LCCC NEWS BULLETIN
June 2/2006

Below News From the Daily Star for 2/06/06
Beirut to pay $2.7 million for Hariri tribunal
Syria drops charges against prominent MPs in Lebanon
Aridi 'guarantees' access to World Cup matches
Larnaca set to host Hariri tribunal?
Lebanese man killed in Venezuela after 5-week-long kidnapping
Families of detained reach breaking point
Aoun moves to dilute power of March 14
Draft electoral law now in play
Ceremonies to mark passing of Karami, Kassir
Decoding Hizbullah's bombing of Safad.By Nicholas Blanford
Below News From miscellaneous sources for 2/06/06
Kassir murder still unpunished after one year-RWB- France
Geagea: Bid to resolve Lahoud, Hezbollah issues on 8 June-AsiaNews.it
Israel's premeditated market failure-Jerusalem Post
Secular Syria allows Islam to flourish-Reuters
SYRIA: Report warns of deteriorating circumstances among Iraqi -Reuters

Beirut to pay $2.7 million for Hariri tribunal
By Nafez Qawas -Daily Star correspondent
Friday, June 02, 2006
BEIRUT: Lebanon will provide LL4.1 billion ($2.7 million) from the country's budget to cover the costs of the UN probe investigating the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri. Following a weekly Cabinet session at the Socioeconomic Council headed by President Emile Lahoud, the government also said it would postpone a proposal to establish satellite surveillance over Lebanon for improved security.
The proposal was delayed after Defense Minister Elias Murr criticized the idea, saying: "Let's start by perfecting surveillance on the ground before trying to find out what's happening from space."
He added: "Before we implement this, I think we would all like to find out whether this will preserve citizen's personal freedom - not only political freedom - and who exactly wants this system installed." He said: "We have to decide who exactly will be watched. We have worked hard to be free from surveillance from one party not to simply fall under the surveillance of one another."The defense minister said such security matters fell under the jurisdiction of the army, which controls all air activities, "including paragliding for fun."The government formed a committee to examine the proposal. It will be chaired by Premier Fouad Siniora and consist of the defense, interior, telecommunications and administrative development ministers.
Asked whether a decentralized satellite surveillance system would cause a conflict of interests for security forces, Siniora said that "several countries throughout the world depend on this technology."Ministers Joe Sarkis, Mohammad Jawad Khalifeh, Neameh Tohme, Mohammad al-Safadi and Fawzi Salloukh were absent from the session. Siniora had opened the session by commemorating the 1987 assassination of former Premier Rashid Karami. The late premier's assassination coincides with that of journalist Samir Kassir one year ago. "Lebanon has suffered, more than other country in the region, from political assassinations and it has lost much with the death of its politicians and citizens," Siniora said. "I hope the Lebanese have learned their lesson," he added.
At the Cabinet session, Siniora informed ministers that he had been given a final report from the National Electoral Committee commissioned to draft a new Electoral law and gave them a copy of the report for examination.
"The Lebanese are capable of reaching an agreement once they sit down and initiate a dialogue," the premier said, adding that the committee's work was characterized by "seriousness and independence."
Siniora announced that he would travel to Turkey next Tuesday to sign several agreements with Turkish officials and discuss the possible creation of a free-trade zone between the two countries.
Siniora also revealed that preparations were under way to move the Cabinet sessions away from central Beirut to another location now that the tourism season is approaching.

Syria drops charges against prominent MPs in Lebanon
By Nada Bakri -Daily Star staff
Friday, June 02, 2006
BEIRUT: The Arab Lawyers Union has succeeded in its efforts to convince Syria to drop charges against two of Lebanon's prominent March 14 Forces MPs, pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat reported Thursday. In February, Syrian lawyer Hossamal-Deen Habash filed a lawsuit before a Syrian military court against Chouf MP Walid Jumblatt and Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamade on charges of "inciting the US administration to occupy Syria" and "defaming" Damascus.
The two MPs have played leading roles in the campaign to end Syria's influence in Lebanon.
"Habash responded to my request to withdraw the lawsuit against Jumblatt," Egyptian lawyer Sameh Ashour, chairman of the UAL, told a news conference in Cairo on Wednesday. Last week a Syrian military court sent Interpol an arrest warrant for Jumblatt and summoned Hamade for questioning over statements hostile to Syria. The issue was the latest in increasingly bitter relations between the neighbors since the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri.
Ashour said his "initiative comes in line with efforts aimed at easing tensions between Syria and Lebanon and improving their bilateral relations."Commenting on the Syrian military court's move, Hamade said: "The more things change the more they stay the same."Jumblatt was unavailable for comment, but he sent MPs Wael Bou Faour and Faisal al-Sayegh to MP Michel Aoun's residence in Rabieh to thank him and most of his bloc for their support by voting against the summons.
Lebanon's Parliament voted Tuesday to condemn the Syrian summonses as violations of the Lebanese Constitution.
In a meeting Thursday of the March 14 Forces follow-up committee, the participants praised Parliament's condemnation of the warrants but said the committee "is surprised the decision was not passed unanimously."
Hizbullah and Amal MPs, along with the Shiite MPs from Aoun's Reform and Change parliamentary bloc, abstained from the voting on the parliamentary condemnation. Premier Fouad Siniora said the dropping of the charges was a "positive move that paves the way for restoring ties between Lebanon and Syria."Siniora also thanked Egypt's
mediation efforts, saying: "Arab contribution is always useful."Information Minister and key Jumblatt ally Ghazi Aridi said Syria dropped the charges "after it assessed the atmosphere in Lebanon, the Arab world and the international community."
He added, however, that the only way to improve bilateral relations was to implement the decisions reached during Lebanon's national dialogue. Meanwhile, the political scuffle over appointing members to Lebanon's highest legal authority remained unresolved. Siniora rejected the justice minister's decree to appoint five new judges to the Higher Judicial Council due to a change in the final line-up.Charles Rizk submitted a list to Siniora of five candidates, four put forward by the council's top three judges and a fifth by Rizk, replacing the council's choice of Faisal Haydar with another Shiite judge, Abdel-Latif Husseini.
In an interview with the National News Agency, Council President Antoine Kheir said his "team's work is done. We put forward the proposal based on the request and insistence of Rizk," adding that the criteria they had based their choices on were "the candidates' portfolios and not political factors."Rizk's press office responded to Kheir's comments in a statement, saying: "The minister did not ask the three judges to name or insist on the candidacy of any magistrate as he values and respects the judges' wisdom." - With agencies

