LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

August 12/16

Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For Today

Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 14/16-24/:'Then Jesus said to him, ‘Someone gave a great dinner and invited many. At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, "Come; for everything is ready now." But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, "I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see it; please accept my apologies."Another said, "I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my apologies." Another said, "I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come."So the slave returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, "Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame."And the slave said, "Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room." Then the master said to the slave, "Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner." ’

See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are
First Letter of John 03/01-10:"See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil; for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. Those who have been born of God do not sin, because God’s seed abides in them; they cannot sin, because they have been born of God. The children of God and the children of the devil are revealed in this way: all who do not do what is right are not from God, nor are those who do not love their brothers and sisters."
 

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on August 11-12/16
Home alone/As Saad Hariri’s world melts, what can he do/Michael Young/Now Lebanon/August 11/16
Our Compromised Lebanese Allies/Bilal Hussein/Commentary/August 11/16
Hezbollah emerging as the dominant militant group in the Middle East/Dr. Azeem Ibrahim/Al Arabiya/August 11/16
Why the surprise that Lebanon cannot elect a president/Joseph A. Kechichian/Gulf News/ August 11/16
Bill, Hillary, Mr. Chagoury and Hezbollah/Rebecca Bynum/New English Review/August 11/16
Officials In Lebanese, Gazan Terror Organizations Confirm: Iran Funds Our Activity/MEMRI/August 11/16
Nadia Murad’s story shames the world/Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/August 11/16
Aleppo and Mosul: A tale of two cities/Eyad Abu Shakra/Al Arabiya/August 11/16
Choosing authority over chaos/Turki Aldakhil//Al Arabiya/August 11/16
Iran-Backed Rebels Use Hospitals as Human Shields/Con Coughlin/Gatestone Institute/August 11/16
Jordanian Writer: Graphic Images From War Zones Cause Psychological Damage To Children/MEMRI/August 11/16
Turkey, Europe's Little Problem/Burak Bekdil/Gatestone Institute/August 11/16
Is Israel about to Sign a Terrible Deal/Shoshana Bryen/Gatestone Institute/August 11/16
Insult after Injury: Understanding Egypt’s ‘Reconciliation Meetings/Raymond Ibrahim/Coptic Solidarity/August 11/16

Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News published on on August 11-12/16

Lebanese Army Destroys Nusra Post in Arsal Outskirts
Lebanese Army Bombs Qaa, Ras Baalbek Outskirts amid 'Fierce' IS-Nusra Arsal Clashes
Report: Berri Promotes 'Package Deal', Says Electing President Doesn't Solve Difficulties
Hizbullah Bloc Slams Parties Trying to 'Sabotage' Dialogue, Hails Security Forces
Kataeb Students Force Works Suspension at Bourj Hammoud Landfill after Scuffle
Report: Aleppo Battle Pushes More Refugees into Lebanon, Presidency Unaffected
Ex-Judge among 2 Dead in Beit al-Shaar 'Murder-Suicide'
Detainees Held in Kid Drowning Case Released
Ten Syrians Possessing IS Cards Detained after Infiltrating Border
LAU, ESCWA concludes conference on women, peace and Security
Zayed from Maarab: For putting terms to presidential vacancy and supporting national consensus
Marotti awards Vincenti Order of Star of Italy
Syrian teenagers lure then rape 11 year old child in Majdalia
Blaze erupts in steamer at Tripoli seaport
Home alone/As Saad Hariri’s world melts, what can he do
Our Compromised Lebanese Allies
Hezbollah emerging as the dominant militant group in the Middle East
Why the surprise that Lebanon cannot elect a president?
Bill, Hillary, Mr. Chagoury and Hezbollah

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on on August 11-12/16

Lone suspect killed in anti-terrorism operation in southern Ontario
Iran: Execution of 46 people in 9 days
Iranian youths issue statement condemning recent spate of executions in Iran
Iran regime arrests 769 people in swoop on Qom Province
Further protests outside Iran regime’s parliament, rallies held in Rasht and Mashhad
Trump accuses Obama of being ‘founder of ISIS’
Deadly Russian raids strike ISIS capital Raqqa
Military attaches, diplomats flee in Turkey’s post-coup inquiry
Turkey Offers Russia Joint Operations against IS in Syria
Turkey Parliament to Ratify Israel Deal before Recess
30 Killed in Russia Raids on IS Syria Bastion Raqa
Woman, two children killed in Aleppo chlorine attack: activists
Syria Doctors Issue Plea over Aleppo Siege
UN probes reports of chlorine gas use in Aleppo
Lack of US fighter pilots amid ISIS wars in Syria, Iraq
Turkey warns EU making ‘mistakes’ over failed coup
Syria doctors issue plea over Aleppo siege
Police say Jewish man stabbed with screwdriver in Jerusalem
Turkey open to conditional terror law talks
Iran top diplomat to visit Turkey after coup: Ankara
Houthi leader, 40 militias killed near Saudi border
Germany praises Saudi help in fight against terror

Links From Jihad Watch Site for on August 11-12/16
Canada: Convert to Islam killed by police after he “detonated a device, wounding himself and another person”
Germany: “We have substantial reports that among the refugees are hit squads”
Audio: Robert Spencer and Msgr. Stuart Swetland debate: Is Islam violent?
Netherlands: Muslim screaming “Allahu akbar” and brandishing a knife runs at police, terrifies shoppers
California: Muslims screaming “Allahu akbar!” through a bullhorn terrorize church during worship service
US Central Command skewed intel on the Islamic State to present “more optimistic” view to the public
Christians in Germany hiding Bibles amid death threats from Muslim migrants
Hugh Fitzgerald: Of Korans and Constitutions
Islamic State throws another gay man off building for “corruption of thought” and “homosexual acts”
Jamie Glazov Moment: Why a Refugee Stabbed a Belgian Priest
Robert Spencer: GOP National Security Leaders ‘Intellectually Bankrupt’ to Attack Trump and Defend Clinton’s ‘Pitiable Record’
Idaho: Muslim charged with sexual assault was touted by media as “moderate” two months ago
UK: Muslim who murdered Ahmadi screams “Praise for the prophet Muhammad” as he is sentenced
Another Muslim migrant sexual assault in Twin Falls, Idaho
Italy: Muslim group demands legalization of polygamy as counterpart to legalization of gay marriage
Belgium: Police hunt for imam’s son who walked down street loudly praying to Allah for “annihilation of all Christians”
Black Lives Matter defends platform accusing Israel of ‘genocide’

Latest Lebanese Related News published on on August 11-12/16

Lebanese Army Destroys Nusra Post in Arsal Outskirts
Naharnet/August 11/16/A Lebanese army helicopter destroyed late Wednesday a position of al-Nusra Front on the outskirts of the northeastern town of Arsal, the National News Agency said.An army chopper launched an evening raid and rocketed the positions of Nusra targeting it with three rockets,NNA added. The position was completely destroyed. A military source told al-Joumhouria daily: “The army has monitored a large group of militants in the outskirts preparing for something. The army has bombed the positions and recorded direct hits.”Early in August, the army retaliated to shelling from the Islamic State group on the border with Syria after destroying a Nusra post in the outskirts of Arsal. Militants from IS and al-Nusra are entrenched in rugged areas along the undemarcated Lebanese-Syrian border and the army regularly shells their posts while Hizbullah and the Syrian army have engaged in clashes with them on the Syrian side of the border. The two groups briefly overran the town of Arsal in August 2014 before being ousted by the army after days of deadly battles. The retreating militants abducted more than 30 troops and policemen of whom four have been executed and nine remain in the captivity of the IS group.

Lebanese Army Bombs Qaa, Ras Baalbek Outskirts amid 'Fierce' IS-Nusra Arsal Clashes
Naharnet/August 11/16/Fierce clashes have been underway since 5:00 pm Thursday in Arsal's outskirts between jihadists from the Islamic State group and the Fateh al-Sham Front, which changed its name from al-Nusra Front after breaking off ties with al-Qaida late last month, state-run National News Agency reported. The Lebanese army meanwhile fired mortar shells at movements by militants in the outskirts of the nearby border town of Ras Baalbek after detecting “suspicious movement,” Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) reported. The shelling inflicted casualties on the militants of the IS group, the radio network said. Al-Jadeed television for its part said that the army was firing artillery at the al-Jarash hill and the Qornet al-Kaf area in al-Qaa's outskirts after detecting movements by the militants. An army helicopter had overnight destroyed a Fateh al-Sham post in Arsal's outskirts.
Militants from IS and Fateh al-Sham are entrenched in rugged areas along the undemarcated Lebanese-Syrian border and the army regularly shells their posts while Hizbullah and the Syrian army have engaged in clashes with them on the Syrian side of the border. The two groups briefly overran the town of Arsal in August 2014 before being ousted by the army after days of deadly battles. The retreating militants abducted more than 30 troops and policemen of whom four have been executed and nine remain in the captivity of the IS group.

Report: Berri Promotes 'Package Deal', Says Electing President Doesn't Solve Difficulties
Naharnet/August 11/16/Speaker Nabih Berri reiterated that the election of a president alone does not solve Lebanon's pending problems, and highlighted the necessity for political factions to shoulder responsibility and agree on controversial issues, al-Joumhouria daily said on Thursday. “Everyone must shoulder their responsibility in order (for Lebanon) to get out of the crisis,” visitors to Berri quoted him as saying. “Their agreement on a solution starting with the election of a president facilitates the task of the president, because electing a president alone does not solve the lingering political problems,” added the Speaker.Berri was referring to the objections raised by head of the Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea and Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi against a package deal that he launched earlier this year. Berri's initiative deal aimed at ending the impasse. He called for shortening the term of parliament and that the elections be held based on the 1960 law should political forces fail to agree on a new electoral one. He also called for staging the presidential elections after the parliamentary ones and forming a national unity government.

Hizbullah Bloc Slams Parties Trying to 'Sabotage' Dialogue, Hails Security Forces
Naharnet/August 11/16/Hizbullah's parliamentary bloc on Thursday accused rival political parties of seeking to “sabotage” the national dialogue sessions that are being held under Speaker Nabih Berri's sponsorship, as it hailed the anti-terror efforts of the army and security forces. “The ongoing national dialogue under Speaker Nabih Berri's responsible sponsorship is a source of confidence for all Lebanese, who hope that it will be able to put the country on the track of stability and solutions,” said the Loyalty to Resistance bloc in a statement issued after its weekly meeting. “This dialogue remains the available opportunity for agreeing on appropriate political solutions regarding the presidency, the drafting of a fair electoral law, and the revival of the State,” the bloc added. It also hoped there will be enough “seriousness and credibility” in order to “quickly reach an understanding that puts an end to the presidential void and allows the reactivation of state institutions.”The bloc, however, expressed “extreme regret that some parties are trying to shun the course of responsible solutions through launching malicious, deliberate statements that are only aimed at sabotage, provocation and discord.”Separately, Loyalty to Resistance expressed “relief” over the performance of all security and military institutions, especially “in their efforts of pursuing takfiri terrorists and protecting the country and citizens from their evils and crimes.”Three consecutive days of national dialogue in Ain el-Tineh have failed to make any breakthrough in the current political stalemate, while new reform-related issues have surfaced, such as the creation of a senate and the implementation of administrative decentralization, which both were stipulated by the 1989 Taef Accord. Berri has scheduled a new dialogue session for September 5. Prior to the consecutive dialogue sessions, the speaker had proposed a so-called “package deal” involving parliamentary elections under a new electoral law before electing a new president and forming a new government. Should the parties fail to agree on a new law, the parliament's current extended term would be curtailed and the elections would be held under the 1960 law which is currently in effect, Berri says. Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, MP Michel Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the parliament's electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed quorum. Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri, who is close to Saudi Arabia, launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah.
The supporters of Aoun's presidential bid argue that he is more eligible than Franjieh to become president due to the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.

Kataeb Students Force Works Suspension at Bourj Hammoud Landfill after Scuffle
Naharnet/August 11/16/A scuffle erupted Thursday between security forces and protesters from the Kataeb Party who eventually managed to force their way into the Bourj Hammoud landfill to demand a halt to what they call “the project of land-filling the sea with garbage on Metn's coast.”
At least two Kataeb students were injured in the clash with security forces, according to Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5). “From now on, every time they start covering the shore with garbage, we will resort to street protests and Kataeb does not maneuver,” Patrick Risha, the head of Kataeb's student department, announced at the site. State-run National News Agency later reported that the protesters had managed to halt earthmoving works at the landfill “after confronting the trucks and seizing the keys of the vehicles.”The government's handling of the waste management file was one of the reasons that Kataeb cited when it asked its ministers to resign from Prime Minister Tammam Salam's cabinet earlier this year. Kataeb Party chief MP Sami Gemayel has accused the government of taking a decision to “fill the Mediterranean Sea with garbage without conducting an environmental impact study and without sorting or treating the waste.” Lebanon's unprecedented trash management crisis erupted in July 2015 after the closure of the central Naameh landfill which was receiving the waste of Beirut and Mount Lebanon. The months-long crisis, which sparked protests against the entire political class, saw streets, forests and riverbanks overflowing with waste and the air filled with the smell of rotting and burning garbage. The cabinet eventually decided to establish two landfills in Costa Brava and Bourj Hammoud and to reactivate the Naameh landfill for two months as part of a four-year plan despite the rejection of many residents and civil society activists. A landfill’s location in the Chouf and Aley areas would be determined later following consultations with the local municipalities, the cabinet said at the time.

Report: Aleppo Battle Pushes More Refugees into Lebanon, Presidency Unaffected
Naharnet/August 11/16/The repercussions of the battle in the neighboring Syrian town of Aleppo on Lebanon will not be reflected on the stalemate of electing a president, but will mainly drive a new wave of displaced Syrians towards Lebanon for refuge, foreign diplomatic sources told al-Joumhouria daily on Thursday. “The presidential file is not linked to the situation in Aleppo. The major impact on Lebanon as the result of the developments in the Syrian town will be a new wave of displaced Syrians towards it,” said the sources. They that spoke on condition of anonymity and advised the Lebanese government to “focus the attention on the Lebanese-Syrian border and close it infront of any potential new exodus because neither Lebanon can afford more refugees nor the donor countries are ready to double its aid to Lebanon.” In that regard, the daily said that Prime Minister Tammam Salam might invite the ministerial committee for displaced persons for a meeting to discuss this issue in addition to the latest developments . “The Lebanese state is determined to stop the influx of new Syrian refugees,” unnamed Lebanese officials were quoted as saying. The Lebanese army and General Security have taken control of monitoring the borders and implement the state's decision. The daily obtained information that some advanced contacts were underway between the government and a number of foreign embassies including Canada and countries of Latin America to take a number of displaced Syrians that could reach 100,000 over a period of six months or a year. However this number does not change the burden of Syrian displacement to Lebanon which is almost 2 million, noting that the number of registered displaced persons has dropped from 1.3 million to 1 million twenty thousand, while the number of unregistered is growing randomly. This explains the claim of the economic bodies, which met yesterday, the Ministry of Interior to combat the competition of Syrians to business Lebanese institutions and Lebanese workers. “A meeting between Salam and U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Philippe Lazzarini discussed the prospects of establishing new projects to accommodate Syrian working force,” the daily remarked. But the Lebanese government has advised him to postpone discussions in light of the current situation in Lebanon and the latest military developments in Syria, fearing of ominous popular reactions. Fighting between government forces and rebels in Aleppo has intensified in the past month, with both sides sending in reinforcements for an all-out battle that could mark a turning point in the five-year war.

