LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

October 03/16

Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For Today
For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce great signs and omens, to lead astray, if possible, even the elect
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 24/23-31/:"If anyone says to you, "Look! Here is the Messiah!" or "There he is!" do not believe it. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce great signs and omens, to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Take note, I have told you beforehand. So, if they say to you, "Look! He is in the wilderness", do not go out. If they say, "Look! He is in the inner rooms", do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. ‘Immediately after the suffering of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see "the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven" with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things.
Letter to the Philippians 03,17/21.04,01/:"Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears. Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation so that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved."

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 02-03/16
Do Lebanon’s Christians know what they are doing/Eyad Abu Shakra/Al Arabiya/October 02/16
Audio Reveals What John Kerry Told Syrians Behind Closed Doors, (Especially About The USA Love To Hezbollah)/Anne Barnard/New York Times/September 30/16
The time of wonders/Turki Aldakhil/Al Arabiya/October 02/16
What Playboy’s hijab-wearing model means to women/Yara al-Wazir/Al Arabiya/October 02/16
JASTA and the house of glass/Samar Fatany/Al Arabiya/October 02/16
Iranian Official: 'If America Wants To Try Its Luck Against Us, [It Should Know That] We Are Completely Capable Of Mobilizing 9 Million Fighters/MMRI/October 02/16
Christians Are Untouchables! They Are Meant for Cleaning Our Houses.”/Muslim Persecution of Christians, June 2016/Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/October 02/16
Turkey: "A Great Muslim Democracy/by Burak Bekdil/gatestoneinstitute/October 02/16

Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News published on on October 02-03/16
Al-Rahi Says Whoever Accepts 'Package Deal' Has No Dignity
Report: Berri's Rejection of Aoun Reflects Hizbullah's Real Stance
FPM Still Preparing for Street Protests despite Hariri's Presidential Efforts
Franjieh Reportedly Told Hariri He Won't Withdraw in Favor of Aoun
Bassil: Some Parties Awaiting Foreign Instructions, We Extend Our Hand to Everyone
Mufti Calls for Backing Hariri's Efforts, Warns against Street Protests
Zeaiter: Lebanon goes through delicate period
Bou Saab: We hamper attempts aiming to marginalize our role
One woman injured by a stray bullet in Akkar
Jumblatt bound for Paris
Ibrahim meets Hamas Movement delegation over Palestinian concerns
Do Lebanon’s Christians know what they are doing

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on on October 02-03/16

New video from Aleppo: A crying Syrian toddler clinging to his nurse
Syria’s east Aleppo facing inhuman ‘savagery’: UN
Syria presses Aleppo advance, tells rebels to leave
Video: Syrian volunteer cries after rescuing new born baby
Syrians refuse attempted relocation along Jordan border
Hungary votes on government's rejection of EU refugee quotas
Roadside bomb kills 4 workers in Egypt’s Sinai
Israel/Six Palestinians charged over ISIS ties
3 Indonesian hostages released in southern Philippines
UK to start brexit process before end of March: PM
PM vows to make Britain ‘sovereign’ in first Brexit detail
French police, migrants clash near Calais camp
French church where priest slain to reopen
Erdogan slams US Congress over JASTA law
Iraqi group seeks US compensation in light of JASTA
Saudi Arabia to implement new visa application fee
Lawyer speaks claims Iran behind Sadr disappearance
Houthis pose threat to shipping: Arab coalition
Turkey police detain Gulen’s brother
Trump’s 1995 tax records suggest no federal taxes for years
Australia: MH17 missile suspects might be confirmed by year-end
Explosion at cafe injures 90 at festival in southern Spain

Links From Jihad Watch Site for on October 02-03/16
Hamas: Abbas “by religious standards a Jew” for attending Peres funeral
Egypt: Islamic State jihadis murder six police in Sinai
NYC: Muslima caught on video taking photos of Jewish school
California: Muslim plows vehicle into veteran’s car “in the name of Allah”
Flying While Counter-Jihad, Or, Why You Should Never Fly American Airlines
John Podhoretz to Robert Spencer: “You piece of sh*t”
Hugh Fitzgerald: Teaching About Islam In Tennessee
Pakistan: Muslim leader calls for jihad against India, vows its “destruction”

Links From Christian Today Site for on October 02-03/16

Brexit Begins: PM Vows To Make Britain 'Sovereign'

Barbarism': Russian Jets Destroy Aleppo Hospital
Pope Says Gender Theory Is Part Of Global War On Marriage
US Missionary To Russia Loses Appeal Against Conviction For Evangelising
Jesus Appears As Bus Driver To Muslim Pilgrim In Makkah, Convincing Him To Convert To Christianity

Latest Lebanese Related News published on on October 02-03/16

Al-Rahi Says Whoever Accepts 'Package Deal' Has No Dignity
Naharnet/October 01/16/Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday blasted calls for a so-called “package deal” that precedes the election of a president, noting that any candidate who accepts it has no “dignity.”“How can any presidential candidate who has dignity accept a prior package deal?” al-Rahi asked during Sunday's sermon. He pointed out that such a deal would “strip the president of his constitutional jurisdiction,” noting that “abiding by the Constitution eliminates the need for any package deal.” Speaker Nabih Berri has recently proposed a package deal involving agreements on the electoral law and a national unity government. “If we don't agree on this package deal, especially on the electoral law, we would be crucifying any elected president,” the speaker said on Monday, ruling out the election of a president before such an agreement. Recent media reports have said that Berri is willing to accept “half a package deal” involving “an agreement on the electoral law, the finance minister post, creating an oil ministry and retaking the energy ministry portfolio.” Ex-PM Saad Hariri's return to Lebanon last week has triggered a flurry of rumors and media reports about a possible presidential settlement and the possibility that the former premier has finally decided to endorse Free Patriotic Movement founder MP Michel Aoun for the presidency in a bid to break the deadlock. Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, 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. 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. Hariri's move prompted Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea to endorse the nomination of Aoun, his long-time Christian rival, after months of political rapprochement talks between their two parties. 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.

Report: Berri's Rejection of Aoun Reflects Hizbullah's Real Stance
Naharnet/October 01/16/Speaker Nabih Berri's rejection of the presidential nomination of Free Patriotic Movement founder MP Michel Aoun reflects Hizbullah's real stance despite the party's declared support for Aoun's bid, sources close to the FPM have said. “Berri has informed ex-PM Saad Hariri of his total rejection of the election of General Michel Aoun as president, expressing fears and concern, and this is what he has also informed MP Walid Jumblat of,” al-Joumhouria newspaper quoted the sources as saying in remarks published Sunday. “Berri's rejection reflects Hizbullah's rejection, despite the party's public stances on supporting his nomination, knowing that Speaker Berri has denied what is being said about his rejection of Aoun,” the sources added. Hariri's return to Lebanon last week has triggered a flurry of rumors and media reports about a possible presidential settlement and the possibility that the former premier has finally decided to endorse Aoun for the presidency in a bid to break the deadlock.Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, 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. 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.
Hariri's move prompted Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea to endorse the nomination of Aoun, his long-time Christian rival, after months of political rapprochement talks between their two parties. 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.

FPM Still Preparing for Street Protests despite Hariri's Presidential Efforts
Naharnet/October 01/16/The Free Patriotic Movement is still preparing for street protests despite the latest political developments and ex-PM Saad Hariri's return to Lebanon that has given a new impetus to efforts aimed at ending the presidential void, a media report has said.
“Preparations for rallying on the streets are still ongoing and were not called off after the latest presidential developments, because the FPM's demands are legitimate and cannot be overlooked or ignored,” FPM sources said. The sources also rejected any attempt to “besiege” FPM founder MP Michel Aoun should he be elected president. Aoun “does not accept any preconditions that a certain group might try to impose, because that would weaken the president and encroach on the presidency's jurisdiction, not to mention that that would be an unacceptable violation of the Constitution,” the sources added. The FPM founder “is committed to what the Constitution stipulates and he will not accept that he be besieged by unconstitutional and illegal demands,” the sources said. The FPM has recently suspended its participation in cabinet and national dialogue meetings, threatening street protests and a “political system crisis” over accusations that the other parties in the country are not respecting the 1943 National Pact that stipulates Christian-Muslim partnership. Hariri's return to Lebanon last week has triggered a flurry of rumors and media reports about a possible presidential settlement and the possibility that the former premier has finally decided to endorse Aoun for the presidency in a bid to break the deadlock. Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, 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. 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. Hariri's move prompted Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea to endorse the nomination of Aoun, his long-time Christian rival, after months of political rapprochement talks between their two parties. 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.

Franjieh Reportedly Told Hariri He Won't Withdraw in Favor of Aoun
Naharnet/October 01/16/Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh told ex-PM Saad Hariri during their latest meeting that he will not withdraw from the presidential race in favor of Free Patriotic Movement founder MP Michel Aoun and that he would only make such a move if there is an agreement on a third candidate, a media report said on Sunday. “Franjieh reminded Hariri that they had agreed that he would only withdraw from the presidential race in favor of a third candidate and not in favor of Aoun,” al-Joumhouria newspaper quoted informed sources as saying. “We have built confidence between us but we have not agreed on my withdrawal. Anyway I must warn you that should you agree with Aoun, you will face a situation similar to the one that then-president Amin Gemayel faced in 1988 when he appointed Aoun as premier,” the daily quoted Franjieh as telling Hariri during the meeting.The Marada chief repeated his warning in a tweet that followed Wednesday's presidential vote session. Franjieh was referring to Gemayel's decision to leave the country in 1988 in the wake of an assassination attempt after Aoun reportedly told him that he was not able to protect him. “To cut it short, you are here to inform me that you have decided to endorse General Aoun. If you have this intention, I understand your circumstances and I do not blame you, and you know that I mainly blame my allies who did not back my nomination after you endorsed it,” Franjieh reportedly added, addressing Hariri. Hariri's return to Lebanon last week has triggered a flurry of rumors and media reports about a possible presidential settlement and the possibility that the former premier has finally decided to endorse Aoun for the presidency in a bid to break the deadlock.
Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, 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. Hariri, who is close to Saudi Arabia, launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah. Hariri's move prompted Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea to endorse the nomination of Aoun, his long-time Christian rival, after months of political rapprochement talks between their two parties. 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.

Bassil: Some Parties Awaiting Foreign Instructions, We Extend Our Hand to Everyone
Naharnet/October 01/16/Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil lamented Sunday that some parties are awaiting “foreign” instructions related to the country's internal affairs, while stressing that the FPM is extending its hand to all political forces. “Unfortunately some parties are awaiting foreign instructions to decide our fate inside the country,” Bassil said during a tour of several Aley and Chouf towns. “We stress that there cannot be real reform without a fair electoral law and apparently there is no intention to approve such a law,” he decried. “Peace turns into surrender if coexistence is not protected through partnership and equality,” Bassil warned. And calling for “a full and non-selective implementation of the Constitution and the law,” the FPM chief noted that his political movement “is being penalized because it is rejecting political injustice and corruption.”He however noted that the FPM will keep “extending its hand to everyone” because its demands are “not partisan but rather for all Lebanese equally.” “We do not accept that Christians be granted their rights at the expense of anyone and vice versa,” Bassil explained. “We are secular but if they want a sectarian system they must implement it equally,” he stressed. Bassil had noted Tuesday that there are “attempts to achieve accord” in the country while warning that the FPM would confront anyone seeking to “block partnership” strongly and to the extent of “martyrdom.”The FPM, which has the biggest Christian bloc in parliament, has suspended its participation in cabinet sessions and national dialogue meetings while threatening street protests and a “political system crisis” over accusations that the other parties in the country are not respecting the 1943 National Pact that stipulates Christian-Muslim partnership. The supporters of FPM founder MP Michel Aoun's presidential bid also argue that he is more eligible than Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh to become president due to the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.