Aridi 'guarantees' access to World Cup matches
By Raed El Rafei -Daily Star staff
Friday, June 02, 2006
BEIRUT: Information Minister Ghazi Aridi assured Lebanese football fans on Thursday that an agreement "guaranteeing access to this year's World Cup for Lebanese viewers" would be reached soon. Speaking in a news conference ain Beirut, Aridi said that a plan to grant temporary licenses to illegal cable operators was being finalized, but did not give further details. He added that the solution would preserve the rights of Arab Radio and Television (ART), a Saudi-based network which has the exclusive rights to air World Cup matches in the Middle East.
But, according to ART, a solution seems unlikely as illegal cable operators are refusing to pay "proper" fees to the network to air the matches. Contacted by The Daily Star Thursday, the network's general manager for Lebanon, Mohammad Yassine, said that operators had so far collectively refused to pay the sum of $1 million, offering instead only $50,000.
"Cable operators are starting to charge subscribers extra money for the World Cup, even though the network did not make any agreements with them," Yassine said, adding that operators have made "so much money illegally in the past."
ART bought the regional rights for all four World Cup tournaments from 2002 to 2014 for $100 million.
Negotiations are continuing with the involvement of several ministries. Aridi said a general meeting for all cable operators would be held Monday. "Operators have not been accountable for years. They can pay some money now," Aridi said, stressing that the authorities' role was only to mediate between the two parties.
With no local Lebanese television stations showing the World Cup this year, ART has warned operators against illegal transmission of matches. The issue sheds light on the paucity of legislation to combat piracy in Lebanon. Aridi said a law on encoded digital transmission was being drafted, emphasizing that it would take into consideration that "thousands of families have subscriptions with illegal cable providers." Aridi also spoke about a new audiovisual law, which is currently being drafted, and "which is likely to result in closing down the Information Ministry and promoting the role of the Higher Media Council instead."

Larnaca set to host Hariri tribunal?
Report says brammertz has been to cyprus in past few days
By Therese Sfeir -Daily Star staff
Friday, June 02, 2006
BEIRUT: The international tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri will "most probably" be held in the Cypriot city of Larnaca, the Central News Agency reported on Thursday.
"Well-informed sources" quoted by the agency said that Serge Brammertz, the head of the UN investigation into the slaying, returned from island nation a few days ago and would head to New York next week to present his second report to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.The Security Council will discuss the report on June 15.
The sources said an April 25 meeting between Brammertz and Syrian President Bashar Assad had been "positive," while Vice President Farouk Sharaa was "annoyed by some of the committee's questions."
The sources added that Brammertz's report would not contain any specific names.
A separate report in Asharq al-Awsat daily quoted sources as saying the international investigation was "almost complete."
The sources added that "Brammertz has new facts and evidence about the preparations for the crime, as well as telephone calls and meetings between the plotters." According to Asharq al-Awsat, the lead investigator "has strong evidence as to the identity of the perpetrators and all the parties that financed the assassination."
Meanwhile, Future bloc leader MP Saad Hariri, on an official visit to Germany, met Wednesday night in Berlin with a group of Palestinian delegates from the Fatah movement. Fatah's delegate for foreign relations Abbas Zaki said: "The members of the Legislative Council ... carried the Palestinian people's worries. They explained to Hariri our people's suffering and updated him on our official talks with the German Social Democratic Party, the [Hamas-Fatah] dialogue and President Mahmoud Abbas' recent comments on the need to achieve results that will protect our people from stagnation and civil war."
Asked about Fatah's position regarding the disarmament of Palestinians outside of refugee camps, Zaki said: "Our position is known in this regard. We are guests in Lebanon and under the sovereignty of the Lebanese law."
Lebanon's "national dialogue includes all parties, and we respect the Lebanese consensus, which we consider to be applied to us because we don't interfere in Lebanon's internal affairs," he said. "We requested that the issue of weapons outside the camps be included in the dialogue, and we appreciate and respect the consensus of the Lebanese," Zaki added.
Hariri also met Wednesday with a delegation from the Future Youth Committees in Germany, Belgium and Switzerland.

