English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For April 06/2022
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.
Luke 11/37-41: “While he was speaking, a Pharisee invited him to dine with him; so he went in and took his place at the table.The Pharisee was amazed to see that he did not first wash before dinner. Then the Lord said to him, ‘Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? So give for alms those things that are within; and see, everything will be clean for you.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on April 05-06/2022
President Aoun informed by Spiteri of Pope Francis's visit to Lebanon next June
Bou Habib follows up on Kharrat’s case after being arrested in UAE
Statement by UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator’s office: UN fuel support reaches its end, while needs keep growing
Report says Hizbullah playing key role in growing captagon trade
Families of Beirut port blast victims mark 20 months
Will electricity be an excuse to postpone parliamentary elections?
Is Lebanon bankrupt? Lebanon's central bank governor says, ‘Not true’
Economist says Shami's statement over state, BDL bankruptcy 'somewhat' true
World Bank regional chief 'optimistic' about Miqati's reform efforts
Rochdi says U.N. fuel support for Lebanon has reached its end
Judge Aoun lifts travel bans against BLOM, Audi chairmen
Thwarting the people’s will in Iraq and Lebanon/Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/April 05/2022

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on April 05-06/2022
Zelensky calls on UN Security Council to expel Russia, or disband
Genocide masterplan': Experts alarmed after Kremlin intellectual calls for 'cleansed' Ukraine
UN says signs point to civilians being directly ‘targeted’ in Bucha
Spain, Denmark to expel 40 Russian diplomats
France’s Macron targets poll rival Le Pen over ties to Russia
Kuwait government resigns three months after formation
Israel police arrest 8 in third night of Jerusalem unrest
Pentagon report says U.S. could have done more to limit civilian toll in Raqqa
Yemen warring parties trade charges of truce violations
Iran won’t stop seeking ‘punishment’ of those behind Soleimani killing: Official
Iran deal advisor defends Russia, says US President Biden ‘racist piece of garbage’
U.S. judge OKs extradition bid for man accused in Iraq killings
Minister Joly speaks with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi
Canada announces it will impose additional sanctions on Russian and Belarusian regimes
Canada/Minister Joly meets with Finnish counterpart
Canada-Finland joint statement on bilateral cooperation

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on April 05-06/2022
De Katyn à Boutcha ou la monstruosité en acte/Charles Elias Chartouni/Avril 05/2022
Priority #1 for NATO: Upgrading Air and Missile Defense in Eastern Europe/Mark Montgomery and Jack Sullivan/Real Clear Defense/April 05/2022
The Kremlin’s Latin American Echo Chamber/Emanuele Ottolenghi/FDD/April 05/2022
Corporate Transparency Would Reduce Systemic Cyber Risks/Jiwon Ma and Mark Montgomery//Bloomberg Law/April 05/2022
China Undercuts Sanctions on Russia: Where Are the 'Consequences'?/Judith Bergman/Gatestone Institute/April 05/2022
New York State Supports Hamas, Muzzles Anti-Islamist Reporter/A.J. Caschetta/National Review/April 05/2022
Will Syrian mercenaries make it to the Ukrainian battlefield?/Dr Haid Haid /The Arab Weekly/April 05/2022

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on April 05-06/2022
President Aoun informed by Spiteri of Pope Francis's visit to Lebanon next June
NNA/April 05/2022
President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, met the Papal Ambassador to Lebanon, Monsignor Joseph Spiteri, this afternoon at the Presidential Palace. Monsignor Spiteri handed the President a written message informing him that His Holiness, Pope Francis, had decided to visit Lebanon next June, provided that the date, program and date of the announcement would be officially determined, in coordination between Lebanon and the Holy See. For his side, President Aoun expressed his happiness that the Pope accepted the invitation that he renewed for him to visit Lebanon during their last meeting in the Vatican on Monday, March 21. The President also noted that the Lebanese have been waiting for this visit for some time, to express their gratitude for His Holiness’s stances towards Lebanon and the Lebanese, and for the initiatives that he took and the prayers he offered for the establishment of peace and stability in Lebanon, in addition to the solidarity with the Lebanese in the difficult circumstances they are witnessing. -- Presidency Press office

Bou Habib follows up on Kharrat’s case after being arrested in UAE
NNA/April 05/2022
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants, Abdullah Bou Habib, on Tuesday affirmed that "the Lebanese security and official authorities are closely following up on the case of Dr. Richard Kharrat, who is currently apprehended in the United Arab Emirates." Bou Habib’s stance came during a visit by Sharaf Abou Sharaf, head of the doctors' syndicate in Lebanon, with whom he discussed the circumstances that have led the UAE authorities to arrest Kharrat.

Statement by UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator’s office: UN fuel support reaches its end, while needs keep growing
NNA/April 05/2022
On 31 March 2022, the World Food Programme, working hand in hand with WHO, UNICEF, sector partners and OCHA, delivered the last drop of fuel as part of emergency fuel operations under the UN coordinated Emergency Response Plan (ERP). “The UN through WFP, in coordination with UNICEF, WHO, OCHA and NGOs, has been able to manage one of the largest fuel service provision operations in the world. This operation would not have been possible without the generous support of donors. I am extremely proud of the achievements made with this exceptional project and the strong collaboration witnessed despite the main challenges involved," a statement by the office of UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Mrs. Najat Rochdi, said on Tuesday. Since September 2021 to 31 March 2022, WFP has delivered more than 10.4 million litres of fuel to 350 water facilities and 272 Health facilities across the country to fill critical fuel shortages and avoid critical life-saving services from collapsing. OCHA-managed Lebanon Humanitarian Fund (LHF) and the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) provided US$ 8.5 million to timely and swiftly kick-start this one-off support at a time of need. This emergency fuel operation was to mitigate additional suffering caused by the severe electricity and fuel shortages which have been affecting Lebanon since August 2021, impeding the provision of essential services, including health care and water. The Humanitarian Coordinator expresses her concerns about the continued impact of the energy crisis on basic services and people’s well-being. “I am appealing to the Lebanese government to find a sustainable solution to this issue, as the most vulnerable people, need some form of assistance and protection,” stressed Mrs. Rochdi. Launched in August 2021, the Emergency Response Plan has been only funded at 25 per cent. Urgent support is needed to sustain operations and scale-up critical humanitarian activities, in line with Lebanon Crisis Response Plan humanitarian interventions and UNRWA programs.—UNIC

Report says Hizbullah playing key role in growing captagon trade
Agence France Presse/April 05/2022
Trade in the amphetamine-type stimulant captagon in the Middle East grew exponentially in 2021 to top $5 billion, posing an increasing health and security risk to the region, a report said. Some captagon production facilities, albeit small ones, are located in Lebanon, already the world's third-largest hashish exporter after Morocco and Afghanistan. "Lebanon has served as an extension of the Syrian captagon trade, a key transit point for captagon flows," the report by the New Lines Institute added. Syrian state figures are benefitting from various allied militias and proxies in organizing the trade, including Hizbullah, it said. Some of the Shiite group's main areas of influence include a significant stretch of the Syrian-Lebanese border, giving it a key role in regional trafficking. "With its history of controlling Lebanese cannabis production and smuggling out of the southern Bekaa Valley, Hizbullah has seemingly served an important supporting role in the captagon trade," New Lines said. Captagon has so far only been consumed on a very small scale in Europe but what has become Syria's biggest export has the potential to spread beyond the Middle East. "Its spectrum of effects and reasons for use give it a very broad appeal," Caroline Rose told AFP. Sold for less than one dollar in parts of Syria to consumers who primarily use it to stay awake and work several jobs, a tablet can fetch more than $20 in Saudi Arabia where is it prized as a recreational drug. "It could ultimately penetrate the European market and carve out its own niche," Rose said. The Research paints an alarming picture of the impact booming captagon production is having on the region. "The captagon trade is a rapidly growing illicit economy in the Middle East and Mediterranean," said the report, authored by analysts Caroline Rose and Alexander Soderholm. "Based on large-scale seizures alone, the potential value of the retail trade in 2021 is estimated at over $5.7 billion," it said. The figure is a jump from an estimate of around $3.5 billion in 2020 and only reflects the retail value of the pills seized last year, which the think-tank tabulated at more than 420 million. Many countries have not divulged aggregated seizure figures for the drug, of which Syria is the main producer and Saudi Arabia the main consumer. The real amount of seized pills is likely higher and still only a fraction of the total amount of captagon produced. An AFP tally shows seizures continuing at a slightly slower rate than last year, mostly because a record shipment of 94 million pills was intercepted in Malaysia in March 2021. Captagon was the trade name of a drug initially patented in Germany in the early 1960s that contained an amphetamine-type stimulant called fenethylline used to treat attention deficit and narcolepsy among other conditions.
Syrian state role
It was later banned and became an illicit drug almost exclusively produced and consumed in the Middle East. Captagon is now a brand name, with its trademark logo sporting two interlocked "Cs", or crescents, embossed on each tablet, for a drug that often contains little or no fenethylline and is close to what is known in other countries as "speed". New Lines said its changing formula made attempts at cracking down on the booming trade harder. "One of the most challenging aspects in tracking the patterns of captagon production, smuggling and use is assessing its precursors and constantly shifting chemical formula," it said. The market value of the captagon produced in Syria now far outstrips legal exports and has resulted in the country being branded a "narco-state". The New Lines report further documents how members of President Bashar al-Assad's family and high-ranking members of his regime are involved in captagon manufacturing and smuggling. Stifled by international sanctions slapped on the regime in the course of Syria's 11-year-old war, the government is "using the trade as a means for political and economic survival", the report said.

Families of Beirut port blast victims mark 20 months
Associated Press/April 05/2022
Carrying portraits of their loved ones, relatives of victims of the August 2020 explosion at the Port of Beirut have marched in the Lebanese capital. They marked 20 months since the devastating blast killed more than 200 people and injured thousands. "We will not forget," read placards held by some of the relatives on Monday. They expressed frustration at the judicial investigation that has been suspended for three months amid a deluge of legal challenges by politicians seeking to block the probe. The blast was caused by the detonation of hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a port warehouse for years, apparently with the knowledge of senior politicians and security officials who did nothing about it. The explosion killed at least 216 people, injured more than 6,500 others and destroyed parts of the city. Twenty months later, nearly everything remains unknown — from who ordered the shipment to why officials ignored repeated warnings of the danger. Families of the victims have been pressing for answers, accusing political parties of obstructing the local investigation. "It is not new because we know that the government is complicit in the crime so it is trying its best to stop (investigating) the crime," said Paul Najjar, the father of the youngest victim of the blast, 3-year-old Alexandra Najjar. But he hopes that parliamentary elections in May will make a difference. "It is the only solution to remove this regime and to bring justice for my daughter and others," Najjar said. The bereaved men and women marched toward the port holding portraits of their lost ones. There, a group of women dressed in black sat at the foot of a statue of a Lebanese émigré crying in silence. The families lit candles at 6:07 p.m., the exact time of the blast. Zeina Noun, 53, lost her son to the blast. She said the families will continue to fight. "We will not stop until those who are responsible are held accountable," she said.

Will electricity be an excuse to postpone parliamentary elections?
Agence France Press/April 05/2022
Failure to secure funds and logistics necessary to provide uninterrupted power supply to polling stations on May 15 might become an excuse to postpone the parliamentary elections, a media report said on Tuesday. “Electricite du Liban has informed the Interior Minister that it will only be able to supply a third of the polling stations with electricity,” al-Akhbar newspaper reported. EDL chief Kamal Hayek told the Minister that “alternative solutions must be sought.” “To salvage the elections, the rental of power generators, perhaps more than one for each polling center, has been suggested… This necessitates securing diesel and paying for it in advance with fresh dollars,” al-Akhbar said, noting that parliament’s recent approval of parliamentary elections funds does not cover electricity expenses. Interior Minister Bassam al-Mawlawi meanwhile announced overnight Monday/Tuesday that he would secure uninterrupted power supply on the polling day and until the announcement of results, noting that “there are many choices” in this regard. Mawlawi had said Friday that EDL is charging $16 million to supply power on the day of the May 15 parliamentary polls, a sum that exceeds the overall election budget by nearly 30 percent. "I held several meetings with EDL, which apparently couldn't provide electricity except at a very high cost," IMawlawi said. "The entire elections, at home and abroad, don't cost this much," Mawlawi said, saying his total budget for the vote was capped at $12.5 million. Mawlawi was adamant the government was working for the polls to go ahead as scheduled, despite persistent rumors they could be called off. Lebanon, grappling with an unprecedented economic crisis since 2019, and which defaulted on its debt in March 2020, has suffered from severe power shortages for nearly a year -- largely because the government can't afford fuel for power stations. Power cuts last up to 22 hours a day in most regions, forcing many to rely on expensive generator subscriptions to keep the lights on. The international community has long demanded a complete overhaul of Lebanon's loss-making electricity sector -- which has cost the government more than $40 billion since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war -- as one of the basic conditions to disburse billions of dollars in desperately needed financial support. EDL had asked for its payment in cash, Mawlawi said. Mawlawi said the government may turn to private generators to power voting centers, which will need electricity to light the room at night when the votes are counted immediately after polls close. "I can't rely on the state because despite the high cost demanded, EDL can't guarantee solid results... which may lead to a sudden blackout," the interior minister said. "The issue of electricity is the biggest problem facing Lebanon... but we will be able to solve it for the day of elections," he added.