Mufti Calls for Backing Hariri's Efforts, Warns against Street Protests
Naharnet/October 01/16/Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan called Sunday for backing the efforts of ex-PM Saad Hariri that are aimed at speeding up the election of a new president, while warning against staging any street protests during this period. “We are being told that escalation is coming... What is the need for this partisan and sectarian incitement and all types of hatred? Where are the elected MPs? Why don't they head to parliament to elect a president? Do you want the situation in Lebanon to become like the situation in some countries in the region?” Daryan warned in a sermon marking the Hijri New Year. “Lebanon is going through a delicate and critical period that is engulfed by some optimism but the situation cannot continue as it is,” he added. “The consultations and contacts that ex-PM Saad Hariri is conducting are a source of hope and we hope his visits will lead to solutions to all issues, topped by the election of a president,” the mufti went on to say. Urging the country's leaders to “back these efforts that are in the interest of the country and its citizens,” Daryan warned that Lebanon “cannot withstand further waiting and delay.” And commenting on the Free Patriotic Movement's preparations for staging street protests, the mufti warned against “any step that increases the fragmentation of the Lebanese structure.”The situation “does not bear any security or economic deterioration,” the spiritual leader cautioned. “Each of Lebanon's politicians wants to solve things their way but they must unify the vision seeing as it is unacceptable anymore to continue jeopardizing the fate of the country,” Daryan went on to say. He also voiced concern over “the continued obstruction of cabinet meetings and the suspension of national dialogue,” stressing that “the cabinet must convene and national dialogue must be resumed no matter the circumstances.” The FPM, which has the biggest Christian bloc in parliament, has suspended its participation in cabinet sessions and national dialogue meetings over accusations that other parties in the country are not respecting the 1943 National Pact that stipulates Christian-Muslim partnership. The movement has also warned that it would resort to street protests and that Lebanon might soon be plunged into a “political system crisis” if the other parties in the country do not heed its demands. Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, FPM founder 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. 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.

Zeaiter: Lebanon goes through delicate period
Sun 02 Oct 2016/NNA - Minister of Public Works and Transportation, Ghazi Zeaiter, said that Lebanon was going through a critical phase and was facing challenges and threats. Zeaiter’s words came on Sunday during a ceremony held in Beqaa in the presence of Minister of Industry, Hussein Hajj Hassan, and other figures. “We need a culture of dialogue, and we should disseminate it between all the components of society to maintain its unity; national unity guarantees the confrontation of internal and external terrorism,” he added. “Lebanon is tired of the absence of action in the constitutional institutions; national responsibility should be assumed,” he pointed out. Hajj Hassan, for his part, said that the Lebanese regime was a regime of deprivation and “we should improve it.”

Bou Saab: We hamper attempts aiming to marginalize our role
Sun 02 Oct 2016/NNA - Minister of Education and Higher Learning, Elias Bou Saab, said that the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) was trying to impede any attempt that aims at marginalizing its role in the political life. Minister Bou Saab's words came on Sunday during an honorary ceremony held in Ebrine for students who passed their Lebanese Baccalaureate exams'.Bou Saab pointed out that some of the political parties accused the FPM for deactivating the political life in the country. He praised the efforts and stances of Foreign Affairs Minister, Gibran Bassil, at the international forums, saying that Bassil put Lebanon's interest in the foreground.

One woman injured by a stray bullet in Akkar
Sun 02 Oct 2016/NNA - A woman from the town of Mhamara in Akkar region was wounded on Sunday evening by a stray bullet, and was rushed to Nini Hospital in Tripoli for treatment, NNA correspondent in Akkar reported.

Jumblatt bound for Paris
Sun 02 Oct 2016/NNA - Democratic Gathering Head, MP Walid Jumblatt, left Beirut Sunday evening, heading to the French capital, Paris.

Ibrahim meets Hamas Movement delegation over Palestinian concerns
Sun 02 Oct 2016/NNA - General Security Chief Major General, Abbas Ibrahim, met on Sunday at his residence in Kawthariyet as-Siyyad with a delegation from Hamas Movement, headed by Ismail Radwan, over the Palestinian situation as well as the security condition in Ain el-Helwe Camp and the Palestinian reconciliation dossier.

Do Lebanon’s Christians know what they are doing?

Eyad Abu Shakra/Al Arabiya/October 02/16
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/10/02/eyad-abu-shakraal-arabiya-do-lebanons-christians-know-what-they-are-doing/
Being Lebanese myself I can claim that I know how the Lebanese think; this is why I expect the initial response to the above question from the Christians among them to be: “Who are you to tell us what to do? Are we so unqualified or brainless that a non-Christian like you should lecture us about politics?”
Has the creative source of genius that breathes liberty (as chaotic as it is) and eats and drinks democracy (albeit selective, unfair and irresponsible) in Christian society dried up? That society which transformed Lebanon’s craggy mountains into gardens, its limited natural resources into impressive wealth, and forced emigration into success stories?
The fact is I have written this article for two reasons. The first reason is because Lebanon’s survival as a country is under great threat; and the second, is because I am all for the survival of the Christian presence that has given Lebanon the virtues of tolerance, coexistence and cultural interaction, and has enriched its political life and economic well-being for centuries.
However, what is worrying these days is that those who claim to be the sole spokesmen for Lebanon’s Christians, and loudly call for ‘justice in political representation’ and ‘respect of the spirit of fair coexistence’ are the leading cause of their misfortune and the biggest threat to the Christian community’s interests. As they falsify truths and ignore realities in order to achieve personal aims, they are intentionally turning a blind eye to the real history of the Middle East, which poses the most serious genuine threat to their community’s existence, as well as most other small regional minorities.
It would be wise for minorities, particularly Christians, not to take great risks with their well-being based on wrong or misguided political calculations
The Free Patriotic Movement, led by Michel Aoun, MP, and chaired by his son-in-law Foreign Minister Gibran Bassil, is an extreme version of a sick ‘political mentality’ that refuses to realize how costly its adventures are.
Such mentalities never learn; and unfortunately Lebanon’s history has had tragic ‘landmarks’ whenever such mentalities gained ascendancy within the Christian community. The outcome was always spiteful thinking, unbridled sectarianism, unleashed instinctive factionalism, contrived animosities, and mobilization of bigoted mobs, all of which pushed Christians to pointless and thankless wars.
Inherent contradictions
No logical dialogue bears fruits here and if a proof is ever needed, let’s look at the PFM’s following contradictions:
– Being part of the government and yet opposing it and conspiring to bring it down.
– Claiming its belief in and full commitment to Lebanon’s ‘sovereignty’ and ‘independence’ while providing political cover to armed occupation and security hegemony over Lebanon by a religious militia that receives its orders from abroad through a useless ‘agreement’.
– Bemoaning others’ ‘disrespect of the spirit of fair coexistence’ while misrepresenting – on every occasion – the powers of the presidency, parliamentary speakership and premiership in order to justify its attempts to undermine the constitution.
– Lecturing about democracy and democratic institutions, while taking to the streets to agitate, sabotage, incite against public order, and paralyze political life.
– Calling for ‘the recovery of (lost) rights’ and ‘ending injustice’ while almost practicing racist and factional discrimination against what it regards as enemies, whether Lebanese or non-Lebanese. Their latest victims are Syrian refugees driven out by Bashar Al-Assad.
Aoun’s FPM, whose chairman Mr. Bassil found enough time as a Foreign Minister to condemn North Korea’s latest nuclear test in the Far East seems unaware of the Syrian tragedy which has thus far resulted in the death of more than half a million and displacement of around 12 million people, the destruction of dozens of cities and areas, and attracting all kinds of extremists and terrorists from all over the world to Syria.
But sweeping ‘causality’ under the carpet, the FPM continues to ignore the role played by Hezbollah militia – with its Lebanese façade but certainly Iranian core – in killing, maiming, brutalizing and displacing tens of thousands of Syrians; indeed, driving around a million into Lebanon. In fact, as the FPM ignores Hezbollah’s role, it directs its wrath and hatred towards its victims, as if they chose to become homeless refugees, not the militia it has aligned itself to begging for a powerless presidency under the sway of that militia’s Supreme Guide!
The FPM is now working overtime, under its chairman – the foreign minister – to ensure that generations of émigrés (mostly Christian) in faraway countries recover their Lebanese citizenship (or nationality). But he forgets how tens of thousands of Lebanese Christians are leaving Lebanon in pursuit of an honest living after Iran managed – through its tool and the FPM’s ally Hezbollah – to ruin the country’s service sectors, where Christians have always been dominant players, including tourism, education and health.
Repeating mistakes
Furthermore, the FPM is overlooking the fact that by replacing them with others; and thus threatening the ‘Christian presence’ it is bemoaning and decrying. In this instant one could point out a similar mistake that happened in the past, when some Christians opened up to and cooperated with Israel against Palestinian refugees who were expelled to Lebanon by no one else but Israel. This was the case before the armed Palestinian ‘resistance’ movement, which was later penetrated and torn apart by several Arab governments through their intelligence agencies.
Refusing to learn from wrong adventures and the delusion of ability to manipulate international politics caused Lebanon’s Christians to commit existential mistakes in the past, and repeat them at present. This is explained by siding with Iran in its sectarian war across the Arab world, and the way some Christian leaders are justifying the ‘alliance of minorities’ against Arab Sunni Muslims by citing the threat ISIS, which is both an alien and dubious aberration.
As a researcher who is quite aware of ‘The Eastern Question’ during the Ottoman period, I acknowledge the fact that the current situation in the Middle East is threatening to ‘minorities, Muslims and non-Muslims. I am also aware that ‘little’ players cannot influence the game of ‘big’ players, nor change the maps they are drawing based on international interests. However, it would be wise for minorities, particularly Christians, not to take great risks with their well-being, based on wrong or misguided political calculations.
They need to keep in mind that Islamic extremism has always been a spasmodic phenomena occurring mainly during a period of weakness and the decay of the Muslim empires, while tolerance and moderation was the rule throughout times of prosperity and ascendancy.
**This article was first published in Asharq al-Awsat on Sept. 22, 2016.

Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on on October 02-03/16

New video from Aleppo: A crying Syrian toddler clinging to his nurse
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Sunday, 2 October 2016/As Russian war planes struck rebel-held areas north of Aleppo on Saturday, a new video depicting human and especially children’s suffering in Syria has emerged. The video - documented by the Syrian American Media Society (SAMS) - showed a Syrian toddler, whose forehead is covered in blood and bandages, crying and clinging to his nurse in the war-torn city of Aleppo in an incident that took place Friday. To give him some comfort, the male nurse hugs and pats the toddler. The nurse then releases the child after the youngster stopped crying for a second but the toddler continues his shrieks again, clinching to the nurse once more for more comfort. “This is what #ChildrenOfSyria endure everyday. This is the agony of #Syria's children,” SAMS wrote along with the video. The nurse, who was treating the toddler, said “Aleppo is forgotten and this is how the world has left you behind Aleppo.”The toddler arrived to one of the hospitals in Aleppo with his brother after an airstrike hit their home on Friday.
Hospital struck again
Meanwhile, at least two barrel bombs hit the largest hospital in the rebel-held side of Aleppo on Saturday, the medical organization that supports it said. The facility, known as M10, had already been hit by heavy bombardment on Wednesday along with the second-largest hospital in the area in what UN chief Ban Ki-moon denounced as “war crimes.” “Two barrel bombs hit the M10 hospital and there were reports of a cluster bomb as well,” Adham Sahloul of SAMs said of Saturday’s attack. SAMS operates 106 medical facilities throughout Syria that provide general and specialized medical care for Syrians in need. The recent bombardment of Aleppo has been some of the worst in Syria’s five-year civil war, leaving more than 220 people dead and turning residential buildings into heaps of rubble. The World Health Organization has called Syria the most dangerous place in the world for health workers.