Ex-Judge among 2 Dead in Beit al-Shaar 'Murder-Suicide'
Naharnet/August 11/16/A retired judge and another man were found killed on Thursday at the former magistrate's house in the Northern Metn town of Beit al-Shaar, media reports said. Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) identified the ex-judge as Diab Barakat and the man as Ibrahim Labaki. LBCI television said Labaki stormed the house and shot dead Barakat before committing suicide. Mount Lebanon's attorney general and the relevant security agencies have since arrived on the scene and launched an investigation to unveil the incident's circumstances.

Detainees Held in Kid Drowning Case Released
Naharnet/August 11/16/The attorney general of the North district ordered the release of five detainees who were held last week on accusations of negligence in the drowning case of the child Kevin Metlij, the National News Agency reported on Thursday. The detainees were released on a 300,000 Lebanese pounds bail after Kevin's father dropped charges, NNA added. A lifeguard and a summer camp's supervisor in addition to three other individuals were arrested last week. The toddler, 6, reportedly drowned during his participation in a summer camp at the Sawary Resort in the northern city of Batroun. Kevin's uncle Imad Metlej had launched negligence accusations against the summer camp's organizers – the boy's school – and the beach resort. The child's body “remained floating on the surface of the swimming pool for three minutes without anyone noticing,” he said. “Neither the trip's organizers nor the lifeguards paid attention to him as he was drowning, and had it not been for negligence, my nephew would not have died,” Metlej added. The child's parents have also decried perceived negligence.

Ten Syrians Possessing IS Cards Detained after Infiltrating Border
Naharnet/August 11/16/Ten Syrians who have illegally infiltrated Lebanon's territory were arrested on Thursday, the National News Agency reported. An army intelligence unit was able to arrest ten Syrian nationals after infiltrating Lebanon. They were heading to the northeastern border town of Arsal, NNA said. They had briefly resided in the town of Gaza in West Bekaa before they headed to Arsal. The slogan of the Islamic State group was found stamped on health vaccination cards that were found in the possession of the detainees. The detainees are Ali al-Bakar, Anoud al-Bakar, Basma al-Issa, Zahra al-Issa, Ammar al-Issa, Houssam al-Issa, Imad al-Issa, Bashara Awwad al-Issa and Khalil Moustafa.

LAU, ESCWA concludes conference on women, peace and Security
Thu 11 Aug 2016/NNA - Three main areas to ensure the inclusion and participation of women in all aspects of peace and security initiatives across the Arab World, namely: Localizing the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda; Promoting Women Activism in Peace and in War; and Institutionalizing Collaborations on Women, Peace, and Security, were identified and adopted yesterday by the international conference on "Prioritizing Women, Peace and Security on the Arab Agenda". In a press release by ESCWA, its adi: "Falling in a series of current discussions in the region on Women, Peace and Security, the conference concluded by launching the Beirut Call for Action which urged Arab States, the United Nations, the League of Arab States, civil society, policymakers, and practitioners to resource, action, and embed its recommendations. The conference acted as a forum to stimulate new thinking and create a new platform on involving women in the peace processes in the region and exchange experiences and lessons learnt in this regard." Release added: "Participants called for introducing a new paradigm that promotes a culture of peace, active protection of women from violence, as well as tackles issues of violent extremism, radical religious discourse, and political repression. This must include documenting the experiences of women in peace and security, women who engage in peace building processes, and women involved in violence. They recommended expanding knowledge on militarized masculinities as the dominant paradigm in war, as well as the gender divide in the politics of conflict and peace-making, and how to engage men in women, peace, and security issues as allies and advocates of equality and gender justice. They also called for promoting and supporting multi-stakeholder partnerships to include traditional and non-traditional partners, such as academia, media, non-state political actors, and the private sector to promote peace achievements and tolerance (attached is the full text of the Beirut Call for Action).""Over the three-day discussions, the international conference on "Prioritizing Women, Peace and Security on the Arab Agenda" was an opportunity to enrich and expand the debate on issues relating to women, peace, and security across the Arab region, with particular emphasis on strengthening Arab women's participation in peace-building processes across the region, as well as on the role of women in current peace processes in several Arab countries; their successes, limitations, lessons learnt and the way forward," release said. "The conference was organized by the Institute for Women's Studies in the Arab World (IWSAW) at LAU and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) in partnership with the Danish Centre for Research on Women and Gender (KVINFO) from 8 to 10 August at the Beirut Commodore Hotel. It brought together more than 40 high level experts, academics, practitioners, civil society, government, and the United Nations from 11 Arab countries to discuss implications of the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda that encompasses UN Security Council Resolution 1325, subsequent resolutions, recommendation number 30 of the Convention of Eliminating All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), together with other international obligations," release concluded.

Zayed from Maarab: For putting terms to presidential vacancy and supporting national consensus
Thu 11 Aug 2016/NNA - Egyptian Ambassador, Mohammad Badreddine Zayed, stressed the necessity to end the presidential vacuum in Lebanon through supporting and boosting national consensus in this regard. Zayed on Thursday visited head of Lebanese Forces in Maarab and discussed with him local and regional developments. Geagea also met with Agriculture Minister, Akram Chehayeb, and discussed with him agricultural matters.

Marotti awards Vincenti Order of Star of Italy
Thu 11 Aug 2016/NNA - Italian Ambassador to Lebanon, Massimo Marotti, awarded the Order of the Star of Italy, rank of Commendatore, to Giuseppe Vincenti, during a ceremony that took place on Wednesday July 27th, 2016, at Vincenti Villa, in the presence of numerous invitees. In a press release by the Italian Embassy, it said: "In his tireless and continuous work, Vincenti has incessantly strengthen the Italian commercial position in Lebanon and throughout the Middle Eastern countries. He has introduced to the sophisticated Lebanese market many excellent Italian products associated nowadays with the Italian way of life." Release added: "Moreover, Vincenti created the first distribution company in Lebanon and brought many masterpieces of the Italian film industry to large audiences through the Middle East."

Syrian teenagers lure then rape 11 year old child in Majdalia
Thu 11 Aug 2016/NNA - Two 14-year-old Syrians lured and raped an 11-year-old boy in the Aley town of Majdalia, National News Agency correspondent reported on Thursday. Internal Security Forces managed to apprehend one of the molesters, while the second is still at large.

Blaze erupts in steamer at Tripoli seaport
Thu 11 Aug 2016/NNA - A blaze broke out in "Mad Star" touristic steamer inside the premises of Tripoli seaport, with fire destroying a large part of it, especially the cockpit, NNA reporter said on Thursday.
 

Home alone/As Saad Hariri’s world melts, what can he do?
مقالة مايك يونك تتناول الأزمات والصعوبات المالية والسياسية والسنية الزعماتية للرئيس الحريري الذي يعاني من شبه افلاس مالي لشركة اجارو في السعودية التي ورثها عن أبيه كما انه يواجه شبه ثورة سنية لبنانية اعتراضاً على خياراته الفاشلة

 وعلى طريقة ادارة تياره المفكك والمنقسم على نفسه خصوصاً بعد الانتخابات البلدية الأخيرة
Michael Young/Now Lebanon/August 11/16
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/08/11/michael-youngnow-lebanon-home-aloneas-saad-hariris-world-melts-what-can-he-do/

Is Saad Hariri in danger of losing control over both his Future Movement and Saudi Oger company?

That is the question many people have been asking as the former prime minister struggles to reimpose himself on the domestic political scene.
Reports that Hariri and the Saudis have reached the final stage in negotiations for the sale of Saudi Oger (though to whom in the kingdom remains unclear) have yet to be confirmed. However, there is enough information from sources other than Hariri’s political enemies to lend credence to the view that Saudi Oger is bankrupt, and that, for all intents and purposes, the company has effectively slipped away from Hariri control.
With Saudi Oger insolvent and thousands of its employees abandoned without food and water, the problem had become a headache for Saudi Arabia. An Indian minister recently visited the kingdom to come to the assistance of his forsaken countrymen. The visit prompted the Saudi labor minister to announce that all back salaries owed to the company’s laborers would be paid, and that the Saudi government would take control of maintenance at Saudi Oger sites, supply water to the workers and cover their unpaid medical insurance premiums.
All this clearly suggests that the Saudi Oger crisis is too big for Hariri to resolve, which a number of sources, even within his Future Movement, have confirmed. But what of the former prime minister’s political organization? Since his return from self-imposed exile, Hariri has toiled to re-impose his authority over a Future Movement that had learned to live without him after his departure in 2011. Hariri’s financial woes will only make it more difficult to reverse this trend.
To a large extent Hariri is paying the price for several political missteps. His wager on Sleiman Franjieh for the presidency has failed, undermining his credibility with his followers, who were never enthusiastic about his choice of a Syrian ally in the first place.

Worse, Hariri’s performance in the municipal elections varied between passable and disastrous. In Beirut his list won, but his reputation suffered as he backed candidates representing more of the same in the way the capital would be run. In

Tripoli, his defeat, along with others, at the hand of a list backed by Ashraf Rifi was a harsh blow to a man who had always regarded the city and its surroundings as the backbone of his support.
At the same time, Hariri’s relations with his main Christian partner, Samir Geagea, deteriorated after the opening to Franjieh. The former prime minister’s move gave Geagea an excuse to normalize relations with Michel Aoun. Now, Hariri is relatively isolated in the convoluted Lebanese sectarian game, with even Walid Jumblatt keeping him at arm’s length.
At the same time, the public faces of the Future Movement today are Nohad Machnouk and Fouad Siniora, not Hariri. He remains the overall leader, of course, but the distinct sense is that the initiative has shifted away from him, and that this is having a negative effect on his political movement.
For instance earlier this week a story appeared in Al-Akhbar saying that Hariri had asked his parliamentary bloc about the possibility of voting for Aoun as president. According to a source for the story, only three members favored “studying” the idea of supporting an Aoun candidacy: Machnouk, the Protestant parliamentarian from Beirut, Basem Shabb, and the Maronite parliamentarian from Akkar, Hadi Hobeish.
The information was almost certainly leaked by a member of the Hariri bloc who opposes Aoun’s election and who sought to underline that the three parliamentarians, especially Machnouk, represented a small (mainly Christian) minority standing against a majority of members. In other words some bloc members were leaking against others, in a newspaper known to be opposed to Hariri no less, to score internal political points. That didn’t say much about the unity of the bloc, let alone Hariri’s ability to impose discipline on its members.
What are Hariri’s options at this stage? Allegedly, the Saudi Oger sale will include a clause that splits off the company’s maintenance branch and leaves it under the control of the former prime minister. If true, this will generate revenues for him, though far less than what he took in before. Hariri will have to downsize his expansive patronage network, and it will cost him in political support. He should probably give up the hope of remaining the Saudis’ favorite in Lebanon.
At the same time, with more room to maneuver vis-à-vis the kingdom, Hariri can try to reinvent himself. There remains a place in the political leadership for a Sunni moderate. It won’t be easy, especially as Hariri will have to contend with leaders who will play the sectarian populist card, portraying themselves as the individuals best able to oppose Hezbollah. But moderation usually has a way of making a comeback, as the experiences of Najib Mikati and Tammam Salam showed.
Saad Hariri should throw away the last 11 years since his father’s assassination and start over. That means ridding himself of the useless, corrupt hangers-on who populate the Future Movement. He still has much going for him, even as the masonry falls all around. The future, actually, is now.
**Michael Young is a writer and editor in Beirut. He tweets @BeirutCalling.

Our Compromised Lebanese Allies
Bilal Hussein/Commentary/August 11/16
https://www.commentarymagazine.com/foreign-policy/middle-east/the-terror-war-front-in-lebanon/
Earlier this year Saudi Arabia discontinued its $4 billion aid package to the Lebanese armed forces on the grounds that they had been hopelessly compromised by Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed terrorist organization which is by far the strongest military and political actor in Lebanon. So it is a little startling to read today that the U.S. Embassy in Beirut is bragging about all the military equipment it is delivering to the Lebanese army:
The United States delivered 50 armored vehicles, 40 artillery pieces and 50 grenade launchers to the Lebanese army on Tuesday, part of its efforts to bolster Lebanon against a threat from militant groups in neighboring, conflict-ridden Syria.
The equipment, worth $50 million, is part of an aid package that has now topped $220 million this year, making Lebanon the fifth-biggest recipient of American military assistance, U.S. ambassador Elizabeth Richard said during the delivery.
Something doesn’t add up here. Does the U.S. government disagree with Riyadh about the degree of Hezbollah domination of Lebanon in general and its armed forces in particular? Does Washington believe that the Lebanese armed forces can be bolstered as an independent force to stand up to various terrorist groups including Hezbollah—and if so, how do we imagine that will happen? Or does the U.S. government simply not care about the Hezbollah-Lebanese armed forces connection?
I hesitate to leap to the conclusion that Washington simply doesn’t care, but if so that would be of a piece with the Obama administration’s de facto tilt toward Iran since the completion of the nuclear deal. The U.S. has been doing precious little to oppose the machinations of Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria, of which Hezbollah is the most prominent and powerful. The U.S. has even dropped bombs in Iraq in support of the advance of the Shiite militias. President Obama seems to imagine that the Iranian-backed forces can be an American ally against Sunni terrorist groups such as Islamic State and al-Qaeda.
If so, he is making a tragic miscalculation, one that I and others have repeatedly warned against. Ayatollah Ali Khameini, because he is able to marshal the resources of a large, oil-rich state with a nuclear program, is a greater long-term danger to the West than Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who heads a relatively small, ramshackle state that is losing ground. Instead of trying to cooperate with Iran or turn a blind eye to its activities, the U.S. needs a much more active program to disrupt Iranian designs across the region.
In Lebanon, for example, Hezbollah has made itself unpopular by sending its young men to fight not against Israel but against the Syrian rebels—all Sunnis—who are fighting against the Iranian-backed Alawite regime (an offshoot of Shiite Islam). The U.S. should be helping anti-Hezbollah organizers in Lebanon to reduce that organization’s power instead of funneling arms to the politically compromised Lebanese military.