Is Lebanon bankrupt? Lebanon's central bank governor says, ‘Not true’
The Arab Weekly/April 05/2022
Rumours swirled Monday in social media all over the Arab world that Lebanon has declared bankruptcy. But Lebanon Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh on Monday denied that the institution he has led for 30 years was bankrupt and said it was still going about its legally-mandated role despite losses in the financial sector. The comments in a statement by the governor were an apparent response to the deputy prime minister, who said on Sunday that both the state and the central bank were bankrupt. Lebanon is in the third year of a financial implosion caused by decades of corruption and bad policies that has led the currency to crash in value by more than 90% and banks to lock most savers out of hard-currency accounts. A draft government financial rescue plan earlier this year estimated a roughly $70 billion hole in the financial sector. The government is revising the plan as part of talks with the International Monetary Fund, from which it is seeking an aid programme. "Unfortunately, the state is bankrupt, as is the central bank, so we have a problem ... the loss has occurred," Deputy Prime Minister Saade Chami said during an interview on Sunday. Chami on Monday told local broadcaster OTV he had been speaking about the state's inability to contribute significantly to bridging financial sector losses, "which means it has no liquidity." Salameh's statement said: "What is being circulated about the bankruptcy of the central bank is not true."It added the bank was still going about its legally-mandated duties under article 70 of the Money and Credit law, which states the bank is entrusted with preserving the integrity of the Lebanese currency and maintaining economic stability. The World Bank estimates Lebanon's economy to have contracted by nearly 60% between 2019 and 2021, in what it has called one of the worst financial crises in modern times. Asked about Chami's comments earlier in the day, Prime Minister Najib Mikati said in a statement from his office that he believed his deputy was speaking about "liquidity, not solvency." He did not elaborate.

Economist says Shami's statement over state, BDL bankruptcy 'somewhat' true
Naharnet/April 05/2022
The Central Bank is stumbling, economic expert Edmond Shammas told al-Jadeed on Tuesday, following a statement by Deputy Prime Minister Saadeh Shami about the Central Bank being bankrupted. Shami had explained in a TV interview that his remarks had been quoted out of context. "I was talking about the government's liquidity," Shami clarified. The topic had been circulating on social media platforms, after Shami said on Sunday that the government and the Central Bank are bankrupted. "I consider what Shami said about the stumbling of the state to be true," Shammas said. "Stumbling and bankruptcy are somewhat similar," he added. Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh, for his part, negated the bankruptcy in a statement. He said the bank is fulfilling its role, despite the financial losses. "A recovery plan is currently being prepared by the Lebanese government in cooperation with the International Monetary Fund," the governor added. Salameh had steered Lebanese finances for nearly three decades, through post-war recovery and bouts of unrest. Once praised as the guardian of Lebanon’s financial stability, he has drawn increasing scrutiny since the small country’s economic meltdown began in late 2019.

World Bank regional chief 'optimistic' about Miqati's reform efforts
Naharnet /April 05/2022
Prime Minister Najib Miqati co-chaired Monday the fourth meeting of the Consultative Group of the Reform, Recovery and Reconstruction Framework (3RF). The 3RF Consultative Group consists of the Government of Lebanon, Lebanese civil society, the European Union, United Nations, the World Bank, and international donors. Together they monitor progress and give strategic direction to the reforms and activities under the 3RF. Deputy Prime Minister Saadeh Shami said that the conferees discussed in the meeting at the Grand Serail restructuring the banking sector, achieving an economic recovery plan and passing the capital control law and the state budget. He added that the negotiations with the International Monetary Fund are ongoing, hoping to sign soon a preliminary agreement with the IMF. The group co-chairs said in a statement that the members "took stock of the progress made to date under the 3RF supported programs and reiterated its call to address the protracted crisis.""Discussions focused on three strategic issues, namely economic stabilization and recovery, social protection, and justice and accountability," the statement added.
U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon Najat Rochdi said for her part that the meeting had demonstrated the challenges and discussed the progress in the agreed work plan which includes achieving macroeconomic stability, social protection, independence of the judiciary and the fight against corruption. She added that the needs of the Lebanese are a priority. World Bank Regional Director in the Middle East Saroj Kumar Jha said he was optimistic about the national reforms program led by Miqati. "There is a need for a reform plan that includes a financial program, debt repayment, restructuring the financial and banking sector, and developing social protection systems," Kumar Jha stressed.

Rochdi says U.N. fuel support for Lebanon has reached its end
Naharnet/April 05/2022
On 31 March 2022, the World Food Program, working hand in hand with WHO, UNICEF, sector partners and OCHA, delivered the last drop of fuel as part of emergency fuel operations under the U.N. coordinated Emergency Response Plan for Lebanon (ERP), the office of U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Najat Rochdi said on Tuesday. “The U.N. through WFP, in coordination with UNICEF, WHO, OCHA and NGOs, has been able to manage one of the largest fuel service provision operations in the world. This operation would not have been possible without the generous support of donors. I am extremely proud of the achievements made with this exceptional project and the strong collaboration witnessed despite the main challenges involved,” Rochdi declared. Since September 2021 to 31 March 2022, WFP has delivered more than 10.4 million liters of fuel to 350 water facilities and 272 Health facilities across the country to fill critical fuel shortages and avoid critical life-saving services from collapsing. OCHA-managed Lebanon Humanitarian Fund (LHF) and the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) provided US$ 8.5 million to “timely and swiftly kick-start this one-off support at a time of need,” Rochdi’s office said in a statement. This emergency fuel operation was to mitigate additional suffering caused by the severe electricity and fuel shortages which have been affecting Lebanon since August 2021, impeding the provision of essential services, including health care and water. The Humanitarian Coordinator expressed her concerns about the continued impact of the energy crisis on basic services and people’s well-being. “I am appealing to the Lebanese government to find a sustainable solution to this issue, as the most vulnerable people, need some form of assistance and protection,” Rochdi stressed. Launched in August 2021, the Emergency Response Plan has been only funded at 25 percent. “Urgent support is needed to sustain operations and scale-up critical humanitarian activities, in line with Lebanon Crisis Response Plan humanitarian interventions and UNRWA programs,” the statement said.

Judge Aoun lifts travel bans against BLOM, Audi chairmen
Naharnet/April 05/2022
Mount Lebanon Prosecutor Judge Ghada Aoun decided on Tuesday to lift travel bans against BLOM Bank chairman Saad al-Azhari and Bank Audi chairman Samir Hanna. The decision came after the lawyer of the two banks, Sakher al-Hashem submitted a request to lift the travel bans to Judge Aoun. Aoun had imposed travel bans on the directors of Lebanon’s largest five banks, Bank of Beirut, Bank Audi, SGBL, BLOM Bank and BankMed. Days after, she froze the assets of the five banks and those of their board of directors as she investigates possible transfers of billions of dollars aboard during the country’s economic meltdown. The state-run National News Agency said the decision by Aoun with Mount Lebanon district court covers real estate, vehicles and shares that the five banks or their directors own in other companies.

مقالة لبارعة علم الدين تلقي الأضواء على اجرام وارهاب الإحتلال الإيراني واذرعته للبنان والعراق وخيبة آمال واحباط إرادة الشعبين العراقي واللبناني
Thwarting the people’s will in Iraq and Lebanon
Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/April 05/2022
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/107634/baria-alamuddin-thwarting-the-peoples-will-in-iraq-and-lebanon-%d9%85%d9%82%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a9-%d9%84%d8%a8%d8%a7%d8%b1%d8%b9%d8%a9-%d8%b9%d9%84%d9%85-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%af%d9%8a%d9%86%d8%aa/
Elections represent a contract between a nation’s people and the governing classes; the people have their say, and bestow a mandate to govern upon those they select. However, in some states this fundamental social contract has been broken beyond repair.
In the October 2021 elections, the Iraqi people spoke with remarkable clarity about who they did NOT want to represent them; the Iran-backed paramilitary coalition affiliated with Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi plunged from its already modest 48 seats out of 329, to just 17.
In any other parliamentary system, this would represent rejection to the point of near extinction. However, in Iraq, these Hashd factions — which according to the constitution should be banned from politics because of their paramilitary affiliations — have instead bullied and pressured the entire political system to a standstill, holding Iraq hostage until the levers of power are surrendered to them.
In consequence, parliament has failed for a third time to elect a president, a full six months after the elections, largely because vested interests have pressured enough factions and independent MPs to boycott sessions and bring everything to a standstill. The Hashd’s Iranian allies have threatened, bribed and blackmailed politicians behind the scenes. Iraqi social media users heaped derision on cowardly MPs who faked illness to excuse themselves from parliament in a willful sabotage of the political process.
Perhaps the most detested man in Iraq, former Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, has exploited the deadlock to insist that his faction must be part of any future “consensus” government — even though the leader of the largest faction, Moqtada Al-Sadr, has insisted on Maliki’s exclusion because of the numerous catastrophes he has inflicted upon Iraq at the bidding of Iran and sectarian militants. Sadr told Maliki and Hashd leaders: “I will not reach consensus with you. Consensus means putting an end to the country… What you describe as political deadlock is better than agreeing with you and dividing the cake with you.” Nevertheless, the result is likely to be indefinite deadlock. Hashd factions and Hezbollah boast endlessly of their “resistance” to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, while they themselves facilitate an Iranian occupation of Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen that is every bit as pernicious and destructive. As in Iraq, so too in Lebanon; a political system repeatedly brought to a halt until Hezbollah and its allies extract exactly what they want.
With elections just over a month away, it pains me to say that Hezbollah remain the best organized team in the field, taking advantage of recent political turbulence to draw likely winners into their camp. Structurally, Hezbollah can win only a minority of seats, so it is entirely a question of how it can exploit its political leverage to thwart the popular will through “blocking thirds” and shady backroom deals. Hezbollah also draws on its immense financial reserves to bribe voters with food, money and welfare support, along with vague promises of cheap electricity and fuel from Iran — which if they ever materialize are likely to cost Lebanon far more than money.
The situation is highly fluid in Sunni areas after Saad Hariri’s withdrawal, but also throughout Christian constituencies as the collapse in support for Michel Aoun and Gebran Bassil’s Free Patriotic Movement because of their alliance with “Hizb-Al-Shaitan” offers opportunities for other factions and personalities. There has also been a commendably large increase in female candidates.
Hashd factions and Hezbollah boast endlessly of their “resistance” to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, while they themselves facilitate an Iranian occupation of Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen that is every bit as pernicious and destructive.
To widespread hilarity, Aoun has reassured voters that he would remain as president until he had rooted out every corrupt official. Hurrah! However, his list of “dirty” politicians must be extremely long, and presumably he’s saving close relatives and allies until last.
The Lebanon we know and love is dying on its feet, as the brightest and best leave in droves, fleeing hunger, poverty and unemployment. There is a yearning for change and we must use the elections as a crucial tool to this end.
In Lebanon and Iraq, Iran’s allies win over and over again because a critical mass of MPs, for their own corrupt personal gain, are willing to sell out their nations and their compatriots. And this is only possible because enough citizens naively or carelessly vote for such traitors.
As matters stand, these political systems have become wholly corrupted and are scarcely salvageable without radical action. Citizens must ask themselves whether they are content to be a colony for another occupying state, or whether they desire to be free, independent and sovereign. As the journalist Ali Hamadeh recently argued: “There is no reform without sovereignty, and no sovereignty without reform”.
Sir William Patey, the British ambassador to Baghdad in 2005-2006, spoke last week of having warned the British government that Iraq was “heading toward civil war unless we deal with the militias,” particularly after Maliki had been allowed to “strip out the guts of the Iraqi army.” He was speaking at an event to launch my new book on Iraq’s paramilitary factions, “Militia State,” which argues that the existence of these entities is inimical to the existence of any kind of democratic or representative system. Unfortunately, Sir William’s advice went unheeded and these militias have been allowed to consolidate their position until they became stronger than the state. Just as nominally rival factions came together as the March 14 Alliance to confront Syrian and Iranian dominance, we need new broad-based alliances that may differ widely in their politics but are united in their absolute rejection of Iranian dominance of their political systems. As I argue in my book, when a small, rejected minority acting in the interests of a hostile foreign state is repeatedly allowed to dominate governments, this is not democracy. When paramilitaries use violence to force the government’s hand, and assassinate rivals, activists and journalists, this is not democracy. And when governing systems can be held hostage for months on end until discredited elements are awarded top positions, this farce has absolutely nothing to do with democracy.
In these states, including Iran itself, people’s aspirations will continue to be thwarted until citizens assertively exercise their democratic rights with their feet and emerge en masse on to the streets to flush these criminals out of the corridors of power once and for all.
• Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate and has interviewed numerous heads of state. Her new book, “Militia State —The Rise of Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi and the Eclipse of the Iraqi Nation State,” is published by Nomad Publishing.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on April 05-06/2022
Zelensky calls on UN Security Council to expel Russia, or disband
News Agencies/April 05, 2022
NEW YORK: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has demanded that Russia be expelled from the UN Security Council. If the body fails to do this, he said that it should be dissolved.
Had the council taken action to deliver effective responses to the conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan, Libya and Yemen, he added, “tyranny would have ceased to exist and peace would have prevailed.”
“It is time to transform the UN system,” Zelensky told council members via video link on Tuesday as he accused Russian forces of carrying out executions and other atrocities in Ukraine. He called for those who committed the acts, and those who gave the orders, to stand trial at a war crimes tribunal similar to the one that took place at Nuremberg after the Second World War. “The UN system must be reformed immediately so the veto isn’t the right to die. There can be no more exceptions or privileges,” Zelensky said, referring to the power of veto that Russia wields as one of the five permanent members of the Security Council and has used to block resolutions on the conflict in Ukraine.
Zelensky said that civilians had been shot in the back of the head, blown up by grenades in their homes and crushed by tanks while sitting in their cars in the middle of the road.“They (Russian forces) cut off limbs, cut their throats,” he added. “Women were raped and killed in front of their children. Their tongues were pulled out only because their aggressor did not hear what they wanted to hear from them.” He warned that the widely reported horrors of war crimes in Bucha are matched by similar atrocities in other parts of the war-ravaged country.
The Security Council was meeting shortly after images emerged of gruesome scenes in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha. They showed the bodies of civilians strewn across the streets, including one person whose hands were tied behind their back, the naked body of a blindfolded child lying on top of other dead bodies, piles of charred human remains, and trenches serving as mass graves. The images sparked outrage and condemnation worldwide. Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, said that “to even consider” that Russian troops could commit such crimes is “unacceptable,” as he accused Ukrainian nationalists of staging the horrors in Bucha. “You only saw what they showed you,” Nebenzia told the council. “The only ones who would fall for this are Western dilettantes.” He also denied the existence of what his US counterpart at the UN called “filtration camps” where Ukrainians are being stripped of their passports and phones and forced to cross the border into Russia. “600,000 Ukrainians voluntarily came to Russia and there was no abduction, as Western colleagues claim,” said Nebenzia.
He accused Zelensky of waging a war against the Russian language, saying that Nazis are not only present in Ukraine, “they are also running the show. They have shown unrivaled cruelty against civilians, using them as human shields.”He added: “We have hundreds, if not thousands, of video testimonials of people who are ready to provide testimonials against Ukrainian cruelty.”Nebenzia accused Ukrainian soldiers of rape, robbing people at checkpoints, preventing refugees from leaving the country and firing indiscriminately at residential buildings. He accused Western nations of “not giving a hoot” about Ukrainians. Instead, he said, they are using the people of the country as pawns in their geopolitical games against Russia and prolonging the conflict by sending weapons to the country.
He repeated the official Russian claim that its forces “came to Ukraine to bring peace to the Donbas region,” and vowed that they would “root out the malignant Nazi tumor that is consuming Ukraine and soon about to consume Russia.” If Russian troops have not advanced as much as might have been expected in their military operations it is because “we are not acting like the US did in Syria, razing entire cities to the ground,” Nebenzia added. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who immediately called for an independent investigation into events in Bucha, described the war in Ukraine as “one of the greatest challenges ever to the international order and the global peace architecture, founded on the United Nations Charter, because of its nature, intensity and consequences.” He added: “We are dealing with the full-fledged invasion, on several fronts, of one member state of the UN, Ukraine, by another, the Russian Federation, a permanent member of the Security Council, in violation of the UN Charter and with several aims, including redrawing the internationally recognized borders between the two countries.”
The ramifications of the war are being felt far beyond Ukraine’s borders, Guterres said. It has led to massive increases in the prices of food, energy and fertilizers, disrupted supply chains and increased the cost of transportation, he added, which are effects that “74 developing countries, with a total population of 1.2 billion people, are particularly vulnerable to.”“For all these reasons, it is more urgent by the day to silence the guns,” Guterres said. He urged all countries to ensure markets remain open, resist imposing restrictions on food exports, and make reserves available to countries at risk of famine.
“This is not the time for protectionism,” he added. He also called for strategic stockpiles of energy and additional reserves to be used to ease the energy crisis in the short term, and stressed that the only “long-term solution” is to accelerate the adoption of renewable energy, “which is not impacted by market fluctuations.”In terms of financial measures, he urged the G20 and international financial institutions to increase liquidity and fiscal space “so that governments can provide safety nets for the poorest and most vulnerable.”

