English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For October 04/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
If the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 24/32-44/:”‘From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. ‘But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 03-04/2021
Say Loudly NO, To Parliamentary Elections Under Hezbollah Occupation/Elias Bejjani/September 02/2021
Health Ministry: 529 new Corona infections, 7 deaths
Lebanon patriarch calls for end to meddling in judiciary after blast probe stalls
Rahi: We cannot insist on the probe into the port crime, yet refrain from defending the judicial investigator
Al-Rahi Slams Hizbullah as 'Army Belonging to Foreign State'
Hizbullah MP Says Senators Stance on Port Probe Confirms 'U.S. Meddling'
Arslan: No stability in the region without the restoration of relations between Arab countries and Syria
Khair inspects residential building threatened to collapse in Tripoli's Nejmeh Square
Khoury says policy of stabilizing currency has led to current collapse
French Ambassador pays a tour visit to Tyre
Kanaan: We are ready for elections, results of our preparations will be out before the year’s end
Abdallah: Is Kordahi, Haddad’s nomination for negotiating delegation with IMF within a certain quota?
Aux amateurs de manifs/Jean-Marie Kassab/Octobre/2021

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 03-04/2021
Iran’s Supreme leader Khamenei defends military drills near Azerbaijan border/
Tuqa Khalid, Al Arabiya English/03 October ,2021
Saudi Arabia’s FM: Talks with Iran are still in exploratory phase
EU top diplomat Borrell says discussed nuclear talks, Afghanistan in Saudi visit
Turkey plans military drills with Azerbaijan after Iran’s army exercises near border
Turkey’s military to respond to Greek ‘provocations’ in Aegean
Merkel Calls for Compromise as German Coalition Talks Start
Algeria Bans French Military Planes from Airspace
British PM Sticks to Economic Strategy despite Supply Crisis
In Cyprus, Migrant Parents Decry Separation from Children
Disappointment in Qatar as No Women Candidates Elected
Fears of 'Election Subversion' as Trump Flirts with 2024 White House Bid
US envoy presses Sudan to make ‘swift progress’ toward civilian rule

Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published  on October 03-04/2021
Back to Pre-9/11. But It's Worse/Guy Millière/Gatestone Institute./October 03/2021
Prowler Preaching Neighborliness/Amir Taheri/Gatestone Institute/October 03/2021
Empty Desks at the State Department, Courtesy of Ted Cruz/The New York Times/October 03/2021

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published  on October 03-04/2021
Say Loudly NO, To Parliamentary Elections Under Hezbollah Occupation
Elias Bejjani/September 02/2021
Quite frankly, those citizens and politicians who are going blindly to participate in any Parliamentary Elections while the terrorist Hezbollah is occupying Lebanon, are not actually pro sovereignty, independence, freedom or democracy, but mere Dhimmitude and Trojans who with a dead conscience are legitimizing the Iranian occupation that is destroying and prostituting every thing that is civilization and Lebanese. It is time grasp this plain fact

Health Ministry: 529 new Corona infections, 7 deaths
NNA/Octobre/2021 
In its daily report on the COVID-19 developments, the Ministry of Public Health announced on Sunday the registration of 529 new infections with the Corona virus, thus raising the cumulative number of confirmed cases to-date to 625,974. The report also indicated that 7 deaths were recorded during the past 24 hours.

Lebanon patriarch calls for end to meddling in judiciary after blast probe stalls
Reuters/03 October ,2021
Lebanon’s top Christian cleric said on Sunday the government should put an end to any meddling in the judiciary after the probe into last year’s vast Beirut port blast was halted by the latest of a series of complaints against the lead investigator. The investigation was frozen on Monday when a former minister wanted for questioning as a suspect filed a case questioning the judge’s impartiality. The move followed a smear campaign by Lebanon’s political class against Judge Tarek Bitar and a warning by a senior official of the powerful heavily armed Iran-backed Hezbollah group to Bitar that he would be removed.
Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai, who has been sharply critical of Hezbollah, said in a Sunday sermon that political pressure on Bitar weakened the authority of the judiciary and could put international aid for Lebanon at risk. “We cannot insist on the investigation in the port crime and not support the investigating judge and the judiciary,” al Rai said. “It’s true that the government should not interfere in the judiciary but it is it’s duty to intervene to stop any meddling in the affairs of the judiciary,” he added. The Aug. 4 2020 Beirut port blast, caused by a large amount of ammonium nitrate stored unsafely for years, killed over 200 people but more than a year on no one has been held accountable. Bitar is the second judge whose investigation has been stymied by powerful factions in Lebanon, where a lack of high-level accountability are blamed for systemic corruption, governing gridlock and economic meltdown.
Judge Fadi Sawan, the first to lead the probe, was removed in February on the back of a legal complaint that questioned his neutrality, similar to the one that has now frozen the investigation. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah last month accused Bitar of bias and “playing politics” but said he was not calling for his immediate removal. A senior official from the group was later reported to have threatened to get Bitar fired. A judicial source said the judiciary were following up on the threat. Hezbollah officials and the justice minister could not be reached for comment. Prime Minister Najib Mikati said he hoped Bitar would stay in his job and announced that security precautions had been taken as a result of threats but said the decision to freeze the probe was a judicial matter.

Rahi: We cannot insist on the probe into the port crime, yet refrain from defending the judicial investigator
NNA/Octobre/2021
“We cannot insist on the investigation into the Beirut port explosion crime, but refrain from defending the judicial investigator and the judiciary,” underlined Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, during his Sunday Mass sermon in al-Dimane this morning.
“It is true that the government must not interfere in the affairs of the judiciary, yet it is its duty to intervene to stop all interference in the affairs of the judiciary,” he said, considering that “the interventions to which the judicial investigator is exposed will affect the attitudes of friendly countries towards Lebanon, in addition to weakening the status of our judiciary.”“We turn to the judicial authorities to move boldly, defend themselves and the judges, put an end to the disputes between judges, and fortify the judicial body against any political, partisan, financial or sectarian interference,” the Patriarch underscored. Referring to the new government’s work, the Patriarch stressed the urgent need to address the daily life issues due to the wide-spread of poverty in the country. “Lebanon's Arab and international friends are waiting for a clear policy commitment and stable performance [on part of the government] in order to participate in the country’s economic and financial renaissance, away from the abhorrent double-standards,” al-Rahi asserted. He added: “We cannot pretend to preserve sovereignty and leave the border crossings open, and the strange positions offensive to sovereignty without a response. We cannot support legitimacy and accept the multiple weapons and contempt for institutions, and the establishment of an army affiliated with a foreign country, as one of the senior officials in that country admitted. We cannot talk about preserving the school year, but fail to provide schools and universities with the necessary aid and the appropriate conditions for a normal start. We cannot raise the slogan of neutrality and remain biased towards regional axes that are incompatible with Lebanon's interest. We cannot promise that aid will come and disagree over the deficit figures and how to negotiate with the International Monetary Fund…”
As for the political forces, al-Rahi indicated that they must ease the tension between them and join efforts in serious, inclusive and credible national and democratic frameworks, deliberating directly with each other to save Lebanon.
The Patriarch emphasized that “the new cabinet must transcend the affiliations of its members and rise above the parties and sects, and confront the forces that seek to dominate its path and decisions; and hence, manage to raise the Lebanese issue through its Arab and international contacts, and to raise the issue of Lebanon's neutrality, which remains the guarantor of the success of all solutions.”“The homeland calls on us to unite ranks and struggle to restore the appropriated sovereignty and independence,” he went on, stressing that “no Lebanese struggle has reached its goal outside the unity of position, and no loss has occurred except due to divisions, one-sided decision-making, and being drawn into speculation, populism and selfishness.”

Al-Rahi Slams Hizbullah as 'Army Belonging to Foreign State'
Naharnet/Octobre/2021
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday lashed out at Hizbullah without naming it. "We cannot claim to be preserving sovereignty while keeping the (illegal) border crossings open wide, and we cannot support legitimacy while accepting the multiplicity of weapons and the contempt of institutions," al-Rahi said in his Sunday Mass sermon. We cannot accept "the creation of an army belonging to a foreign state, as a top official of that state has acknowledged," al-Rahi added, referring to Hizbullah and its regional backer Iran. He also criticized "alignment with regional axes that contradict with Lebanon's interest" and those refraining from "defending the investigative judge and the judiciary" over the Beirut port blast case.

