THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
______________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release
October 30, 2008
STATEMENT BY PRESS SECRETARY DANA PERINO
The United States condemns the sentencing of 12 members of the Damascus Declaration National Council to two and a half years in prison. This judgment once again underscores the Syrian regime’s contempt for the fundamental rights and freedoms of their people.
The United States calls on the Syrian government to release immediately the 12 Damascus Declaration members, as well as all other political prisoners. Syria must live up to its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The Syrian regime cannot expect to be treated as a respected member of the international community when it engages in such systematic repression of its own citizens.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
US to Close Embassy in Damascus: Finie La Lune de Miel
The US said it would close its embassy in Syria today, amid increased tensions between Washington and Damascus following a US military attack that killed a Syrian who was allegedly sending foreign fighters into Iraq.
An anti-US demonstration was to be held in Damascus today to protest against the raid on Sunday night on Bou Kamal, the Syrian village that is a main transit point into Iraq.
This is indeed very good news. It's about time - Since Kissinger cozied up to Hafez al-Assad in 1974 and gave him the green light to destabilize Lebanon that year, leading to the Syrian-Palestinian onslaught on the Lebanese state in 1975, the US has maintained an incestuous relationship with the Baathist enemy in Damascus: It has kept Syria on its list of state sponsors of terrorism to this day, but has continued to exchange embassies, meet annually with the Syrian president, and give Syria a stature and importance it, first, does not deserve, and second, that was in striking contradiction to the listing of Syria as a "terrorist" nation.
The only explanation for the durability of this conflicting and contradictory policy is that the "big" players in that part of the Middle East - Syria, the US and Israel - entertained for more than three decades a tacit agreement of assisting each other, albeit with red lines and green lines, towards their ultimate goal: Destroy Lebanon and turn it into a substitute homeland for the Palestinians so they no longer bother Israel. Syria's only concern in this bargain was to recover the Golan Heights, and as such the Assad dynasty has been the most faithful pro-Israeli agent in the Middle East.
The Lebanese understood this implicit, and sometime explicit, American-Syrian-Israeli game firsthand since they were the scapegoats and the sacrificial lambs in this diabolical conspiracy. The conspiracy was explicit in the fact that Israeli leaders often spoke of Syria as the only guarantor of stability in an otherwise "chaotic" Lebanon, or Western leaders often speaking of Hafez Assad as a man "who keeps his word and his end of the bargain", or US policy makers who declared the Syrian military "presence" in Lebanon since 1974 as a "factor of stability", changing this jargon in 2003 when Colin Powell declared that presence (for the first time ever by a US official) as an "occupation".
The present rift in Syrian-US relations is too little too late a change in US policy. Too little for Lebanon and the hundred of thousands of Lebanese who died at the hands of the Syrians and the Palestinians. Many of us have constantly called that US policy misguided, twisted and ultimately very harmful to US interests because, if the US truly wanted peace in the Middle East, it would not have protected and supported the Syrian regime which, for close to 40 years, stood as the last and only obstacle to peace in the region.
If the Syrian threat had been dealt with early on, we may not have seen the rise of fundamentalism and radicalism in the Middle East. Perhaps, the US never really wanted peace, and neither did Israel. Maintaining foci of trouble and instability around Israel provided a constant source of pretexts and justifications to derail the so-called peace process, which is destined ultimately to deny and abort a genuinely fair solution to the Palestinian problem, while delivering a dislocated and dismembered Lebanon to the vultures of the Baath regime and the PLO as a substitute for Palestine.
Hanibaal
An anti-US demonstration was to be held in Damascus today to protest against the raid on Sunday night on Bou Kamal, the Syrian village that is a main transit point into Iraq.
This is indeed very good news. It's about time - Since Kissinger cozied up to Hafez al-Assad in 1974 and gave him the green light to destabilize Lebanon that year, leading to the Syrian-Palestinian onslaught on the Lebanese state in 1975, the US has maintained an incestuous relationship with the Baathist enemy in Damascus: It has kept Syria on its list of state sponsors of terrorism to this day, but has continued to exchange embassies, meet annually with the Syrian president, and give Syria a stature and importance it, first, does not deserve, and second, that was in striking contradiction to the listing of Syria as a "terrorist" nation.
The only explanation for the durability of this conflicting and contradictory policy is that the "big" players in that part of the Middle East - Syria, the US and Israel - entertained for more than three decades a tacit agreement of assisting each other, albeit with red lines and green lines, towards their ultimate goal: Destroy Lebanon and turn it into a substitute homeland for the Palestinians so they no longer bother Israel. Syria's only concern in this bargain was to recover the Golan Heights, and as such the Assad dynasty has been the most faithful pro-Israeli agent in the Middle East.
The Lebanese understood this implicit, and sometime explicit, American-Syrian-Israeli game firsthand since they were the scapegoats and the sacrificial lambs in this diabolical conspiracy. The conspiracy was explicit in the fact that Israeli leaders often spoke of Syria as the only guarantor of stability in an otherwise "chaotic" Lebanon, or Western leaders often speaking of Hafez Assad as a man "who keeps his word and his end of the bargain", or US policy makers who declared the Syrian military "presence" in Lebanon since 1974 as a "factor of stability", changing this jargon in 2003 when Colin Powell declared that presence (for the first time ever by a US official) as an "occupation".
The present rift in Syrian-US relations is too little too late a change in US policy. Too little for Lebanon and the hundred of thousands of Lebanese who died at the hands of the Syrians and the Palestinians. Many of us have constantly called that US policy misguided, twisted and ultimately very harmful to US interests because, if the US truly wanted peace in the Middle East, it would not have protected and supported the Syrian regime which, for close to 40 years, stood as the last and only obstacle to peace in the region.
If the Syrian threat had been dealt with early on, we may not have seen the rise of fundamentalism and radicalism in the Middle East. Perhaps, the US never really wanted peace, and neither did Israel. Maintaining foci of trouble and instability around Israel provided a constant source of pretexts and justifications to derail the so-called peace process, which is destined ultimately to deny and abort a genuinely fair solution to the Palestinian problem, while delivering a dislocated and dismembered Lebanon to the vultures of the Baath regime and the PLO as a substitute for Palestine.
Hanibaal
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Opinion: A thought-provoking journey — Munir Attaullah
Opinion: A thought-provoking journey — Munir Attaullah
Pakistan Daily Times - Oct. 29, 2008
One thing is for sure: none of the successful nations have achieved what they have through the official promotion of religious fervour and ostentatious displays of piety as a matter of social policy
My first-time, three-hour mountain road journey from Damascus to Beirut set the mind buzzing for many a reason. The result was an abundance of interesting thoughts that I think I can usefully share with readers via a column.
Damascus nestles sleepily in the leeward shadows of the last foothills of the small and narrow mountain range that separates the Mediterranean coast in this region from the great desert — like plains that stretch out endlessly to the East and South of the city. And, in many ways, Damascus is still an ‘old world’ city. Coastal Beirut, in contrast, barely 50 miles away (as the crow flies), is very much a bustling and brash modern metropolis.
The immediate hills surrounding Damascus are bare, brown, and devoid of all vegetation even though they are snow-covered in the winter. Apparently, this was not the case as little as 150 years ago. But, under the Ottoman Empire, the Turks ruthlessly cut down the surrounding forest for firewood to fuel the hungry engines of the Hejaz Railway.
[...]
An hour or so into the journey on a modern highway (and by now, well up in the mountain range) we arrived at the town that hosts the border crossing between Syria and Lebanon. The formalities were largely uncomplicated and hassle free. My Arab friends required no visa and the luggage check (at least for entering Lebanon, though not necessarily the other way round) is either non-existent or perfunctory at worst. Of course, I required a visa but that matter was taken care of in ten minutes by the Syrian ‘facilitator’ from the UAE embassy accompanying us.
Yes, I got no change back from the $100 bill I gave him, even though on inspecting the passport later I noted that the visa only cost about $16! Where the rest of the money went I have no idea. I reflect that in certain parts of the world some things never change.
Incidentally, most Arab countries (except Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States) do not (by and large) require a visa from nationals of other Arab countries. As far as I can tell, the common (but powerful) bond is the Arabic language, not ethnicity or even culture, or mores. What a far cry from the problems Indians and Pakistanis face when visiting each other! And, in this context, it is worth noting that the relationship between Syria and Lebanon has never exactly been cordial: it was only last week, after six decades, that they finally agreed to establish diplomatic relations.
The contrast between the two neighbouring countries was apparent immediately. The Lebanese town (a big village, really) was cleaner and well laid out; the roads were much better, with substantially more traffic; the houses and buildings, modern; and the people obviously motivated and energetic rather than resigned and lethargic. Clearly, Lebanon is economically much more prosperous than Syria.
That pattern was repeated in all the mountain towns en route (which are all flooded with visitors from Beirut, and overseas tourists, during the summer high season). I could easily have, give or take a little, been in Switzerland. And one could not help but reflect in the process, with more than a twinge of bitterness, what a dump Murree is by contrast.
And here is another intriguing thought that occupied me for a substantial part of the rest of the journey. Why, and how, does an artificial border often produce such markedly different levels of economic prosperity, and mental attitudes, between essentially the same people living on either side of the divide? I think of the two Koreas; Taiwan and China; and Singapore and Malaysia, and other countries besides Syria and Lebanon. Even within a given country, there are often similar wide disparities between different geographical areas. What lessons — if any — do such examples have for our own homebred socio-economic gurus?
Clearly, this is a major (and contentious) area of debate. In any case, I am not about to air my own half-baked theories here. But one thing is for sure: none of the successful nations have achieved what they have through the official promotion of religious fervour and ostentatious displays of piety as a matter of social policy.