Genocide masterplan': Experts alarmed after Kremlin intellectual calls for 'cleansed' Ukraine
Alexander Nazaryan/Yahoo news/April 5, 2022
WASHINGTON — Ukrainian society must be “cleansed of Nazi elements,” a leading Russian intellectual wrote in an essay published on Sunday, as Ukrainian soldiers sifted through the gruesome aftermath of a slaughter of civilians in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha. The article, titled “What Should Russia Do With Ukraine?” was published on the website of RIA Novosti, a news agency controlled by the Kremlin. Its author, Timofey Sergeytsev, is described as a “political technologist.” He previously worked for Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Kremlin president of Ukraine ousted during the 2014 popular protests known as the Orange Revolution. Faithfully echoing the arguments that have been proffered by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Sergeytsev even puts the blame on the civilian population. “A significant number of common people are also guilty of being passive Nazis and Nazi accomplices,” Sergeytsev writes. “They supported the Nazi authorities and pandered to them.”Sergeytsev has made “outlandish, outrageous claims in the past,” Oxford expert on Russian affairs Samuel Ramani told Yahoo News. But in this case, the article “represents mainstream Kremlin thinking.” Ukrainian activists translated the article into English after the Russian-language version was circulated widely on social media.
“This is what real #Russia wants,” the activists wrote.
“As naked an endorsement of genocide as you’ll read in a state-owned media organ,” wrote Russia expert Michael Weiss on Twitter about the Sergeytsev article. The article amounts to a “genocide masterplan,” Berlin-based Russia expert Sergej Sumlenny told Yahoo News in a text message. He predicted that Sergeytsev’s musings would be used as justification for more atrocities like the one at Bucha. Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine in February under the fictitious pretenses that the nation’s leadership was rife with “Nazi” extremists. Although there are far-right elements in Ukraine’s society, and its military, they constitute an out-of-power fringe, as they do in other European states. Russia’s claims are rendered especially absurd given the fact that Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is one of the few Jewish leaders on the world stage. Zelensky and some of his predecessors have sought to orient the nation away from Russia, toward the West, thus incurring the Kremlin’s ire. Russia is “not just after piecemeal annexation of territory,” Ramani told Yahoo News of Sergeytsev’s lengthy musings. “It’s about suppressing the Ukrainian identity, and it equates any kind of expression of Ukrainian nationalism with Nazism,” even when those expressions of national feeling are being voiced by Zelensky, who had family members who fought against the Nazis in World War II — and others who perished in the Holocaust. In his RIA Novosti article, Sergeytsev essentially calls for the elimination of Ukrainian national identity. “The name ‘Ukraine’ cannot be kept as a title of any fully denazified state entity on the territory liberated from the Nazi regime,” he writes. “The people’s republics, newly created on the territories free from Nazism, must and will develop on the basis of practices of economic self-government and social security, restoration and modernization of systems of essential services for the population.”Zelensky addressed the article in a call with Romanian politicians on Monday, saying it would be used as “evidence in a future tribunal of Russian war crimes.” He said the article called for “the annihilation of everything that makes Ukrainians Ukrainian.” Putin has long seen Ukraine as part of a broader, Moscow-led Slavic empire, a vision articulated by intellectuals who have provided a philosophical backing for the Kremlin’s aggressive aims in Ukraine and elsewhere. Although Ukrainians share cultural, religious and linguistic similarities with Russia, they have long bristled at being treated like a junior partner. Ukraine has been its own nation since the dissolution of the Soviet empire in 1991. Sergeytsev’s article is a window into how the Kremlin apparently continues to see the Ukraine invasion, despite seemingly abandoning its “denazification” project last week amid mounting military losses. Regime change is no longer a public Russian condition for peace. But whether the Kremlin truly seeks an end to fighting remains unclear. For one, the Kremlin continues to promote its unfounded claims of Ukrainian extremism, with former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev writing in a Monday social media post that “a passionate segment of Ukrainian society has been praying to the Third Reich for the last 30 years. Literally.”
Dmitry Medvedev sits at a desk during a meeting.
Going even further in his RIA Novosti essay, Sergeytsev argues that “Ukra-nazism poses a much bigger threat to the world and Russia than the Hitler version of German Nazism.” Russian media has been full of lurid stories about the supposed slaughter of ethnic Russians by Ukrainian troops. Outlandish conspiracy theories about bioweapons laboratories funded by Hunter Biden, the president’s son, and George Soros, the Jewish philanthropist, have also proliferated widely in Russian media — and without any evident skepticism. Adolf Hitler was responsible for the deaths of millions of Russians and Ukrainians, as well as the extermination of 6 million Jews. Russian propaganda has latched on to the fact that there were also Ukrainian collaborators who worked with the Nazis during Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. Those Ukrainian nationalists hoped to secure independence from the brutal Soviet rule, which was itself responsible for millions of deaths in Ukraine. Zelensky and his supporters argue that if any regime represents modern-day Nazi Germany, it is the one found in Moscow. “It’s important to spread this article,” the Ukrainians who posted the English-language version of Sergeytsev’s essay wrote. “The world should be aware of Russian methods, crimes, and plans. Putin will not stop until he is stopped.”

UN says signs point to civilians being directly ‘targeted’ in Bucha
AFP, Geneva/05 April ,2022
The United Nations said Tuesday that all the signs from Bucha pointed towards civilians having been directly targeted and killed in the town outside Kyiv. The UN Human Rights Office said the images emerging from the Bucha were extremely disturbing, and underlined that international law prohibited deliberate attacks on civilians. Western leaders have united in outrage after dozens of bodies were found on the streets and in mass graves when Russian troops retreated from the devastated town, laying bare the horrors of a 40-day war that has killed thousands. “What we’re talking about here appears to be the direct killing and targeting of civilians in Bucha,” rights office spokeswoman Liz Throssell told reporters in Geneva. She cited photographs of people with their hands bound and of partially naked women whose bodies had been burnt. “This is extremely disturbing, and does really strongly suggest that they were directly targeted as individuals, and here, what we must stress is that under international humanitarian law, the deliberate killing of civilians is a war crime,” she said. Throssell added: “All the signs are that the victims were directly targeted and directly killed.” “You could argue there was a military context, for example, to a building being hit; it’s hard to see what was the military context of an individual lying in the street with a bullet to the head or having their bodies burned.”Throssell clarified that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights did not have staff on the ground in Bucha. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blames Russian troops for the killings, but the Kremlin has denied responsibility. Moscow suggested images of the corpses in Bucha were “fakes.”

Spain, Denmark to expel 40 Russian diplomats
Agence France Presse/April 05/2022
Spain will expel around 25 Russian diplomats and embassy staff over the Russian invasion of Ukraine, following similar moves by Germany and France, Spain's foreign minister said Tuesday. "The unbearable images we have seen of the massacre of civilians in the town of Bucha after the withdrawal of the Russian army deeply outrage us," Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said in a reference to a town outside Kyiv. The Russian diplomats and staff "represent a threat to the interest of the country" and they will be expelled "immediately", he told a news conference following a weekly cabinet meeting. "We are talking about a group of around 25 people, we are completing the list," he said. Horrific images of corpses lying in the streets in the town of Bucha, some with their hands bound behind them, following the Russian withdrawal have drawn international condemnation of Russia, and the EU is considering additional sanctions.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russian troops of being behind the killings but the Kremlin has denied any responsibility and suggested images of corpses were "fakes."On Monday, France expelled 35 Russian diplomats, and Germany announced it had expelled a "significant number" of Russian envoys. Denmark said Tuesday it is expelling 15 Russian "intelligence officers" registered as diplomats in the country.

France’s Macron targets poll rival Le Pen over ties to Russia
AFP/05 April ,2022
French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday accused his far-right election rival Marine Le Pen of being too close to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, denying he had indulged the Kremlin over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.Russia and Ukraine risk becoming a key issue in France’s election campaign this month, as polls project Le Pen could make a serious challenge to the centrist Macron in the second-round run-off on April 24. “You should not be looking at me if you want to find complacency towards Vladimir Putin, or Russian financing,” he told reporters on a campaign visit to Brittany ahead of the first round of polls Sunday. “You should be looking at the other candidates. Don’t forget that,” he said on a cam. While Macron did not name Le Pen by name, his comments were a clear reference to the far-right National Rally (RN) leader who was hosted by Putin in 2017 and whose party is continuing to pay back a loan of some nine million euros from a Russian creditor. Le Pen has sought to distance herself from Putin after invasion of Ukraine, saying he is “not the same person” she had met in 2017 and speaking of “war crimes” after the discovery of corpses outside Kyiv. Macron has kept up dialogue with Putin even after the launch of the Russian invasion on February 24 but said that it was at the request of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy who believed such talks were still useful. “I will do so, so long as the Ukrainian president asks me to have a dialogue with Russia, so long as France can play a role in making the negotiations progress, obtaining things on the humanitarian level and preparing for peace.”His comments also came after bitter criticism from Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki over Macron’s policy of keeping up talks with Putin despite the mounting outrage over Russia’s actions in Ukraine.“How many times have you negotiated with Putin and what have you achieved? We do not discuss, we do not negotiate with criminals. Criminals have to be fought against,” Morawiecki said Monday, addressing Macron. “Nobody negotiated with Hitler. Would you negotiate with Hitler, with Stalin, with Pol Pot?” he asked.
Macron said that he had never used the situation in Ukraine for political ends and said he would only visit Zelenskyy in Kyiv if it could bring results. “If it can bring something and have a useful effect I would do it either before or after” the presidential election, he said.

