LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
January 26/2018
Compiled &
Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
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Bible Quotations
When you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are
unworthy servants; we have only done our duty
Luke 17/01-10: "Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause
people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come.
It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied
around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble. So watch
yourselves. “If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if
they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and
seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.” The
apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” He replied, “If you have faith
as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and
planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you. “Suppose one of you has a servant
plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in
from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Won’t he rather say,
‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink;
after that you may eat and drink’? Will he thank the servant because he did
what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were
told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’"
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin
analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 25-26/18
British government under pressure to impose total ban on
Hezbollah/Oliver Cuthbert & Richard Wachman/Arab News/January 26/18
Lebanon expects tougher US action on banking sector to curb Hezbollah funding/Najia
Houssari/Arab News/January 26/18
In Lebanon, the military sends out an aggressive message about
censorship/Michael Young/The National/January 24/2018
TWI Expert Hanin Ghaddar, Sentenced to Prison by Lebanese Court, Receives Global
Media Coverage, Outpouring of Support from Free-Speech Groups/Washington
Institute/January 24/2018
Turkey: Targeting Kurds In Syria Making Turkey Feel Imperial Again/Burak Bekdil/Gatestone
Institute/January 25/2018
Germany: Return of the Stasi Police State/Judith Bergman/Gatestone
Institute/January 25/2018
Time for Jordan's King Abdullah to Stop Tolerating Genocide from Temple
Mount/Dexter Van Zile/Gatestone Institute/January 25/2018
How to Manipulate Migration Data? Take Belgium/Alain Destexhe/Gatestone
Institute/January 25/2018
Trump and the American Soft Power/Albert R. Hunt/Bloomberg/January 25/2018
Davos Warms to Trumponomics/Ferdinando Giugliano/Bloomberg/January 25/2018
How Can Saudi Arabia and Egypt Help Confront Toxic Ideologies/Joseph Braude and
Samuel Tadros/Washington Institute/January 25/2018
The blessings and curse of higher oil prices/Dr. Mohamed A. Ramady/Al Arabiya/January
25/18
Will Operation Olive Branch end the US-Turkey Alliance/Giorgio Cafiero/Al
Arabiya/January 25/18
Nations which appease Iran open their doors to its spies/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab
News/January 25/18
Titles For Latest LCCC Lebanese Related News published on
January 25-26/18
Lebanon’s Parliamentary Elections: Hezbollah to Let Down
Aoun in Jezzine
British government under pressure to impose total ban on Hezbollah
Lebanon expects tougher US action on banking sector to curb Hezbollah funding
Aoun talks German president's visit with the country's ambassador
Report: Kataeb, LF Electoral-Dialogue 'Brought to a Halt'
March 8 Seeks Winning 'One-Third' of Parliament Seats
Hariri Concludes Visit to Davos by Meeting Iraqi PM
Man Accused of Pickpocketing Worshipers at Mosques
MP Aoun: Ties with Kataeb Unlikely, Relation with Mustaqbal Won't Be at Expense
of Other Ties
Loyalty to Resistance: US interference in Lebanon's banking system violation of
sovereignty
International Human Rights Organization delegation visits Riachy, requests
dissemination of awareness programs
Berri, interlocutors tackle current developments
Sarraf meets outgoing Turkish ambassador
Saudi Ambassador visits Chamoun
Mashnouq, interlocutors tackle current developments
Prosecution Sues Comedian Hisham Haddad over MBS Remarks
Khatib follows up on transport of trash from Chouf, Aley regions to Costabrava
landfill
In Lebanon, the military sends out an aggressive message about
European Film Festival 24th edition opens at Cinema Metropolis Empire Sofil
TWI Expert Hanin Ghaddar, Sentenced to Prison by Lebanese Court, Receives Global
Media Coverage, Outpouring of Support from Free-Speech Groups
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For
Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on January 25-26/18
Ontario's Progressive Conservatives to pick interim leader
on Friday
Trump Takes 'America First' Mantra to Sceptical Davos Elite
Iran building ‘world’s largest military base’ in Syria: Israeli diplomat
US-Turkey Tensions Escalate over Syria Operation
U.N. Hosts 'Critical' Syria Peace Talks in Vienna
Ahmadinejad's Aides Request to Hold a Protest against Rouhani
US to Send 1st Aircraft Carrier Since War to Vietnam
Kabul hotel attack killed at least 25: official
Trump says Palestinians ‘disrespected’ US, aid on hold
Latest Lebanese Related News published
on January 25-26/18
Lebanon’s Parliamentary Elections: Hezbollah to Let Down
Aoun in Jezzine
Beirut - Paula Astih/Asharq Al Awsat/January 25/18/The Sidon-Jezzine
constituency is one of the 15 most important electoral districts that will
witness a battle of “settling accounts” between President Michel Aoun and
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. This will put Hezbollah in an undesirable
position, especially as it will have to direct its votes towards one of the two
main lists: one supported by the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) and the other by
Amal Movement. The electoral district - which includes Sidon and Jezzine based
on the new electoral law - has 5 electoral seats divided as follows, distributed
among the Sunnis (2 seats), Maronites (2 seats) and the Catholics (1 seat).
Election experts confirmed that the distribution of seats among the political
forces was almost conclusive. However, only one Maronite seat would be subject
to an electoral battle, which would renew the conflict between Aoun and Berri,
as the latter publicly supports candidate Ibrahim Azar, while the former
supports the FPM candidates Ziad Aswad and Amal Abu Zeid. The electoral battle
between the two leaders ended in 2009 in favor of Aoun. Therefore, the Speaker
of Parliament is exerting all his efforts to “retaliate against the previous
loss and settle many accounts with the President.”Around 121 thousand voters are
expected to cast their ballots in the Sidon-Jezzine district. They are
distributed between 62 thousand in Sidon and 59 thousand in Jezzine. The Muslim
weight is concentrated in Sidon, while the Christian weight in Jezzine.
Researcher at Information International Mohammed Shamseddine said that the
latest data indicated the formation of between five and six electoral lists,
including a list formed of the Future Movement and the FPM, which will be able
to secure three out of five seats, and a list gathering Secretary General of the
Popular Nasserite Organization Osama Saad with candidate Ibrahim Azar - who is
mainly backed by the Amal Movement - and will be able to win two seats. In
remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, Shamseddine noted that MP Bahiya Hariri and one
Maronite candidate were likely to win in the first list, while Saad will take
over a seat in the other list. The battle will be confined to either the
Catholic or Maronite seats, with Aoun and Berri focusing their attention on
winning the Maronite seat, according to Shamseddine. In this district, attention
is drawn to the likelihood that Hezbollah will be lined up alongside Amal in the
face of the FPM. In other districts, the party has tried to avoid embarrassment
by taking Aoun’s side, but it would not succeed to do the same in the Sidon-Jezzine
constituency due to its complexity. In this regard, sources in the March 8
Forces, close to Hezbollah, say that the party has decided not to give its votes
to any list that includes the Future Movement, even if it includes its FPM ally.
British government under pressure to impose total ban on
Hezbollah
Oliver Cuthbert & Richard Wachman/Arab News/January 26/18
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/62058
The British government is under renewed pressure to outlaw Hezbollah in the UK
by making no distinction between its military and political wings.
In the House of Commons, Labour chair of the friends of Israel Joan Ryan moved a
motion on Thursday that called for Hezbollah to be designated a terrorist
organization and for Britain to impose a complete ban to bring it into line with
Canada, the US, the Arab League and the Netherlands.
Currently, Hezbollah’s military wing is proscribed but not its political
organization which is based in the Lebanon and supported by Iran. Ryan accused
it of the “aiding and abetting the Assad regime’s butchery in Syria and helping
to drive Iran’s expansionism throughout the region”.
Speaking in support of the motion, Conservative MP Theresa Villiers said
Hezbollah had been responsible for numerous terrorist attacks around the world,
with the “most notorious” at a Jewish center in Buenos Aries, Argentina where a
bomb killed 85 and injured hundreds in 1994. An Argentinian inquiry pointed the
finger at Hezbollah and Iran.
Villiers added that Hezbollah been a “deeply malevolence presence in the Syrian
civil war”. The Ryan motion has not received support from the UK government or
the Labour shadow cabinet and is unlikely to gain traction. But Ryan said:
“Hezbollah is a terrorist organization, driven by an anti-semitic ideology which
seeks the destruction of Israel. It has wreaked death and destruction throughout
the Middle East. It makes no distinction between its political and military
wings, and neither should the British government.”David Ibsen, the executive
director of the Counter Extremism Project, said that Hezbollah itself does not
recognize a distinction between these entities and emphasised the need for “a
new realism in the UK about the nature of Hezbollah.”“There is no ‘military’ and
‘political’ wings of Hezbollah, it is one pernicious terrorist organization
founded and bankrolled by Iran. Hezbollah’s top officials brazenly acknowledge
this fact.”Arab governments have expressed mounting concern over Iran’s growing
sphere of influence in the Middle East and its use of Hezbollah to engineer an
expanded role in regional conflicts.
A statement released by the Arab League last November accused Tehran and its
proxy of destabilising the region.
Ibsen said: “Thousands of Hezbollah fighters made the crucial difference in
Syria for Bashar Assad and have trained Houthi rebels in Yemen on behalf of
their Iranian benefactors.”A spokesperson for Syria Solidarity UK outlined the
“extensive crimes against Syrian civilians” carried out by Hezbollah, which
“took part in the mass displacement of hundreds of thousands” of people in
Aleppo and other areas. “The failure of British MPs to come together to protect
civilians in Syria has allowed Hezbollah to expand, has increased the threat of
terrorism, and has worsened the refugee crisis,” the spokesperson said.
Pressure to extend the ban has intensified in recent weeks following a US
crackdown on Hezbollah’s international financing networks with the launch of a
new ‘narco-terrorism’ task force to investigate the group’s cross-border drug
trafficking and money laundering activities. During a speech on Jan 12 in which
he described the Iranian regime as “the world’s leading state sponsor of
terror,” President Trump called on all US allies to re-classify Hezbollah in its
entirety as a terrorist organization and take stronger steps to “confront Iran’s
other malign activities.”Visiting Lebanon on Tuesday, the US Treasury’s
Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing Marshall Billingslea “urged Lebanon
to take every possible measure to ensure (Hezbollah) is not part of the
financial sector,” according to a statement by the US embassy in Beirut.
Hezbollah is one of 60 groups listed as foreign terrorist organizations by the
US State Department.
In addition to bringing the UK’s position into closer alignment with Trump’s
hard-line stance on Iran, a move to extend the ban would also answer voices from
the Israel lobby, which has repeatedly called for a crackdown on the group.
Michael McCann, director at the Israel Britain Alliance, described the UK’s
designation of Hezbollah as “wrong headed” and said it “bears responsibility for
the murder of innocents across the globe.”“Hezbollah’s operations breach the
2000 UK Terrorism Act and the group must be banned, it’s that simple,” he said.
Lebanon expects tougher US action on banking sector to curb Hezbollah funding
Najia Houssari/Arab News/January
26/18
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/62056
BEIRUT: The US is taking a tougher line with the Lebanese banking sector on the
funding of Hezbollah and Iran’s activities in Lebanon and the region.
A visit to Lebanon by Marshall Billingslea, US assistant secretary for terrorist
financing, from Jan. 22-23, during which he met with political officials and
bankers, indicated a new firmness by the administration. A statement issued by
the US Embassy about Billingslea’s visit mentioned Hezbollah and Tehran by name
for the first time: previous statements about Treasury officials’ visits merely
referred to the “application of US anti-terrorist financing laws” in general.
Dr. Ghazi Wazni, a Lebanese economist, told Arab News that a new penal code,
which will be signed by President Donald Trump, is tougher than the previous law
on monitoring and targeting. “It targets countries, companies, people and
organizations outside Lebanon, which were not present in the previous law, that
are linked to financing Hezbollah,” he said.
According to the statement from the US Embassy in Lebanon, Billingslea stressed
“the importance of combating harmful Iranian activities in Lebanon, and the US
commitment to helping Lebanon to protect the financial system from Hezbollah and
Daesh and other terrorist organizations.”
Billingslea also urged Lebanon “to take all possible measures to ensure that
Hezbollah is not part of the financial sector.”
“The statement of the assistant secretary of the treasury has two goals: To
investigate the funding of Hezbollah activities because there are no reliable
sources in the US Treasury for these activities, and the second is to exert
political pressure by talking about Hezbollah’s involvement in illegal issues,
including drug-trafficking or terrorist-financing,” Wazni said. Wazni said that
the timing of the visit and the American position “coincided with the creation
of an American body charged with combating drug-trafficking, money-laundering
and terrorism-financing. The Trump administration considers that the
administration of his predecessor, Barack Obama, was lenient regarding the penal
code on drug trafficking,” he said.
As for the impact of this American firmness on the Lebanese banking sector,
Wazni said that the position of Billingslea does not threaten the banking sector
because the US Treasury is aware that no financial operations relating to
drug-trafficking and money-laundering get through Lebanese banks.
“Each banking process is monitored by correspondent banks in New York, which
scrutinize every process and either freeze, approve or report it to the US
Treasury. There is scrutiny by the Central Bank of Lebanon through the Special
Investigation Commission and the Banking Supervision Committee and a third
scrutiny by the banking sector itself, which established an auditing department
to scrutinize each process.”
Wazni stressed that “there is no need to fear for the Lebanese banking sector,
especially since the Parliament passed legislations which comply with high
international standards, and the banking sector is fully committed to the
decision of sanctions and the Parliament legislations are in line with
international legislations, and the Central Bank issues circulars in this
regard.”Billingslea was keen, in a press conference held at the end of his
visit, to note that “the law of preventing the international funding of
Hezbollah does not target the Shiite community, but (it targets) the financial
activities of Hezbollah all over the world, and it is important to distinguish
between the Shiite community and the party and make sure that the (Shiite)
community is treated fairly, and that its members can have banking services like
everybody else.”Arab News asked Hareth Suleiman, a political science professor
at the Lebanese University and a member of the Independent Shiite Group, about
the possibility of distinguishing between the Shiite community and Hezbollah in
Lebanon and about the effects of the American sanctions on Shiites.
“It is hard to say that the Shiites have nothing to do with the two Shiite
political groups: Hezbollah and Amal. And I do not think there is a difference
in the issue of money-laundering between Hezbollah and Amal, and I have enough
information and allegations about this, because money-laundering is going on in
full swing within these two Shiite groups, and the creation of a safe haven for
Shiites, away from the two groups, has many constraints due to the scarcity of
potentials and the sense that the third group of Shiites is left without allies
or support, and therefore the identification between the Hezbollah and Amal on
the one side, and the ordinary Shiite citizen will continue because it is the
stronger image.”
