LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
July 6/07

Bible Reading of the day
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 9,1-8. He entered a boat, made the crossing, and came into his own town. And there people brought to him a paralytic lying on a stretcher. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Courage, child, your sins are forgiven." At that, some of the scribes said to themselves, "This man is blaspheming."Jesus knew what they were thinking, and said, "Why do you harbor evil thoughts? Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins" --he then said to the paralytic, "Rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home."He rose and went home. When the crowds saw this they were struck with awe and glorified God who had given such authority to human beings.

Opinions
A duty to throw off a tyrannical government.By Jeffrey D. Feltman-July 06/07
The US must get serious, and ready, for an attack.By David Ignatius-July 06/07
Some common sense from Javier Solana.By Michael Young-July 06/07
Can Lebanese politicians accomplish something useful at the Paris talks? By The Daily Star-July 06/07
Open letter to US President George W. Bush.By Muhamad Mugraby-July 06/07
Hezbollah Through Iranian Eyes.Asharq Alawsat. July 6/07

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for July 06/07
The Nahr al-Bared Battle Continues.Naharnet
Syrian Troops Penetrate 3 Kilometers into Lebanese Territories.Naharnet
Damascus Reopens Border Crossing with Northeastern Lebanon.Naharnet
Huge Fire Guts Electronics Depot in Beirut, Inflicting Heavy Damage.Naharnet
South Korean Troops Deploy in South Lebanon.Naharnet
Gunmen Attack Nigeria Oil Plant, Seize 1 Lebanese and Others.Naharnet
French-Hosted Lebanon Dialogue Backed by U.S., Iran, Arabs.Naharnet
Did Syria invade Lebanon ?Ya Libnan
Livni: Israel not planning attack on Syria.Jerusalem Post
Newspaper Claims Syria Is Preparing For War With Israel.Evening Bulletin
From crisis to crisis.Economist
Bishops voice support for Lebanese Army.Daily Star
No topics off-limits at talks in Paris - Safadi.Daily Star
Three die in Lebanon raid.Gulf Daily News
UN investigator of Hariri's death backs in Lebanon from Syria.People's Daily Online
Syria pressured Hamas to free Johnston.Jerusalem Post
Hezbollah hard to define as it grows in power.The Canberra Times
Buildup in Lebanon.Washington Post
Iranian Missiles Could Threaten Israel from Syria.Arutz Sheva
The guns of August?Los Angeles Times
Algiers breaks up group with ties to Lebanon.Daily Star
No topics off-limits at talks in Paris - Safadi.Daily Star
Lebanese doctor among suspects in Glasgow attack-Daily Star
Brammertz visits Damascus ahead of UN probe report-Daily Star
Lebanese among five snatched in Niger Delta-Daily Star
Italian, Luxembourgish defense ministers review UNIFIL troops-Daily Star
Japan donates $700,000 for Palestinian refugees-Daily Star
National Dialogue Party welcomes French initiative-Daily Star
60 South Korean soldiers to arrive for UNIFIL duty-Daily Star
Makkawi brushes off talk of settling Palestinians here-Daily Star
Rights group chastises army over deaths of protesters-Daily Star
Two Australians charged with terror in Lebanon-Daily Star
Lebanese Army takes out Fatah al-Islam weapons cache at Nahr al-Bared-Daily Star
Second cabinet could ruin Beirut's credit rating-Daily Star