The Lebanese are a heterogeneous lot, with at least a dozen different sects of the three monotheistic religions well represented in their population. As befits the descendants of the ancient Phoenicians, they have an insatiable appetite for commerce.
Here is an example of what I mean. Within five minutes of stopping at a roadside café for a cup of coffee, a travelling salesman (a charming young student type) spotted us, parked his car, engaged us in conversation, and was soon offering to sell us a jar of ‘pure natural mountain honey, personally collected only yesterday’. By the time we all had finished the coffee he had sold the four of us his entire stock of ten jars ‘at an incredible bulk discount’. It was only when we recommenced our journey that we asked each other why we had bought a two year supply of honey, especially as two of us are diabetic!
One of the great social realities is that the pursuit of profitable commerce cannot be de-linked from a tolerant attitude. So, for all the political turmoil of the past three decades, and the terrible physical and social damage resulting from years of civil war and repeated Israeli aggression (no country in the region can escape the nightmare consequences of the Middle East conflict), Lebanese society remain surprisingly cheerful, cohesive, optimistic, and purposeful.
And so, Hezbollah or no Hezbollah, Israel or no Israel, Syria or no Syria, the relentless search for a better life goes on. Downtown Beirut, reduced to rubble by Israeli jets just a few years ago, has been rebuilt, with the beautiful Hariri mosque and an imposing Cathedral occupying pride of place side by side. The Lebanese, like the Italians, have an instinctive feel for fashion, design and la dolce vita, and no visitor is immune from that reality. The noisy, crowded, and colourful bars, restaurants, and nightclubs here are a different but as valid a testimony to the resilience of the human spirit as the passive but dogged determination displayed by the Syrian people.
Oh yes! There is one thing we share with the Lebanese: suicidal driving habits and road sense.
The writer is a businessman. A selection of his columns is now available in book form. Visit munirattaullah.com
Pakistan Daily Times - Oct. 29, 2008
One thing is for sure: none of the successful nations have achieved what they have through the official promotion of religious fervour and ostentatious displays of piety as a matter of social policy
My first-time, three-hour mountain road journey from Damascus to Beirut set the mind buzzing for many a reason. The result was an abundance of interesting thoughts that I think I can usefully share with readers via a column.
Damascus nestles sleepily in the leeward shadows of the last foothills of the small and narrow mountain range that separates the Mediterranean coast in this region from the great desert — like plains that stretch out endlessly to the East and South of the city. And, in many ways, Damascus is still an ‘old world’ city. Coastal Beirut, in contrast, barely 50 miles away (as the crow flies), is very much a bustling and brash modern metropolis.
The immediate hills surrounding Damascus are bare, brown, and devoid of all vegetation even though they are snow-covered in the winter. Apparently, this was not the case as little as 150 years ago. But, under the Ottoman Empire, the Turks ruthlessly cut down the surrounding forest for firewood to fuel the hungry engines of the Hejaz Railway.
[...]
An hour or so into the journey on a modern highway (and by now, well up in the mountain range) we arrived at the town that hosts the border crossing between Syria and Lebanon. The formalities were largely uncomplicated and hassle free. My Arab friends required no visa and the luggage check (at least for entering Lebanon, though not necessarily the other way round) is either non-existent or perfunctory at worst. Of course, I required a visa but that matter was taken care of in ten minutes by the Syrian ‘facilitator’ from the UAE embassy accompanying us.
Yes, I got no change back from the $100 bill I gave him, even though on inspecting the passport later I noted that the visa only cost about $16! Where the rest of the money went I have no idea. I reflect that in certain parts of the world some things never change.
Incidentally, most Arab countries (except Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States) do not (by and large) require a visa from nationals of other Arab countries. As far as I can tell, the common (but powerful) bond is the Arabic language, not ethnicity or even culture, or mores. What a far cry from the problems Indians and Pakistanis face when visiting each other! And, in this context, it is worth noting that the relationship between Syria and Lebanon has never exactly been cordial: it was only last week, after six decades, that they finally agreed to establish diplomatic relations.
The contrast between the two neighbouring countries was apparent immediately. The Lebanese town (a big village, really) was cleaner and well laid out; the roads were much better, with substantially more traffic; the houses and buildings, modern; and the people obviously motivated and energetic rather than resigned and lethargic. Clearly, Lebanon is economically much more prosperous than Syria.
That pattern was repeated in all the mountain towns en route (which are all flooded with visitors from Beirut, and overseas tourists, during the summer high season). I could easily have, give or take a little, been in Switzerland. And one could not help but reflect in the process, with more than a twinge of bitterness, what a dump Murree is by contrast.
And here is another intriguing thought that occupied me for a substantial part of the rest of the journey. Why, and how, does an artificial border often produce such markedly different levels of economic prosperity, and mental attitudes, between essentially the same people living on either side of the divide? I think of the two Koreas; Taiwan and China; and Singapore and Malaysia, and other countries besides Syria and Lebanon. Even within a given country, there are often similar wide disparities between different geographical areas. What lessons — if any — do such examples have for our own homebred socio-economic gurus?
Clearly, this is a major (and contentious) area of debate. In any case, I am not about to air my own half-baked theories here. But one thing is for sure: none of the successful nations have achieved what they have through the official promotion of religious fervour and ostentatious displays of piety as a matter of social policy.
The Lebanese are a heterogeneous lot, with at least a dozen different sects of the three monotheistic religions well represented in their population. As befits the descendants of the ancient Phoenicians, they have an insatiable appetite for commerce.
Here is an example of what I mean. Within five minutes of stopping at a roadside café for a cup of coffee, a travelling salesman (a charming young student type) spotted us, parked his car, engaged us in conversation, and was soon offering to sell us a jar of ‘pure natural mountain honey, personally collected only yesterday’. By the time we all had finished the coffee he had sold the four of us his entire stock of ten jars ‘at an incredible bulk discount’. It was only when we recommenced our journey that we asked each other why we had bought a two year supply of honey, especially as two of us are diabetic!
One of the great social realities is that the pursuit of profitable commerce cannot be de-linked from a tolerant attitude. So, for all the political turmoil of the past three decades, and the terrible physical and social damage resulting from years of civil war and repeated Israeli aggression (no country in the region can escape the nightmare consequences of the Middle East conflict), Lebanese society remain surprisingly cheerful, cohesive, optimistic, and purposeful.
And so, Hezbollah or no Hezbollah, Israel or no Israel, Syria or no Syria, the relentless search for a better life goes on. Downtown Beirut, reduced to rubble by Israeli jets just a few years ago, has been rebuilt, with the beautiful Hariri mosque and an imposing Cathedral occupying pride of place side by side. The Lebanese, like the Italians, have an instinctive feel for fashion, design and la dolce vita, and no visitor is immune from that reality. The noisy, crowded, and colourful bars, restaurants, and nightclubs here are a different but as valid a testimony to the resilience of the human spirit as the passive but dogged determination displayed by the Syrian people.
Oh yes! There is one thing we share with the Lebanese: suicidal driving habits and road sense.
The writer is a businessman. A selection of his columns is now available in book form. Visit munirattaullah.com
Syria to Retaliate Against US Attack: In Lebanon
There are some who see the weekend attack by the US against targets inside Syria as an "irreparable" break in the on-off US-Syrian relations over the past few decades. Never mind the scores of deals made between successive US administrations and the Syrian Baathist dictatorship, many of which were at the expense of Lebanon.
As has often happened over those decades, whenever there was a downturn in US-Syria relations or a change of direction in the general geopolitics of the region that Syria did not like (e.g. the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel in 1979, or the 1983 peace agreement between Israel and Lebanon that was derailed by Syria, etc..), it would be Lebanon that ended up paying the price.
Since Syria had directly occupied Lebanon for more than three decades and never stopped from the first days of the two countries' independence in the 1940s from interfering in Lebanese internal affairs, Lebanon became the victim of Syrian anger at the US or at Israel.
Assassinations of Lebanese politicians and journalists followed the humiliating evacuation of Syria's military from Lebanon in 2005. Lebanon erupted in an all-out war in which Lebanese cities were besieged by the Syrian army for months on end and shelled to oblivion by the Syrian artillery in 1978 and in 1981, again as a way for Syria to show its displeasure at the US sponsorship of the peace process between Egypt and Israel. The examples of such Syrian behavior between 1970 and 2008 are so numerous to list exhaustively, but it leads one to wonder: What will the Syrian response to this past weekend's US attack against targets inside Syrian borders?
I venture that Lebanon will be the scapegoat with which Syria will vent its anger against the US. Just wait and see. And it won't be long in coming. Syria, which clearly favors Obama over McCain in the White House, will not want to embarrass Obama after his likely election next Tuesday. So, Syria has exactly 8 days to get back at Bush in revenge. Where else but in Lebanon can the Syrian bullies vent their anger? An assassination, a bomb, an eruption of violence in Tripoli or in one of the Palestinian camps that the Syrians control, anything that will destabilize Lebanon and undermine the Bush administration's attempts (albeit timid, fake and pointless) at securing a "pro-Western" government in Beirut.
Just wait and see. To the Lebanese people: Brace yourselves! Syria's revenge at the US will be - as was always the case - at your expense. In fact, it's very easy for Syria to do this: It's got Hezbollah in Lebanon to do Syria's dirty tricks.
Hanibaal
As has often happened over those decades, whenever there was a downturn in US-Syria relations or a change of direction in the general geopolitics of the region that Syria did not like (e.g. the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel in 1979, or the 1983 peace agreement between Israel and Lebanon that was derailed by Syria, etc..), it would be Lebanon that ended up paying the price.
Since Syria had directly occupied Lebanon for more than three decades and never stopped from the first days of the two countries' independence in the 1940s from interfering in Lebanese internal affairs, Lebanon became the victim of Syrian anger at the US or at Israel.