Lebanese man killed in Venezuela after 5-week-long kidnapping
Daily Star staff-Friday, June 02, 2006
BEIRUT: The Dahdah family in the northern town of Zghorta mourned Jose Sarkis Dahdah, who was killed in Venezuela by a ring of thieves recently, police reports said on Wednesday.Investigations are under way to determine the circumstances behind the killing of Dahdah, who was kidnapped five weeks ago from the premises of his home in the Venezuelan capital.
The incident is the second of its kind this year after the kidnapping and assassination in the South American country in April of three brothers, Brian, Kevin and Jason Faddoul, originally from the Bsharri town of Tourza. According to security reports, the murderers in the two cases killed their victims after torturing them. Jose, 36, had spent years establishing a business in Venezuela, his parents said.According to a statement, the family is in shock and is currently preparing to hold funeral services for Dahdah in Venezuela, at the request of his Venezuelan mother. The victim's family in Lebanon will also hold prayers for their murdered relative. - The Daily Star

Families of detained reach breaking point
By Rym Ghazal -Daily Star staff
Friday, June 02, 2006
BEIRUT: After protesting peacefully for their case to be adopted by the government, relatives of the missing and detained in Syrian jails are now vowing to "block streets and cause trouble if the government doesn't take action" and deal with the file in the next parliamentary session. After a year and two months of sitting quietly in the Khalil Jibran garden outside UN House, Beirut relatives of the missing and detained spoke out Wednesday, with one mother, speaking on behalf of what she called "The Mothers' Intifada," saying: "We are fed up of promises and words, enough is enough!"
"We will block streets, cause havoc, whatever it takes to make the government do something about this file," she warned, surrounded by other mothers showing visible signs of exhaustion and weariness. Earlier this week, the relatives - along with SOLIDE (Support for Lebanese in Detention and Exile) - demonstrated in the streets near Parliament, and distributed their list of demands to MPs. "We want our file to be put on the next parliamentary session's agenda, as we have heard enough promises being made by politicians and it is time for some action," Ghazi Aad, director of SOLIDE, told a news conference held at the camp.
Aad said that SOLIDE had met three times with Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, and had heard promises of support from several MPs, and yet "nothing" has been done so far to help move the case of the 700 missing relatives forward, most of whom are believed to be detained in Syrian jails. "We knew it would be a hard task to get the government to open this file, because there was significant Lebanese collaboration in sending Lebanese to Syrian jails and working with the Syrian mukhabarat, so in opening this taboo file, some Lebanese officials will be implicated," said Aad.

Aoun moves to dilute power of March 14
By Zeina Abu Rizk -Special to The Daily Star
Friday, June 02, 2006
The Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) and its leader, MP Michel Aoun, have repeatedly accused the government of ineptitude in handling crucial political issues, particularly the implementation of decisions made during the national dialogue, and have subsequently called for the government's resignation. Aware that no Cabinet reshuffle is coming anytime soon, however, Aoun is determined to achieve a temporary or "palliative" solution. For Aoun, that solution is a mixed committee representing the three main axes of the political establishment; namely the FPM, the March 14 Forces and the Shiite bloc.
Each faction would have a set number of delegates on the committee - possibly two. It would be assigned to meet key Syrian officials, including President Bashar Assad, to discuss the agreements reached at the roundtable and the best means by which to implement these decisions. Aoun believes such a step would force Damascus to reveal its true intentions regarding the mending of Lebanese-Syrian relations. It would also prove the extent to which each Lebanese group is committed to agreements reached in the dialogue. Aoun may choose the next dialogue session to make this suggestion, as he has decided to participate in the talks once more after abstaining from the session devoted to the presidency.
Aoun will take part in the next session's discussions on Hizbullah's arms, but will be the last to speak, preferring to first hear what other participants have to say. According to sources close to the former general, Aoun believes that when it comes to armed factions, priority should be given to the question of Palestinian arms outside the refugee camps. Aoun feels this issue should be settled in accordance with the relevant dialogue decision, the sources said, especially after the latest escalation in the South. However, the atmosphere at next week's roundtable will likely be smoother than usual - particularly between Aoun and Democratic Gathering bloc leader Walid Jumblatt following last week's vote in Parliament over a Syrian warrant against the Chouf MP.
Tuesday's vote proved that even if the various political alliances established over the past year have not changed, the parties forming these alliances have maintained a considerable margin of independence; at least this was the case for Aoun and his allies, who rejected the Syrian initiative on the grounds that it violated Lebanon's sovereignty.
For the FPM, the vote in itself had no political significance or ramifications. In other words, the party's disagreement with Jumblatt's politics and approach to a variety of issues remain, and the vote was in no way meant to prove otherwise.
That said, Aoun's supporters say that he will not agree to any political decision that endangers, or interferes with, the country's sovereignty. As quoted by visitors to Rabieh, Aoun insists that the notion of Lebanese sovereignty has always been the FPM's guiding principle. Those who were surprised by the way in which the Reform and Change bloc voted this week have still not understood this crucial point, these visitors added, and are not familiar with the notion of impartiality.
It was this impartiality, they said, that led Aoun's bloc to vote against legislation introducing changes to the Constitutional Council law, on the basis that the proposed bill was aimed at jeopardizing challenges presented by the FPM to the Constitutional Council against the legality of a number of parliamentary seats. They said the same principle led Aoun and his allies to abstain from voting on another bill regulating the Druze sect, a matter in which Aoun and his allies did not wish to interfere.
But even if Tuesday's vote rejecting the Syrian warrant for Jumblatt was not a conciliatory step, as sources close to the FPM insist, it could nonetheless serve as a starting point for a serious rapprochement between the two sides. This impression is reinforced by a repeated insistence that the channels of communication between the two sides have always remained open.
Perhaps what is still lacking between the two blocs, as well as among various factions, is trust, the kind of trust that seems to prevail between Aoun and Hizbullah's leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. Because of this trust, the gap between Nasrallah and Aoun's political stances can widen or narrow without affecting relations between the two, as was the case in the latest parliamentary vote. "That is why we are asking for an international component. This is the only way that the case will be dealt with seriously and with transparency," he added. Aad said Hizbullah officials were among the few politicians who took some active steps and "presented" the file of the detainees in Syrian jails to the national dialogue table.
"We are tired," he said, "but we won't give up fighting for a truly humanitarian issue that should not be put on hold until political issues between Syria and Lebanon, like demarcating the borders."

