LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

September 02/16

Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletin16/english.september02.16.htm

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Bible Quotations For Today

He will be mocked and insulted and spat upon. After they have flogged him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise again
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 18/31-34/:"Jesus took the twelve aside and said to them, ‘See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be handed over to the Gentiles; and he will be mocked and insulted and spat upon. After they have flogged him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise again.’But they understood nothing about all these things; in fact, what he said was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said."

Your rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire.
Letter of James 05/01-06/:"Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days. Listen! The wages of the labourers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts on a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you."

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on September 01-02/16

14th Of March Stupid Trailing Behind, Lebanon’s House Speaker, Berri/Elias Bejjani/September 01/16
Saudis Arrest and Deport 27 Christians for ‘Conducting Christian Prayers/Raymond Ibrahim/September 01/16/

Daniel Pipes: Trump's Muslim Immigration Policy Is Evolving for the Better/Breitbart/September 01/16
"Liberal" Turkey Claims Europe Is Racist/Burak Bekdil/Gatestone Institute/September 01/16
The Secession of French Muslims/Yves Mamou/Gatestone Institute/September 01/16
Saudi Writer: Islamic Law Prohibits Suicide Attacks – But Clerics Fear To Speak Out Against Them/MEMRI/01 September/16
Bikini versus burkini: Which one is winning/Mohamed Chebarro/Al Arabiya/September 01/16
Yemen and the idea of fighting ISIS/Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/September 01/16
How is Nouri al-Maliki not in prison/Dr. Azeem Ibrahim/Al Arabiya/September 01/16
The heresy of the Protectors of the Homeland/Turki Aldakhil/Al Arabiya/September 01/16
Is Japan a role model for the Middle East/Abdulaziz Turkistani/Al Arabiya/September 01/16

Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News published on September 01-02/16

14th Of March Stupid Trailing Behind, Lebanon’s House Speaker, Berri
Berri's Speech Triggers FPM-Mustaqbal Accusations
Kaag: Deadlocked Lebanon Wasting International Aid, Loan Chances
Lebanon-Leased Jet Lands in Hot Water after Israel Flight
Hizbullah MP: Mustaqbal May Benefit Most from Aoun's Election
Lebanese Army Denies Report on Assassination Threats against March 8 Officials
Lebanese Emigrant Killed in South Africa
Machinegun Fire, Shell from Syria Target Akkar Border Area
Ibrahim during honorary ceremony in Akkar: Nothing is equivalent to Lebanon's unity
Zaeter sends Turkey letter of objection to putting name of Lebanon on plane landing in occupied Palestine
Salameh: Successful plan for Central Bank by enhancing assets with foreign currencies
Safadi excludes possibility of holding parliamentary elections on time
Qahwaji meets Sami Gemayel, Shannon
Citizen killed in Arsal following dispute over piece of land
Mashnouq calls for meeting to discuss Metn, Keserouan trash dossier
 

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on September 01/16

Saudis Arrest and Deport 27 Christians for ‘Conducting Christian Prayers’
U.N. Slams Syrian Regime 'Strategy' of Forced Evacuation of Besieged Towns
U.N. Syria Envoy Eyes 'Political Initiative'
Campaigners Blame Russia over Cluster Bomb Use in Syria
Syria Rebels Make Gains in Major Hama Offensive
Explosions as Turkey Clears Mines from Syrian Border
10,000 Syrian Refugees Find New Home in U.S
Iran Says Ex-General Shot in Syria in Coma, Not Dead
G20 Offers Putin One More Stab at Obama on Syria, Ukraine
U.S. Campaign in Libya Enters Second Month as Local Forces Make IS Gains
Brazil's Rousseff Appeals against Losing Presidency
Amnesty Condemns 'Heightened Crackdown' on Bahrain Opposition
Israel to Obey Order to Demolish Settlement
Scouts Probe Claims Palestinian Branch Lauded Attacker
Iran: Raheleh Rahemipour summoned, interrogated again
Iran: Woman political prisoner under torture
Gen Hugh Shelton: Isn’t it time to call for justice for victims of 1988 massacre in Iran
Iran Justice Minister confirms his role in Mass Execution of political prisoners

Links From Jihad Watch Site for on September 01-02/16
Brits overwhelmingly support banning burqa despite French hoopla
Saudi Arabia: 2000 lashes, 10 years in jail for tweeting about being atheist
Canadian Human Rights Commission advertises Islam as a religion of peace and justice
Free pass for terrorists” as US court cancels $654 million verdict against PLO
Obama administration agreed in secret to allow Iran to evade some restrictions in nuclear agreement so it could get sanctions relief
Australia: “Disabled” Muslim with two wives gets six years for helping send young Muslims to wage jihad in Syria
Islamic State bans soccer referees because they implement Fifa rules “in violation of the commands of Allah”
Robert Spencer in FrontPage: UK’s Independent: ‘Allahu Akbar’ Is A Publicity Stunt, Not Jihad
Saudi Arabia: 27 Christians arrested and deported for “conducting Christian prayers” in private residence
Australia: Muslim refugee rapes 10-year-old boy, says what he did is not a crime because it’s acceptable in his homeland
Palestinian Authority: Jerusalem Wine Festival “an affront to Islam”
Kerry: Jihadis “define a great religion Islam in a way that doesn’t reflect that religion. They steal it, hijack it.”