Assassinations of Lebanese politicians and journalists followed the humiliating evacuation of Syria's military from Lebanon in 2005. Lebanon erupted in an all-out war in which Lebanese cities were besieged by the Syrian army for months on end and shelled to oblivion by the Syrian artillery in 1978 and in 1981, again as a way for Syria to show its displeasure at the US sponsorship of the peace process between Egypt and Israel. The examples of such Syrian behavior between 1970 and 2008 are so numerous to list exhaustively, but it leads one to wonder: What will the Syrian response to this past weekend's US attack against targets inside Syrian borders?
I venture that Lebanon will be the scapegoat with which Syria will vent its anger against the US. Just wait and see. And it won't be long in coming. Syria, which clearly favors Obama over McCain in the White House, will not want to embarrass Obama after his likely election next Tuesday. So, Syria has exactly 8 days to get back at Bush in revenge. Where else but in Lebanon can the Syrian bullies vent their anger? An assassination, a bomb, an eruption of violence in Tripoli or in one of the Palestinian camps that the Syrians control, anything that will destabilize Lebanon and undermine the Bush administration's attempts (albeit timid, fake and pointless) at securing a "pro-Western" government in Beirut.
Just wait and see. To the Lebanese people: Brace yourselves! Syria's revenge at the US will be - as was always the case - at your expense. In fact, it's very easy for Syria to do this: It's got Hezbollah in Lebanon to do Syria's dirty tricks.
Hanibaal
Monday, October 27, 2008
Syrian Terrorist Baathist Regime Gets what it Deserves
No one these days is happier than the Lebanese as they watch the Syrian terrorist Baathist regime squirm like the worm that it is after it was stepped on by the American boot. Let the Syrian Bathist enemies of Lebanon get a dose of their own medicine.
The Syrian terrorist regime in Damascus did the exact same thing to Lebanon and the Lebanese people for 30 plus years: Shellings, kidnappings, bombings, assassinations, and all sort of pilfering and mayhem. The Syrian terrorists of the Assad dictator dynasty to this day continue to hold hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent Lebanese civilians in its dungeons and prisons. It did all this to Lebanon with the approval and complicity of successive US Administrations that were too spineless and afraid of the scarecrow in Damascus to stand up to it. Now, the Syrian dictator is seething at the "betrayal" by his friends the Americans...
Even as recently as a couple of months ago, French president welcomed the tyrant criminal Assad to Paris and paid an official visit to Damascus. Condoleezza Rice met with the Baathist Foreign Minister in New York only last month.
For all the respectability that the West has continued to give to this most vulgar of tyrannies on the planet for the past 3 decades, and for all the half-ass attempts at dealing with this last obstacle to peace in the Middle East by submitting to its blackmail on Western hostages, on stability in Lebanon, on support to Hamas and Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations; by placing Syria on the list of state sponsors of terrorism, yet meeting with Assad once a year at the highest levels of governments (Reagan, Bush, Clinton, all of them used to meet Assad once a year in Geneva, even as Syria was burning Lebanon, holding Western hostages, bombing the MArines in Beirut....), one wonders what this latest bombing of Syria (after the ISraeli bombing of a nuclear site last year) means.
It looks like Syria's game of biding time until the next, more compliant US Administration of Obama, comes to power, or its game of giving some and taking some...is over.
Syria has given positive signals:
- It has negotiated indirectly with its "enemy" Israel most of last year. It has recognized Lebanon's independence (finally, after 60 years of saying it won't)....It said it will help prevent further infiltrations by its terrorists into Iraq and Lebanon...
But it also has continued giving the same old negative signals:
- Support to Hezbollah with money, weapons, and terrorists infiltrating across the Lebanese border, it refuses to cease interfering politically in Lebanon, it refuses to engage ISrael in serious peace negotiations, etc...
So, as the International Independent Investigative Commission wraps up its work on the Hariri assassination and is about (December 1) to issue its final indictments, which are likely to cause an earthquake in both Lebanon and Syria, and as the Bush administration is trying to score one last victory in the Middle East, Syria's game has become exposed, and no one has any patience left with the vulgar Baathist dictator in Damascus, and the US attack over the weekend is a message: Surrender like Qaddhafi did, or you are going to go down like dogs - by military, diplomatic, legal and political means.
And nothing would make the Lebanese more happy than to see Bashar Assad's long neck, Bouthaina Shhaban's ugly face, or Walid Mouallem's fat ass be trampled in the mud.
Yalla Bush, one more fireworks before you go, and believe me, with Syria, this is the most correct war you would have ever waged.
Hanibaal
The Syrian terrorist regime in Damascus did the exact same thing to Lebanon and the Lebanese people for 30 plus years: Shellings, kidnappings, bombings, assassinations, and all sort of pilfering and mayhem. The Syrian terrorists of the Assad dictator dynasty to this day continue to hold hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent Lebanese civilians in its dungeons and prisons. It did all this to Lebanon with the approval and complicity of successive US Administrations that were too spineless and afraid of the scarecrow in Damascus to stand up to it. Now, the Syrian dictator is seething at the "betrayal" by his friends the Americans...
Even as recently as a couple of months ago, French president welcomed the tyrant criminal Assad to Paris and paid an official visit to Damascus. Condoleezza Rice met with the Baathist Foreign Minister in New York only last month.
For all the respectability that the West has continued to give to this most vulgar of tyrannies on the planet for the past 3 decades, and for all the half-ass attempts at dealing with this last obstacle to peace in the Middle East by submitting to its blackmail on Western hostages, on stability in Lebanon, on support to Hamas and Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations; by placing Syria on the list of state sponsors of terrorism, yet meeting with Assad once a year at the highest levels of governments (Reagan, Bush, Clinton, all of them used to meet Assad once a year in Geneva, even as Syria was burning Lebanon, holding Western hostages, bombing the MArines in Beirut....), one wonders what this latest bombing of Syria (after the ISraeli bombing of a nuclear site last year) means.
It looks like Syria's game of biding time until the next, more compliant US Administration of Obama, comes to power, or its game of giving some and taking some...is over.
Syria has given positive signals:
- It has negotiated indirectly with its "enemy" Israel most of last year. It has recognized Lebanon's independence (finally, after 60 years of saying it won't)....It said it will help prevent further infiltrations by its terrorists into Iraq and Lebanon...
But it also has continued giving the same old negative signals:
- Support to Hezbollah with money, weapons, and terrorists infiltrating across the Lebanese border, it refuses to cease interfering politically in Lebanon, it refuses to engage ISrael in serious peace negotiations, etc...
So, as the International Independent Investigative Commission wraps up its work on the Hariri assassination and is about (December 1) to issue its final indictments, which are likely to cause an earthquake in both Lebanon and Syria, and as the Bush administration is trying to score one last victory in the Middle East, Syria's game has become exposed, and no one has any patience left with the vulgar Baathist dictator in Damascus, and the US attack over the weekend is a message: Surrender like Qaddhafi did, or you are going to go down like dogs - by military, diplomatic, legal and political means.
And nothing would make the Lebanese more happy than to see Bashar Assad's long neck, Bouthaina Shhaban's ugly face, or Walid Mouallem's fat ass be trampled in the mud.
Yalla Bush, one more fireworks before you go, and believe me, with Syria, this is the most correct war you would have ever waged.
Hanibaal
Sunday, October 26, 2008
US Attacks Terrorists inside Syrian Baathist Entity
American helicopter-carried troops launched an attack on Sunday on a building in a village inside the territory of the Syrian Baathist entity along the border with Iraq, killing eight Baathist terrorists.
According to Baathist enemy sources, four American helicopters violated the Baathist entity's airspace around 16:45 local time (1345 GMT) on Sunday, penetrating to a depth of eight kilometers (five miles). The American soldiers emerged from helicopters and attacked the building harboring Syrian terrorists, killing eight of them. The helicopters then left Baathist entity territory towards Iraq.
The government in Baathist-occupied Damascus summoned the US and Iraqi envoys to protest against what it called a US military attack and to demand that Iraq prevent US forces from launching aggression against the Baathist entity.
US commanders say the Syrian Baathist entity is the main transit point for foreign terrorist Jihadists crossing into Iraq. Washington has blamed Damascus for turning a blind eye to the problem. On October 16, Iraqi forces arrested seven Syrian terrorists at a checkpoint near the city of Baquba, a hub of Al-Qaeda fighters, the Baghdad Defense Ministry said.
On September 28, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice confirmed she had met her Syrian Baathist counterpart, Walid Muallem, to discuss Middle East peace efforts despite renewed criticism from Washington over Syrian Baathist policies.
Washington has also accused Damascus of failing to give adequate cooperation to the International Atomic Energy Agency in its investigation into a mystery facility bombed by Israel in September last year that US officials have charged was a nuclear plant.
Chilly relations between the Baathist entity and the United States grew more tense after Washington accused the Baathist regime of being behind the assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister Rafiq Hariri in 2005.
[From various news sources]
According to Baathist enemy sources, four American helicopters violated the Baathist entity's airspace around 16:45 local time (1345 GMT) on Sunday, penetrating to a depth of eight kilometers (five miles). The American soldiers emerged from helicopters and attacked the building harboring Syrian terrorists, killing eight of them. The helicopters then left Baathist entity territory towards Iraq.
The government in Baathist-occupied Damascus summoned the US and Iraqi envoys to protest against what it called a US military attack and to demand that Iraq prevent US forces from launching aggression against the Baathist entity.
US commanders say the Syrian Baathist entity is the main transit point for foreign terrorist Jihadists crossing into Iraq. Washington has blamed Damascus for turning a blind eye to the problem. On October 16, Iraqi forces arrested seven Syrian terrorists at a checkpoint near the city of Baquba, a hub of Al-Qaeda fighters, the Baghdad Defense Ministry said.