Syrian Troops Penetrate 3 Kilometers into Lebanese Territories
Syrian troops on Thursday reportedly have penetrated three kilometers into Lebanese territories, taking up positions in the mountains near Yanta in east Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. The daily Al Mustaqbal, citing sources who confirmed the cross-border penetration, did not say when the procedure in the Fahs Hill overlooking Deir al-Ashaer in the Rashaya province took place. The sources said Syrian troops, backed by bulldozers, were fortifying positions "in more than one area" along the Lebanese border, erecting earth mounds and digging "hundreds" of trenches and individual bunkers. Syria on Wednesday reopened the Joussia-Qaa border post with Lebanon, but two crossings stayed closed. Syria's state news agency SANA had said the closure of Jussia-Qaa on June 20 would stay in place "until calm has returned to northern Lebanon," where the Lebanese army has been locked in gunbattles with militants from Fatah al-Islam.
On May 20, at the outbreak of the clashes in Lebanon that have eased in the past week, Damascus shut two other border posts, at Arida and Dabussiya, keeping in place the main Masnaa crossing on the Beirut-Damascus highway. There was no immediate confirmation from Damascus of the reopening of the Jussia border post linking Syria to eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. Lebanon's anti-Syrian majority charges that Fatah al-Islam have links to Syrian intelligence, an allegation denied by Damascus.(Naharnet-AFP) Beirut, 05 Jul 07, 07:21

The Nahr al-Bared Battle Continues
Lebanese troops on Thursday tried to tighten the net around Islamist militants holed up in a battered camp. Three civilians were taken out of the camp in an ambulance in the first such evacuation in more than a week, as the army continued to pound holdouts of the Al-Qaida inspired Fatah al-Islam militia.   "The army continues to shell the camp, 80 percent of which has now been destroyed," Samir al-Libani, a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) official by mobile telephone contact from the camp. Militants of Fatah al-Islam, who have been locked in a deadly standoff with the army for more than six weeks, are digging tunnels between houses to enable them to move around. "They are hemmed in in a small part" of the southern sector of Nahr al-Bared, Libani said.
Civilians are having to scavenge from abandoned homes for food and water, the PFLP official said, noting that many water tanks had been destroyed by the shelling.
Libani said the army was apparently trying to wrest control of a riverbed in Nahr al-Bared (which mean "cold river" in Arabic) being used by militants, possibly as an escape route, and setting fire to tall reeds serving as cover.
A military spokesman reported exchanges of gunfire between soldiers and Fatah al-Islam as well the occasional use of artillery. On the humanitarian front, three civilians -- two women and a man -- were evacuated in a Palestine Red Crescent ambulance, in the first such operation since June 27, a photographer at the scene said.
But Virginia de la Guardia of the International Committee of the Red Cross said relief teams were still being denied authorization to ferry in relief to the camp.
The vast majority of Nahr al-Bared's original population of 31,000 took advantage of lulls in the fighting to flee.(AFP) Beirut, 05 Jul 07, 17:10

Huge Fire Guts Electronics Depot in Beirut, Inflicting Heavy Damage
A huge fire broke out early Thursday in a an electronis warehouse in Beirut's Jnah neighborhood, inflicting heavy material damage, local medial said. Future TV showed footage of thick black smoke billowing skywards from the blaze which ripped through the Dalbani electronics depot.LBC television said 12 tenants were rescued by fire crews, who used ladders to reach occupants on the upper floors of the apartment building. No injuries were reported.
Beirut, 05 Jul 07, 10:04

Korean Troops Deploy in South Lebanon
An advance party of about 60 South Korean troops arrived in Beirut Thursday to join the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon which is now more than 13,000-strong. They left Rafik Hariri International airport on board three buses headed for the south, where UNIFIL is monitoring the volatile border region with Israel.
South Korea plans to send about 400 troops to Lebanon to join the multinational peacekeeping force that has been reinforced since last summer's devastating 34-day war between Israel and Hizbullah. Yonhap news agency in Seoul, quoting a defense source, said the South Korean contingent will consist of 270 special warfare forces as well as 130 medics, transportation and administrative soldiers. The South Korean defense ministry plans to submit a bill on the troop dispatch to parliament next month for a final approval, the source added. South Korea completed a field survey of Lebanon last month before deciding whether to contribute troops.(AFP-Naharnet) Beirut, 05 Jul 07, 10:59