Draft electoral law now in play
Siniora welcomes united committee's proposal
By Raed El Rafei -Daily Star staff
Friday, June 02, 2006
BEIRUT: Premier Fouad Siniora said Thursday that the new electoral law proposal was "an essential step toward political reform in Lebanon," while major Christian parties voiced reservations about the divisions of electoral districts. The proposal, submitted with unanimous approval by a national committee after nine months of work, combines the majority system and proportional representation, lowers the voting age and allows expatriates to vote.
Most of the provisions were expected. A clause of the draft law calling for the establishment of an independent council that would replace the Interior Ministry in organizing and supervising elections came as a surprise, however.
The committee, which is headed by former Minister Fouad Boutros and includes prominent legal experts, issued a statement after a meeting with Siniora saying the proposal stipulates that no amendments can be made to the electoral law at least one year before the date of elections to allow "electors and candidates to properly prepare for the elections."
Another key clause in the 129-part proposal forbids ministers of the government in place during elections from running as candidates for Parliament. Other recommendations made by the committee include establishing a compulsory quota for women in electoral lists "in compliance with international agreements that require the participation of women in Parliament to reach at least 30 percent." The committee also recommended conducting elections in one day all over Lebanon. It suggested rules for the organization of media campaigns during elections and imposed a ceiling on campaign financing "in order to guarantee decent competition and equality among candidates."
The committee suggested granting Lebanese expatriates the ability to vote in embassies abroad and facilitating the voting process for the disabled. As for the division of the electoral districts and the nature of the electoral system, the committee said the mixed system was the result of a consensus that "guarantees coexistence ... prevents marginalization ... and encourages with time candidates to adopt a national electoral speech rather than a confessional one."
The proposal suggests 77 MPs would be elected in a majority system based on the present qadas (small districts) and 51 MPs would be elected in a proportional representation system based on the mohafaza (large district).
The new electoral law proposal is the result of the study of 121 separate proposals.
Meanwhile, Lebanese Forces MP Antoine Zahra said that "the proportional system based on the mohafaza does not allow for just representation," in an interview with Sawt al-Ghad radio station Thursday. Reform and Change MP Ibrahim Kanaan also criticized the divisions of the districts, especially in Mount Lebanon. In an interview with the same radio station Thursday, Kanaan said that his parliamentary bloc was not with mixing the majority and proportional systems.But the head of the Democratic Renewal Movement Nassib Lahoud praised the work of the committee and called for a "calm discussion of the electoral law proposal."

Kassir murder still unpunished after one year, rally tomorrow in Paris
Reporters Without Borders today called for a meeting in solidarity with the family of slain journalist Samir Kassir at Trocadero Square in Paris tomorrow, on the first anniversary of his murder in Beirut. Kassir had French and Lebanese citizenship.
“A year has gone by since Kassir’s death,” said the press freedom organisation, which has been granted civil party status in the case. “It is high time the French and Lebanese authorities worked together on this. We deplore the delay in the investigation. The French judicial authorities have nonetheless been on the case since last July. Everyone involved must be questioned as quickly as possible.”
Reporters Without Borders added: “We are also awaiting an official statement from the Lebanese authorities. They must undertake to quickly receive the French investigating judge who has been assigned to the case, Jean-Louis Bruguière.”
Kassir’s widow, Gisèle Khoury, told Reporters Without Borders she was very disturbed by the slow pace with which the French judicial authorities were proceeding. “Time is not on our side,” she said. “The pro-Syrian camp is recovering the initiative in Lebanese politics. This is giving the criminals hope. Judge Bruguière should have come as originally planned last December, when the four generals suspected of involvement in [former prime minister] Rafic Hariri’s murder were arrested.”
Khoury added: “They should tell me now if I have to wait for more than 20 years to know the truth, as in the case of Michel Seurat. The Lebanese authorities told me they were ready to receive Bruguière since May. What is holding him up? He should go to Beirut as quickly as possible.”William Bourdon, a lawyer who represents the Kassir family and the newspaper Al-Nahar, reported that he had undertaken “a number of initiatives aimed as speeding up Bruguière’s visit.” He said: “In principle, his visit should have taken place two months ago. We are expecting a lot from him.” He added that “certain hearings” had already taken place. Kassir was killed when a bomb planted in his car went off on the morning of 2 June 2005 outside his home in the neighbourhood of Achrafieh in East Beirut.
A writer and historian, Kassir had been a columnist for the past 10 years for An-Nahar (“The Day” in Arabic), a daily newspaper with a circulation of 55,000. He was the correspondent of the French-language international television station TV5 and had written for many years for the French monthly Le Monde Diplomatique. He was also professor of political sciences at Beirut’s St. Joseph university. As a political activist, Kassir was one of the founders of the opposition Movement of the Democratic Left and participated in the anti-Syrian protests in the spring of 2005.
He had been threatened and hounded for years because of his public positions and his criticism of the “Lebanese police state.” Lebanese state security police harassed him in 2000 and his Lebanese passport was confiscated. He later said he was constantly followed by Lebanese and Syrian intelligence agents at that time. He then received protection from Hariri before Hariri resigned as prime minister and was himself assassinated. Kassir’s last column, on 27 May, was headlined “Gaffe after gaffe” and criticised “the continuing repression in Syria.”
Last year was a grim one for the Lebanese press, with two other journalists also being targeted by bombings which, like Kassir’s, have still not been solved. Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation presenter May Chidiac was maimed by a car bomb on 25 September and An-Nahar CEO Gebran Tuéni was killed by one on 12 December.