On September 28, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice confirmed she had met her Syrian Baathist counterpart, Walid Muallem, to discuss Middle East peace efforts despite renewed criticism from Washington over Syrian Baathist policies.
Washington has also accused Damascus of failing to give adequate cooperation to the International Atomic Energy Agency in its investigation into a mystery facility bombed by Israel in September last year that US officials have charged was a nuclear plant.
Chilly relations between the Baathist entity and the United States grew more tense after Washington accused the Baathist regime of being behind the assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister Rafiq Hariri in 2005.
[From various news sources]
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Hassan "Cocaine" Nasrallah - Groovy Islam and a "Divine" High
October 23, 2008
Investigators link Colombian drug ring to Hizbullah
CHRIS KRAUL and SEBASTIAN ROTELLA, in Bogota.
COLOMBIA : US AND Colombian investigators have dismantled an international cocaine smuggling and money-laundering ring that allegedly used part of its profits to finance Hizbullah, the Lebanon-based Shia militia.
After a two-year investigation, authorities have arrested at least 36 suspects in recent days, including an accused Lebanese kingpin in Bogota, Chekry Harb, who acted as the hub of an unusual alliance between South American cocaine traffickers and Middle Eastern militants, Colombian investigators alleged.
Authorities accuse Mr Harb of being a "world-class money-launderer" whose ring washed hundreds of millions of dollars a year, from Panama to Hong Kong, while paying a percentage to Hizbullah. Mr Harb was charged with drug-related crimes in a sealed indictment filed in Miami in July, but terror-related charges have not been filed. The suspects allegedly worked with a Colombian cartel and a paramilitary group to smuggle cocaine to the US, Europe and the Middle East.
Mr Harb traveled to Lebanon, Syria and Egypt and was in phone contact with Hizbullah figures, according to Colombian officials.
"The profits from the sales of drugs went to finance Hizbullah," said Gladys Sanchez, lead investigator for the special prosecutor's office here. "This is an example of how narco-trafficking is a theme of interest to all criminal organizations, the FARC, the paramilitaries and terrorists." FARC is the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the guerrilla group that was alleged to have had links with the IRA.
Iran, a Hizbullah sponsor, and donations from the Lebanese diaspora are two sources for a multimillion-dollar budget that pays for the militia's armed and political wings and social projects such as hospitals in Beirut. However, investigations have shown that Hizbullah also funds itself through drug dealing, arms trafficking, contraband smuggling and other rackets in the Americas, Africa and elsewhere.
Western anti-terror agents have expressed concern about signs of an increasing Hizbullah presence in South America. In June, the US Treasury Department designated two Venezuelans of Lebanese descent, one a diplomat, as Hizbullah financiers and supporters.
The case began as a money-laundering investigation, but agents discovered the alleged links between Mr Harb and Hizbullah operatives as they followed the money. Harb's group allegedly paid Hizbullah 12 per cent of its profits, investigators said, without giving a dollar figure.
- (LA Times, Washington Post Service)
© 2008 The Irish Times
Investigators link Colombian drug ring to Hizbullah
CHRIS KRAUL and SEBASTIAN ROTELLA, in Bogota.
COLOMBIA : US AND Colombian investigators have dismantled an international cocaine smuggling and money-laundering ring that allegedly used part of its profits to finance Hizbullah, the Lebanon-based Shia militia.
After a two-year investigation, authorities have arrested at least 36 suspects in recent days, including an accused Lebanese kingpin in Bogota, Chekry Harb, who acted as the hub of an unusual alliance between South American cocaine traffickers and Middle Eastern militants, Colombian investigators alleged.
Authorities accuse Mr Harb of being a "world-class money-launderer" whose ring washed hundreds of millions of dollars a year, from Panama to Hong Kong, while paying a percentage to Hizbullah. Mr Harb was charged with drug-related crimes in a sealed indictment filed in Miami in July, but terror-related charges have not been filed. The suspects allegedly worked with a Colombian cartel and a paramilitary group to smuggle cocaine to the US, Europe and the Middle East.
Mr Harb traveled to Lebanon, Syria and Egypt and was in phone contact with Hizbullah figures, according to Colombian officials.
"The profits from the sales of drugs went to finance Hizbullah," said Gladys Sanchez, lead investigator for the special prosecutor's office here. "This is an example of how narco-trafficking is a theme of interest to all criminal organizations, the FARC, the paramilitaries and terrorists." FARC is the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the guerrilla group that was alleged to have had links with the IRA.
Iran, a Hizbullah sponsor, and donations from the Lebanese diaspora are two sources for a multimillion-dollar budget that pays for the militia's armed and political wings and social projects such as hospitals in Beirut. However, investigations have shown that Hizbullah also funds itself through drug dealing, arms trafficking, contraband smuggling and other rackets in the Americas, Africa and elsewhere.
Western anti-terror agents have expressed concern about signs of an increasing Hizbullah presence in South America. In June, the US Treasury Department designated two Venezuelans of Lebanese descent, one a diplomat, as Hizbullah financiers and supporters.
The case began as a money-laundering investigation, but agents discovered the alleged links between Mr Harb and Hizbullah operatives as they followed the money. Harb's group allegedly paid Hizbullah 12 per cent of its profits, investigators said, without giving a dollar figure.
- (LA Times, Washington Post Service)
© 2008 The Irish Times
Darn...they missed him! Another "Divine" intervention!
22/10/2008
Report: Hezbollah chief poisoned; Iranian doctors saved his life
The Iraqi Web site Almalaf on Wednesday quoted diplomatic sources in Beirut as saying Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was poisoned last week and that his life was saved by Iranian doctors who were rushed to Lebanon to treat him.
The sources reportedly told the paper that a particularly poisonous chemical substance was used against the Shi'ite militia's leader. His medical condition was apparently critical for a number of days, until the Iranian doctors arrived and managed to save his life.
The site claimed that the sources believed it was highly likely that the poisoning was an Israeli assassination attempt.
Hezbollah has denied the report. Lebanese parliament member Al-Hajj Hassan, a member of the group, said: "This is a lie and a fabrication. It' true that I haven't seen [Nasrallah] this past week, but he's okay."
The Iranian medical team arrived on Sunday at 11:00 P.M., apparently on a special military flight. Officials considered flying Nasrallah to Iran for further treatment, according to Almalaf.
In September 1997, a Mossad team tried to assassinate Hamas' political chief, Khaled Meshal, by drizzling poison in his ear. The attempt failed, and two of the agents were captured while others found refuge in the Israeli embassy in Amman.
Nasrallah's second-in-command Imad Mughniyah was assassinated in February in a Damascus bomb blast. Hezbollah accused Israel of responsibility for the explosion, although Israel has denied any connection to the act.
Report: Hezbollah chief poisoned; Iranian doctors saved his life
The Iraqi Web site Almalaf on Wednesday quoted diplomatic sources in Beirut as saying Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was poisoned last week and that his life was saved by Iranian doctors who were rushed to Lebanon to treat him.
The sources reportedly told the paper that a particularly poisonous chemical substance was used against the Shi'ite militia's leader. His medical condition was apparently critical for a number of days, until the Iranian doctors arrived and managed to save his life.
The site claimed that the sources believed it was highly likely that the poisoning was an Israeli assassination attempt.
Hezbollah has denied the report. Lebanese parliament member Al-Hajj Hassan, a member of the group, said: "This is a lie and a fabrication. It' true that I haven't seen [Nasrallah] this past week, but he's okay."
The Iranian medical team arrived on Sunday at 11:00 P.M., apparently on a special military flight. Officials considered flying Nasrallah to Iran for further treatment, according to Almalaf.
In September 1997, a Mossad team tried to assassinate Hamas' political chief, Khaled Meshal, by drizzling poison in his ear. The attempt failed, and two of the agents were captured while others found refuge in the Israeli embassy in Amman.
Nasrallah's second-in-command Imad Mughniyah was assassinated in February in a Damascus bomb blast. Hezbollah accused Israel of responsibility for the explosion, although Israel has denied any connection to the act.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Dubai: Still Backwards atop the Skyscrapers
You can put a suit on an Arab and put him behind a Mercedes, like you can put lipstick on a pig and march it in a parade. It won't change them.
In Dubai, the "finest" among Arabs as an Emirate that has worked hard to cultivate an image as a haven for Western tourists and businesses in the Middle East, kissing in public is punishable by law.
Fuck Dubai, all the Arabs and all the Muslims for that matter, because no matter how much they try to project an image of human decency and progress, they remain backwards, tribal, and religious bigots...
A British man and a British woman were sentenced yesterday to three months in jail for "kissing on the beach". Meanwhile, in the bedrooms of the religious Islamic Arabs from Dubai to Kuwait, and from Iraq to Morocco, there is rampant anal sex, homosexuality, sex with children (mostly boys), rape and abuse of foreign maids....But no one dares to break the taboos and the insults of basic humanity behind the religious bigotry of modern day Islam.
Islam today is like the Christianity of the Middle Ages... It is corrupt, decadent, inhumane, harsh, backwards, and ready to implode from the inside... Under a surface of brotherhood and order, every human behavior and vice take place behind closed doors.... Saudis who get drunk on "eau de cologne" because they can't buy alcohol, or the "there are no homosexuals in Iran" of Ahmadinejad, or daily descriptions of Christians and Jews as "sons of apes and pigs", etc....These are the living lies of the Muslims today.
Hanibaal
In Dubai, the "finest" among Arabs as an Emirate that has worked hard to cultivate an image as a haven for Western tourists and businesses in the Middle East, kissing in public is punishable by law.
Fuck Dubai, all the Arabs and all the Muslims for that matter, because no matter how much they try to project an image of human decency and progress, they remain backwards, tribal, and religious bigots...