Gunmen Attack Nigeria Oil Plant, Seize 1 Lebanese and Others
Armed men attacked an oil rig in Nigeria's restive southern oil heartland and seized five expatriate workers, including one Lebanese, officials said.
Rivers state Police Commissioner Felix Ogbaudu said the attack came Wednesday at a drilling rig on one of the countless islands in the vast riverine delta region where Africa's biggest oil producer pumps its crude.
He said a Lebanese, an Australian, two New Zealanders and one Venezuelan were taken. Royal Dutch Shell said it owned the rig, but that there were no production cuts reported. Rivers State police and Shell spokesman Precious Okolobo, gave the names of the hostages as Lebanese George Saliba, Bruce Klenner and Gottard Brene from New Zealand, Jason Lane from Australia and Andreas Gambra from Venezuela. Criminal kidnappings have become common in the region where the crude in Africa's biggest producer is pumped. More than a dozen foreigners are currently in captivity. Hostages are generally released unharmed after a ransom is paid although at least two have been killed in shoot-outs with security forces. The government of new President Umaru Yar'Adua is trying to calm the oil region. He has sent his deputy, who hails from the Niger Delta, back to his homeland to consult on a wider solution.(AP-AFP-Naharnet) (AFP photo shows Shell's oil terminal in southern Nigeria's Niger Delta) Beirut, 05 Jul 07, 09:17

French-Hosted Lebanon Dialogue Backed by U.S., Iran, Arabs
A Paris-hosted meeting scheduled for mid-July in a bid to ease Lebanon's months-long political crisis, is backed by the United States, Iran as well as Arab nations, French envoy Jean-Claude Cousseran said. Speaking after talks with Prime Minister Fouad Saniora at the Grand Serail on Tuesday, Cousseran said the meeting scheduled for July 14-16 would be attended by second-tier Lebanese politicians – two representatives from each of Lebanon's 14 political parties – in the presence of French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. Cousseran, who flew in earlier Tuesday, told reporters the foreign minister would "try to play the role of moderator and facilitator between the Lebanese parties." Apart from the Saniora government, the French envoy sent by Kouchner for a second mission to Beirut since June 9 also met Tuesday with pro-Syrian House Speaker Nabih Berri, a key opposition figure, at his Ain al-Tinneh mansion.
Cousseran was delivering invitations for the meeting near Paris, diplomats said. An ambassador of the Arab League, which has tried but failed to resolve Lebanon's crisis, was also to be invited. Saniora said last week during a Paris visit he did not expect much progress from the talks called by France between all of Lebanon's political and civil society leaders, although not at a senior level. "We support all of the initiatives that France has taken to bring together the Lebanese people, have a dialogue and bridge differences," said Saniora. But he added: "Expectations are not extremely high for this meeting."
France has taken a leading role in trying to restore stability to Lebanon, with Kouchner traveling to Beirut in May for his first foreign trip abroad. Lebanon has been deadlocked since November when six pro-Syrian ministers quit the cabinet, charging it was riding roughshod over the power-sharing arrangements in force since the end of the civil war in 1990. Both the anti- and pro-Syrian camps in Lebanon have publicly welcomed the French initiative.(Naharnet-AFP) Beirut, 04 Jul 07, 07:47