Kuwait government resigns three months after formation
Agence France Presse/April 05/2022
Kuwait's government resigned on Tuesday, three months after it was sworn in, state media reported, amid escalating disputes with parliament. The Gulf emirate's prime minister, Sabah Khaled Al-Sabah, submitted the cabinet's resignation to Crown Prince Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the official KUNA news agency said. The move comes a day ahead of a parliamentary vote on a letter of non-cooperation, which 10 lawmakers submitted against the premier after he had been accused of committing "unconstitutional" practices, including corruption. Oil-rich Kuwait has been shaken by disputes between lawmakers and successive governments dominated by the ruling Al-Sabah family for more than a decade, with parliaments and cabinets dissolved several times. Kuwait is the only Gulf Arab state with a fully elected parliament, which enjoys wide legislative powers and can vote ministers out of office.
In February, the country's interior and defense ministers resigned in protest over the manner of parliamentary questioning of other ministers. Parliament had questioned Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmed Nasser al-Mohammed Al-Sabah -- also part of the royal family -- over corruption claims and alleged misuse of public funds. Sheikh Ahmed survived a no-confidence vote on February 16, but Defense Minister Sheikh Hamad Jaber Al-Ali Al-Sabah said the lengthy grilling was an "abuse" of power. "Interrogations are a constitutional right... but parliamentary practices are hindering us from fulfilling the aspirations of the Kuwaiti people," he was quoted as saying at the time by Kuwaiti media. The country's last government was sworn in December, the fourth in two years, after the previous one resigned in November amid political deadlock.

Israel police arrest 8 in third night of Jerusalem unrest
Associated Press/April 05/2022
Israeli police have arrested several Palestinians accused of throwing rocks and other objects at officers outside the contested Old City of Jerusalem as tensions flared during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Police said officers arrested eight people suspected of throwing rocks, bottles and fireworks at officers during Ramadan revelries outside the Damascus Gate. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Police said in a statement that "most of the people at the scene were not actively participating in these disturbances." Video footage from the scene showed officers being pelted by water bottles and other objects and detaining suspects. It was the third consecutive night of unrest outside the Old City, a frequent flashpoint of Israeli-Palestinian violence. On Sunday, Palestinian youths and Israeli police scuffled outside the Damascus Gate, a central gathering place in the heart of historic Jerusalem. Police said officers arrested 10 people suspected of attacking officers while the area was packed with hundreds of revelers after the day's fast. Several people suffered minor injuries, paramedics said. Israeli police are on high alert after three deadly attacks by Palestinians in Israel in recent weeks that killed 11 Israelis. An Israeli raid on a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank last week in search of a gunman's suspected accomplices set off a gunbattle in which two Palestinians were killed and 15 were wounded.On Saturday, Israeli police said its officers killed three Palestinian militants who were involved in recent attacks on Israeli forces and were planning another. Israeli authorities have sought to avoid a repeat of last year's violence during the month-long Muslim holiday. Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian leaders have held a flurry of meetings in recent weeks, and Israel has announced a series of goodwill gestures, in an effort to maintain calm during Ramadan.Clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police around the historic Old City, the emotional epicenter of the more than century-long conflict, during Ramadan last year helped precipitate the 11-day war between Israel and the Islamist militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip in May.
Israel captured east Jerusalem, along with its holy sites to the three monotheistic faiths, in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed it in a move unrecognized by most of the international community. The Palestinians seek east Jerusalem as capital of a future state that would include the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel considers the city its united capital.

Pentagon report says U.S. could have done more to limit civilian toll in Raqqa
Agence France Presse/April 05/2022
The U.S. military could have done more to limit civilian casualties and damage during the battle for the Syrian city of Raqqa that marked the Islamic State's fall in 2017, according to a report commissioned by the Pentagon. At the end of the nearly five-month battle to free the city from IS, "60 to 80 percent" of it was "uninhabitable" and resentment of the population was directed at the liberators, said a report by the research center RAND Corporation.  "Raqqa endured the most structural damage by density of any city in Syria," said the report released Thursday. "The level of structural damage and the lack of US support for Raqqa's reconstruction led many Raqqa residents to resent the method of their city's liberation," it added. So-called "targeted" air strikes and artillery fire by coalition forces on Raqqa caused numerous civilian casualties between June 6 and October 30, 2017: from 744 to 1,600 dead, according to counts by the coalition, Amnesty International or the specialized site Airwars, the RAND report said. But the battle of Raqqa also caused the destruction of a large number of buildings and civil infrastructure, which "undermined... long-term US interests" in the region, the 130-page document said. According to U.N. figures cited by RAND, 11,000 buildings were destroyed or damaged between February and October 2017, including eight hospitals, 29 mosques, more than 40 schools, five universities and the city's irrigation system. The U.S. military, which conducted 95 percent of the airstrikes and 100 percent of the artillery fire during the battle, did not commit war crimes during the battle because it tried to respect international laws on the protection of civilians in wartime, but RAND said there was "room for improvement."Instead of focusing on airstrikes to spare the lives of its soldiers, the US military should be prepared to send more troops into the field to gain better situational awareness and take on more risk.

Yemen warring parties trade charges of truce violations
Agence France Presse/April 05/2022
Yemen's warring parties on Tuesday traded accusations of violating a ceasefire agreement, three days after it went into effect at the start of Ramadan. The internationally recognized government, supported by a Saudi-led military coalition, and the Iran-backed Huthi rebels have been locked in a violent power struggle since 2014, when the insurgents seized the capital Sanaa. But a two-month truce that started on Saturday -- the first day of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan -- has offered a glimmer of hope in the conflict considered the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
Yemen's foreign minister, Ahmed bin Mubarak, in a Twitter post accused the Huthis of ceasefire violations. "The truce has been greatly welcomed, but it is threatened by Huthi's breaches including military deployments, mobilization of troops & vehicles, artillery and drone strikes," he wrote in English, without providing details. While the insurgents did not directly respond to the claims, their media channels also reported alleged "breaches", but by pro-government troops, on Sunday and Monday. Since 2016, the coalition backing the government has enforced an air and sea blockade on Yemen, with exemptions for aid flights, accusing Tehran of smuggling weapons to the rebels. Iran denies the charge.
'Pivotal' moment
The US special envoy for Yemen, Tim Lenderking, told Bloomberg TV on Monday all sides to the conflict had compromised and showed flexibility, with nobody getting "entirely what they want". "I think this is a really pivotal moment for Yemen, and I think what it does is it gives the Yemenis a break from seven years of conflict," he added. Under the latest ceasefire agreement brokered by the UN, all ground, air and naval military operations, including cross-border attacks, are meant to cease. In addition, 18 fuel ships are to be allowed into Hodeida port, a lifeline for Yemen, and two commercial flights a week are allowed into and out of the rebel-held Sanaa airport. The truce announcement came as discussions on Yemen's devastating conflict were being held in Saudi Arabia -- in the absence of the insurgents, who refused to hold talks on "enemy" territory. The civil war has killed hundreds of thousands, directly or indirectly, according to UN figures, and pushed the country to the brink of famine. Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, in remarks Monday in the Saudi capital Riyadh, called on the Huthis to return to the negotiating table in order to "let us heal our torn homeland's wounds".But Yemenis remained cautiously optimistic, as a number of previous ceasefires had failed. "If it does in fact hold, and there is good will from everyone, I think things may get better and safety and security will return to the country," Houssam Fathi, 24, a resident of Sanaa, told AFP. A national truce ahead of peace talks in April 2016 was violated almost immediately, as were other ceasefires that year. A 2018 agreement to cease hostilities around rebel-held Hodeida port was also largely ignored. In the western city of Hodeida, 45-year-old Abdulaziz, said he was still struggling to make a living as a delivery person amid inflation. "I buy fuel from the black market at very high prices," he said, adding: "This truce seems impossible."

Iran won’t stop seeking ‘punishment’ of those behind Soleimani killing: Official
Al Arabiya English/05 April ,2022
Iran will not “abandon” the case of the killing of its top commander Qassem Soleimani by the US until those responsible for his death are “punished,” a top judicial official said earlier this week. Iran’s Prosecutor-General Mohammad-Jafar Montazeri said that Tehran will not “abandon” the case even if it takes “years.”“I assure you that we will not abandon the investigation and finalization of this case, and even if it takes years, we will bring it to fruition so that the perpetrators of the assassination of our dear martyr will be punished for their actions,” the semi-official ILNA news agency quoted Montazeri as saying on Sunday. Soleimani headed the Quds Force, the overseas arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). He was widely considered to be the most powerful figure in Iran after Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Soleimani was killed in a US airstrike in Iraq on January 3, 2020, ordered by then President Donald Trump. Iran responded to his killing days later, launching ballistic missiles at US forces stationed in Iraq. No American troops were killed in the attack. Iran has since continued to threaten retaliation for Soleimani’s killing. Speaking on the second anniversary of Soleimani’s killing, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said in January that Trump must face trial for the killing or Tehran would take revenge. “If Trump and (former secretary of state Mike) Pompeo are not tried in a fair court for the criminal act of assassinating General Soleimani, Muslims will take our martyr’s revenge,” Raisi said. “The aggressor, murderer and main culprit - the then president of the United States - must be tried and judged under the (Islamic) law of retribution, and God’s ruling must be carried out against him,” he added. Last month, the Associated Press reported the US State Department as saying that it is paying more than $2 million per month to provide 24-hour security to Pompeo and former Iran envoy Brian Hook. The two officials face “serious and credible” threats from Iran, the AP reported, citing a report from the State Department to Congress.
Soleimani in Vienna
The US and Iran have engaged in indirect talks in Vienna aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear deal for a year. The removal of the IRGC from the US’ foreign terrorist organization blacklist is reportedly one of the few remaining unresolved issues in the talks. Iran has said lifting US sanctions against the IRGC is one of its top priorities in the talks. “One of the main” US conditions for the removal of the IRGC from the FTO list is for Iran to drop its pursuit of revenge for Soleimani, Radio Farda, the Persian-language broadcaster at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, reported last week, citing a source close to the talks. The US designated the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organisation under Trump in 2019. Trump withdrew Washington from the nuclear deal in 2018 and reimposed sweeping sanctions on Tehran, saying the deal failed to address Iran’s ballistic missile program and regional activities and did not block Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon. Iran, which insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only, responded by expanding its nuclear program, breaching most of the deal’s restrictions. The Vienna talks, which began in April 2021, aim to bring Iran back into compliance with the deal and facilitate a US return to the agreement. The deal offered Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.

Iran deal advisor defends Russia, says US President Biden ‘racist piece of garbage’
Joseph Haboush, Al Arabiya English/05 April ,2022
A top advisor to Iran’s nuclear negotiating team jumped to the defense of Russia on Tuesday, saying US President Joe Biden was a “racist piece of garbage” because he called Vladimir Putin a war criminal. “This racist piece of garbage was vice-president when Obama and Saudi Arabia destroyed Yemen. Biden also supported the invasion and occupation of Iraq. He was involved in the decimation of Libya & he supported ISIS/Al-Qaeda in Syria... Don’t racist western elites have any shame?” Mohammad Marandi tweeted. Marandi, an adviser to the Iranian negotiating delegation in Vienna, made his remarks in a tweet above a video of Biden calling the Russian president a war criminal. “You may remember I got criticized for calling Putin a war criminal. Well, the truth of the matter is, we saw what happened in Bucha; this warrants he is a war criminal,” Biden told reporters on Monday. The US president was speaking about the atrocities in Bucha after images shared over the weekend showed corpses of civilians thrown around the streets of the Ukrainian town. Russia has denied these accusations, which were shown following their withdrawal from the town after controlling it since first invading Ukraine last month. On Sunday, the Iranian advisor Marandi also denied the Bucha massacre in defense of Moscow. This is not the first time Marandi has made rash comments. On April 1, he threatened Saudi Arabia and said they were “playing with fate.”“[Saudi Arabia] knows Patriot air defenses can’t block the missiles and drones of #Yemen and #ansarallah. Successful repeat attacks on key oil instillations make this quite clear,” he tweeted. Marandi has been a key advisor in the indirect talks between Washington and Tehran, which have been taking part for over a year. The Iranians refuse to meet directly with the American delegation in Vienna. In December, Marandi said he refused to meet with anyone associated with US Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley. He has also accused Biden of acting “in bad faith,” and slammed US sanctions as exposing “the stupidity of the Biden regime.” Nevertheless, Marandi continues to be a member of the team US officials are negotiating with in Vienna. Marandi was born in the US, and he has boasted about his participation in “fighting the US backed invasion of Iran.”
His father, Alireza, was Iran’s former health minister and is currently the supreme leader's personal physician.

