LCCC NEWS BULLETIN
JULY 4/2006

Below News From the Daily Star for 04/07/06
Visiting US official evades querieson Mossad-backed terror network
MPs to vet 72 candidates for Constitutional Council  
Bashour 'honored' to be on wanted list
LF asks Siniora to follow up on detainees held in Syria
Aoun bloc sees impending'social crisis'
March 14 Forces take aim at Franjieh
Bank of Beirut, LAU announce new credit card
Azour: Reform plan can add 5 percent to Lebanon's GDP
2 wounded as gunplay erupts again at Nasserite cafe in Sidon
Disarming Hizbullah requires a regional solution-By Nicholas Blanford
Syria and Iran revive an old ghost -By Bilal Y. Saab
Militants warn Israelis to start releasing detainees
Below News From miscellaneous sources for 04/07/06
Maronite Church Defends Bishop After Franjieh Accused him of Being-Naharnet
Hamas leaders in Syria seek extra security-Jordan Falls News
Syria may help if Gaza offensive ends-Gulf News
Israel has few options to pressure Syria, experts say-Jerusalem Postl
Siniora Urges Iran to Stop Nuclear Program, Seeks Syria Talks-Bloomberg
Solution to kidnapping crisis depends on Syria: Israeli PM-People's Daily Online
Searching for The Soul of Hamra Street: In Lebanon's Capital-Naharnet
Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon Protest Gaza Offensive-Naharnet
Jihad then more Jihad - Bin Laden's Iraq and Somalia orders.By: Dr Walid Phares-Family Security Matters
Lebanon: Reversing the Evolution Toward Growth-Dar Al-Hayat
Lebanon journalist faces trial for defaming Lahoud-Moneycontrol.com
Shiite insurgent group makes Iraq debut-Seattle Post Intelligencer

Jihad then more Jihad - Bin Laden's Iraq and Somalia orders
Author: Walid Phares
Source: -Date: July 3, 2006
In an audiotape aired on al Qaida's "Media production site," As Sahab, Al Qaida's leader Usama Bin Laden issued his expected "guidelines and instructions" to the Jihadists in the region and around the world regarding Iraq and Somalia as well as other issues dealing with the principle of Jihadism. "Expected," because, as I announced earlier Bin Laden is the higher authority in the world war against Democracies, infidels and apostate Muslims, as he defines them. Hence, when major developments take place on the "battlefields" the top leader has to provide with the "policies and strategies to adopt." (listen to audio http://www.aljazeera.net/News/KEngine/Imgs/audio.jpg)
As usual, Bin Laden starts with a call to the Islamic Umma, asserting his leadership, and by reciting a number of Koranic verses. That alone, as I argued provides him with a religious shield to develop his political position in defense of his terror plans. The references to the verses, as long as unchecked and strongly responded to by religious clerics around the world, allows him to place himself in a strong position. In addition, in this latest audio, the no 1 of Terror told his followers that "by defeating your enemy you would profiting from the wortld treasures," a hint at the vast oil revenues Bin Laden is eying for the future.
ON IRAQ
In a long diatribe on Iraqi issues, Bin Laden refused the naming of "free fighters" as "Terrorists." He accused the leaders of Shiites of masterminding a "genocide against the unarmed," whom he meant by Sunnis.
He said the "free fighters and the Mujahidin" responded to what he called a campaign coming from the south (Shiites) in the direction of Baakuba, Mosul, and other (Sunni) areas. He said those "unarmed among Muslims are being submitted to a genocide at the hands of gangs of hatred." He cited two Sunni clerics from the Association of Muslim Ulemas, Sheikh Bashar al Faidi and Abdel Salam al Qubseisi, who warned about these massacres. Such a direct citing raises questions about the motives, especially that many Iraqis would then link the clerical association with al Qaida for that matter. Bin Laden said more than 40,000 (Sunnis) were killed at the hands of Shiites.
Bin Laden than blamed the Iraqi Governments under Allawi, Jaafari and Maliki for the killings calling them "apostates," Murtaddin.
Expanding on the betrayal of Iraqi leaders and politicians, he called for the punishment of the three Prime Ministers and their followers. "There is no truce to the Crusaders, Infidels and apostates," he said. Only Jihad and Jihad. Then he blasted the Sunnis who participated in the "political process" i.e. the last few elections. Calling them Ahmaq, or "idiots" for trusting the Government.
He then declares that "upon the decision and request by the Mujahidin in Iraq, he blesses the appointment of Abu Hamza al Muhajir as a successor to Abu Mus'aab al Zarqawi.
ON SOMALIA
Addressing "our people in Somalia" he explained that the country has opted for Islam before former President Siyad Barri would attempt to move it to Communism. But Bin Laden saw a success in bringing the country back to Islam, as he says, at the hands of the Islamic Tribunals. As we projected in previous analysis, and despite the rejection by other analysts and commentators including on al Jazeera and some Western networks, here is Bin Laden himself who declares the "Mahakem" as groups seeking the establishment of an Islamic State." (See the complete text or listen to the complete audio)
He then harshly attacked Somali President General Abdullah Yussuf and called for punishing him and those legislators who called for an international "infidel" intervention in Somalia.
"Even if Muslim soldiers are called to deploy, this is a crusader infidel invasion." He accused Muslim leaders of being kuffars (infidels) too asking his followers to deal with Yussuf and all the infidels "with the sword only."
Bin Laden warned the US and their allies of violent responses in Somalia if they decide to deploy in the near future and threatened to respond on their own lands (America) at the timing and location of the Jihadists choice.
He then reiterated his call for Jihad to resume with all strength in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Palestine, Chechnya, and in all battlefields.
Final note
In short, Bin Laden's latest tape comes to certify what has already been known and agreed on among Jihadi Salafists worldwide regarding the "battlefields" of Iraq and Somalia. In Iraq, Bin Laden is telling the Shiite politicians not to engage in military action against the Sunni areas in general and the Salafists in particular. Clearly an offer of zones of influence: "don't come to our areas, we won't attack you." He seems to state that he wants to attack the US and coalition forces only, but Shiia must stay on the side. A position in line with Zarqawi's "war on the Shiites" on te one hand and with Zawahiri's injunction to "restrain from attacking Shiites." Bin Laden suggests a midway: attack them only if attacked by them.
On Somalia, Bin Laden's position is more than expected, it is almost predicted. That the Mahakem (Islamic Courts) wants to establish an Islamic Taliban like state, is a given. But Bin Laden goes ahead and warns anyone who would obstruct their path to power with punishment and the sword: Somalia's President and the Parliament; Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh for mediating the crisis and the US and other countries for "thinking" about intervening. Definitely Somalia is a future "home" for Jihadism, in the mind of Bin Laden.
**Dr Walid Phares is a Senior Fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a Visiting Fellow at the European Foundation for Democracy and the author of Future Jihad