Hizbullah MP Says Senators Stance on Port Probe Confirms 'U.S. Meddling'
Naharnet/Octobre/2021
MP Hassan Fadlallah of Hizbullah’s Loyalty to Resistance bloc on Sunday said that the latest stance by leading U.S. Congress members on the Beirut port blast investigation highlights the presence of “direct U.S. interference.”
Slamming what he called “a blatant attack on Lebanon’s sovereignty and flagrant interference in the investigations,” Fadlallah called for “a clear official stance defending Lebanon’s sovereignty,” and for “the rejection of these dictations.”“The declared U.S. stance on the course of the investigations and the role and position of the investigative judge confirms the presence of direct U.S. meddling in this file with the aim of employing it to settle U.S. scores inside Lebanon, after the failure of wars and the siege in subjugating Lebanon,” Fadlallah said. He added that all of this requires “returning the investigations into the port blast to their correct national course constitutionally and legally, away from any foreign dictations, domestic exploitation or politicization.”“Let the sole objective be the unveiling of facts and the fulfillment of justice, in order to hold accountable the real culprits” in “a national case that concerns all Lebanese,” Fadlallah went on to say. U.S. Senators Jim Risch and Bob Menendez, ranking member and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, have released a statement saying they are “extremely concerned by the suspension of Judge Tarek Bitar’s investigation into the devastating August 4, 2020, explosion at the Port of Beirut.”“The Lebanese people, many of whom continue to suffer physical and economic impacts of the blast, deserve accountability for this tragedy,” they said in the statement. Furthermore, Risch and Menendez said they are “alarmed by Hizbullah’s reported role in driving the decision to suspend this critical investigation.”“Judge Bitar is a respected, and by all accounts impartial, jurist with over a decade of service to his country as a judge. It is incumbent upon the Lebanese government to ensure that judges and other investigators can safely carry out their duties and complete this investigation,” the senators added.

Arslan: No stability in the region without the restoration of relations between Arab countries and Syria
NNA/Octobre/2021
Head of the Lebanese Democratic Party, MP Talal Arslan, said via Twitter today: "The phone call between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Jordanian King Abdullah II confirms what is certain, and reflects what the coming period will witness in terms of Arab and international openness to Syria…There is no stability in the region without the return of normal relations between Arab countries and Syria….Hope remains that we will learn in Lebanon!"

Khair inspects residential building threatened to collapse in Tripoli's Nejmeh Square
NNA/Octobre/2021
Secretary-General of the Higher Relief Commission, Major General Mohammad Khair, under the directives of Prime Minister Najib Mikati, and in coordination with the Engineering Department in the Tripoli Municipality, inspected today the building that is at risk of collapsing in Tripoli's Nejmeh Square, where he had a closer look at its condition in presence of the region's mayor and residents of the building. Khair listened to the suffering of the residents, who explained to him in detail the current condition of their building, in light of their fear and anxiety that it might collapse at any moment.
Khair promised to do his utmost and convey their worries to the concerned authorities to address this issue.

Khoury says policy of stabilizing currency has led to current collapse
NNA/Octobre/2021
In an issued statement on Sunday, former Minister Raed Khoury considered that "the policy of stabilizing the Lebanese currency is the sin that led to the collapse we have reached." He added: "A large number of ministers and politicians do not understand the economy and others do not want to understand, and the parties have never proposed any economic programs...We could have used the Central Bank's reserve to develop transportation, electricity, and put in place a plan for public waste instead of spending it on consumption."Khoury stressed herein the importance of McKinsey's plan because it set an economic course for the country. He added: "There are two paths for advancement, namely negotiating with the International Monetary Fund and changing the current economic system, and both paths must go together in order to get out of the crisis."Khoury concluded by considering that "the Central Bank trusted the state just as people gave their confidence to politicians for 30 years," adding that "this trust was renewed every 4 years through the elections."

French Ambassador pays a tour visit to Tyre
NNA/Octobre/2021
French Ambassador to Lebanon, Anne Grillo, toured on Sunday the internal and external markets of Tyre, where she was briefed on the last phase of the cultural heritage project that has been implemented with the funding of the French Development Agency.
Grillo also inspected the fishermen's building that was funded in the project's previous phase. The French diplomat was accompanied on her tour by her staff at the embassy; representative of the French Development Agency, Rami Saliba; Mayor of Tyre, Eng. Hassan Dbouq, and a number of municipality members. Following the tour visit, the French Ambassador and her accompanying delegation headed to Tyre's municipality building, where they held discussions touching on the country's general affairs and future projects.

Kanaan: We are ready for elections, results of our preparations will be out before the year’s end
NNA/Octobre/2021
MP Ibrahim Kanaan affirmed that "the elections will be held on time”, adding that the “Free Patriotic Movement is ready to undergo the elections and is currently preparing for its candidacies,” noting that “the final outcome of these preparations will appear before the end of the year."
Speaking in an interview to Al-Diyar Newspaper, Kanaan referred to the Central Bank’s Circular #151 as being “a means of liquidating the losses and obligations of the state, BDL and the banks, at the expense of the weakest link, i.e. the depositors…From here came the movement of the Finance and Budget Committee, which was and still represents the depositors in this battle, while the state was divided between two parties: the IMF on one side and the banks on the other.”Over future steps, he said: “They will be among the powers granted to us by the constitution and the internal system of the Parliament, through questions and interrogations, and approving proposals for laws such as the Capital Control, which the Finance Committee has accomplished since last June, and the authorization of withdrawals in US dollars and Lebanese lira according to the prevailing exchange rate.”Kanaan considered that the optimal formula in this regards is an integrated and clear plan to schedule withdrawals of deposits in US dollars in the same currency and for a specific period of time. “As for deposits in Lebanese pounds, we must work to find fair solutions for their depositors,” he said. “In light of the continued rise in the dollar exchange rate and the insane consumer prices’ hike, every delay in issuing the financing card and the fair mechanism execution required as an alternative to subsidy, as well as implementing reforms and restoring balance in budgets and stability in institutions, weakens confidence and puts pressure on the Lebanese lira, as it opens the door to speculation and smuggling without accountability or supervision,” Kanaan concluded.

Abdallah: Is Kordahi, Haddad’s nomination for negotiating delegation with IMF within a certain quota?
NNA/Octobre/2021
"A riddle baffling everyone, without a clear and explicit answer: Advisors Charbel Kordahi and Rafik Haddad, are they among the government delegation negotiating with the International Monetary Fund? Is this designation a quota for a specific side based on the achievements in the telecommunications sector? They are still missing someone from the Electricity of Lebanon, or from the Association of Banks, to topple it up!” MP Bilal Abdallah tweeted this morning,

Aux amateurs de manifs.
Jean-Marie Kassab/Octobre/2021
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/102921/%d8%ac%d8%a7%d9%86-%d9%85%d8%a7%d8%b1%d9%8a-%d9%83%d8%b3%d8%a7%d8%a8-%d9%86%d8%af%d8%a7%d8%a1-%d8%a5%d9%84%d9%89-%d9%85%d8%ad%d8%a8%d9%8a-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%aa%d8%b8%d8%a7%d9%87%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%aa-%d8%aa/
Au moins une manif qui fasse de l' effet et aie un sens: le ministre des affaires étrangères de l'Iran rend visite à sa province Libanaise dans les jours prochains. Sa visite est loin d'être innocente ou de courtoisie. Il vient inspecter son territoire d'outre-mer.
Ses valises seront pleine de cash pour alimenter sa troupe et sa langue trempée dans le venin.
Pourquoi ne pas organiser une manif massive et clamer haut et sous les projecteurs des medias du monde entier que plus de la moitié du peuple Libanais ne veut pas de lui et de ses acolytes. C'est le bon moment de hurler que le Liban est sous occupation Iranienne. Que cette occupation est la source de tous nos problèmes y inclus notre économie. Et si l'armée tabasse quelques uns , pas grave , car la presse, ce quatrième pouvoir, titrera: l' armée Libanaise a interdit par la force un rassemblement contre l'occupation Iranienne. On saura à quoi s'en tenir. Macron lira ça sûrement. Les autres aussi.
Pas de pancartes contre le prix du farrouj ou les prix de l'essence:
IRAN OUT et rien d 'autre.
Ce sera un pas en avant contre l'occupant.
On verra après pour le reste de nos bobos. Il faut s'attaquer à la tête du serpent et avec une machette.
Vive la résistance Libanaise.
Jean-Marie Kassab