“The Shiite community has experienced similar crises at the time of
hostage-taking, and the Lebanese Shiites were treated differently by the
countries of the world, starting from reaching the airports until crossing to
other countries,” Wazni said. “The most dangerous thing now is if Hezbollah
reaches a position, through the new electoral law, where it could hold the
decision of the Parliament, the government, the security services, the Ministry
of Justice and the military court. Then, the distinction between Lebanon and
Hezbollah would be difficult.”“To be able to distinguish between Hezbollah and
other Shiites, we need facts that will control the boundaries of Hezbollah
dominance,” he said. “If it’s left unchecked, the crisis would be felt by any
Shiite citizen who wants to deal with the world.”
Aoun talks German president's visit with the country's
ambassador
The Daily
Star/January 25, 2018/BEIRUT: President Michel Aoun met German Ambassador to
Beirut Martin Huth Thursday to discuss the German president’s anticipated
official visit to Lebanon, set to take place next Monday. During their meeting,
Huth briefed Aoun on preparations for President Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s visit,
stressing the importance Germany places on developing the relationship between
the two countries, a statement from the Presidential office said. Steinmeier
will be in Lebanon for three days, along with the First Lady and a German
delegation, to discuss Lebanese-German relations and future co-operation with
Aoun. The presidents will also discuss regional and international situations.
The German president is also scheduled to meet Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime
Minister Saad Hariri, as well as other representatives from religious parties.
He will also inspect the German contingent of the UNIFIL peacekeeping naval
force.The German First Lady Elke Büdenbender will also meet her Lebanese
counterpart Nadia al-Shami, and in light of recent femicide incidents, have a
panel discussion with a group of Lebanese women judges about their experience in
the judicial field, especially in terms of working towards gender equality and women's
rights.
Report: Kataeb, LF Electoral-Dialogue 'Brought to a Halt'
Naharnet/January 25/18/The
“electoral-dialogue” between the Lebanese Forces and the Kataeb party has
“abruptly stopped” after Gemayel's request that the LF stands “unconditionally”
on its side regardless of its Christian reconciliation agreement with the Free
Patriotic Movement, the pan-Arab al-Hayat daily said on Thursday. “The
electoral-dialogue between the LF and Kataeb has stopped without prior warning.
Gemayel was the one to halt the talks over disagreements about the political
agenda. Gemayel has asked the LF to choose between standing by the ruling
authority and its political components or to align with the popular aspirations
of Kataeb,” said the daily. The LF --which had an agreement with the Free
Patriotic Movement that brought its founder to the presidency post-- said
Gemayel wants them to stand “flatly” by the Kataeb side which they totally
refuse because it would strain relations with the FPM and will reflect
negatively on the Christian reconciliation. LF sources said the Party is “brave
enough to direct criticism at the government’s performance on a number of files,
but it is also keen on protecting the Christian reconciliation which preserves
national coexistence.”Lebanon's elections are scheduled on May 6.
March 8 Seeks Winning 'One-Third' of Parliament
Seats
Naharnet/January 25/18/The March 8 alliance camp has a specific goal to reach in
the country's looming parliamentary elections which is embodied in winning
one-third of the parliament's seats, al-Akhbar daily reported Thursday.
March 8 sources told the daily that the alliance's “second goal is to win
one-third (43 seats out of 128) of the parliament seats, while the first end
they seek is to win 27 Shiite seats out of 27.”The source added the Shiite
allies, Hizbullah and AMAL Movement, “strive for that.”Al-Akhbar said the
mission “seems easy to accomplish” in the Shiite-majority districts of Zahrani-Tyre,
Nabatieh- Bent Jbeil- Marjeyoun-Hasbaya. It would be enough to only record-raise
the level of voting to ensure that no competitor list has enough electoral votes
to represent one deputy, according to the daily.In the districts of Baabda,
Beirut, the Western Bekaa, Zahle and Jbeil, Shiite seats are guaranteed for
both, it added. The expected battle will take place in the districts of northern
Bekaa where parliamentary seats are divided as follows: 10 seats: 6 Shiite, 2
Sunni, 1 Catholic and 1 Maronite; with more than 310,000 voters including
225,000 Shiites, 44,000 Sunnis and 42,000 Christians). Hizbullah and AMAL want
to do everything in their power to ensure that they win all the Shiite seats in
the first place, while seeking to secure as many other seats as possible,
pro-March 8 newspaper al-Akhbar reported. Reports said on Wednesday that March 8
forces have decided to form a unified electoral alliance to confront the lists
of al-Mustaqbal Movement and the Lebanese Forces in the elections. They said the
March 8 lists will seek local alliances with the Free Patriotic Movement where
there is a mutual interest for both parties. They will however confront the
lists of Mustaqbal and the LF.
Hariri Concludes Visit to Davos by Meeting Iraqi
PM
Naharnet/January 25/18/Prime Minister Saad Hariri held a meeting with Iraqi
Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi concluding his visit to Davos where he
participated in the World Economic Forum, Hariri's media office said on
Thursday. Discussions highlighted the latest regional developments as well as
the bilateral relations between the two countries. The meeting was attended by
Lebanon's ambassador to Switzerland Rola Noureddine and Hariri's chief of staff
Nader Hariri. Hariri also held talks with President of the World Economic Forum.
On Wednesday, Hariri met with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, his first
with a senior Saudi official since the November resignation crisis.Earlier on
Wednesday, he held separate talks with Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel,
Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, King Abdullah II of Jordan, Italian Prime
Minister Paolo Gentiloni, Swiss President Alain Berset and International
Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde.
Man Accused of Pickpocketing Worshipers at
Mosques
Naharnet/January 25/18/The Internal Security Forces nabbed a man accused of
pickpocketing people and worshipers at mosques while practicing their religious
rituals, the ISF said in a statement on Thursday. The statement said the
suspect, a Syrian identified as Sh. M., was arrested on 23/1/2018 at the
entrance of Bahaa Eddine al-Hariri mosque in Sidon. It added “the suspect, in
accomplice with his brother, took advantage of crowds of worshipers and people
in mosques during prayer times and funerals where they snatched the money.”The
amounts stolen ranged between LL300,000 and 500,000.The detainee has a criminal
record and is wanted on several charges including drug dealing, it added.
MP Aoun: Ties with Kataeb Unlikely, Relation with Mustaqbal Won't Be at Expense
of Other Ties
Naharnet/January 25/18/MP Alain Aoun of the Free Patriotic Movement on Thursday
said the FPM's relation with al-Mustaqbal Movement “would not be at the expense
of its ties with other parties.”"The FPM is carrying on contacts and
consultations with various political sides before settling on its electoral
lists," Aoun told VDL (93.3) in an interview on Thursday. "Any alliance with the
Marada Movement before the legislative polls has become unlikely now; besides,
our relation with Mustaqbal will not be at the expense of our ties with other
parties," he underlined. On the FPM ties with Speaker Nabih Berri, Aoun said:
"The tension is high. In case we don't overcome it, it will certainly impact the
electoral cooperation."
Loyalty to Resistance: US interference in Lebanon's banking
system violation of sovereignty
Thu 25 Jan 2018/NNA - "Loyalty to Resistance" on Thursday categorically deplored
the work of the American investigation committee in Lebanon and its interference
in the Lebanese banking system, saying this constitutes a "violation of Lebanese
sovereignty."The bloc's fresh stance came in a statement in the wake of its
weekly regular meeting at its headquarters in Haret Hreik, chaired by MP
Mohammed Raad. The bloc took up an array of matters on the local arena. On the
other hand, the bloc considered the recent Israeli assault against Lebanon,
namely the recent explosion that targeted one of Hamas officials in the City of
Sidon, a serious indication of the enemy's undeterred, continual violation of
Lebanese sovereignty and destabilization of Lebanon's security and stability.
"This matter necessitates the highest degree of alert to address this new path
in confrontation," the bloc corroborated. Loyalty to Resistance stressed the
paramount importance of continuing the efforts of the Lebanese security and
judicial services to uncover the whole circumstances of this assault. The bloc
underlined the dire need for firmness in combating Zionist sabotage networks,
deeming such a matter "a priority for the Lebanese national security."The bloc
also called on the Lebanese people to reject and deniunce all sorts of
normalizing ties with the Zionist enemy, calling on the State to respect its
obligations and commitments in this regard.
International Human Rights Organization delegation visits
Riachy, requests dissemination of awareness programs
Thu 25 Jan 2018/NNA - Minister of Information, Melhem Riachy, welcomed at his
ministerial office on Thursday Ambassador of the International Human Rights
Organization, and its Head in Lebanon and the Middle East, Dr. Ibtisam Merhi,
who visited him with an accompanying delegation. The delegation requested of
Riachy to introduce awareness programs on human rights issues through Lebanon's
audio-visual media, sounding the alarm on ill-mannered shows that harm human
values. The delegation also seized the occasion to address the issue of
successful candidates in the Civil Service Council and the need to preserve
their rights by appointing them in relevant departments and administrations.
Merhi bestowed upon Minister Riachy a shield in honor of his "reform and
humanitarian efforts".
Berri, interlocutors tackle current developments
Thu 25 Jan 2018/NNA - House Speaker, Nabih Berri, on Thursday met at his Ain
Tineh residence with the United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Pernille
Dahler Kardel, and the Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs
Miroslav Jenca, with talks reportedly touching on most recent developments in
Lebanon and the broad region. Speaker Berri also met with General Security
chief, General Abbas Ibrahim, with whom he discussed the general security
situation in the country. This afternoon, Berri met with the Independent
Commission charged with verifying the legality of administrative objection
procedures on telephone calls, led by the head of the Supreme Judicial Council,
Jean Fahed, and members Henry Khoury, head of the Shura Council, and Ahmad
Hamdan, head of the Auditing Department. The delegation submitted two reports on
their work from the year 2011 to 2016. On the other hand, Berri received
outgoing Turkish Ambassador to Lebanon, Cagatay Erciyes, who came on a farewell
visit at the end of his diplomatic mission in Lebanon.
Sarraf meets outgoing Turkish ambassador
Thu 25 Jan 2018/NNA - National Defense Minister, Yaacoub Riad Al-Sarraf, on
Thursday met at office outgoing Turkish Ambassador to Lebanon, Cagatay Erciyes,
who came on a farewell visit at the end of his diplomatic mission in Lebanon.
The visit was a chance to dwell on most recent developments in Lebanon and the
region, as well as the bilateral ties. Minister Sarraf thanked the outgoing
Ambassador for his efforts during his diplomatic term in Lebanon, wishing him
success in his new mission.
Saudi Ambassador visits Chamoun
Thu 25 Jan 2018/NNA - Nationalist Liberal Party head MP Dany Chamoun on Thursday
met at the Party's Central House with Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon, Walid Al-Yaacoub,
as part of his visits among the political leaderships and dignitaries. Chamoun
described the visit as utterly cordial, deeming Lebanese-Saudi relations as
deeply entrenched in history. Chamoun also indicated that talks touched on the
forthcoming parliamentary elections. Ambassador Al-Yaacoub, for his part, denied
that Saudi Arabia interferes in the internal Lebanese affairs, stressing that
the Kingdom works for the welfare of Lebanon and the Lebanese and for the
reconstruction of the Lebanese regions.
Mashnouq, interlocutors tackle current developments
Thu 25 Jan 2018/NNA - Interior and Municipalities Minister, Nouhad Mashnouq, on
Thursday met with outgoing Turkish Ambassador to Lebanon, Cagatay Erciyes, who
came on a farewell visit at the end of his diplomatic mission in Lebanon. Talks
reportedly touched on the general situation in Lebanon and the broad region.
Minister Mashnouq thanked the outgoing ambassador for his efforts in
strengthening bilateral relations, expressing appreciation of the Turkish
authorities' cooperation and rapid response in the file related to the
extradition of one of the suspects in the assassination attempt of Hamas
Movement official Mohammed Hamdan in the city of Sidon. On the other hand,
Minister Mashnouq met with Canadian Ambassador to Lebanon, Emmanuelle Lamoureux,
with talks reportedly touching on preparations underway for the forthcoming
legislative elections in Lebanon and means for bolstering cooperation between
Lebanon and Canada. Talks also dwelt on Rome 2 Conference in support of the
Lebanese army and the Internal Security Forces. Mashnouq also met with Beirut
Governor Ziad Shbib, with whom he discussed issues related to the capital
Beirut.
Prosecution Sues Comedian Hisham Haddad over MBS Remarks
Naharnet/January 25/18/The public prosecution has filed a lawsuit against the
comedian Hisham Haddad, the host of 'Lahonwbas', Lebanon's most watched
satirical TV show. “At the request of State Prosecutor Judge Samir Hammoud,
Mount Lebanon attorney general Judge Ghada Aoun has referred a lawsuit against
the journalist Hisham Haddad to the Publications Court on charges pertaining to
Article 23 of Law 104/77,” the National News Agency said. “The referral is
linked to Haddad's mentioning of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the
Lahonwbas show,” NNA added.
LBCI television, the channel that airs Haddad's show, said the lawsuit is also
linked to satirical remarks about Prime Minister Saad Hariri. Kataeb Party chief
MP Sami Gemayel voiced solidarity with Haddad via Twitter.“We have lost count of
the number of lawsuits they have filed against journalists. Even the shows that
bring laughter into our homes have become under scrutiny,” Gemayel lamented,
referring to the ruling class. Arab Tawhid Party leader and ex-minister Wiam
Wahhab said he “advises” the state prosecutor not to sue Haddad “if he cannot
sue those who insult Syria and the rest of the brotherly countries.”“The law
should be implemented on everyone, or else selectivity is prohibited,” Wahhab
added in a tweet. In the episode that caused him trouble with authorities,
Haddad comments on a “prediction” by Lebanon's famous fortune teller Michel
Hayek that MBS will be told by doctors to reduce his consumption of fast food.
“Amidst everything that is happening in the region, you are advising him to stop
eating hamburgers! I advise him to stop 'fast arrests', 'fast policies', 'fast
campaigns' and 'fast military strikes',” Haddad says sarcastically. “I don't
care if he gets fat or not! I have nothing to do with the crown prince's
cholesterol! What do I have to do with the prince's triglyceride?” Haddad adds.
Khatib follows up on transport of trash from Chouf, Aley
regions to Costabrava landfill
Thu 25 Jan 2018/NNA - Minister of Environment, Tarek Al-Khatib, met on Thursday
with "Blue City" General Manager, Milad Moawad, with whom he followed up on
arrangements for transporting garbage from Chouf and Aley regions to Costabrava
landfill, in accordance with a decision by the Council of Ministers. The
Minister also discussed with his visitor the waste accumulated in trash
containers in the aforementioned regions and the possibility of treating it and
transporting it to the landfill.
European Film Festival 24th edition opens at Cinema
Metropolis Empire Sofil
Thu 25 Jan 2018/NNA - The following is the speech of Christina Lassen,
Ambassador of the European Union, during the opening of the 24th edition of the
European Film Festival at Cinema Metropolis Empire Sofil - on Wednesday 24
January 2018:
"Minister of Culture Ghattas Khoury,
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the opening of the European Film
Festival in Beirut. It is the 24th time we host this festival here in Lebanon
which we - in all modesty - think has become an essential part of the cultural
calendar here.