A British man and a British woman were sentenced yesterday to three months in jail for "kissing on the beach". Meanwhile, in the bedrooms of the religious Islamic Arabs from Dubai to Kuwait, and from Iraq to Morocco, there is rampant anal sex, homosexuality, sex with children (mostly boys), rape and abuse of foreign maids....But no one dares to break the taboos and the insults of basic humanity behind the religious bigotry of modern day Islam.
Islam today is like the Christianity of the Middle Ages... It is corrupt, decadent, inhumane, harsh, backwards, and ready to implode from the inside... Under a surface of brotherhood and order, every human behavior and vice take place behind closed doors.... Saudis who get drunk on "eau de cologne" because they can't buy alcohol, or the "there are no homosexuals in Iran" of Ahmadinejad, or daily descriptions of Christians and Jews as "sons of apes and pigs", etc....These are the living lies of the Muslims today.
Hanibaal
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Lebanese “Consensus” Jackass Sleiman Begs the US for Weapons.
Weapons to be Flown from Jordan Through Israel into Lebanon.
The jackass "consensus" President of Lebanon, Michel Sleiman, begged yesterday the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State David Hale for “advanced weaponry for the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) in order to confront terrorism and protect civil peace.” Observers said that Jackass Sleiman did not tell Hale whether those weapons will be shared with the terrorist organization Hezbollah – now a part of the Sleiman government – in “resisting” the enemy Israel or in “liberating” land still presumably occupied by Israel in south Lebanon. Hale, apparently, did not raise that question either with Jackass Sleiman.
Even though Jackass Sleiman continues to show the same subservience and allegiance to Syria, Iran and Hezbollah that he exercised during his tenure as the Syrian occupation-appointed Lebanese Army Chief, he apparently has no problem begging for weapons for the useless Lebanese army from the US, by far the greatest supporter of the Israeli “enemy” which Sleiman considers Lebanon’s gravest threat. Similarly, the US apparently has no problem providing weapons to the Lebanese Army which is, for all practical purposes, managed and conveniently emasculated by Hezbollah.
In fact, Lebanon and the US signed on Monday three military contracts worth $63 million in US grants to the LAF. The grants are aimed at providing the Lebanese army with secure communications, ammunition and infantry weapons. Beirut and Washington also set up a joint military commission in charge of organizing their bilateral military relationship. Big fancy titles indeed.
Sadly, both parties to these discussions and agreements are hypocrites: Sleiman, who refers to the terrorist organization Hezbollah as a “resistance” and with whom he is designing a “joint defense strategy” against Israel, hates the US for its support of Israel. On the other hand, the US has never really wanted to help the Lebanese Army because it is afraid that that help will end up in Hezbollah’s hands or that the Lebanese Army might one day defeat Hezbollah, which would remove the last factor of instability in Lebanon that the US and Israel need to carry out the permanent settlement of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon (thus eliminating the “Right of Return” argument from the hands of the Palestinian Authority). So what these agreements are really about is mere propaganda (for the US to brag about helping the poor Lebanese army) and media BS, as well as a means for the US to dump some military hardware junk and useless equipment under the guise of supporting the Lebanese Army. The US has done it before: It “gifted” the Lebanese Army three dilapidated tanks during the latter’s siege and destruction of a Palestinian camp of Nahr El-Bared in June 2007. No wonder it took 200 Lebanese army deaths and several months of fighting to clean the few buildings that constituted the camp of two dozen militants.
In a related development, the Israeli Web site “Debka file” reported that the US was planning to provide the Lebanese army with a number of used Cobra fighter helicopters that are currently positioned in Jordan. The Web site said that the helicopters would be disassembled and transferred on board of large US jets that would fly over Israel while delivering the helicopters to Lebanon. The beggar Lebanese Army might have a problem with the fact that the handout helicopters would reach Lebanon via Israel. In Lebanon, it seems, beggars CAN be choosers, because neither the beggar nor the donor is acting in good faith.
The jackass "consensus" President of Lebanon, Michel Sleiman, begged yesterday the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State David Hale for “advanced weaponry for the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) in order to confront terrorism and protect civil peace.” Observers said that Jackass Sleiman did not tell Hale whether those weapons will be shared with the terrorist organization Hezbollah – now a part of the Sleiman government – in “resisting” the enemy Israel or in “liberating” land still presumably occupied by Israel in south Lebanon. Hale, apparently, did not raise that question either with Jackass Sleiman.
Even though Jackass Sleiman continues to show the same subservience and allegiance to Syria, Iran and Hezbollah that he exercised during his tenure as the Syrian occupation-appointed Lebanese Army Chief, he apparently has no problem begging for weapons for the useless Lebanese army from the US, by far the greatest supporter of the Israeli “enemy” which Sleiman considers Lebanon’s gravest threat. Similarly, the US apparently has no problem providing weapons to the Lebanese Army which is, for all practical purposes, managed and conveniently emasculated by Hezbollah.
In fact, Lebanon and the US signed on Monday three military contracts worth $63 million in US grants to the LAF. The grants are aimed at providing the Lebanese army with secure communications, ammunition and infantry weapons. Beirut and Washington also set up a joint military commission in charge of organizing their bilateral military relationship. Big fancy titles indeed.
Sadly, both parties to these discussions and agreements are hypocrites: Sleiman, who refers to the terrorist organization Hezbollah as a “resistance” and with whom he is designing a “joint defense strategy” against Israel, hates the US for its support of Israel. On the other hand, the US has never really wanted to help the Lebanese Army because it is afraid that that help will end up in Hezbollah’s hands or that the Lebanese Army might one day defeat Hezbollah, which would remove the last factor of instability in Lebanon that the US and Israel need to carry out the permanent settlement of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon (thus eliminating the “Right of Return” argument from the hands of the Palestinian Authority). So what these agreements are really about is mere propaganda (for the US to brag about helping the poor Lebanese army) and media BS, as well as a means for the US to dump some military hardware junk and useless equipment under the guise of supporting the Lebanese Army. The US has done it before: It “gifted” the Lebanese Army three dilapidated tanks during the latter’s siege and destruction of a Palestinian camp of Nahr El-Bared in June 2007. No wonder it took 200 Lebanese army deaths and several months of fighting to clean the few buildings that constituted the camp of two dozen militants.
In a related development, the Israeli Web site “Debka file” reported that the US was planning to provide the Lebanese army with a number of used Cobra fighter helicopters that are currently positioned in Jordan. The Web site said that the helicopters would be disassembled and transferred on board of large US jets that would fly over Israel while delivering the helicopters to Lebanon. The beggar Lebanese Army might have a problem with the fact that the handout helicopters would reach Lebanon via Israel. In Lebanon, it seems, beggars CAN be choosers, because neither the beggar nor the donor is acting in good faith.
Israel to Decimate Lebanon: What will the "Defense Strategy" do?
A few questions to the Lebanese politician scumbags from Michel Sleiman and Hassan Nasrallah, from Fouad Siniora to Michel Aoun, and from HAriri to Geagea and Gemayel, as the Lebanese people contemplate another "Divine victory" being cooked up for them [Read the report on Israeli threats following the questions]:
- Will Hezbollah at least tell the Lebanese people what it intends to do next time around?
- Now that Hezbollah is in bed with the Siniora government, and the pro-Syrian, pro-Hezbollah Sleiman-Siniora regime is preparing a "defense strategy" with Hezbollah, can this jackass incompetent Lebanese government tell the Lebanese people what "defense strategy" is this that will stand up to the Israeli threats?
- When will the traitors and cowards in the Lebanese government stop pretending to be more Palestinian than the Palestinians, more Arab than the Arabs, and more Syrian than the Syrians, and finally be just Lebanese and protect their country and their people with a negotiated settlement between Israel and Lebanon to put an end to the 40-year old "liberation" and "resistance" charade in Lebanon?
- When will the Lebanese people rise in an uprising against their political leaders who are leading them, yet again, down the path of destruction and death?
------------------------------------
Israel Threatens to Decimate Lebanon
By CHERRIE HEYWOOD (Middle East Times)
Published: October 07, 2008
[Excerpts]
JERUSALEM -- Three senior Israeli military commanders have threatened to decimate Lebanon's infrastructure with disproportionate firepower, wipe out villages in the south from where they believe attacks on Israel originate and to treat both the Lebanese government and the entire country as the enemy not just Hezbollah, in the next war...[in what is referred to as] the "Dahiyeh Doctrine." This doctrine would allow the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to expand its destructive power beyond what it demonstrated two years ago against the Beirut suburb or, dahiyeh in Arabic, a Hezbollah stronghold, during the Second Lebanon War.
"We will wield disproportionate power against every village from which shots are fired on Israel, and cause immense damage and destruction. From our perspective, these are military bases," he said. "This isn't a suggestion. This is a plan that has already been authorized."
[...] Israel should not only be fighting Hezbollah but it should target the Lebanese army as well as Lebanon's infrastructure. He believes Israel failed during the 2006 war and will fail in the next military encounter if it doesn't adopt this approach.
"People won't be going to the beach in Beirut while Haifa residents are in shelters."
[...] the answer to rocket and missile threats from Syria, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, is "a disproportionate strike at the heart of the enemy's weak spot, in which efforts to hurt launch capability are secondary.
"As soon as the conflict breaks out, the IDF will have to operate in a rapid, determined, powerful and disproportionate way against the enemy's actions."
"This strike has to be carried out as quickly as possible, through prioritizing strikes at its assets, rather than chasing after launch sites. Such a response is likely to be remembered by decision makers in Syria and Lebanon for many years, thus deepening deterrence."
The rationale behind the thinking is that it is basically impossible to beat an efficient guerilla army supported by a state immune from retribution.
--------------------------------
Hanibaal
- Will Hezbollah at least tell the Lebanese people what it intends to do next time around?