Links From Christian Today Site for on September 01-02/16
Saeed Abedini condemns US, EU and UN failure to stop executions in Iran
Egypt: Lawmakers fear that new church law will discriminate against Christians
White evangelical Christians back Trump by massive majority, poll shows
Islamic State names Pope Francis as enemy number one
Another church leader falls victim to Russia's anti-evangelism law
Four Christians on trial in Sudan for highlighting persecution of Christians
Green Christianity: Thousands of UK churches convert to renewable energy
Islamic State bans FIFA football rules because they 'violate Sharia'
Barack Obama urged to use G20 China visit to fight for persecuted Christians
China: Canadian Christian Kevin Garrett jailed for spying will be treated fairly, says PM
ISIS 'executes 9 young men by slicing them in half with a chainsaw'
Pastor to be deported to possible death in Kenya
Muslim migrants are converting to Christianity in Switzerland

Latest Lebanese Related News published on on September 01-02/16
14th Of March Stupid Trailing Behind, Lebanon’s House Speaker, Berri
Elias Bejjani/September 01/16
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/09/01/elias-bejjani-14th-of-march-stupid-trailing-behind-lebanons-house-speaker-berri/
This below short piece was posted last year on our web site to openly inform and caution all those leaders who are active and concerned in the Lebanese political and national arena that they are badly and cowardly losing their sovereignty, freedom and independence focus and falling willingly easy pries and hostages to the Iranian occupier’s evil schemes and intimidation, and to its terrorist armed militia proxy, Hezbollah.
Sadly nothing has changed on any level since last year, but on the contrary Hezbollah has solidified more and more its Iranian irony oppressive hegemony on Lebanon and on all its official institutions. Meanwhile the majority of the so called 14th of March parties and politicians have grown weaker and weaker in every domain and totally succumbed to the occupying power and anti-Lebanese and anti-Arab- expansionism schemes
Yesterday Lebanon’s pro Iranian House speaker, Nabih Berri delivered a fierce mere Iranian and non-Lebanese speech on the occasion of the Shiite prominent clergy, Imam Mousa Al Sadder disappearance. It is worth mentioning that Al Sadder was kidnapped 38 years ago while on an official visit to Libya. Muammar al-Gaddafi, the Libyan late dictator killed him with two of his escorts and since than Al Sadder disappearance remained a puzzle.. Numerous well documented and authentic reports states that the Iranian (Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini) and Syrian regimes (Hafez Al Assad) were behind the killing of Al Sadder in full coordination with Muammar al-Gaddafi.
Sadly all 14tth of March Lebanese politicians as well as parties did marginalize totally themselves and are covertly and overtly. The sovereign and patriotic Lebanese citizens in both Lebanon and Diaspora have totally lost all their trust and confidence in the 14th politicians and parties. Berri’s speech yesterday was so humiliating to all that is Lebanese sovereignty, independence, freedom, intelligence and democracy. Berri boldly called on all the 14th of March politicians and parties to fully surrender to the Iranian occupier , give up on their patriotic efforts and behave like sheep.
September 01/15/ (The 14th of March Coalition in Lebanon is losing its entity and mission more & more because of its stupid trailing behind the Iranian Syrian mercenary, House speaker Nabih Berri. Meanwhile Mr. Saad Al Harri’s childish, hasty and bizarre hailing of Berry’s sarcastic recent dialogue initiative is a mere act of stupidity and superficiality. The question is: what did the absurd and futile on going dialogue between The Future Movement and Hezbollah under Berri’s auspices achieve except more and more submissiveness to Hezbollah and to Its Iranian anti Lebanese Schemes? The recent proposed Berry national dialogue will be replicate of the Hezbollah-Future futile one.)
God Bless Lebanon & Its People