Jonathan Gurwitz: Resignation vs. brutality: Neither will calm the carnage in Iraq
Web Posted: 07/02/2006 12:00 AM CDT
San Antonio Express-News
The United States had its first fateful encounter with Islamic terrorism in Lebanon. Hezbollah and its Islamic Jihad affiliate, armed and financed by Iran and Syria, had honed their terrorist skills in the early 1980s against Israelis. Then they began to direct those skills toward Americans. On April 18, 1983, an Islamic Jihad suicide bomber drove a truck loaded with explosives into the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, killing 60 people, including 17 Americans. Six months later, another Islamic Jihad suicide bomber attacked the U.S. Marine barracks at the Beirut airport, killing 241 American servicemen.
On Jan. 18, 1984, an Islamic Jihad gunman killed Malcolm Kerr, the president of the American University of Beirut. Months later, Islamic Jihad kidnapped William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, whom they tortured and eventually murdered.
More bombings, kidnappings and murders followed. American policymakers talked tough about terrorism, but staggered with an irresolute antiterrorism policy that vacillated from military response to arms-for-hostages.
The Soviet Union had no such problem. Unhinged from any moral base, unaccountable to a free press or an independent judiciary — neither of which existed — its leaders enacted ruthless policies without any ethical constraint.
Hezbollah briefly targeted Soviet personnel in Lebanon. Their Iranian godfathers had, after all, condemned the godless Communists as severely as the satanic West.
But Russian victimization came to an abrupt end. In his book "Veil," Bob Woodward explained why.
Hezbollah had kidnapped four Soviet diplomats from Beirut during the fall of 1985. One they murdered straightaway. The others they held in captivity.
In response, the KGB seized the relative of a Hezbollah leader. As part of Moscow's anti-terrorism policy, the KGB "castrated him, stuffed his testicles in his mouth, shot him in the head and sent the body back to Hezbollah. The KGB included a message that other members of the Party of God would die in a similar manner if the three Soviets were not released."
Shortly afterward, Hezbollah set free the three remaining Soviet hostages. Soviet interests in Lebanon were never similarly menaced again. Russian President Vladimir Putin and his cadre of KGB veterans certainly have a policy template to deal with the abduction and recent vicious murders of four Russian Embassy workers in Baghdad.
By any measure, the barbarity of the war in Iraq surpasses the brutality of Lebanon. In the same week that al-Qaida terrorists tortured and executed two American soldiers, a suicide bomber struck an old age home in Basra as part of a string of attacks on civilians that left scores dead.
For those squeamish about terms like good and evil, consider the differing moral calibrations of al-Qaida and the United States. For al-Qaida, civilian casualties are a sign of success and torture something to celebrate. For the United States, civilian casualties are regrettable errors, torture something to punish.
Such horrors and what looks like a senseless, endless pattern of violence typically generate two kinds of responses. The first is the desire to leave, to remove Americans from harm's way in Iraq and wash our hands of a far-away conflict.
That, of course, would be a victory for the terrorists — one of their primary objectives is to drive coalition forces out of Iraq. And it would reinforce the perception among our enemies, earned over decades since Lebanon, of American fecklessness with regard to terrorism. The second response is that of the KGB: the desire to abandon constraints and respond in kind to the perpetrators of heinous acts. That, of course, would be a defeat for our civilized society and a violation of the moral principles on which this nation is founded. There is no simple solution to the Iraqi carnage, no easy answer to the questions raised here in this country in the debate about the conflict. But giving in to either of those impulses has implications that extend far beyond the borders of Iraq and that will last far longer than a campaign season in the United States.