A duty to throw off a tyrannical government
By Jeffrey D. Feltman
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Today - on July 4th - the United States of America celebrates 231 years of independence. Americans throughout our 50 diverse states will gather with families and friends to enjoy summer picnics outdoors. Small towns and large cities alike host festive parades. And as night falls, Americans enjoy concerts of patriotic music and colorful fireworks.
As US ambassador, I've reflected frequently about the struggle of the Lebanese people for freedom and democracy, independence and sovereignty. Observing both the exhilarating and tragic events of the past three years, I appreciate even more the bravery and sacrifices so many Americans made to protect and preserve the unity, independence and democracy of my own country, the United States. To my surprise, I see some similarities in the struggles of our two peoples to achieve genuine independence. Winning freedom and forging a viable union out of diversity, particularly when some are trying to restore the old order, is neither quick nor easy.
On July 4th, 1776, a brave group of men in Philadelphia put their names to a document declaring the United States of America a free and independent nation. Even the most courageous signers of the Declaration of Independence struggled with the decision to break political ties so decisively with Great Britain. But, they also believed it was not just their right and but also their duty to throw off a tyrannical government which had attempted to assert its control through military force and undermine American self-confidence by inflaming tensions and casting doubts about America's capacity for self rule.
Americans recognized that it took more than the stroke of a pen to transform 13 diverse colonies into one strong, prosperous and united country. Finding the correct balance between a strong central government and local rights took 17 years - time for state militias to be integrated into the national army, for Americans to adapt to life without British troops on their soil, and for an American identity to be forged.
Americans also proved their ability to accept the outcome of presidential elections. It wasn't clear what would happen when second President John Adams (representing the Whig Party) lost to rival Republican Party candidate Thomas Jefferson. Would the powerful Whigs accept their defeat or would they fight the democratic transition through undemocratic means? Fortunately for American democracy, the Whig Party accepted the loss and regrouped to fight the next election at the ballot box, not on the battlefield.
When I review the path to American independence, I recognize the challenges and inevitable missteps. But I admire the foresight, courage and sacrifice of those Americans. I understand how fearful or uncertain they must have been about their future when success seemed so unlikely. But now, 231 years later, as we celebrate Independence Day, there is no question that the signers of the Declaration of Independence made the right decision. We know that our potential would never have been realized had we remained under a foreign mandate, no matter how benevolent.
And what about the long list of angry grievances against a "tyrannical" Great Britain that prompted the signers of the Declaration of Independence to act? Independence from British rule did not condemn us to permanently hostile relations. Today, the United States is proud to count the United Kingdom as its strongest ally and partner. But our deep friendship with the United Kingdom, rooted in so many ties between our countries, did not blossom until the British government recognized and respected our sovereignty.
July 4th, 1776, was not the birth of a perfect union, but rather the promise made by 56 men of diverse backgrounds and beliefs to unite for a common goal - a sovereign, independent and democratic United States of America. Our history proves that diversity does not have to mean disunity.
As our Founding Fathers pledged to work with each other to realize their vision, so too do we pledge our support to the Lebanese people as they seek to secure an independent, sovereign, prosperous, democratic and united Lebanon. We know from our own historic experience how difficult it can be to define common goals, build a national consensus and establish a democracy.
But the Lebanese are not alone in their struggle. In celebrating our American independence today, July 4th, we celebrate also the partnership of our two diverse and democratic countries - Lebanon and the United States. The strong ties that bind our peoples today connect also our two countries, now and in the future.
***Jeffrey D. Feltman US ambassador to Lebanon