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 03-04/2021
Iran’s Supreme leader Khamenei defends military drills near Azerbaijan border
Tuqa Khalid, Al Arabiya English/03 October ,2021
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei defended Tehran’s military drills conducted near the border with Azerbaijan which Iranian officials linked to Baku’s ties with Israel. Khamenei didn’t specifically name a specific country but said: “The issues concerning Iran's northwestern neighbors should be resolved wisely by relying on nations, through the cooperation of the armies of neighboring countries and by avoiding the presence of any foreign military forces.”He added: “In issues concerning the northwest of Iran, the Iranian Armed Forces act with authority and wisdom. It's good for others to act wisely too and not permit the region to face problems.”He also said the presence of foreign forces in the Middle East were a “source of destruction” and urged neighboring countries to “stay independent” and “join forces.”Iran’s army began on Friday military exercises near its border with Azerbaijan amid Tehran’s skepticism of Baku’s ties with the West in general and Israel specifically. Artillery, drones and helicopters participated in Iran’s drills. “We do not tolerate the presence and activity against our national security of… Israel, next to our borders. And we will carry out any necessary action in this regard,” Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said. Azerbaijan and Israel have strengthened their military alliance in recent months, with Israeli-supplied high-tech drones helping Azerbaijan in its conflict with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region last year. Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev expressed concern over Iran’s military drills near his country last week in an interview with Turkey’s Anadolu state news agency. He described Tehran’s decision as “very surprising” because there was no such military exercises in three decades. “Analyzing this at a certain point of time, we see that this has not happened before. Why now? Why exactly on our border?” Aliyev said. With The Associated Press

Saudi Arabia’s FM: Talks with Iran are still in exploratory phase
Tuqa Khalid, Al Arabiya English/03 October ,2021
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said on Sunday that talks between the Kingdom and Iran remain in the “exploratory phase”. “The fourth round of talks took place on September 21. These discussions remain in the exploratory phase. We hope they lay the foundation to address the issues between the two sides and we will work to achieve that,” Prince Faisal said in a joint press conference with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said last month that talks between Tehran and Riyadh achieved “serious progress” on the issue of Gulf security. “We have had several rounds of talks with Saudi Arabia’s government in [Iraqi capital] Baghdad over the past few months. There have been good talks on bilateral issues. Serious progress has been made on the subject of security in the Gulf,” state news agency IRNA quoted Khatibzadeh as saying. Saudi Arabia and Iran began talks in April in an effort to contain tensions between them. Iraq’s president had said Baghdad hosted the talks. Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies have long criticized Iran for its malign activities in the region through its network of proxies in Yemen, Syria, and Iraq. The Gulf countries have also condemned Iran’s nuclear program, which Tehran says is for peaceful purposes.

EU top diplomat Borrell says discussed nuclear talks, Afghanistan in Saudi visit
Ismaeel Naar, Al Arabiya English/03 October ,2021
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said during a visit to Saudi Arabia on Sunday that he had briefed his partners about the prospects of restarting nuclear talks with Iran and hoped that would happen “soon.”Borrell, speaking at a joint news conference with his Saudi counterpart, said he had also exchanged views on Afghanistan and Yemen. He said the EU was ready to pursue trade deals with Gulf Arab countries. For his part, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said he had reviewed several issues with his EU counterpart, adding that their meeting in Riyadh also saw them reviewing “the opportunities achieved by the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.”Prince Faisal also confirmed to Borrell “the seriousness of the Houthi militia’s practices in Yemen,” adding that Saudi Arabia is conducting a “dialogue with the United States regarding the war in Yemen.”He stressed “the danger of the Houthi militia continuing to bet on military options in Yemen,” explaining that “the Houthis continue to violate despite the ceasefire initiatives in Yemen.”With regard to the Iranian nuclear issue, the Saudi foreign minister said that Riyadh is deeply concerned about Iranian transgressions.“They contradict Iran’s declarations of the peaceful nature of its nuclear program,” he said.- With Reuters

Turkey plans military drills with Azerbaijan after Iran’s army exercises near border
Tuqa Khalid, Al Arabiya English/03 October ,2021
Turkey will hold joint military drills with Azerbaijan this week in a region bordering Iran after Baku’s government criticized Tehran for staging army exercises near its border. “The Steadfast Brotherhood-2021 drill will take place with the participation of Turkey and Azerbaijan in Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan between 5-8 October,” a spokeswoman for Turkey’s Ministry of Defense said on Sunday. Iran’s army began on Friday military exercises near its border with Azerbaijan amid Tehran’s skepticism of Baku’s ties with the West in general and Israel specifically. Artillery, drones and helicopters participated in Iran’s drills. “We do not tolerate the presence and activity against our national security of… Israel, next to our borders. And we will carry out any necessary action in this regard.” Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said. Azerbaijan and Israel have strengthened their military alliance in recent months, with Israeli-supplied high-tech drones helping Azerbaijan in its conflict with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region last year. Iran alleged that during the Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict last year, ISIS militants were brought into the region. “The overt and covert presence of [Israel's] proxies and the possibility of a significant number of ISIS terrorists in regional countries add to the importance of this exercise,” Iranian Army's Ground Force Brigadier General Kioumars Heydari said. With The Associated Press

Turkey’s military to respond to Greek ‘provocations’ in Aegean
Bloomberg/03 October ,2021
Turkey warned Greece that acts of “provocation” in the Aegean Sea between the two nations won’t go unanswered. Speaking to a group of reporters on Sunday, Defense Ministry spokeswoman Pinar Kara accused Greece of “unlawful, provocative and aggressive action” in the Aegean.
Military drills around Greece’s Chios Island in the North Aegean, which at its closest point is only about 16 kilometers (10 miles) from the Turkish coast, and a scientific research vessel that entered contested waters are the most recent provocations, she said. Turkey and Greece, both NATO members, have been at odds for decades over contested territorial waters in the Aegean Sea. Athens and Ankara are also in conflict over the future of divided Cyprus. Turkey “continues to defend its rights and interest over our seas with determination,” Kara said. “Our navy, armed forces and air forces have orders in this respect,” she said, without specifying what the orders were. In response to Greece, Turkey has announced live-fire drills in the Aegean Sea for Oct. 5 and naval drills in the Mediterranean through Oct. 5.

Merkel Calls for Compromise as German Coalition Talks Start
Agence France Presse//Octobre 03/2021
Outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel dropped a hint for political leaders to overcome their differences, as talks between the parties to choose her successor got under way on Sunday, following last week's election. Speaking at celebrations in the eastern city of Halle to commemorate German reunification in 1990, Merkel said the country once again had the opportunity to shape its future. "We can argue over exactly how in the future, but we know that the answer is in our hands, that we have to listen and speak with each other, that we have differences, but above all things in common," Merkel said. "Be prepared for new encounters, be curious about others, tell your own histories and tolerate differences," Merkel said. "That is the lesson from 31 years of German unity." In what was billed as perhaps her last major speech as chancellor, Germany's long-serving leader seemed to deliver a message to the politicians haggling to form the next government. Merkel will leave office after 16 years in power once a new coalition can be formed after the outcome of last week's election in which her coalition partners, the Social Democrats (SPD) came out on top. The SPD and its candidate Olaf Scholz narrowly won last week's vote on 25.7 percent, with Merkel's CDU-CSU alliance plunging to an all-time low of 24.1 percent under the beleaguered leadership of Armin Laschet. The two parties begin talks on Sunday with the Greens and liberal FDP, with which they need to strike an agreement to grab the top job for themselves. "We sometimes take our democratic accomplishments too lightly," Merkel said in her speech, asking the public to "reject radicalization," referring to a neo-Nazi attack on a synagogue in the city where she was speaking two years previous. "Diversity and difference" were not threats to society, Merkel added, as Germany had shown in the years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The veteran politician, who lived in the communist east before reunification, was visibly moved as she described her own struggles with prejudice and called for more "respect" for the personal histories of east Germans.

Algeria Bans French Military Planes from Airspace
Agence France Presse/Octobre 03/2021
The Algerian government has banned French military planes from its airspace, the French army said on Sunday, amid a diplomatic crisis sparked by a visa row and reported critical comments from President Emmanuel Macron. France's jets regularly fly over Algerian territory to reach the Sahel region of western Africa, where its soldiers are helping to battle jihadist insurgents as part of its Barkhane operation. "This morning when we filed flight plans for two planes, we learned that the Algerians had stopped flights over their territory by French military planes," an army spokesman, Colonel Pascal Ianni, told AFP. He said the decision "does not affect our operations or intelligence missions" carried out in the Sahel. But the move increased tensions between Paris and Algiers, which on Saturday recalled its ambassador to France, citing "inadmissible interference" in its affairs. According to French and Algerian media reports, Macron told descendants of figures in Algeria's war for independence that the country was ruled by a "political-military system" that had "totally re-written" its history. "You can see that the Algerian system is tired, it has been weakened by the Hirak," he added, referring to the pro-democracy movement that forced Abdelaziz Bouteflika from power in 2019 after two decades at the helm. Algeria was also angered last week after France said it would sharply reduce the number of visas it grants to citizens of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. France said the decision had been made necessary by the former colonies' failure to do enough to allow illegal migrants in France to be returned.