- Now that Hezbollah is in bed with the Siniora government, and the pro-Syrian, pro-Hezbollah Sleiman-Siniora regime is preparing a "defense strategy" with Hezbollah, can this jackass incompetent Lebanese government tell the Lebanese people what "defense strategy" is this that will stand up to the Israeli threats?
- When will the traitors and cowards in the Lebanese government stop pretending to be more Palestinian than the Palestinians, more Arab than the Arabs, and more Syrian than the Syrians, and finally be just Lebanese and protect their country and their people with a negotiated settlement between Israel and Lebanon to put an end to the 40-year old "liberation" and "resistance" charade in Lebanon?
- When will the Lebanese people rise in an uprising against their political leaders who are leading them, yet again, down the path of destruction and death?
------------------------------------
Israel Threatens to Decimate Lebanon
By CHERRIE HEYWOOD (Middle East Times)
Published: October 07, 2008
[Excerpts]
JERUSALEM -- Three senior Israeli military commanders have threatened to decimate Lebanon's infrastructure with disproportionate firepower, wipe out villages in the south from where they believe attacks on Israel originate and to treat both the Lebanese government and the entire country as the enemy not just Hezbollah, in the next war...[in what is referred to as] the "Dahiyeh Doctrine." This doctrine would allow the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to expand its destructive power beyond what it demonstrated two years ago against the Beirut suburb or, dahiyeh in Arabic, a Hezbollah stronghold, during the Second Lebanon War.
"We will wield disproportionate power against every village from which shots are fired on Israel, and cause immense damage and destruction. From our perspective, these are military bases," he said. "This isn't a suggestion. This is a plan that has already been authorized."
[...] Israel should not only be fighting Hezbollah but it should target the Lebanese army as well as Lebanon's infrastructure. He believes Israel failed during the 2006 war and will fail in the next military encounter if it doesn't adopt this approach.
"People won't be going to the beach in Beirut while Haifa residents are in shelters."
[...] the answer to rocket and missile threats from Syria, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, is "a disproportionate strike at the heart of the enemy's weak spot, in which efforts to hurt launch capability are secondary.
"As soon as the conflict breaks out, the IDF will have to operate in a rapid, determined, powerful and disproportionate way against the enemy's actions."
"This strike has to be carried out as quickly as possible, through prioritizing strikes at its assets, rather than chasing after launch sites. Such a response is likely to be remembered by decision makers in Syria and Lebanon for many years, thus deepening deterrence."
The rationale behind the thinking is that it is basically impossible to beat an efficient guerilla army supported by a state immune from retribution.
--------------------------------
Hanibaal
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Sabra-Shatila vs. Damour: The Immoral of the Story
If you ask anyone in the world today what they remember from the Lebanese civil war, they'll tell you the "Sabra-Shatila camp massacres", something that offends millions of Lebanese who see their 35 years of suffering and destruction of their country reduced to one of hundreds of similar atrocities that were committed during the Lebanese War. On blogs by young people and in reports by journalists who live thousands of miles away from Lebanon and who weren´t even born then, you'll hear the standard spin about the poor Palestinians and the bad Israelis who allowed the barbaric Lebanese Christian militiamen to enter the camps and carry out the massacre in September of 1982. Even today in Lebanon itself, the Daily Star newspaper – whose Lebanese identity is suspect in the least – features an article remembering Sabra-Shatila [Nicholas Kimbrell, Daily Star, Tuesday, September 16, 2008], while deliberately choosing on any other day of the year to ignore other massacres that took place in Lebanon during that period of the war. I have in mind one particular massacre that ought to be remembered because the Christian militiamen who committed the atrocities in Sabra-Shatila themselves cited it as the act for which they were seeking revenge. The Damour massacre took place six years before Sabra-Shatila, it equaled it in horror, and in fact was the ultimate reason for the Christian militiamen to carry out Sabra-Shatila.
The offensive and insulting aspect of all this is that, in all those remembrances of Sabra-Shatila, the Lebanese are reduced to mere abstract agents of horrible behavior between the real actors - those who are worthy of our feelings of hatred and sympathy – namely, the Israelis of course, and the Palestinians. But the Lebanese, those who actually did the killing, are never really discussed. They are reduced, even as they were the killers, to no more than a burden on the Israeli conscience which is, still according to the common narrative, the real moral dilemma in this one of many massacres on Lebanese soil.
Indeed, the Lebanese are deprived in this narrative of any human dimension that may explain their horrible conduct. The subtext is that the Lebanese Christian militiamen are incapable of moral conflict, they are (in the subconscious of Westerners) incapable of questioning and doubting the moral value of their actions, and so we, Westerners, don't even bother to ask those questions on their behalf. We simply take it for granted that the Lebanese Christian militiamen are not driven by any human motive; they simply are sub-humans and we do not ask the moral question when it comes to them. Just as we would not ask of a tiger who mauls someone at a zoo or a dog that suddenly attacks a baby, and so on. It just is expected behavior.
On the other hand, the Palestinian refugees are presented as the ultimate victims – which they very much are – of this horrible crime, but here again – because the Palestinians, like the Christian militiamen, are Arabs – we don't even attribute to them any agency as to their fate. They are unwilling victims, and they have no say in their fate as victims, no responsibility, no moral issues behind their status of victims.
The only moral issue in this essentially Western construct (to which Edward Said would have shuddered) is: How could the Israelis allow such a thing as this massacre to happen and unfold under their watch? Here, the subtext is: Only the Jewish Israelis (for a multitude of reasons having to do with Western history and the relationship between the West and the Jewish people over centuries) are capable of moral judgment, and so they ought to be responsible for allowing the massacres to occur. The Arabs are incapable of morality, so neither the killer Lebanese nor the victim Palestinians are of interest. They are, respectively, the technicians and the guinea pigs in this ethical experiment which only the Jewish Israelis are capable of struggling through and comprehending. In a laboratory, you don't ask the guinea pig for its reflections on being the sacrificial animal, nor do you ask the lab technician for the grand consequences of the experiment. Only the scientist who supervises both the whole enterprise is capable of such human reflection.
I started writing this with the goal of discussing why the Lebanese people reject the permanent settlement of the Palestinian refugees in their country, or to tell those who forget that the Palestinians caused tremendous pain and harm to their host country for more than two decades. In fact, not one of all those who discuss the Sabra-Shatila massacres will ever mention the Damour Massacre that took place in January 1976, six years before the 1982 Sabra-Shatila massacre, and – if you ask those who carried out the latter – was an act of revenge for the Damour Massacre. The organic link between the two massacres is deliberately ignored. Out of ignorance perhaps, but also out of a willful intent of describing the Lebanese War for it was not, a "civil" war, rather than for it really was, a war between the Lebanese owners of the land on one hand, and their foreign Palestinian guests backed by their Arab "brothers" (Syrian, Saudi, Kuwaiti, Libyan, etc.) on the other hand, all of which was to the pleasure of the Israelis who wanted – and still want today – to see Lebanon become a substitute homeland for the Palestinians and a grave to the Right of Return.
For those who don´t know – because they were never told; because there were never any investigations or inquiries; it just wasn´t cool enough – in the Damour Massacre, thousands of Yasser Arafat's and Hafez Assad's Palestinian fighters converged on the defenseless Christian town of Damour, 20 miles south of Beirut along the Mediterranean coast, and in an overnight orgy of throat-slitting, raping, cutting open babies before their parents´ eyes, and such other Palestinian humanity visited upon the Lebanese, 1,000 people were butchered, and 5,000 were sent fleeing north by boats on a stormy sea in the cold winter of January 1976.
Israel was not involved in the Damour Massacre, so there was no coverage. Israel's "conscience" was not involved, so there was no moral dilemma. Arab killing Arab is expected and is of no interest because Arabs are incapable of moral thinking. But as soon as Jewish Israelis are involved, even as observers – not as killers or victims – and volumes and dissertations are written about it in the most prestigious of academies and in the top newspapers of the world for decades after the event. Inquiry commissions are formed and several decisions are issued. And remembrances – like that of the Daily Star – are written about it decades later.
But Damour remained a ghost town between 1976 and 1990, its old stone houses razed to the ground, its cemeteries desecrated, its orange groves devastated. By the mid 1990s when the people of Damour began returning, the landscape had changed so much that the town is today unrecognizable. Today, it looks like one of those brand new Jewish settlements built atop a West Bank hill (where the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon ought, in fact, to go back). In my childhood, as my father would drive us to his birthplace and the house he was born, I remember Damour as this blast of colors decking its stone houses along its Main Street: Colors of all the fruits produced by the Damour River delta valley – the "Sehel" as the locals called it – down below the coastal road and the exuberantly colored terra cotta industry on display that reminds me of Indian village markets in the Andean countries.
How come the Jewish Israelis' moral conscience is not called upon to take the Palestinian refugees back? Not to Haifa and Jaffa, or even to the villages of the Galilee; just to the West Bank where they could be only miles away from the Palestine they left. How come the demographic argument – not to disturb the Jewish identity of Israel – is so much more important than the moral dilemma of evicting one people from their land, taking their land, and asking other countries to give them land? How come the demographic argument is never invoked to protect Lebanon´s own demographic complexity that dwarfs Israel´s simplistic Jewish-Arab demography?