Lebanese-Origin Temer Inherits Brazil Presidency on Shaky Ground
Associated Press/Naharnet/September 01/16/The permanent ouster of deeply unpopular President Dilma Rousseff by Brazil's Senate means that a man of Lebanese origin who is arguably just as unpopular is now faced with trying to ease the wounds of a divided nation mired in recession. Long known as an uncharismatic backroom wheeler-dealer, Michel Temer inherits a shrinking economy, a Zika virus outbreak that has ravaged poor northeastern states and political instability fed by a sprawling corruption probe that has tarred much of Brazil's political and business elite — himself included. So far he's struggled in the nearly four months he's served as interim president following Rousseff's May impeachment, which suspended her from office while a final trial was prepared. The Senate's 61-20 vote on Wednesday to permanently remove her means Temer, who had been her vice president, will now serve out her term, which ends in late 2018. Just hours after Rousseff was removed, Temer assured the nation his administration was up to the task. "From today on, the expectations are much higher for the government. I hope that in these two years and four months, we do what we have declared — put Brazil back on track," he said. Temer also denied that the proceedings were a coup against Rousseff, which she repeatedly claimed throughout the process.
"Putschist is you," he said, referring to Rousseff. "It's you who is breaking the constitution."
Temer said he planned to attend the G20 meetings in China this weekend, mentioning bilateral meetings that leaders from Spain, Japan, Italy and Saudi Arabia have already requested. "We are traveling to show the world that we have political and legal stability," he said. "We have to show that there is hope in the country."Whether Temer can convince Brazilians that he is worth a real shot is unclear. He appeared tone-deaf with his first move in May: appointing an entirely white, male Cabinet to oversee a nation of 200 million people where more than 50 percent identify as black or mixed-race. Three of Temer's ministers had to quit within days of being named because of corruption allegations. And so far he has struggled to build consensus around key reforms, such as slimming the country's pension system. Government ministers are promising progress now that "interim" is no longer part of Temer's title.
"With the end of the interim period and a vote of more than 60 senators, the investors will start bringing jobs again," said Cabinet chief Eliseu Padilha. So far that message hasn't resonated with most Brazilians, however. Just 14 percent said they approved of Temer's performance in a July poll by Datafolha. On the flip side, 62 percent said they wanted new elections to resolve the crisis. The poll interviewed 2,792 people July 14-15 and had a 2 percentage point margin of error. New elections would first require that Temer resign, which he has no intention of doing.
The son of Lebanese emigrants, the 75-year-old Temer quietly rose through Brazil's political ranks, building a reputation as a negotiator who could forge deals among political rivals. His reserved manner earned him the nickname the "Butler." The only thing flashy about him is his wife, 32-year-old Marcela Temer, an ex-beauty pageant contestant who tattooed Temer's name on her neck. As a leader of the country's biggest party, the ideologically flexible Brazilian Democratic Party Movement, Temer won election as head of the lower house of Congress for nearly a decade. A political marriage of convenience led the leftist Rousseff to choose the Sao Paulo congressman as her vice presidential running mate in 2010. Their formal if frosty relationship endured as the country continued a decade and a half-long boom. But by the time the pair was re-elected in 2014, the economy began to unravel and street protests erupted.
Prosecutors and judges uncovered a web of billions of dollars of kickbacks at the state oil giant Petrobras. The two-year probe has ensnared dozens of businessmen and politicians across the political spectrum.
Although Rousseff has never been personally implicated, many blame her for the graft because much of it happened while her party was in power. Temer, on the other hand, has been directly implicated: In a plea bargain, former Sen. Sergio Machado said that Temer asked him to channel $400,000 in Petrobras kickbacks to 2012 Sao Paulo mayoral candidate in Temer's party. Temer denies wrongdoing and has not been charged. Temer also is banned from running for office the next eight years because Sao Paulo's electoral court found him guilty of violating campaign spending laws in 2014. Those things add to vehement opposition from Rousseff and her backers, who brand him a "usurper" and say he was brought into office to help squelch the corruption probe and restore the authority the country's elite. "They think that they beat us, but they are wrong," said Rousseff on Wednesday in her first remarks after being removed from office. Late Wednesday night, a group of unhappy Rousseff supporters smashed windows of bank branches, other businesses and a police SUV in the city of Sao Paulo. Anti-riot police tried to quell the demonstration with stun grenades and tear gas. Rousseff supporters have promised to try to impeach Temer, though analysts say that's unlikely. "Temer's party is the biggest in the Chamber of Deputies and in the Senate. That alone makes an impeachment process unlikely," said Jose Luiz Niemeyer, a professor of international relations at Ibmec, a Rio-based university.