British PM Sticks to Economic Strategy despite Supply Crisis
Agence France Presse//Octobre 03/2021
Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Sunday refused to return Britain to its "broken" pre-Brexit economy even as the country confronts a supply chain crisis made worse by its EU departure. Speaking on the opening day of his Conservative party's first in-person annual conference since 2019, Johnson also insisted that the public could "trust" the police despite the shocking murder of a London woman by a serving officer. In a bullish conference message to the Tory faithful, Johnson vowed to forge ahead with his post-Covid recovery plan to "build back better" in areas from infrastructure to climate change. The government has sought to blame the global health crisis for an exodus of foreign lorry drivers, adding to departures since Brexit took full effect and free movement of people ended in January. Deliveries to supermarkets have been hit, making empty shelves an increasingly common sight, while a lack of tanker drivers has triggered panic-buying at petrol stations, forcing Johnson to call in the army to deliver stocks. The government now faces warnings from the farming industry that tens of thousands of pigs could be incinerated in the coming days without an urgent influx of foreign abattoir workers and butchers. But interviewed by the BBC at the conference in Manchester, northwest England, Johnson said the economy was "broken" before Brexit and was now undergoing necessary changes. "What we can't do in all these sectors is simply go back to the tired, failed, old model and reach for the lever marked uncontrolled immigration, with people at low wages," he said. "So yes, there will be a period of adjustment."
- 'Charlatans' -
Johnson can point to a successful Covid vaccination roll-out, which was quick out of the blocks after vaccines were approved, and which has so far seen more than 82 percent of all over-16s double-jabbed. But anger persists in some quarters at his handling of the pandemic and a high death toll of more than 136,000, as well as claims of cronyism for Covid contracts. He has also risked the wrath of Tory colleagues for breaking an election pledge not to raise taxes, by announcing hefty new funding to fix a crisis in health and social care. On Brexit, he has angered Brussels by threatening to shelve problematic new trading arrangements for Northern Ireland, and tensions are high with France over fishing rights. On Saturday, protesters, some holding EU flags, gathered near the Conservative conference venue. "Corrupt Tory government. Liars, cheats, charlatans. Get them out now," a banner read. Last week, opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer attacked Johnson as a Brexit-obsessed one-trick showman without a plan, even if his popularity remains relatively high with the public. "Level up? You can't even fill up," said Starmer of Johnson's flagship economic policy. "We have a fuel crisis, a pay crisis, a goods crisis, and a cost of living crisis, all at the same time."Johnson also faces an outcry over the murder of Sarah Everard by London Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens. The 33-year-old marketing executive's abduction in south London in March triggered nationwide anguish and debate about the safety of women and girls. Couzens, 48, was on Thursday jailed for the rest of his life after falsely arresting Everard on the pretence she had broken coronavirus restrictions, before raping and murdering her. Over the weekend, the Met confirmed that Couzens had been approved for armed patrols of parliament on five occasions last year. The London force -- Britain's biggest -- has been widely panned for advising women to flag down a passing bus if they are stopped by an officer they do not trust. However, Johnson backed that advice in the BBC interview.
"My view is that the police do -- overwhelmingly -- a wonderful job and what I want is the public, and women in particular, girls and young women, women of all ages, to trust the police," he said.

In Cyprus, Migrant Parents Decry Separation from Children
Agence France Presse//Octobre 03/2021
"I can only cry. I'm devastated -- my family too," said 25-year-old Syrian Kawthar Raslan, cradling her newborn child in a migrant camp on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. She was dumped at the camp by authorities after being separated at sea from her husband and other children, aged just one and three. The family left Lebanon's capital Beirut on August 22 on board a boat carrying dozens of other Syrian migrants, destined for Cyprus, a European Union member state 160 kilometers (100 miles) away. Around 10 kilometers from the Cypriot coast, the boat was intercepted by coastguards seeking to send the vessel back to Lebanon. A video filmed on board, seen by AFP, shows migrants crying out "Help us!" to the coastguards. Seeing the pregnant Kawthar was close to giving birth, the coastguards took her to Cyprus. But they left most of the other passengers -- including the rest of her family -- in the boat, which returned to Lebanon. Lebanon is home to more than a million Syrian refugees who have fled their country's decade-old civil war. And Lebanon has been beset by a devastating economic crisis, which has propelled hundreds of Syrians towards Cyprus. But Cyprus, with the EU's highest proportion of asylum seekers per capita, last year signed an agreement with Lebanon to send back all illegal migrants who attempt to reach the island by boat.
'Mummy'
"I almost died when I heard about my family being sent back to Lebanon," Kawthar told AFP, sitting on a mattress on the floor of a prefabricated cabin in Kofinou camp in the south of the island. "They knew that my husband and my children were with me and they prevented them from following me," she said of the Cypriot coastguards. "I will never forget that moment."Kawthar gave birth to a son, Yazan, on August 23, a day after being picked up by the coastguard. Originally from Idlib in northwestern Syria, she urged Cypriot authorities to "show compassion" and allow her to be reunited with her family. "I can live neither in Lebanon nor in Syria," she said. Cypriot authorities say only migrants with refugee status have the right to be reunited with their families. But among the 7,700 Syrian asylum seekers who have arrived here since 2018, less than two percent have achieved this status, the UN refugee agency UNHCR says. Back in Lebanon, Kawthar's husband is struggling to care for the family. "The children are traumatized, only one word comes out of their mouths -- 'Mummy'", Hassan al-Ali told AFP in the village of Ain El-Tefaha, where he rents a room, around 30 kilometers (20 miles) from Beirut.
"We were on board the boat under a scorching sun and the children were very thirsty," he remembered. "My daughter wasn't moving -- I thought that she was going to die," he added, his voice breaking with emotion. Like Kawthar, Issa Chamma, another Syrian on board that day, found himself in Kofinou camp.
Originally from Aleppo, the 37-year-old migrant suffers from lung problems, and he was also separated from his family after losing consciousness onboard. His wife and three children, aged from two to 11, even "spent two days in prison on their return to Beirut," Issa said.
'Lives in danger'
According to the UNHCR, returning asylum seekers to places where they risk persecution and torture contravenes international and European law. "This practice must end because it puts lives in danger," said UNHCR Cyprus spokesperson Emilia Strovolidou, calling on the island's authorities to reunite both Kawthar's and Issa's families. EuroMed Rights, a network of 65 organizations that defend human rights across the Mediterranean, will launch an awareness raising campaign on Monday, urging the EU to "investigate violations" committed by the Cypriot border forces. On September 21, several lawmakers criticized the government's migration policy during a parliamentary hearing. "We are asking the government to implement international and European laws," Alexandra Attalides, a lawmaker for Cyprus's Green Party, told AFP. "In the case of this lady from Syria, I am asking that all humanitarian measures are taken to reunite her with her family," she added. Cypriot Interior Minister Nicos Nouris did not respond to AFP requests for comment. But he recently argued Cyprus had "the right to refuse the illegal arrival of migrants", contending asylum seekers are not entitled to family reunification. On an August visit to Nicosia, the EU's home affairs commissioner, Ylva Johansson, said there were questions about the operation that separated the two families. Kawthar says she has been "well treated" in the camp, but she "thinks constantly" of her two other children. "Nothing can compensate for their absence," she said.

Disappointment in Qatar as No Women Candidates Elected
Agence France Presse//Octobre 03/2021
Women voters voiced disappointment Sunday after none were elected in Qatar's first legislative polls with all eyes on whether the emir will use his powers to appoint 15 lawmakers to boost representation. Thirty men were elected to Qatar's Shura Council at Saturday's polls despite more than two dozen women standing for the body which is seen as a nod to democracy rather than a fully-fledged parliament. "The (emir's) quota is the lifeline to ensure women's representation in the next assembly," said defeated candidate Aisha Jassim al-Kuwari who ran in a constituency alongside four other women against 14 male contenders. "We hope to appoint four to five women because the presence of women is very important. "Some of the female candidates were disappointed, of course, because they presented strong programs -- but we should not forget that some female voters chose men and this is the will of the people." It is not known when the emir's appointments will be announced or when the council will meet. "I'm not happy because all of them (winners) are men -- some of them are old. To be honest, I was surprised. It's not fair," said voter Shamma who declined to give her full name. "We are really sad." Dania Thafer, director of the Gulf International Forum, tweeted "I foresee a strong likelihood of women being appointed by the emir."Of the 284 hopefuls who went into the race for the 30 available council seats, just 28 were women although the final proportion after a number of eleventh-hour candidate withdrawals has not been published.
Equal opportunities
As well as counting no women amongst their number, the 30 victorious candidates were older men mostly from prominent families, many of whom had backgrounds in business or government. "You lost the battle of victory, but you won the war of participation!" popular Qatari author Ebtesam al-Saad wrote on Twitter. "We still hesitate to accept women... voters still feel that their communication with men is more free and flexible than their dealings with women." If as expected by many analysts the emir does directly appoint women to improve the gender balance it would follow what happened in Bahrain's legislative election. Official sources had confirmed to AFP this was a likely outcome in the event no women succeeded at the ballot box in Qatar. The Gulf Center for Human Rights said that Qatar's election laws would "need to be fully amended" to give women candidates a chance at future polls.
The final voter turnout was 63.5 percent according to official data. Qatar touts the level of representation enjoyed by its women with the health ministry led by a woman and the foreign ministry represented by a spokeswoman. Women also hold prominent roles in the World Cup organizing committee as well as philanthropy and the arts, medicine, law and business. But in March, Human Rights Watch accused Qatar of restricting the lives of its female population through unclear "guardianship" rules requiring adult women to obtain male approval for everyday activities. The constitution of Qatar, a conservative Muslim Gulf state, provides for "equal opportunities for all citizens." The Shura will be allowed to propose legislation, approve the budget and recall ministers, but the all-powerful emir will wield a veto.