Hezbollah emerging as the dominant militant group in the Middle East
Dr. Azeem Ibrahim/Al Arabiya/August 11/16
Of the many, many players in the Syrian conflict, one that has not received much coverage in the Western press is Hezbollah. This oversight was laid bare a few days ago when a tape emerged of a Hezbollah fighter complaining that they were left to fight alone in the battles of recent days in Aleppo: “They (fellow pro-regime fighters) all left us, the Iranian, Afghans and Syrians… all of them left us”, the fighter was reporting to his superiors.
The significance of this is easy to overlook. Among the many groups rampaging through Syria and northern Iraq, it would be surprising if a group like Hezbollah would not be involved.
The Assad family and their Alawite governments have been long-time allies of the group, and they dutifully came to the rescue when called upon. And even if they hadn’t been called upon, it is reasonable to expect that such a group would be keen to throw its weight around in this kind of conflict, which is taking place so close to their Lebanese heartlands.
But what is remarkable about Hezbollah’s involvement is precisely what the leaked tape gave away: they are not just another militia running around and shooting at people of the opposite Muslim sect. In many ways, they are as significant a fighting force in the conflict as Assad’s own army. They have certainly been more significant in the fight for Aleppo in the last few days, but this is far from unique.
In the aftermath of the Syrian conflict, Hezbollah are more like a standing army, capable not just of insurgency, but also counter-insurgency
When the forces of the Assad regime were on the brink of collapse, it was not just the Russians who were instrumental in turning things around. They brought superior technology and firepower, but did not bring significant man-power. The man-power came primarily from Hezbollah.
And the war has been good for the organisation, too. In playing such a significant role in the conflict on the Shiite side, it has established itself as perhaps the dominant militant group this side of the Euphrates. It has received a massive boost in funding, recruits, and, of course, military hardware, not least from their Iranian backers. And the experience the group has gained fighting in the varied theatres of Syria is perhaps even more valuable.
Why should we in the West care about the fate of this particular group, in the fluid power-politics of the region? Because of their history with and intent towards Israel and other Sunni countries. Hezbollah came to the forefront of public consciousness after the 2006 war they had with Israel.
Gaining weight
Although their initial attack was fought off by the vastly superior Israeli army, the conflict only ended with a virtual standstill. In the aftermath of that conflict, they were hailed as the only force in the Middle East capable to stand up to Israel. That lent it much weight in the Arab world.
But back then, they were a minnow insurgency group. In the aftermath of the Syrian conflict, they are more like a standing army, capable not just of insurgency, but also counter-insurgency. Capable to take, and even hold hostile territory. They have much greater numbers, much better equipment, and much more experience of fighting in virtually all the kinds of terrains you can find in the region.
That is why Israel and other Arab countries are watching, worried. Constrained as it is by the geopolitical realities of the Middle East, they can do nothing but watch as Hezbollah is growing in strength on its northern border. But they know that, like in the past, they would have no qualms about starting a conflict with Israel or interfering in another Arab country if they believed they cloud withstand the retaliation.
Plus, having manoeuvred itself into this dominant position, Hezbollah will be under pressure from its political base to particularly move against Israel again at some point in the future. So long as they will be engaged in Syria, that will not be an issue. But when that conflict finally subsides, Israel may well be next.
 

Why the surprise that Lebanon cannot elect a president?
Joseph A. Kechichian/Gulf News/ August 11/16
As this column foresaw in April 2014, no one has succeeded president Michel Sulaiman yet — and no one will probably fill the vacancy for a while.
Sulaiman ended his six-year term on May 24, 2014, while the Lebanese parliament, which elects the head-of-state, gathered on April 23, 2014, without, however, choosing a successor. After a 43rd consecutive convocation last Monday, the assembly once again failed to secure a quorum, which prompted Speaker Nabih Berri — who was habitually absent — to issue a new invitation for September 7, 2016.
The disputes are well-known and can be summarised in a single sentence: Michel Aoun, the March 8 candidate, insists that the presidency is his (and is backed in this quest by Hezbollah and others), while the Future bloc-led March 14 coalition prefers the avowedly pro-Syrian Sulaiman Franjieh. Both contenders are fielded to block the other, while swing voters, led by Druze chieftain Walid Junblatt and his Progressive Socialist Party deputies, have nominated Henri Helou in yet another obstructive step.
None of these candidates can win, but that’s the point because Lebanese elites do not wish to settle existing differences. Excuses abound as rivals denigrate each other, mock other candidates, hide behind a constitution that few respect, engage in political gymnastics worthy of Olympic medals — all the while pretending to govern what is now a failed state, even as most of the residents continue to enjoy life, pretending to inhabit a normal country.
Given the intransigence that the March 8 and 14 coalitions practice with unprecedented vengeance, can this “Gordian knot” be untied, and what conditions must be fulfilled to finally select a president?
Aoun — Hezbollah’s sole candidate for presidency who secured the backing of the Lebanese Forces on January 18, 2016 — is 82 years old. Given his checkered background — he was against the Syrians before he decided to be for them — only acolytes imagine that the stubborn former army commander can win, even if he believes that the office is his for the taking. Even close associates claim that Aoun suffers from a Napoleon-complex, while independent observers insist that only death will end his quest, which is an eternity in political life.
In the event Aoun is rejected by the March 14 coalition, there is a perfect antidote in deputy Franjieh — though even his candidacy is problematic. For now, the majority of the Future Bloc deputies have supported Franjieh, who leans towards March 8 and has declared being soulmates with Syrian President Bashar Al Assad. As a relatively young man, Franjieh, 50, can wait for a while, though it is unclear whether he will be able to secure 65 votes — half of the 128 deputies plus one.
In a tug-of-war worthy of the Game of Thrones, and in a land where political respect for the constitution is ephemeral at best, the end result is stalemate as neither of these two men are consensual or conciliatory candidates. Yet, unlike the Game of Thrones scenarios that regularly witness bloody confrontations, the Lebanese elites seem to have decided to save their financial empires, even if that effectively means that the highest position in the land will remain in abeyance. In other words, Lebanon will not repeat the civil war so that the elites who have accumulated vast financial resources can keep their wealth and continue to enjoy incredible monopolies.
Short of physical confrontations, therefore, elites are engaged in unending political clashes. A few rummage through the moribund ‘National Dialogue’, knowing full well that they cannot possibly agree on anything substantive. Others pretend to advance new electoral laws, aware that all 128 sitting parliamentarians are determined to renew their lucrative portfolios under the current rule, which, a fresh system will shake up. Still others contemplate the creation of a Senate as well as administrative decentralisation reforms, as stipulated in the 1989 Ta’if Accords, cognizant that the process is at least 25 years late with few takers before genuine reforms are introduced. A few have the courage to remind each other that the State, now personified by the Cabinet, cannot impose its authority on all of the national territory. In Lebanon, Hezbollah has acquired exclusive right to use arms, arrive at a decision over war and peace, go to war and intervene in other countries — all without conforming to state authority.
Political elites have accepted all of these realities, even if each one poses serious challenges to the Lebanese state and its citizens. Under the circumstances, why bother about a head-of-state, and why rush into prearranged compromises that will further undermine what’s left of Lebanon’s unity? Why even pretend that there is need for a president when the elites are engaged in business-as-usual?
Dr Joseph A. Kechichian is the author of the just published From Alliance to Union: Challenges Facing Gulf Cooperation Council States in the Twenty-First Century (Sussex: 2016).

Bill, Hillary, Mr. Chagoury and Hezbollahفضائح شاغوري وحزب الله مع كلينتون ونصائح السنيورة
Rebecca Bynum/New English Review/August 11/16

http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/08/11/rebecca-bynum-bill-hillary-mr-chagoury-and-hezbollah%D9%81%D8%B6%D8%A7%D8%A6%D8%AD-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B4%D8%A7%D8%BA%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%8A-%D9%88%D8%AD%D8%B2%D8%A8-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D9%87-%D9%85%D8%B9/
http://www.newenglishreview.org/Rebecca_Bynum/Bill,_Hillary,_Mr._Chagoury_and_Hezbollah/

As was recently reported, a new batch of emails from Hillary Clinton’s State Department have been obtained by Judicial Watch. One read, as related by CNN,
In a 2009 email, [Douglas] Band directs Abedin and Mills to put Gilbert Chagoury, a Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire and Clinton Foundation donor, in contact with the State Department's "substance person" on Lebanon.
"We need Gilbert Chagoury to speak to the substance person re Lebanon," Band wrote. "As you know, he's a key guy there and to us and is loved in Lebanon. Very imp."
"It's jeff feltman," Abedin responded, referring to Jeffrey Feltman, who was the US ambassador to Lebanon at the time. "I'm sure he knows him. I'll talk to jeff."
Gilbert R. Chagoury, or Ambassador Chagoury as he prefers to be addressed, since he holds what seem to be honorary Ambassadorships (one to the Vatican for St. Lucia and another to UNESCO), is a very wealthy man. His estimated worth is $7.4 billion. A gallery at the Louvre is named for him and his wife. He is well known for making large donations and among those he has donated to, the Clinton Foundation stands out. He has given the Clinton Foundation between $1 million and $5 million. In 2009, he also pledged $1 billion to the Clinton Global Initiative. Robin Urevich revealed quite a bit about Mr. Chagoury in an extensive investigative piece for PBS’s Frontline.
"Every one knows I'm friends with the Clintons," Chagoury says.
In addition to his a large donations to the Clinton Foundation and Clinton Global Initiative, he has also donated to Mrs. Clinton’s previous Presidential campaign according to the Wall Street Journal from 2008:
Mr. Chagoury contributed $460,000 to a tax-exempt voter-registration group connected to the Democratic National Committee. A 1997 Washington Post article said that Mr. Chagoury subsequently received an invitation to a White House dinner for Democratic Party supporters. He also met with Clinton administration officials on Nigeria and later talked privately about his efforts to influence U.S. policy toward that country, says a person familiar with the matter.
Despite any controversies, Mr. Chagoury has steadily built ties to Mr. Clinton. In 2003, he helped organize a Caribbean trip where the former president was paid $100,000 for a speech. Mr. Clinton has made over $40 million giving speeches around the world. According to news reports, Mr. Chagoury attended Mr. Clinton's 60th birthday bash two years ago in New York. He also joined the former president at the gala wedding celebration in France last year of Mr. Clinton's top aide, Douglas Band, say people who were there.
Doug Band heads the Clinton Foundation and a global consulting business called Teneo Holdings connected to the Clintons. It was his email requesting a favor for Chagoury from the State Department which surfaced in the latest FOIA disclosure by Judicial Watch. According to an article in Newsmax (2009):
Band carries the title Counselor to President Clinton, but he is much more than an aide to the former president. He is, in fact, Bill Clinton's chief advisor and right hand.
Douglas Band stands behind Kim Jong Un duriing Bill Clinton's mission to release hostages from N. Korea
He also created the Clinton Global Initiative which according to the same article raised $46 billion dollars in just four years. Some of those funds came from Mr. Chagoury. So where, then, did Mr. Chagoury get his wealth?
The big money seems to have started flowing his way when he became an advisor to Sani Abacha, the military ruler and de facto President of Nigeria from 1993 to 1998. Returning to the Frontline expose:
Chagoury was among the last of the all-powerful middlemen who served the heads of oil-rich African states, says Philippe Vasset, longtime editor of Africa Energy Intelligence, one of a series of influential energy industry newsletters. "He [Chagoury] was the gatekeeper to Abacha's presidency," Vasset says.
In many African countries, a Western entrepreneur might hand over money to a fixer or middleman, who would then pass it on to a political leader in exchange for support for a business venture. In Nigeria, Vasset explains, Chagoury was just such a figure in the mid-1990s, when Abacha ruled the country and held the key to much of the country's oil wealth.
From his earliest days in power, Abacha set the tone for an administration that would become the most corrupt in Nigeria's history. Today, more than a decade after the dictator's death, investigators from Washington DC to the Nigerian capital of Abuja are still unraveling the web of shady dealings around Abacha's rule.
Within months of taking office in 1993, Abacha began to divert money from Nigeria's central bank to the overseas bank accounts of his family members and associates, including Chagoury's. A lawsuit brought by the Nigerian government against Abacha's heirs and associates in the United Kingdom shows that the dictator fraudulently ordered the bank transfers for national security purposes.
By the time of Abacha's death in 1998, those so-called security payments would total $2 billion, but they would represent less than half the funds that money-laundering investigators around the world estimate that Abacha and his associates stole from their country.
In 2000, Chagoury was convicted in Geneva, Switzerland, of laundering money and aiding a criminal organization in connection with the billions of dollars stolen from Nigeria during the Abacha years.
Argand [his attorney] has insisted that Chagoury used the money for diplomatic missions on behalf of Abacha. Asked if he had records to substantiate that claim, Argand said he couldn't produce any. He also conceded that the money was "stolen by Abacha, and had to be returned."
However, Argand says that Chagoury had already decided on his own to return it. In the end, he says, his client agreed to a plea deal: Chagoury would pay a fine of a million Swiss francs and hand over $66 million to the Nigerian government. Swiss authorities promised to expunge the conviction after two years, which they have done.
In 1999, Chagoury won immunity from prosecution in a separate looted-assets case in Nigeria by agreeing to return money that he held in Swiss bank accounts. The precise amount that Chagoury returned is unclear.
And Chagoury hasn't stopped earning his fortune. Knowledgeable sources say that Chagoury controls South Atlantic Petroleum, a company that was awarded a choice oil exploration license before Abacha's death. Three years ago, the company sold a portion of its government-granted concession to the Chinese oil company, China National Offshore Oil Corporation, for $2.7 billion.
Chagoury has since used those funds he kept in order to reinvent himself as a great businessman/philanthropist and patron of the Catholic Church.
Chagoury’s work with Christians in the Middle East is where things take another strange turn. He helped to organize “In Defense of Christians” (IDC) an organization which is pro-Hezbollah – yes you read that right, pro-Hezbollah, pro-Assad and pro-Iran. You may remember back in September of 2014, Ted Cruz addressed this group with a pro-Israel message, was booed, scolded the audience in return and unceremoniously left the stage. Lee Smith gives some background in the Weekly Standard:
Chagoury, who according to leaked U.S. diplomatic cables has supported Michel Aoun, Hezbollah’s key Christian ally in Lebanon. A 2007 cable also explains that Chagoury is close to Suleiman Franjieh Jr., another pillar of Lebanon’s pro-Damascus, pro-Hezbollah March 8 political coalition and a man who calls Assad his friend and brother. Former prime minister of Lebanon Fouad Siniora suggested to then U.S. ambassador to Lebanon Jeffrey Feltman “that the U.S. deliver to Chagoury a stern message about the possibility of financial sanctions and travel bans against those who undermine Lebanon’s legitimate institutions.”
Remember, it was Ambassador Feltman whom Chagoury asked to see in the leaked State Department email. Since this cable dates from 2007, it is safe to say the Siniora’s recommendation never came to pass. But the question remains, what was the real purpose of IDC? How deep are Chagoury’s ties to the terrorist group, Hezbollah? Did any of this influence the State Department or the Iran deal? And did Hillary Clinton refuse to list Boko Haram as a terrorist organization while at the State Department as a favor to Chagoury?
Stay tuned.
**Rebecca Bynum serves as Assistant to the Foreign Policy Advisor to Donald J. Trump, Dr. Walid Phares. She is also New English Review's managing editor. Her latest book is The Real Nature of Religion, published by New English Review Press.

Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on on August 11-12/16
قوات الأمن الكندية في جنوبي تورنتو تقتل ارهابياً كان يخطط لإعمال تفجير
Lone suspect killed in anti-terrorism operation in southern Ontario
CTVNews.ca Staff/Published Wednesday, August 10, 2016
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/08/10/lone-suspect-killed-in-anti-terrorism-operation-in-southern-ontario%D9%82%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D9%85%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%83%D9%86%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%AC%D9%86%D9%88/
A suspected ISIS sympathizer believed to be the lone suspect in a suicide bomb plot on a major Canadian city was killed Wednesday during a dramatic police takedown in a southern Ontario town, CTV News has learned.
Aaron Driver, 23, was killed inside a home in Strathroy, Ont., a community about 225 kilometres west of Toronto. He was well known to Canadian intelligence and police officials for his support for the Islamist terrorist group.
Police believe Driver was acting alone in the alleged plot, and there is no threat to public safety. But officials were swarming Strathroy house until late Wednesday night, concerned about what may have been inside.
The suspect in an alleged terror plot, Aaron Driver, is seen in this photograph obtained by CTV News.
Security officials are seen in Strathroy, Ont., a community about 225 kilometres west of Toronto, where a police operation has been linked to a suspected terrorist threat.
Police officers are seen in Strathroy, Ont., where a police operation has been linked to an alleged terrorist plot.
Neighbours reported hearing a loud explosion and gunshots during the police operation, which included swat teams, a bomb squad, the RCMP and Canada’s military special operations forces.
According to an internal government memo obtained by CTV News, the suspect allegedly planned to use an IED to carry out a suicide bombing mission in a public area. His alleged plan, according to the document, was to create mass casualties.
Officials feared that the plot could’ve been carried out on Wednesday during rush hour in a busy location.
The RCMP has not said what city was allegedly targeted. Security officials say there is no longer a threat to national security.
Driver was well known to police and intelligence officials. He was known for tweeting his support of ISIS, and he applauded the 2014 attack on Parliament Hill and encouraged ISIS to target Canadian military and police.
However, there is no evidence whether he was directed by the group in Wednesday’s foiled plot.
Driver was previously arrested but never formally charged for his actions. He was released on a peace bond and banned from using a computer, a cellphone or associating with terrorist sympathizers.
The RCMP released a statement saying it received "credible information of a potential terrorist threat" earlier in the day.
"A suspect was identified and the proper course of action has been taken to ensure that there is no danger to the public's safety," the statement said.
"The safety and security of Canadians is of the utmost importance to the RCMP and we take all such threats seriously. As this is still an unfolding matter and that the investigation is still underway, we are not able to provide further comment at this time."
Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Ralph Goodale said in a statement that he spoke with the prime minister to confirm that public safety “continues to be properly protected.”
“There is no greater responsibility of the Government than to keep its citizens safe. Earlier today, the RCMP received credible information regarding a potential terrorist threat and took action to ensure public safety,” Goodale said.
Goodale pointed out that Canada’s national terrorism threat level remains at “medium,” where it has been since the fall of 2014.
With a report from CTV’s Mercedes Stephenson

Iran: Execution of 46 people in 9 days
NCRI/Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran/Thursday, 11 August 2016
The clerical regime hanged at least 46 prisoners in cities across the country from August 2 to August 10. 26 of them were political prisoners. Secret execution of Shahram Amiri, a nuclear expert of the regime, after six years' imprisonment, hanging three prisoners including a young 23-year-old man in Saqqez, a prisoner in Taybad prison in Khorasan Razavi province and two others in the central prison of Qazvin on August 3, execution of four prisoners in the central prison of Lakan in Rasht on August 6, hanging four prisoners in the central prison of Oroumiyeh and a prisoner in Miandoab and hanging a prisoner in public in the city of Saveh on August 9, and hanging three prisoners on August 10 in Gohardasht prison in Karaj are among the regime's crimes in the past few days. Saveh Justice department said in a statement about these death penalties: "The judiciary will not retreat in dealing decisively with the public security disruptors " (IRNA August 9, 2016) Amoli Larijani, the regime’ Judiciary head henchman, in response to the growing wave of protest and revulsion of the people of Iran and calls of authorities and international organizations for a moratorium on executions and torture and repression, described brutal punishments of the clerical regime as "retribution" and "the lifeblood" and said: “[The regime of] Iran in dealing with terrorism (read dissidents and protesters) will not tolerate ... and will not sacrifice its values for some remarks and false and untrue reactions of human rights claimants" (Tasnim- terrorist Qods force news agency –August 8, 2016). Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran/August 10, 2016
 

Iranian youths issue statement condemning recent spate of executions in Iran
Thursday, 11 August 2016/NCRI - A group of Iranian youths and students, based in central Iran, have released a statement condemning the executions of Sunni youths on August 2, and added their voices to the growing chorus calling for a free, just and democratic Iran. The urged “freedom loving people” to support the Resistance forces, including the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), who are fighting against the tyrannical regime and their horrific crimes. The Iranian regime mass executed a group of 30 Sunni political prisoners last week. The families of the victims were told to arrive before 3pm on Tuesday August 2, for a last meeting with their loved ones but when they arrived, they were told that the executions had already taken place. Mohammad Mohaddessin, the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the NCRI said: “This inhuman crime took place [on] the anniversary of the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in Iran. The mullahs' regime is facing absolute social isolation and widespread abhorrence by the people and thus is resorting to increased executions to create a climate of fear and to prevent the possibility of a nationwide uprising.”He cites that the number of people executed during the government of Hassan Rouhani are fast approaching 3,000, with many more subject to torture, persecution and corporal punishment.”He continued: “The international community's silence in the face of this crime is shameful for modern day humanity. If this regime and its leaders and officials are not prosecuted for crimes against humanity, then what good are the Rome Statute and the International Criminal Court? The UN Security Council has an obligation to bring the regime's criminal record before a competent international court. Ali Khamenei, [former President] Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, Hassan Rouhani and other such criminals who have had a direct role in the execution of 120,000 political prisoners to date, including the 1988 massacre, must be brought to justice.”The youth, from the Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province, wrote: “The foundations of the regime are faltering more than ever and government leaders see their own destruction in one step.”

Iran regime arrests 769 people in swoop on Qom Province
Thursday, 11 August 2016/NCRI - The Iranian regime’s state suppressive forces (police) have in recent days arrested 769 people in a repressive plan called "Zolfaghar 8 Plan" in Qom Province, south of Tehran. Revolutionary Guard Kazem Mojtabaee, chief of police in Qom, justified this repressive measure and claimed they were persistent law breakers who did not comply with social norms. He added: “More than 500 staff of the police in Qom, in intelligence, security and operational units in both clandestine and open operations began the operation in 100 locations and predetermined sites with prior coordination and on receiving separate orders.”Mehr news agency quoted him on August 8 as saying: “53% of those arrested are unemployed and this means that in creating jobs and production criteria, we were not able to work well.”The mullahs’ regime routinely launches crackdowns in cities in society on the bogus guise of combatting vice in order to spread fear in society and prevent anti-regime protests from erupting.

Further protests outside Iran regime’s parliament, rallies held in Rasht and Mashhad
NCRI/Thursday, 11 August 2016/ According to reports received from Tehran, from 8 am on Tuesday, August 9, 2016, preschool teachers continued their third day of rally in front of the Iranian regime’s Majlis, or Parliament. Protesters participating in the rally came from different cities and called for determination of their employment status. The protests follow more than five years delay by the clerical regime in responding to the teachers’ demands. The regime has each time refused to respond to the usurped rights of teachers and has instead threatened them or acted to expel or suppress them. Separately in Mashhad, north-east Iran, from 10 am on Tuesday, August 9, 2016, a group of financial victims of the state-affiliated Pardissian Company rallied in front of the state-run Khorasan newspaper affiliated to the regime’s Astan Qods conglomerate in Mashhad Sadoughi Street. They protested the lack of coverage by this newspaper about their issues. The city of Rasht in northern Iran also saw a protest rally of Chuka employees in front of the entrance gate of the company. Demonstrating workers carried banners reading “Respect workers' rights" and called for an immediate resolution to their excruciating circumstances.
Chuka Company has been closed down for several months under the pretext of repairs and the salaries of workers have not been paid. The protest surpassed its second day.

Trump accuses Obama of being ‘founder of ISIS’
The Associated Press, Sunrise, Florida Thursday, 11 August 2016/Donald Trump accused President Barack Obama on Wednesday of founding the ISIS militant group that is wreaking havoc from the Middle East to European cities. A moment later, on another topic, he referred to the president by his full legal name: Barack Hussein Obama. “In many respects, you know, they honor President Obama,” Trump said during a raucous campaign rally outside Fort Lauderdale, Florida. “He is the founder of ISIS.” He repeated the allegation three more times for emphasis. The Republican presidential nominee in the past has accused his opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton, of founding the militant group. As he shifted the blame to Obama on Wednesday, he said “crooked Hillary Clinton” was actually the group’s co-founder. Trump has long blamed Obama and his former secretary of state – Clinton – for pursuing Mideast policies that created a power vacuum in Iraq that was exploited by ISIS, another acronym for the group. He’s sharply criticized Obama for announcing he would pull US troops out of Iraq, a decision that many Obama critics say created the kind of instability in which extremist groups like ISIS thrive. The White House declined to comment on Trump’s accusation.

Deadly Russian raids strike ISIS capital Raqqa
AFP Thursday, 11 August 2016/Russian air strikes on ISIS bastion of Raqqa in northern Syria on Thursday killed at least 30 people, including civilians and jihadists, a monitoring group said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 10 raids hit the city and its outskirts, wounding at least 70 others. The monitor could not specify how many of those killed were ISIS. Russia confirmed that six Tupolev warplanes carried out airstrikes around Raqqa, but said it had demolished “a chemical weapons factory in the city’s northwestern outskirts.”The defense ministry said the raids also destroyed a weapons storage facility and a training camp for ISIS fighters to the north and southeast. The ministry said that the extrenusts had suffered “significant material damages” in the strikes and that “a large number of fighters have been killed.” The raids comes a day after the ministry said it would halt fire around Syria’s ravaged city of Aleppo for three hours each day to allow humanitarian aid in, an initiative the United Nations said is insufficient to meet the city’s needs. The UN has called for urgent aid access to Aleppo and 48-hour weekly pauses for the aid deliveries, warning that civilians are at grave risk from water shortages and disease as fighting has intensified. Fighting between government forces and rebels in Aleppo has intensified in the past month, with both sides sending in reinforcements.

Military attaches, diplomats flee in Turkey’s post-coup inquiry
Agencies Thursday, 11 August 2016/Two Turkish military attaches in Greece fled to Italy, others were caught overseas and some diplomats were on the run after being recalled as part of an inquiry into last month's failed military coup, Turkey’s foreign minister said on Thursday. A deadline for Turkish diplomats recalled to Ankara as part of investigations into a failed military coup expired on Thursday and a “legal process” has started against those who had not come back, Mevlut Cavusoglu, the foreign minister, told NTV television. A number of Turkish military attaches abroad supported the coup and some had even notified their embassies on the night of the failed coup that they were “in charge now,” Cavusoglu said. Cavusoglu said two Turkish civil servants in Bangladesh had fled to New York, while two land and navy attaches in Greece had fled to Italy. Greek authorities had established that they had left Greece for Italy aboard a ferry on the night of Aug. 6, together with their families. He said one of the colonels had a brother in the Netherlands and that Italy, the Netherlands and other European countries had been notified. “We are in contact so that the two traitors may be brought back to Turkey,” Cavusoglu said. Cavusoglu said a military attache based in Kuwait had also tried to escape through Saudi Arabia, but had been sent back, as well as two generals based in Afghanistan who had been caught in Dubai by UAE authorities and returned to Turkey.
“Time has run out”
“There are those who have escaped. There have been escapees among our diplomats as well,” Cavusoglu told NTV in an interview. “As of yesterday, time has run out for those initially called back. We will carry out the legal operations for those who have not returned.” Interior Minister Efkan Ala was quoted on Thursday as saying almost 76,100 civil servants have now been suspended. The Greek foreign ministry said the two attaches fled before Ankara asked them to return to Turkey, and before officials cancelled their diplomatic passports. Meanwhile, US officials told Reuters this week that a Turkish military officer is seeking asylum in the United States after being recalled by the government. Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency later said that the Navy Rear Adm. Mustafa Ugurlu, who was working at a NATO base in the United States, had gone missing. The agency said Ugurlu had been working at NATO’s Allied Command Transformation headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia. Anadolu, citing an official at the Turkish embassy in Washington, said Ugurlu had left his ID and badges at his base on July 22 and has not made contact since. Asked about reports that Ugurlu was seeking asylum in the United States, Cavusoglu said Turkey had asked for information from Washington but had not yet received a response. He repeated, however, Turkey’s demand that the United States extradite US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Turkey blames for the attempted coup. “Our main expectation from the United States is Gulen’s return,” Cavusoglu said. “We are seeing signs of US cooperation.”The US State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said the department does not comment on or handle asylum cases. The US Citizenship and Immigration Services said it could not discuss individual cases due to privacy concerns. Turkey has also asked Athens to return eight suspected coup-plotters who fled Turkey in a helicopter, just after the coup was quashed. They insist they were not involved in the attempted coup, had been tasked with transporting wounded soldiers and civilians and had fled for their lives after coming under fire from Turkish police. The eight are seeking political asylum. One official said the foreign ministry sent instructions to Turkish diplomatic missions around the world where those suspected of links to the plotters were thought to be working, ordering them back to Ankara as part of the investigations. Cavusoglu has previously said around 300 members of the foreign ministry have been suspended since the coup plot, including two ambassadors. He said on Thursday two officials in Bangladesh fled to New York, and another official had fled to Japan through Moscow. “We will return these traitors to Turkey,” Cavusoglu said.
“Parallel state”
The abortive July 15 coup and the subsequent purge of the military has raised concern about the stability of Turkey, a key member of the US-led coalition fighting ISIS and battling an insurgency at home by Kurdish militants. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen of staging the attempted putsch, harnessing his extensive network of schools, charities and businesses built up in Turkey and abroad over decades to create a “parallel structure.” Gulen denies any involvement and has condemned the coup bid. But he says Erdogan is using the purges to shore up his own power in Turkey. Turkey has been angered by the Western response to the attempted coup, viewing Europe as more concerned about the rights of the plotters than the events themselves and the United States as reluctant to extradite Gulen. That has chilled relations with Washington and the European Union, bringing repeated Turkish warnings about an EU deal to stem the flow of migrants. Erdogan has also repaired ties with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, a detente Western officials worry may be used to pressure the West. “Sooner or later the United States of America will make a choice. Either Turkey or FETO,” Erdogan told a rally late on Wednesday, using an abbreviation standing for the “Gulenist Terror Group” which is how Ankara refers to Gulen’s movement. However, Cavusoglu said that problems caused by the July 15 coup attempt at the Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey, used by the US-led coalition against ISIS, had been resolved. Turkey would from now on actively join coalition operations with warplanes, he said. A total of 160 members of the military wanted in connection with the failed coup are still at large, including nine generals, officials have said. The purge inside Turkey also presses on. Turkey has cancelled the work permits of 27,424 people working in the education sector as part of its investigations, Education Minister Ismet Yilmaz said on Thursday. Ankara prosecutors on Thursday also ordered the detention of 648 judges and prosecutors suspended a day earlier, Hurriyet newspaper and broadcasters said. They are among 3,500 judges and prosecutors -- a quarter of the national total -- suspended in the coup probe, according to state-run Anadolu Agency. (With AP, Reuters)

Turkey Offers Russia Joint Operations against IS in Syria
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/August 11/16/Turkey on Thursday called on Russia to carry out joint operations against Islamic State (IS) in Syria, after crucial talks between President Vladimir Putin and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan aimed at ending a crisis in ties.The comments by Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu came as a Turkish delegation was in Russia for talks aimed at coordinating actions on Syria and other bilateral issues. "We will discuss all the details. We have always called on Russia to carry out anti-Daesh (IS) operations together," Cavusoglu said in a live interview with the private NTV television, adding that the proposal was still "on the table". Cavusoglu urged Russia to fight against the "common enemy" of IS jihadists in Syria. "Let's fight against the terrorist group together, so that we can clear it out as soon as possible," the minister said, warning otherwise that the group would keep on expanding and spread into other countries. Erdogan visited Russia's second city of Saint Petersburg on Tuesday -- his first trip abroad since the July 15 coup attempt. It was also his first direct meeting with Putin since the shooting-down of a Russian fighter jet by Turkish air forces on the Syrian border in November that caused unprecedented damage to relations. NATO member Turkey was long criticised by its Western partners for not playing a full role in the fight against IS but upped its involvement last year by offering U.S. forces use of an air base for raids against the group. Turkey has also carried out air and artillery strikes against IS of its own although it it believed to have halted the operations in the wake of the Russian plane incident. The three-person Turkish delegation in Moscow, made up of representatives from the military, intelligence and foreign service, is tasked with implementing decisions made at Tuesday's summit, Cavusoglu said. "I believe the mechanism will contribute to this process," he added. Cavusoglu said close cooperation between Turkey and Russia would help prevent incidents in the future like the plane crisis. "Many countries are engaged in Syria actively. There could be mistakes," he said. "In order to prevent that, we need to put into practice the solidarity and cooperation (mechanism) between us including sharing of real time intelligence."Cavusoglu also said real time communication was also needed between the two presidents and the military officials of the two countries.