U.S. Diplomat Thomas Shannon in an 'Assessment' Visit to Beirut
Naharnet/September 01/16/U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Shannon is expected to arrive in Beirut on Thursday to assess the arrangements made by Lebanon as for the implementation of the U.S. financial sanctions against Hizbullah and other laws dedicated to eradicating the resources of “terrorist organizations”, as described by the U.S. administration, in Lebanon and the region, al-Joumhouria daily reported. Well-informed sources told the daily that Shannon will also hold meetings with Speaker Nabih Berri, Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil, the economist adviser at the Presidency in charge of follow-up on the actions of “the international community to help Lebanon” on behalf of Prime Minister Tammam Salam, the Central Bank Governor, members of the Association of Banks and will visit the Defense Ministry, added the daily. The sources, who participated in the preparation for the visit, said that Shannon has canceled a planned visit to Lebanon and the region in March after he met with a delegation of the Association of Banks in Lebanon and a parliamentary delegation who visited Washington in February to review with officials in the U.S. Treasury Department the sanctions law.
Shannon will therefore follow-up on the latest financial measures implemented by the Central Bank and the Lebanese banks in application of the U.S. decision. He will also stand at the financial and economic needs of Lebanon to face the burden of Syrian refugees and the needs of the military and security institutions in the face of terrorism. The visit also will be an occasion to discuss the reasons for the postponement of a conference on the International Support Group for Lebanon which was scheduled to be held at the end of September at the United Nations. Accordingly, the sources denied links between the visit and prospects of launching a new list of names to be included in the financial sanctions as anticipated by banking officials. The U.S. regulations say Washington will target those "knowingly facilitating a significant transaction or transactions for" Hizbullah or any individual, business or institution linked to the group. Those under sanctions include Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and slain top commander Mustafa Badreddine as well as some businessmen. The list also includes the group's al-Manar TV and al-Nour Radio.

Bou Saab Reveals FPM Agreement with Berri on Electoral Law
Naharnet/September 01/16/Education Minister Elias Bou Saab has revealed that an agreement has been reached between Rabieh and Ain el-Tineh over the electoral law, while noting that every group has the right to resort to street protests should it feel aggrieved. “I have officially informed Speaker Berri, on behalf of General (Michel) Aoun, of the FPM's approval of the draft law that has been proposed by him, and he has also informed us of his agreement to the suggestion we have proposed, which means that we have agreed on two electoral laws,” Bou Saab told As Safir newspaper in remarks published Thursday. Hizbullah backs the two draft laws, Bou Saab quoted Berri as saying. “The ball is now in Mustaqbal's court, which should agree with Berri over the law seeing as that would facilitate a lot of things,” As Safir added. Asked about Berri's warning that he might resort to “the power of the people” should the paralysis of state institutions continue, Bou Saab said “every group has the right to resort to its people should it feel aggrieved.”“Perhaps Speaker Berri's supporters would join our supporters in defense of our rights, should the situation require street demonstrations,” he added. “Let us stop political absurdity and commit to the Constitution. In the face of the forces that are continuing their coup against the political life, we will resort to the power of the people if needed,” Berri said in a speech on Wednesday. He also reiterated his call for a so-called “package deal,” noting that an agreement over the presidency alone “would not be enough.”“We should agree on an electoral law and on the formation of the next government, which would definitely allow the election of a president,” the speaker added. “Proportional representation is the cure for our national diseases and it is the vehicle that can transport us to citizenship rather than isolation and bigotry,” he said, referring to the electoral law.

Gemayel, Bou Saab Inspect Bourj Hammoud Landfill, Urge Amendment of Waste Plan
Naharnet/September 01/16/Kataeb Party chief MP Sami Gemayel and Education Minister Elias Bou Saab of the Free Patriotic Movement on Thursday inspected the controversial garbage landfill in Bourj Hammoud and called on the government to amend its emergency waste management plan. “What I saw today was expected and it confirms that Kataeb's protests are rightful, seeing as the government's so-called plan is being implemented chaotically and without any accountability or inspection,” Bou Saab told reporters at the site. “I met with Sheikh Sami before coming here and we're discussing possible solutions that require amending the government's plan so that we can start the decentralization process. There is no confidence in the current implementation method and the only solution is administrative decentralization,” the minister added. “There are ideas that might lead to a result if the government meets us halfway. We would then go through a brief transitional period that would lead us to the sought result and this would resolve a small crisis that is being blown out of proportion by the politicians who have their own motives,” Bou Saab went on to say. Gemayel for his part stressed that it is necessary to “put an end to the disaster through amending the plan,” warning that “the region is suffering a major health and environmental catastrophe.”He also urged officials to “liberate the Metn area from the nightmare instead of launching theories and putting us under pressure.”“Let them revise the plan, find health- and environmental-friendly solutions, and implement decentralization,” Gemayel added. Protesters from the Kataeb Party and several environmentalist and civil society groups have been staging a sit-in outside the Bourj Hammoud site for several weeks and on August 11 students from the Kataeb Party managed to force the suspension of works aimed at setting up a new seaside landfill. The protesters and activists have accused authorities of seeking to “land-fill the sea” with unsorted and unrecycled garbage in a manner that poses environmental and health risks and violates the Convention for Protection of the Mediterranean Sea against Pollution. The Bourj Hammoud Municipality has also prevented garbage trucks from accessing a temporary storage site in the area, accusing the government of failing to respect the agreement that preceded the emergency plan. The closure of the temporary storage site has prompted the Sukleen waste management firm to suspend garbage collection in several areas in Mount Lebanon and Beirut, which has resulted in a new pileup of trash on the streets. The country's unprecedented waste management crisis erupted in July last year when the country's central landfill in Naameh was closed amid the government's failure to find alternatives. The crisis saw streets, forests and riverbeds overflowing with trash for several months and triggered unprecedented street protests against the entire political class that sometimes turned violent. Experts have long urged the government to devise a comprehensive waste management solution that would include more recycling and composting to reduce the amount of trash going into landfills.