2018 is special for us because it is the European Year of Cultural Heritage. We
celebrate this year under the headline "Our heritage: Where the past meets the
future". Throughout the year, we will honour our diverse cultural heritage
across Europe. Cultural heritage is not just an expression of our past. It is
what helps us understand the present and look forward to the future. Cultural
heritage takes many shapes and forms. Films are obviously one important art form
that lets us express our heritage and share it across borders. But it is also a
form of expression that has the ability to touch upon every aspect of our lives,
both as individuals and as communities.
This is why we are proud this year to present 32 movies from 20 different
European countries. Sad movies and happy movies, difficult and more light
movies, scaring and touching movies, but all of them have in common that they
illustrate aspects of Europe's varied and diverse societies and the cultural
heritage we bring with us. Many of the films shown during the festival have
earned prizes and praise in important festivals in Europe and internationally in
the past year. I will not mention all of them, but just say that two of the
films we are screening during the Festival - Sweden's 'The Square' and Hungary's
'On Body and Soul' - were yesterday nominated for an Oscar for best foreign
movie.
As in Europe, Lebanon is a country with a rich and diverse cultural heritage.
This is expressed in many ways every single day, but not least in this country's
creative and dynamic film industry. Take 2017 for example where many acclaimed
movies were released, some films made it to international festivals and others
were nominated for some of the most prestigious film awards. But the biggest
news came yesterday, when the Lebanese film The Insult by Ziad Doueiry was
nominated for an Oscar for best foreign film. And I don't think I need to remind
anyone here that this is the first time a Lebanese film has been nominated for
the Oscars. We want to see the Lebanese film industry continue to flourish. We
are, therefore, happy to continue the tradition of honouring two prizes to short
films produced by talented students from Lebanese audio-visual schools and
hopefully give them a gentle push into the limelight. We are also excited to
close the festival with the Lebanese Film "Heaven without People" by director
Lucien Bourjeily, who was the winner of the Special Jury Prize at the Dubai
International Film Festival.
I would like to thank H.E. the Minister of Culture Dr. Ghattas Khoury for his
patronage of the festival and his presence with us tonight. Also, the embassies
of the European Union Member States, and this year's special guests, Switzerland
and Serbia. Without their support, the Festival would not have been possible. A
special tribute goes to l'Institut Français du Liban for their invaluable
cooperation in organising the screenings in eight cities outside Beirut in
coordination with local European and Lebanese partners. Also, a big praise to
Metropolis Cinema for their great work with the EU Delegation organising this
festival and to the LBCI for once again promoting the festival. On first of
January, Bulgaria took over the rotating Presidency of the European Union. I am
therefore thrilled that we open this year's festival with the film 'Monkey' from
Bulgaria. I have not yet had a chance to see it myself, but I have been told
that it fits all the categories I mentioned before, funny and sad, strange and
moving. That is exactly what a good movie should do and why we are proud of our
strong European cultural heritage as the world's most diverse film producing
continent.
Enjoy the movie!"
In Lebanon, the military sends out an aggressive message about censorship
Michael Young/The National/January
24/2018
The country's political class seems oblivious to the consequences of this rising
tide, writes Michael Young
Last week, Lebanon’s military tribunal sentenced Hanin Ghaddar, a Lebanese
journalist working at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, to six
months in prison, in absentia. Ms Ghaddar was accused of “insulting” the
Lebanese army, because at a panel discussion in 2014, she had said that the army
was clamping down on Lebanese Sunnis, thereby “creating injustice.”The decision was remarkable for two reasons. The military tribunal’s decision to
condemn Ms Ghaddar for statements made abroad sent a worrisome message that
Lebanese citizens could be pursued legally wherever they might be, for whatever
they might say that displeased the state. Rarely has the military sought to
engage in such a broad interpretation of its censorship power.
And second, it represented a further expansion of the tribunal’s power to
matters not of its remit. The military tribunal must deal solely with military
affairs.
The tribunal’s decision was not only outrageous, it was also reckless, inasmuch
as it sent a very bad message to the United States about a privileged partner,
namely the Lebanese military. This is paradoxical, because the legal action
against Ms Ghaddar may have been taken because her comments criticised the
military in the one place where it counted most. Lebanon is highly dependent on
US military aid, and the last thing the military leadership wants is to see
Lebanese citizens condemning its behaviour in American policy circles.
If there is any doubt about the message arriving in Washington, one of Ms
Ghaddar’s colleagues at the Washington Institute, David Schenker, was recently
appointed assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs. He has long
defended US aid to the Lebanese military. However, what happened to Ms Ghaddar
is not likely to make his task easier.
Ms Ghaddar, a Shia from southern Lebanon, has also long been a critic of
Hizbollah, but it’s not clear whether the party was directly involved in pushing
for her prison sentence. However, often the unknowns behind a particular
decision have much more of a freezing effect on free speech than anything else.
Ms Ghaddar, a single mother of a young boy, has just been prevented from seeing
her family in Lebanon, a severe punishment for a few words of disapproval.
Ms Ghaddar’s case is only the latest in a series of similar cases in Lebanon.
Several weeks ago, a leading talk show host, Marcel Ghanem, was taken to court
because of comments made by two of his guests on his weekly programme. His case
provoked much indignation too, suggesting someone could be held legally
responsible for statements he or she did not make. The logical conclusion was
that Mr Ghanem was being used to intimidate all talk show hosts and ensure that
they invited only guests deemed acceptable by the state.
More recently, Lebanon’s general security directorate censored the new film by
director Steven Spielberg, The Post, because he is a supporter of Israel. All of
Mr Spielberg’s films have been shown in Lebanon, so this was another attempt to
narrow the parameters of free speech. The decision was received with such
disdain in Beirut, that the prime minister, Saad Hariri, ordered that the ban be
reversed. However, this led Hizbollah’s secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah, to
publicly express his opposition to the film being shown. While it is now being
projected, Mr Nasrallah’s comments will doubtless scare some people away.
These ham-fisted efforts to curtail free speech are leading to an angry backlash
in society. The Lebanese don’t like to see their country behaving like a banana
republic. However, the mere fact that such measures are being carried out is
worrisome. If the recent cases signal a new aggressiveness on the part of the
state, it cannot bode well.
That said, Lebanon is not an easy place to censor. The fragmented sectarian
system makes it far more likely that government overreach will prompt a wide
range of negative reactions from political forces not in tune with those in
power. That was the case of Ms Ghaddar, whose sentence was condemned by a former
prime minister as well as a former justice minister. Repression is much more
difficult in divided societies such as Lebanon than in more centralised states.
What is equally disheartening is that Lebanon’s political class seems so
oblivious to the consequences of this rising censorship. The government cannot
afford to push the Trump administration into cutting off military aid to the
Lebanese military. Ms Ghaddar’s case will not do that on its own, but at a time
when Lebanon is already viewed by many people in Washington as being controlled
by Hizbollah, her case can only add to calls that such aid be terminated.
One parliamentarian made a very pertinent observation in talking about the risks
to the Lebanese armed forces. “They just cut military aid to Pakistan, do you
really think that they might not choose to do so for Lebanon?”
He had a point. There is nothing sacred or eternal in US military aid to
Lebanon, nor will the United States long remain silent about Lebanese attempts
to prevent free speech. The decision to sentence Ms Ghaddar should be tossed
out, like the one to ban The Post was. The country has been maligned enough by
outsiders not to have to foolishly contribute to that endeavour itself.
**Michael Young is editor of Diwan, the blog of the Carnegie Middle East
programme, in Beirut.
TWI Expert Hanin Ghaddar, Sentenced to Prison by Lebanese Court, Receives
Global Media Coverage, Outpouring of Support from Free-Speech Groups
Washington Institute/January
24/2018
Washington, D.C. – The conviction by a Lebanese military court of Hanin Ghaddar,
the Washington Institute's Friedmann Visiting Fellow, on charges of "defaming"
Lebanon's armed forces has triggered an outpouring of attention from world media
as well as support and solidarity from a broad range of human rights and
free-speech groups. Newspapers, radio and television around the world —
including virtually every major wire service — have reported on the closed trial
and six-month sentence meted out in absentia to Ms. Ghaddar, the Institute's
expert on Hezbollah and former editor of Lebanon's NOW Media. This press
scrutiny has, in turn, earned her the strong backing of groups committed to
civil liberties.
The Beirut-based SKEyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom issued a statement
in support of Ms. Ghaddar saying: "The Lebanese authorities are increasingly
mirroring the behavior of authoritarian regimes in the region that use military
justice as a weapon of repression on the basis of weak arguments. This trend
will continue as long as those in power who claim to defend freedom of
expression, allow military sanctions to be imposed on journalists participating
in conferences."
"We express our full support to Hanin and call on the authorities to drop this
unfair sentence," declared the Arab Reform Initiative. "We will always stand up
for the values that ARI upholds and in solidarity with all those who face
threats for expressing their opinion."
Non-Middle East-focused institutions took notice, too. PEN America, the largest
chapter of the celebrated international organization that defends free speech,
featured news of Ms. Ghaddar's conviction on its home page.
Commenting on the case, Washington Institute Executive Director Dr. Robert
Satloff stated: "Hanin Ghaddar is a brilliant journalist, insightful analyst and
courageous Lebanese patriot, who had the temerity to speak truth to power in her
country. Readers in Washington and around the world have benefitted greatly from
her research into Hezbollah and Shiites politics in the Levant and we at
Washington Institute are proud to have her as a colleague.
"Over the years, the U.S. government has provided Lebanon with substantial
assistance to advance our common interests and to support the hope, however
faint, that Lebanon could some day regain its reputation for tolerance and
diversity. Indeed, the Lebanese military will receive $120 million in U.S. aid
this year and has been the recipient of over $1.5 billion in aid over the past
decade. However, the fact that a military court convicted Ms. Ghaddar of a crime
for speaking in Washington about the political situation in her native land and
sentenced her to prison, without even a lawyer present, speaks volumes about the
current state of freedom and justice in that sad country."
Ms. Ghaddar's prosecution arose following her appearance at the 2014 Washington
Institute Barbi Weinberg Founders Conference in which she stated during a panel
discussion that the Lebanese military targets Sunni groups while showing
preference to Shiite groups, such as Hezbollah.
Speaking on behalf of The Washington Institute, Dr. Satloff thanked global media
for raising public awareness about Ms. Ghaddar's case as well as the U.S. and
Middle East-based nongovernmental organizations that have issued statements of
solidarity.
The Washington Institute will continue to monitor the situation and release
updates when available.
**About the Washington Institute: The Washington Institute is an independent,
nonpartisan research institution funded exclusively by U.S. citizens that seeks
to advance a balanced and realistic understanding of American interests in the
Middle East and to promote the policies that secure them. Drawing on the
research of its fellows and the experience of its policy practitioners, the
Institute promotes informed debate and scholarly research on U.S. policy in the
region.
Media Contact: Ian Byrne, 202-452-0650, email.
Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News
published on January 25-26/18
Ontario's Progressive Conservatives to pick
interim leader on Friday
The Canadian Press The Canadian Press/January 25/18
TORONTO — Ontario's Progressive Conservatives say they will select an interim
leader on Friday to replace Patrick Brown, who stepped down amid allegations of
sexual misconduct.
The party's deputy leaders would not say, however, whether the person they
choose would lead them in the scheduled June election or if a leadership race
would be held before then, saying only that caucus members would need to have
those discussions.
Deputy leader Sylvia Jones told a news conference Thursday that the party is
moving on and is focused on getting ready for the campaign.
"Four months out from an election, we appreciate, we understand, that you cannot
have these allegations out there. We dealt with that last night. Now let us deal
with what we need to do moving forward tomorrow," she said.
"We are prepared, we are ready and we will have a plan when we meet tomorrow."
She called the allegations against Brown "a shock," and said caucus unanimously
supported his decision to step down. It will be up to caucus and the party's
interim leader to decide if Brown can run in the upcoming election, Jones said.
Brown announced he was stepping down in a statement issued early Thursday
morning, following a hastily called news conference in which he "categorically"
denied what he called "troubling allegations" about his conduct and his
character.
The allegations, which have not been verified by The Canadian Press, were made
by two women who spoke to CTV News.
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, meanwhile, said she will not seek a snap
election, noting that it's too early to know what impact Brown's resignation
will have on the province's political landscape.
The premier would not comment specifically on the allegations levelled against
Brown but broadly denounced sexual assault and harassment.
"This is not about politics," Wynne said. "I think that many of us feel very
shaken by what we heard last night ... There are obviously lots of political
questions that are going to come forward. I honestly feel that right now I'm
thinking about this in my role as a mother, as a daughter, as a community
leader."
"It is really, really important that we understand how deeply troubling this is
to human beings, to people," Wynne said. "This is a human problem...this is
about creating safety."
Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath also said there was more at stake than the
upcoming election.
"This is not about me and it's not about my campaign," she said. "This is about
women coming forward and calling out behaviour that they experienced and I have
to say I was pretty disgusted by what I heard in terms of their story."
Shawn Jeffords and Paola Loriggio , The Canadian Press
Trump Takes 'America First' Mantra to Sceptical Davos
Elite
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January 25/18/The world's political and business
elite headed Thursday into a compelling encounter with President Donald Trump as
the United States bids to carve out a competitive edge in trade, taxes and
currency rates. Trump, who has made "America First" the touchstone of his
year-old administration, touched down in the Swiss city of Zurich aboard Air
Force One en route to the World Economic Forum in Davos. Other government
leaders and business tycoons in Davos are agog at the tempestuous course of US
policy under Trump, who is due to close the forum on Friday with an eagerly
awaited speech days after turmoil engulfed the dollar on currency markets. A day
after appearing to cast aside decades of US support for a strong currency,
Trump's Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday said he was relaxed about
the dollar's short-term value, doing little to help the reeling unit recover on
foreign exchange markets. "I thought my comment on the dollar was actually quite
clear yesterday... we are not concerned with where the dollar is in the short
term, it is a very liquid market and we believe in free currencies," Mnuchin
told reporters in Davos. Having said on Wednesday "a weaker dollar is good for
us", by promoting US exports, Mnuchin's comments were taken as reinforcing a
broad offensive in trade as part of the "America First" platform. - 'Race to the
bottom' -New tariffs imposed this week that have angered China and South Korea,
and big cuts to the US corporate tax, are accentuating foreign concern that the
United States is abandoning its role as protector of the global trade order.
Business leaders in Davos have this week given a broad welcome to Trump's
controversial tax reforms, but European political leaders fear a "race to the
bottom" as the United States gains in appeal to foreign investors. International
Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde earlier Thursday urged Mnuchin to
"clarify" his stance on the dollar, but the US administration is making it
clearer that it means business with "America First". - Scouring the valleys
-Aides say Trump will use his surprise maiden appearance in Davos to play
salesman-in-chief, making the case for investment in a revitalised America.