Geagea: Bid to resolve Lahoud, Hezbollah issues on 8 June
by Youssef Hourany
Card. Sfeir expressed hope that the new electoral law will allow for more representative voting. According to press speculation, the law will provide for 77 MPs elected by a majority and 51 on a proportional basis.
Beirut (AsiaNews) – Lebanon’s political scenario is as sensitive as ever with the upcoming stage of Inter-Lebanese Dialogue on 8 June set to discuss crucial topics like the future of the President of the Republic, Emile Lahoud, and the disarmament of Hezbollah. This is what the head of the Lebanese Forces, Samir Geagea, told AsiaNews while the Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir, has again expressed his support for new political elections, to be held under a new electoral law that is more equal than the one drawn up in 2000 under Syrian occupation.
Yesterday, Wednesday 31 May, meanwhile, the representative of Lebanon to the United Nations, Caroline Ziade, delivered a written protest to the Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, about “the latest aggression of Israel against defenceless and peaceful citizens” in different Lebanese localities, which caused death and severe material damage, including the destruction of infrastructure. The Israeli aggression sprung from its battle with Palestinian militias. These military clashes have prompted some Lebanese politicians, especially the 14 March movement, to insist on the necessity of disarming the Palestinians and inserting the men of the Lebanese resistance, partisans of the Party of God, into the Lebanese army.
This will be one of the hot topics in resumed Inter-Lebanese dialogue, as the leader of the Lebanese Forces, Samir Geagea, told AsiaNews. He said: “During the next round of dialogue, set for 8 June, the leader of the Amal movement, Nabih Berri, will look into the future of the presidency of the Republic and the disarmament of the Party of God”. Geagea also applauded the courage of Lebanese MPs for voting against the request for extradition of two Lebanese MPs presented by Syria: Walid Joumblatt and Marwan Hamade. He described the vote by the MPs of a General Michel Aoun as “loyal to the history of General Aoun”.
Speaking about the future of the Lebanese Forces, Geagea exhorted all to follow the Patriarch Sfeir, the only “leader” who is not self-seeking but who promotes others’ interests instead.
The Maronite patriarch has reiterated the need to overcome past sorrows and expressed hope for a fresh reading of the history of the civil war that destroyed the physiognomy of Lebanon. The patriarch also appealed to youth to return to their country and to make a contribution notwithstanding the problems.
Cardinal Sfeir criticized those Lebanese politicians who thirsted for power and urged leaders to reach agreement about the future of the presidency of the Republic and to concur about the formation of the Supreme Court Council. As for the latest news about the imminent presentation of a new electoral law, Patriarch Sfeir said he hoped more representative legislative elections would be organized. He criticized once again the 2000 law called the “The Ghazi Kanaan Law”, after the then Syrian Minister. According to press speculation, the new law will provide for a mixed system to which 77 MPs will be elected by majority and 51 on a proportional basis.