Syria’s east Aleppo facing inhuman ‘savagery’: UN
AFP, Geneva Sunday, 2 October 2016/Civilians under bombardment in Syria’s rebel-held east Aleppo are facing “a level of savagery that no human should have to endure,” the UN aid chief said Sunday. Stephen O’Brien, who heads the United Nations humanitarian office (OCHA), issued a fresh plea to ease the suffering of some 250,000 people besieged by a Russian-backed Syrian government offensive to retake the key city. In a statement, O’Brien called for “urgent action to bring an end to their living hell.”Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is battling to reclaim Aleppo, once the country’s economic powerhouse. Diplomatic efforts to stem the bloodshed have failed. “The healthcare system in eastern Aleppo is all but obliterated,” O’Brien said, after the largest hospital in the rebel-controlled area was hit by barrel bombs on Saturday. “Medical facilities are being hit one by one,” he added. O’Brien urged warring parties to at the very least allow medical evacuations for the hundreds of civilians in urgent need of care. The UN has said that water and food supplies in eastern Aleppo are running low, while efforts to bring in aid convoys through the Turkish border have been stalled by the fighting. The UN had hoped it could restock east Aleppo during a ceasefire negotiated last month by the United States and Russia, but security conditions to allow those deliveries were not met and the ceasefire quickly collapsed. With many basic medications now unavailable most supplies are running short, patients are being turned away from health centers and the need for evacuations is likely “to rise dramatically in the coming days,” O’Brien said. The battle for Aleppo has sparked some of the most brutal violence since the beginning in March 2011 of Syria’s conflict, which has killed more than 300,000 people and displaced over half the population.

Syria presses Aleppo advance, tells rebels to leave
Reuters, Beirut Sunday, 2 October 2016/Syrian government and allied forces advanced north of Aleppo, pressing their week-old offensive to take the insurgent-held, eastern part of the city after dozens of overnight air strikes. The Syrian army told rebels to leave the area, offering safe passage and aid supplies. The Syrian military, supported by Iranian-backed militias and Russian air power, began their push to take the whole of the divided city after a ceasefire collapsed last month. The assault has nearly destroyed eastern Aleppo’s healthcare system, the U.N said. An air campaign by the Syrian government and its allies was reinforced by a ground offensive targeting the besieged eastern half of the city where insurgents have been holding out. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Syrian military said the army and its allies had advanced south from the Handarat refugee camp north of Aleppo city, which they took earlier this week, taking the Kindi hospital and parts of the Shuqaif industrial area. Air strikes and shelling continued on Sunday, the Observatory said. Zakaria Malahifji, of the Aleppo-based rebel group Fastaqim, told Reuters there were clashes in this area on Sunday. The Observatory added that there was fierce fighting between rebels and government forces all along the front line which cuts the city in two. The Syrian army said on Sunday that rebel fighters should vacate east Aleppo and it would guarantee them safe passage and necessary aid. “The army high command calls all armed fighters in the eastern neighborhood of Aleppo to leave these neighborhoods and let civilian residents live their normal lives,” the statement carried by state news agency SANA said.
Hospitals damaged
The relentless Russian and Syrian air campaign in east Aleppo has damaged hospitals and water supplies. East Aleppo came under siege in early July after its main supply route, the Castello Road, fell under government control. Internationally brokered attempts to establish ceasefires to allow in United Nations humanitarian aid have failed, although other international and local aid groups have brought in limited supplies. The UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Stephen O’Brien, said he was “deeply alarmed by the ferocious pummeling of eastern Aleppo” and reiterated UN calls for a pause in fighting, medical evacuations and access for aid. “The health system is on the verge of total collapse with patients being turned away and no medicines available to treat even the most common ailments.”“With clean water and food in very short supply, the number of people requiring urgent medical evacuations is likely to rise . dramatically in the coming days,” he said. On Saturday, the largest trauma and intensive care center in eastern Aleppo was badly damaged by air strikes and had to close. Two patients were killed. The Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), which partly supported the hospital, said the hospital had been hit seven times since July, with three attacks this week alone. “The situation in Aleppo is beyond dire ... People are stuck under the rubble and we can’t get to them because of the intensity of the shelling. We are pleading for help to stop the bombing,” said Mohamed Abu Rajab, a SAMS nurse at the hospital. SAMS said only five hospitals remained operational in east Aleppo. The Syrian Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by state media that the participation of Russia’s air force in the conflict now in its sixth year had “tightened the noose on terrorist groups and reduced their ability to spread terror to other countries”. The Syrian government refers to all groups fighting against it as terrorists.

Video: Syrian volunteer cries after rescuing new born baby
Staff Writer, Al Arabiya English Sunday, 2 October 2016/A touching video of a civil aid defense worker breaking down in tears after saving the life of an infant in Syria has gone viral on social media. After airstrikes struck Idlib on Thursday, the White Helmet volunteer Abu Kifah rescued the one month-old infant from beneath the rubble after digging for two hours.The video shows him holding her in his arms, as he burst into tears. He said: “As I pulled her out, I imagined that she was my own daughter.”Abu Kifah along with three or four other volunteers were able to rescue the baby and the rest of her family.

Syrians refuse attempted relocation along Jordan border
The Associated Press, Amman, Jordan Sunday, 2 October 2016/Syrians stranded on the border with Jordan are refusing to move five kilometers (3.1 miles) west to a soon-to-be opened aid distribution center. Videos sent to the Associated Press on Saturday showed a protest against any relocation from the al-Ruqban camp. Aid officials speaking on condition of anonymity said the new site was built to draw refugees away from a nearby Jordanian military base, and that the UN and Jordan will agree next week to start remote delivery of food, water and basic medical care. Conditions at al-Ruqban have worsened since Jordan sealed the border 10 weeks ago after an ISIS-claimed car-bomb attack killed seven soldiers nearby.

Hungary votes on government's rejection of EU refugee quotas
The Associated Press, Hungary/Budapest Sunday, 2 October 2016/Hungarians were voting Sunday in a referendum called by Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government to bolster its opposition to any future, mandatory European Union quotas for accepting relocated asylum seekers. The government's position is expected to find wide support among voters, though there was uncertainty whether turnout would exceed the 50 percent plus-one-vote threshold needed for the referendum to be valid. The referendum asks: "Do you want the European Union to be able to prescribe the mandatory settlement of non-Hungarian citizens in Hungary even without the consent of Parliament?"Orban has argued that "No" votes favor Hungary's sovereignty and independence. If a majority of voters agree, Hungary's parliament would pass legislation to advance the referendum's goal whether or not turnout was sufficient for a valid election, he said. Orban also said he would resign if the "Yes" votes won, but the vow was seen mostly as a ploy to boost turnout by drawing his critics to the polls. While the referendum has no binding legal consequences for the EU, Orban hoped its passage would increase pressure on Brussels. "The most important issue next week is for me to go to Brussels, hold negotiations and try with the help of this result - if the result if appropriate- achieve for it not to be mandatory to take in the kind of people in Hungary we don't want to," Orban said after casting his vote in an elementary school in the Buda hills. Orban, who wants individual EU member nations to have more power in the bloc's decision-making process, said he hopes anti-quota referendums would be held in other countries. "We are proud that we are the first" he said. "Unfortunately, we are the only ones in the European Union who managed to have a (referendum) on the migrant issue."Separately from the referendum, the Orban government is also suing at the European Court of Justice because of the EU's 2015 decision to relocate 160,000 asylum seekers from overburdened Greece and Italy. Under the original plan, 1,294 asylum seekers would be moved to Hungary. Nearly 8.3 million citizens were eligible to cast ballots between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. (0400-1700 GMT) on Sunday. Turnout had reached 23.5 percent by 1 p.m. (1100 GMT), the National Election Office said. Polls show that the relentless campaign urging citizens to "send a message to Brussels" while associating migrants with terrorism has increased xenophobia in Hungary. Several opposition and civic groups have called on citizens to stay home and boycott the vote. Others urged casting invalid ballots that would not count in the final tally, but still could be interpreted as rejecting the government's "zero migrants" policies. Nearly 400,000 migrants passed through Hungary last year while making their way toward Western Europe. Razor-wire fences erected on the border with Serbia and Croatia, along with new expulsion policies, have reduced the numbers significantly this year. Last month, police reported either zero or just one migrant breaching Hungary's border area on 13 different days. Hungary last year rejected over 80 percent of the asylum claims made in the country, one of the highest rates in the EU, according to Eurostat, the EU's statistical office. The country granted asylum to 508 refugees, rejected 2,917 applications and had nearly 37,000 claims still being processed.

Roadside bomb kills 4 workers in Egypt’s Sinai
By The Associated Press, El-Arish, Egypt Sunday, 2 October 2016/Security and medical officials in Egypt’s turbulent Sinai Peninsula say four workers from the state electricity company have been killed when their car hit a roadside bomb at the coastal city of el-Arish. They say Sunday’s bombing instantly killed three of the workers, while the fourth later died in the hospital from his wounds. The bomb was planted by suspected ISIS militants, they say. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media. The attack is latest in an insurgency waged by militants led by an ISIS group affiliate in northern Sinai, where security forces have battled insurgents for years. The insurgency by Islamic militants in Sinai grew deadlier after the 2013 ouster of an Islamic president, Mohammed Mursi.

Israel/Six Palestinians charged over ISIS ties
AFP, Jerusalem Sunday, 2 October 2016/Israeli authorities have charged six Palestinians suspected of belonging to ISIS and of plotting attacks, police said Sunday. The alleged ISIS cell, operating out of Shuafat refugee camp in occupied east Jerusalem, was “preparing a series of attacks mostly in Jerusalem”, police said in a statement. Police said those arrested were a religious and ideological leader and other members tasked with preparing attacks, without naming the suspects. The arrests followed a six-week operation, police said. Several Palestinians and Arab Israelis have travelled to neighboring Syria to join ISIS, but authorities say the extremist’s influence has been limited in the Jewish state. The Shin Bet internal security service, however, said in recent months that some Palestinians who have carried out attacks were apparently inspired by ISIS. In a recent poll, 88 percent of Palestinians said ISIS does not represent Islam.

3 Indonesian hostages released in southern Philippines
The Associated Press, Jakarta, Indonesia Sunday, 2 October 2016/Three Indonesian hostages have been released in the southern Philippines after being held by their Abu Sayyaf captors for more than three months, Indonesia’s foreign minister said Sunday. The men, who were freed just before midnight Saturday, were undergoing health exams in the southern Philippine province of Sulu, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said at a news conference. She said they would be transferred to the city of Zamboanga before being handed over to Indonesian officials and flown back to Indonesia. The three - Ferry Arifin, Muhammad Mabrur Dahri and Edy Suryono - were among seven crew members of a tugboat who were kidnapped in June. Two of the others were released previously, and two are still being held. It was not immediately clear whether the three released late Saturday had been ransomed off. Three Indonesian fishermen who were also being held by Abu Sayyaf militants were freed two weeks ago along with a Norwegian man and two Filipinos. Marsudi said the government is working for the release of the two remaining Indonesian hostages - the tugboat’s navigator, Robin Piter, and third engineer, Muhammad Nasir. The seven were abducted June 20 in southern Philippine waters while returning from Cagayan De Oro port in the Philippines to Samarinda, the capital of East Kalimantan province on Borneo island. The Abu Sayyaf has been blacklisted as a terrorist organization by the United States and the Philippines for deadly bombings, kidnappings and beheadings. Philippine forces launched a major offensive against the Abu Sayyaf after the beheadings of two Canadians early this year sparked condemnations from then-Philippine President Benigno Aquino III and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

UK to start brexit process before end of March: PM
Reuters, Birmingham Sunday, 2 October 2016/British Prime Minister Theresa May will trigger the divorce process from the European Union by the end of March, firing the starting gun on the country’s biggest shift in policy since World War Two. May, appointed prime minister shortly after Britain voted in June to leave the bloc, has been under pressure from EU officials, investors and members of her Conservative Party to offer more on her plan for Britain’s exit, beyond her catch phrase “Brexit means Brexit.” In an interview with the BBC, May for the first time confirmed what many expected - that she will trigger Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty before the end of March next year. “We will trigger before the end of March next year,” May told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show, referring to a the formal divorce process which gives Britain up to two years to negotiate its exit from the bloc. Asked whether her government would priorities immigration over access to tariff-free trade with EU countries in divorce talks with the bloc - something that has muted investment, May said only that she wanted to get the “right deal”. “I want the right deal for trade in goods and services and what we are doing at the moment ... is listening to businesses here in the UK, listening to different sectors, finding out what it is that is most important to them,” she said. To get the right deal, May was clear that she must keep her cards close to her chest, saying she would not give a “running commentary” on her negotiation or give her position away.