U.S. judge OKs extradition bid for man accused in Iraq killings
Associated Press/April 05/2022
A judge has certified the Iraqi government's extradition request for a Phoenix driving school owner on charges that he participated in the killings of two police officers 15 years ago in the Iraqi city of Fallujah as the leader of an al-Qaida group, sending the extradition decision to Washington to decide.
In the decision issued Friday in Arizona, U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Morrissey concluded there was probable cause that Ali Yousif Ahmed Al-Nouri, who came to the United States as a refugee in 2009 and became a U.S. citizen in 2015, participated in the killings carried out by masked men in June 2006 and October 2006. The U.S. Department of Justice confirmed it has no record of having ever before extradited anyone to Iraq under a decades-old U.S.-Iraq treaty. Despite inconsistencies in statements by people interviewed about both attacks, Morrissey ordered the extradition request be sent to Washington. He said an inconsistency from a person cooperating with authorities wasn't enough to undermine probable cause in one case and that other statements made by a cooperator in the other killing are consistent in many significant details, even though there was an inconsistency in that person's account.
The magistrate judge rejected Ahmed's claim that his extradition isn't allowed under a U.S.-Iraq treaty provision that bars extraditions for offenses that are political in nature. He concluded al-Qaida wasn't part of an internal uprising or violent political disturbance under one court standard and instead that the killings were acts of international terrorism.David Eisenberg, an attorney who represented Ahmed, said extradition carries the potential risk of execution for his client and that he intends on filing a petition with the court seeking a review of Morrissey's order.
Morrissey didn't make conclusions about whether Ahmed is innocent or guilty of the charges or whether his extradition is warranted. Instead, he determined there was evidence of probable cause to support each charge and certified the request. The decision on whether to extradite Ahmed to Iraq is ultimately up to Secretary of State Antony Blinken's office, though the Justice Department typically plays a driving role in the extradition process. The Justice Department declined to comment on the decision. Morrissey said the decision over whether humanitarian justifications should be used to refuse extradition is left up to the secretary of state, not the courts. Prosecutors say Ahmed was seen by witnesses at the killings and later fled Iraq to avoid prosecution. They questioned Ahmed's credibility, saying he gave conflicting explanations on how he suffered gunshot wounds while in Iraq and that they could not determine why he spent time in a Syrian prison before moving to the United States. Ahmed denied involvement in the killings and being a member of a terror group. His lawyers argued Ahmed wouldn't get a fair trial amid the corruption in the Iraqi justice system and would likely face execution if he were forced back to his native country.
One of Ahmed's earlier attorneys had questioned why it took more than a decade for Iraqi authorities to formally accuse her client and criticized accounts of the killings from informants who had "everything to gain by delivering the Trump administration a supposed 'terrorist refugee' in an election year."
President Donald Trump's administration had sharply criticized the Obama-era settlement program, questioning whether enough was done to weed out those with terrorist ties.
Nearly a year ago, a judge in Northern California refused to allow the extradition of Omar Abdulsattar Ameen, who was accused of committing a killing for the Islamic State, to Iraq. The judge said cellphone evidence showed Ameen, who was granted refugee status in the United States in 2014 on the grounds he was a victim of terrorism, was in Turkey at the time of the slaying. In the first shooting in which Ahmed is charged, authorities say an attacker held a gun to a witness' head, while another attacker who started to fire on a police officer experienced a malfunction with his gun. Another attacker then killed police Lt. Issam Ahmed Hussein. The witness later identified Ahmed, who wasn't wearing a mask, as the group's leader, according to court records. Four months later, Iraqi authorities say Ahmed and other men fatally shot Officer Khalid Ibrahim Mohammad as the officer was outside a store. A person who witnessed the shooting recognized Ahmed, whose mask had fallen off, as one of the assailants, according to court records. Ahmed's attorneys had said the violence and turmoil in Iraq prompted their client to flee to Syria, where he lived in a refugee camp for three years before moving to the United States. Authorities said Ahmed spent time in a Syrian prison, though they couldn't determine what landed him behind bars. Defense attorneys say Ahmed volunteered in Phoenix's refugee community and worked as a cultural adviser to the U.S. military, traveling to bases in other states to help military personnel as they prepared to deploy to the Middle East. Ahmed bought a home on the northwestern edge of metro Phoenix and operated a driving school serving largely Middle Eastern immigrants. He has been detained since his arrest in January 2020.

Minister Joly speaks with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi
April 5, 2022 - Berlin, Germany - Global Affairs Canada
The Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today spoke with Wang Yi, China’s State Councillor and Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Minister Joly expressed her sympathies for the grieving families, loved ones and friends of the victims of Flight MU5735, which crashed in the Guangxi region on March 22, 2022.
During the call, Minister Joly raised the war in Ukraine and its devastating human cost. She highlighted that all countries should denounce Putin’s illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, which is in clear and direct violation of the United Nations Charter. As lives are at stake and time is of the essence, the minister stressed the importance of humanitarian efforts. The Minister noted that Canada and the world are closely looking at China’s actions and next steps.
On the Canada-China bilateral relationship, the Ministers discussed the challenges of recent years, including cases of arbitrary detention, and the importance of frank dialogue. With strong cultural and people-to-people ties, they discussed avenues of collaboration between the two countries on areas of mutual interest.
Minister Joly stated that Canada will continue to defend and promote values it has always stood up for, including, human rights and the rule of law, as Canada does consistently in its international engagement. Minister Joly reiterated Canada’s concerns with ongoing human rights violations in China, including in Xinjiang.
Minister Joly also raised consular matters.
The Ministers agreed to keep communication channels open

Canada announces it will impose additional sanctions on Russian and Belarusian regimes
April 4, 2022 - Helsinki, Finland - Global Affairs Canada
The Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today announced that Canada intends to impose new sanctions under the Special Economic Measures (Russia) Regulations and the Special Economic Measures (Belarus) Regulations in response to the Russian regime’s illegal and unjustifiable invasion of Ukraine and the Belarusian regime’s support of it.
The upcoming measures will impose restrictions on nine Russian and nine Belarusian individuals for having facilitated and enabled violations of Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence. These individuals are close associates of the Russian and Belarusian regimes.
Adding to several actions taken by Canada to support Ukraine and its people, these measures demonstrate that Canada will not relent in holding Vladimir Putin and his enablers accountable for their egregious and illegal actions.
What the world witnessed this weekend in Bucha is abhorrent. Canada will not stand by as the senseless murder of innocent civilians by Russian forces in Ukraine continues. We will not spare any effort to ensure that violations of international law in Ukraine are investigated and that perpetrators are held to account. Canada continues to work with its international partners to uphold the rules-based international order and push for a full investigation into the reports of war crimes in Bucha and elsewhere in Ukraine, including by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Canada strongly condemns President Putin’s unjustifiable invasion of Ukraine and stands in firm support of Ukraine and its people. Canada continues to monitor the situation and explore options for new measures to further weaken the Russian regime’s ability to wage war.
Quotes
“By enabling Vladimir Putin’s senseless invasion of Ukraine, these close collaborators of the regime are complicit in the horrific events unfolding before our eyes. Canada continues to stand with the brave people of Ukraine fighting for their freedom, and we will not stop pressuring the Russian regime until its troops have left Ukrainian soil. The atrocities must end.”
- Mélanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs
Quick facts
Since Russia’s illegal occupation and attempted annexation of Crimea in 2014, Canada has sanctioned more than 1,000 individuals and entities, with many of those sanctions undertaken in coordination with allies and partners. Canada’s latest sanctions will impose asset freezes and prohibitions on listed persons.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Canada has sanctioned more than 700 individuals and entities from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.
Canada has referred the situation in Ukraine to the ICC in concert with other ICC member states as a result of numerous allegations of the commission of serious international crimes in Ukraine by Russian forces, including war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Canada/Minister Joly meets with Finnish counterpart
April 4, 2020 - Helsinki, Finland - Global Affairs Canada
The Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today met with Pekka Haavisto, Finnish Minister of Foreign Affairs, during her trip to Helsinki, Finland.
Minister Joly thanked Minister Haavisto for his country’s warm welcome.
Minister Joly recognized Finland’s strong support of Ukraine and its people. Both ministers condemned Russia’s further invasion of Ukraine and agreed on the need for continued international collaboration on measures to preserve Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence, deter further Russian hostilities and provide humanitarian assistance.
They recognized their two countries’ long-standing and beneficial cooperation in the Arctic and reaffirmed their mutual commitment to peace and stability in the region. The ministers also committed to strengthening the transatlantic relationship and EU-NATO cooperation.
Finally, the ministers reflected on the 75 years of a strong Canada-Finland relationship and committed to deepening their countries’ partnership in support of peace, prosperity, human rights and stability, as outlined in the recent Canada-Finland joint statement.

Canada-Finland joint statement on bilateral cooperation
April 4, 2022 - Helsinki, Finland - Global Affairs Canada
“Canada and Finland enjoy a rich history of excellent relations built on people-to-people ties and shared values. On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Canada and Finland, the governments of Finland and Canada celebrate all that we have achieved together and look toward the future, committing to deepening our partnership and cooperation on foreign and security policy in support of peace, prosperity, human rights and stability.
“As transatlantic partners and friends, Canada and Finland are committed to strengthening relationships key to our collective security. Recent developments have demonstrated just how critical that cooperation is, and how unified our partners have been as we respond to Russia’s egregious further invasion of Ukraine. Canada and Finland condemn this invasion and urge Russia to fully respect its obligations under international law, including the Charter of the United Nations. We are committed to ensuring accountability and welcome the investigation initiated by the International Criminal Court. Finland and Canada affirm our support to Ukraine and its people. We stand with those suffering from the Russian aggression and remain committed to providing humanitarian assistance. We firmly support Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.
“This attack on Ukraine’s sovereignty is an affront to the rules-based international order. The sovereign equality, territorial integrity and political independence of States, and their freedom to choose their own security arrangements, are concepts central to global security and effective multilateralism. We reiterate our firm commitment to the founding principles of European and international security, including the UN Charter, the Helsinki Final Act and the Charter of Paris for a New Europe. The transatlantic relationship and EU-NATO cooperation are key to our security and we will work together to strengthen these relationships.
“Canada and Finland’s connection on Arctic issues is strong and our long-standing Arctic cooperation has been beneficial to both of our countries. Canada and Finland have worked together to address a host of challenges affecting the Arctic and North, including climate change, and explored opportunities to better connect our two countries socially, scientifically, culturally and economically. Canada and Finland reaffirm our ongoing commitment to peace and stability in the Arctic and our responsibility to the people of the Arctic, including Indigenous peoples, who contribute to and benefit from our ongoing cooperation. Our governments will assess opportunities to amplify Finland’s Arctic Policy and Canada’s Arctic and Northern Policy Framework.
“Building on strong cooperation to support democratic processes and civil society, Canada and Finland affirm our commitment and support to the International IDEA and the Freedom Online Coalition, and to use the work of the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats to identify hybrid threats in our societies, including the use of disinformation.
“Canada and Finland affirm our fundamental commitments to the rule of law, and to work jointly in international fora to address threats to international security and human rights. We will explore further opportunities to enhance collaboration in advancing our common interests such as gender equality, climate change and biodiversity, education and civic space and human rights defenders. Canada will work with Finland during its 2022-2024 term on the UN Human Rights Council.
“Finland and Canada confirm continued collaboration in the areas of climate change and environment. Recognizing the significance of our countries’ commitments to carbon neutrality and pressing energy security challenges, Canada and Finland affirm our shared interest in improved trade and investment in clean technologies.”