Berri's Speech Triggers FPM-Mustaqbal Accusations
Naharnet/September 01/16/The Free Patriotic Movement and al-Mustaqbal Movement traded blames on Thursday each claiming that Berri's calls to end “political absurdity and obstruction” was an indirect message intended for the other. Head of the parliamentary Mustaqbal bloc MP Fouad Saniora said that Berri's accusations do not relate to his movement, while Education Minister Elias Bou Saab of the FPM said that the rhetoric is addressed at Mustaqbal. Saniora told As Safir daily that Berri's rhetoric did not target his movement but it did the FPM : “I did not feel that the blue movement is targeted with Berri's words on procrastination. We are lucky we don't belong to that category.”Berri said in a speech on Wednesday: “Transition to statehood requires an end to political procrastination and the belief that any of us can monopolize the national decision or have a veto on the national decision.” He slammed “political absurdity and obstruction,” and reiterated his call for agreeing on a “package deal” involving the presidency, the government and the electoral law. Saniora has refused all proposals earlier that do not commit to the constitution: “Our priority today is to elect a president which must later be followed by parliamentary deliberations to name the premier who will in turn start consultations to form a government.” He pointed out that Hizbullah and Iran have no serious intentions to help elect a president soon: “They plan to fill the idleness by activating the government and parliament until a solution to the presidential issue arises.”Abou Saab on the other hand said: “I believe that Berri's speech is addressed to the Mustaqbal team who has failed so far to take a bold decision to contribute to the solution of the crisis.”“The FPM does not procrastinate. What we suggest is extremely serious and linked to the National Pact.”

Kaag: Deadlocked Lebanon Wasting International Aid, Loan Chances
Naharnet/September 01/16/United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Sigrid Kaag warned on Thursday that the persistent political impasse in Lebanon will waste many opportunities of international aid and loans. “The current situation is wasting a lot of international aid opportunities for Lebanon, including soft loans that await the regulation of the state's institutions,” said Kaag after a meeting with Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq. For his part, Mashnouq said: “The country does not own the luxury of waiting,” as he stressed the need to end the deadlock “to be capable of confronting the internal and external challenges.”Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and the MPs of Hizbullah, MP Michel Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the parliament's electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed quorum. Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri, who is close to Saudi Arabia, launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah. The supporters of Aoun's presidential bid argue that he is more eligible than Franjieh to become president due to the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community. Aoun's two ministers in the cabinet and their Tashnag Party ally boycotted last week's cabinet session over a dispute related to military appointments and the government's jurisdiction in the absence of a president. The Change and Reform bloc has also threatened to boycott national dialogue sessions, accusing rival parties of failing to abide by the 1943 National Pact which stipulates equal power-sharing between Christians and Muslims.

Lebanon-Leased Jet Lands in Hot Water after Israel Flight
Associated Press/Naharnet/September 01/16/A Turkish-owned jet leased by the private Wings of Lebanon company has landed in hot water after a flight it made to Israel. The head of Beirut's international airport, Fadi al-Hassan, said on Thursday that Turkey's Tailwind was asked to remove the Lebanese company's slogan from the Boeing 737-800 jet that it had leased until December. The plane was also banned from any future landing in Beirut. Lebanon and Israel have been in a formal state of war since Israel was created in 1948.Liza Dvir, spokeswoman of Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport, said the Wings of Lebanon jet landed there on Wednesday and departed the same day.Wings of Lebanon says the jet was sent to Turkey for maintenance. The purpose of the flight to Israel was unclear.

Hizbullah MP: Mustaqbal May Benefit Most from Aoun's Election
/Naharnet/September 01/16/A prominent Hizbullah MP announced Thursday that al-Mustaqbal Movement may be the party that would benefit most from the election of Free Patriotic Movement founder MP Michel as president. “Agreeing to the election of General Michel Aoun as president would open the door to positive developments that would resolve all other problems,” Loyalty to Resistance bloc MP Ali Fayyad said. “We would not be exaggerating if we say that al-Mustaqbal Movement may be the party that would benefit most from General Aoun's election as president,” Fayyad added. “Al-Mustaqbal Movement is going through a very dire situation and it needs another atmosphere to overcome this situation and to prevent further deterioration and complications,” the lawmaker went on to say. Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has recently hinted that Hizbullah does not mind the re-designation of al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri as premier in return for the election of Aoun as president and Speaker Nabih Berri as head of parliament. 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. ariri's move prompted Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea to endorse the nomination of Aoun, his long-time Christian rival. 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.