The US must get serious, and ready, for an attack
By David Ignatius -Daily Star staff
Thursday, July 05, 2007
How would America react to a future terrorist attack? Would the country come together to combat its adversaries, or would it pull further apart?
Perhaps we will never have to confront the question, you say. Perhaps our good luck will hold, or our intelligence will detect all the plots and plotters, or the terrorists will conclude that America is so divided anyway, why do anything that might unite the country? Maybe things will turn out that way, but a prudent person wouldn't bet on it. The British car-bomb plots uncovered this past week remind Americans of their vulnerability to terrorist attack, wherever they live. Muslims have mostly been killing other Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan, but that imploding jihad won't continue forever. What's ahead is a phenomenon that an intelligence official described several years ago as "bleed-out," in which the suicide bombers of Baghdad look outward for targets - to Europe and America.
A chilling measure of Muslim anger is that several of the suspected bomb plotters arrested by the British are medical doctors. What kind of rage would lead a physician trained in the healing arts to pack together nails, explosives and propane gas in a mix that would shatter bones and rip apart human flesh? This is a revolt of the privileged, the uprooted, the disconnected. It speaks of self-mutilation, as much as mayhem against others.
What happens when the bleed-out reaches America? Intelligence officials talk about this threat of future terrorist attacks in terms of "when," not "if." How would the country react? The united and resolute response to 9/11 has become part of America's national identity - the flags on every house, the nation standing together with the president and the mayor of New York at Ground Zero. But what about now?
Based on the tone of the national debate today, it seems likely that the American public would react angrily - but not just at the terrorists.
Liberals would blame the Bush administration for making America a more vulnerable target. Didn't the war in Iraq inflame Muslim terrorists around the world? Wouldn't we have been safer today if we had focused on Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, rather than embarking on a costly war that has sapped the military and CIA and added to America's enemies? These arguments aren't imaginary: We hear them every day, almost as rehearsals for the post-attack finger-pointing.
And how would conservatives respond? They would blame liberals who, in their view, have weakened America's anti-terrorist defenses. Couldn't we have stopped the bombers if critics hadn't exposed the National Security Agency's secret wiretapping program? Wouldn't aggressive Central Intelligence Agency interrogation techniques have yielded more intelligence that might have prevented the tragedy? Didn't congressional demands to withdraw from Iraq embolden the terrorists? I can hear the voices on talk radio and cable news right now.
America's political disharmony is scary. But so is the lack of practical preparation for the next attack. With all the emotional discussion of 9/11 - all the commissions and studies and new federal agencies - you might expect that we had gotten that part right. But we haven't.
Despite spending billions of dollars on supposed bio-defense, the United States is still woefully unprepared for a biological attack. If you doubt it, listen to Dr. Tara O'Toole, director of the Center for Biosecurity in Baltimore and one of the nation's leading experts on the problem. "More than five years after the anthrax mailings, the US still lacks a coherent plan for conduct of operations to guide the healthcare sector's response to mass-casualty care in the event of a bioterrorist attack or other large-scale catastrophe," she told a House committee in March.
And nuclear terrorism? Despite repeated warnings by intelligence officials about this threat, the US still is unprepared to detect or counter these weapons. Listen to Fred Ikle, a former undersecretary of defense and the author of "Annihilation from Within," a grim assessment of America's vulnerability to attack. "To detect smuggled uranium bombs, we still lack the right tools," Ikle said in a recent interview. He noted that the Homeland Security Department has not developed such "active interrogation" devices because of possible risk to bystanders, and the Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency hasn't done so because of inadequate funding.
In a politically healthy nation, the news from Britain would have a galvanizing effect. Politicians and the public would pull together and take appropriate steps to prepare for future terrorist attacks on America. There was a moment of shared purpose after 9/11. It's frightening how totally that mood of national unity has dissipated. I can think of lots of people to blame for the current polarization, but that's not the point. The point is to get serious, and get ready.
**Syndicated columnist David Ignatius is published regularly by THE DAILY STAR.