PM vows to make Britain ‘sovereign’ in first Brexit detail
Reuters Sunday, 2 October 2016/Prime Minister Theresa May will promise to make Britain “a sovereign and independent country” by repealing the act that took it into what is now the European Union next year, she told the Sunday Times newspaper. In an interview, May, appointed after Britain’s vote in June to leave the EU, said she would not wait for an election in Germany next September before triggering Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty to start formal divorce proceedings. The former interior minister has been under pressure from EU officials, investors and members of her ruling Conservative Party to offer more detail on her plan for Britain’s exit, beyond her catch phrase “Brexit means Brexit.”Speaking on the first day of her party’s annual conference on Sunday, May will hope to put some of the criticism to rest by pledging to overturn the 1972 European Communities Act, the law allowed the accession of Britain to the European Economic Community, which later became the European Union.. “We will introduce, in the next Queen’s speech, a Great Repeal Bill that will remove the European Communities Act from the statute book,” she told the newspaper, which said it should take place in April or May. “This marks the first stage in the UK becoming a sovereign and independent country once again. It will return power and authority to the elected institutions of our country. It means that the authority of EU law in Britain will end.” May said that under her plans, the 1972 act would be overturned in advance of Britain leaving the EU but the repeal would take legal effect the moment the UK formally pulled out. Then the European Court of Justice (ECJ) would no longer be able to deliver judgments binding on Britain, she told the newspaper. The ECJ came under fire from many of those who campaigned to leave the European Union before the June referendum, with the official “Vote Leave” group saying Britain lost most of its cases to the court, which it called an “injustice”.The British leader is expected to trigger Article 50 to start formal departure, which can take up to two years to negotiate, early next year, but she has been clear she does not want to give her hand away before the talks. May, who was appointed after her predecessor David Cameron resigned following the referendum, also ruled out an early parliamentary election, saying it would cause “instability” - something that has dampened investment since the referendum. Separately, her Brexit minister David Davis said in a statement that EU law would be transposed into British law on the day Britain formally left the European Union. Laws that were then deemed unnecessary would be repealed by parliament subsequently.

French police, migrants clash near Calais camp
Reuters Sunday, 2 October 2016/French police fired tear gas and water cannon at migrants and protesters who gathered in defiance of a ban on Saturday outside the shanty town near Calais known as “the Jungle”, local authorities said. About 200 migrants and some 50 protesters assembled under a bridge to protest against living conditions in the nearby camp that President Francois Hollande has vowed to close by the end of the year. Police clashed with migrants as they pushed them back to the camp while activists threw stones at the security forces. Another 150 protesters who left Paris on Saturday aboard four coaches were blocked by police at a toll road about 30 miles (48 km) short of the northern port. Thousands of migrants fleeing war and poverty, from Afghanistan to Syria, have converged on Calais over the past two years.Many attempt to sneak onto trains using the Channel Tunnel or lorries heading to Britain, where they hope to settle. The presence of the migrants has led to tension with some residents and a permanent police deployment.

French church where priest slain to reopen
AFP, Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, France Sunday, 2 October 2016/Two months after its priest was murdered by teenage extremists, parishioners of a Catholic church in northern France will gather Sunday for a solemn re-opening ceremony to seek solace and solidarity. The Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray church, a focal point of a small town of some 27,000 near the city of Rouen, will hold a special penitential mass to mark the occasion and pay tribute to Father Jacques Hamel. The 85-year-old priest had his throat slit at the foot of the altar on July 26 in an attack claimed by ISIS. “He was a good priest. I always went to see him and he never refused to be of service,” said 81-year-old Mafalda Pace, who lives just next door to the 16th-century church. Pace said Saturday she would be among those following the penitential rite of cleansing and subsequent mass presided over by Archbishop of Rouen Dominique Lebrun. “The rite consists of ‘cleansing’ the church through the sprinkling of holy water,” said the archbishop, who also celebrated an August 2 funeral mass for the slain priest at Rouen Cathedral which was attended by President Francois Hollande and Prime Minister Manuel Valls. In a show of inter-faith solidarity, Muslims and Jews were among the mourners on that occasion. The killing came less than two weeks after the Bastille Day attack that claimed 86 lives when a Tunisian extremist rammed a truck into crowds on a popular promenade in the southern city of Nice. The murder of Hamel and the Nice massacre some seven months after the November Paris attacks were the latest in a series of extremist attacks to rock France over the past year and a half. Sunday’s rite is designed to wipe away the profaning of the church at the hands of extremists Adel Kermiche, a local man, and Abdel-Malik Petitjean, both of whom were shot dead by police following a siege. Local clergy will join the archbishop for Sunday’s services, which will follow a mid-afternoon procession to the church with members of the local Muslim community pledging to join. “It will be a day of brotherhood ... I hope that all local people will be there, believers or not,” Mohamed Karabila, representing the local mosque, told AFP.

Erdogan slams US Congress over JASTA law
AFP, Ankara Sunday, 2 October 2016/Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned Saturday a US Congress vote to override Barack Obama’s veto of a bill allowing 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia, saying he expected the move to be reversed as soon as possible. Relations between Ankara and Riyadh have tightened considerably in the past months as they pursue joint interests in Syria. Erdogan had just the day earlier hosted Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef for talks at his palace. “The allowing by the US Congress of lawsuits to be opened against Saudi Arabia over the 9/11 attacks is unfortunate,” Erdogan said in a speech for the opening of parliament. “It’s against the principle of individual criminal responsibility for crimes. We expect this false step to be reversed as soon as possible,” he added. Families of 9/11 victims have campaigned for the law, convinced the Saudi government had a hand in the attacks that killed almost 3,000 people. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudi citizens, but no link to the government has been proven. The Saudi government denies any ties to the plotters. Obama called the vote a “dangerous precedent” while Saudi Arabia warned it risked having “disastrous consequences.” The visit by the Saudi crown prince to Ankara was the latest sign of the burgeoning relationship between Turkey and Saudi Arabia, two mainly Sunni Muslim powers who both support rebels battling President Bashar al-Assad in Syria. Erdogan told Nayef Friday that the expanding ties “offer opportunities for regional and global stability”, the Anadolu news agency said. Nayef said Riyadh was pleased that the two countries “have the same thinking on all issues”. Erdogan also bestowed on Nayef Turkey’s second highest state decoration for foreign nationals, the Order of the Republic. The Turkish president earlier this year also backed Saudi Arabia in a diplomatic crisis with Iran over Riyadh’s execution of prominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr in January.

Iraqi group seeks US compensation in light of JASTA
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Sunday, 2 October 2016/An Iraqi group is pressing the country’s parliament to ask for US compensation in light of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) that was recently approved by the Congress in Washington, Al Arabiya News Channel reported Saturday. JASTA has been thrusted into the limelight after Congress overrode US President Barack Obama’s veto of the potential bill. If passed, JASTA would allow US citizens to sue Saudi Arabia over the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. While many states have criticized JASTA for its potential of eroding the principle of sovereign immunity and changing international law, the lobbyist group Arab Project in Iraq sees their opportunity to ask for compensation from the United States over violations by the US forces following US invasion that saw the toppling of late President Saddam Hussein in 2003. Citing how the Congress has given US civilians the opportunity to get compensation from “individuals” and “foreign nations” over their terrorist act in the United States, the group said Iraqis deserved the same treatment. It urged for a full-fledged investigation over the killing of civilians targets, loss of properties and individuals who suffered torture and other mistreatment on the hand of US forces.

Saudi Arabia to implement new visa application fee
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Sunday, 2 October 2016/Saudi Arabia will implement a new visa fee that will take effect on Sunday after the Islamic New Year (Hijrah) as part of the campaign to depend less on oil revenues. The visa fee will include all tourists, religious and business – with the exception of people traveling to the country to perform Umrah or Hajj for the first time. The visa fee will rise to SR2,000 (Saudi Riyals) for a single entry, while the multiple-entry visa fee will be SR3,000 for the six-month visa, SR5,000 for the one-year visa, SR8,000 for the two-year visa. A transit visa fee of SR300 will also be implemented. In a time where visa Saudi Arabia has been leaning to less reliance on oil, the move comes as an effective way to ease the pressure on the government in a time where oil prices are low.

Lawyer speaks claims Iran behind Sadr disappearance
By Staff writer Al Arabiya English Sunday, 2 October 2016/Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi has accused Iran of playing a role behind the disappearance of Lebanese leader Musa al-Sadr during a trip to Libya in 1978. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ebadi spoke for the first time about the fate of Imam al-Sadr and suggested Ayatollah Khomeini and his aide played a role in the disappearance of Lebanon’s charismatic Shiite cleric. “Sadr stayed for several days in Libya waiting for the arrival of Khomeini’s aide Mohammad Beheshti. However, Sadr decided to leave the country when Beheshti’s arrival was delayed,” Ebadi told Farsi-speaking Radio Farda,as quoted by Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper on Sunday. The Iranian lawyer claimed Sadr was detained at an undisclosed location after Khomeini’s aide telephoned Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi. “Beheshti informed Qaddafi that Sadr was in contact with the Iranian Shah, and that they had received evidence proving Sadr was in connection with the Americans.”“Beheshti asked for the termination of Sadr to remove him from the way of Khomeini. Therefore, Qaddafi ordered that Sadr be killed and buried at an unknown location in the Libyan Desert.”Charismatic cleric Sadr was born in Iran and migrated to Lebanon to establish the powerful Lebanese militia Amal Movement in 1974 to defend Shiite interests during the civil war. A common-held theory suggests he and two colleagues disappeared in the Libyan capital on the orders of Qaddafi.
Sadr’s family and Lebanon’s Shiite community hold the former Libyan leader responsible for the disappearance of Sadr. Libya says Sadr, a relative of former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, vanished after leaving Tripoli for Italy, but an Italian investigating magistrate has ruled he never arrived there. Ebadi said the Sadr family informed her that the Iranian Foreign Ministry had rejected a request to find Sadr because the Iranian authorities “did not want to sacrifice the political relations for family relations.”

Houthis pose threat to shipping: Arab coalition
AFP, Riyadh Sunday, 2 October 2016/Houthi militia in Yemen are posing a threat to shipping in the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait, the Saudi-led coalition supporting the government said Sunday after an attack on an Emirati vessel. The coalition said Shiite Houthi militiamen had attacked the vessel “on its usual route to and from (the southern port city of) Aden to transfer relief and medical aid and evacuate wounded civilians.” “Coalition air and naval forces targeted Houthi militia boats involved in the attack” near the Bab al-Mandab, it said, while “coalition forces rescued civilian passengers following the attack” on Friday night. “This incident demonstrates Houthi tactics of terrorist attacks against civilian international navigation in the Bab al-Mandab,” the coalition said in a statement. The strait is a major shipping lane between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden leading into the Indian Ocean. The rebels, in a statement posted Saturday on their sabanews.net website, claimed the attack which it said targeted and “completely destroyed” an Emirati warship with rockets as it neared Mokha on the Red Sea coast. The United Arab Emirates military acknowledged “an incident” involving a chartered vessel under its command in the Bab al-Mandab as it was returning from a “routine” journey to Aden, further south, but it reported no casualties. The UAE is a key member of the coalition that has been battling the Iran-backed Houthis and their allies since March last year in support of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi’s internationally recognised government. Since March 2015, the coalition has pushed the rebels out of much of Yemen’s south, but they still control nearly all of the country’s Red Sea coast as well as swathes of territory around the capital Sanaa.