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on April 05-06/2022
شارل الياس شرتوني: منكاتين إلى بوتشا، أو المسوخ المتأهبة
De Katyn à Boutcha ou la monstruosité en acte
Charles Elias Chartouni/Avril 05/2022
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/107644/charles-elias-chartounide-katyn-a-boutcha-ou-la-monstruosite-en-acte-%d8%b4%d8%a7%d8%b1%d9%84-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%8a%d8%a7%d8%b3-%d8%b4%d8%b1%d8%aa%d9%88%d9%86%d9%8a-%d9%85%d9%86-%d9%83%d8%a7%d8%aa/
Le massacre de Boutcha rappelle les exécutions sommaires de 22.000 soldats polonais par l’armée soviétique par balles dans la tête (voir le film d’Andrezj Wajda, le grand cinéaste polonais, Katyn, où il reprend les épisodes du crime où son père comptait parmi les victimes. La propagande soviétique étouffa pendant des décennies les réalités de ce massacre en se déchargeant sur l’Allemagne nazie, alors qu’il était dûment planifié et exécuté par l’armée bolchévique en avril 1940, 21857 prisonniers de guerre, sur les ordres du chef du NKVD, Lavranti Beria, le Himmler soviétique, 1899-1953). Le massacre de Boutcha faisant suite aux bombardements ravageurs de Mariupol nous rappelle non seulement la barbarie du dictateur mafieux, mais les antécédents criminels d’une dystopie totalitaire dont les pratiques n’ont pas discontinué après la débâcle de l’URSS.
Trempée dans une culture du mensonge officiel qui doublait la violence d’une idéologie totalitaire qui avait émoussé toute dimension morale, et perpétué une tradition bien ancrée d’"État meurtrier", la criminalité hautement affichée de Vladimir Poutine avait déjà à son actif un bilan lourd, allant de la non assistance au sous marin Koursk (12 août 2000, 118 victimes), aux massacres du théâtre de Moscou (23 octobre 2002, 177 victimes), de l’école maternelle de Beslan (1 septembre 2004, 333 victimes dont 188 enfants), aux massacres de Tchétchénie, de Géorgie (2008, 1174 victimes), d’Ukraine ( 2014), de Syrie( 2015)…,. Le massacre de Boutcha n’est qu’une manifestation supplémentaire d’une logique de guerre totale, où le lien est établi entre les règles de la guerre classique, et celles des pratiques meurtrières d’un régime mafieux qui s’abreuve de mensonges qu’il cherche à disséminer à tous égards. Le régime de post-vérité qui caractérise le discours propagandiste d’une dictature meurtrière est une variable essentielle pour comprendre la nature du régime, ses visées et méthodes, où la violence et le mensonge se superposent.
La stratégie du déni, du complot et de l’externalisation des responsabilités font partie d’un schéma d’action dont le dictateur se sert pour mener à bien une politique de déstabilisation aux vecteurs et figurations multiples. Les corps parsemés dans les rues, les assassinats par balles, et les charniers découverts apportent des preuves irréfutables quant à la nature terroriste et génocidaire de cette guerre, et l’instrumentalisation de mercenaires de tout acabit pour mener à bien la sale besogne des tueries de masse (islamistes syriens et tchétchènes, groupe Wagner, tueurs à gage …). Les fausses supputations d’une guerre qui a mal tourné, expliquent la rage de ce prédateur qui a l’habitude d’achever ses victimes sans autre forme de procès.
Il est impératif que la communauté internationale et les pays de l’OTAN prennent acte des crimes commis, amplifient les sanctions, mettent fin aux relations diplomatiques, reconsidèrent les modalités et seuils de l’intervention militaire, et cherchent activement à créer une dynamique de fin de règne qui mette fin à la criminalité programmée d’un meurtrier aux pouvoirs sans rebords, et dont le nihilisme n’est pas plus à prouver. La sociologie "des objets détestables" est un concept récent pour désigner l’étude des massacres collectifs, il est grand temps de l’utiliser afin de déchiffrer les pratiques d’un régime meurtrier qui est loin de dissimuler sa propre nature.

Priority #1 for NATO: Upgrading Air and Missile Defense in Eastern Europe
Mark Montgomery and Jack Sullivan/Real Clear Defense/April 05/2022
Russia’s launch of around 30 cruise missiles at a target in western Ukraine located just 12 miles from the Polish border came just one day after Moscow warned that convoys carrying Western arms are “legitimate targets.” NATO members are right to worry that Russia’s war in Ukraine could potentially spill over into NATO territory. Russia’s increased military presence in Belarus, including advanced surface-to-air missile systems and aircraft, also puts Poland and the Baltic states at greater risk. Faced with a growing aerial threat from Russia, NATO must deploy additional surface-to-air missile systems and aircraft to eastern flank countries, which currently lack sufficient means to protect their airspace.
A credible air defense capability requires radar systems, surface-to-air missiles, fighter aircraft, airborne early warning and control aircraft, and associated command and control. Sophisticated air defense systems are difficult to afford for smaller NATO members such as Estonia and Latvia, whose economies are roughly equal to that of Rhode Island. Though recent deployments are starting to fill the gaps, a Russian air attack could still break through the hodgepodge of capabilities on NATO’s eastern flank.
Current NATO air defense capacity in Eastern Europe includes 48 combat-capable F-16 fighter jets operated by Poland, which as of last month, also hosts several forward-deployed U.S. F-15 fighters. Romania has 17 older but capable F-16s previously owned by Portugal. Additionally, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania operate a joint radar network known as the Baltic Air Surveillance Network and Control System, or BALTNET. NATO relies on this system to assist its aircraft during Baltic Air Policing missions, in which small numbers of fighter aircraft from NATO nations with sufficient airpower (such as the Netherlands, France, Germany) patrol the skies of more vulnerable allies. These aircraft have already been buttressed by the deployment of two U.S. Patriot missile batteries in Poland and will be further strengthened by the impending deployment of German Patriot missile batteries in Slovakia.
The deployment of Patriots reflects transatlantic concern that NATO’s Eastern European member states may soon need more advanced surface-to-air missile systems to deal with the growing Russian threat. In fact, Polish defense planners have long anticipated the need for additional forces beyond the latest Patriot deployments to improve or replace its existing, Soviet-era equipment.
For years, Warsaw has worked to field air and missile defense systems known as Wisła and Narew. Based on the Patriot system, Wisła will upgrade Poland’s air defense network by linking sensors that can detect aerial threats to medium-range missile launchers that shoot those threats out of the sky. Recent estimates predict the program’s first phase, during which Poland is slated to obtain two of its own Patriot batteries, will be completed by the end of this year. Full integration, culminating in Poland accumulating eight Patriot batteries, will take until 2025.
The new U.S. Patriot deployment seems intended to bridge the gap until phase one is complete, but it still represents just a quarter of Poland’s ultimate goal — a target set before Russia invaded Ukraine. Likewise, the Narew system, a shorter-range air defense system of which Warsaw intends to procure 23 batteries, has been delayed by six years and is not expected to be completed until 2025.
Estonian and Latvian air defenses are even more inadequate. Both countries maintain only very short-range and man-portable systems, like the Stinger. As recently as last November, Estonia’s legislature was noncommittal about borrowing funds to procure a medium-range air defense system. For its part, Tallinn did not expect such a system to be in place until 2025. Latvia’s most recent State Defense Concept ruled out the near-term procurement of a new air defense system, due to budgetary shortfalls.
To date, Lithuania is the lone country in Eastern Europe to procure a modern air defense system, having received its first medium-range air defense battery in 2020. Called the National Advanced Surface to Air Missile System (NASAMS), it can reliably identify, target, and destroy Russian airborne threats, including fighter jets, cruise missiles, helicopters, and unmanned aerial vehicles.
Since these programs take years to put in place, NATO must reinforce eastern flank countries with additional firepower — now. Fortunately, wealthier NATO nations have capable missile defense systems. Norway, Spain, and the Netherlands all possess multiple NASAMS batteries. The French and Italians have a capable SAMP/T missile defense system. And the British are replacing their aging Rapier system with the Sky Saber air defense system.
NATO or U.S. European Command could coordinate deployment of these various medium-range air defense systems to supplement the longer-range Patriot systems already deployed. These additional systems could be deployed to Poland, Estonia, and Latvia, then replaced as quickly as possible by newly manufactured systems or alternative capabilities. This would represent a temporary sacrifice for the donating countries, but it would significantly reduce the cruise missile threat to NATO’s Eastern flank. On Thursday, the British government announced just such a move, it will send the new Sky Saber system to Poland.Furthermore, NATO allies must continue to forward-deploy aircraft to the region. While NATO nations have committed up to 130 fighter aircraft to Eastern Europe if the crisis expands, only a fraction are currently deployed. And even the full 130 would likely not decisively defeat a concerted attack by Russia’s Air Force. NATO should also continue to commit elements of its fleet of 14 Boeing E-3A Airborne Warning & Control System aircraft to patrol the skies while the heightened threat from Russia persists. Efforts to modernize this fleet in the medium-term, including upgrades to engines, communications, and networking equipment, must be expedited as well.
These steps would provide a credible air defense over NATO territory and demonstrate commitment in the face of Russian aggression. And it can all be done relatively quickly.
Looking further into the future, the alliance must prioritize upgrading air defenses in Eastern Europe. They should resemble the quantity and exceed the quality of weapons stationed in West Germany and its NATO neighbors during the Cold War. If Russian forces continue to occupy even part of Ukraine or operate their aircraft out of Belarus, the de facto border between NATO and Russia will expand, and NATO air defenses will have to adjust to cover more territory. Similar efforts helped deter Soviet aggression in the 1970s and 1980s. They can do the same today.
As the confrontation between Russia and the West intensifies, Vladimir Putin will surely continue to probe NATO defenses for weaknesses. He should not find any. That will require NATO to continually upgrade its air and missile defense posture, starting right now.
*RADM Mark Montgomery (U.S. Navy Ret.) is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). He previously served as policy director of the Senate Armed Services Committee under Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. and as Director for Plans and Policy at US European Command. Jack Sullivan is a research associate at FDD. Follow Mark on Twitter @MarkCMontgomery. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.