Fears of 'Election Subversion' as Trump Flirts with 2024 White House Bid
Agence France Presse//Octobre 03/2021
The U.S. presidential election of 2000 hinged on a few votes in Florida and was ultimately decided in the Supreme Court. The 2020 White House contest gave birth to the "Big Lie" and saw supporters of the losing candidate storm the U.S. Capitol. Just wait and see what 2024 has in store. Donald Trump, the first president in U.S. history to refuse to accept the outcome of an election, is flirting with another White House run in what could be a make-or-break moment for American democracy. Robert Kagan, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, set alarm bells ringing in political circles last week with a chilling doomsday scenario opinion piece in The Washington Post. "The United States is heading into its greatest political and constitutional crisis since the Civil War," Kagan wrote. The neoconservative scholar warned of a "reasonable chance over the next three to four years of incidents of mass violence, a breakdown of federal authority, and the division of the country into warring red and blue enclaves."Polls suggest a majority of Americans share at least some of Kagan's concerns: 56 percent of the respondents in a recent CNN-SSRS survey said U.S. democracy is under attack. Thirty-seven percent said it is being "tested." Only six percent said it is in no danger. Trump's unceasing and unfounded claims that the November 2020 presidential vote was "stolen" by Democrat Joe Biden have seeped into the political bloodstream. Seventy-eight percent of the Republicans surveyed by CNN-SSRS said they do not believe Biden legitimately won the presidency, a figure in line with the findings of other opinion polls. "It's a new phenomenon in American elections," said Edward Foley, a constitutional law professor at The Ohio State University. "There have been fights over hanging chads -- like Bush vs Gore in 2000 -- and there have been recounts for as long as there have been elections in America," Foley said. "But the 'Big Lie' is a new thing. It's disconnected from reality and it's kind of a social pathology."
'By whatever means necessary' -
Richard Hasen, a law and political science professor at the University of California, Irvine, said in a recent research paper that the United States finds itself in a moment of "democratic peril," facing an unprecedented danger of "election subversion." "The United States faces a serious risk that the 2024 presidential election, and other future U.S. elections, will not be conducted fairly, and that the candidates taking office will not reflect the free choices made by eligible voters under previously announced election rules," Hasen wrote. In his opinion piece, Kagan said the 75-year-old Trump and his Republican allies are laying the groundwork to ensure a 2024 victory "by whatever means necessary."Trump, who retains an iron grip on the Republican faithful and is all but certain to be the party's presidential nominee if he does decide to run, appears to be setting the stage for the "Big Lie 2.0," said Foley. The strategy involves restrictions such as voter identification laws passed by the legislatures of some Republican-led states which Democrats claim are intended to suppress the minority vote and Republicans say are designed to protect the integrity of the ballot. It also includes replacing Republican state election officials such as Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state who refused to do Trump's bidding in 2020 and "find" 11,780 votes, with candidates who are diehard supporters. "Once you have that person in charge you have somebody who has great influence on how the election is conducted, how the votes are counted, who's declared the winner, how the Electoral College votes align," said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.
'Ultimate perversion of democracy'
While it would spark Democratic outrage, Republican-controlled state legislatures could potentially ignore the popular vote in their states if it goes against Trump and appoint their own electors to the Electoral College, the final arbiter of who wins the presidential race, Sabato said. Republicans are also well-positioned to win a majority in 2022 in the currently Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, giving them another potential lever of power in 2024. "As ugly as last January 6 was with bloodshed and insurrection the outcome was never in doubt," Foley said, as then vice president Mike Pence ultimately refused to go along with Trump's demands that he reject the Electoral College slates from several states they lost to Biden. "But if members of Congress on January 6, 2025 are predisposed to the 'Big Lie' approach, and are willing to repudiate election results just for the sake of pure political power, that would be the ultimate perversion of democracy," Foley said.

US envoy presses Sudan to make ‘swift progress’ toward civilian rule
The Arab Weekly/October 03/2021
WASHINGTON--The United States warned Sudan this week that failure to make progress on a transition to civilian rule could put at risk political and economic support from Washington, a State Department spokesperson said on Saturday. US envoy for the Horn of Africa Jeffrey Feltman visited Sudan from September 28 to October 1, one week after an attempted coup raised tensions between the civilian and military groups that share power in the country. Sudanese authorities have said that the coup plotters loyal to ousted President Omar al-Bashir were trying to derail the revolution that removed Bashir from power in 2019 and ushered in a transition to democracy. The thwarted coup, which the United States condemned, points to the difficult path facing Sudan under a fragile power-sharing deal between the military and civilians since the overthrow of Bashir, who presided over Sudan for nearly three decades and was shunned by the West. Sudan’s current ruling body, known as the Sovereign Council, has won Western debt relief and taken steps to normalise ties with Israel, while battling a severe economic crisis. Elections are expected in 2024. But the 11-member Sovereign Council does not yet have a date for handing leadership of the body from the military to civilians. Feltman met Sovereign Council head General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan as well as civilian Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, among other political leaders, said State Department spokesperson Ned Price. The US envoy pressed Sudanese politicians to make “swift progress” toward civilian rule, including a “reaching consensus on the date” when a civilian would take charge of the Sovereign Council, according to Price. “Deviation from this path and failure to meet key benchmarks will place at risk Sudan’s bilateral relationship with the United States, including significant US assistance,” Price said.