Turkey police detain Gulen’s brother
By AFP, Istanbul Sunday, 2 October 2016/Turkish police on Sunday detained a brother of the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen who is accused of masterminding the failed July coup aimed at ousting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, state media said. Kutbettin Gulen was detained by police acting on a tip-off at the home of a relative in the Gaziemir district of the western Izmir province, Anadolu news agency said. He is the first of Gulen’s siblings to be detained after the coup bid. He is accused of “membership of an armed terror group”, Anadolu said, without giving further details. Kutbettin Gulen is currently being questioned by anti-terror police. Fethullah Gulen, a former Erdogan ally who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999, is accused by Turkey of orchestrating the July 15 coup plot. Gulen denies the claims and his supporters ridicule the description of his group by the Turkish authorities as the Fethullah Terror Organisation (FETO), saying he merely runs a peaceful organisation called Hizmet (Service). Some 32,000 people have been arrested since the attempted putsch over alleged links to Gulen by the authorities, in a relentless crackdown that has caused international concern. According to previous Turkish media reports, Gulen has five brothers: Seyfullah and Hasbi, who are dead, and Mesih, Salih and Kutbettin. He also has two sisters, Nurhayat and Fazilet. Their current whereabouts are not known. In July, the authorities arrested Gulen’s nephew Muhammet Sait Gulen in the eastern city of Erzurum, long seen as one of the hubs for his supporters. Another nephew, Ahmet Ramiz Gulen, was arrested in August in the southeastern city of Gaziantep. But this is believed to be the first time a brother has been detained. Turkey has asked the US authorities to extradite Gulen to face justice back home and expressed impatience with the slowness of the procedure. But Washington has insisted the full judicial process should be observed.

Trump’s 1995 tax records suggest no federal taxes for years
Reuters, Washington Sunday, 2 October 2016/Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump declared a $916 million loss on his 1995 income tax returns and the large tax deduction may have allowed him to avoid paying federal income taxes for up to 18 years, the New York Times reported on Saturday. The Trump campaign, in a statement responding to the Times report, said that the tax document was obtained illegally and that the New York Times is operating as an extension of the presidential campaign of Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. The Times said it had obtained Trump’s 1995 tax records and that they showed he received the large tax benefits from financial deals that went bad in the early 1990s. The newspaper said that tax experts it hired to analyze Trump’s records said tax rules which are especially advantageous to wealthy filers would have let Trump use his $916 million loss to cancel out an equivalent amount of taxable income over an 18-year period. The Times said that although Trump’s taxable income in subsequent years is as yet unknown, a $916 million loss in 1995 would have been large enough to wipe out more than $50 million a year in taxable income over 18 years. Trump has declined to release his tax records, unlike previous presidential nominees in modern history, saying his taxes are under a federal audit. Experts say he could still release them publicly if he wished. “Mr. Trump is a highly-skilled businessman who has a fiduciary responsibility to his business, his family and his employees to pay no more tax than legally required,” the Trump campaign statement said. “That being said, Mr. Trump has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in property taxes, sales and excise taxes, real estate taxes, city taxes, state taxes, employee taxes and federal taxes, along with very substantial charitable contributions,” it said.

Australia: MH17 missile suspects might be confirmed by year-end
Reuters Sunday, 2 October 2016/Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said on Sunday the names of those responsible for shooting down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014 might be confirmed by the end of the year. “By the end of the year, maybe early next year, the list of those that we believe should be held accountable will be confirmed and then there must be a prosecution,” Bishop said in an interview with Australian state broadcaster ABC. international investigators said on Wednesday the passenger plane was downed by a Russian-made missile fired from a pro-Russian rebel village in eastern Ukraine. The findings counter Moscow’s suggestion that the flight, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur in July 2014, was brought down by Ukraine’s military rather than the separatists. All 298 people on board, including 28 Australians, were killed. Bishop said the culprits could face an international tribunal, similar to the one used to prosecute those responsible for the 1988 bombing of a PanAm flight over Lockerbie, Scotland.

Explosion at cafe injures 90 at festival in southern Spain
The Associated Press, Madrid Sunday, 2 October 2016/An explosion at a cafe in southern Spain injured 90 people at a local festival, five of them seriously, authorities said Sunday. The Saturday night explosion occurred at around 7 p.m. in downtown Velez-Malaga, a small town neighboring Malaga, a popular tourist destination in Spain's southern Andalusia region. A spokeswoman for the Andalusian emergency service told The Associated Press that preliminary reports indicate a gas leak caused the blast. She spoke on condition of anonymity due to her agency's requirements. The blast caused some of the La Bohemia cafe's walls and counters to collapse, injuring people inside. Chairs and tables were strewn about in the street Sunday, along with exploded glass from the cafe's windows and doors.Mayor Antonio Moreno Ferrer said the city will open an investigation. Two of the five who are seriously injured are in Malaga Hospital's intensive care unit and are being treated for burns and traumatic injuries, the spokeswoman added. In all, 57 of the injured were taken to a nearby town hospital and more than 20 have been discharged, while 33 others went to local clinics and were treated for cuts or bruises, the agency said. Immediately after the explosion, there were fears that the conservative Popular Party headquarters neighboring the cafe had been targeted, but authorities denied that the party offices were attacked.
 

Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on on October 02-03/16

Audio Reveals What John Kerry Told Syrians Behind Closed Doors, (Especially About The USA Love To Hezbollah)
حب وود بين الإرهابي حزب الله والأميركيين
Anne Barnard/New York Times/September 30/16
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/10/02/audio-reveals-what-john-kerry-told-syrians-behind-closed-doors-especially-about-the-usa-love-to-hezbollah%D8%AD%D8%A8-%D9%88%D9%88%D8%AF-%D8%A8%D9%8A%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A5%D8%B1%D9%87%D8%A7/

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/09/30/world/middleeast/100000004683024.app.html

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Secretary of State John Kerry was clearly exasperated, not least at his own government.
Over and over again, he complained to a small group of Syrian civilians that his diplomacy had not been backed by a serious threat of military force, according to an audio recording of the meeting obtained by The New York Times.
“I think you’re looking at three people, four people in the administration who have all argued for use of force, and I lost the argument.”
The 40-minute discussion, on the sidelines of last week’s United Nations General Assembly in New York, provides a glimpse of Mr. Kerry’s frustration with his inability to end the Syrian crisis. He veered between voicing sympathy for the Syrians’ frustration with United States policy and trying to justify it.
The conversation took place days after a brief cease-fire he had spearheaded crumbled, and as his Russian counterpart rejected outright his new proposal to stop the bombing of Aleppo. Those setbacks were followed by days of crippling Russian and Syrian airstrikes in Aleppo that the World Health Organization said Wednesday had killed 338 people, including 100 children.
At the meeting last week, Mr. Kerry was trying to explain that the United States has no legal justification for attacking Mr. Assad’s government, whereas Russia was invited in by the government.
“The problem is the Russians don’t care about international law, and we do.”
Mr. Kerry has been hamstrung by Russia’s military operations in Syria and by his inability to persuade Washington to intervene more forcefully. He has also been unable to sell Syrian opponents of Mr. Assad, like the ones in that room, on a policy he does not wholeheartedly believe in.
His frustrations and dissent within the Obama administration have hardly been a secret, but in the recorded conversation, Mr. Kerry lamented being outmaneuvered by the Russians, expressed disagreement with some of Mr. Obama’s policy decisions and said Congress would never agree to use force.
“We’re trying to pursue the diplomacy, and I understand it’s frustrating. You have nobody more frustrated than we are.”
The meeting took place at the Dutch Mission to the United Nations on Sept. 22. There were perhaps 20 people around a table: representatives of four Syrian groups that provide education, rescue and medical services in rebel-held areas; diplomats from three or four countries; and Mr. Kerry’s chief of staff and special envoy for Syria. The recording was made by a non-Syrian attendee, and several other participants confirmed its authenticity.
John Kirby, a State Department spokesman, declined on Thursday evening to comment on what he described as a private conversation. He said that Mr. Kerry was “grateful for the chance to meet with this group of Syrians, to hear their concerns firsthand and to express our continued focus on ending this civil war.”
Several of the Syrian participants said afterward that they had left the meeting demoralized, convinced that no further help would come from the Obama administration. One, a civil engineer named Mustafa Alsyofi, said Mr. Kerry had effectively told the Syrian opposition, “You have to fight for us, but we will not fight for you.”
“How can this be accepted by anyone?” Mr. Alsyofi asked. “It’s unbelievable.”
In the meeting, he and the others pressed Mr. Kerry politely but relentlessly on what they saw as contradictions in American policy. Their comments crystallized the widespread sense of betrayal even among the Syrians most attractive to Washington as potential partners, civilians pushing for pluralistic democracy.
One woman, Marcell Shehwaro, demanded “the bottom line,” asking “how many Syrians” had to be killed to prompt serious action.
“What is the end of it? What he can do that would be the end of it?”
Mr. Kerry responded that “Assad’s indifference to anything” could push the administration to consider new options, adding, “There’s a different conversation taking place” since the intensified bombing of Aleppo and the further breakdown of talks with Russia.
But he also said any further American effort to arm rebels or join the fight could backfire.
“The problem is that, you know, you get, quote, enforcers in there and then everybody ups the ante, right? Russia puts in more, Iran puts in more; Hezbollah is there more and Nusra is more; and Saudi Arabia and Turkey put all their surrogate money in, and you all are destroyed.”
At another point, Mr. Kerry spelled out in stark terms distinctions the United States was making between combatants, which have upset the Syrian opposition: The United States wants the rebels to help it fight the Islamic State and Al Qaeda because, as he put it, “both have basically declared war on us.” But Washington will not join the same rebels in fighting Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militia allied with Mr. Assad, even though the United States lists Hezbollah as a terrorist group like the others.
“Hezbollah,” Mr. Kerry explained, “is not plotting against us.”
He also spoke of the obstacles he faces back home: a Congress unwilling to authorize the use of force and a public tired of war.
“A lot of Americans don’t believe that we should be fighting and sending young Americans over to die in another country.”
One of the Syrians in the room assured Mr. Kerry, “No one is requesting an invasion,” but he insisted that the rebels needed more help.
As time ran short, Mr. Kerry told the Syrians that their best hope was a political solution to bring the opposition into a transitional government. Then, he said, “you can have an election and let the people of Syria decide: Who do they want?”
A State Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said later that Mr. Kerry was not indicating a shift in the administration’s view of Mr. Assad, only reiterating a longstanding belief that he would be ousted in any fair election.
At one point, Mr. Kerry astonished the Syrians at the table when he suggested that they should participate in elections that include President Bashar al-Assad, five years after President Obama demanded that he step down.
Mr. Kerry described the election saying it would be set up by Western and regional powers, and the United Nations, “under the strictest standards.” He said that the millions of Syrians who have fled since the war began in 2011 would be able to participate.
“Everybody who’s registered as a refugee anywhere in the world can vote. Are they going to vote for Assad? Assad’s scared of this happening.”
But the Syrians were skeptical that people living under government rule inside Syria would feel safe casting ballots against Mr. Assad, even with international observers — or that Russia would agree to elections if it could not ensure the outcome. And that is when the conversation reached an impasse, with Ms. Shehwaro, an educator and social media activist, recalling hopes for a more direct American role.
“So you think the only solution is for somebody to come in and get rid of Assad?” Mr. Kerry asked.
“Yes,” Ms. Shehwaro said.
“Who’s that going to be?” he asked. “Who’s going to do that?”
“Three years ago, I would say: You. But right now, I don’t know.”

The time of wonders
Turki Aldakhil/Al Arabiya/October 02/16
We live in a turbulent world. It’s difficult to comprehend the unrest which goes on around us and which we live in the vicinity of. What is happening in Iraq and Syria comes in addition to the repercussions of the Arab revolutions in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen.
Simultaneously occurring are the American presidential elections, Donald Trump’s bizarre presidential campaign, the strange Russian-American debate on Syria and the weakness of Barack Obama who talks about everything but does nothing. Also occuring is the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and its “legal” and “illegal” branches. We used to laugh at a viral video spread during the Egyptian revolution and during the uprising against the uprising. The video featured an elderly man who, upon seeing a group of protesters, said “Who are they? Who are they with and who are they against? Who are we and who are they?!? The elderly man was in his 60s and his statements, although simple, represent the opinion of most people as the situation is mixed up. It’s a surreal situation that cannot be understood or comprehended.
Is there a more acute form of madness than the madness of people brainwashing others into believing that their faithful mothers and fathers are infidels and pushing them as far as murdering them with knives? Madness is sweeping the world and it goes beyond this invasion toward acknowledging it as rational and logical and as something that’s ordinary which is neither condemned nor begets surprise.
**This article was first published in Okaz on Oct. 2, 2016.