The Kremlin’s Latin American Echo Chamber
Emanuele Ottolenghi/FDD/April 05/2022
A trio of Spanish language media networks controlled by Iran, Russia, and Venezuela push out propaganda and disinformation to demonize the West.
On March 6, a ceasefire agreement between Russia and Ukraine collapsed, as Russian forces shelled humanitarian corridors for Ukrainian civilians fleeing their besieged cities. But not according to TeleSur, the propaganda network of Nicolás Maduro’s regime in Venezuela, nor according to HispanTV, Iran’s Spanish-language news channel. Within hours of each other, the two networks blamed “Ukrainian extremist forces” for blocking Russian humanitarian assistance and using civilians as human shields, amplifying the Kremlin’s fake news. This was not a one-off, but part of a pattern of deception where Russia invents a lie and its allied networks amplify it. When Russia, for example, accused the U.S. of having established bioweapons labs in Ukraine and then implicated President Biden’s son, Hunter, in the plot, both HispanTV and TeleSur peddled the same conspiracies on their platforms.
To be sure, Russia’s main conduit for propaganda in Spanish is Russia Today’s Spanish language channel, Actualidad RT. But Vladimir Putin’s Ministry of Truth can also count on TeleSur and HispanTV, whose broadcasts to Spanish-speaking audiences are closely intertwined with Russia’s. They are the Kremlin’s Spanish-speaking echo-chamber. Western media have (correctly) exposed far-right Russian proxies in Europe and North America. In Latin America, the useful idiots occupy the opposite end of the political spectrum: They fancy themselves an anti-imperialist “resistance” front led by Caracas and Tehran.
The trio of Spanish language media networks controlled by Iran, Russia, and Venezuela push out conspiracy theories, fake news, whataboutism, and disinformation that serve a common agenda: demonize the West, undermine the credibility of Western news outlets, paint Western leaders as hypocrites, and promote a narrative of global resistance against America and its allies. Aware that a global audience of 500 million Spanish speakers—including almost 60 million in the U.S. — would be receptive to their anti-imperialist spin, these propaganda outlets entered the Spanish language arena relatively early—TeleSur in 2005, Russia Today (RT) in 2009, and HispanTV in 2012. They package their imperialism as resistance, their terrorism as anti-terrorism, and their authoritarianism as democracy.
Latin America has always been a fertile ground for conspiratorial worldviews, radical causes, romanticized views of resistance to imperialism, and anti-Americanism. Russia’s propaganda, and its Iranian and Venezuelan counterparts, is potentially more damaging than their English-language counterparts in a region where many countries still have a tenuous democratic tradition, mistrust in the media is widespread, and many outlets are owned by tycoons-turned-politicians whose news production serves their masters, not the public. In this environment, the Iran-Russia-Venezuela echo chamber is offering 24/7 news that appears independent. Local audiences are receptive to their vehemently anti-American counternarrative, no doubt, thanks in part to Washington’s checkered past in the region as an imperial power that often prioritized anti-Communism over democracy and human rights. But the echo chamber goes beyond reminding their viewers of bad “gringos” and their past misdeeds. After all, it uses anti-imperialist rhetoric to justify the much darker imperialism of China, Iran, and Russia.
It is difficult to gauge the influence of propaganda, yet the numbers suggest the echo chamber is having a measure of success. RT’s Spanish Twitter account has 3.5 million followers. TeleSur has 3 million. Inna Afigenova, the host of RT’s talk show Ahi les va, has almost 360,000 Twitter followers. The show itself had 1.1 million subscribers before YouTube took it down. Patricia Villegas Marin, TeleSur’s president, has almost 200,000 Twitter followers. TeleSur’s YouTube account has almost 1.5 million subscribers—60,000 of whom signed up after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. HispanTV’s recently launched YouTube account, Nexo Latino, has 44,000 subscribers. Its old account, which YouTube has repeatedly suspended, had more than 300,000 subscribers as of January 2020, with 93,000 unique views per day. These are not CNN statistics, for sure, but they indicate these outlets are gaining ground among Spanish-speaking viewers. The three networks’ coordination is not limited to message-sharing. Venezuelan, Iranian, and Russian outlets also pool journalists, analysts, and commentators—super spreaders of disinformation, as Douglas Farah and Alexa Tavarez christened them last June—who seamlessly cross over from one outlet to the other, amplifying the same message through multiple platforms that end up being a unified echo chamber. Pablo Jofre Leal in Chile, for example, is a prolific writer and talk show host. He is a regular guest on Actualidad RT, and contributes to TeleSur and Islam Oriente, the Spanish language department of Iran’s sanctioned Al Mustafa University, a propaganda outlet under the direct supervision of Iran’s supreme leader in charge of exporting Iran’s revolution to Latin America. He also regularly appears on HispanTV. In a January 2022 blogpost republished by TeleSur, for example, Jofre eulogized Qassem Suleimani, the slain commander (and war criminal) of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, evoking Che Guevara’s words: “The highest level which the human race can aspire to is to be revolutionary.” Suleimani, he added, was “an authentic revolutionary.” Earlier this year, Jofre told HispanTV the Russian threat to Ukraine was an invention of the Western media. Once Russia invaded, Jofre promoted the new party line on TeleSur’s pages: Russia is conducting a special military operation to defend Russian minorities in the Donbas, who are victims of a genocide, while minimizing civilian casualties.
Jofre is not alone. Luis Castro, a producer for RT’s Spanish channel who previously worked for Iran’s PressTV in London, was among the early staffers at HispanTV, and subsequently produced documentaries and TV series for TeleSur, Hezbollah’s Al Mayadeen (Spanish version) and RT, before joining RT’s Spanish service full-time. Among his past productions: “Islamophobia in France” and “Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery in the U.S.” for HispanTV. He now hosts a talk show for Actualidad RT.
Laila Tajeldine is another cross-pollinator. The daughter of the Maduro regime’s former ambassador to Tunisia and a news host for Venezuela News, she regularly appears on RT’s Spanish service, is a contributor to Hezbollah’s Al Mayadeen news in Spanish and was a one-time talk show host for HispanTV’s program, Análisis Global. Her recent take on the cause of conflict in Ukraine: a U.S.-backed coup in 2014 empowered Ukrainian nationalists, who fomented mass atrocities in the Donbas region against dissenters, leading Russia to intervene to protect human rights.
So far, Washington is in no rush to counter the spread of Spanish-language misinformation, even against the background of a looming new cold war, in which winning hearts and minds in America’s backyard should be a top priority. And not for want of knowledge. Earlier this month, in her annual posture statement to Congress, Southern Command’s Gen. Laura J. Richardson stated that Iran “leverages Iranian state-sponsored and non-state media outlets to generate empathy for Iran and Shia Islam and diminish Western influence in the hemisphere.” Tehran, she added, “continues to maintain a Spanish language channel that reaches 17 countries in the region, spreading disinformation and attempting to sow mistrust of the U.S.” She was referring to HispanTV.
To be fair, Washington and its allies have taken notice that RT is a propaganda platform, not a news channel, and have finally begun to ban it. Since Russia’s invasion began, on February 24, the European Union sanctioned RT and Sputnik News, on March 2. Both outlets, said the EU, “are part of a coordinated information manipulation effort, including disinformation.” The day after the EU took RT and Sputnik off the air, RT announced it was ceasing production and laying off its staff in the U.S., likely because of Washington’s financial sanctions, blocking RT’s ability to pay for its U.S. operations. The United Kingdom’s telecoms authority, OFCOM, revoked RT’s license on March 18. Canada’s telecom authority, CTRC, banned RT on March 16. Canadian telecom firms didn’t even wait for CTRC’s announcement, and removed RT from their platforms at the end of February. So did DirectTV in the U.S. Social media such as YouTube have also removed RT content.
But while Western sanctions largely curbed Russia’s misinformation channels in the anglosphere, Spanish language propaganda by Iran, Russia, and Maduro’s Venezuela, continues to shape public opinion in Latin America, directly through Kremlin-funded channels and thanks to the active support of Iran’s and Venezuela’s propaganda networks. Their content is still available through internet and satellite. Russian media platforms continue to broadcast and have already moved their transmissions to a Russian satellite to avoid any further disruption. RT’s Spanish language journalists have posted instructions on how to bypass the sanctions’ blackout on social media, including a how-to video made by the aforementioned talk show host, Inna Afinogenova. Actualidad RT has also publicized ways to bypass sanctions and blackouts, using social media platforms such as Twitter and YouTube. HispanTV, for its part, has opened new social media channels to replace the ones shut down.
Downplaying the importance of the battle of ideas in Spanish will have long-term implications, especially in Latin America, where Iran, Russia, and the Maduro regime can all leverage a long history of anti-Americanism to their advantage. Commenting on RT’s impact on Latin America, SouthCom’s Gen.Richardson said, “In 2020, Russia Today (RT)’s Spanish-language media outlets more than doubled their social media followers from 7 million to over 18 million. These disinformation campaigns are just one part of Russia’s broader efforts to influence national elections throughout the region this year.” Many influencers in the region consider RT a legitimate news source. When in late February, Antel, Uruguay’s government-owned cable platform, removed RT from its menu, Uruguay’s president, Luis Lacalle Pou—hardly a leftist—publicly lamented the decision, adding that he himself followed RT on Twitter.
With much of the region’s political winds blowing leftward, and a string of presidential elections coming up in allied countries (Colombia in May, Brazil in October, Paraguay in early 2023), the echo-chamber triad of Russia, Iran and the Maduro regime should draw the urgent attention of the White House and State Department. If Washington does wake up to the threat, there are three initial steps it can take to address it. First, it can renew sanctions against Iran’s broadcasting authority, IRIB, which owns both the English-language Press TV and HispanTV. Second, it can lobby the telecom private sector to have many of these outlets deplatformed. Third, it can appeal to U.S.-based social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, to ensure that they do not restrict pro-Russia disinformation in English only, but move to limit the reach and shut down Spanish-language channels, too.
In an essay titled “The Art of Political Lying,” published in the early 1700s at the dawn of the liberal age, Jonathan Swift wrote that “Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over and the tale hath had its effect.” For far too long, Russia and its echo chamber allies have been spreading falsehoods among captive Latin American audiences. The jest may not be over yet; its effects are real. Washington should follow the cue from its Canadian and European allies and use its diplomatic clout to ensure that Russian disinformation and its accomplices are permanently removed from the ether.
*Emanuele Ottolenghi is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington, D.C. non-partisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy. Follow him on Twitter @eottolenghi.

Corporate Transparency Would Reduce Systemic Cyber Risks
Jiwon Ma and Mark Montgomery//Bloomberg Law/April 05/2022
After a year of headline-grabbing ransomware attacks on U.S. critical infrastructure, Americans have grown impatient with the lack of transparency from corporations.
“Investors want to know more,” Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler said March 9, noting intensified efforts by companies to manage their “growing” cybersecurity risk. Recognizing these trends, the SEC issued a proposed rule March 9 that would impose four requirements on publicly traded companies aimed at increasing the transparency of their cybersecurity governance. These requirements—now subject to a 60-day public comment period—would obligate companies to provide a holistic assessment of the cybersecurity risks they face. The measures are clearly designed to mitigate the systemic risk created by a lack of sufficient corporate cyber-hygiene. The first requirement would obligate companies to report to the SEC “a material cybersecurity incident” within four business days. The requirement effectively revises the SEC’s 2018 cyber-disclosure guidance by specifying a clear timeline for companies to notify the SEC of incidents. According to the SEC, this requirement is necessary because public companies are not reporting 90% of known cyber incidents for fear of rattling investor confidence, among other reasons.
The second requirement would build on the first one by obligating companies to detail in their quarterly and annual reports to the SEC all previously disclosed cybersecurity incidents, as well as previously undisclosed incidents that have had a significant impact on the company’s performance and security.
The third requirement would mandate that companies disclose to the SEC what policies and procedures they have in place to manage cyber risks in public filings. Much like the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act which was designed to encourage corporations to increase the information available to investors by overhauling accounting and disclosure standards, the proposed SEC requirement aims to create incentives for companies to implement policies that help prevent cyber threats. The fourth requirement obligates companies to report the cybersecurity expertise of board members and C-suite executives to the SEC. In so doing, the requirement is likely to create public and investor pressure on companies to include individuals with more formidable cybersecurity expertise within their leadership.Without these four requirements, the information gap between companies and the public will almost certainly persist. The lack of disclosure is not only preventing investors from assessing the risks associated with their portfolios, but it is also leading cyber-insurance providers to develop inaccurate risk models. Thus, until recently, insurance providers have been accepting much higher risks than they can afford. As they begin to grapple with this problem, the providers are cutting coverage and increasing premiums, leaving companies with fewer options to offset risks. In March 2020, the congressionally mandated Cyberspace Solarium Commission issued a comprehensive report on how to strengthen national cyber resilience.
Among its more than 80 recommendations to Congress, the commission argued for increased cybersecurity accountability among publicly traded companies. The commission also recognized the insurance industry’s need for comprehensive cybersecurity incident data that would enable it to develop more accurate risk models. With one proposal, the SEC is beginning to address both problems.
How the SEC Could Improve on Its Proposal
One way the SEC could improve upon the proposal following the 60-day public comment period would be to expand the required metrics that companies provide to assess cyber risk. “What really needs to happen is for public companies to disclose how they have determined the likely and potential financial impact of cyber risks and attacks and how effectively they are mitigating and transferring risk.” Chris Hetner, a former senior cybersecurity adviser to multiple SEC chairs and now a cyber-risk adviser to the National Association of Corporate Directors, told the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. The SEC’s proposed rule can do just that. It provides clear guidance on cybersecurity disclosures and governance, motivating companies to better protect their networks, maintain cybersecurity records, and assess risks.
Simply put, standardizing cyber-incident reports, making them publicly accessible, and increasing corporate governance transparency can strengthen the resilience of American companies. This will benefit investors, everyday Americans, and the national security practitioners who defend America’s cyberspace every day.
*Jiwon Ma is a program analyst at the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation (CCTI) at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where she contributes to the CSC 2.0 project, which works to implement the recommendations of the congressionally mandated Cyberspace Solarium Commission. Rear Adm. (Ret.) Mark Montgomery is CCTI’s senior director and an FDD senior fellow. He directs CSC 2.0 and previously served as executive director of the first CSC. Follow him on Twitter @MarkCMontgomery. FDD is a Washington, D.C.-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.