Turkey Parliament to Ratify Israel Deal before Recess
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/August 11/16/Turkey's foreign minister has said that parliament will approve a deal to normalize ties with Israel before it goes into its summer recess later this month, the Anadolou news agency reported Thursday. "I think we will finalize this work before the parliament goes into the summer recess," Mevlut Cavusoglu was quoted as telling the state-run agency. In June, Turkey and Israel signed a deal to restore their ties which hit an all-time low after the 2010 raid by Israeli commandos on a Gaza-bound Turkish aid ship leaving 10 Turks dead. Israel had already offered compensation and an apology over the raid but with the agreement it also eased the naval blockade on the Hamas-controlled Gaza, allowing Ankara to deliver humanitarian aid for Palestinians there. Cavusoglu acknowledged parliament had so far not taken up the deal with Israel because of time pressure created by the July 15 coup attempt by rogue elements in the military seeking to unseat the government, which Turkey blames on US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen. But he insisted that it would appear on parliament's agenda before the recess, which is due to start at the end of next week before parliament returns in mid-September. "Israel has lived up to our conditions. We said 'if the conditions are fulfilled we'll normalize ties.' So we must implement it as soon as possible," he added. Only once the deal is ratified by parliament will Turkey and Israel begin the process of exchanging ambassadors to fully restore their diplomatic ties.

30 Killed in Russia Raids on IS Syria Bastion Raqa
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/August 11/16/Russian air strikes on the Islamic State group bastion of Raqa in northern Syria on Thursday killed at least 30 people, including civilians and jihadists, a monitoring group said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 10 raids hit the city and its outskirts, wounding at least 70 others.The monitor could not specify how many of those killed were IS militants.

Woman, two children killed in Aleppo chlorine attack: activists
Now Lebanon/August 11/16/A chlorine gas attack carried out by Syrian regime aircraft Wednesday night left two children and a woman dead in Aleppo’s Zabadieh neighborhood, according to multiple activist groups. The gas, which has been used repeatedly by regime forces despite UN legislation prohibiting its weaponization, was released from canisters inside explosive barrel bombs dropped from a helicopter, the pro-opposition Shaam Network news site reported. In addition to the three deaths, many more civilians were said to have suffered intense breathing difficulties. One apparent victim of the attack, interviewed while lying on a hospital bed with an oxygen mask over his mouth by the Aleppo Media Center news outlet, described sensing “a smell like gas, nastier than gas” in the aftermath of the barrel bomb. “The children started weeping, our eyes teared up,” he recalled. The lifeless body of a young boy, stripped to his underwear, lay on an adjacent bed, tubes inserted in his mouth and legs. In a video from the scene of the attack, a first-aid responder from the Syria Civil Defense group, also known as The White Helmets, corroborated the claim that two children and a woman were killed, adding that seven others “were struck by a state of choking.” He then held up wreckage from the bombing site that he said was the remains of the chlorine gas canisters.
Latest in series of chemical weapons attacks
The Syrian regime, accused by most of the international community of carrying out the infamous sarin attack in Eastern Ghouta, Damascus, that killed likely over 1,000 civilians in August 2013, has since been implicated in repeated chlorine gas attacks – prompting the UN to pass Resolution 2209 in March 2015 explicitly prohibiting the use of chlorine or “any [other] toxic chemical […] as a chemical weapon in the Syrian Arab Republic.” Less than two weeks ago, activist groups in the town of Saraqeb, Idlib Province, reported a chlorine attack that left around 30 civilians suffering breathing difficulties, though none were killed. Like Wednesday’s attack in Zabadieh, the chlorine canisters in Saraqeb were said to be have been dropped from regime helicopters late at night. A September 2014 report from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) found chlorine had been used “systematically and repeatedly” on opposition-held territory across northern Syria.
An intensifying battle in Aleppo
The reported chlorine attack in Aleppo’s Zabadieh comes at a time of bloody fighting in the city more broadly, where rebel forces recently broke a month-long siege imposed by the regime and its allies that threatened grave humanitarian repercussions for the estimated 300,000 civilians residing in opposition-held neighborhoods. Regime forces, as well as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, have reportedly called in reinforcements since the siege was broken Saturday, aiming to stave off further rebel gains in the highly strategic city. The rebels’ Jaysh al-Fatah (‘Army of Conquest’) coalition, for its part, has vowed to press on until it “liberate[s] all of Aleppo.”Report written by Alex Rowell.
 

Syria Doctors Issue Plea over Aleppo Siege
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/August 11/16/Syrian doctors in opposition districts of Aleppo have accused the United States of inaction in the face of repeated atrocities in the devastated city. In a heart-wrenching letter addressed to U.S. President Barack Obama, 15 of the 35 doctors in eastern neighborhoods of Syria's second city warned the situation would be desperate for civilians if regime forces re-impose a siege. On Saturday, rebels and allied jihadists broke a three-week government encirclement that had left residents of eastern Aleppo reeling from skyrocketing prices and food shortages. But the pediatricians, surgeons, and other physicians who signed the letter said the situation remained dire. "Unless a permanent lifeline to Aleppo is opened it will be only a matter of time until we are again surrounded by regime troops, hunger takes hold and hospitals' supplies run completely dry."The letter lambasts the U.S., saying it had seen "no effort on behalf of the United States to lift the siege or even use its influence to push the parties to protect civilians.""We do not need tears or sympathy or even prayers, we need your action. Prove that you are the friend of Syrians."The World Health Organization said Syria was the most dangerous place for health care workers to operate last year, with 135 attacks on health facilities and workers in 2015. An estimated 250,000 people still live in the rebel-held eastern parts, with around 1.2 million in the government-controlled west. Rebels and regime forces are amassing fighters around Aleppo ahead of what is likely to be a protracted battle for the northern city, whose hospitals and other civilian infrastructure have been ravaged by violence since mid-2012. In late July, four makeshift hospitals and a blood bank in Aleppo city were hit by air raids in a single day. Many of the signatories to the letter worked at those hospitals, where medicine is scarce and sandbags line the entrances. "What pains us most, as doctors, is choosing who will live and who will die," the doctors wrote. "Young children are sometimes brought into our emergency rooms so badly injured that we have to prioritize those with better chances, or simply don't have the equipment to help them." The doctors lamented that for five years, they had "borne witness as countless patients, friends and colleagues suffered violent, tormented deaths." One attack two weeks ago left four newborn babies dead after the force of the blast cut off the oxygen supply to their incubator."Gasping for air, their lives ended before they had really begun. "

UN probes reports of chlorine gas use in Aleppo
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Thursday, 11 August 2016/UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said on Thursdaythat the international body is investigating if chlorine gas has been used in the divided city of Aleppo. “There is a lot of evidence that it actually did take place,” de Mistura told reporters, adding that if confirmed the attack would amount to a war crime. A Syrian rescue worker said three civilians, a mother and two children, died in a suspected chlorine gas attack on an opposition-held district in the city of Aleppo. Khaled Harah, a first responder, said a government helicopter dropped four barrel bombs on Wednesday night on the neighborhood of Zabadieh and that one of them released chlorine gas. The report, which was posted online on Thursday, could not be independently verified and it was not clear how it was determined that chlorine gas was released. A hospital and a civil defense group also told Reuters that at least four people died and many suffered breathing difficulties when a gas, believed to be chlorine, was dropped alongside barrel bombs on the neighborhood. Hamza Khatib, the manager of Al-Quds hospital in Aleppo, told a Reuters photographer the hospital had recorded four deaths from gas poisoning and 55 injuries. Seven people were still receiving hospital treatment. Khatib said he was preserving pieces of patients clothing and fragments from the barrel bombs as evidence for analysis. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said helicopters dropped explosive barrels on the neighborhoods of Seif al Dawla and Zubdiya, leading to the death of a woman and her child from suffocation.
Syrian military denies
Meanwhile, a Syrian military official has denied allegations of a chlorine gas attack against an opposition-held district in Aleppo. The official said Thursday that militants had fabricated the news and stressed that the Syrian army would never use chemical weapons. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to the Associated Press because he is not authorized to give official statements. The northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s most populous before the war, is split into rebel- and government-held districts. Capturing the whole city would be a major prize for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the country’s five-year-old conflict.
UN: Russia open to expanding ceasefire
De Mistura also said Russia is considering expanding a three-hour daily ceasefire in Aleppo, insisting a 48-hour halt in fighting was needed to bring in aid. He said Moscow had not consulted with the United Nations before announcing its decision to hold its fire around Syria’s war-ravaged second city for three hours each day to allow humanitarian aid in, insisting the pause was inadequate. “Any pause obviously should always be seen and looked at with great interest, because a pause means no fighting, but three hours is not enough,” he said. The UN has called for urgent aid access to Aleppo and 48-hour weekly pauses for the aid deliveries, warning that civilians are at grave risk from water shortages and disease as fighting has intensified. An estimated 1.5 million people still live in the battered city, including about 250,000 in rebel-held eastern districts. De Mistura said the issue had been discussed extensively at the weekly meeting of the UN-backed humanitarian taskforce for Syria, and that Russia has voiced its willingness to expand the pause. (With Reuters, AFP, AP)

Lack of US fighter pilots amid ISIS wars in Syria, Iraq
The Associated Press, Washington Thursday, 11 August 2016/The US Air Force is struggling to fill a shortage of 700 fighter pilots by the end of the year, even as the US battles in three air wars against ISIS in Iraq, Syria and Libya. Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James also told Pentagon reporters Wednesday that she is planning to pay drone pilots a $35,000 a year retention bonus to encourage them to stay in the service. The 35,000 a year retention bonus would be an increase over $25,000 bonus the service has been allowed to provide. And all drone pilots would be eligible once their service contract is up. She added that Air Force needs the authority to increase bonuses for all pilots in order to address the shortage. The Air Force has grappled with pilot retention for some time, particularly as airlines look to hire them, promising higher salaries and benefits. Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee said they want to improve pilots’ quality of life and their military service conditions, including training and housing. James said the pilot shortage could grow to 1,000 in a couple years. “The airlines are forecast to be hiring a lot more,” she said, adding that the Air Force also needs to increase its training of new pilots. She and Gen. David Goldfein, Air Force Chief of Staff, said they want to improve pilots’ quality of life and their military service conditions, including training and housing. “It is a crisis,” said Goldfein. “Air superiority is not an American birthright, it’s actually something you have to fight for.” He said fighter pilots are leaving at a higher rate, and that improving their quality of service as well as beefing up the retention bonus will help address the problem. Fueling that problem, he said, has been the persistent overseas deployments as the US has been engaged in air wars for more than two decades. “If we take a balanced approach, we’re hoping that we can get these folks to stay,” he said. Goldfein said that so far the pilot shortage isn’t affecting air operations over Iraq, Syria and Libya. But the ongoing deployments continue to affect pilots’ decisions on whether to stay in the service.

Turkey warns EU making ‘mistakes’ over failed coup
Reuters Thursday, 11 August 2016/Turkey said on Wednesday the European Union was fueled by anti-Turkish sentiment and hostility to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and was making grave mistakes in its response to a failed coup which was costing it the trust of ordinary Turks.
Erdogan and many Turks have been incensed by what they see as the undue concern of Europe over a crackdown after the abortive July 15 coup attempt but indifference to the bloody events themselves in which more than 240 people died. “Unfortunately the EU is making some serious mistakes. They have failed the test following the coup attempt ... Their issue is anti-Turkey and anti-Erdogan sentiment,” Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told the state-run Anadolu Agency. “We have worked very hard towards EU (membership) these past 15 years. We never begged, but we worked very hard ... Now two out of three people are saying we should stop talks with the EU.” More than 60,000 people in the military, judiciary, civil service and education have been detained, suspended or placed under investigation since the coup attempt, in which rogue soldiers commandeered tanks and warplanes to try to take power. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during an event for foreign investors, in Ankara. Dismissals continued on Wednesday. State-run Anadolu Agency said a further 648 judges and prosecutors were suspended under the investigation, bringing to 3,489 the number of those removed from duty. Turkey’s Scientific and Technological Research Council (Tubitak) has removed 560 staff, said private broadcaster NTV. Thousands of people, waving Turkish flags, gathered outside the presidential palace in Ankara on Wednesday night to hear Erdogan call anew for the United States to extradite U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom he accuses of orchestrating the coup attempt. Gulen denies any involvement. “Sooner or later the United States of America will make a choice. Either Turkey or FETO,” he told the crowd in a speech, using an abbreviation standing for the “Gulenist Terror Group” which is how Ankara refers to Gulen’s movement. The speech was billed as the culmination of nightly rallies in cities across Turkey to show solidarity since the attempted coup.