The president's security and logistical teams scrambled to prepare the trip at
short notice, scouring the valleys around Davos for limited hotel space,
battling snowstorms and finding themselves briefly hamstrung by a US government
shutdown. Aside from his speech, Trump will hold meetings Thursday with the
British and Israeli prime ministers, both of whom are due to address the forum,
as well as Rwandan President Paul Kagame. With Kagame, who currently chairs the
African Union, Trump will likely try to turn a page on his reported derogatory
comment about "shithole" African countries. For her part, British leader Theresa
May will encourage activist investors to pressure social media firms into
clamping down on fake news, hate speech and sexual harassment, according to
excerpts of her speech released by Downing Street. Trump, who is travelling with
six cabinet ministers, is the first sitting president to attend Davos since Bill
Clinton in 2000. The decision by Trump -- the self-styled anti-globalist
president -- to attend the world's most notable gathering of globalists, and at
an exclusive Swiss ski resort no less, has left some scratching their heads. -
Nice or nasty? -A year ago, the Davos spotlight was claimed by China's communist
leader Xi Jinping, who took up the torch of global trade to the delight of the
well-heeled audience then anxious about Trump's impending inauguration. Davos is
"not exactly a sympathetic audience" for Trump, according to William Allen
Reinsch of the Center for International and Security Studies. "Walking into the
lion's den is an apt metaphor."Indeed, other government leaders attending Davos
have lined up to poke holes in the Trump approach this week. Picking up the
threads of arguments outlined by the Indian, Canadian and German premiers,
French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday acknowledged that globalist
policies need to adapt to help those left behind.But opponents to globalisation
should not hold everyone else back, he said, while welcoming Trump's imminent
arrival in an interview with Swiss radio. "We spoke on the phone and I urged him
to come to Davos, to explain his strategy and swim in these waters, to confront
other ideas," he said. The Davos elite are keen now to see which version of
Trump will show up -- the business-friendly tycoon or the leader who berated the
rest of the world at the UN General Assembly last September. "It is hard to
predict whether the president will seek to reassure or provoke his audience in
Davos," said former treasury secretary Larry Summers, a Democrat.
Iran building ‘world’s largest military base’ in Syria:
Israeli diplomat
/Arab News/January 25/18 /UNITED NATIONS: Iran is turning Syria into the
“world’s largest military base”, spending up to $35 billion on missile factories
and an 82,000-strong deployment in the country to threaten the region, Israeli
diplomat Danny Danon said on Thursday. Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the UN,
said he was disclosing classified intelligence to the UN Security Council to
show how Tehran’s “tentacles of terror” were spreading and posed a danger to
Israel, the rest of the Middle East and beyond. “Iran’s military is actively
training these militant extremists from all over the world and using Syria as
its strategic base,” Danon told UN diplomats in New York. “It is also building
missile factories in Syria, in effect turning the innocent people in the
surrounding area into human shields. Iran is turning the entire country of Syria
into the largest military base in the world.”Iran’s UN ambassador was set to
speak later at the same meeting. Tehran asserts that its military operations in
Syria are against Daesh and other groups in support of the government of Syrian
President Bashar Assad. Tehran commands 82,000 fighters in Syria – 3,000 from
its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, 9,000 from its proxy militia Hezbollah,
10,000 Shiite recruits from Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan and some 60,000 local
fighters, Danon said. The Islamic Republic has spent as much as $35 billion on
bases, troops and missile factories in Syria, he said. It spends $800 million
annually on Hezbollah, and $100 million each on proxy militias in Yemen, Gaza,
Syria and Iraq, Danon added. Sanctions relief under the 2015 nuclear deal
between Iran, the US and other world powers unfroze cash now being spent by
Iran’s generals, he said. Such spending grew from 17 percent of the government’s
budget in 2014 to 22 percent in 2017. “That’s $23bn spent on missiles, arms and
other weapons of war,” he said. “The Shiite Crescent searches far beyond Israel,
and it is larger and more powerful than ever, and it is aiming for the whole
world.” Syria’s eight-year-old war has claimed 500,000 lives and forced 5.5
million Syrians to flee the country. Saudi Arabia and other Arab Gulf countries,
the US and Israel have repeatedly warned of Iranian aggression in the region,
which Tehran denies. Saudi Arabia was also set to address the UN Security
Council on Thursday.
US-Turkey Tensions Escalate over Syria Operation
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January 25/18/Tensions between Ankara and
Washington over the Turkish army's operation in Syria escalated further on
Thursday as Turkey accused the White House of misrepresenting a phone call
between Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Donald Trump. The assault by Turkish troops
against a Kurdish militia in northern Syria has seen Washington's fellow NATO
member Ankara attacking a US-allied force, even raising fears of military
confrontation between the two Alliance powers. Turkey says it has made gradual
progress in the offensive against Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG)
militia but has refused to give any time limit for the campaign. After the
Turkish and US presidents spoke late on Wednesday, the White House said Trump
had urged Turkey to "to de-escalate, limit its military actions", expressing
concern that the assault could harm the fight against jihadists. But a Turkish
official said the US statement did "not accurately reflect the content" of the
call, adding that Trump did not share any concerns regarding "escalating
violence". Turkey launched an offensive against the YPG militia on Saturday in
their enclave of Afrin, supporting Syrian rebels with air strikes and ground
troops. Ankara views the YPG as a terror group linked to the outlawed Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) inside Turkey. The PKK is blacklisted by Ankara and its
Western allies. But the YPG is still working closely with Washington against the
Islamic State (IS) extremist group in Syria, in defiance of Turkey's warnings.
In a move that could further raise the stakes, Erdogan on Wednesday raised the
prospect of an operation on Manbij, a YPG-held town to the east, where there is
a US military presence.
- 'Risks giving life to IS' -On Thursday, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim
hit out at the US "support for terror organisations", which "could not be
accepted".
"The country we call an 'ally' in NATO is in cahoots with terror organisations,"
he said in a speech in Ankara. "This is a grave and very painful situation. For
a country like America to work with terror organisations is really very
humiliating," Yildirim said. Following the Erdogan-Trump telephone talks, the US
envoy to the coalition against IS, Brett McGurk, said on Twitter the "prolonged
operation risks giving life to ISIS (IS) as it's on verge of defeat". "The US
(is) now engaged intensively to urge restraint and de-escalation. We are
prepared to work with Turkey on legitimate security concerns," he added.
Washington has more than 2,000 special forces and support troops inside Syria,
mainly east of the Euphrates in an area also controlled by the YPG but separate
from Afrin, which is west of the river. In response to Erdogan's call on the US
to stop supplying weapons to the YPG, Trump told the Turkish leader that "his
country no longer supplied the group... and pledged not to resume" weapons
delivery, the official said. Trump also expressed concern about "the destructive
and false" anti-American rhetoric emanating from Turkey, the White House said.
But the Turkish official said Trump "did not use the phrase 'destructive and
false rhetoric coming from Turkey'", adding Trump said "open criticism" of the
US "raised concerns".
- '300 neutralised' -As the operation entered its sixth day, an AFP
correspondent saw tanks on the Turkish side of the border and soldiers ready to
go into Syria amid tight security. Turkish artillery fire pounded the Afrin
region, state-run news agency Anadolu said. Two people, a Turk and a Syrian,
were killed on Wednesday after two rockets fired from Syria by the YPG landed in
the border town of Kilis, province governor Mehmet Tekinarslan said.
Three Turkish soldiers have been killed since the start of the offensive while
the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has said 48 Ankara-backed Syrian rebels
and 42 US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and YPG fighters had been
killed. The SDF is an umbrella grouping composed mainly of YPG.
Yildirim said over "300 terror organisation members were neutralised". He vowed
Turkey would not allow a "terror structure on its southern border... whether it
is east or west of the Euphrates". The Observatory has said at least 30
civilians have been killed but Ankara strongly rejects such claims, saying that
it is doing everything to avoid civilian casualties.
U.N. Hosts 'Critical' Syria Peace Talks in Vienna
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January 25/18/The United Nations embarked on fresh
efforts Thursday to jump-start Syrian peace talks that Western countries and the
opposition fear are being undermined by a separate Russian diplomatic push. The
two days of talks in Vienna come after eight previous rounds in Geneva, during
which the two sides failed to even meet each other. The previous attempts
stumbled in particular over the fate of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, with
the government delegation refusing to meet the opposition face-to-face until
they drop demands that he leaves office.
The Syrian government's top negotiator Bashar al-Jaafari made no comment as he
arrived at the U.N. in Vienna to meet the world body's special envoy Staffan de
Mistura. The main opposition group, the Syrian Negotiations Commission (SNC),
said it would sit down for separate talks with the envoy at 4:00 pm (1500 GMT).
De Mistura said on Wednesday that the negotiations came at a "very, very
critical moment."Nasr al-Hariri from the SNC said the discussions would be "a
real test for all the sides."
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said meanwhile in Paris that the
talks were the "last hope" for reaching a political solution to a seven-year
conflict that has claimed more than 340,000 lives. He highlighted a
"considerable worsening of the humanitarian situation" in Afrin -- where Turkey
has launched an operation against Kurdish fighters -- as well as in Idlib and
Eastern Ghouta. The Turkish intervention, its second in a conflict that has
drawn in multiple world powers, has heightened tensions with Ankara's NATO ally
the United States, which has backed the Kurdish militants in their battle
against the Islamic State group. Ankara, in contrast, views the Kurdish YPG
fighters as a Syrian offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK),
which has waged a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state.
Parallel peace talks
The Vienna talks come ahead of a separate peace conference next Tuesday in the
Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, backed by Russia, Iran and Turkey. The three
key regional players have been sponsoring parallel peace talks since the start
of last year, which have fuelled concerns that the Kremlin is looking to
sideline the U.N. "The Russians have done everything to weaken the Geneva
process. They want to short-circuit it and be the only sponsor of the diplomatic
process," said Hasni Abidi from the CERMAM think-tank in Geneva.
The focus in Sochi will be on hammering out a new constitution, according to the
opposition, something that de Mistura also wants discussed in Vienna. While
Assad's government has said it will go to Sochi, the SNC has not yet decided,
even after a recent visit to Moscow.
Russia under pressure
A Western diplomatic source said that if Moscow wanted its own peace talks in
Sochi to be successful, it must push its ally Assad into accepting the need for
a political transition, as agreed by the U.N. Security Council in 2015. "This is
the moment for the Russians to be banging their fists on the table," the source
told AFP. "The opposition has no reason to go to Sochi if the Russians don't win
any commitments from Damascus."A suspected chemical weapons attack by the regime
on the rebel stronghold of Eastern Ghouta near Damascus left at least 21 people
with breathing problems on Monday, prompting a sharp U.S. warning to Russia to
rein in its ally. But the war has turned in Assad's favor since Russia became
involved militarily in September 2015. Russian-backed Syrian forces have also
dealt severe blows to IS, whose self-proclaimed "caliphate" in Iraq and Syria
has largely collapsed.
Ahmadinejad's Aides Request to Hold a Protest against Rouhani
Asharq Al Awsat/January 25/18/A number of senior officials at the former Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's administration sent a letter to Iranian Interior
Minister Abdul Ridha Rahmani Fadhli requesting the permission to organize a
sit-in protest against the current situation in the country and deteriorating
economic conditions. The letter also mentioned several gatherings during the
past months protesting policies, performances, poor economic situations, and
mismanagement. The letter criticized recent popular protests in Iran describing
misconduct in recent weeks, such as "vandalism and the burning of public places,
as well as the Iranian flag, which led to clashes between some of the protesters
and the arrest of a large number of them."However, Ahmadinejad's aides demand is
based on differentiating between the right to assemble and protest and chaos and
sabotage of public areas. The seven officials referred to Articles 8 and 27 of
the Constitution, adding that they will ask people to protest calmly and
legally. "The protest is a response to the performance of the three authorities
(legislative, executive, and judicial) and some policies and behaviors,
especially in terms of economic, legal and social affairs," the seven officials
said in another part of the letter.
Former president’s top aide, Ali Akbar Javanfekr published on his Telegram
channel the letter sent to the interior minister and signed by Ahmadinejad's
special adviser Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, Hamid Baghaei, former Labor Minister
Abdul Reza Sheikholeslami, Ahmadinejad's economic adviser Morteza Tamaddon, and
former president's chief of staff Hassan Mousavi. Ahmadinejad aides' letter came
less than a week after the former president participated in the last meeting of
the Expediency Council, when several newspapers reported anonymous sources
saying that he was under house arrest for his involvement in recent protests.
Two days after the protests, the Interior Ministry called on political parties
to submit requests for demonstrations, as part of its first attempts to contain
the protests, and Bahram Sarmast, director general of the political department
at the Interior Ministry, said that it is not the ministry’s approach to
restrict legal rallies or refrain from issuing permission in this respect. But,
if the party requested a demonstration, the ministry will consider it
positively.
On Tuesday, Deputy Interior Minister for security affairs Hussein Zulfiqar
disclosed details of a security report presented by the Iranian interior
ministry to Iranian President Hassan Rowhani about the protests. The report
points to three reasons for the outbreak of protests: the first is the decline
of public confidence, the second "mismanagement of public" and the third
"continued activity of foreign enemies led by US". The report included the age
groups and the education level of the participants in the protests.
About 59 per cent of the protesters have a high school diploma or less, while 15
per cent are university graduates, and the education level of education of the
remaining 26 percent is unclear, according to the report. In response to the
report, reformist activist Said Hajarian wrote in the reformist newspaper Etemad
accusing members of the opposition to cause the protests. "Those who promoted
pessimism and despair into their religious speeches on the radio and television,
and those who wanted to say that Rouhani lacked competence issued orders (No to
Rouhani) and chanted (Death to Rouhani)," Hajarian added.
According to Hajarian, Iran "witnessed three events over two decades, the first
in June 1999, the second in May 2009 and the third in December 2016." He
explained that the first event had a clear goal, and the students wanted to
achieve their political demands, but they were repressed by the government. In
the second, people protested calmly but security forces fired at them. But
during the last demonstrations, the security forces were not as fierce as
previous protests. Reformist media was angered by the publication of the the
details of the letter of Ahmadinejad's team. ILNA news agency published
interviews of spokespersons of labor and teachers' unions who discussed the ban
on protests during Ahmadinejad's presidency. ILNA quoted an activist at the
teachers' union, Reza Musallami as saying that Ahmadinejad's government dealt in
the worst manner with trade union activists during his presidency.
Hussein Habibi, secretary-general of the Tehran Workers' Union, said that when
these people (Ahmadinejad's aides) were in power, did not issue a single permit
for any peaceful protest.
US to Send 1st Aircraft Carrier Since War to Vietnam
Asharq Al Awsat/January 25/18/A US Navy aircraft carrier will port in Vietnam in
March, a first for the allies and former foes, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said
Thursday. The announcement came as Mattis visited Vietnam following a stopover
in Indonesia on a brief Asia tour aimed at drumming up defense cooperation. On
his two-day trip to Vietnam, where he met with his counterpart Ngo Xuan Lich and
President Tran Dai Quang on Thursday, Mattis zeroed in on freedom of navigation
in the resource-rich South China Sea, a thorny issue between Hanoi and Beijing.