China Undercuts Sanctions on Russia: Where Are the 'Consequences'?
Judith Bergman/Gatestone Institute/April 05/2022
"For China... the Ukrainian crisis provided a unique opportunity to increase its access to Russia's natural resources, particularly gas, gain contracts for infrastructure projects and new markets for Chinese technology, and turn Russia into a junior partner in the relationship between the two countries." — Report by the European Council on Foreign Relations, February 2015.
In addition to undermining sanctions through the commodities trade, China is possibly also helping Russia hide its money.
Despite all of the above, the Biden administration continues to talk about China as if proof were still needed that it is undercutting sanctions on Russia.
China has clearly been giving material help to Russia. So where are the "consequences"?
The closest that the U.S. has come to going beyond words is the announcement, along with other G7 leaders, of an "enforcement initiative" to prevent Russia from evading sanctions, but it is -- presumably deliberately -- unclear what that initiative actually entails.
"The trade and the purchase of long-term energy supplies undercut the sanctions, because it shows Putin he has got somebody in his corner for the next five years or more." — Michael Pillsbury, author of The Hundred-Year Marathon, Fox News, March 21, 2022.
The Biden administration, by repeatedly threatening "consequences" and issuing "warnings" to China, "if" it helps Russia undercut sanctions, merely continues to project indecision, weakness and lack of leadership ...[and] will only result in the additional loss of credibility and the further degradation of U.S. deterrence to the detriment of the West.
Despite tough Western sanctions on Russia, President Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine has now lasted for more than a month and Putin is showing no signs of backing down. The power helping him to withstand the effects of the sanctions and continue the war is Russia's most powerful ally -- China. Pictured: Putin meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Moscow on June 5, 2019. (Image source: kremlin.ru)
Despite tough Western sanctions on Russia, President Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine has now lasted for more than a month and Putin is showing no signs of backing down. The power helping him to withstand the effects of the sanctions and continue the war is Russia's most powerful ally -- China.
Shortly before Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Russia and China entered into contracts worth hundreds of billions of dollars. On February 4, Putin announced new Russian oil and gas deals with China worth an estimated $117.5 billion. On February 18, six days before the invasion, Russia announced a $20 billion deal to sell 100 million tons of coal to China. On the day of the invasion, China, lifting restrictions that had been in place previously due to concerns about plant diseases, agreed to buy Russian wheat.
All of these deals, by undermining Western sanctions on Russia, are lifelines to Putin and his war on Ukraine. "China could emerge as a major buyer for Russian wheat and sunflower oil as wide-ranging financial sanctions threaten Russia's agriculture trade flows to its traditional markets in Europe," S&P Global Commodity Insights wrote.
China, perhaps with a covetous eye toward Taiwan, has not condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine and has repeatedly stated that it is against sanctioning Russia. Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng called Western sanctions "outrageous." China has not even tried to conceal that it continues to do business with Russia. As Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Wang Wenbin said in his press briefing, "China and Russia will continue to conduct normal trade cooperation in the spirit of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit."
There is nothing new or surprising in China's decision to supply the lifeline that enables Putin to stay afloat. After Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula in March 2014 and was met with Western sanctions, Russia turned to China. In May 2014, Russia and China signed a gas supply deal worth $400 billion, making China Russia's second-largest gas market after Germany. A February 2015 report by the European Council on Foreign Relations stated:
"After the European Union and the United States imposed sanctions on Russia [in 2014], President Vladimir Putin made a dramatic turn to China and signed a series of deals, including a $400 billion deal to export gas to China last May. Moscow is now attempting to reorient its entire economy towards Asia as a way to mitigate the negative impact of Western sanctions. For China, meanwhile, the Ukrainian crisis provided a unique opportunity to increase its access to Russia's natural resources, particularly gas, gain contracts for infrastructure projects and new markets for Chinese technology, and turn Russia into a junior partner in the relationship between the two countries."
In addition to undermining sanctions through the commodities trade, China is possibly also helping Russia hide its money. According to Foreign Affairs:
"Russia may have stashed tens of billions of dollars in reserve assets in opaque offshore accounts, where it holds dollar-denominated securities beyond the reach of international sanctions and asset freezes...there are signs, too, that Russia may have moved some of its dollars with help from a foreign government... It is not yet clear which intermediaries Russia would have used to stash Treasuries offshore. One strong possibility, however, is China, with which Putin now appears allied."
Despite all of the above, the Biden administration continues to talk about China as if proof were still needed that it is undercutting sanctions on Russia. US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on March 13:
"We are communicating directly, privately to Beijing, that there will absolutely be consequences for large-scale sanctions evasion efforts or support to Russia to backfill them. We will not allow that to go forward and allow there to be a lifeline to Russia from these economic sanctions from any country, anywhere in the world."After Sullivan held a seven hour long meeting with Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi on March 14, a senior Biden administration official told reporters:
"I'm just going to reiterate that we do have deep concerns about China's alignment with Russia at this time, and the national security adviser was direct about those concerns and the potential implications and consequences of certain actions,"
On March 18, in a video call with Chinese President Xi Jinping, U.S. President Joe Biden warned that there would be "implications and consequences if China provides material support to Russia," but without being specific. One unnamed senior U.S. official even said, "The president really wasn't making specific requests of China. I think our view is that China will make its own decisions."
China has clearly been giving material help to Russia. So where are the "consequences"?
The closest that the U.S. has come to going beyond words is the announcement, along with other G7 leaders, of an "enforcement initiative" to prevent Russia from evading sanctions, but it is -- presumably deliberately -- unclear what that initiative actually entails. prior to Biden's trip to Europe, Sullivan told reporters on March 23:
"[T]he G7 leaders tomorrow will agree on an initiative to coordinate on sanctions enforcement so that Russian efforts to evade the sanctions or other countries' effort to help Russia evade the sanctions can be dealt with effectively and in a coordinated fashion."
After the G7 meeting, the White House released a statement by the G7, which merely said:
"We will continue to cooperate closely, including by engaging other governments on adopting similar restrictive measures to those already imposed by G7 members and on refraining from evasion, circumvention and backfilling that seek to undercut or mitigate the effects of our sanctions."
There was no mention of China; again, it all seemed too little, too late.
"They're [China] the invisible hand behind Putin," said Michael Pillsbury, author of The Hundred-Year Marathon.
"They are the ones who are funding the war. Roughly half of Russia's gold and currency reserves are controlled now by the U.S. and by the West, he [Putin] can't get access to them. But the other half the Chinese can provide access to and they've been doing it... The trade and the purchase of long-term energy supplies undercut the sanctions, because it shows Putin he has got somebody in his corner for the next five years or more. There's a number of ways that China's support is just crucial for Putin. I believe the Chinese could stop the war with one phone call to him. It would be like the banker calling you... so far it's not happening... Probably the only way to get ahead is going to be American sanctions on China... the war will go on because the banker is not going to make that call."
The Biden administration, by repeatedly threatening "consequences" and issuing "warnings" to China, "if" it helps Russia undercut sanctions, merely continues to project indecision, weakness and lack of leadership. The constant repetition of these warnings without follow-up actions by the Biden administration will only result in the additional loss of credibility and the further degradation of U.S. deterrence to the detriment of the West.
*Judith Bergman, a columnist, lawyer and political analyst, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
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New York State Supports Hamas, Muzzles Anti-Islamist Reporter
A.J. Caschetta/National Review/April 05/2022
Originally published under the title "Amid a Crime Wave, the New York State Attorney General Gets Tough on . . . Reporters."
New York State Attorney General Letitia James has used her office to thwart investigative reporters from probing the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an American Islamist group with intimate ties to Hamas.
New Yorkers are currently suffering through an epidemic of violent crime that is diminishing the quality of life of the nation's most-burdened taxpayers. And what is state attorney general Letitia James doing about it? Pushing back against the so-called bail-reform laws that every day turn violent offenders back out on the street? Devising new ways to protect tourists and residents? Conducting a forensic investigation into all that missing Covid-19 relief cash that was stolen?
No, she's coming to the defense of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in its efforts to stop its own members from talking to reporters about the potentially illegal activities of the group's leaders. On April 1 (this couldn't have been an April Fool's Day joke, could it?), the Office of the Attorney General of the State of New York sent a cease-and-desist notification to Steven Emerson, founder and director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT), ordering the end to "any ongoing or contemplated unlawful espionage operations against Muslims and Muslim organizations within the State of New York."The press release announcing the letter begins: "On the eve of Ramadan, New York Attorney General Letitia James today warned a known anti-Muslim hate group to stop spying on Muslim communities." The second paragraph begins: "As we enter the holy month of Ramadan, it's more important than ever that we show our support for our Muslim communities and stand up to Islamophobia and hate of any and every kind."
The flurry of pro-Muslim virtue-signaling from the AG's office comes in the aftermath of last year's media-driven phony "scandal" in which CAIR accused Emerson of espionage against its Ohio office. Earlier this year, CAIR petitioned the Department of Justice to investigate the IPT. It was an absurd request, and no one took it too seriously. Except for New York's attorney general.
The cease-and-desist notification makes ridiculous claims: "The IPT has reportedly paid spies for over a decade to infiltrate Muslim organizations, record confidential conversations, and forward confidential emails." Aside from the vague word "reportedly," the word "infiltrate" is inaccurate and inflammatory.
The letter states that the "IPT reportedly infiltrated the Ohio chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), through its longtime leader, Romin Iqbal, who reportedly leaked confidential documents and recordings in possible violation of his fiduciary duties." The logic of the "infiltration" accusation is belied by James's own assertion that Iqbal was a "longtime leader." In fact Iqbal was a CAIR employee long before he began to pass information on to the IPT, and if he gave information "in violation of his fiduciary duties," then he's the one who acted illegally, not the recipient of the information.
Iqbal was not a mole but a whistleblower. It's beyond belief to think that James would make a similar statement about any of employees who gave information "in violation of their fiduciary duties" to the Trump Organization.
Next, the letter asserts that "public statements from those involved in the operation suggest that IPT targeted these organizations in a concerted effort to hamper Muslims in the exercise of their civil rights, including the right to worship, to peacefully assemble and organize politically, to petition government, and to vote." This too is absurd. James treats the IPT as though it were a government entity rather than an investigative news organization. I'm surprised she didn't accuse it of "McCarthyism."
Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Fairfax County, Virginia
The letter mentions Tariq Nelson, of the Dar Al-Hijra mosque in Virginia, claiming that he recorded "confidential conversations without other participants' knowledge," but that case seems beyond the jurisdiction of the New York State AG. The letter concludes with a request to contact the Special Council for Hate Crimes in the Civil Rights Bureau of the AG's office, warning that "failure to comply with this directive may result in further action."
Also on April 1, James's office sent to Merrick Garland a letter making the same claims about the IPT and requesting a "DOJ investigation into IPT's possible violations of federal law," asserting that "it would send the message that the federal government will also use its powers to protect Muslims' rights." With subway-pushers, gun-toting teenagers (and preteens), and homeless encampments in New York City, and carjacking now a regular occurrence throughout the state, James has used her office and political clout to make investigative reporters stop investigating and reporting while sticking up for a group with intimate ties to Hamas. Excelsior!
*A.J. Caschetta is a Ginsberg-Milstein fellow at the Middle East Forum and a principal lecturer at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Will Syrian mercenaries make it to the Ukrainian battlefield?
Dr Haid Haid /The Arab Weekly/April 05/2022
When Russia was building up troops on the Ukrainian border ahead of the February 24 invasion, local sources reported that Syrian fighters were already registering for deployment. Claims that a recruitment effort was under way were not particularly surprising. They mirrored earlier deployments of Syrian mercenaries by Russia in Libya, among other places. These reports gathered steam after President Vladimir Putin gave the green light on March 11 for “16,000 volunteers” from the Middle East to be deployed to fight in Ukraine. Despite the escalation of the war, there is still no hard evidence that Syrians have arrived nor started fighting in Ukraine. It appears logistics, combined with how much the Kremlin needs more boots on the ground, has postponed their arrival. But as the conflict continues to go badly for Russia, a mobilisation of Syrian mercenaries cannot be ruled out.
Syrian fighters being used abroad is nothing new. A decade of brutal conflict has led to a lack of opportunities at home and little hope of a stable future. What many young men do have, however, is experience in combat, a skill which is in significant demand, both locally and abroad.
For several years, Syrians from both pro-regime and opposition groups have been recruited and sent to fight in Libya. They were also used in the 2020 conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. There have even been reports of Syrian mercenaries being sent to Venezuela and the Central African Republic. The growing use of Syrian fighters plucked from either side of the conflict at home has allowed Russia, and Turkey, to pursue their foreign-policy goals at low cost and under a cloak of deniability. In the last three months, there have been first-hand accounts of the recruitment process under way in Syria’s regime-held areas. Mirroring previous efforts, the recruitment is reportedly carried out by the Russian Wagner Group in coordination with local intermediaries, including private security firms, former rebel forces and pro-regime factions.
In terms of incentives, the mercenaries are offered monthly salaries ranging from $1,000 to $3,000 depending on experience. Even the lower figure is more than ten times the average pay cheque that they could earn in Syria. The fighters are also offered compensation for injury or death.
According to European intelligence officials, 40,000 Syrians have signed up to fight in Ukraine and at least 150 of them have already arrived in Russia. Yet, there is still no verified evidence to prove that any Syrian mercenaries have reached the front lines. The logistical difficulty of transporting them to the battlefield might be one of the reasons for this. Moscow would first need to get the fighters from different areas inside Syria to its military airbase in Hmeimi, Latakia. The fighters would then be flown to Russia before being deployed to Ukraine. These mercenaries are usually used as foot soldiers therefore, Moscow would need to transport a substantial number for there to be a significant military impact on the battlefield. But the difficulty in moving hundreds of fighters is not the only reason for the lack of deployment. Despite the scale of its military operation in Ukraine, Russia still has vast resources to use both against its neighbour and continuing the military support that helped Bashar Al-Assad cling to power in Syria. Moscow is probably questioning the value that would be gained from using Syrians in Ukraine.
While Russia has typically relied on Syrian mercenaries in a proxy war such as in Libya, Moscow is largely using its own troops in Ukraine. This means that Russia is not in desperate need for boots on the ground, other than to offset the domestic political damage to Putin from Russian casualties. Moscow has already drawn on forces from Chechnya, which is ruled by Putin loyalist Ramzan Kadyrov. With Moscow claiming that it is shifting focus to the east of Ukraine after failing to take Kyiv, does Russia really need more foreign forces at this stage?
In addition, Syrian mercenaries are not an elite force. They lack discipline and because they are recruited individually, the ability to fight as a unit. They neither know the terrain in Ukraine nor do they speak the language to swiftly coordinate with Russian forces. More importantly, deploying foreign mercenaries would further stain the reputation of Russian forces and deepen the rift with the West. In that case, why would Russia’s intermediaries spend three months gathering the details of 40,000 Syrians without Russia’s blessing or instructions? Moscow might have aimed to portray the process as a sign of international support for its Ukraine war. Putin already claimed that people from the Middle East who are volunteering to fight in Ukraine are “motivated by a desire to help those living in Donbas.”That said, it would be wise not to entirely rule out the possibility of Syrian mercenaries appearing in Ukraine. The Ukrainian resistance to the invasion has been far more fierce than initially anticipated by Moscow. Therefore, a prolonged conflict in Ukraine might increase Russia’s need for expendable fighters. Regardless of what happens in Ukraine, the lack of financial opportunities and instability at home means young Syrian men have become a commodity for export to the world’s war zones, a commodity that Russia, among others, will continue to exploit.