Syria doctors issue plea over Aleppo siege
AFP, Beirut Thursday, 11 August 2016/Syrian doctors in opposition districts of Aleppo have accused the United States of inaction in the face of repeated atrocities in the devastated city. In a heart-wrenching letter addressed to US President Barack Obama, 15 of the 35 doctors in eastern neighborhoods of Syria’s second city warned the situation would be desperate for civilians if regime forces re-impose a siege. On Saturday, rebels and allied jihadists broke a three-week government encirclement that had left residents of eastern Aleppo reeling from skyrocketing prices and food shortages. But the pediatricians, surgeons, and other physicians who signed the letter said the situation remained dire. “Unless a permanent lifeline to Aleppo is opened it will be only a matter of time until we are again surrounded by regime troops, hunger takes hold and hospitals’ supplies run completely dry.” A general view shows rising smoke from burning tyres, which activists said are used to create smoke cover from warplanes, in Aleppo. The letter lambasts the US, saying it had seen “no effort on behalf of the United States to lift the siege or even use its influence to push the parties to protect civilians.”“We do not need tears or sympathy or even prayers, we need your action. Prove that you are the friend of Syrians.”The World Health Organization said Syria was the most dangerous place for health care workers to operate last year, with 135 attacks on health facilities and workers in 2015. An estimated 250,000 people still live in the rebel-held eastern parts, with around 1.2 million in the government-controlled west. Rebels and regime forces are amassing fighters around Aleppo ahead of what is likely to be a protracted battle for the northern city, whose hospitals and other civilian infrastructure have been ravaged by violence since mid-2012.
In late July, four makeshift hospitals and a blood bank in Aleppo city were hit by air raids in a single day. Many of the signatories to the letter worked at those hospitals, where medicine is scarce and sandbags line the entrances. “What pains us most, as doctors, is choosing who will live and who will die,” the doctors wrote. “Young children are sometimes brought into our emergency rooms so badly injured that we have to prioritise those with better chances, or simply don’t have the equipment to help them.” The doctors lamented that for five years, they had “borne witness as countless patients, friends and colleagues suffered violent, tormented deaths.”One attack two weeks ago left four newborn babies dead after the force of the blast cut off the oxygen supply to their incubator.
“Gasping for air, their lives ended before they had really begun.?”

Police say Jewish man stabbed with screwdriver in Jerusalem
AFP, Jerusalem Thursday, 11 August 2016/A Palestinian man stabbed and wounded a young Jewish man in Jerusalem on Thursday before fleeing, Israeli police said. “A Jewish man was stabbed with a sharp instrument - a screwdriver - and injured moderately,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said in a statement. The attacker fled the scene and police were searching for him, Rosenfeld said, adding that the victim was 18 years old. Israeli paramedics who treated him said he was a student at a Jewish theological seminary who was visiting the grave of a Hassidic leader at the Mount of Olives Jewish cemetery, in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem. Jerusalem has been at the heart of a wave of violence since last October in which 219 Palestinians, 34 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese have died, according to an AFP count.

Turkey open to conditional terror law talks
AP, Brussels Thursday, 11 August 2016/Turkey would be willing to modify its anti-terror law if the changes don’t impede the fight against terrorism and if Turkish citizens are guaranteed visa-free travel in Europe, Turkey’s ambassador to the European Union said Thursday. Ambassador Selim Yenel told The Associated Press in an interview that “it's very difficult to change the legislation, but we’re not closing the door.” “As long as it doesn’t affect our fight against terrorism, in all its forms, then we can look at some wordings,” he said. The EU wants Turkey to change its definition of terrorism and what constitutes a terror act to ensure that journalists and academics aren’t arrested. That condition is one of 72 benchmarks that Turkey must respect before it can win the visa-waiver. But several suicide bombings in Turkey, on top of last month’s failed coup attempt, make it almost politically impossible for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to soften his stance on terrorism. The waiver is part of a package of incentives - including up to 6 billion euros ($6.7 billion) in funds for Syrian refugees in Turkey and fast track EU membership talks - the EU has offered to persuade Ankara to stop migrants coming to Europe and take back thousands more. More than 1 million migrants arrived in Europe last year and EU nations still can’t agree on how best to tackle the emergency. Yenel warned that Turkey would suspend the migrant deal if the EU doesn’t grant the waiver “in the next few months.” The waiver would allow Turkish citizens to travel visa-free in the 26 European nations of the Schengen open borders area for up to 90 days without a visa. Turkey had hoped to qualify for it last month. “If we fulfill everything, and still we don’t get visa liberalization, then the (migrant) readmission agreement will not be realized. We will suspend it,” he said. Yenel underlined that the widely-criticized deal is working, with migrant arrivals from Turkey down from thousands daily to a few dozen. “We have solved their so-called existential problem and we feel that we need something in return,” he said.

Iran top diplomat to visit Turkey after coup: Ankara
AFP, Ankara Thursday, 11 August 2016/Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will hold talks in Turkey on Friday, the Turkish foreign ministry announced, in the most significant visit by a foreign official to the country since last month’s failed coup. Zarif will meet his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu in Ankara and will be received by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at his palace, the ministry said in a statement on Thursday. The visit by a key regional player in the Middle East will please Ankara, which has hit out at the lack of Western leaders coming to Turkey since a rogue military faction tried to oust Erdogan from power on July 15. The announcement of the visit comes two days after a key encounter between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Erdogan, who met face-to-face for the first time since relations were damaged after Turkey shot down a Russian jet over Syria in November 2015. Tehran and Moscow are Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s main allies in the over five-year civil war, putting them at loggerheads with Turkey. While Tehran has given financial and military support to Assad, Turkey has repeatedly said his exit is the only way to find peace in Syria. The presidency insisted on Wednesday Turkey’s policy on Syria had not changed despite the normalization of relations with Moscow. But, despite tensions over Syria, Iran and Russia were among the first countries to give their unequivocal support to Erdogan on the night of the coup. Relations between mainly Sunni Muslim Turkey and Saudi Arabia -- the key Sunni Muslim power in the Middle East and Shiite Iran’s regional foe -- have blossomed in recent months.
However, Ankara has also maintained a careful balance to also keep warm relations with Tehran.

Houthi leader, 40 militias killed near Saudi border
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English, Thursday, 11 August 2016/Saudi forces backed by aerial shelling from the Arab Coalition have killed an Iran-backed Houthi leader and 40 other militias near the kingdom’s southwestern borders with Yemen, Al Arabiya News Channel reported on Thursday. Saleh al-Houthi Mouawad Kibsi, the slain Houthi leader, was in charge of the militia’s military operation in the Yemeni region that borders the Saudi southwestern city of Najran. It was reported that Kibsi was killed along with his brother and two of his companions. Earlier Thursday, the Saudi-led Arab coalition also launched air strikes on Houthi sites in the capital Sanaa and surrounding area, targeting the militia’s air bases and arms warehouse. Sources told Al Arabiya News Channel that the raids also targeted areas where Houthis carried out fierce battles against forces loyal to the internationally recognized government of Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who had to flee the country after a Houthi coup in September 2014. Since Tuesday, the Arab coalition resumed its Operation Restoring Hope against the Houthis and their allies loyal to deposed Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh after UN-sponsored peace talks in Kuwait ended without an agreement. The operation was also renewed after the Houthis started launching operations on the Saudi borders, which Riyadh dubbed as a “red line”. The Houthis and Saleh’s General People’s Congress (GPC) hold most of Yemen’s northern half while forces loyal to Hadi share control of the rest of the country with local tribes. The fighting in which more than 6,400 people have been killed - half of them civilians - has created a humanitarian crisis in one of the poorest countries in the Middle East.

Germany praises Saudi help in fight against terror
Saudi Gazette, Berlin Thursday, 11 August 2016/Germany has praised Saudi Arabia’s cooperation in the ongoing investigation into recent terrorist attacks in the German state of Bavaraia, German Foreign Ministry spokesperson Sawsan Chebli said in a statement here. She said that Germany and other Western countries are working with Saudi Arabia on a regular basis in the fight against terrorism. The spokeswoman said that the information obtained by the German security authorities from their counterparts in Saudi Arabia was important in foiling many terrorism attempts. German Interior Ministry spokesman Tobias Plate welcomed the cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Germany in the investigations into terrorist acts in the country. ISIS claimed responsibility for an attack in Bavaria in which a 17-year-old refugee wounded five people with an axe before police shot him dead. The militant group also claimed a bombing in Ansbach, southern Germany, which wounded 15 people. The 27-year-old Syrian, Mohammad Daleel, who blew himself up had pledged allegiance to ISIS on a video found on his mobile phone, investigators have said. Saudi Arabia maintains that it is always ready to work with foreign countries to combat terrorism. **This article first appeared in the Saudi Gazette on August 11, 2016.

Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on on August 11-12/16

Officials In Lebanese, Gazan Terror Organizations Confirm: Iran Funds Our Activity
MEMRI/August 11/16
Arab media have recently published statements by officials in the Lebanese Hizbullah and the Gazan Hamas and Islamic Jihad organizations, and by their supporters, confirming what has long been known – namely that these Lebanese and Gazan terror organizations receive substantial financial and military assistance from Iran. These statements join many reports, especially in the anti-Iranian media, regarding Iran's funding of various terrorist organizations across the Arab world. According to these reports, the assistance comes mainly from the office of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
The following are some examples of these statements and reports from the last two months:
Hizbullah Secretary-General Nasrallah: Hizbullah's Entire Budget Is Provided By Iran
In a speech he delivered on June 24, 2016, marking 40 days after the killing of Mustafa Badr Al-Din, who was considered to be Hizbullah's chief operations officer, and following the imposition of U.S. sanctions on Hizbullah that threaten its financial infrastructure and income, Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah clarified: "Hizbullah's budget – its salaries and expenditures, [the money that pays for] its food and drink, weapons and missiles – [all come from] Iran. Is that clear?... As long as Iran has money we have money. Do you require greater transparency than that[?] The funds earmarked for us do not reach us through the banks. We receive them the same way we receive our missiles, with which we threaten Israel."[1]
Hamas Official Abu Marzouq: Iran's Assistance To Hamas Is "Not Comparable" To Any Other Assistance
The deputy head of Hamas's political bureau, Moussa Abu Marzouq, tweeted on June 15, 2016: "The aid extended by Iran to the Palestinian resistance, in provisions, training and funds, is not comparable [to any other aid], and most other countries cannot match it."[2]
Former Lebanese Minister Wiam Wahhab: Iran Has Funded Resistance In Palestine
On June 25, 2016, in response to a remark by former Lebanese prime minister Sa'd Al-Hariri that Iran funds fitna (internecine strife) in the Arab world,[3] former Lebanese minister Wiam Wahhab, a known supporter of Hizbullah and the resistance axis, tweeted: "O Sheikh Sa'd [Al-Hariri], Iran has funded resistance in Palestine to restore Jerusalem, Al-Aqsa and the Church of the Sepulcher [to Palestinian hands, whereas] Saudi Arabia paid to destroy Syria, Iraq and Yemen." In another tweet he wrote: " O Sheikh Sa'd, Iran funded resistance in the Arab homeland rather than fitna, [whereas] your kingdom [Saudi Arabia, who supports Al-Hariri and his faction in Lebanon,] sponsors and funds terrorism. The funds of all the terrorist [organizations] in the world are Wahhabi [i.e., Saudi] funds."[4]
Saudi Daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat: Hizbullah's Weapons Come Directly From IRGC; Iran Has Renewed Regular Aid To Islamic Jihad Organization
The anti-Iranian press, such as the London-based Saudi daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, also reported on Iran's funding of terrorist organizations in Lebanon and Gaza. On June 29, 2016, Al-Sharq Al-Awsat confirmed Nasrallah's statements regarding the Iranian funding. The report stated that Hizbullah's funds came from the office of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei while its weapons are provided by the IRGC. It quoted the director of the Umam Research and Documentation center in Lebanon, Luqman Salim, a Shi'ite known for his opposition to Hizbullah, as saying that between 70% and 80% of Hizbullah's funds come from Iran. According to Salim, Iran also invests about $400 million of the IRGC's budget in the Islamic Radio and Television Union, a group of stations which includes the Iranian Al-Alam but also Hizbullah's Al-Manar and Al-Mayadin and the Hamas-affiliated Al-Quds (all of which broadcast from Lebanon) and Hamas's Al-Aqsa station, which broadcasts from Gaza.
The daily also cited a "knowledgeable source" as saying that until 2005 Iran transferred to Hizbullah between $200 million and $250 million annually, but since then the allocation has increased: After the 2006 Lebanon War it rose to $850 million, and since Hizbullah entered the Syria war its budget has become unlimited, because it has become part of Tehran's war effort there.[5]
On May 25, 2016, the daily reported, citing sources close to the Islamic Jihad organization in Gaza, that Iran had renewed its regular financial aid to the organization after the two sides agreed to renew their mutual relations.[6] According to these sources, an Islamic Jihad delegation headed by the organization's secretary-general Ramadan Shalah visited Iran in April 2016, and during this visit Tehran renewed its sponsorship of the organization after the latter accepted its terms. In meetings held by the delegation during this visit, including with IRGC commander Mohammad Ali Jafari and Qods Force commander Qassem Soleimani, Iran clarified its vision of Islamic Jihad's course in the coming years. The sources claimed further that Soleimani decided, in coordination with the organization's military and political bureaus, to grant $70 million a year out of the IRGC budget to Islamic Jihad's military wing, Saraya Al-Quds, and to reorganize this body and appoint Khaled Mansour, who is close to Tehran, as its commander.[7]
Endnotes:
[1] Alahednews.com.lb, June 24, 2016.
[2] Twitter.com/mosa_abumarzook, June 15, 2016.
[3] Al-Mustaqbal (Lebanon), June 26, 2016; Al-Hariri's remark was a response to Nasrallah's statement one day earlier that Hizbullah's entire budget comes from Iran.
[4] Twitter.com/wiamwahhab, June 25, 2016.
[5] Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (Lebanon), June 29, 2016.
[6] Reports in the Arab media in the passing year indicated that Iran had suspended its assistance to Islamic Jihad following disagreements between them on the crisis in Yemen. According to these reports, the Islamic Jihad refused Iran's demand to declare its opposition to the Arab Coalition's activities in Yemen. See for example Aljazeera.net, May 26, 2016, Janoubia.com, April 3, 2016.
[7] Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), May 25, 2016.

Nadia Murad’s story shames the world
Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/August 11/16
A young girl was abducted and gang-raped by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), along with family members and other girls from her town and other Iraqi Yezidi towns. This was done in the name of Islam, while extremists continue to publicly commend these criminals under false justifications such as “jihad” and “supporting Muslims.”One of the victims is Nadia Murad, a brave Iraqi girl who dared to tell her story and that of her family. She made those at the UN Security Council weep as they listened to the horrific details of what happened to her and to around 5,000 Iraqi women abducted by ISIS last year. Some of these women are still in ISIS-controlled territories. I watched her interview with Hasan Muawad on Al Arabiya. She did not talk about her personal tragedy, but about the wider tragedy of how these hideous idea are glorified, and how more young men are committing such atrocities while more clerics are justifying them. ISIS executed 700 unarmed men in her town in an hour for no reason. They were all peasants. Murad said she and her family were taken to Mosul, Tal Afar and Al-Hamdaniya, and she was repeatedly raped. She does not know what happened to her family as she was separated from them. No one can forgive the perpetrators of these crimes and who they represent. She said despite the anger and pain, she wants to focus on convincing society to reject extremism and not hate the society where these ISIS criminals came from. However, her tragedy and that of her people will remain a disgrace to the entire world forever. How can crimes like these happen in the 21st century via ideas that are promoted by media, mosques and schools? How have they not been challenged all these years? How can crimes like these happen in the 21st century via ideas that are promoted by media, mosques and schools? How have they not been challenged all these years?
Roots of extremism
The problem is with extremists, or rather with those preaching extremism. They do not necessarily live in Ar-Raqqah or Mosul. They may live in Paris or Kuala Lumpur. They permit rape, murder and aggression against anyone who they think is not like them. They are the source of the disease.
A few days ago, extremist preacher Wajdy Ghoneim accused the late Egyptian scientist and Nobel laureate Ahmed Zewail of apostasy. This is a new crime committed in public, and no one is doing anything about it. Ghoneim cites extremist scholar Nasir al-Fahd, who is like him. The only difference is that Fahd is detained in Saudi Arabia while Ghoneim is free, saying whatever he wants without being held accountable, and inciting people through his TV appearances and social media accounts. There are many like him. We are living through exceptional circumstances, and terrorism will not stop unless extremist preachers and scholars are warned them that they will be punished for their extremist calls. Terrorists who murder and rape people are present worldwide, and are the product of people like that man who accuses others of apostasy and curses them.
**This article was first published in Asharq al-Awsat on Aug. 11, 2016.