China claims most of the waterway -and has built up islands and military
installations in the sea. Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei
also have claims in the waterway. Vietnam and US defense officials have
submitted requests for the aircraft carrier to visit, according to Vietnam's
ministry of defense on Thursday. Mattis thanked Vietnam for the "increasing
partnership with our aircraft carrier coming into Danang in March". Though
smaller US ships have docked on Vietnamese shores, Mattis spokesman Jeff Davis
confirmed it will be the first time a US aircraft carrier will port in Vietnam.
US aircraft carriers neared Vietnamese shores during the Vietnam War which ended
in 1975, but this will be the first time for a carrier to port in the country,
Pentagon officials said. Mattis joined the Marine Corps Reserves in 1969, while
the decade-long Vietnam War was ongoing, but did not serve in Vietnam. Next week
will mark the 50th anniversary of the Tet Offensive, in January 1968, when the
Communist North launched synchronized, simultaneous attacks on multiple targets
in US-backed South Vietnam, including the city of Hue. The offensive was a
military failure, but it turned out to be a pivotal point in the war by
puncturing US hopes of a swift victory. The war dragged on for another seven
years before the US completed its withdrawal.
Kabul hotel attack killed at least 25: official
Thu 25 Jan 2018/NNA - An Afghan official said Thursday at least 25 people were
killed in the attack on a Kabul hotel, as confusion reigned over the true toll
with conflicting figures given and Afghan media reporting higher numbers. The
health ministry official said at least 25 people had been killed, including 13
foreigners. But AFP has independently verified that 15 foreigners -- seven
Ukrainians, four Americans, two Venezuelans, one German and one Kazakh -- died
in the massacre. "We have 25 deaths from the Intercontinental Hotel attack in
Kabul -- seven Afghans, 13 foreigners and five suspected attackers," health
ministry spokesman Wahid Majrooh told AFP. That was hours after he gave a
different toll, telling AFP that 25 Afghans had been killed and that "we don't
know about the foreign fatalities." An Afghan security official also said 25
people had been killed in the 12-hour attack on Saturday night but that figure
included three badly burned bodies "which we believe are of foreigners". "To be
honest I am not very sure about the final death toll yet," he said on the
condition of anonymity. Adding to the confusion, the interior ministry told AFP
that the official death toll still stood at 22 but suggested that figure could
change in the coming days. "The fact-finding mission and investigation work will
be finalised today and... the interior minister will have a press conference on
Saturday where he will give the new details," interior ministry deputy spokesman
Nasrat Rahimi said. "There could be some new information and changes." Afghan
media outlets have reported significantly higher death tolls. Tolo News
previously quoted the interior ministry as saying 29 people had been killed, but
also cited "reliable sources" as saying the number was around 43. Afghan
officials have a long history of understating death tolls in high-profile
attacks and there is widespread speculation in Kabul that the true death toll in
the hotel attack is far higher than what they have said. "The government is
concerned about the inevitable repercussions that this and yesterday's attack
(in Jalalabad) are going to have," an Afghan media source told AFP. "Businesses
are going to think twice about coming in, foreigners are going to leave. We have
seen in the past - specifically after last year's truck bombing and previous
hotel attacks -- that a lot of foreigners leave. "It's almost a given that this
happens, as a result government tends to keep information under wraps."
The attack comes at a bad time for President Ashraf Ghani whose government was
already facing criticism over its failure to improve security in the war-torn
country. Investigators are still looking into how the militants were able to get
past privately-owned Kabul Balkh Safety and Security guards and launch the
assault with guns and grenades. Visitors to the upmarket hotel, which sits on a
hilltop overlooking the Afghan capital, have described glaring security breaches
before the assailants went on a bloody rampage targeting guests. Bags were not
checked, scanners did not work and body searches were non-existent, according to
witnesses.--AFP
Trump says Palestinians ‘disrespected’ US, aid
on hold
Thu 25 Jan 2018/NNA - US President Donald Trump insisted Thursday that
Palestinians had "disrespected" the United States and that he would withhold
hundreds of millions of dollars in aid until they agree to US-brokered peace
talks. "They disrespected us a week ago by not allowing our great vice president
to see them," Trump said during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu in Davos, Switzerland. "We give them hundreds of millions," Trump
added. "That money is not going to them unless they sit down and negotiate
peace."--AFP
Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from
miscellaneous sources published on January 25-26/18
Turkey: Targeting Kurds In Syria Making Turkey Feel Imperial
Again
Burak Bekdil/Gatestone
Institute/January 25/2018
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11801/turkey-attack-kurds-syria
"Operation Olive Branch," the ironic code name the Turkish military has chosen
for its incursion into northern Syria, has catered well to the Turkish psyche
that craves shows of force of every possible flavor.
In practice, ironically, NATO member Turkey's Operation Olive Branch targets the
main ground force allies of its NATO ally, the U.S.
The area Erdogan targets is effectively home to most of Syria's two million or
so Kurds, who seek an autonomous entity that Turkey fears may further provoke
separatist Kurdish sentiments among Turkey's 10 million to 15 million Kurds.
In Turkey these days, there is every sign of collective hysteria in a once
glorious nation that fell from grace, then longed for power and grandeur for
nearly a century. Turks are dizzy with joy over their army's incursion into
Afrin, a Kurdish enclave in neighboring Syria.
It is almost a sin not to join the celebrations: "We are witnessing the lynching
of anyone who dares to speak against it. Opposing the operation has become a
death wish," Nevsin Mengu, a prominent Turkish journalist, wrote in Sigma
Turkey, an independent news outlet.
"Operation Olive Branch," the ironic code name the Turkish military has chosen
for its incursion into northern Syria, has catered well to the Turkish psyche
that craves shows of force of every possible flavor. Headlines in the national
press since the launch of Operation Olive Branch speak for that psyche:
National Squad Makes History
Heroes in Afrin
Celebrities Pray for Our Army
We'll Crush Them All
No One Can Overcome Turkish Nation
Time for Victory
God Is with Us
Muslim Ulama Support Turkey
Academics Support Afrin Operation in Five-Language Statement
Animals Sacrificed for Olive Branch Martyrs
Prayer in Somalia for Turkish Soldiers
African Children Pray for Turkish Soldiers
Muslims Pray in Mecca for Turkey's Victory in Afrin
Armenian, Jewish Minorities Voice Support for Afrin Operation
Military Hits, Turkey Rises
There is colorful fanfare reflecting the glory-deprived, conquest-hungry Turkish
sentiment that blends neo-Ottoman nationalism with political Islam. Turkey's
religious authority (Diyanet) called on all clerics in Turkey's more than 90,000
mosques to read the Quran's Al-Fath (Conquest) chapter in their Friday sermons
and ask communities to pray for the Turkish troops during the military operation
on Syrian soil. All that prayer was apparently not sufficient to boost morale: A
replica Ottoman military band, known as mahtar -- the type of military ensemble
in the Ottoman army that played martial tunes during military campaigns -- gave
a concert to the Turkish soldiers at the Turkish-Syrian border for Operation
Olive Branch.
According to Mengu:
"We are almost having a collective catharsis. Triumphant cries of bullies are
echoing everywhere. Pro-government media is drunk with victory. Information is
flowing in, whether... true or false, with random videos of those embedded in
the war. So much so that, the media can get away with inserting scenes from the
movie Rambo and claiming they are taken from Afrin. The government has long been
using a discourse based on the failures of the Republic.... The policy is
solidly built around discrediting the 'timid' approach of the past and is
pursuing a much more aggressive approach by simply bullying whoever is around.
The Afrin operation is nothing more than this policy in practice."
The Turkish military headquarters announced on January 23 that at least 260
terrorists had been killed in the first three days of Operation Olive Branch.
But there is a long way to go: Turkey claims the Afrin region is home to more
than 10,000 terrorists that are linked to the Kurdish People's Protection Units
(YPG, in its Kurdish acronym), the main guerrilla force that helped the United
States and its allies to defeat the radical jihadist Islamic State in northern
Syria. In practice, ironically, NATO member Turkey's Operation Olive Branch
targets the main ground force allies of its NATO ally, the U.S.
For Turkey's security czars, the idea of an autonomous or independent Kurdish
entity stretching from northern Iraq to Turkey's southern Hatay province
bordering northwestern Syria is the top security challenge and an existential
nightmare. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has already threatened that
Operation Olive Branch could expand into the two other Kurdish enclaves to
Afrin's east, Menbij and Kobane, then further east toward the Syrian-Iraqi
border.
The area Erdogan targets is effectively home to most of Syria's two million or
so Kurds, who seek an autonomous entity that Turkey fears may further provoke
separatist Kurdish sentiments among Turkey's 10 million to 15 million Kurds. No
matter how gratifyingly the limited Turkish military incursion into a small
Kurdish enclave makes Turks feel imperial again, a Kurd-free, Turkey-controlled
northern Syria -- stretching from the Turkish border province of Hatay in the
west to the Iraqi border in the east -- will be, militarily and politically, a
mission impossible for Ankara.
Despite its deceptive domestic festive mood, Operation Olive Branch looks more
like a Pyrrhic victory with no practical chance of becoming a long-term
strategic triumph.
**Burak Bekdil, one of Turkey's leading journalists, was recently fired from
Turkey's leading newspaper after 29 years, for writing what was taking place in
Turkey for Gatestone. He is a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
© 2018 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.
Germany: Return of the Stasi Police State?
Judith Bergman/Gatestone Institute/January 25/2018
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11789/germany-police-state
Germany's new law requires social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and
YouTube, to censor their users on behalf of the government. Social media
companies are obliged to delete or block any online "criminal offenses" within
24 hours of receipt of a user complaint -- regardless of whether the content is
accurate or not.
Social media platforms now have the power to shape the form of current political
and cultural discourse by deciding who will speak and what they will say.
Notice the ease with which the police chief mentioned that he had filed charges
to silence a leading political opponent of the government. That is what
authorities do in police states: Through censorship and criminal charges, they
silence outspoken critics and political opponents of government policies, such
as Beatrix von Storch, who has sharply criticized Chancellor Angela Merkel's
migration policies.
While such policies would doubtless have earned the German authorities many
points with the old Stasi regime of East Germany, they more than likely
contravene the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) to which Germany is a
party, as well as the case law of the European Court of Human Rights.
Germany's new censorship law, which has introduced state censorship on social
media platforms, came into effect on October 1, 2017. The new law requires
social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, to censor their
users on behalf of the German state. Social media companies are obliged to
delete or block any online "criminal offenses" such as libel, slander,
defamation or incitement, within 24 hours of receipt of a user complaint --
regardless of whether the content is accurate or not. Social media companies are
permitted seven days for more complicated cases. If they fail to do so, the
German government can fine them up to 50 million euros for failing to comply
with the law.
The new censorship law, however, was not fully enforced until January 1, 2018,
in order to give the social media platforms time to prepare for their new role
as the privatized thought police of the German state. Social media platforms now
have the power to shape the form of current political and cultural discourse by
deciding who will speak and what they will say.
On January 1, 2018, however, the law was immediately enforced. Twitter began by
suspending the account of the deputy leader of the Alternative for Germany party
(AfD), Beatrix von Storch, for 12 hours, after she tweeted the following in
response to a New Year's greeting issued in Arabic by the Cologne Police:
"What the hell is happening in this country? Why is an official police site
tweeting in Arabic? Do you think it is to appease the barbaric, gang-raping
hordes of Muslim men?"
(During New Year's Eve of 2015/16, over 1,000 mainly Muslim men sexually
assaulted around 1,200 women in Cologne.)
Von Storch also had her Facebook account suspended for repeating her tweet
there. Facebook told her that her post contravened German law, as it constituted
"incitement to hatred".
It did not stop there. Cologne police filed charges against von Storch for
"incitement to hatred", which is punishable under section 130 of the German
Criminal Code. According to the Cologne police chief, Uwe Jacob, multilingual
tweets at major events are an important part of the police's communication
strategy:
"The campaign was really well received by most people – however, some were
bothered by the fact that we tweeted in Arabic and Farsi – they were very
prominent right-wingers, who then felt that they had to make tweets that incited
to hatred. We simply filed charges".
Notice the ease with which the police chief mentioned that he had filed charges
to silence a leading political opponent of the government. That is what
authorities do in police states: Through censorship and criminal charges, they
silence outspoken critics and political opponents of government policies, such
as von Storch, who has sharply criticized Chancellor Angela Merkel's migration
policies.
While such policies would doubtless have earned the German authorities many
points with the old Stasi regime of East Germany, they more than likely
contravene the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) to which Germany is a
party, as well as the case law of the European Court of Human Rights. Article 10
of the European Convention on Human Rights states:
1. Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include
freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without
interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers...
2. The exercise of these freedoms... may be subject to such... restrictions or
penalties as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society, in
the interests of national security, territorial integrity or public safety, for
the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, for
the protection of the reputation or rights of others, for preventing the
disclosure of information received in confidence, or for maintaining the
authority and impartiality of the judiciary.
In its case law, the European Court of Human Rights has stated that Article 10
"...protects not only the information or ideas that are regarded as inoffensive
but also those that offend, shock or disturb; such are the demands of that
pluralism, tolerance and broad-mindedness without which there is no democratic
society. Opinions expressed in strong or exaggerated language are also
protected".
Even more important in the context of charges against politicians is the fact
that according to the European Court of Human Rights' case law:
"...the extent of protection depends on the context and the aim of the
criticism. In matters of public controversy or public interest, during political
debate, in electoral campaigns... strong words and harsh criticism may be
expected and will be tolerated to a greater degree by the Court".
When leading politicians are criminally charged for questioning the actions of
the authorities, such as in this case the actions of the police, we are no
longer dealing with a democracy, but with a regular police state.
Several other accounts on Twitter and Facebook were also suspended under the new
censorship law in the first days and weeks of January. One such Twitter account
was the satirical magazine, Titanic, which was blocked for parodying von
Storch's tweet about the "barbaric hordes" of Muslim men. The privatized Twitter
thought police, in their eagerness to censor, had overlooked that Titanic was
just poking fun. The suspension of the Titanic account alerted some politicians
-- a mere three months after the law went into force -- to the problematic
nature of the law. Leader of the Green party, Simone Peter and Secretary-General
of the FDP, Nicola Beer were both critical of the law. "The law is messed up and
must be replaced by a decent one", Beer said.
Another politician, Martin Sichert, AfD member of the Bundestag for Nürnberg and
state Chairman for the AfD, had a Facebook post deleted for violating "community
standards". In the post, which he substantiated with links to factual sources,
he drew attention, among other things, to the way women are treated in
Afghanistan. He also drew attention to the sexual abuse of small children in
Afghanistan:
"It is scary and at the same time shameful that our state is preventing the
enlightenment of citizens by simply censoring factual opinions, publicly
available citations and links to reputable sources."
Sichert and von Storch are just the most famous people to have their speech shut
down on social media. There are countless others, whose stories never reach the
media.
Under the censorship law, anyone can ask a social network operator to delete
postings, even if the post does not affect him personally in any way. If the
social network provider does not respond within 24 hours, the person wishing to
have a post deleted can involve the Federal Office of Justice; there is even a
form for this purpose on the homepage of the Federal Office of Justice. This
office is responsible for the prosecution of violations, and the district court
of Bonn is the sole authority permitted to examine disputes about the criminal
liability of comments made on social media and to impose fines on the social
media companies for failing to delete those comments within the required 24
hours.