That the West, and particularly the media, refuses to this day to acknowledge the harm done to Lebanon by the temporary guests that the Palestinians are, remains evidence that Lebanon continues to be forced into a position of such instability and torment so that one day it will, completely on its knees, accept the permanent settlement of the Palestinian refugees. The urgency with which the European Union, the UN and the US met in Vienna this past winter to pump millions of dollars into rebuilding the Nahr el-Bared Palestinian Camp (destroyed in fighting with the Lebanese army in 2007) against the wishes of the Lebanese people, but with the acquiescence of the corrupt Lebanese government of Fuad Siniora, tells the real story. The Palestinian refugees can be very easily re-settled in those countries that have taken millions of refugees from around the world in recent decades. Yet, they must stay in Lebanon at any cost. The British Ambassador to Lebanon, Ms. Frances Guy, did not mince her words when she said in an interview on July 12 with a Lebanese television channel:
"It is clear that a solution to the Palestinian problem should include the issue of the Palestinian refugees and reaching an agreement over a solution for them wherever they may be. Therefore, the question of those refugees´ right to return to their lands should be discussed, and perhaps the Palestinians who are in Lebanon have become Lebanese. They emigrated from Palestine in 1948, and therefore such negotiations should take place in the framework of the peace process. There won´t be compensations through the settlement of the Palestinians in Lebanon, but we have to be realistic in order to see the number of Palestinians who are able to return, and the number of those who really want to return. The Palestinians might indeed be given the right to return, but they may not want that. Therefore, we must discuss this matter."
"We never talked about the possibility of giving the Lebanese citizenship to the Palestinians, but perhaps they could have the Palestinian citizenship and stay in Lebanon, like any foreigner living in this country. The bigger problem in Lebanon is in the fact that the Palestinian refugees are unable to exercise the same rights that any foreigner living on its soil enjoys, including the right to obtain work and other rights. There is discrimination between one foreigner and another, and this is the matter that must be discussed today, and not giving the Lebanese citizenship to the Palestinian refugee."[End of quote].
Lebanon will never forget what the Palestinians did to Damour, nor will the Lebanese people ever accept that the moral responsibility for the Palestinian refugees belongs anywhere else but in Israel-Palestine. The international community can count on it. Solving the Jewish question of Europe by the creation of the State of Israel degenerated into the insoluble Palestinian problem. But that was 20th century barbarism. Today, in this "enlightened" world of ours, how can solving the Palestinian question at Lebanon´s expense be even contemplated? It certainly is guaranteed to create the next Middle East problem for the next one hundred years.
By Joseph Hitti
September 15, 2008
From: http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/74292
The offensive and insulting aspect of all this is that, in all those remembrances of Sabra-Shatila, the Lebanese are reduced to mere abstract agents of horrible behavior between the real actors - those who are worthy of our feelings of hatred and sympathy – namely, the Israelis of course, and the Palestinians. But the Lebanese, those who actually did the killing, are never really discussed. They are reduced, even as they were the killers, to no more than a burden on the Israeli conscience which is, still according to the common narrative, the real moral dilemma in this one of many massacres on Lebanese soil.
Indeed, the Lebanese are deprived in this narrative of any human dimension that may explain their horrible conduct. The subtext is that the Lebanese Christian militiamen are incapable of moral conflict, they are (in the subconscious of Westerners) incapable of questioning and doubting the moral value of their actions, and so we, Westerners, don't even bother to ask those questions on their behalf. We simply take it for granted that the Lebanese Christian militiamen are not driven by any human motive; they simply are sub-humans and we do not ask the moral question when it comes to them. Just as we would not ask of a tiger who mauls someone at a zoo or a dog that suddenly attacks a baby, and so on. It just is expected behavior.
On the other hand, the Palestinian refugees are presented as the ultimate victims – which they very much are – of this horrible crime, but here again – because the Palestinians, like the Christian militiamen, are Arabs – we don't even attribute to them any agency as to their fate. They are unwilling victims, and they have no say in their fate as victims, no responsibility, no moral issues behind their status of victims.
The only moral issue in this essentially Western construct (to which Edward Said would have shuddered) is: How could the Israelis allow such a thing as this massacre to happen and unfold under their watch? Here, the subtext is: Only the Jewish Israelis (for a multitude of reasons having to do with Western history and the relationship between the West and the Jewish people over centuries) are capable of moral judgment, and so they ought to be responsible for allowing the massacres to occur. The Arabs are incapable of morality, so neither the killer Lebanese nor the victim Palestinians are of interest. They are, respectively, the technicians and the guinea pigs in this ethical experiment which only the Jewish Israelis are capable of struggling through and comprehending. In a laboratory, you don't ask the guinea pig for its reflections on being the sacrificial animal, nor do you ask the lab technician for the grand consequences of the experiment. Only the scientist who supervises both the whole enterprise is capable of such human reflection.
I started writing this with the goal of discussing why the Lebanese people reject the permanent settlement of the Palestinian refugees in their country, or to tell those who forget that the Palestinians caused tremendous pain and harm to their host country for more than two decades. In fact, not one of all those who discuss the Sabra-Shatila massacres will ever mention the Damour Massacre that took place in January 1976, six years before the 1982 Sabra-Shatila massacre, and – if you ask those who carried out the latter – was an act of revenge for the Damour Massacre. The organic link between the two massacres is deliberately ignored. Out of ignorance perhaps, but also out of a willful intent of describing the Lebanese War for it was not, a "civil" war, rather than for it really was, a war between the Lebanese owners of the land on one hand, and their foreign Palestinian guests backed by their Arab "brothers" (Syrian, Saudi, Kuwaiti, Libyan, etc.) on the other hand, all of which was to the pleasure of the Israelis who wanted – and still want today – to see Lebanon become a substitute homeland for the Palestinians and a grave to the Right of Return.
For those who don´t know – because they were never told; because there were never any investigations or inquiries; it just wasn´t cool enough – in the Damour Massacre, thousands of Yasser Arafat's and Hafez Assad's Palestinian fighters converged on the defenseless Christian town of Damour, 20 miles south of Beirut along the Mediterranean coast, and in an overnight orgy of throat-slitting, raping, cutting open babies before their parents´ eyes, and such other Palestinian humanity visited upon the Lebanese, 1,000 people were butchered, and 5,000 were sent fleeing north by boats on a stormy sea in the cold winter of January 1976.
Israel was not involved in the Damour Massacre, so there was no coverage. Israel's "conscience" was not involved, so there was no moral dilemma. Arab killing Arab is expected and is of no interest because Arabs are incapable of moral thinking. But as soon as Jewish Israelis are involved, even as observers – not as killers or victims – and volumes and dissertations are written about it in the most prestigious of academies and in the top newspapers of the world for decades after the event. Inquiry commissions are formed and several decisions are issued. And remembrances – like that of the Daily Star – are written about it decades later.
But Damour remained a ghost town between 1976 and 1990, its old stone houses razed to the ground, its cemeteries desecrated, its orange groves devastated. By the mid 1990s when the people of Damour began returning, the landscape had changed so much that the town is today unrecognizable. Today, it looks like one of those brand new Jewish settlements built atop a West Bank hill (where the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon ought, in fact, to go back). In my childhood, as my father would drive us to his birthplace and the house he was born, I remember Damour as this blast of colors decking its stone houses along its Main Street: Colors of all the fruits produced by the Damour River delta valley – the "Sehel" as the locals called it – down below the coastal road and the exuberantly colored terra cotta industry on display that reminds me of Indian village markets in the Andean countries.
How come the Jewish Israelis' moral conscience is not called upon to take the Palestinian refugees back? Not to Haifa and Jaffa, or even to the villages of the Galilee; just to the West Bank where they could be only miles away from the Palestine they left. How come the demographic argument – not to disturb the Jewish identity of Israel – is so much more important than the moral dilemma of evicting one people from their land, taking their land, and asking other countries to give them land? How come the demographic argument is never invoked to protect Lebanon´s own demographic complexity that dwarfs Israel´s simplistic Jewish-Arab demography?
That the West, and particularly the media, refuses to this day to acknowledge the harm done to Lebanon by the temporary guests that the Palestinians are, remains evidence that Lebanon continues to be forced into a position of such instability and torment so that one day it will, completely on its knees, accept the permanent settlement of the Palestinian refugees. The urgency with which the European Union, the UN and the US met in Vienna this past winter to pump millions of dollars into rebuilding the Nahr el-Bared Palestinian Camp (destroyed in fighting with the Lebanese army in 2007) against the wishes of the Lebanese people, but with the acquiescence of the corrupt Lebanese government of Fuad Siniora, tells the real story. The Palestinian refugees can be very easily re-settled in those countries that have taken millions of refugees from around the world in recent decades. Yet, they must stay in Lebanon at any cost. The British Ambassador to Lebanon, Ms. Frances Guy, did not mince her words when she said in an interview on July 12 with a Lebanese television channel:
"It is clear that a solution to the Palestinian problem should include the issue of the Palestinian refugees and reaching an agreement over a solution for them wherever they may be. Therefore, the question of those refugees´ right to return to their lands should be discussed, and perhaps the Palestinians who are in Lebanon have become Lebanese. They emigrated from Palestine in 1948, and therefore such negotiations should take place in the framework of the peace process. There won´t be compensations through the settlement of the Palestinians in Lebanon, but we have to be realistic in order to see the number of Palestinians who are able to return, and the number of those who really want to return. The Palestinians might indeed be given the right to return, but they may not want that. Therefore, we must discuss this matter."
"We never talked about the possibility of giving the Lebanese citizenship to the Palestinians, but perhaps they could have the Palestinian citizenship and stay in Lebanon, like any foreigner living in this country. The bigger problem in Lebanon is in the fact that the Palestinian refugees are unable to exercise the same rights that any foreigner living on its soil enjoys, including the right to obtain work and other rights. There is discrimination between one foreigner and another, and this is the matter that must be discussed today, and not giving the Lebanese citizenship to the Palestinian refugee."[End of quote].
Lebanon will never forget what the Palestinians did to Damour, nor will the Lebanese people ever accept that the moral responsibility for the Palestinian refugees belongs anywhere else but in Israel-Palestine. The international community can count on it. Solving the Jewish question of Europe by the creation of the State of Israel degenerated into the insoluble Palestinian problem. But that was 20th century barbarism. Today, in this "enlightened" world of ours, how can solving the Palestinian question at Lebanon´s expense be even contemplated? It certainly is guaranteed to create the next Middle East problem for the next one hundred years.