Aleppo and Mosul: A tale of two cities
Eyad Abu Shakra/Al Arabiya/August 11/16
In 1859, the celebrated British author Charles Dickens wrote A Tale of Two Cities, a famous novel whose events took place in Paris and London during and in the aftermath of the French revolution, and dealt with the plight of the French peasantry under the old nobility.
Before that date, however, two Middle Eastern cities with glorious history were part of the realm of the Hamdanids (890 AD – 1004 AD). The Banu Hamdans were descendants of the prominent tribe of Taghlib, who hail from the mother tribe Rabi’a bin Nizar bin Adnan (Adnan being the progenitor of the ‘Northern Arabs’). Their achievements in defense of Arab lands especially those of Sayf al-Dawla, the governor of Aleppo, was glorified by the great Arab poet al-Mutanabbi. A contemporary of Sayf al-Dawla was his cousin Nasser al-Dawla, the governor of Mosul.
However, Aleppo and Mosul, the largest second metropolises of Syria and Iraq respectively, the most beautiful, most culturally diverse, and socially sophisticated, are now in deep trouble. Aleppo is suffering a war of starvation and mass murder carried out by Bashar al-Assad’s regime, Russia’s air force and Iran’s sectarian militias; and is threatened with one of the worst forced population exchange in the modern history of the Middle East since the Palestinian “nakbah” in 1948.
Mosul’s fate does look less tragic if ‘liberating’ it of ISIS is left to the sectarian ‘People’s Mobilization’ militia whose true identity became apparent after the massacres it committed in al-Muqdadiyah and al-Fallujah as well as other Sunni towns in Iraq.
It is not a coincidence that these two bastions of “Arabism” are facing such a peril; nor is it surprising that the devastating storm blowing in the Middle East since 2003 is changing the demographic fabric of the region along with redrawing its maps and reapportioning foreign influence there. The two aforementioned cities share a demographic identity that best embody an unwanted status quo.
A status quo that must be replaced as part of the new plan designed for the region by the rising international and regional powers. Both Aleppo and Mosul have a Sunni Arab majority along with sizeable Christian and non-Christian, Arab and non-Arab minorities, within the two cities and in their surrounding areas, all living in peace and harmony for centuries.
Pessimism about the future
What John Brennan, the Director of CIA, said the other day expressing his pessimism about the future of Syria, and his interesting insinuation to the possibility of partition is nothing but an admission of efforts being made by more than one side toward partitioning Iraq, and possibly, Turkey too; as well as preparing the ground for an independent Kurdish state that many within Syria and Iraq think its declaration is merely a matter of time.
Indeed, the recent disturbances in Turkey, the repercussions of which may not end soon, confirm the dynamics of instability and change; more so as the international community stayed silent for too long as Syrian and Iraqi territories were being transformed into a mega-camp that attracts, gathers and trains radical Sunni groups as a prerequisite for the implementation and then justification of the new ‘plan’.
Today, Russia and the al-Assad regime – which Russia insists it is not keen to keep in power – are working in tandem, with Iran’s military efforts, to create a new and dangerous demographic status quo in Syria, the high cost of which would be paid by the Sunni Arab majority.
Today, Russia and the al-Assad regime are working in tandem, with Iran’s military efforts, to create a new and dangerous demographic status quo in Syria, the high cost of which would be paid by the Sunni Arab majority
The first step on this route started in the city of Homs and its environs with well prepared and executed ethnic/sectarian cleansing aiming at strongly connecting the capital Damascus with the Syrian coastal region (with an Alawite majority) and Shi’ite-dominated Lebanon through Hezbollah, and then was completed by bolstering the defenses in greater Damascus and its countryside.
Now, after uprooting and evicting around 13 million Syrians most of whom are Sunni Arabs, al-Assad is cooperating with Moscow and Tehran, against a background of total international silence, in securing the expulsion of around 300 to 400 thousands from the besieged Opposition-controlled neighborhoods of Aleppo, as they did to populations of the Aleppo countryside.
In Iraq too, following the “liberation” of Fallujah from ISIS, efforts are now gathering pace to liberate Mosul, which the extremist terrorist organization has turned into a major stronghold, rivalling its ‘capital’ the city of Raqqah in Syria.Disastrous exodus
Also in Mosul the international community does not seem to discount the possibility of a disastrous exodus from a city inhabited by around 1.5 million inhabitants. And as is the case with Al-Assad who would not have been able to achieve anything in Aleppo without strategic Russia air and Iranian land support, the Iraqi premier Dr Haider Abadi is so politically weak that on his own he can do nothing. Thus, neither Abadi nor his senior cabinet members can decide anything in Iraq where Iran enjoys both immense military strength and a virtual American carte blanche after the JCPOA, not forgetting the Kurdish Peshmerga militia which is now a fully-fledged army in a de facto independent Iraqi Kurdistan. Dr Abadi is too week to prevent the ‘People’s Mobilization’ militia from fighting in Mosul, and to decide the future of Mosul after ridding it of ISIS as well as a high percentage of its own people, when the time comes to draw the map of northern Iraq and define the relationship of the Kurds of Iraq with their brethren in northern Syria.
Given this worrying picture, one cannot but point out to a very important and negative factor, without which the conspiracy of uprooting and displacement would have been difficult to carry out. This factor is the presence of extremist foreign fighting groups that are alien to the fabric of the Arab east, but have come from all over the world declaring “support” (i.e. Nusra) of the people of Syria, or “fighting the infidels”, and claiming the founding of ISIS in Iraq. Incidentally, the main loser from what these groups have thus caused or achieved are the Arab Sunni Muslims of the region.
The announcement made by Abu Mohammad al-Jawlani, a senior figure in al-Nusra Front that his group has severed its links with al-Qaeda and formed an unattached new organization called “Fateh Ash-Sham” only confirmed what it sought to dispel. Al-Jawlani confirmed in his announcement all that was being said about al-Qaeda being there in Syria, with all its discourse, slogans, objectives and infringements which do not conform with an all-encompassing, pluralistic, national Syrian state. This meant he unwittingly was giving credence to claims long made by Moscow and others in western capitals that defeating the Syrian revolt was not only justified but also necessary, more so, after recent terrorist attacks in Europe and America in the age of ‘Islamophobia’!
**This article was first published in Asharq al-Awsat on August 10, 2016.

Choosing authority over chaos
Turki Aldakhil//Al Arabiya/August 11/16
When it comes to public parks, no one has the right to claim complete ownership because they are meant to be shared by all. Everyone uses them and benefits from them collectively. At the same time, individuals entering into such spaces must give up part of their freedom while using them in order for the public at large to enjoy. But at the same time, the rules governing the sharing of a public park does not mean it can be applied to other spaces. There are different rules for different places. If a tourist decides to go down to a hotel lobby wearing the same outfit he would wear at a swimming pool, people are bound to look at him strangely and may even publicly rebuke him. The dress code at a university hall is different to taking a walk or playing sports. A sermon communicated at a mosque does not belong in a park. You cannot act the same way on an airplane as you do in your car. If you do not like a certain behavior, it is your duty as a citizen to complain to the relevant authorities. But if everyone took matters into their own hands, there would be mass chaos
Social contracts
The options are limited given several factors that govern the social order related to a different time and place.You cannot expect to loudly read out a poem when you’re onboard a plane but you could certainly choose to do so with friends at a desert camping trip. But it is not your job to destroy someone else’s device because you do not like it, or yank someone’s headphones or speakers because you’re angered by what is being broadcast. There are authorities whose job it is to handle such situations, not yours. If you do not like a certain behavior, it is your duty as a citizen to complain to the relevant authorities. But if everyone took matters into their own hands, there would be mass chaos.
**This article was first published in Okaz on Aug. 11, 2016.
 

Iran-Backed Rebels Use Hospitals as Human Shields
Con Coughlin/Gatestone Institute/August 11/16
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8666/yemen-human-shields
Investigators found that at the time of the attack, Houthi rebels were occupying the hospital, making it a legitimate target.
"While the West urges the Saudi-led coalition to use all means possible to avoid civilian casualties, we must also be aware of the tactics the Iranian-backed rebels are using as part of a deliberate policy to discredit the coalition war effort." — Senior Western official.
Iranian-backed Houthi rebels are using hospitals as military command posts, thereby deliberately putting the lives of innocent civilians at risk, according to a new report into Yemen's long-running civil war.
Hostilities in the Yemeni conflict resumed at the weekend following the collapse of peace talks in Kuwait. The talks came after Houthi fighters, who are backed by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards, rejected a U.N.-sponsored peace plan and announced the establishment of a 10-member governing body to run the country.
Within hours of the peace talks ending, the Saudi-led military coalition, which is backed by both the U.S. and Britain, had resumed air strikes against Houthi rebel positions in the Yemeni capital, Sana'a. Initial reports said that at least 21 people, the majority of them civilians, had been killed, including a number of workers in a potato chip factory in Sana'a. In addition, the international airport at Sana'a was shut down by the airstrikes after Saudi coalition officials notified airlines that incoming flights would be barred for 72 hours.
A factory in Sana'a, Yemen, burns after an airstrike on August 9, 2016. (Image source: Al Jazeera video screenshot)
It is the first time in five months that Sana'a has been bombed by warplanes from the coalition, which also includes the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt, Sudan and other Middle East countries.
Human rights groups, which have repeatedly raised concerns about the high number of civilian casualties, will be particularly concerned by the resumption of hostilities. The U.S.-backed Saudi coalition is seeking to restore the democratically-elected government of President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, who was forced to flee Sana'a in February by Houthi rebels. The Houthis are being supported by elite units from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). More than 6,000 people have been killed in the civil war, including around 3,000 civilians.
Both sides in the conflict have been accused of causing unnecessary civilian casualties, with the Saudis, who have suffered significant casualties of their own, being singled out for particular censure over the way they have conducted coalition air strikes.
But an investigation conducted by coalition officials into claims that Saudi warplanes have directly targeted civilians found that the air strikes had been justified, because the Iranian-backed rebels had been using civilian institutions, such as hospitals, as command posts to launch attacks against coalition forces and their allies.
A report issued earlier this week by the coalition's Joint Incidents Assessment Team (JIAT) refuted earlier claims by the French-based charity, Doctors Without Borders, that the Saudi coalition had deliberately caused civilian deaths by bombing Haiden Hospital in Yemen's Saada province. Instead, investigators found that at the time of the attack, Houthi rebels were occupying the hospital, making it a legitimate target.
In all, JIAT investigated eight high-profile bombings where the UN or humanitarian organisations have accused the coalition of killing civilians or bombing hospitals and humanitarian structures. In each case, it concluded that all "safety procedures implemented by coalition forces adhered to international humanitarian law."
The revelation that Iranian-backed Houthi rebels are deliberately using civilian institutions for their war effort inevitably will draw comparisons with the tactics used by other radical Islamist groups such Hamas, which regularly uses institutions such as hospitals to launch attacks against Israel.
"It is clear that the tactics used by the Houthis, where they are using places like hospitals for their military campaign, has contributed significantly to the heavy civilian death toll," said a senior Western official. "While the West urges the Saudi-led coalition to use all means possible to avoid civilian casualties, we must also be aware of the tactics the Iranian-backed rebels are using as part of a deliberate policy to discredit the coalition war effort."
**Con Coughlin is the defence and foreign affairs editor of London's Daily Telegraph.
© 2016 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.

Jordanian Writer: Graphic Images From War Zones Cause Psychological Damage To Children
MEMRI/August 11/16
In his January 13, 2016 column in the Jordanian daily Al-Dustour, Maher Abu Tair warned of the damage done to children's psyches by the graphic images broadcast by media, even in countries where there is no war or conflict. He wrote that exposing children to such images shapes their consciousness and terrorizes them, so that they could grow into fearful and submissive adults too anxiety-ridden to stand up for themselves. Abu Tair went on to call on media to act responsibly and to choose images that can convey the story without causing damage to viewers.
The following are excerpts from his column:[1]
"Tens of thousands of video items and scenes of slaughter in Palestine, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, and many [other] places flow from the media every year. These images are not mere pictures; they connect people who do not experience disasters with those who do.
"However, we wonder about one specific group – the young people who absorb this blood-soaked media through the TV screens, social networks, and websites. This is because this generation cannot be kept away from these graphic images, encountered via its laptops, desktops, iPads, and even WhatsApp. There are numerous options available.
"If children in countries affected by a disaster are exposed to mental devastation, their souls plagued by fear and terror as a result of seeing death and slaughter with their own eyes – like the children of Gaza or Syria – ... what about the children who see such scenes from afar, and what about the impact those images have on them? This is not a comparison of the two situations – [such] comparisons are unfair – but we are discussing a certain situation that proves that the mental devastation of the Arab identity includes everyone – both those subject to bombing and those who view the bombing [in the media].
"We want [to hear some] professional opinions on the psychological impact [of such images] on children outside the devastated countries, millions of whom, especially Arabs, [are exposed] to this torrent of graphic media. What effects will could exposure have[?] Will it ruin their personality, and lead to emotional submissiveness and humiliation at an early age, so that the child will grow into a panicked, anxious, and subdued adult... who flees death at [any] cost? Or will [these images] accumulate in his [memory], and when he grows turn into a torrent of rage and a desire to retaliate against any element he considers responsible for the killing, orphaning, and terrorizing that he saw as a child?
"We want to openly state that the [negative] impact of graphic images in the Arab world is felt not only among peoples who suffered occupation, conflict, or civil war, but also spreads secretly, infiltrating [the minds of] millions, especially children, reshaping them in an unpredictable way.
"This is one kind of damage caused by these TV broadcasts and images, which document an event, but [at the same time] constitute a secret means of reshaping the consciousness in the region, because the excessive publication and broadcasting [of this content] without considering its long-term effects is aimed at sowing fear and submission in the hearts of children, to turn them into young people who do not take proper care of their own affairs because of the [fear of] death that was instilled in them at a tender age.
"Therefore, we call on all media, particularly Arab media, to deeply consider the significance of images and their collective consequences. While these sights cannot be ignored here, we can choose images that convey the story without becoming a tool to combat and destroy the psyches [of children] in countries not yet touched by devastation.
"These words are in no way aimed at dividing [the peoples] in the region into those who live comfortably and those who are experiencing catastrophes. But we do not want to increase [the damage caused by] these disasters so that they harm everyone. There is a very great difference between creating sympathy by broadcasting images and destroying people's emotional structure and subduing them by making them watch their own people dying or being injured."
[1] Al-Dustour (Jordan), January 13, 2016.