It is regrettable that Germany, which can barely keep up with the terrorism
threat and the wave of violent crime, is spending such vast resources on
shutting down the free speech of its citizens on social media. The Federal
Department of Justice has rented additional offices in Bonn to house
approximately 50 new lawyers and administrators to implement the new law and
ensure that the social media providers delete "offending posts" within 24 hours.
"It was also important that we created a new file management system," explains
Thomas W. Ottersbach of the Federal Office of Justice in Bonn.
"This is the only way to ensure that deadlines are met and that a statistical
evaluation can be carried out. Because it is important that we keep an eye on
which [social media] operator's complaints are piling up and where they are just
isolated cases."
The old German police state is back.
Pictured: Detention cells in the basement corridor of the former prison of East
Germany's Ministry of State Security (Stasi) at Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen,
Germany. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
**Judith Bergman is a columnist, lawyer and political analyst.
© 2018 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.
Time for Jordan's King Abdullah to Stop
Tolerating Genocide from Temple Mount
Dexter Van Zile/Gatestone Institute/January 25/2018
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11802/jordan-king-abdullah-temple-mount
Not only is rhetoric like this from Jordan-approved Imams a clear-cut violation
of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
(which makes incitement to genocide a crime), Jordan's tolerance for anti-Jewish
and anti-Western rhetoric at the site is a violation of the treaty signed
between Israel and Jordan in 1994.
"Allah called them 'infidels' so why should I be ashamed to call them that?...
There is only one kind of punishment for those people: to stop them, to wreak
vengeance upon them, and to teach them a lesson. This is not achieved through
tolerance, negotiations, or kindness." — Palestinian Imam Issam Amira, using the
Al Aqsa Mosque, June 18, 2016.
In the United States, landlords who allow their tenants to use a property for
criminal enterprises, such as the sale or manufacture of drugs are liable to
having their property seized in a process called "asset forfeiture." Maybe a
similar process needs to be applied to Jordan's custodianship of the Temple
Mount, for clearly, the Hashemite Kingdom is not serious about preventing the
site from being used for criminal incitement against Jews and Westerners.
When ISIS put a Jordanian Air Force pilot into a cage, poured gasoline on him,
set him on fire and broadcast a video of the gruesome murder on the internet in
February 2015, the Jordanian government responded decisively. It hanged two
jihadists affiliated with Al Qaeda and broadcast images of Jordan's monarch,
King Abdullah II, wearing military fatigues to highlight Jordan's participation
in an American-led coalition that engaged in bombing raids against the terror
organization. The Jordanian press office also publicized the king's promise to
exact revenge on ISIS for the murder of the pilot, Mouath al-Kasaesbeh, via a
statement that was quoted in countless outlets.
To further solidify Jordanian support for the war on ISIS (which, prior to the
murder of the Jordanian pilot, had been a source of controversy in the Hashemite
Kingdom), Abdullah's wife, Queen Rania, led a rally in Amman condemning the
group.
The strategy was a success. After the images of King Abdullah wearing military
fatigues appeared on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, some bloggers and
journalists falsely reported that the monarch had led the bombing sorties
himself, and in some places, King Abdullah was declared a "badass." The
Jordanian public relations campaign successfully promoted the notion that the
Hashemite Kingdom was at the forefront of the war against ISIS and jihad.
The reality was a bit different. Yes, the Jordanian government and its monarch
will pull out the stops to take revenge when a Jordanian citizen is killed by
Muslim extremists, but when the hostility is directed at Jews, Israel or the
West, the Hashemite Kingdom is not quite so forceful.
The Kingdom's ambivalent role in the war against Islamic extremism and the
violence it causes can be seen in the Jordanian refusal to extradite Ahlam
Tamimi to the United States to face prosecution for her role in the Sbarro Pizza
suicide bombing attack that took place in Israel in 2001. The U.S. is seeking to
prosecute her for the murder of several Americans who died in the attack; Jordan
will not hand her over.
Jordan's tentative, half-hearted role in the war against jihad is also
highlighted by its failure to stop or even curb the hateful rhetoric that is
broadcast at the Temple Mount, or Al Haram Al Sharif in Jerusalem —presently
under the Custodianship of the Hashemite Kingdom. The kingdom, which appoints
and accredits the speakers in the Al Aqsa Mosque and which employees more than
200 guards to maintain order, has failed to stop the site from being used as a
tool to promote genocidal hostility toward the Jewish people, not just in
Israel, but throughout the world.
In October 2015, for example, Sheikh Khaled Al-Mughrabi declared from a pulpit
in the Al Aqsa Mosque that in a final battle between Jews and Muslims, "The
children of Israel will all be exterminated ... and the Muslims will live in
comfort for a long time." (Al-Mughrabi, whose speech was captured and translated
by Palestinian Media Watch, was arrested by Israel and the following month,
charged with incitement.)
Not only is rhetoric like this from Jordan-approved imams a clear-cut violation
of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
(which makes incitement to genocide a crime), Jordan's tolerance for anti-Jewish
and anti-Western rhetoric at the Temple Mount is a violation of the treaty
signed between Israel and Jordan in 1994, which among other things affirms the
"special role" that Jordan plays at the Temple Mount.
Article Nine of this treaty states quite clearly that Israel and Jordan "will
act together to promote interfaith relations among the three monotheistic
religions, with the aim of working towards religious understanding, moral
commitment, freedom of religious worship, and tolerance and peace."
On this score, the Hashemite Kingdom has failed miserably, allowing the Temple
Mount to be transformed into a volcano of hostility not only against Jews, but
against non-Muslims in general. Under Jordanian Custodianship, the Temple Mount,
which Muslims call Al Haram Al-Sharif or "The Noble Sanctuary," Muslims
regularly sow hatred of the West and call for its destruction.
For example, on June 18, 2016, Palestinian Imam Issam Amira used the Al Aqsa
Mosque to declare that "friendship and tolerance toward infidels are
unacceptable" and that "the strategy in Islam is hostility toward non-Muslims."
In his Ramadan sermon, which was recorded and translated by the Middle East
Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Amira reported the following:
Once I took part in a discussion, in which we were talking about global politics
and about our relations with America and Russia, and the word "infidels" came
up. After the discussion, somebody objected. He said, "Brother, say 'America'
and 'Russia,' but do not say, 'infidels.' Allah called them 'infidels' so why
should I be ashamed to call them that?
They want to water down these forceful and powerful terms, which embody the
loftiness and the might of the Muslims. They want to degrade Muslim might and
turn it into cheap tolerance toward those who plundered our land, attacked our
homes and destroyed them, killed [Muslims], and violated the honor of the women.
What kind of tolerance is possible with these people? There is only one kind of
punishment for those people: to stop them, to wreak vengeance upon them, and to
teach them a lesson. This is not achieved through tolerance, negotiations, or
kindness. It is achieved through might.
In this same Ramadan sermon translated by MEMRI, Amira also condemned Egyptian
President Anwar Sadat for declaring that he did not want to send his children to
their deaths. "Do you think you are doing them a favor?" Amira asked, "by
preventing them from reaching Paradise, and by keeping them here, where they
live as half-men? There should be hostility toward infidels."
Amira's Ramadan sermon is only one of many examples of this type of rhetoric. In
November 2017, Sheikh Abu 'Umran Al Barq declared in a sermon documented by
MEMRI that Muslims are required to wage jihad against non-Muslims so that "Islam
will triumph over all other religions."
Sermons like this have set the stage for periodic acts of violence against
Israeli Jews since Haj Amin Al Husseini, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and
subsequently a close ally of Adolf Hitler, came on the scene in the late 1920s
to tell Muslims in the Middle East that the Jews were going to destroy Al Aqsa
Mosque. The goal of such demonizing rhetoric is to enshrine the notion of Muslim
supremacism over non-Muslims, (Jews especially) in the minds of its target
audience. That the Temple Mount/Haram Al Sharif is used to further the cause of
Muslim supremacism in the 21st century is an intolerable outrage that needs to
come to an end. Unfortunately, the problem is going to get worse, a lot worse,
before it gets better. The preachers who are accorded the privilege of
broadcasting their anti-Jewish and anti-Western hate on Judaism's most holy site
set a terrible example for Muslim imams throughout the world, even in places
such as the United States, where anti-Semitic incitement is supposed to be
taboo, and a clear violation of the rules of American civil society. Just
recently, imams have shocked the interfaith community in the United States by
speaking in rhetoric similar to what we have been hearing from the Temple Mount.
In July 2017, Ammar Shahin, an imam preaching at a mosque in Davis, Calif.,
invoked an anti-Semitic hadith (saying of Muhammed) to incite hostility against
Israel after the Netanyahu government shut down the Al Aqsa Mosque and installed
metal detectors in response to a murderous attack on Israeli guards at the site
earlier that month. In a sermon translated by MEMRI, Shahin called on God to
"liberate the Al Aqsa Mosque from the filth of the Jews" and to "annihilate them
down to the very last one."
"Do not spare any of them," he said. Two other imams have made similar
statements in the U.S. in recent weeks — one in Texas and one in North Carolina.
The one common thread in these sermons is that they all invoke the "Al Aqsa Is
in Danger" narrative broadcast by imams speaking under the authority of the
Jordanian government in the Noble Sanctuary. This narrative, which was first
used by Haj Amin Al Husseini to incite hostility against Jews in the 1920s and
30s, is currently being used to undermine interfaith relations between Jews and
Muslims, not only in the Middle East, but in the West as well, most notably the
United States and Europe.
The upshot is this: The failure of Jordan -- which appoints and accredits the
imams who speak in the Al Aqsa Mosque -- to live up to its obligation under its
1994 treaty with Israel and put an end to this type of propaganda is harming
interfaith relations in the United States. This is intolerable. The time is long
overdue for the Hashemite Kingdom to stop promoting the patently false narrative
that the "Al Aqsa Is in Danger."
The Hashemite Kingdom has effectively abandoned its responsibility to prevent
the Temple Mount/Noble Sanctuary from being used as a focal point of anti-Jewish
and anti-Western hatred, even as it continually reaffirms its role as Custodian
of the site.
In the United States, landlords who allow their tenants to use a property for
criminal enterprises, such as the sale or manufacture of drugs are liable to
having their property seized in a process called "asset forfeiture." Maybe a
similar process needs to be applied to Jordan's custodianship of the Temple
Mount, for clearly, the Hashemite Kingdom is not serious about preventing the
site from being used for criminal incitement against Jews and Westerners.
This was made perfectly clear during a talk presented by Wasfi Kailani who spoke
at a conference about the Temple Mount/Noble Sanctuary mentioned above. Kailani,
manager of Jerusalem Affairs at the Royal Hashemite Court, spoke extensively at
this conference about the legitimacy of the Jordanian monarchy's Custodianship
over the Temple Mount/Noble Sanctuary. Jordanian monarchs, Kailani reported,
have given substantial sums to help maintain and restore buildings on the site
since 1948.
Successive monarchs have also had their custodianship over the Temple Mount
affirmed by Palestinian leaders over the years, including President Mahmoud
Abbas in a 2013 agreement. And in 1994, this custodianship was affirmed by
Israel in the previously mentioned treaty.
Apparently, however, Custodianship does not really mean all that much. When
asked what obligation the Hashemite Kingdom had over the incitement taking place
on the Temple Mount, Kailani declared that in light of Ariel Sharon's
controversial visit to the site in 2003 and Israel's decision to "unilaterally
administrate the affairs of the entry of non-Muslims" at the Temple Mount, "our
Waqf has lost the control over the behavior and the actions of the Waqf guards
and the Muslims inside the site."
In response to a follow-up question from conference organizer Harvard Law
Professor, Noah Feldman, Kailani reported that the speakers who give the Friday
sermons at Al Aqsa Mosque are nominated by Palestinian leaders in Jerusalem, but
accredited and approved by the Jordanian government. The nominations for new
speakers at the mosque comes from Jerusalem sheiks, Kailani said, but they are
appointed by Jordan's Ministry of Awqaf Islamic Affairs and Holy Places.
So there you have it. While the Hashemite Kingdom appoints the imams who give
Friday sermons at the Temple Mount, by its own admission, it has lost control
over what happens at the site. Predictably, the Hashemite Kingdom blames Israel
for these circumstances, but the question remains: If King Abdullah II can stand
up to ISIS when it kills a Jordanian pilot, why is the Hashemite Kingdom unable
(or unwilling) to put a stop to anti-Israel and anti-Western incitement on the
Temple Mount?
*Dexter Van Zile is Christian Media Analyst for the Committee for Accuracy in
Middle East Reporting in America.
© 2018 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.
How to Manipulate Migration Data? Take
Belgium...
Alain Destexhe/Gatestone Institute/January 25/2018
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11774/belgium-migration-data
An honest report for this demographic forecasting should be called, "We shall
soon be a million more, most of whom will be Muslims". But this kind of headline
would invariably create a public debate on demography, population density and
Muslim integration -- and that would be out of the question for European elites:
that would make people super-anxious and worried.
Tricky surveys are only used for migration numbers; never for unemployment
rates, literacy rates or GDP growth.
Unless there is rapid awareness about the exponential consequences of chain
migration and arrivals from across the Mediterranean, mass migration will
continue. Concealing this fact is pursued everywhere in Europe.
It should probably not come as a shock that statistics can be, and often are,
presented and manipulated by elites. In Belgium -- and in all of Western Europe
except Austria -- they form an informal multiculturalist lobby, which dominates
universities, NGOs, public institutions and the media, in order to promote a
pro-migration agenda.
In a relatively short time, Belgium has changed dramatically. Without any public
debate, it has become a massive migration state. In just 15 years, Belgium has
seen an increase of one million in its population -- from 10.2 million in 2000
to 11.3 million in 2015. These numbers represent a 10% rise over a very short
period.
From 2000 to 2010, net immigration was nine times greater than in the
Netherlands; four times greater than in France or Germany and even greater than
in the United States, a country historically open to immigration.
Yet, this statistical reality has been hidden from the Belgian population. The
elites and the media decide what people can talk about and what should be
hidden. To force people to accept immigration as a given, data has to be hidden
to avoid worrying the citizenry.
This is no grand conspiracy, no "Big Brother" masterpiece, but -- at best -- an
honest enthusiasm for the multiculturalist ideology, or -- at worst -- the
strong defensive mechanisms of Freudian psychology such as sublimation, denial
or repression.
Information on flow but not on stock
Migration statistics are presented as annual flow. If this number goes down
compared to the preceding year, it will be greatly emphasized; otherwise, it
will be downplayed. A 10- or 20-year statistic would never be used. In looking
at the scale of a country, annual flows are rarely subject to concern; but over
a 10-year period, they could be alarming. We usually, for instance, talk about
40,000 naturalizations a year but none of these would remind us that there were
also 200,000 naturalizations in three years and 608,322 in 12 years.
Those numbers represent 6% of Belgium's population. Additionally, no one writes
that in just a few years, a million migrants arrived in a country of ten
million, from 10.2 million in 2000 to 11.3 million in 2015.