What Playboy’s hijab-wearing model means to women
Yara al-Wazir/Al Arabiya/October 02/16
Over the past two months, the hijab has garnered a lot of attention From being associated with the burkini, to calls to ban women wearing the hijab in their passport photo, to an Olympic athlete being praised for wearing it, to a fight involving shoes and chairs during a live broadcast on TV. There is no denying that the hijab is controversial in multiple communities.Playboy, the infamous nude-filled magazine, picked up on it. Perhaps this is why it chose to feature Noor Tagouri, an up-and-coming hijab-wearing TV presenter based in the United States in their “Renegade” series. It is unfortunate that there seems to be strong urgency to voice opinions on women who wear the hijab, and it is shameful that this urgency takes precedence over issues that are in my opinion more important, such as the refugee crisis or youth unemployment. Alas, Playboy picked up on this controversial piece of clothing and wrote an article on it – the online community was not happy.
Were people upset?
Admittedly, perhaps Playboy, a magazine that has based its success of objectifying nude women is not the best play to showcase female empowerment. However in this particular case, the medium does not matter as much as the message. Playboy has decided to take the plunge and feature a Muslim woman in a positive light, and to some extent, this is something that must be celebrated. The issue in which Tagouri is featured in includes people who have “risked it all – even their lives – to do what they love.” Let women be – let them be free to dress as they want, act as they want and appear in any magazine they want because ultimately, it does not affect anyone but themselves. The reality is that although Tagouri fit the “standard” of what Playboy was looking for to include in this particular magazine feature, Playboy editors also knew that she would garner controversy, as did Tagouri. Although sex sells, it doesn’t quite reach as wide of a market pool as controversy. So if the Muslim community really wanted to protest featuring an unapologetic and brave news personality in Playboy, the best way would have been to in fact remain silent. If anything, this would prove that Tagouri isn’t risking anything within her own community.I can’t help but feel that there is a double standard. One of Malcolm X’s greatest interviews (as a Black Muslim) was also in Playboy in 1963. Yet over 50 years on, Malcolm X is still praised as a progressive Muslim who shone a bright light on the religion and the community in the Western world. The controversy isn’t simply because a Muslim appeared in Playboy, rather because a Muslim woman appeared in Playboy. The controversy is rooted in a deepened belief that women’s bodies can be policed and bullied.
Policing women bodies
Being a Muslim woman in Europe means that both the “good cop” and the “bad cop” are policing my body and my clothing. As a Muslim woman, I cannot help but feel victimised by those who preach for the hijab, and those who preach against it; the ultimate result is feeling too Eastern for the West, but too Western for the East. It is about time that the hijab stopped causing so much controversy and became accepted as another article of clothing a woman may choose (or not choose) to wear. To those who are strong believers in the hijab’s stature and importance in Islam and take it upon themselves to preach, I say: let women be. Women are responsible for their own actions and nowhere does the Quran ask strangers to preach to other women what they should wear or what magazines they should appear in.To Westerners who believe the hijab is a sign of oppression and that every woman who wears it needs “saving,” I say: let women be. The hijab is subjective, and to many of those who wear it, it is actually a symbol of liberation and freedom from the constant scrutiny and objectification infringed on women by society. To many women, the hijab is a symbol of individuality and allows the incorporation of personality into their own style. The overall message from all the controversy that the hijab seems to cause is to simply let women be – let them be free to dress as they want, act as they want, and appear in any magazine they want because ultimately, it does not affect anyone but themselves.

JASTA and the house of glass
Samar Fatany/Al Arabiya/October 02/16
Unfortunately, the Justice against Sponsored Terrorism Act (JASTA) bill has been passed in spite of President Barack Obama’s veto and many objections from within the United States and abroad. The implications of JASTA are an issue of great national concern. Saudi Arabia has exhausted all efforts to maintain good relations with the United States. The bill will have dire consequences on our standing in the world and could be detrimental to peace in the region.
The Saudi government has repeatedly denied any involvement in the 9/11 terror attacks, however, there are certain elements in the US who are intent on escalating tensions and spearheading a campaign of lies orchestrated against Saudi Arabia. The Saudi people share sympathy for the victims of 9/11 and their families and do believe that they have every right to demand justice for their loved ones. However, they are going about it the wrong way. The real perpetrators needed to find a scapegoat, in this case it is Saudi Arabia. Physics professor Steven Jones has written several 9/11 Truth articles asserting that a variety of evidence defies the mainstream tower collapse theory and favors controlled demolition, using thermite. The professor has boldly stated, “We don’t believe that 19 hijackers and a few others in a cave in Afghanistan pulled this off acting alone.”
Europhysics News in August 2016 published a paper on the Physics of High-rise Building Collapses,” which strongly challenges the official US Government (NIST) narrative of the collapse of WTC7 and the WTC Towers. The paper was authored by Steven Jones, Robert Korol, Anthony Szamboti and Ted Walter. Architect Richard Gage’s group, Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, has provided “Truthers” with the ability to claim that thousands of engineering and architecture professionals demand a new investigation into the cause of the attacks. Gage has given many presentations around the world, and his team organizes news conferences and mock debates several times a year. A documentary film Loose Change, produced by Dylan Avery and Jason Bermas, started the 9/11 Truth movement and created a significant momentum in 2005 and in following years. Hollywood stars who have publicly supported 9/11 Truth claims include Rosie O’Donnell, Charlie Sheen, and Ed Asner.
‘The truth’ of 9/11
The 911truth.org, a website dedicated to exposing the “cover-up” surrounding 9/11, and seeking justice for the victims and their relatives, published an article on Sept 10, 2016 about growing numbers of people still claiming the twin tower atrocities could have been an inside job.
Arab countries and others who have suffered at the hands of American foreign policy and military might must now stand up for their rights and demand justice. “The shocking accusation, that the West was involved in plotting, organizing, and even carrying out the 9/11 terror atrocities to provide the grounds for the military strikes on the so-called Axis of Evil, remains one of the world’s biggest conspiracy theories.”A mission statement on its website says: “Our Mission is to expose the official lies and cover-up surrounding the events of September 11th, 2001 in a way that inspires the people to overcome denial and understand the truth. This month on the anniversary of the twin tower attacks , the Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance held its 12th annual 9/11 Truth Film Festival, where the British documentary Incontrovertible was screened.
The online film by Tony Rooke probes into why Building 7 collapsed in the way that it did. It questions the official explanation given after an investigation by The National Institute of Standards and Technology, which still refuses to release all of its data amid claims it could “compromise public safety.”Sadly, all these claims are ignored and there is continued disregard for repeated calls by reputable American experts and researchers for a more thorough and truthful investigation into the events of 9/11. The majority of the American people refuse to probe for the truth and remain deceived by their media.
Trusted ally?
Today, the JASTA legislation is another blow to the truth. It sends a very negative signal to the whole of the Middle East and Muslim countries that the United States can never be a trusted ally to bring peace to the region and the global community. The European Union on Sept. 20 warned President Barack Obama that the bill is in violation of international law. The official letter stated, “The possible adoption and implementation.

Iranian Official: 'If America Wants To Try Its Luck Against Us, [It Should Know That] We Are Completely Capable Of Mobilizing 9 Million Fighters... In Under 10 Days'; 'We Have Warehouses Full [Of Missiles]... That Can Hit Tel Aviv'
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI)/October 02/16

http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/10/02/iranian-official-we-are-capable-of-mobilizing-9-million-fighters-we-have-warehouses-full-of-missiles-that-can-hit-tel-aviv/

In a September 25, 2016 speech to a Tehran political circle, Mohsen Rafighdoost, who was minister of the Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War and who heads the Noor Foundation,[1] said that the secret of the victory of Iran's Islamic Revolution was Iranians' total obedience to the leader. He said that today the IRGC ground forces are "five times better" than the U.S. Army, and that the Iranian regime is capable of deploying nine million troops against it in less than 10 days.
Rafighdoost added that Iran's missiles in Tehran and the northwest of the country can reach Tel Aviv, and expressed his yearning for Israel to launch a missile at Iran so that Iran could "flatten Tel Aviv." He also said that Islamic Revolution founder Ayatollah Khomeini established Hizbullah in Lebanon to promote the Islamization of other countries,[2] and that today, in the era of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the organization has become "a supreme force in the region."
Mohsen Rafighdoost. Source: Wilayah.info, January 27, 2014.
Following are his September 25 statements:
"The IRGC's Ground Forces Are Perhaps Five Times Better Than The American Army"
"The factor that led to our victory in the [Iran-Iraq] War is [the same] factor that led to our victory in the [Islamic] Revolution. The Imam [Khomeini], in France, would order a parade [to be held in Iran], and the people would hold a parade, even in remote villages.
"During the eight years of the imposed war, not only was not one inch of Iranian land surrendered to the enemy, but we also acquired deterrent capability. I believe that as long as the Islamic Revolution stands against the Western and Eastern camps, we will be under military sanctions. We must never think that the world will provide us with military aid. Thanks to the war and its martyrs, Iran currently has deterrent capability. After a while, the Imam [Khomeini] replaced the call of 'war, war to victory' with 'war, war until the fitna is removed.' At the time, we understood this call as meaning that 'we must be so strong that the enemy will not even think of a military strike against Iran.'
"Today, Iran has deterrent capability. In recent years, the enemies have spoken of the option [of a military strike against Iran] as being on the table, but that was a lie. [Our] air force and navy are good, but it is [our] ground forces that finish the war. The IRGC's ground forces are perhaps five times better than the American army.
"Despite all the enemy media and cultural propaganda against us, if America wants to try its luck against us, [it should know that] we are completely capable of mobilizing nine million fighters [against it]... on the [battle]front in under 10 days."
"If Only A Single [Israeli] Shell Would Strike Anywhere In This Country – So That We Can Flatten Tel Aviv"
"We have warehouses full [of missiles] in Tehran, Zanjan [in northwest Iran] and Oshnavieh [in Western Azerbaijan Province in northwest Iran] that can strike Tel Aviv. If only a single [Israeli] shell would strike anywhere in this country, so that we can flatten Tel Aviv."
In Khamenei's Era, Hizbullah "Has Become A Supreme Force In The Region"
"In accordance with his secondary plan, the Imam [Khomeini] created Hizbullah in Lebanon. This plan was [aimed at] Islamizing other countries. Today, in the era of the Leader [Khamenei, Hizbullah] has become a supreme force in the region.
"Despite all the criminal [plots], Iranian security forces grow stronger every day. Some of the statements being put out there are made out of lack of awareness, and anyone who makes them is ignorant.[3]
"The secret to victory lies in wise and complete obedience to the leader [Khamenei]. During the time of the Imam [Khomeini], we obeyed him, and today we obey the leader [Khamenei]."[4]
[1] Since 1999, Mohsen Rafighdoost has been director of the Noor Foundation, which reportedly owns significant real estate and has revenues of over $200 million from importing pharmaceuticals, sugar and construction materials.
[2] During the 1980s, Rafighdhoost was involved in the creation of Hizbullah in Lebanon and likely had knowledge of its terror activities in Beirut.
[3] A reference to Hashemi Rafsanjani's August 20, 2016 call for investing in Iran's economy instead of in its the military, as Japan and Germany did post-World War II. MEMRI is soon publishing a report on Rafsanjani's statements and reactions to them.
[4] Khabaronline.ir, September 25, 2016.
 