Some common sense from Javier Solana
By Michael Young -Daily Star staff
Thursday, July 05, 2007
After the attack against a Spanish patrol two Sundays ago, Spain's military began cooperating with Hizbullah in the investigation to determine who had killed its soldiers. This was based on an odd belief that the party is keen to safeguard the United Nations force. On Monday, the Defense Ministry in Madrid announced that the bombing was carried out by a "terrorist cell composed of non-Lebanese," with some newspapers describing them as Salafists. Spain's prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriquez Zapatero, known to his countrymen as "Bambi," hinted that Syria might even be brought in to help uncover the truth about what had happened.
Then on Monday, another Spaniard, the European Union's chief foreign policy official, Javier Solana, came to the rescue with some common sense. In an important statement, Solana declared that "[w]hat happened in Gaza cannot be seen separately from what happened in Lebanon." He noted that there "are new groups in the Palestinian camps, and the fact that UNIFIL has been attacked for the first time cannot be taken separately." The car-bomb attack against the Spanish contingent was provoked by "forces we don't know," but Solana also underlined that it "would be naive not to see this as part of a global approach."
Solana's most revealing statement pointed a finger at Iran and Syria, when he unmistakably suggested that the "forces we don't know" could have been run out of Tehran and Damascus: "Somebody I know well - Ali Larijani - has said 'we are supporting Hamas'... All this is connected. It didn't happen by accident or miracle, it was probably planned ... It would be difficult to understand without seeing other important regional players behind it," he added, referring to "other forces" in Iran and Syria.
Perhaps Bambi will now think twice about Syrian participation in the investigation of the attack against UNIFIL. And if he doesn't, he should examine an extraordinary document published by the French daily Le Monde last Saturday: the minutes of a meeting between Syrian President Bashar Assad and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on April 24 at the presidential palace in Damascus. The article mostly flew under the radar of the Lebanese media, although its key passage had been leaked to An-Nahar in April and was never denied by the Syrians. The version in Le Monde largely confirmed the An-Nahar account, and it merits being quoted extensively. The language of the exchange was not specified.
In their discussion of Lebanon, Ban told Assad that Syria had "an important role" to play to end Lebanese divisions. The secretary general also called on Syria to support the Hariri tribunal, which had not yet been established under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. Assad responded: "In Lebanon, divisions and confessionalism have been deeply anchored for more than 300 years. Lebanese society is very fragile. [The country's] most peaceful years were when Syrian forces were present. From 1976 to 2005 Lebanon was stable, whereas now there is great instability."
The Syrian president then issued what Ban could plainly see was a threat: "[This instability] will worsen if the special [Hariri] tribunal is established. Particularly if it is established under Chapter VII. This might easily cause a conflict that would degenerate into civil war, provoking divisions between Sunnis and Shiites from the Mediterranean to the Caspian Sea ... This would have serious consequences beyond Lebanon."
Not to be outdone by his boss, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem was highly critical of the US ambassador in Lebanon, Jeffrey Feltman. The document quotes Moallem as saying to Ban: "Feltman should leave [Lebanon]; I'm prepared to pay for his vacation to Hawaii." That statement, too, could be interpreted as a threat. As a finale, Assad told the secretary general as they were about to part: "We're in the eye of the cyclone. You will, therefore, need to stay in contact with us."
The minutes were intentionally leaked by the UN, and the timing was no coincidence. An educated guess would suggest the leak took place after the rocket attack against northern Israel in June, and the subsequent killing of the peacekeepers. The point was, evidently, to affirm what Solana did in his statement on Monday: that Syria is destabilizing Lebanon and the region in order to negotiate with the UN and the international community from a position of strength.
The exchange also proved that Assad, though he has denied Syrian involvement in Rafik Hariri's assassination, was very worried about the tribunal. And if there were any doubts about whether the Syrian leader wants to send his forces back in to Lebanon, his reference to Lebanese stability during the years of Syrian rule (even if the country was actually a mess between 1976 and 1990) surely dissipated them. Assad was blunt: If you want stability to return to the country then Syria must return to the country.
Repeated enough times, this kind of language will lose Assad even his most gullible friends in Europe. The cult of "engagement" of Syria is being battered by the fact that most European powers are realizing, to their dismay, that Damascus will not accept any of the quid pro quos that engagement requires. Instead, what they are all hearing, from Brussels to Berlin, is the Syrian language of the gun. Not even the most boneless of European officials could long sustain a discussion with Assad that is based on sundry warnings and intimidation, the practical impact of which is to terminate Lebanon's independence. And that a foreign minister should have exposed himself so recklessly in the presence of a UN delegation by assailing an ambassador in Beirut showed how dangerously belligerent and insular the mood in Damascus is becoming.
The implications of Solana's statements are clear. We are caught in a process of perhaps irresolvable confrontation - with Iran, Syria, and their allies in Hizbullah and Hamas on the one side; and the UN, the United States, Europe, the Arab states, and their allies on the other. Few Europeans relish being in so monolithic a standoff, and they are right. But unless something gives, unless Iran redefines its relationship with the West and the Arabs on the nuclear issue and its policies in the Middle East, stalemate will persist. Then we will see who has stronger knees: an international community that cannot afford to be browbeaten, or a Syria and Iran that must sooner or later prove they can build better than they can destroy.
**Michael Young is opinion editor of THE DAILY STAR.