Column One: Israel's premeditated market failure
By CAROLINE GLICK
One of the foundations of the free market is rational choice theory. That theory assumes that private individuals generally make decisions that maximize their profits and utility and do so far better than any collective organization or bureaucracy. Rational choice theory stands or falls on the availability of information. Without the free flow of information, people are unable to make rational choices.
In Israel, as the country's steady economic growth and high placement on just about every significant global economic index shows, the economic liberalization reforms enacted by former prime minister and finance minister Likud Chairman Binyamin Netanyahu have been a complete success. The Israeli economy is the envy of a Europe that suffers from stagnation and decline.
Yet inside of Israel, the country's economic success is a well-kept secret. Most Israelis operate under the impression that the country is on the verge of economic ruin - that poor people are starving, that sick people are going without proper medical care. The reason that most Israelis believe that the country is teetering on the brink of an economic disaster is because the Israeli media have consistently reported an economic narrative that has absolutely no relationship with reality. So, while international investors line up to invest in the Israeli economy, Israeli citizens look to socialist politicians and pundits to save them from their capitalist nightmare of success.
Just as they underplay Israel's economic success to advance their socialist economic agenda, the Israeli media distort coverage of Israel's increasingly dangerous strategic environment to increase public support for their defeatist, left-wing world view. In both endeavors, the media are supported and abetted by the legal system.
Events on the northern front and in Gaza over the past few days demonstrated that Israelis are denied a free flow of accurate information regarding their national security. On Monday, Ha'aretz reported darkly, "Iran has transferred to Lebanon rockets that reach Beersheba." The report stated that the Iranians recently provided their proxy Hizbullah with Zelzal-2 rockets capable of hitting every major city in Israel.
Yet while this report is true, it is neither startling nor earth-shaking for anyone who has been closely observing developments in south Lebanon over the past few years. The recent shipment of Zelzal missiles does not constitute a departure from well-formed Iranian, Syrian or Hizbullah policy patterns.
The first time that a shipment of Iranian Zelzal rockets to Hizbullah was reported was in early 2003. Just as this week it took the media one day to forget about this Zelzal shipment, in 2003, the reports received almost no attention. At the time the Israeli media and the government were busy convincing the Israeli public to support the road map which was then being written by Yossi Beilin and Tony Blair.
Like the 2003 report before it, the meaning of this week's report is clear. Iran today is perched on Israel's northern border. Against the backdrop of Iran's nuclear weapons program and its ballistic missiles capabilities, Iran's presence on the northern border dramatically impacts Israel's national security posture. If before the IDF's withdrawal from southern Lebanon in May 2000 Hizbullah and its state sponsor constituted a challenging, bloody tactical threat to Israel, today they are a strategic threat. In short, this week's story about the Zelzal missile shipment reveals what a terrible mistake Israel's retreat from south Lebanon was.
But the Israel media - which was the engine behind the Barak government's decision to retreat from south Lebanon six years ago - have no interest in informing the public of the magnitude of its error. So rather than provide any context for Sunday's Katyusha rocket attacks on northern Israel, our media luminaries argued among themselves about irrelevancies such as whether the Iranian puppet Islamic Jihad or the Iranian puppet Hizbullah fired the rockets on Sunday morning.
If the media had any interest in serving their primary function of informing the Israeli public about its current situation, they could ask why Israel is sitting back and allowing Hizbullah to acquire the means to attack all of Israel's major cities. If we know that the missiles were delivered, why didn't we blow them up at the airport or in their silos?
Since the 1950s, Israel's military doctrine has dictated that the IDF is responsible for ensuring that our enemies do not acquire the means to cause us strategic damage. This was the rationale that stood behind the Sinai Campaign in 1956, the Six Day War in 1967, the strike at the Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak in 1981 and countless other operations throughout the years.
But rather than receiving context or meaningful debate, the public is fed a diet of empty-headed drivel. Our media know-it-alls idiotically inform us that far more IDF soldiers were killed in Lebanon when the IDF was deployed in Lebanon than have been killed in Lebanon since the IDF withdrew from Lebanon. No one bothers to explain that in the future many more soldiers will likely be killed in Lebanon to neutralize the strategic threats that have emerged in that area because soldiers who prevented the Lebanese tactical challenge from becoming the current strategic threat were removed from the country six years ago.
JUST AS the already forgotten report on the Zelzal missile shipment showed how ill-advised the withdrawal from southern Lebanon was, this week two reports revealed a no less disturbing situation in the abandoned Gaza Strip. Tuesday, as the socialist economic gurus in the media and the government argued in favor of slashing the IDF's budget in light of the withdrawal from Gaza, we were informed that the IDF returned to Gaza two months ago.
Palestinian terrorists Tuesday morning videotaped Israeli forces in the ruins of the Israeli community of Dugit attacking a Palestinian terror squad as it prepared to launch a Kassam rocket on Ashkelon. On Wednesday the IDF admitted that it has been deploying commandos in Gaza to prevent rocket and missile launches for the past two months. That deployment had been kept secret to prevent the public from learning just how ill-advised last year's retreat was. The need to deploy ground forces in Gaza today proves unequivocally that the only way to defend Ashkelon and the other communities bordering Gaza from attack is by deploying IDF boots on the ground in Gaza.
Just as they distorted their coverage of the Katyusha attacks on northern Israel on Sunday, to prevent the public from absorbing the significance of the IDF ground operations in Gaza, the media concentrated its coverage of the deployment of ground forces in Gaza on irrelevant side issues. All the media turned their attention to the terror propaganda film. That film regaled Israeli TV viewers with footage of poor terrorists dying of their wounds just before they had the opportunity to attack Ashkelon with their rockets.
Also on Tuesday, Channel 10 reported the unsurprising fact that the new Hamas army that purportedly was raised to end the chaos on the streets of Gaza, is actually devoted to fighting Israel. Channel 10 showed its viewers a Hamas promotional video showing its terrorists graduating from basic training.
The reporter made much of the fact that the terrorists were pictured receiving orders from imams rather than their Iranian-sponsored Hamas "military" commanders. It is not clear why we should care that the terrorists giving the orders are wearing gowns rather than camouflage, but one thing we should care about immensely was glossed over by Channel 10. The announcer on the propaganda film declared that Hamas's allies in the east and west are anxiously waiting for the Hamas soldiers to join them in battle. The point of that statement is unmistakable: Hamas perceives itself as part and parcel of the forces for global jihad and does not limit its sites to waging war on Israel.
The fact that the same day the video was broadcast, Israel announced it had arrested a British national who admitted to membership in Hamas demonstrates that far from bring a Palestinian nationalist group, Hamas is a member in good standing of the global jihad army that takes its orders from Teheran. But Channel 10 didn't think that aspect of the story held any interest for its viewers.
PRIME MINISTER Olmert and his associates claim that in giving Kadima the most seats in the Knesset, the Israeli public declared its support for Olmert's plan to relinquish Judea and Samaria to Hamas. But when one assesses the quality of the information that the public receives, the only conclusion it is possible to reach is that Israel is suffering from market failure in the realm of information flow and processing.
This market failure is exacerbated and maintained by constraints placed on public debate by Israel's legal establishment. Two separate events this week brought home this disturbing reality. First, on Monday, Attorney-General Menachem Mazuz announced the opening of the trial of right-wing activist Nadia Matar for the alleged crime of "insulting a public servant." Matar was indicted after she sent a letter to Yonatan Bassi, the head of the Disengagement Authority, where she compared him to the Judenrat in the Holocaust. Mazuz's decision to indict Matar for her written expression demonstrates how legal authorities have seized for themselves the power to determine the limits of public debate in a manner unheard of in other free societies.
In a related incident, President Moshe Katsav pardoned the heads of the now banned Arutz 7 radio station for having committed the crime of broadcasting without the approval of the Supreme Court. The media reacted to Katsav's decision with hysteria and rage. Indeed, the media have reacted more calmly to the government's decisions to release hundreds of convicted terrorists from prison than to the president's decision to pardon Arutz 7's management team.
The story of Arutz 7 is demonstrative of the legal system's willingness to twist and distort law in order to make it impossible for alternative voices to be heard by the public. In its ruling on Arutz 7 in 1998, the Supreme Court dismissed a law passed by the Knesset that gave Arutz 7 a license to broadcast. The Court argued strangely that by granting Arutz 7 the right to broadcast, the Knesset had harmed regional radio stations that would have to operate in a world in which Arutz 7 exists.
When one sees how news is distorted and truth is hidden from the Israeli public; when one understands how the legal system in Israel constrains permissible speech, one sees that while the Israeli economy may be chugging along, the public consciousness of the Israeli body politic has fallen victim to a premeditated failure of the marketplaces of information and ideas. If the Israeli people wish to survive in an increasingly dangerous strategic environment, ways must be found immediately for these failures to be corrected or circumvented.