Christians Are Untouchables! They Are Meant for Cleaning Our Houses.”/Muslim Persecution of Christians, June 2016
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/10/02/raymond-ibrahim-christians-are-untouchables-they-are-meant-for-cleaning-our-houses-christians-are-untouchables-they-are-meant-for-cleaning-our-houses-muslim-persecution-of-christians-june-201/

Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/October 02, 2016
Three Muslim men slaughtered a 15-year-old Christian student, Wajaesh Shono. One of the murderers was the boy’s schoolteacher. — Pakistan.
A Muslim mob killed and beheaded a Christian pastor’s wife based on a false accusation of “blasphemy.” — Nigeria.
His father and stepmother became furious when they learned of the boy’s conversion. They began… starving him, in keeping with Islamic law recommendations for apostate women and children. — Uganda.
As usual, Egyptian TV reported the one-sided attacks from the Muslim majority on the Christian minority as “clashes.” After arriving, the police stood back and allowed the mob to continue rioting, plundering and setting more Christian homes and vehicles on fire. — Egypt.
A Christian woman who escaped ISIS said the militants “married and divorced” her as many as nine times every night to justify the act of raping her. — Iraq.
Christians reciting the rosary inside St. Anthony Church in Ventimiglia, Italy were told by refugee-volunteers to keep their prayers down as they were bothering newly arrived Muslim migrants. — Italy.
At the height of one of the worst months for Christians under Islam, June, 2016, both the U.S. government and “mainstream” media continued to ignore the plight of Christians.
Despite the U.S. government acknowledging that ISIS is committing genocide against Christians in Iraq and Syria, statistics showed the number of refugees the Obama administration has welcomed since the start of 2015:
From Syria: 5,435 Muslims; 28 Christians
From Iraq: 11,086 Muslims; 433 Christians
As for the mainstream media, the death of a gorilla was covered six times more than the Muslim slaughter of Christians for their faith, according to a report.
June’s roundup of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes, but is not limited to, the following:
Muslim Slaughter of Christians
Egypt: A Coptic Christian priest, Fr. Raphael Moussa, 46, was shot dead in “a hail of bullets” by an unidentified gunman outside the Church of the Martyr of St George, in Arish (Sinai). No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but Islamic terrorists affiliated with ISIS have targeted Christians in Arish before. In 2013, another Coptic Christian priest, Mina Cheroubim, was also shot dead as he left his church in Arish.
Syria: Non-ISIS rebel fighters considered “moderate” by establishment counterterror analysts slit the throat of a Christian man in front of his wife. The murderer told her: “Your Jesus did not come to save him from us.” The murder took place in the ancient Christian town of Maalula, where Jesus’ language Aramaic was still spoken. The town had been invaded by militants few days earlier.
According to a resident: “They arrived in our town at dawn and shouted ‘We are from the Al-Nusra Front and have come to make lives miserable for the Crusaders.’”
Separately, a suicide bomber disguised as a priest attempted to enter an event commemorating the genocide of Christian Assyrians, but was stopped by Assyrian forces. The bomber detonated his bomb outside the hall, killing himself and three members of the Christian Assyrian Sutoro security forces, and wounding five. It is believed the bomber was targeting Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem of the Syriac Orthodox Church, who led the commemoration.
Pakistan: Three Muslim men slaughtered a 15-year-old Christian student, Wajaesh Shono, on June 14. One of the murderers was the boy’s schoolteacher. According to local sources,
“Because of Shono’s success in school, a local group of Muslims often pressured Shono to convert to Islam…. Shono’s Muslim classmates never allowed him to use their study table or chairs. They always avoided playing with him because of his Christianity, and hated when he drank water from the school tap.”
When the boy continued to insist on rejecting Islam, two men grabbed him while the third, possibly his teacher, stabbed him 15 times.
Bangladesh: On Sunday, June 5, Muslims associated with ISIS slaughtered Sunil Gomez, a 65-year-old Christian shopkeeper in his store. According to local priest Father Rebeiro, the victim “attended Sunday prayers at my church and then went to his grocery store. The next thing we know he was hacked to death. I can’t imagine how anyone can kill such an innocent man.” That same afternoon, local Christians held a protest rally demanding the immediate arrest of the murderers and accusing police of being indifferent to such attacks on Christian minorities. They cited the previous murder of Christian resident Gabriel Costa, whose killer is still at large, as evidence of police complicity.
Lebanon: Eight suicide bombers launched two separate attacks on the Christian town of Al Qaa on June 27. At least five people were killed. One of the attacks was near a church, and witnesses heard the attacker shouting, “Allahu Akbar” before blowing himself up. According to the town’s priest: “People are stuck in their houses, not daring to go out and fearing more suicide bombers… We’re living in terror in this town.” No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, although both al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front and the Islamic State are active on the Syrian side of the border. Lebanon has also taken in approximately 1.5 million refugees from Syria, an act that has raised fears that militants are hiding among them.
Muslim Slaughter of Christians in Nigeria
On June 2, a Muslim mob murdered and beheaded a Christian pastor’s wife, based on a false accusation of “blasphemy.” Bridget Agbahime, a kitchen utensil vendor, had politely asked Alhaji Dauda, a Muslim engaged in Islamic ritual cleaning, to move away from her shopfront because customers were still coming and going. He left angrily. According to the report:
Agbahime and her husband, pastor Mike Agbahime of Deeper Life Bible Church in Kano, were later meeting with the market landlord about the persistent problem when Dauda and other Muslims returned and began chanting that she must die for blasphemy. The landlord pleaded for them to return later to talk about it, but they began stoning him, and he fled. Shouting the jihadist chant “Allahu Akbar,” Dauda and the mob accused Agbahime of blasphemy against Muhammad, the prophet of Islam… Pastor Agbahime tried in vain to protect her. The assailants overpowered the few policemen present, and Agbahime knelt and began to pray before she was beaten and clubbed to death….
On June 22, the partially decayed corpse of Rev. John Adeyi was found in some bushes. The Catholic priest was kidnapped at gunpoint while traveling for pastoral duties two months earlier. His abductors later contacted church officials and demanded 25 million naira (USD $121,224) as ransom. According to one unconfirmed press report, some two million naira (USD $9,700) had been paid.
It was reported on June 1 that, after hearing that a Christian had committed “blasphemy” against Muhammad, a Muslim mob in Niger State rampaged and killed the accused, Methodus Chimaije Emmanuel, age 24. According to a Baptist pastor:
“The incident began with Facebook chats between a Muslim and Christian youth in the town. The Muslim youth mobilized other Muslims in the town on claims that the Christian youth had blasphemed the prophet Muhammad. The Muslims went to Fellowship Baptist Church along Alllawa Road, Pandogari, and burned down the church.”
He said that two Christians were shot and injured on Sunday, May 29 in one area of town, and that there could be others wounded.
It was reported on June 2 that Muslim Fulani herdsmen killed three Christians on May 31, while they slept in their homes in the early hours and burned a pastor’s home. Days earlier in the same area, Muslim herdsmen attacked another Christian with machetes.
Muslim Slaughter of Christians in Uganda
On June 17, the Muslim in-laws of a 24-year-old Christian mother, Angel Nabirye, poisoned and killed her infant daughter, sources said. Nabirye’s in-laws did this because they were angry to see the young woman eating during the daytime fast of Ramadan. “My mother-in-law questioned me for eating food with my baby during Ramadan, and I told her that the baby was unwell and needs breast-feeding.” The following day, “She [mother-in-law] brought some herbs for my baby, Saidha Namwase, which I gave her. After three hours, the condition of the baby worsened, and I rushed her to Iganga Hospital, but she was pronounced dead on arrival at 4 p.m.” Hospital tests reveal the baby was poisoned. Her husband and Muslim family were eager to bury the body immediately, according to Islamic custom, and when the mother protested because she wanted her family to be present for a funeral, they started abusing her, and calling her an infidel and pagan. Her family came and were also clandestinely drugged by the Muslim in laws and beaten; when they regained consciousness the baby’s corpse had disappeared.
On June 23, Muslims murdered a Christian woman because she refused to donate part of her land to a mosque. A number of Muslims had been pressuring Efranse Kadondo, a 50-year-old Catholic. At one point she told a Muslim relative, among those pressuring her, that “if I have to surrender part of my land, then I will give it to the Catholic Church.” This angered the Muslim relative, who, with some imams who had accompanied him, forcibly chased her off her property. Kadondo took refuge at a relative’s home in a nearby village, and reported the Muslim seizure of her land to police. Six days later, after returning from an all-night prayer meeting, the Christian woman was found lying dead in a pool of blood; her hands were broken and there were bruises around her neck. The autopsy confirmed that she was murdered during a struggle. Neighbors saw local Muslims lingering around her house that night, some of whom were subsequently arrested. Her Muslim relative had fled earlier.
On June 4, a Christian widower and father of two daughters was murdered by Muslims, who were apparently angered by his evangelistic work. According to the report,
The body of Yokannah Zirinkuma … was found in a pool of blood in nearby Kadama village, near the home of the primary suspect… Well known in the area for evangelistic preaching in a marketplace by which several Muslims came to faith in Christ, Zirinkuma two weeks prior had engaged Muslims in Kasasira village in open debate that became heated. He later received a threatening letter from unknown Muslims. “You should stop misleading Muslims, and if you fail to adhere to this, then you will face the judgment sword from Allah,” a letter in Arabic warned him.
Soon thereafter, the pastor was led to a house through a ruse and murdered.
Muslim Attacks on Christian Apostates, Blasphemers, and Preachers
Uganda: A Muslim man burned his 9-year-old son for accepting Christ. On June 5, after attending church with a Christian friend, Nassif Malagara “requested that he wanted to receive Jesus as his personal savior,” said that church’s pastor: “I was a bit hesitant, but after his continuous press, I then prayed with him, and he left.” Afterwards, the boy refused to engage in Islamic activities. His father, Abubakar Malagara, and his stepmother became furious when they learned of the boy’s conversion. They began abusing him, including by starving him, in keeping with Islamic law recommendations for apostate women and children. Two days later, his father caught him eating food the boy had smuggled from a neighbor. According to the boy:
“He started beating me up with sticks, but I managed to escape to a nearby bush. My father then followed me and got hold of me back to the homestead, where he tied me up to a banana tree. He went into the house and came back with a hot piece of wood. The banana tree had dry leaves, which caught fire and caused serious burns on my body.”
Neighbors heard the child screaming for help. They rescued and took him to a nearby hospital. The neighbor who introduced the boy to church fears for his life, especially after receiving a text message: “We know that you are behind the conversion of Nassif to Christianity. You will soon reap what you have sown, which will be a lesson to others. Islam is against such conversion.”
Unknown Middle East nation: Three Christians (pastor Stephan, pastor Samuel and evangelist James) who worked for a missionary organization that delivers Bibles to several nations of the Middle East, suffered from “a brutal attack by Islamic extremists” on the evening of June 12, said Paul Ciniraj, the organization’s spokesman: Shouting “Allahu Akbar!” the Muslims “jumped out on the pastors from a dark corner and brutally [beat] them with iron pipes.” While hospitalized, the three men suspected they were being stalked inside the health-care facility and, despite their serious injuries, asked to be discharged early. Upon their release from the hospital, they disappeared. Their organization suspects “terrorists” abducted them.
Nigeria: An Islamic cleric beat his wife with a blunt instrument after their 6-year-old daughter told him how she was healed at a church service, where the woman and their seven children all became Christian. According to a neighbor: “There was loud screaming, and we rushed to Siraji’s house and found his wife bleeding. Her husband left for a nearby mosque.” The neighbor took the woman and her children to the church site before her irate husband returned, but the sheikh and five other angry Muslims arrived looking for them, the pastor said.
“I saw them outside the church gate and sensed danger for the new converts. I told the church guard not to open the gate, and after two hours they left. Early the next day, I sent her and her children to some church members.”
The mother and children are now hiding in another village, living in a tattered house with a thatched roof that leaks. The children are unable to return to school.
Pakistan: A Christian man who converted to Islam two years ago taught his Christian relatives a “good lesson“:
Sonu tried to persuade his [Christian] cousins to convert to Islam as well, but when they refused, their discussion quickly turned into a dispute. Sonu threatened Salamat and the others, saying that he was going to “give them a good lesson.” On June 10, Sonu went to the nearest mosque and claimed that Salamat and his friends had made derogatory remarks about the Prophet Muhammad. Without waiting to verify Sonu’s report, more than a dozen men from a nearby Islamic seminary came and attacked Masih’s house. The men beat the three teenagers and knocked over household items. As the men carried out the attack, they chanted abusive slogans at the Christians. After the attack, the men went to the police to register a complaint [blasphemy accusation] against the three boys. Since the attack, the teenagers have been forced into hiding.
Muslim Attacks on Christian Churches
Sweden: On June 27, around 3 a.m., a man broke into St. Paul’s Church in central Malmö and vandalized it, starting with breaking the window panes. When police arrived, the man attacked them. Officers, according to the report, used pepper spray to overpower the “aggressive” man, who is being charged with a hate crime: “Police suspect that the man went to the attack on the church because it is a symbol of the Christian faith.” Witnesses heard him shouting, “Allahu Akbar” during the attack.
Nigeria: It was reported on June 1 that, after a Christian was accused of making a blasphemous remark (see below) on his Facebook page, Muslims rose in violence. As a result, “One of our churches, Fellowship Baptist Church, has been burnt by the Muslims. Another church too was vandalized and destroyed, and the Christian accused of blasphemy was killed,” said a local pastor.
Egypt: Hundreds of angry, rioting Muslims burned down 80 Christian homes on June 17, on the rumor that Christians were trying to build a church. When the neighboring village’s priest heard what was happening, he rushed to the scene — only to be attacked in his car; Muslims climbed, stomped on, and damaged it. Among the hundreds of rioting Muslims were many women and children shouting chanting “Allahu Akbar!” and “We’ll burn the church, we’ll burn the church.” As usual, Egyptian TV reported the one-sided attacks from the Muslim majority on the Christian minority as “clashes.” After arriving, the police stood back and allowed the mob to continue rioting, plundering and setting more Christian homes and vehicles on fire. The Muslims then performed their afternoon prayers outside those Christians’ homes they had not destroyed — with loudspeakers pointed at their doors. “No one did anything and the police took no pre-emptive or security measures in anticipation of the attacks,” said Anba Makarios, a representative of the normally diplomatic Coptic Christian church.
Dhimmitude: Muslim Hate for, and Violence against, ChristiansPakistan: On June 4, around 4:00 a.m., a group of unknown armed men opened fire on the St. Joseph Catholic Church near Lahore. Five bullets penetrated the church premises. The assailants escaped. Local Christians “expressed exasperation” concerning this latest in a long line of attacks on churches in Pakistan. They also complained that “none of the Muslims of the area has expressed solidarity with them, nor have voiced condemnation.” Separately, police stormed the United Church in Lahore’s Fazlia Colony. They hurled abusive language at the worshipers; when the pastor asked the officers to show respect for the house of worship, a policeman started cursing the church leader and slapping him around. The reason police had invaded the church is that someone complained that the church was using loudspeakers (which is banned under Islam), an allegation that was later dismissed.
Nigeria: A Muslim gang stabbed a Christian carpenter, on June 7, for eating during the Ramadan fast. Francis Emmanuel, 41, sustained multiple wounds from the attack. From his hospital bed he explained:
“As I was eating, about six Muslims came to ask me if I am a Muslim or a Christian, but I did not answer them. They asked why I was not fasting, then I told them that I am not a Muslim. Before I know it, one of them slapped me. As I stood up, the rest came and surrounded me and started attacking me with knives.”
Iraq: A Christian woman who escaped ISIS said the militants “married and divorced” her as many as nine times every night to justify the act of raping her. In the words of the woman, whose name is withheld: “They had me whenever they would desire it. Especially this one, Farouk, who was obsessed with me and he would [sarcastically] say, ‘I like the people of Jesus.’” She was enslaved in 2014 when she went looking for her husband who had disappeared soon after ISIS’ takeover of Mosul. Militants saw the crucifix tattoo on her arm, identifying her as a Christian, abducted and enslaved her. According to the report,
“The woman, who sobbed and shook during the interview, said she is not the only one who experienced these things. She said she wants to tell the world to know what happened to her in the hopes that her story will prompt the world to do something to protect Christians, Yazidis, and others.”
Pakistan: According to a Christian man, “I was attacked, beaten, and abused for selling ice-cream to Muslim children and women.” Khaleel Masih, 42, supports his wife and six children by selling ice-cream from an ice chest on the back of his bicycle, which he rides everyday through several villages in order to find enough customers for his business. One day two Muslim brothers, both named Muhammad, came up to Masih and began insulting, beating, and torturing him for being an “unclean” Christian selling “unclean merchandise” to Muslim children. When they understood the context of the beating, approximately twenty other men joined in the attack, while Muslim women yelled slogans in the street, saying: “Christians are untouchables! They are not followers of our holy prophet. They are meant for cleaning our houses and therefore should not be allowed to sell anything edible to Muslims.” When Masih reported the attack at the local police station, the police refused to listen to his statement. Koran 9:28 refers to non-Muslims as “unclean.”
Separately, police seized and publicly beat and humiliated a young Christian woman in the middle of a park because her brother had eloped with a Muslim woman. Police then threatened the entire Christian community. They said if the Muslim woman was not returned to her husband, they would gun down the entire family in a fake encounter.
Germany: Accounts of Muslim migrants abusing Christians in refugee shelters continue to grow. A report found that 88% of the 231 Christian refugees interviewed in Germany have suffered religiously motivated persecution in the form of insults, death threats, and sexual assaults. Some were pressured to convert to Islam. “I really didn’t know that after coming to Germany I would be harassed because of my faith in the very same way as back in Iran,” one Christian refugee was quoted as saying.
Paulus Kurt, of the Central Council of Oriental Christians in Germany, said: “These are not isolated cases. I don’t know of any refugee shelter from Garmisch to Hamburg where we have not found such cases.”
Italy: Christians reciting the rosary inside St. Anthony Church in Ventimiglia were told by refugee-volunteers to keep their prayers down as they were bothering newly arrived Muslim migrants apparently living on the church premise. One of the female parishioners asked if the migrants couldn’t be taken to another church so she could continue to pray in peace in her own church. In response, Don Rito, the parish priest, appeared and proceeded to escort her and other parishioners to another church. “We have now entered an ‘Alice in Wonderland’ world where everything is upside down,” Fr. Ben Kiely said regarding this incident. “Europe is committing cultural suicide. It has lost its heart and its soul. As Pope Benedict so wisely reminded us, the foundation of Europe is Christianity. When you destroy a building’s foundation, it collapses. This is what we are watching.”
About this Series
While not all, or even most, Muslims are involved, persecution of Christians by Muslims is growing.
The report posits that such Muslim persecution is not random but rather systematic, and takes place in all languages, ethnicities, and locations.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9045/christian-persecution-june
Raymond Ibrahim is the author ofCrucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians(published by Regnery with Gatestone Institute, April 2013).
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© 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.