Lebanese Army Denies Report on Assassination Threats against March 8 Officials
Naharnet/September 01/16/Lebanese and foreign security agencies obtained information that some Lebanese officials are a target of an assassinations plan and that the scheme includes figures from the March 8 alliance, the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa daily reported on Thursday. The alleged plan does not include political figures of the March 14 alliance this time, said the daily, but is limited to figures of March 8 and it includes Speaker Nabih Berri, Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, former minister Wiam Wahhab and Maj. Gen. Jamil al-Sayyed. However, the army issued a statement later on Thursday, denying that the Intelligence Directorate had told any Lebanese minister about "any threats targeting Lebanese political figures."The Speaker had commented earlier and described the list as “serious and dangerous,” said al-Anbaa. Meanwhile al-Sayyed downplayed the issue and said that it is only a rumor circulating at the current period to merely promote confusion. Unnamed political sources said that the Army Intelligence had previously asked minister Khalil to take cautious measures after detecting signs monitoring his movements.

Lebanese Emigrant Killed in South Africa
Naharnet/September 01/16/A Lebanese emigrant was shot dead in the South African city of Johannesburg, reports said on Thursday. Ahmed Hashem Abou Draa was shot and killed by an unknown assailant who tried to rob him, reports added. Abou Draa lived in Johannesburg with his wife, Karimah Hassan, and his four children. He hails from the southern city of Sidon. His body will be transported to Lebanon for burial in his hometown.

Machinegun Fire, Shell from Syria Target Akkar Border Area
Naharnet/September 01/16/Heavy-caliber machinegun fire from the Syrian side of the border is targeting the Mashta Hammoud mountain on the Lebanese bank of the Grand River, state-run National News Agency reported Thursday afternoon. A shell has also landed near the house of Lebanese citizen Kamal Ramadan, NNA said. The shell damaged a car owned by the man's brother and the driver “escaped unharmed miraculously,” the agency added.

Ibrahim during honorary ceremony in Akkar: Nothing is equivalent to Lebanon's unity
Thu 01 Sep 2016/NNA - General Security Chief Abbas Ibrahim categorically underlined the supreme importance of Lebanon's national unity, civil peace and public order, branding them as "essential elements for the nation's uprising, economic development and resilience."
Major General Ibrahim's words came during a lunch banquet hosted by MP Hadi Hobeish at "Diwan Wadi" Restaurant in Akkar, in honor of Ibrahim, attended by scores of local political, military, religious, social and municipal dignitaries. "Israeli enemy remains the primary beneficiary of our internal differences, and exploits along with terrorist organizations, the flaws which result from our political divisions and alignments, to cause panic and chaos in our homeland," said Ibrahim. Ibrahim also beseeched the various political spectrum to tear down the walls of partition and foil all sedition and strife attempts, since as he said, sacrificing for the sake of the nation remains the triumph for all the Lebanese. General Ibrahim also toured teh district of Akkar, at the behest of MP Hobeich, whereby he had a string of stop overs, notably in Al-Abdeh, Miniara and Halba.Ibrahim culminated his tour in Akkar by visiting Birds and Butterflies Museum at Carmelite Fathers Monastery.

Zaeter sends Turkey letter of objection to putting name of Lebanon on plane landing in occupied Palestine
Thu 01 Sep 2016/NNA - Public Works and Transportation Minister, Ghazi Zaeter, sent the Turkish authorities a letter of objection against sending a plane bearing Wings of Lebanon name to an airport in occupied Palestine. Minister Zaeter's act came Thursday as he followed up on the news shown via media resources and social media regarding the plane. Earlier, head of Rafic Hariri International Airport, Fady Al Hasan, said that the Lebanese authorities were not responsible for Wings of Lebanon airplane that landed in Israel's Ben Gurion International Airport. Al Hasan added that this particular plane was rented from a Turkish company called Tailwind Airlines and was sent off to Turkey on August 27, 2016 for periodic maintenance. "However, the company operated the plan between Antalya and Ben Gurion without removing the Wings of Lebanon logo," he pointed out. Zaeter on Thursday held a meeting with the administration of civil aviation and checked out the works carried out in Rafic Hariri International Airport. On a different note, Zaeter received MPs Mohammad Safadi, Hasan Fadlallah, Nabil Nicholas, Neematallah Abi Nasr and others and reviewed with them developmental affairs.