The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published  on October 03-04/2021
"Back to Pre-9/11. But It's Worse"
Guy Millière/Gatestone Institute./October 03/2021
The election of President Joe Biden under extremely questionable conditions was hugely welcomed by many in America and Europe.... The leaders of countries that are the enemies of the United States seemed even more delighted. Iran's then President Hassan Rouhani said on November 5, 2020: "The next US administration will surrender to the Iranian nation". Communist China's President Xi Jinping said nothing but instantly stepped up military provocations against Taiwan and Australia, India, the Philippines and Japan.
From the first days of its existence, the Biden administration spoke of terrorism, but seemingly to refer only to "white supremacy" and "domestic terrorism" -- evidently meaning Republicans and other Americans who had voted for Trump. Concessions to Islamic terrorism quickly followed. On February 12, the Houthi militia was removed from the Department of State list of terrorist organizations and started to receive US humanitarian aid. A few weeks later, their attacks on Saudi Arabia resumed. On February 18, the UN sanctions on Iran reinstated by Trump were rescinded, and economic sanctions partially lifted. Iran could now deliver missiles to Hamas, which used them in May to launch a massive attack on Israel.
The Afghan disaster was put in place. The Biden administration, unlike the Trump administration, had shown the Taliban and al-Qaeda that they had nothing to fear. The American media and the rest of the Western world hardly commented on the deceitful, catastrophic and deadly way the United States surrendered Afghanistan.
An editorial of the French newspaper Le Monde spoke with joy of the "long list of humiliations suffered by the United States". Several European leaders said they feared a return of Islamic terrorism to Europe, and started to react as most European leaders have reacted for decades: by trying to appease those who threaten their countries.
Meanwhile, the only person under investigation for the completely avoidable strategic failure of America's surrender to the Taliban in Afghanistan is decorated US Marine officer, Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller. He is currently in pre-trial detention at the Marine Corps brig at Camp Lejeune, for violating a "gag order" to bar him from asking senior leaders for accountability.
"What do you call a party whose leaders require all of America's soldiers to undergo indoctrination in an ideology that calls for the 'dismantling' of America and tells them that their oath to defend the Constitution is an oath to defend a document that codifies 'white supremacy'?... You call it treason." — David Horowitz, author and former Black Panther, Front Page Magazine, September 14, 2021.
The election of President Joe Biden under extremely questionable conditions was hugely welcomed by many in America and Europe.... The leaders of countries that are the enemies of the United States seemed even more delighted. Iran's then President Hassan Rouhani said on November 5, 2020: "The next US administration will surrender to the Iranian nation".
September 11, 2001 was the first time the United States had been attacked on its mainland since 1812. Nearly 3,000 people were killed. Americans reacted with determination and dignity. American flags were soon everywhere. The idea that the attacks should not go unpunished seemed unanimous. It was promptly proven that the attack came from al-Qaeda; on October 7, the US military started to crush the rear bases of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and the Taliban who housed them.
Twenty years later, the situation is on its head. Solemn commemorations were held in Washington, Shanksville and New York, but anxiety and anger pervaded the atmosphere of the country. US President Joe Biden attended the commemorations but did not speak. Instead, he released a videotaped speech in which he said he would hunt down "those seeking to do harm to America" ​​and make them pay. These words, to many people, seemed hopelessly out of touch. The United States had just surrendered Afghanistan without even an attempt at resistance in an atmosphere of chaos, duplicity and defeat. The Taliban are in power again, and al-Qaeda -- intermarried and effectively interchangeable with them -- at their side.
How an American administration could give the power back to the same enemy -- offering victory to Islamic terrorism and inflicting on the United States an unprecedented humiliation -- requires understanding what has happened in the US since 9/11: a relentless work of undermining the United States to erode and destroy its power, and its will to defend itself and victoriously fight its enemies.
President George W. Bush set his goals quickly after the 2001 attack. As early as September 14, he said: "Our responsibility to history is already clear: to answer these attacks and rid the world of evil." Three days later, on September 17, he spoke of the terrorists:
"We have seen their kind before. They are the heirs of all the murderous ideologies of the 20th century.... [B]y abandoning every value except the will to power–they follow in the path of fascism, and Nazism, and totalitarianism... The advance of human freedom – the great achievement of our time, and the great hope of every time–now depends on us... We will rally the world to this cause by our efforts, by our courage. We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail".
Bush spoke of a "war on terror": "Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there." "Every nation," he added on September 20, "in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists."
Almost immediately, the unanimity that seemed to exist began to break down. On September 24, a liberal magazine, The New Yorker, published a series of reactions to the attack written by supposed intellectuals. Most expressed reservations about the reaction that had taken shape. A political activist, Susan Sontag, hinted that the attack was probably the fault of the United States: " this was not a "cowardly" attack on "civilization" or "liberty" or "humanity" or "the free world" but an attack on the world's self-proclaimed super-power, undertaken as a consequence of specific American alliances and actions". Hostility to President Bush, to freedom, and to the will to wage war began to take shape. The rest of the Western world followed a similar path. The leaders of several countries in Europe said they supported the United States, but many seemed lacking in firmness.
On January 29, 2002, President Bush, in his State of the Union address, referred to an "axis of evil", and cited three countries: North Korea, Iran and Iraq. On October 7, in a speech on Iraq, he explained in detail the many crimes committed by the Iraq's president at the time, Saddam Hussein, and stated that the US was considering war if Saddam Hussein did not choose to declare and destroy "all of its weapons of mass destruction", "end its support for terrorism", and "cease the persecution of its civilian population".
The notion of an "axis of evil" was swiftly declared "simplistic and dangerous" by various commentators; and throughout 2002, the hostility of many in America and abroad in the Western world towards Bush's policy grew stronger. It became even more pronounced after President Bush's speech on Iraq. Two European prime ministers continued firmly to support the United States: Britain's Tony Blair and Spain's Jose Maria Aznar, but French President Jacques Chirac, who had long term financial links with Saddam Hussein, opposed the war, tried to save the Iraqi dictatorship, and brought behind him Germany and most of the rest of Europe.
Saddam Hussein chose not to comply, and in 2003, in a matter of weeks, the war was over. Islamists, however, had come to Iraq from all over the Muslim world to fight "the infidels," wage holy war, kill and die, and an insurgency started that lasted until a US troop surge in 2007. By 2008, Iraq was stabilized, but what the late journalist Charles Krauthammer called the "Bush derangement syndrome" -- which he defined as "the acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal people in reaction to the policies, the presidency — nay — the very existence of George W. Bush " -- began to emerge.
Relentless, frenzied protests swept across the United States and Western Europe. Protesters held up signs comparing Bush to Hitler and declaring him the worst terrorist on earth. Books were published accusing Bush of war crimes. A propaganda film by filmmaker Michael Moore, based entirely on conspiracy theories alleging Bush family ties to the Bin Ladens and Saudi royals, received the Cannes Film Festival's 2004 Palme d'Or and enjoyed worldwide success. The film left out all the crimes committed by Saddam Hussein. That he had exterminated dozens of thousands of Kurds with chemical weapons a few years before 2001, and his other crimes against humanity, apparently did not matter, and Saddam Hussein was described as someone who had never possessed weapons of mass destruction. Although Bush said from the start that he was not waging war on Islam, he was accused of it anyhow. That Islamic terrorism was still a clear and present danger, and that eliminating terrorists could be a good thing, was ignored. Instead, Bush was accused of creating terrorists. During Bush's presidency, no further terrorist attacks in the Western world took place -- a situation that was also ignored. For millions of Americans and Europeans, from 2003 to 2008, the only monster on the planet, and the only danger to eliminate, was President George W. Bush.
This was the context for the election of Barack Obama to the presidency in 2008. Obama had described himself during the election campaign as a redeemer: the embodiment of "hope" and "change". Three months before the election, in July 2008, he had visited Germany, where he promised to "finally bring this war to a close". His past as a community organizer was considered by most journalists a positive quality. After a triumphant election, he at once asked his administration to stop speaking of the "war on terror", and instead to use the watered-down expression, "overseas contingency operations". He never spoke of "terrorists" and replaced the word with "violent extremists".
On May 21, 2009, he rejected the entire foreign policy of the George W. Bush administration. "We went off course," Obama said, and promised to take the country in another direction. On June 4, in Cairo, he delivered a speech praising to Islam and criticizing the United States.
Regarding Afghanistan, which he called "the good war," as opposed to Iraq's, Obama imposed the most restrictive rules of engagement on the US military, a decision that resulted in the deaths of many US soldiers. In 2011, Obama supported the seizure of power in Tunisia and Egypt by members of the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization defined even by some Muslim countries as terrorist. He withdrew America's combat troops from Iraq, with the result that al-Qaeda, which had been destroyed under George W. Bush, was reborn under another name: Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). ISIS proceeded to conquer a vast territory which, thirteen years after the destruction of Al-Qaeda's bases in Afghanistan, became a new center for Islamic terrorism and a source of inspiration for Islamic terrorists worldwide. Islamic attacks, which had virtually disappeared during the presidency of George W. Bush, reappeared. The years 2015-2016 were marked by a grisly wave of them throughout Western Europe and the United States.
Obama developed and approved the signing in July 2015 of the Iran nuclear deal. Although it was sold to the public as preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, it in fact did just the opposite and did not prevent Iran from pursuing its quest for nuclear weapons. Iran also received from the Obama administration billions of dollars which the mullahs quickly used to fund various Islamic terrorist organizations, thereby making Iran the world's leading financier of international Islamic terrorism. Although Obama did eliminate Osama bin Laden, the assassination did not curb the spread of Islamic terrorism taking place at the time.