By Joseph Hitti
September 15, 2008
From: http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/74292
Friday, October 3, 2008
UN Independent Investigator Bellemare’s Report to Cause Earthquake in Lebanon
In an article published October 3, 2008 on its web site, the Lebanese daily al-Anwar makes public a few leaks from the international investigation on the 2005 Hariri assassination.
Citing “Lebanese sources confirmed by international sources”, al-Anwar says that the upcoming report, which is due December 2, will constitute the indictment and will name 120 individuals implicated in the assassination.
The report is expected to cause a political earthquake in Lebanon, particularly if it does publicize the names of political figures who played key roles in Lebanese political life prior to February 14, 2005.
The assassination was preceded by eight months of preparations which included simulations carried out by the perpetrators under the supervision of a high-ranking chief of one of the state’s security services.
Included in the report are transcripts of telephone conversations that immediately followed the assassination, including one conversation between a subordinate and his boss which was limited to: “It’s done. We’re finished with him.”
Citing “Lebanese sources confirmed by international sources”, al-Anwar says that the upcoming report, which is due December 2, will constitute the indictment and will name 120 individuals implicated in the assassination.
The report is expected to cause a political earthquake in Lebanon, particularly if it does publicize the names of political figures who played key roles in Lebanese political life prior to February 14, 2005.
The assassination was preceded by eight months of preparations which included simulations carried out by the perpetrators under the supervision of a high-ranking chief of one of the state’s security services.
Included in the report are transcripts of telephone conversations that immediately followed the assassination, including one conversation between a subordinate and his boss which was limited to: “It’s done. We’re finished with him.”
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Where is the Syrian President of Lebanon Michel Sleiman?
With all the tensions building between Lebanon and Syria - Syrian troops massing on the border; Syria carrying out bombings in Tripoli and engineering fake bombings inside Syria, then pretending to want to fight the "terrorists" coming in from the Lebanese border; talk about Syria re-entering Lebanon; etc. - one wonders where have all the positive results of the idiot and/or traitor President Michel Sleiman's visit to Damascus last August gone?
Didn't the idiot consensus General who now is "President" of Lebanon return from his visit to the retarded Baathist dictator of the Syrian enemy entity with an upbeat message that Syrian-Lebanese relations are now on the right track and that diplomatic relations were soon going to be established between the two countries?
What did the idiot Sleiman then do in Damascus, if all those promises he brought back with him from his visit to his former masters turn out now to be lies? Is anyone going to question him about his visit and his talks with the Syrian hoodlums?
He is either a complete idiot who never negotiated as the head of a sovereign nation from a standpoint of strength and conviction, but rather as a meek beggar seeking the Syrian enemy's approval. Or he is a traitor who is in complicity with the Syrian enemy to wreck havoc in Lebanon and destabilize the country, now that the reconciliations ongoing on the Lebanese domestic front threaten the Baathist entity's ability to use its collaborators to destabilize Lebanon.
Lebanon has had enough of people like Michel Sleiman, Michel Aoun, Walid Jumblatt, Fuad Siniora, and Saad Hariri who one day are against Syria, and the next they are with Syria. People who don't want to make peace with Israel because they are afraid of Syria, but then attack Syria for its interference in Lebanon. Weaklings, traitors, collaborators, leaders you can buy and sell to the highest bidder, agents of foreign countries, leaders without imagination, without balls, without courage and without the conviction of their own patriotism and love of their country. They are merchants, hustlers in the dirty bazaar, and the Lebanese people are morons for following them blindly.
To the Lebanese people: You deserve your leaders. You elected them. You never hold them accountable. I bet that when the next elections come around - Spring 2009 - the Lebanese morons will vote for those same people who today never take a stance, and who continue to sit on the fence of the most vital issues for the future of their country, and who ally themselves with foreign and regional powers to ensure their own political survival rather than the survival of their own country.
Nothing short of a bloody revolution - of a citizens' jacquerie against their own political and religious leaders - will bring any decency to this fucked up country that everyone pretends to love because it has a polluted and inaccessible waterfront and a few dilapidated and soon completely deforestated mountains.
Hanibaal
Didn't the idiot consensus General who now is "President" of Lebanon return from his visit to the retarded Baathist dictator of the Syrian enemy entity with an upbeat message that Syrian-Lebanese relations are now on the right track and that diplomatic relations were soon going to be established between the two countries?
What did the idiot Sleiman then do in Damascus, if all those promises he brought back with him from his visit to his former masters turn out now to be lies? Is anyone going to question him about his visit and his talks with the Syrian hoodlums?
He is either a complete idiot who never negotiated as the head of a sovereign nation from a standpoint of strength and conviction, but rather as a meek beggar seeking the Syrian enemy's approval. Or he is a traitor who is in complicity with the Syrian enemy to wreck havoc in Lebanon and destabilize the country, now that the reconciliations ongoing on the Lebanese domestic front threaten the Baathist entity's ability to use its collaborators to destabilize Lebanon.
Lebanon has had enough of people like Michel Sleiman, Michel Aoun, Walid Jumblatt, Fuad Siniora, and Saad Hariri who one day are against Syria, and the next they are with Syria. People who don't want to make peace with Israel because they are afraid of Syria, but then attack Syria for its interference in Lebanon. Weaklings, traitors, collaborators, leaders you can buy and sell to the highest bidder, agents of foreign countries, leaders without imagination, without balls, without courage and without the conviction of their own patriotism and love of their country. They are merchants, hustlers in the dirty bazaar, and the Lebanese people are morons for following them blindly.
To the Lebanese people: You deserve your leaders. You elected them. You never hold them accountable. I bet that when the next elections come around - Spring 2009 - the Lebanese morons will vote for those same people who today never take a stance, and who continue to sit on the fence of the most vital issues for the future of their country, and who ally themselves with foreign and regional powers to ensure their own political survival rather than the survival of their own country.
Nothing short of a bloody revolution - of a citizens' jacquerie against their own political and religious leaders - will bring any decency to this fucked up country that everyone pretends to love because it has a polluted and inaccessible waterfront and a few dilapidated and soon completely deforestated mountains.
Hanibaal
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
The Syrian Enemy Kidnaps Shepherd inside Lebanon Borders
Soldiers of the Syrian Baathist enemy crossed the Syrian-Lebanese border yesterday and kidnapped a Lebanese shepherd and his cows. After questioning him and torturing him for several hours, the soldiers of the Syrian Baathist entity released the shepherd but stole the cows. Syrian military personnel are reputed to be highly corrupt and so poor that whenever they deal with civilians (at checkpoints, border crossings, and so on), they rob them or demand ransoms.
Meanwhile, the Iranian terrorist organization, Hezbollah, operating in Lebanon has requested its men not to enter Syrian territory (which they had freely been doing for decades, smuggling weapons and terrorists from Iran through Syrian territory into Lebanon), as a sign of the tension building inside the Syrian Baathist entity and the Iranian Islamic Theocracy. A Sunni-Shiite rift is widening across the Middle East region. Furthermore, increased Western pressures on the Baathist dictator BAshar Assad in Damascus has made Assad send mixed signals about wanting to carry out a Qaddhafi-like move of abandoning the rejectionist pan-Arab pan-Islamic camp and make peace with Israel and befriend the West, while also continuing a terror campaign inside Lebanon. The request by the Iranian representative in Lebanon, the bearded and turbaned Shiite clergyman Hassan Nasrallah who heads Hezbollah, to its men to no longer cross the border into the Baathist entity is a sign of the displeasure by Iran at the Syrian Baathists' rapprochement with the West.
Naturally, such geopolitical shifts are often accompanied by a destabilization of Lebanon since the moronic people of Lebanon often follow their foreign patrons (Shiites follow Iran, Sunnis follow Saudi Arabia, and the Christians follow whoever happens to pity them at the moment) before following their own interests. A bomb exploded last weekend in the northern city of Tripoli in Lebanon killing four Lebanese Army soldiers, and the Saudi representative in Lebanon, the Lebanese Sunni Mafia boss Saad Hariri, has been lashing out at what he still calls "sisterly" Syria for its meddling in Lebanon.
Hanibaal
Meanwhile, the Iranian terrorist organization, Hezbollah, operating in Lebanon has requested its men not to enter Syrian territory (which they had freely been doing for decades, smuggling weapons and terrorists from Iran through Syrian territory into Lebanon), as a sign of the tension building inside the Syrian Baathist entity and the Iranian Islamic Theocracy. A Sunni-Shiite rift is widening across the Middle East region. Furthermore, increased Western pressures on the Baathist dictator BAshar Assad in Damascus has made Assad send mixed signals about wanting to carry out a Qaddhafi-like move of abandoning the rejectionist pan-Arab pan-Islamic camp and make peace with Israel and befriend the West, while also continuing a terror campaign inside Lebanon. The request by the Iranian representative in Lebanon, the bearded and turbaned Shiite clergyman Hassan Nasrallah who heads Hezbollah, to its men to no longer cross the border into the Baathist entity is a sign of the displeasure by Iran at the Syrian Baathists' rapprochement with the West.
Naturally, such geopolitical shifts are often accompanied by a destabilization of Lebanon since the moronic people of Lebanon often follow their foreign patrons (Shiites follow Iran, Sunnis follow Saudi Arabia, and the Christians follow whoever happens to pity them at the moment) before following their own interests. A bomb exploded last weekend in the northern city of Tripoli in Lebanon killing four Lebanese Army soldiers, and the Saudi representative in Lebanon, the Lebanese Sunni Mafia boss Saad Hariri, has been lashing out at what he still calls "sisterly" Syria for its meddling in Lebanon.
Hanibaal
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)