SYRIA: Secular Syria allows Islam to flourish
01 Jun 2006-Source: IRIN
DAMASCUS/ALEPPO, 1 June (IRIN) - The three Muhammads were all sure of one thing. "I want to be the imam of a mosque," says ten-year old Muhammad, on his way home from a lesson in Aleppo's Islamic school. "I want to be a preacher too," chimes his friend, also named after the Prophet of Islam, dressed in his finest black gelab.
"We like to study the Qu'ran," explains the third Muhammad, also a resident of Syria's second city, "because it's our religion."
Internationally isolated and facing continuing domestic opposition, Syria is witnessing a revival of Islam in public and private life two decades after the secular government fought a bloody campaign to suppress an armed uprising against the state by Islamic extremists.
"The relationship between the government and the direction of Islam is now suitable," said Muhammad Habbash, the country's leading Islamist MP and head of the Islamic Studies Centre in Damascus. "We can now speak about what role Islam can play in people's lives."
Habbash's recent invitation to lecture army cadets on religious morals – the first time the Syrian military has officially cooperated with Islamist figures since the ruling Ba'ath party came to power in 1963 – is just one of a series of recent moves to allow Islam into public life by a state that once stopped at nothing to suppress it.
In 1982, following a three-year terrorist campaign against the state by the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, security officers ordered the shelling of the central city of Hama, which the Brotherhood had declared an Islamic emirate. The offensive resulted in the deaths of an estimated 20,000 people.
Hamed Haji, the 73-year-old muezzin whose call to prayer draws students – like the three young Muhammads – to Aleppo's Islamic school, remembers the violence. "In the 1980s, bullets hit the minaret," he recalls, pointing up to the pock-marked circles of stone. "And beards were not allowed; but we have more freedoms now."
Indeed, the past few months have seen a number of moves aimed at institutionalising Islam into Syria's old secular state. Mosques have been re-opened between prayer times, the president has begun ending public speeches with invocations to Allah and state auditoriums have been used for the country's first Qur'an reading competition.
In February, Syrian protesters burned and looted the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus in a display of anger against the publication of cartoons negatively depicting the Prophet Mohammed. At the time, security officials did little to quell the demonstrations, which were organised by Islamic study centres in the capital.
Among citizens, too, overt signs of religious devotion are becoming more frequent. An increasing number of young women are wearing headscarves, while green flags – representing Islam – adorned private shops on the Prophet's birthday in April.
Though three quarters of Syria's population are Sunni Muslim, the ruling party has long drawn its leaders from the minority Allawi sect, an offshoot of Shi'a Islam, which – along with Druze and other Muslim sects – makes up just 16 percent of the national population. Pan-Arab and secular, the Ba'ath Party has historically ruled on a domestic platform of protecting the rights of Syria's minorities.
For Habbash, the state's changing approach to Islam comes against a backdrop of regional upheaval since the launch of the US-led "war on terrorism", which has seen Islamist parties winning elections in Iraq and Palestine, escalating conflict between Israel and Islamist militia groups in Lebanon and an increasingly influential role for long-time Syrian ally and theocratic republic Iran. "The Syrian regime realised it has the same agenda as conservative Islamists," said Habbash. "They've formed an alliance to resist the current US administration's plan to change the region."
However, warns Aleppo's Mufti Ibrahim Salkeeni, US intervention in the Middle East has also served to radicalise many young Syrians. "American practises in Iraq and Palestine are pushing some young people in Aleppo to become like time bombs – and we don't know when these will explode," he said. "The more the pressure increases, the more explosions there will be."
With daily terror attacks in neighbouring Iraq, many ostensibly claimed by Islamic extremist organisations, security forces have waged a public campaign against Islamist groups operating inside Syria. Dozens of clashes between Syrian anti-terrorism forces and militant groups have been reported by official state news agency SANA. One such group, Jund as-Sham, or "Soldiers of the Levant", has reportedly planned terror attacks against public buildings in Damascus.
"Syria is aiming to change its policy of silence on these issues," said Imad Fauzi Shueibi, head of the Data and Strategic Studies Centre in Damascus, in an interview last year. "It wants to show the US that Syria is supporting the campaign against terrorism."The Muslim Brotherhood, whose exiled leader Ali Sadradeen Bayanouni recently united with former Syrian Vice President Abdel-Halim Khaddam to lead an opposition group calling for regime change in Damascus, remains outlawed. Association with the group is punishable by death. "The Muslim Brotherhood represents perhaps two percent of Syrian Muslims," said Sheikh Mahmoud Abu Hudda, an Aleppo dentist and Islamic scholar who has lectured in Europe and the US on Islam's place in what he calls the "global culture".
Though independent political parties are not legal under the autocratic Syrian regime, senior members of the Ba'ath party are currently negotiating the introduction of a new Parties Law that would grant licenses to those parties not based on ethnic identity or religion.
For Mohammed Akam, professor of Arabic-language studies at Aleppo University, the state's increasing acceptance of Islam's role in society is a welcome development. Nevertheless, he added, the new strategy is no substitute for the reformation of an outdated political system. "The conflict between the state and the Muslim Brotherhood was actually a conflict of ideologies," he argued. "We need a party without ideology. Between secularism and freedom, I prefer freedom. Secularism is a kind of ideology, but democracy is a way of including all."