Salameh: Successful plan for Central Bank by enhancing assets with foreign currencies
Thu 01 Sep 2016/NNA - Central Bank Governor, Riad Salameh, on Thursday announced in a statement the success of a plan made by his bank to cope with the regional challenges, based on enhancing assets with foreign currencies and securing liquidity after its regression in the region.
"The plan succeeded without any cost, as the bank has not raised the interests and has not inflicted any burden on any side," said Salameh.

Safadi excludes possibility of holding parliamentary elections on time
Thu 01 Sep 2016/NNA - MP Mohammad Safadi excluded on Thursday the possibility of holding parliamentary elections on time as a result of the current political crisis. During his interview with Daily Albayan, Safadi spoke in favor of the proportional electoral law. "No solution for the situation in Lebanon...Saudi Arabia does not have time to care about Lebanese issues," he said. Safadi pointed out that the visit of Egyptian Foreign Minister to Lebanon highlighted the disintegration in the Arab world. "Saudi Arabia does not need the help of Egypt to take actions in Lebanon," he added. Safadi finally hoped that the government would exert more efforts to safeguard the balance and create partnership with Christians in Lebanon.

Qahwaji meets Sami Gemayel, Shannon
Thu 01 Sep 2016/NNA - Lebanese Army Chief, General Jean Qahwaji, met at his Yarze office on Thursday with Kataeb Party Head, MP Sami Gemayel, over latest developments in the country. He later met with Lebanon's Patriarchal Bishop in Russia, Nivone Saikali, accompanied by Zahle and Baalback Greek Orthodox Archbishop Antonios Sawri, and Father Ermia Azzam. Qahwaji also welcomed US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Thomas Shannon, in presence of US Ambassador to Lebanon, Elizabeth Richard, and the accompanying delegation. Talks reportedly touched on the current situation in Lebanon and the broader Arab region, as well as on the US aid program to the Lebanese military.

Citizen killed in Arsal following dispute over piece of land
Thu 01 Sep 2016/NNA - Citizen Amir Karnabi from Arsal was killed today after a clash that erupted over a piece of land with a member of Hojeiry family soon developed into gunfire, National News Agency correspondent reported on Thursday.

Mashnouq calls for meeting to discuss Metn, Keserouan trash dossier
Thu 01 Sep 2016/NNA - Interior and Municipalities Minister, Nouhad Mashnouq, shall call for a meeting at the onset of upcoming week at the Interior Ministry devoted to studying the proper implementation of solid household waste treatment plan. The meeting comes at the request of Agriculture Minister, Akram Shehayeb, in charge of the trash dossier, in the wake of Ministers Mashnouq and Shehayeb at the Interior Ministry, to deliberate over the developments related to addressing the trash issue in the districts of Metn and Keserouan-Ftouh. The meeting will be attended by heads of the Union of Municipalities concerned with the trash predicament in the districts of Metn and Kesrouan -Ftouh, in the presence of the Minister Shehayeb and his team, as well as the Ministry's central technical team, led by Minister Mashnouq. In the wake of the meeting, Shehayeb said that his encounter with Mashnouq comes to affirm the supreme role of the municipalities in the process of sorting waste and in finding solutions within the notion of decentralization. "The plan which we have devised might not be the best, but it's the result of the presence of trash for a period of 8 months in the street," Shehayeb said. On the other hand, Mashnouq met at the Ministry with MP Ghassan Moukhaiber with talks reportedly touching on issues related to the Metn district, notably the trash crisis. On emerging, MP Moukhaiber said that he dwelt with the Minister on the role that can be undertaken by the Ministry in terms of seeking a solution in the trash dossier in Metn and Keserouan districts at the decentralization level.
 

Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on on September 01-02/16
Saudis Arrest and Deport 27 Christians for ‘Conducting Christian Prayers’
Raymond Ibrahim/September 01/16/

Coptic Solidarity/September 01/16/Saudi Arabian officials recently arrested 27 Christians—among them several women and children—for the crime of “conducting Christian prayers” and being “in possession of Bibles,” reports Arab media. The group of Christians, most if not all of whom were Lebanese nationals, were celebrating a Virgin Mary feast day when authorities stormed their residence and arrested them. Authorities, the dreaded “religious police,” proceeded to strip them of their visas and deport them back to Lebanon. Ironically, this is a much better fate than that suffered by other Christians caught engaging in “acts of Christianity” in the Islamic kingdom, including torture and long jail sentences. For example, back in 2012, 35 Christian Ethiopians were arrested and abused in prison for almost a year, simply for holding a private house prayer. One of them reported after being released: “They [Saudis] are full of hatred towards non-Muslims.” As of this time, no Western language media has reported this most recent harassment, arrest, abuse, and deportation of Christians privately celebrating their faith in the Arabian Peninsula, that is, the birthplace of Islam.