Turkey, Europe's Little Problem
Burak Bekdil/Gatestone Institute/August 11/16
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8669/turkey-europe-problem
Europe is giving signals, albeit slowly, that it may be waking up from the "Turkey-the-bridge" dream. Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmaier said that his country's relations with Turkey have grown so bad the two countries have virtually "no basis" for talks.
"Italy should be attending to the mafia, not my son," said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Typically, he does not understand the existence of independent judiciary in a European country. He thinks, as in an Arab sheikdom, prosecutors are liable to drop charges on orders from the prime minister.
"We know that the democratic standards are clearly not sufficient to justify [Turkey's] accession [to the European Union]." — Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern.
Nations do not have the luxury, as people often do, of choosing their neighbors. Turkey, under the 14-year rule of Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamist governments, and neighboring both Europe and the Middle East, was once praised as a "bridge" between Western and Islamic civilizations. Its accession into the European Union (EU) was encouraged by most EU and American leaders. Nearly three decades after its official bid to join the European club, Turkey is not yet European but has become one of Europe's problems.
Europe's "Turkish problem" is not only about the fact that in a fortnight a bomb attack wrecked a terminal of the country's biggest airport and a coup attempt killed nearly 250 people; nor is it about who rules the country. It is about the undeniable democratic deficit both in governance and popular culture.
In only the past couple of weeks, Turkey was in the headlines with jaw-dropping news. In Istanbul, a secretary at a daily newspaper was attacked by a group of people who accused her of "wearing revealing clothes and supporting the July 15 failed coup." She was six months pregnant.
Also in Istanbul, a Syrian gay refugee was murdered: he had been beheaded and mutilated. One social worker helping LGBT groups said: "Police are doing nothing because he is Syrian and because he is gay."
Turkey is dangerous not only for gays and refugees. A French tourist was left bloodied and beaten by Turkish nationalists after he refused to hold a Turkish flag. Grisly footage shows the gang, encouraged by Erdogan to patrol the streets on "democracy watch," telling the man "You will be punched if you don't hold the flag." The tourist is alone and does not appear to speak Turkish.
Meanwhile Europe is giving signals, albeit slowly, that it may be waking up from the "Turkey-the-bridge" dream. Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmaier said that his country's relations with Turkey have grown so bad the two countries have virtually "no basis" for talks. He said that Germany has serious concerns about mass arrests carried out by Turkish officials. According to Steinmaier, Turkey and Germany are like "emissaries from two different planets." Steinmaier is right. He is also not the only European statesman who sees Turkey as alien.
Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmaier (right) said that his country's relations with Turkey under Recep Tayyip Erdogan have grown so bad the two countries have virtually "no basis" for talks.
Erdogan recently threatened Italy that its bilateral relations with Turkey could deteriorate if Italian prosecutors investigating Erdogan's son, Bilal, for money laundering, proceeded with their probe. "Italy should be attending to the mafia, not my son," Erdogan said. Typically, he does not understand the existence of independent judiciary in a European country. He thinks, as in an Arab sheikdom, prosecutors are liable to drop charges on orders from the prime minister.
Italy's prime minister, Matteo Renzi, answered Erdogan in language Erdogan will probably will not understand: "Italy has an independent legal system and judges answer to the Italian constitution and not the Turkish president."
In unusual European realism, Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern said that he would start a discussion among European heads of government to end EU membership talks with Turkey. He rightly called the accession talks "diplomatic fiction." Kern said: "We know that the democratic standards are clearly not sufficient to justify [Turkey's] accession."
Even Turkish Cypriots on the divided island fear that Erdogan's Islamization campaign may target their tiny statelet. On August 3, about 1,500 people from 80 groups spanning the political spectrum took to the streets in Nicosia to protest against "Turkey's attempt to mold their secular culture into one that's more in tune with Islamic norms."
All of that inevitably makes Turkey an alien candidate waiting at Europe's gates to join the club. According to a European survey, Turkey is the least-wanted potential EU member -- even less wanted than Russia. Opposition to Turkish membership ranges from 54% (Norway) to 81% (Germany).
Celal Yaliniz, a little-known Turkish philosopher, likened Turks in the 1950s to "members of a ship's crew who are running toward the west as their ship travelled east." The Turks were not alone. Erdogan's "liberal" Western supporters have been no different.
**Burak Bekdil, based in Ankara, is a Turkish columnist for the Hürriyet Daily and a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
© 2016 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.

Is Israel about to Sign a Terrible Deal?
Shoshana Bryen/Gatestone Institute/August 11/16
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8667/israe-mou-aid
100% of the money will be spent in the U.S., while Israel is presently able to spend 25% in Israel. This is a subsidy for U.S. defense industries and constrains Israel's defense choices by forcing the IDF to exclude weapons from Europe and elsewhere.
Without the ability to spend some money in Israel, it will be harder for smaller defense and high-tech industries to keep up.
Israel will be prohibited from asking Congress for additional funds for ten years, effectively removing a bipartisan center of support for Israel's security from the equation and reducing Israel's flexibility in addressing rapidly emerging threats.
This could be particularly problematic: an administration that opposes missile defense in principle -- as does the Obama administration -- could effectively stifle Israel, which protects its people with a layered missile defense system.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is an agreement between two parties -- in this case, the governments of Israel and the United States. It is less than a treaty, more than a handshake. The first MOU was signed in 1981, recognizing "the common bonds of friendship between the United States and Israel and builds on the mutual security relationship that exists between the two nations." The current MOU, signed in 2007, represented a 10-year commitment. The Obama Administration and the government of Israel have been negotiating a new 10-year agreement that will come into effect in 2017.
It is hard to get the nuance right in a security arrangement between a superpower and a small country, even if the small country is a first-world democracy in terms of education, income, technology, and political structure. It is harder when large sums of money are involved, and harder still when the small country is, in military terms, a "security producer," one that provides more security to a region than it requires in assistance, but is still uniquely threatened in the world.
It is hard to get the nuance right in a security arrangement between a superpower and a small country, even if the small country is a first-world democracy in terms of education, income, technology, and political structure. Above, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets President Barack Obama at the White House, May 20, 2011. (Image source: Israel PM office)
The Obama Administration is making it harder, perhaps because one of the President's goals has been to remove the United States from its role as security guarantor not only for Israel, but also for the region, and possibly, it seems, for the rest of the world, such as the South China Sea, Crimea and the Balkans.
The administration proposes somewhat more money for Israel -- from $3.1 billion to close to $4 billion -- but with important caveats:
1) 100% of the money will be spent in the U.S., while Israel is presently able to spend 25% in Israel.
This is a subsidy for U.S. defense industries and constrains Israel's defense choices by forcing the IDF to exclude weapons from Europe and elsewhere. While some think of Israel as an expense to the U.S., the fact is that Israeli R&D innovations -- shared with the U.S. by agreement -- have helped mitigate the decline in the U.S. missile defense budget in an era of growing threats. Without the ability to spend some money in Israel, it will be harder for smaller defense and high-tech industries to keep up.
2) The total figure will include money for missile defense, which in this administration has been an add-on from Congress. That makes the increase substantially less than it appears to be.
This could be particularly problematic: an administration that opposes missile defense in principle -- as does the Obama administration -- could effectively stifle Israel, which protects its people with a layered missile defense system. As Iran continues to violate UN prohibitions on ballistic missile testing, and Hamas and Hezbollah increase their arsenals, the consequences could be devastating.
3) Israel will be prohibited from asking Congress for additional funds, effectively removing a bipartisan center of support for Israel's security from the equation and reducing Israel's flexibility in addressing rapidly emerging threats. This year, Congress wrote in $42.7 million for anti-tunnel cooperation -- something that emerged as essential only after the 2014 Gaza war.
In deference to the outsized threats and acknowledging Israel's status as an American ally, it has been U.S. policy for decades and law since 2008 that "Israel will be made capable of defending itself against and defeating any likely combination of conventionally armed adversaries." This is known as Israel's Qualitative Military Edge (QME).
It was simple once -- Arab armies were Soviet equipped and trained. But the world has changed.
On the plus side, Jordan joined Egypt in making peace with Israel, and the Soviet Union disappeared. On other hand, the U.S. has been selling arms and equipment to Arab states that maintain a state of war with Israel. Israel still receives more cutting edge technology, but at some point, the quantity of oil-financed Arab purchases can tip the quality scales. Saudi Arabia spent $9.3 billion on U.S. weapons last year.
To be fair, Israel understands Saudi purchases to address the war in Yemen and the larger conflict with Iran, not aimed against Israel. Israeli-Saudi relations have thawed at least temporarily, but other threats, some conventional, some not, have increased.
ISIS, Hamas and Hezbollah are what former IDF Chief of Intelligence Amos Yadlin calls "substate actors" -- terrorist organizations that have attributes of statehood, such as territory, populations, etc. Syria remains in a state of war with Israel and as the civil war continues, Iran and Hezbollah have forces and weapons close to the Golan Heights. Iran is only a decade away, if that, from the freedom to openly pursue its nuclear capability as the JCPOA ends.
It was the release of hundreds of millions of dollars by the U.S. to the Islamic Republic, destined to improve and enhance Iranian military capabilities, which added urgency to Israel's request for missile defense and other capabilities.
The U.S., then, is on both sides of Israel's security conundrum.
On one hand, U.S.-Israel security cooperation is embodied in QME joint R&D on missile technology, joint training and exercises (most recently a joint missile defense exercise in Israel), and Israel's new diplomatic mission to NATO Headquarters.
But on the other hand, having to spend all the money on U.S. procurement, U.S. arms sales to countries still in a state of war with Israel, the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars to Iran and removing Congress from its pivotal role as a security partner for Israel are all positions that clearly express administration weariness and irritation with Israel.
Israel, of course, does not have to sign. There is a new administration coming, and no doubt Israel can manage evolving bilateral relations with the U.S. under either party. There is, however, something to be said for the reassurance of a 10-year American commitment, even if the current terms are not ideal.
On balance, Israel is a strong, accomplished, and increasingly capable country with both military and civilian assets sought by countries around the world. It finds itself in a vastly improved international situation even as its neighborhood declines. It would have been in the larger interest of the United States to enhance those capabilities rather than trying to constrain them.
**Shoshana Bryen is Senior Director of the Jewish Policy Center.
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Insult after Injury: Understanding Egypt’s ‘Reconciliation Meetings’
Raymond Ibrahim/Coptic Solidarity/August 11/16
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/08/11/raymond-ibrahim-insult-after-injury-understanding-egypts-reconciliation-meetings/
We often hear about Egypt’s Christians being attacked by Muslim mobs. What we rarely hear about is what happens afterwards. Are the culprits imprisoned? Are the victims compensated? Do authorities take measures to help prevent such attacks from happening again? While the acquainted reader may correctly assume no, the anatomy of what always takes place is of interest.First, the attack itself is often based on the accusation that some Christian dared overstep his bounds, that is, he broke Islam’s supremacist dhimma contract. Christians trying to build a church, romantically involved with Muslim girls, or insulting Muhammad—all banned according to Islam—are typical violations that prompt large, armed Muslim mobs to attack all the Christians in that village (and their church if one exists) as a form of collective punishment, which is also Islamic.
While the attack is in progress, the besieged Christians do the only thing they can: frantically call the local police and/or state security.
Based on private conversations with those involved, formal complaints from the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt, and objective media reporting, here’s what happens practically every single time:
Police and state security take their time to get to the scene, allowing the mob ample time to riot with impunity. It is not uncommon for authorities to arrive two or three hours after a mob attack commences—even when they are closely stationed.
For example, after 3,000 Muslims rose in violence against the Christians of a village near Alexandria in 2012, it took the army an hour to arrive—even though it was stationed a mere mile away: “This happens every time,” said a Christian eyewitness. “They wait outside the village until the Muslims have had enough violence, then they appear” (Crucified Again, p. 175).
After the uprising has fizzled out, authorities arrive. Instead of looking for and arresting the culprits or mob ringleaders—or, as often is the case, the local imam who incites the Muslim mob against the “uppity infidels” who need to be reminded of “their place”—authorities gather the leaders of the Christian and Muslim communities together in what are termed “reconciliation meetings.” During these meetings, Christians are asked to make further concessions to angry Muslims.
Authorities tell Christian leaders things like, “Yes, we understand the situation and your innocence, but the only way to create calm in the village is for X [the offending Christian and extended family, all of whom may have been beat] to leave the village—just for now, until things calm down.” Or, “Yes, we understand you need a church, but as you can see, the situation is volatile right now, so, for the time being, maybe you can walk to the church in the next town six miles away—you know, until things die down.”
Needless to say, things never “die down” or “return to normal.” Christians who agree to banishment are seldom allowed reentry and churches rarely resume being built, for the mob will rise up again.
To be sure, when the authorities arrive to the scene of the crime, beaten and robbed Christians regularly reject the idea of being placed into a room with their persecutors in a mock reconciliation meeting that has proven time and again only to add insult to injury.
But when they rebuff the authorities’ offer and demand their rights as citizens against the culprits, the authorities smile and say “okay.” Then they go through the village making arrests—except that most of those whom they arrest are Christian youths. Then they tell the Christian leaders, “Well, we’ve made the arrests. But, just as you say so-and-so [Muslim] was involved, there are even more witnesses [Muslims] who insist your own [Christian] youths were the ones who began the violence. So, we can either arrest and prosecute them, or you can rethink our offer about having a reconciliation meeting.”
Under the circumstances, dejected Christians generally agree to the further mockery. What alternative do they have? They know if they don’t their youth will certainly go to prison and be tortured. In one recent incident, wounded Christians who dared fight against Muslim attackers were arrested and, despite serious injuries, held for seven hours and prevented from receiving medical attention.
This issue of reconciliation meetings is so prevalent and prevents Copts from receiving any justice that a 2009 book is entirely devoted to it. According to a review of the book, which is titled (in translation), Traditional Reconciliation Sessions and Copts: Where the Culprit Emerges Triumphant and the Victim is Crushed:
In some 100 pages the book reviews how the security apparatus in Egypt chooses to ‘reconcile’ the culprits and the victims in crimes where churches are burned; Coptic property and homes plundered, and Copts themselves assaulted, beaten and sometimes murdered; and when even monks are not spared. Even though it stands to reason that such cases should be seen in courts of law where the culprits would be handed fair sentences, this is almost never allowed to take place. And even in the few cases which managed to find their way into the courts, the culprits were never handed fair sentences since the police invariably fell short of providing any incriminating evidence against them. The farcical scenario of reconciliation sessions has thus without fail dominated the scene where attacks against Copts are concerned, even though these sessions proved to be nothing but a severe retreat of civil rights.
Politically speaking, the authorities aim—through the reconciliation sessions—to secure a rosy façade of the ‘time-honoured[’] amicable relationships between Muslims and Copts’, implying that they live happily ever after. The heartbreaking outcome, however, is that the only winners in these sessions are the trouble mongers and fanatics who induce the attacks in the first place and who more often than not escape punishment and emerge victorious. The Coptic victims are left to lick their wounds. Worse, not only are the victims denied any justice, but the aggressors are further emboldened to attack again. As Coptic Bishop Makarious of Minya recently put it in the context of discussing how Coptic Christians are now being attacked at the rate of every two or three days: As long as the attackers are never punished, and the armed forces are portrayed as doing their duty, this will just encourage others to continue the attacks, since, even if they are arrested, they will be quickly released.