SYRIA: Report warns of deteriorating circumstances among Iraqi refugees
01 Jun 2006 -Source: IRIN
More DAMASCUS, 1 June (IRIN) - Iraqi refugees in Syria are facing a crisis, with prostitution and child labour increasing among the rapidly swelling community. But, more than three years into the US-led war in Iraq, the international community has continued to turn a blind eye to their plight, say Damascus-based aid agencies.
"With the extreme political sensitivity of the situation in Iraq, the international community continues to say that things aren't that bad," said Ann Maymann, protection officer at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Damascus. "Who wants to admit that the US-led war created the conditions for this crisis?"
According to the first comprehensive report by international aid agencies into the plight of Iraqi refugees in Syria since the start of the war in March 2003 – a copy of which was obtained by IRIN – an estimated 450,000 Iraqis in Syria "are facing aggravated difficulties" as a result of their "ambiguous legal status and unsustainable income".
The survey – jointly conducted by the UNHCR, UN children's agency UNICEF and the UN World Food Programme – highlighted "extremely worrying" statistics indicating that a majority of Iraqis in Syria hoped to resettle in third countries. The report went on to warn of a possible "huge secondary movement" of Iraqis to Europe.
UNHCR representative in Syria Abdel Hamid al-Ouali noted that the problem "poses a tremendous challenge for the international community, which must give the situation urgent attention, planning and action in order to avoid a new exodus".
Local NGOs put the number of Iraqis in Syria at about 800,000, the majority of whom live in the suburbs of Damascus in deteriorating socio-economic conditions. Before the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime in April 2003, their numbers were estimated at only 100,000.
The report further noted that prostitution among young Iraqi women, some as young as 12 years old, "may become more widespread, since the economic situation of Iraqi families is deteriorating." "Organised networks dealing in the sex trade were reported," it noted, citing evidence that "girls and women were trafficked by organised networks or family members".
Rising child labour was also cited as a worrying trend. According to Marc Lucet, programme officer at UNICEF, minors represent almost 4 percent of the current workforce. "NGOs have told us about an increasing number of children taking on sometimes hazardous jobs for wages as low as 50 Syrian Pounds (roughly US $1) per day, just to support their families," said Lucet.The general health of most Iraqi refugees was found to be "satisfactory", with the large majority of households enjoying access to "adequate food consumption". Nevertheless, the report estimated that at least 1,500 families – roughly 7,500 people – face "very difficult conditions", including "poverty, expired legal documents and trauma".
"Malnutrition, low school enrolment, child labour and child prostitution are likely to increase among these families," the report went on to warn. "Efforts need to be sustained – and increased – to support those in need of direct humanitarian support."
Both the UNHCR and UNICEF are currently working with a number of ministries, including health and education, to improve living standards among the refugee community. This has included coordination with local NGOs in order to tackle the problem of child labour and prostitution.
"We can't leave Syria alone on this issue," said Dietrun Günther, senior protection officer at the UNHCR in Damascus. "If the West really wants to help Syria in this matter, it must negotiate new terms for its support of refugees."

Protesters Picket Beirut Bar Association,
Demand Respect For Freedom of Speech
Beirut, June 1, 2006: Human rights activists protest-picketed the main offices of the Bar Association at Beirut ("BAB") on Thursday morning carrying signs demanding strict respect for the rule of law and for the exercise of the freedom of _expression and criticism by all lawyers. The protesters further demanded that all measures adopted by former BAB presidents against Attorney Dr. Muhamad Mugraby by reason of his defense of victims of human rights violations and other abuses of power since the early nineties be rescinded. The activists issued the following statement:
The freedom of _expression and criticism, guaranteed by Article 19 UDHR and Article 13 of the Lebanese constitution, is the corner stone of democracy building and the precondition for the lawyers' ability to freely and securely discharge their defense duties whether on behalf of their clients or in the general public interest as they are obligated by law.
The various prosecutions brought against Attorney Dr. Muhamad Mugraby since the early nineties were all politically motivated by reason of his defense of victims of human rights violations and the abuse of power, and his advocacy of judicial integrity and the rule of law.
General public satisfaction was noted following the April 15, 2006, decision of the military court of cassation which voided Dr. Mugraby 's prosecution for his exercise of his freedom of _expression in the testimony he gave on November 4, 2003, in the European Parliament because what the court considered that what he said did not constitute slander but valid general criticism that exempted no one.
It is inconceivable that BAB continues to deal with Attorney Dr. Muhamad Mugraby as if it belongs to a different planet.
The circumstances and reasons for the position taken by some of the presidents of BAB against Attorney Dr. Mugraby are purely political in nature and a mistaken reaction to his advocacy for integrity and reform, and violate his rights under the said articles 19 and 13 and Article 23 of the Basic UN Principles on the Role of Lawyers.
For all these reasons the protesters demand that the council of BAB urgently rescind all measures adopted within the syndicate from the year 1999 against Attorney Dr. Muhamad Mugraby, retract all prosecutions, regardless of their nature, caused by certain former presidents of BAB, and maintain full respect for the exercise of the freedom of _expression and criticism by all lawyers.
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