Turkey: "A Great Muslim Democracy"?
by Burak Bekdil/gatestoneinstitute/October 02/16
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9047/turkey-muslim-democracy

Is Japan a democracy or a Shinto democracy?
The president of the United States was suggesting to Europe's rich club of nations that it must admit as full member not a democracy but a "Muslim democracy."
Obama did not understand that Turkey could never join the EU before it has fully transformed from being a Muslim democracy into a democracy.
Apparently, Erdogan thinks that the U.S. is ruled as Turkey is ruled. He does not understand that the president of the U.S. cannot phone a judge and order an arrest warrant for a foreign national.
Can there be democracies and democracies with religious prefixes? Is the United States a democracy or a Christian democracy? Is Israel a democracy or a Jewish democracy? Is Japan a democracy or a Shinto democracy?
In a 2010 interview with the Italian daily, Corriere della Sera, U.S. President Barack Obama referred to Turkey as a "great Muslim democracy." In the same interview, he said that: "The U.S. always expressed the opinion that it would be wise to accept Turkey into the European Union." All that was music to Turkish ears. But in reality, the president of the United States was suggesting to Europe's rich club of nations that it must admit as full member not a democracy but a "Muslim democracy." Obama did not understand that Turkey could never join the EU before it has fully transformed from being a Muslim democracy into a democracy.
In later years, though, Obama would painfully understand the difference between a democracy and a Muslim democracy. Now, in the words of James Jeffrey, a former Obama administration ambassador to Ankara, "You have to deal with the Turkey you have, rather than the one you'd like to have."
Obama's reference to Turkey aimed to please the political elite in Ankara. Soon after his 2008 election, Obama began to cultivate a private relationship with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (who was then Prime Minister). In a 2012 Time interview, Obama named Erdogan as one of the five world leaders with whom he had the strongest bonds. In 2011, Tom Donilon, the president's former national security advisor, said that Obama regarded Erdogan as "a man of principle, and also a man of action."
Things look different today. "We basically have turned a blind eye to Erdogan's drive towards an authoritarian, one-man system of rule in Turkey," said Eric Edelman, who was U.S. ambassador to Ankara from 2003 to 2005. Obama persistently lived in this make-believe world until very recently. Jeffrey Goldberg wrote in The Atlantic's April 2016 issue:
"Early on, Obama saw Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the president of Turkey, as the sort of moderate Muslim leader who would bridge the divide between East and West ... But Obama now considers him a failure and an authoritarian..."
Recently Erdogan, his ministers, intelligence chief, senior military officers and top diplomats were in New York for the 71st Session of the United Nations General Assembly. There were bilateral talks between the Turks and Americans, too. Once staunch allies, Turkey and the U.S. now have more divergences than convergences.
According to Jeffrey Goldberg, writing in The Atlantic in April 2016: "Early on, Obama saw Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the president of Turkey, as the sort of moderate Muslim leader who would bridge the divide between East and West ... But Obama now considers him a failure and an authoritarian..." (Image source: RT video screenshot)
The Turks vehemently demand the extradition of Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim preacher in self-exile in Pennsylvania since 1999 and the prime suspect in the July 15 coup attempt against Erdogan's government. U.S. officials tell the Turks that it is the independent U.S. courts that will decide, based on the evidence provided by Ankara. The Turks do not understand that a court can decide something independently of the country's elected president.
"We want a terrorist from you ... And you still resist ... What court? What court for a terrorist [Gulen]? Is it too difficult to cancel a Green Card?" Erdogan said. Apparently, Erdogan thinks that the U.S. is ruled as Turkey is ruled. He does not understand that the president of the United States cannot phone a judge and order an arrest warrant for a foreign national. He does not understand that in the U.S., the administration cannot decide who is a terrorist and who is not without a court verdict. In Turkey, the government does.
Gulen has become a hot potato in the hands of the U.S. administration officials. But he is not the only headache for Washington. Turkey keeps warning Washington that it should not ally with Syrian Kurds whom Ankara views as terrorists -- Washington views them as militias fighting the Islamic State (ISIS).
On August 24, Turkish troops began a military incursion into northern Syria to support the "moderates" it backs, and to push ISIS strongholds farther south. Meanwhile, as part of a broader land operation further south into Raqqa (ISIS's main stronghold), the U.S. is arming Kurds, angering the Turks. "We cannot say anything at the moment as we have not clearly seen the attitude of the U.S. But Turkey will not be part of an operation if the U.S. wants to conduct it with the PYD and YPG [Syrian Kurdish groups]," Erdogan said.
Not enough trouble? Erdogan also asked Vice President Joe Biden about the arrest of the Iranian-Turkish businessman, Reza Zarrab, who has been in a U.S. jail since March on charges of money laundering and sanctions evasion. Erdogan wants the U.S. judiciary to release the shady businessman, who was one of the key interlocutors in a December 2013 corruption scandal in Turkey involving Erdogan and four of his cabinet ministers.
Erdogan said after his visit to New York:
"In my talks with Biden, I also brought up the Reza Zarrab issue when the judiciary subject was raised. The court which the U.S. Department of Justice referred this case to is also interesting. Both the prosecutor [Preet] Bharara and judge Richard Berman are names who had previously been hosted by FETÖ [the Turkish acronym for the alleged terrorist organization operated by Gulen] in Turkey. In other words, the U.S. Department of Justice handed Zarrab over to names which FETÖ had wined and dined."
Erdogan claimed that Zarrab had not committed any crime, according to the findings of multiple Turkish ministries. He added that Turkey would not remain insensitive to the arrest of any of its citizens in another country. He added: "That person [Zarrab] is a citizen of the Turkish Republic ... According to what rule had that arrest been made?" Once again, Erdogan wants to take up the powers of U.S. judges and announce verdicts on their behalf, as he can always do in Turkey. But he does not understand that things work differently in the U.S.
As prominent columnist Tolga Tanis wrote in Hurriyet: "There is no doubt that the Turkish-U.S. relations, just before presidential election in the U.S. in November, are passing through a critical junction. There are no traffic lights at the junction. And both sides are running fast without slowing down."
* 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.