The press and the public in the West treated Obama as if he were an idol. Although many bloody attacks took place in Western Europe during his presidency -- and although Western Europe suffered heavily from the creation of ISIS and the disorders created throughout the Muslim world during his term (more than a million migrants burst into Europe in 2015-2016) -- the leaders of Western Europe did not stop praising him.
For many in America and Western Europe, the election President Donald J. Trump came as a shock. Although Trump had defined the war in Iraq as a "terrible mistake" and had criticized George W. Bush, he was and still is subjected to continuous demonization from the press, the media, social media, the CIA, the FBI, the IRS, the Department of Justice even more hostile than that undergone by President George W. Bush.
Trump, during his campaign, used two expressions borrowed from Ronald Reagan: "Make America great again" and "Peace through strength" -- revealing that the direction he intended to follow was not at all the same as Obama's. It was clear that he would fight Islamic terrorism. Trump destroyed ISIS, eliminated its head, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, suffocated the Iranian regime economically to deprive it of being able to finance terrorism. He advanced peace in the Middle East spectacularly, as none of his predecessors had, with the Abraham Accords, signed at the White House on September 15, 2020. No major Islamic terrorist attack occurred under his presidency. Yet, to this day, many in America and the rest of the West continue to pour out intense hatred against him. Western European leaders continue to criticize him and portray him as uncouth.
The election of President Joe Biden under extremely questionable conditions was hugely welcomed by many in America and Europe. Biden was widely described as embodying the return to "professionalism" and "seriousness" after four supposedly horrible years. The leaders of countries that are the enemies of the United States seemed even more delighted. Iran's then President Hassan Rouhani said on November 5, 2020: "The next US administration will surrender to the Iranian nation". Communist China's President Xi Jinping said nothing but instantly stepped up military provocations against Taiwan and Australia, India, the Philippines and Japan.
From the first days of its existence, the Biden administration spoke of terrorism, but seemingly to refer only to "white supremacy" and "domestic terrorism" -- evidently meaning Republicans and other Americans who had voted for Trump. Concessions to Islamic terrorism quickly followed. On February 12, the Houthi militia was removed from the Department of State list of terrorist organizations and started to receive US humanitarian aid. A few weeks later, their attacks on Saudi Arabia resumed. On February 18, the UN sanctions on Iran reinstated by Trump were rescinded, and economic sanctions partially lifted. Iran could now deliver missiles to Hamas, which used them in May to launch a massive attack on Israel.
The Afghan disaster was put in place. The Biden administration, unlike the Trump administration, had shown the Taliban and al-Qaeda that they had nothing to fear. The American media and the rest of the Western world hardly commented on the deceitful, catastrophic and deadly way the United States surrendered Afghanistan. A few former Obama officials criticized Biden. An editorial of the French newspaper Le Monde spoke with joy of the "long list of humiliations suffered by the United States".
Several European leaders said they feared a return of Islamic terrorism to Europe, and started to react as most European leaders have reacted for decades: by trying to appease those who threaten their countries. On September 14, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said, "to have any chance of influencing events, we have no other option but to engage with the Taliban." The Biden administration appears to want to do the same. On September 3, it began funding "humanitarian aid programs" in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. On September 9, White House press secretary Jen Psaki praised the Taliban as "businesslike and professional".
Other members of Congress and political analysts hold a different view of the situation. "We're going back to pre-9/11 right now," Representative Michael McCaul, ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee said on September 12, "but it's worse, it's worse because now they're [the Taliban] fully armed with our weapons, our helicopters and pallets of our cash".
Former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said:
"I hope that it's just something that has an impact for decades, I hope it's not centuries; it's the most profound loss for the United States, certainly in our lifetime... this most recent, most painful, colossal, epic failure in Afghanistan has literally breathed life into the radical Islamic terrorist movement, not just in Afghanistan, but around the world. "
Former President George W. Bush now speaks differently from how he spoke during his presidency. He is now using the same words as Obama to designate terrorists -- "violent extremists" -- and has been tracing an equivalence, no matter how false, between "violent extremists abroad and violent extremists at home".
Meanwhile, the only person under investigation for the completely avoidable strategic failure of America's surrender to the Taliban in Afghanistan is decorated US Marine officer, Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller, currently in the Marine Corps brig at Camp Lejeune, for violating a "gag order" to bar him from asking senior leaders for accountability.
The author and former Black Panther, David Horowitz, asked:
"What do you call a party that treats 81 million unvaccinated Americans as domestic enemies.... but allows hundreds of thousands of unvetted illegal migrants... to cross U.S. borders and be flown into the heartland by the United States Air Force? And once there – to get free medical care, welfare payments, and education?...
"What do you call a party whose leaders require all of America's soldiers to undergo indoctrination in an ideology that calls for the 'dismantling' of America and tells them that their oath to defend the Constitution is an oath to defend a document that codifies 'white supremacy'?...
"You call it treason."
*Dr. Guy Millière, a professor at the University of Paris, is the author of 27 books on France and Europe.
© 2021 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Prowler Preaching Neighborliness
Amir Taheri/Gatestone Institute/October 03/2021
Raisi has not managed to impose some discipline on the few hundred mullahs and brigadier-generals who form the core of the ramshackle regime. Thus the mullah from back of the beyond and the brigadier-general who has never seen a battle except on television, continue to make foreign policy comments mostly to threaten the very neighbors that the Dr. Ayatollah hopes to seduce.
Tehran's disregard for Iraqi sovereignty came in other forms as well. The official media threatened Baghdad and Erbil with "consequences" unless those who had organized a private seminar on normalization with Israel were "dealt with". The fact that the seminar in question was in conformity with Iraq's constitution and law, guaranteeing freedom of opinion and expression, was conveniently ignored.
However, the biggest show of "good neighborliness" promised by Raisi came inside the (former Soviet) Republic of Azerbaijan and along its borders with Iran and Armenia.
What Tehran media described as "a multi-faceted task force" consisting of helicopter gunships, tanks, armored vehicles and elite Special Units under the personal command of IRGC's Chief of Land Forces Gen. Pakpur was assembled on full alert within sight of Azerbaijani troops and their Russian "advisers".
Iran's new President Dr. Ayatollah Ebrahim Raisi (center) has not managed to impose some discipline on the few hundred mullahs and brigadier-generals who form the core of the ramshackle regime. Thus the mullah from back of the beyond and the brigadier-general who has never seen a battle except on television, continue to make foreign policy comments mostly to threaten the very neighbors that the Dr. Ayatollah hopes to seduce.
In his first statements on foreign policy, Islamic Republic's new President Dr. Ayatollah Ebrahim Raisi made two claims: First that he would be the ultimate arbiter of Tehran's foreign relations and, second, that his top priority is to "establish close ties with neighbors and promote peace and stability in West Asia.
(The ruling mullahs now use the term West Asia, which was circulated by the Soviet Union, instead of the Middle East, which they regard as a term coined by "Infidel powers.") Just week into his tenure, however, it is hard to find evidence to support Raisi's claim.
True, the new Islamic Foreign Minister Amir Abdullahyan is no Muhammad-Javad Zarif with his flamboyant style, personal ambitions and powerful American friends, and thus in no position to think of upstaging his boss.
Nevertheless, Raisi has not managed to impose some discipline on the few hundred mullahs and brigadier-generals who form the core of the ramshackle regime. Thus the mullah from back of the beyond and the brigadier-general who has never seen a battle except on television, continue to make foreign policy comments mostly to threaten the very neighbors that the Dr. Ayatollah hopes to seduce.
Worse still, such interventions go beyond mere rhetorical outbursts. Consider some events of the past 10 days or so.
Pakistan security arrested three men, identified as "citizens of Iran" and, according to Islamabad sources, members of the Quds Force, on a charge of plotting to kill 25 Chinese engineers by planting a roadside bomb near the Pakistani port of Gwadar on the Gulf of Oman. The alleged plot claimed the lives of several Baluch children.
A few days earlier, units of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched a series of artillery attacks on 22 villages in the Kurdish Autonomous Region in Iraq where, Tehran claims, anti-Iran Kurdish "secessionists" have set up a number of bases.
Neither Baghdad nor Erbil authorities were forewarned, while the IRGC promised to repeat the deadly exercise.
Tehran's disregard for Iraqi sovereignty came in other forms as well. The official media threatened Baghdad and Erbil with "consequences" unless those who had organized a private seminar on normalization with Israel were "dealt with". The fact that the seminar in question was in conformity with Iraq's constitution and law, guaranteeing freedom of opinion and expression, was conveniently ignored.
The Erbil authorities were forced to be economical with the truth by claiming they didn't know about the seminar and would not allow similar events in the future. The Baghdad authorities went further by issuing arrest warrants for three people, one of whom was in Germany at the time of the seminar.
The new violation of Iraqi sovereignty came a bit later and on a much larger scale. Baghdad had announced the closure of its borders with the Islamic Republic as a means of controlling the spread of Covid-19 which is wreaking havoc in Iran.
Iranian pilgrims wishing to go to "holy cities" in Iraq for Arba'in, marking the 40th day of Imam Hussein's martyrdom, were told that only those travelling by air could do so without obtaining a visa.
Yet, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims, and people trying to make a fast buck during the pilgrimage, gathered at land border crossings and managed to dismantle the barriers and march into Iraqi territory to board buses heading for "holy cities". Islamic Republic border guards either watched the "invasion" or even helped speed it up.
On eastern borders, the Islamic Republic closed its borders with Afghanistan to prevent thousands trying to flee the new situation in Kabul. At the same time, however, hundreds of suspected Al-Qaeda members and their families living in exile in Iran for almost 20 years, mostly in the Dost-Muhammad area in Sistan-and-Baluchistan province, were "advised" to return to Afghanistan.