Europeans move back to their country of origin, the others stay
In Belgium, a small country, open to its neighbors and host to the "capital of
Europe," always has a procession of lobbyists and bureaucrats who have migrated
from within Europe. This number is always larger, in terms of flow, than those
arriving from other continents. The French and Dutch have the largest number of
yearly migrants to Belgium, but after a few years they move back to their
countries of origin. Turks, Moroccans and newcomers from other continents, do
not.
So, the false impression is created that immigrants to Belgium are mostly
Europeans, but in reality they are not. This incorrect statement is always
reassuring and heavily emphasized, but there is never an analysis conducted over
a period of 10 or 20 years. Also, a large number of European expatriates,
according to emigration records, move back to their home countries. Moroccans,
Algerians, Turks, and citizens of many other countries, apart from Americans,
usually stay in Belgium... forever.
Demographic forecasts are not linked to migration
With the help of official forecasts, the media regularly note that the Belgian
population is growing, and that this increase will continue. However, no one
seems to be linking this rise in population to migration, even if, since 2000,
that has been the driving factor.
During the coming decades, the Belgian State – already one of the most densely
populated countries in Europe -- will again acquire one or two million more
inhabitants, and will be confronted with numerous issues linked to this density,
such as housing, education, healthcare, transportation, the environment, and so
on. This projected increase in population is never emphasized or presented in
relation to the number of Muslims in Belgium, which is expected to double (to
1,250,000, meaning 11.1% of the population) or even triple (to 2,580,000,
meaning 18.2% of the population) before 2050, according to the Pew Forum on
Religious and Public Life. An honest report for this demographic forecasting
should be, "We shall soon be a million more, most of whom will be Muslims". But
this kind of title in the press would invariably create a public debate on
demographics, population density and Muslim integration -- and that would be out
of the question for European elites: that would make people super-anxious and
worried.
Choice of words, and concealment of problems
The population increase continues in Brussels at an average of 1% per year. It
is always characterized, though, as a demographic boom and never as a migration
boom. Yet, migration and the higher birth rates of women coming from abroad are
equivalent to this increase and might well account for it. Social issues are
prominent. For instance, 90% of the people claiming social welfare benefits in
Brussels have a migrant background. There have been tensions in public services,
such as the administration of migrants by the civil service, hospitals and
public transport, with a doubling of travelers in 15 years. More space is needed
at schools: more than 40,000 additional pupils have been added to classrooms
over 10 years. Moreover, the related costs are never debated or addressed. Those
topics are just swept away as if they were totally disconnected to migration.
Disdain for the concerns of citizens
One of the surest means to dismiss the legitimate worries of a population is to
ridicule people as if the major part of the population were ignorant. One can,
for example, make use of a popular opinion poll asking, say, the number of
Muslims in the country and then laugh at a popular exaggeration in the numbers.
If Belgians (or Europeans) were just better informed or less stupid, the
commentary on the poll results would say, people would stop worrying about
migration, and everything would be shiny in the Brave New World again. These
kind of tricky surveys, however, are only used for migration numbers; never for
unemployment rates, literacy rates or GDP growth. No one is even trying to take
into account this popular anxiety, even as it reveals intensifying societal
unease.
Spillover effect of family reunification
In Belgium, around 50% of immigration is linked to family reunification. That
number represents a higher level than those of our European neighbors and more
than for most of Europe, even though all of western Europe has been hit by mass
migration. A problem is that the type of mass migration Europe has seen is, by
definition, exponential and without any end. There are marriages in name only,
polygamy, marrying only within one's community for many Turkish and Moroccan
weddings, and apparently often fraud.
The consequences on demographics of family reunification (chain migration) are
never explained or taken into account.
Even Eurostat, the official statistics agency of the European Union, mixes data
and ideology: that "immigration" is "good for Europe". In the very first lines
of the latest report on migration (March 2017), Eurostat writes:
"In destination countries, international migration may be used as a tool to
solve specific labour market shortages. However, migration alone will almost
certainly not reverse the ongoing trend of population ageing experienced in many
parts of the EU".
So, let us have more immigration!
Unless there is rapid awareness about the exponential consequences of chain
migration and arrivals from across the Mediterranean, mass migration will
continue. Concealing this fact is pursued everywhere in Europe. If we want to
control and slow down immigration, according to the will of the majority of
Europeans, the European people need at least to be aware of the gravity of the
situation. Asking for an honest description of the migration crisis is vital if
we wish to preserve the freedom of speech in democratic countries.
Turkey's then Prime Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu (left) clasps hands with European
Council President Donald Tusk (center) and European Commission President
Jean-Claude Juncker (right) during a "migration deal" summit, in Brussels,
Belgium, on March 18, 2016. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)
Alain Destexhe is a Senator in Belgium, Former Secretary General of Médecins
Sans Frontières and Former President of the International Crisis Group.
© 2018 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.
Trump and the American Soft Power
Albert R. Hunt/Bloomberg/January
25/2018
Donald Trump's tirade a week ago against non-white countries may be tearing the
final fiber off American soft power. Witness the worldwide reaction in the time
since the president of the United States called African and Latin American
countries "s---holes." This is the latest in a series of offensive actions or
assertions by the president that undercuts the appeal of America and American
values.
"Trump has been a disaster for American soft power," says Joseph Nye, the
distinguished diplomat and academic who coined the phrase three decades ago. It
is the ability, short of using force, to influence or coerce others through
diplomacy, ideals and assistance. Soft power should complement military power or
economic pressure. For 70 years, from the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after
World War II, this has been a staple, if not a priority, of American foreign
policy. This is neither a modern concept nor a partisan one. "Even the Romans
understood the importance of soft power," Nye notes. "Reagan, the Bushes,
Clinton, Obama -- all understood this."Meghan L. O'Sullivan, a top foreign
policy official in the George W. Bush Administration, warned in these pages
about the dangers of Trump surrendering America's soft-power advantages, citing
withdrawal from the Paris climate accords and the Trans-Pacific Partnership
trade pact. That was in June 2017; it has gotten worse.
The administration is downsizing and denigrating the diplomatic corps.
Foreign-service officers are resigning on principle, and there are scores of
vacancies. The expertise gap will take years to address. The White House
proposed to slash foreign assistance, although Congress restored some cuts.
Trump continually inflames passions against immigrants, whether it's the message
he sent with his proposed ban on visitors from certain Muslim countries or his
charges that incoming Haitians "all have AIDS" or that if we let in Nigerians
they'll "never go back to their huts." Of course, last summer he seemed to
equate white nationalists and neo-Nazis who created violence in Charlottesville,
Virginia, with those who were protesting racial injustice. The fallout of this
behavior has been devastating. The Gallup poll last week found that in 134
nations only 30 percent of people approve of US leadership today, an all-time
low and down from 48 percent a year ago when Barack Obama was president. A Pew
survey last year suggested an even wider gap (Russia was one of the few
countries where approval of the US had increased.)
The respected Soft Power 30 survey that measures the most effective use of soft
power found that the US in 2017 slipped from first to third place, behind France
and the UK. China is coming up on the outside.
Trump and most administration insiders brush such measures aside. Budget
director Mick Mulvaney boasted of his "hard power budget." And United Nations
Ambassador Nikki Haley, in defending the president's record, noted the way he
"hit back at Syria," or "finally put North Korea on notice."
The reality is that after the US cruise-missile attack last April on an airbase
in Syria, the dictator Bashar al-Assad is still in charge, and Russia and Iran
remain influential there. And Kim Jong Un may have been put on notice, but
unfortunately the North Korean "rocket man" doesn't seem intimidated.
A few top officials in the Trump administration get the import of soft power.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis warns without more diplomats and diplomacy, we'll
have to buy more bullets. It's a lonely crowd. The prime beneficiary of the US
abdication is China. Xi Jinping is spreading Chinese influence all over. A
recent New Yorker piece on this by Evan Osnos should be required reading in the
White House. America still enjoys huge advantages over China and most places.
Our culture, our artists and athletes are the most recognized and often revered
in the world.
Even here Trump complicates. He's the first president to stiff the Kennedy
Center honors for America's finest artists. The two most celebrated US athletes
around the globe are basketball stars LeBron James and Stephen Curry, who both
engaged in hostile exchanges with the president.
Joe Nye, by nature an optimist, believes that America's advantages will continue
to resonate and that the push-back against Trump from civil society sends a
message. "Trump has done enormous damage," he says, "but there will be life
after Trump. Soft power will recover." I hope he's right.
Davos Warms to Trumponomics
Ferdinando Giugliano/Bloomberg/January
25/2018
Have criticisms of Donald Trump’s economic policy gone too far? Whisper it
quietly, but 12 months after the beginning of the Trump presidency, several
economists and business leaders appear willing to give Trump and his tax reform
a chance. It may be down to the stock market highs, or perhaps to the
announcements by companies like Apple and Wal-Mart that they are willing to
invest in the US and pay workers higher wages. Still, the apocalyptic fears that
accompanied Trump’s arrival at the White House could not seem farther away.
The danger, however, is that this early revisionism will go too far. The US
economy has the winds of the global recovery in its sail. The tax reform has
clearly encouraged talk of investment and a pickup in growth, but it is far too
early to quantify the effects. Yet the dangers are all too clear: The US is
boosting demand at a time when the recovery is mature. The risk is that such a
sugar rush will push up the deficit, public debt and inflation, while having
only a modest impact on growth.
The rising optimism on the US economy was visible in the latest set of forecasts
from the International Monetary Fund, which were presented at the World Economic
Forum in Davos on Monday. The Fund revised up its growth projections for the US,
saying that in 2020 national income would be 1.2 percent higher than it would
have been in the absence of the tax plan. Of course, there would be some payback
later on, with growth slowing down for a few years from 2022 onward. The IMF
isn’t the only one seeing the bright side. The 2018 PwC survey of CEOs found the
highest-ever jump in optimism, with the biggest increases in optimism toward
North America.
The Davos elite seem more open-minded about the president than when I was here
just a year ago. Of course, Trump’s protectionist instincts are not popular
among a crowd that remains firmly committed to free trade. But at a high-level
panel discussion on Tuesday morning headed “Global Markets in a Fractured
World,” several executives found it hard to hide their enthusiasm for the tax
changes.
Stephen Schwarzman, the CEO of Blackstone who led the president’s Strategic and
Policy Council before it was dismantled last summer, said there would be “a lot”
of financial inflows into the US. “There are companies from all around the world
who are looking at the US and saying this is the place to be,” he added. Adena
Friedman, CEO of Nasdaq, was also supportive, saying the tax cut could initiate
a virtuous circle of investment, employment and a greater willingness to train
workers.
Of course, there were some who expressed reservations over the sustainability of
the tax measures. Frank Appel, CEO of Deutsche Post DHL Group, expressed a
typically German concern for the state of public finances. “If a tax reform
leads to a higher budget deficit, it will be good for the next 12 months, then
there is a bill to pay,” he warned. Others, however, were less concerned.
Tidjane Thiam, CEO of Credit Suisse, noted that foreign investors would continue
to be willing to fund US deficits. “The way you think about economics, it’s very
different for the US,” he said.
The enthusiasm of some business leaders appears convincing until you think about
one fundamental problem. Even if you assume that the tax changes will somewhat
trickle down to the real economy thanks to higher investment and wage growth
(which is hardly certain), the timing of the fiscal stimulus remains awkward.
The US economy has now recovered for more than 100 months while the unemployment
rate has fallen to nearly 4 percent. This is hardly the moment to provide fiscal
stimulus, adding to the deficit in the hopes that growth will become faster
still.
In his intervention at Davos, Brian Moynihan, CEO of Bank of America, touched on
some of these problems when he said there was a risk that businesses may find
skills shortages as they tried to hire more workers. Deutsche Post’s Appel
agreed: “The tax reform will be good short-term. But it doesn’t fix the
fundamental problem” which is about boosting productivity through training and
infrastructure spending. Addressing these supply-side bottlenecks will require
more than a tax cut. When he lands in Switzerland, Trump will certainly find a
more favorable ear than he would have just 12 months ago. But it’s unclear
whether the benign effects of Trumponomics will endure, or simply melt away,
just like the Davos snow.
How Can Saudi Arabia and Egypt Help Confront Toxic Ideologies?
Joseph Braude and Samuel Tadros/Washington
Institute/January 25/2018
Two experts discuss how Washington can use its warming relations with Cairo and
Riyadh to foster soft-power reform campaigns.
On January 18, Joseph Braude and Samuel Tadros addressed a Policy Forum at The
Washington Institute. Braude is an advisor to Al-Mesbar Studies and Research
Center and a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. Tadros is a
senior fellow at the Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom and a
distinguished visiting fellow in Middle Eastern studies at the Hoover
Institution. The following is a rapporteur's summary of their remarks; video of
the full event is available above.
JOSEPH BRAUDE
Some Saudis outside the government, primarily media figures, have been trying to
counter extremist ideologies in their midst for some time. In recent years, they
have expressed optimism about Riyadh's new policies and are very interested in
international partnerships to improve their effectiveness. These are not
dissidents; they are establishment voices pushing the boundaries of the small
space they have been given.
For instance, some of these individuals produced a comedy show called Tash ma-tash,
which roughly translates to "Either you get it or you don't." In one skit, women
call the police to alert them of a burglar entering their house, but when the
officers realize that the women's father is away, they say they cannot enter
unless a man is present. The satirical skit was even broadcast on an official
government channel. Introducing new ideas has not been easy, of course—four out
of every ten scripts the producers submitted to the Ministry of Information were
rejected. Over time, however, things that were once controversial became more
mundane, and such programs were able to make a bit of a dent.
New ideas were also introduced by turning news developments into teachable
moments. In 2014, Mansour al-Nogaidan—a former hardline preacher who had become
more liberal—was asked what he thought of the government's effort to prevent
teachers from recruiting for the Muslim Brotherhood. He replied that the policy
should be accompanied by greater efforts to foster tolerance in the kingdom; in
particular, he criticized the penetration of Salafi-jihadist ideas in Saudi
schools and urged educators to promote inclusiveness toward Shia.
Although the Saudi figures responsible for such initiatives are not
policymakers, they are capable of affecting the informational climate in which
policies are made. Saudi liberals are especially successful at appealing to the
individualistic desires of their society, since many modern Saudis are deeply
interested in expanding personal freedoms.
Against this backdrop, the kingdom's new leaders have made a number of decisions
that could prove crucial to countering extremism and promoting tolerance. First,
the government has been pursuing a major economic overhaul and a more liberal
social agenda. Second, Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman has acknowledged that
1979 marked the beginning of a long period of broad, problematic government
support for extremist ideologies. Third, he has shown a willingness to use
security measures to clamp down not only on violent fringe elements, but also on
their sympathizers within the clerical establishment.
Yet the challenge lies in changing not just government policies, but popular
opinion as well. In a past clip from Wesal TV, a channel funded by Kuwaitis but
largely staffed by Saudis, the narrator bashes Shia Islam and Iran's regional
expansion, saying "O Arabs, Iran wants to turn your home into hell." The Saudi
government banned the network in 2014, and Bahrain and Kuwait soon followed
suit. Two years later, however, a reformist member of the Saudi Shura Council
posted a poll on Twitter and found that 82 percent of respondents opposed the
closure.
