Acehnese capital Kutaraja (now Banda Aceh) in 1871 they naively assumed that control of the rest of the countryside would quickly follow. Instead they became entangled in a conflict which lasted for decades.
A poignant legacy of the Aceh-Dutch war is a military cemetery in Banda Aceh, reputed to be the largest graveyard of Dutch troops outside Holland.
As the decades passed, the Acehnese waged a tenacious insurgency from jungle hideouts, and Dutch leaders cycled through various theories to explain their military failures. One theory was that the passing of time would see a steady reduction in hostilities. Time did pass, and this theory ended up in the trash. Another theory was that a "concentration line" of forts could effect a safe haven around the capital to guarantee security, but the attacks continued.
A particularly demoralizing aspect of the conflict was a pattern of Acehnese allies turning against and killing Dutch soldiers. Teuku Umar was an early leader of the Acehnese resistance who became an ally of the Dutch, as a result of which he was rewarded with weapons, money and command of hundreds of troops. Then he turned these weapons and troops against his supposed "allies," inflicting heavy casualties. The Dutch regarded this as an odious betrayal, yet today the name of Teuku Umar is recognized as one of Indonesia's greatest heroes and boulevards all over the country are named after him.
The problem of deceit and betrayal was also a rank-and-file problem. There was no shortage of would-be Acehnese martyrs who, for the sake of gaining a victim, were willing to feign friendship with the Dutch, before drawing their knives against them. The phenomenon of unpredictable killings by the Acehnese came to be known as Atjèh-moord "Acehnese murder."
The failure of Dutch military policy in Aceh – and the resulting drain of Dutch blood and treasure – caused a host of political difficulties for governments back in Holland. The war became intensely unpopular.
The turning point in the Aceh-Dutch war came in 1891-92 when Christian Snouck Hurgronje, an expert in Arabic and Islam, was sent to do field research into "the pernicious Aceh Question" (het verderfelijke Atjeh-questie).
Snouck Hurgronje was the preeminent Western expert on Islam of his generation. After completing a PhD on Islamic theology in Holland, he spent a year in Mecca in 1884-85, living as a Muslim, studying at the feet of the Sheikhs, and making a special study of Indonesian Muslims.
After his field trip to Aceh, Snouck Hurgronje published a two-volume report on the Acehnese society in 1893, which included a military analysis, and offered a blueprint for winning the insurgency.
At the heart of Snouck Hurgronje's explanation of the "Aceh Question" was a theological analysis. The Acehnese war, he explained, was jihad, a theologically motivated struggle against the Dutch as infidel-occupiers of Islamic territory.
Because it was a theological struggle, grounded in the deeply held Islamic convictions of the Acehnese people, the Aceh war could not be won by capturing a few key cities or neutralizing a handful of key leaders. Indeed, as time passed, and the early chieftain leaders were superseded, the insurgency came to be dominated by clerics, whose influence greatly increased as a result of the jihad. (This same pattern can be observed in Afghanistan over the past decade.)
Snouck Hurgronje's thesis was rejected by many when it first saw the light of day. In time however, it proved triumphant, and provided the basis for the successful pacification of Aceh. It was only when the Dutch authorities aligned their military strategy with Snouck Hurgronje's insights that they began to win the war. Military success came as a huge relief to the Dutch authorities, and meant that by 1902 Snouck Hurgronje was able to write, "Now no one any longer doubts that the dogmas of Islam on the subject of religious war, so fanatical in their terms, supplied the principal similes to the obstinate rebellion." (However individual acts of "Acehnese murder" did continue – albeit in significantly decreasing numbers – right up until the Japanese occupation in 1942.)
The theological framework for the Acehnese jihad, which Snouck Hurgronje exposed to the understanding of Dutch leaders in 1893, happens to be exactly the same as that used by jihadi scholars such as Abdullah Azzam in the late 20th and early 21st centuries to stimulate what western elites refer to as "terrorism."
It is a classical dogma of Islam that when Muslim lands are occupied by infidel forces, it is an individual religious obligation upon all Muslims to do their utmost to defend their lands against the infidels. This belief drove the Acehnese insurgency over a century ago, and it drives the Afghan conflict today.
Snouck Hurgronje also explained that the practice of deceit – manifested in feigned friendship leading to what we would now call "insider killings" – can be derived from the dogmas of Islam and specifically from religious attitudes to infidels.
It is disappointing that after more than a decade of war, the US Joint Chiefs of Staff are mystified by the phenomenon of "insider killings." Has political correctness so neutered their capacity to wage war? Are they so blind to the religious nature of the war they are fighting? How can they be unfamiliar with the classical dogmas of jihad, which make it a compulsory religious duty for individual Muslims to fight against infidel occupiers of Muslim lands?
The US generals, indeed any army fighting a jihad insurgency in Muslim lands, would do well to read Snouck Hurgronje's report, especially volume I (see here).
The insider killings of Afghanistan today are essentially the same phenomenon as "Acehnese murder" of over a century ago. The straightforward, rational explanation for Afghan soldiers turning their US-supplied weapons against their "allies" can be found in the beliefs outlined by Snouck Hurgronje in the late 19th century: the dogma that Muslims have a duty to defend Muslim lands against infidel occupation; the dogma that if Muslims are killed in jihad, paradise will be their reward; and the dogma that in jihad, deceiving the infidel is no sin.
Reuters has reported that in Afghanistan:
Field commanders have also been given discretion to increase numbers of so-called "guardian angel" sentries who oversee foreign soldiers in crowded areas such as gyms and food halls, to respond to any rogue shooting incidents.
This is reminiscent of remarks by the Acehnese poet Anzib Lamnyong, reflecting on the assassination of a Dutchman by Lém Abah, an Acehnese man from his own village:
Very often people attacked the Dutch like that, so that the Dutch had to keep a very close guard on Banda Aceh, night and day, all around the whole city. But no matter how well those guards kept watch, they still kept getting attacked by our people, who would strike them down … The Dutch were in great consternation about our brave people, who did not fear the bullet that might strike them dead in the twinkling of an eye.
One expects that, when the last infidel troops have left Afghanistan, and Muslim sovereignty has been fully restored, the memory of the Afghan jihadis who are even now perpetrating "insider killings" may come to be held in high renown, just as the name of Teuku Umar is revered in Indonesia to this day.
*Mark Durie is a theologian, human rights activist, pastor of an Anglican church, and an Associate Fellow at the Middle Eastern Forum.