However, the biggest show of "good neighborliness" promised by Raisi came inside the (former Soviet) Republic of Azerbaijan and along its borders with Iran and Armenia.
What Tehran media described as "a multi-faceted task force" consisting of helicopter gunships, tanks, armored vehicles and elite Special Units under the personal command of IRGC's Chief of Land Forces Gen. Pakpur was assembled on full alert within sight of Azerbaijani troops and their Russian "advisers".
This large-scale sabre rattling coincided with the first anniversary of the war between Armenia and Baku over the enclave of High Qarabagh (Artsakh). Tehran put in motion a roadshow in three stages.
In the first stage, a few days before the anniversary, a long line of Iranian heavy trucks passed through the Lachin Corridor, theoretically under Russian control, to enter High Qarabagh to deliver supplies to Armenians. The idea was to show that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev's claim of having won a great victory in last year's war was an empty boast as Russia, not his government, controls entry points into Azerbaijan and the disputed Artsakh enclave.
To save face, Aliev called in Tehran's ambassador to Baku and demanded that Iran stop sending trucks without proper visas from Baku. In the second stage, Tehran replaced Iranian number-plates with Armenian ones to claim that the lorries in question came from Armenia proper to supply fellow-Armenians in Artsakh.
For Aliev, this was like turning the knife in the wound, reminding people in Baku and environs that their president's claim of victory at the cost of thousands of lives followed by the virtual occupation of parts of the country by Russian troops bore little relation to reality. Iran's claim that matters had been cleared with Levon Jagarian, the Russian Ambassador in Tehran, poured salt on the wound as Moscow's man in Iran is an ethnic Armenian, as is Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
An angry Aliev, already under domestic pressure for mismanagement, corruption and nepotism, lashed back by announcing a total ban on truck traffic from Iran and claiming that "Azeris all over the world" back his position. This was seen in Tehran as an act of deliberate provocation by Aliev, as Iran sees itself as the true home of all Azeris, including the 12 million or so who live in the Baku republic and the Russian federation.
Raisi's claim of "good neighborliness" remains just a claim. The fact is that either Tehran turns the Middle East (or West Asia, as the Kremlin prefers) into something like the Khomeinist Islamic Republic or the latter becomes more or less like other regimes in the region. An outsider, a prowler, cannot have normal, let alone good, relations, with others in a neighborhood.
*Amir Taheri was the executive editor-in-chief of the daily Kayhan in Iran from 1972 to 1979. He has worked at or written for innumerable publications, published eleven books, and has been a columnist for Asharq Al-Awsat since 1987.
© 2021 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Empty Desks at the State Department, Courtesy of Ted Cruz
The New York Times/October 03/2021
WASHINGTON — The arrival of a new U.S. ambassador to Mexico is usually a routine event. But for the Biden administration, it was a notable victory.
With the Senate’s Aug. 11 confirmation vote, former Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado became the first Biden ambassador to arrive in a foreign capital. And, as of now, the last.
A bitter fight with Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, over a Russian gas pipeline has created what Biden officials call a personnel crisis, with Cruz delaying dozens of State Department nominees, including 59 would-be ambassadors, and vowing to block dozens more.
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Democrats call Cruz’s actions an abuse of the nomination process and the latest example of Washington’s eroding political norms. They also say he is endangering national security at a time when only about one-quarter of key national security positions have been filled.
While Cruz cannot entirely block Biden’s State Department nominees, he has greatly slowed the process by objecting to the Senate’s traditional practice of confirming uncontroversial nominees by “unanimous consent.” His tactic means that each nominee requires hours of Senate floor time while other major priorities, including President Joe Biden’s domestic spending agenda, compete for attention.
“It’s really an undermining of the nation’s national security process,” said Bob Menendez, D-N.J. and chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “What we have here is an unprecedented, blanketed holding of all nominees — regardless of whether they have anything to do with the policy issues at stake.
“That is not something I have seen in 30 years of doing foreign policy work” in Congress, he added. “This is unprecedented.”
Only a dozen of Biden’s State Department nominees have been cleared for a full Senate vote by the committee — in part, Democrats say, because Republicans on the committee are doing their own foot-dragging. Dozens more are expected to be ready for confirmation soon.
Even by the standards of a Senate where political grandstanding is the norm, Democrats say that Cruz is blatantly exposing his 2024 presidential ambitions by picking a long-running battle with Biden.
It is one that has attracted an imitator. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is vowing to block all national security nominees over the Biden administration’s handling of Afghanistan, insisting he will not budge until Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, resign.
Cruz and his allies insist he is taking a principled stand on Nord Stream 2, a gas pipeline project from Russia to Germany that has long been an issue of high interest for him.
In mid-May, Biden waived congressionally imposed sanctions on the project. Critics say the deal will provide President Vladimir Putin of Russia leverage over European energy security and deal a blow to Washington’s ally Ukraine, which operates a competing pipeline. But the project is a boon for Germany, and Biden — arguing that the project was nearly complete and virtually impossible to stop — decided to prioritize relations with Germany, a key European ally, rather than risk a battle with Chancellor Angela Merkel and her soon-to-be successor.
When that happened, Cruz accused the Biden administration of showing “weakness” toward Russia. He has since exploited Senate rules to turn confirmation votes — even generally routine ones, for career foreign servants headed for relatively midlevel jobs or low-profile ambassadorships — into hourslong exercises.
“President Biden has insisted on giving a multibillion-dollar gift benefiting Russia, hurting America and hurting our national security interests,” Cruz said on the Senate floor in August.
“I’ve made clear to every State Department official, to every State Department nominee, that I will place holds on these nominees unless and until the Biden administration follows the law and stops this pipeline and imposes the sanctions,” he added.
Cruz is not the only reason nearly every foreign ambassadorship and many other State Department positions remain unfilled. The Biden White House was notoriously slow to begin offering foreign policy nominations, exasperating even its Democratic allies.
But unless Cruz backs down, it could be months before Biden has his picks in capitals like Beijing, Jerusalem, Cairo and Berlin, and in important policymaking positions at the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
A minor breakthrough came at the end of September, after Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the majority leader, saying he would “take the long way,” cleared several hours on the Senate floor to advance some of the State Department nominees. Six were confirmed this past week, most by wide margins, including assistant secretaries of state for European, African, and East Asian and Pacific affairs. But many dozens are still waiting.
State Department officials say the shortage of confirmed senior personnel is straining their ability to conduct diplomacy. They point to the example of Bonnie Jenkins, who was officially nominated in March to be the State Department’s top arms control officer but not confirmed until July 21 — just a few days before she departed for strategic arms talks with the Russians in Geneva.
Cruz and other Republicans say a 2017 law — the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, devised to force a reluctant President Donald Trump to impose sanctions on Moscow — requires Biden to penalize Nord Stream 2 AG, the company in charge of the pipeline project, which is a subsidiary of the majority state-owned Russian energy company Gazprom. They say an administration report finding that the company facilitated “deceptive” transactions should trigger the 2017 measure.
Cruz’s allies say he felt misled by early statements from Blinken suggesting he would work to stop the Nord Stream project, which helped persuade Cruz to lift earlier holds on nominees, including Biden’s pick for director of the CIA, William J. Burns.
“This is not something he does lightly or with relish. This is just something he is deeply, deeply concerned about,” said Victoria Coates, a former national security aide to Cruz who also worked in the Trump White House. “He feels like they lied to him, and they are not understanding how serious this is.”
Democrats say that even if Cruz is motivated by principle, his reaction is reckless — and wildly out of proportion.
“We can give him the benefit of the doubt that his goal is to micromanage U.S. foreign policy,” said Sen. Christopher Murphy, D-Conn. and a member of the Foreign Relations Committee.
“This is not about his objection to Nord Stream 2. This is to get a lot of eyeballs from a fight with President Biden,” Murphy said. Some Democrats also note that Cruz has a parochial interest in quashing a foreign energy project that competes with his home state’s oil and gas industry.
Cruz has not spoken to Blinken about the matter, though his office has negotiated specific agreements with the State Department. In mid-September, Cruz allowed unanimous consent votes to confirm three nominees, including assistant secretaries of state overseeing the Western Hemisphere, South and Central Asia, and intelligence.
Cruz has offered the Biden administration a deal: Impose sanctions on Nord Stream 2 AG, and then waive them if you wish. Those steps would automatically trigger a vote in Congress on whether to block Biden’s override — one that the president is likely to win but that would create an unwelcome diversion for the White House, not to mention a platform for Cruz.
In a statement, Cruz’s press secretary, Dave Vasquez, said the senator “has worked day in and day out to craft and advance compromises” on the matter, adding that the administration “could get its nominees through tomorrow by simply implementing the law.”
But even under that scenario, Cruz has promised only to drop his opposition to career foreign service nominees, suggesting that he will continue to deny easy confirmation to political appointees. That category includes former Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago to be ambassador to Japan; former Sen. Jeff Flake, a Republican, to be ambassador to Turkey; and banker and former Obama State Department official Thomas Nides to be ambassador to Israel.
Murphy, who supports changing the Senate’s rules to limit the time that can be devoted to midlevel nominations, called the odds of a Biden reversal on the Nord Stream project, which has been completed but is not yet operational, “negative 75%.”
And even if Cruz were somehow satisfied, there remains Hawley.
Menendez suggested that Schumer could call a weekend Senate session, which would force senators to spend their days off plowing through nominations.
“Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley are not paying any consequences,” Menendez said. “But when members have to be here on a weekend, voting only on these things that are passing overwhelmingly in a bipartisan vote, I think peer pressure might be brought to bear.”
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