Regarding outside assistance, each agenda item pursued by Saudi liberals
includes a role for international players. The first item is a more well-rounded
religious education, which entails making textbooks more tolerant and inclusive,
training teachers from a more open-minded point of view, and giving space to
multiple interpretations of Islam, with the aim of encouraging moderation. The
second is the creation of an inclusive Saudi nationalism based not on claims of
ideological supremacy, but rather on the success of a national project in which
all citizens are vested, including historically marginalized communities. Third
is the fostering of a unified Gulf identity, building on Saudi-Emirati cultural
osmosis and expanding to the other Gulf Cooperation Council states. At a time
when the U.S.-Saudi relationship is improving and a critical mass of Saudis
welcome international partnership, Washington has ample opportunities to
directly engage reformists on confronting toxic ideologies.
SAMUEL TADROS
For several decades now, America's understanding of the Middle East has waned
even as its military has become more involved there. This knowledge gap was
partly the result of an academic assault in which serious studies of the region
were often accused of fostering a colonialist agenda. Today, political science
dominates the conversation about the Middle East, and Westerners know very
little about the region's actual residents—their cultures, their lives, or their
concerns. This includes top area scholars, many of whom do not know what the
people are reading, watching, or listening to.
For example, at a time when Middle Eastern youths are increasingly willing to
question social taboos, more than a dozen novels have been published about Jews
who lived in the Arab world. There is also a sense of cultural nostalgia about
cosmopolitan Alexandria, as seen in numerous books, films, television shows, and
songs. Meanwhile, the term "Arab world" is becoming less and less useful—the
region has many different societies with different identities, and what is
popular in one culture may not be in another.
To be sure, certain states have been instrumental in spreading ideas across the
Middle East over the years, especially Gamal Abdul Nasser's Egypt and the Sunni
clerical establishment in Saudi Arabia. This may be why Washington tends to
believe there is a lever Riyadh can pull to reverse the spread of radicalism in
the region. In reality, though, toxic ideas are much more difficult to contain.
Middle Eastern governments have a crucial role to play in any effort to address
this problem. Given their well-established regional influence, Riyadh and Cairo
need to take the lead in this endeavor; after all, Egyptian Arabic used to be
the most common dialect in Arabic media, and the new Saudi leadership seems keen
to play a more assertive role. The United Arab Emirates could also provide
robust support for anti-extremist discourse at home and abroad.
In January 2015, Egyptian president Abdul Fattah al-Sisi publicly called for a
religious revolution, and Washington hailed his remarks. Three years later, no
such revolution has taken place, but this is hardly surprising when one
considers that Sisi lacked a plan, the means to enact it, and a base to support
it. Fortunately, the opportunity to enact some change in Egypt still exists.
Islamists retain many advantages, including a comprehensive worldview and way of
life that competing ideologies cannot offer. Yet many Middle Easterners have
lived under the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic State in recent years, and they
did not enjoy their experience. This has caused people to reexamine their
notions about the role of religion in society.
Social media has a crucial role to play as well. Even as the Sisi government
attempts to control the traditional news media, alternative outlets like YouTube
are having an impact. Many parodies of Islamic State videos have gone viral,
serving as a powerful tool against the group's Islamist narrative. Wider use of
alternative media could provide a serious means of countering toxic ideas.
This summary was prepared by Erika Naegeli.
The blessings and curse of higher oil prices
Dr. Mohamed A. Ramady/Al Arabiya/January
25/18
The nightmare for OPEC oil producers and those that joined them in the
production cut agreements in November 2016 is that high oil prices are a
blessing and a curse. The blessing is obvious – many are still fiscally stressed
and need high oil revenues to sustain their oil dependent economies until they
can start a meaningful transformation and diversify their economies away from
oil.
That will take time and in the short term they have to wrestle with policy
decisions on whether to continue with their production cuts, drain away surplus
oil inventories but at the same time see non participating oil producers,
whether states or individual shale companies in the USA, come back with a
vengeance and pump more oil and take up market share lost to those in the
agreement club.
It is a fine tuned balancing act and, as the Saudi Oil Minister Khaled Al Falih
recently said at the Davos World Economic Forum, there is still some way to go
before some sort of stability in global supply and demand can be reached and the
the current OPEC- non OPEC agreement will continue in one form or another into
2109. Some are now predicting that this agreement will take a life of its own
and continue well past 2019 but metamorphose into some other energy – economic
strategic partnership nexus, especially between the two heavyweights in the
agreement, Saudi Arabia and Russia.
In the meantime, OPEC officials sound like central bankers these days, referring
to a $60 "equilibrium" crude oil price and referring to the long period of
"undershooting" that equilibrium price when pushing back on whether there might
be a policy response any time soon to spot oil prices reaching up into a $63 to
$70 range. Some OPEC states, especially those in the Gulf, are for now quite
willing to tolerate a crude oil "overshoot" of the $60 target price. Crude
prices have only recently risen above the $60 mark, making it "premature" to
talk about adjustments to the current quota framework. The reason is simple -
the output cuts are only now starting to drain away some of the global supply
surplus although the various estimates from OPEC and the International Energy
Agency differ.
For the time being, there is no chance of changes to the formal quotas and
agreed upon output cuts before the June 2018 Ministerial meeting. Extensive
negotiations will be needed to work out what the OPEC officials suggest will be
a quarterly, possibly monthly, "reverse taper" in which participating oil
producers will be allowed to gradually increase their output under a formula
still to be worked out. Key to its success would be what is understood to be a
Saudi willingness to assume a "first in/last out" role in the reverse taper,
that is, just as it front-loaded the bulk of the output cuts that led to the
November 2014 Vienna agreement, it will likewise be the last of the 24 agreement
participants to fully recover its output cuts. The objective is to bring OECD
crude inventories, now at around 2.91 billion barrels, to their five-year
historical average of 2.73 billion barrels, and which is likely to require a
six-month assessment period to gauge to what degree prices are in line with
demand and consumption trends. That would put any changes in the quotas closer
to the November 2018 meeting than June.
Discipline
The headache until then is to continue instilling discipline amongst countries
that see the current high oil prices as a bonanza and cheat on their quotas,
especially from Iran which is fearful of more economic sanctions, putting the
agreement into jeopardy and another free for all market share rush. But whatever
cheating there may be is likely to be offset by falling output from other oil
producers such as Libya or Nigeria, and especially Venezuela. If this happens,
then Russian oil company incentive to remain in the pact will be sorely tested
as Russian oil companies are clamouring to be released from their output
constraints before year-end, but for now Saudi Arabia especially is confident
Russia President Vladimir Putin will enforce Russia's agreed 300,000 bpd cuts in
output until the details are worked out for an agreement to the envisioned
gradual "reverse taper" of the existing quotas.
The headache for those in the agreement is that current high oil prices will
once again bring out the cat in the bag, the U.S shale producers, as well as
Canadian and Brazilian production, with estimates of another 1.1 million barrels
per day of U.S. shale alone coming into the market in 2018. Some believe that
this is a blessing in disguise as too high prices – once again going north of $
80 per barrel – might cause global economic growth to slow, and kill off
incremental oil demand. So next time you see oil prices reach such levels, take
pity on those oil producers in the Vienna agreement trying to juggle their
desire for high oil prices, but not too much please…
Will Operation Olive Branch end the US-Turkey Alliance?
Giorgio Cafiero/Al Arabiya/January 25/18
Turkey’s Operation Olive Branch is a combined military and political effort to
reverse gains that armed Kurds have achieved in northern Syria. Launched on
January 20, the campaign marks a turning point in the Syrian crisis and adds new
layers of dangerous friction to Turkey-US relations, which reached rock bottom
during the first year of Donald Trump’s presidency. Officials in Washington are
concerned that Turkey’s military offensive will undermine international efforts
to eradicate Islamic State (ISIS) and other Salafist-jihadist militants from
northwestern Syria. The Ankara-Washington alliance has likely reached a
make-or-break point as the Turkish military wages strikes against US-backed
Kurdish forces while President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vows to extend Operation
Olive Branch east of Manbij.
Although Turkey and the US have coordinated past efforts against the Damascus
regime via the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, and the two NATO allies’ militaries
fought together against ISIS in Syria, since 2015 Washington and Ankara have
never seen eye to eye on the dominant Kurdish militia in Syria. Both the Obama
and Trump administrations (especially the latter) have supported the People’s
Protection Unit (YPG), the armed wing of the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan
Workers’ Party (PKK), the Democratic Union Party (PYD), in the fight against
ISIS. Viewing the YPG/PYD as a terrorist organization, Turkey has been
infuriated with Washington for arming and financially supporting this entity
under the banner of countering violent extremism.
Friction between Ankara and Washington reached new heights this month when US
officials proposed a plan to recruit and train a security force with 30,000
members—the majority being Syrian Kurds—just south of the Turkish-Syrian border.
Turkish officials condemned the “terror army” proposal, maintaining that it
would severely damage the two Ankara-Washington alliance. Yet the US has already
trained and armed the YPG-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which is
currently considering plans for sending more reinforcements to Afrin to further
fend off the Turkish military offensive on top of the YPG’s firing of rockets at
Turkish towns along the border in immediate retaliation to Operation Olive
Branch.
The first major victim
Much of the tension that the Syrian crisis has recently added to Turkey-US
relations derives from the reality that Ankara and Washington have different
priorities and incompatible agendas in the war-torn country. Three main
objectives drive the Trump administration’s approach toward the Syrian crisis:
1) Undermining Tehran’s ability to consolidate Iranian influence in Syria; 2)
Keeping the Syrian regime weak, and thus as minimal a threat to Israel as
possible; 3) Preventing Salafist-jihadist entities such as ISIS or al-Qaeda from
usurping control of territory and using Syria as a launch pad for acts of
international terrorism. In pursuit of these aims, the Trump administration sees
the YPG/PYD as having a critical role to play and has clearly signaled its view
that the US-YPG/PYD partnership was to be more than a short-term transactional
relationship that expired once ISIS lost its strongholds in Iraq and Syria last
year.
Yet it is evident that the first major victim of the Trump administration’s
approach to Syria’s Kurds is the US-Turkey alliance. Furthermore, odds are good
that Washington’s continued arming of Syria’s Kurds will push Turkey closer to
Russia. From Ankara’s perspective, the US has been indifferent to, what Turkey
perceives as, an existential threat to Turkey’s security and territorial
integrity, leaving Ankara with no choice but to seek greater support from
Moscow. The Trump administration’s opposition to Operation Olive Branch will
further reinforce Ankara’s conviction that the US cannot be trusted when it
comes to issues of Turkey’s vital interests, adding to the growing mistrust
stemming from the failed coup attempt in 2016, which certain officials in Ankara
and voices in the Turkish media allege that Washington backed.
If Turkey and the US fail to diplomatically sort out their differences vis-à-vis
northern Syria, the two countries’ alliance may near its final days. Should
dialogue between Ankara and Washington not produce a mutual understanding and
shared strategy for countering terror menaces in Syria, there is a growing risk
of a direct clash between Turkish and US forces in northern Syria. Such an
escalation in Afrin and nearby areas of the war-torn country would tragically
end recently expressed hopes for 2018 being the year that peace returns to
Syria.
Nations which appease Iran open their doors to
its spies
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/January 25/18
Nations which appease Iran open their doors to its spies
After an investigation by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the federal
prosecutor’s office last week ordered the German police to carry out raids
around the country on properties linked to suspected Iranian spies. The Iranian
agents are believed to have spied on persons and organizations “on behalf of an
intelligence unit associated with Iran.”
The Iranian authorities have declined to comment on this critical issue in order
to evade responsibility. The regime has successfully escaped accountability
since its establishment in 1979.
Espionage poses a threat to Berlin’s and the EU’s security. The EU and Germany
should take this issue extremely seriously and reconsider their full support for
the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal.
In addition, Germany ought to reconsider its increasing business deals and trade
with the Iranian regime. These policies only strengthen the regime’s
institutions, which are behind such heinous and illegal acts.
It is also worth noting that Germany’s appeasement policies and increasing trade
with the regime make it much easier for Iranian spies to infiltrate Berlin.
Iran’s espionage in the West highlights the fact that appeasing the Iranian
leaders with trade and sanctions relief only empowers them, making them stronger
and more destructive as they pursue their hegemonic and ideological ambitions.
This causes further instability and conflicts. There are two major Iranian
institutions that plan and orchestrate espionage in foreign countries. First is
the Quds Force — an elite branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The second institution is the Ministry of Intelligence under the leadership of
hard-line cleric Mahmoud Alavi, who was appointed by the so-called “moderate”
president, Hassan Rouhani. Offering Tehran trade and sanctions relief only
empowers the regime to carry out espionage operations, making it stronger and
more destructive as it pursues its hegemonic and ideological ambitions.
Iranian spies and agents do not solely target political institutions to get
information or change their policies. They also target universities, schools,
journalists, scholars, and civilian institutions for several reasons. Iran
carries out espionage through people or cyber-attacks. Often journalists and
professors are targeted in order to bribe them or persuade them to write
articles and books in favor of the Iranian regime. Universities are often
targeted in order to detect the direction of their research and influence their
syllabuses. On the other hand, some mainstream outlets have projected Iran’s
espionage in Germany as a surprise. But it is important to point out that the
regime has a long history of spying and has been linked in the past to
assassinations of dissidents and the targeting of those who are considered
“enemies.”For example, earlier this month Germany summoned Iran’s ambassador in
Berlin after a 31-year-old Pakistani student was convicted of spying for Tehran
on Reinhold Robbe, a German Social Democratic Party (SPD) politician. The
American Jewish Committee in Berlin has urged Germany’s Foreign Ministry to
expel the Iranian ambassador.
Previously, federal prosecutors filed charges against two men suspected of
spying for the Iranian regime on opposition group the People’s Mujahedin of Iran
(MEK).
Iran’s spies operate heavily in Arab countries as well. Last August, Kuwaiti
authorities arrested 12 people who were convicted in absentia of spying for the
Iranian regime and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah. In October, a Bahraini court
found a group of 19 people guilty of leaking information to the IRGC and
Hezbollah in exchange for receiving “material support” from the Iranian regime.
And, in late 2016, a court in Saudi Arabia found 15 people guilty of spying for
Iran. The International community must hold the Iranian regime accountable and
bring charges against the Quds Force and the Ministry of Intelligence. Countries
that find themselves victims of Iran’s espionage should halt diplomatic and
economic relations with Tehran, as well as expel the regime’s ambassadors.
Iran’s embassies are often used as important sites for such networks, so these
policy recommendations will send a robust message to the Iranian regime to
respect international norms.
• Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political
scientist. He is a leading expert on Iran and US foreign policy, a businessman
and president of the International American Council. He serves on the boards of
the Harvard International Review, the Harvard International Relations Council
and the US-Middle East Chamber for Commerce and Business.