U.N. Slams Syrian Regime 'Strategy' of Forced Evacuation of Besieged Towns
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 01/16/The U.N. Syria envoy on Thursday criticized Damascus' "strategy" of forced evacuation from Daraya following a brutal four-year government siege, warning that other besieged towns could follow. Staffan de Mistura told reporters in Geneva that there were "indications that after Daraya we may have other Darayas," adding that "there is clearly a strategy at the moment to move from Daraya" to other besieged areas "in a similar pattern."Long held by opposition forces, Daraya near Damascus was ravaged by constant army bombardment, and just one aid convoy reached the town since it came under siege in late 2012 -- arriving in June this year. Rebels said last week they were forced to agree to evacuate the town because of deteriorating humanitarian conditions. Hundreds of fighters and their families were bused north into rebel-held territory in Idlib province, with other civilians transferred to government territory near Damascus for resettlement. The Syrian army has said it is in complete control of the town, from where roughly 8,000 civilians were still due to be evacuated. De Mistura warned there were "indications that after Daraya we may have other Darayas," pointing to worrying signs around the besieged towns of Waer and Moadamiyat al-Sham. "If Daraya was a shock, Al Waer is 75,000 people," he pointed out.
'We all failed'
Jan Egeland, de Mistura's deputy and head of a U.N.-backed humanitarian taskforce for Syria, described the forced evacuation as "heartbreaking."He insisted that the devastating sieges in Syria could not be "broken by a population giving up after starvation and after bombing."
"A siege is lifted by humanitarian access and freedom of movement in and out by the civilian population," he said. "We all failed the people of Daraya," he said, adding that the U.N. was receiving "urgent pleas" from besieged communities in Waer, Moadamiyat al-Sham, Madaya, Fua and Kefraya. "They all fear for their future, and we need to break the sieges," he said. The opposition High Negotiations Committee meanwhile charged that "local truce" agreements like the one agreed in Daraya were leading to "ethnic and political cleansing.""The Syrian regime, along with its Russian and Iranian allies, is relentlessly pursuing a malicious plan to orchestrate extensive demographic shifts across Syria," HNC head Riad Hijab said in a statement late Wednesday. Egeland meanwhile said that humanitarian aid reached just three besieged areas last month, with two convoys reaching Waer, one reaching Harasta, and continued air-drops over Deir Ezzor, which is held by the Islamic State group. "September must be better," he said, adding that the humanitarian taskforce had yet to receive a reply to its request to access 1.2 million people in besieged and hard-to-reach areas with aid this month. According to the U.N., more than 590,000 people live under siege in 18 areas in Syria -- mostly by government forces. Nearly five million others live in areas that are difficult to access with aid. More than 290,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began in March 2011.

U.N. Syria Envoy Eyes 'Political Initiative'
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 01/16/The U.N. Syria envoy said Thursday he was planning to present "an important political initiative" for the war-ravaged country this month, even as peace talks remain stalled and violence flares. "We are in the process of preparing an important political initiative," Staffan de Mistura told reporters in Geneva. He refused to provide any details on what the political initiative might be, but said he hoped it would help the U.N. General Assembly "to look the problems in Syria in the eye" when it next meets on September 13. He also said that a high-level meeting on Syria is set to be held at the U.N. Security Council on September 21. "So that's the target date for making sure that everyone is actively involved in producing some positive outcome on this conflict," he said. Successive rounds of negotiations have failed to end a conflict that has killed more than 290,000 people and forced millions from their homes during more than five years of bloodshed. De Mistura had voiced hope of bringing the warring parties back to the negotiating table by the end of August, but that deadline slipped in the face of intense fighting on the ground. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov met in Geneva last Friday, but while they said they had taken key steps towards agreeing a new ceasefire for Syria, they failed to nail down a final deal. To hammer out the details, "very senior military, security and diplomatic" officials from the two countries began meeting at the U.N. headquarters in Geneva on Wednesday, de Mistura said. Talks are expected to continue through Friday or Saturday morning, he added. De Mistura has led global calls for a weekly 48-hour pause in fighting in Aleppo to allow desperately needed aid into Syria's battered second city. The city has been divided between a rebel-held east and regime-controlled west since mid-2012, but fighting has intensified dramatically since mid-July. But de Mistura stressed Thursday that "the discussions going on now between the Americans and the Russians at a very high and very operational level go far beyond the 48-hour truce."
The ceasefire being discussed is "a much (more) important and larger cessation of hostilities," he said.

Campaigners Blame Russia over Cluster Bomb Use in Syria
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 01/16/Evidence is growing that Russia is behind a significant increase in the use of cluster bombs in Syria, campaigners said Thursday. A coalition of NGOs led by Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in an annual study that more than 400 people were killed or maimed by the banned munitions in the world last year. They linked the increased use of cluster bombs in Syria to Russian forces who are carrying out air strikes in support of President Bashar Assad's regime. "Since Russia began its joint operation with Syrian forces at the end last September, we have seen an increase in the number of cluster munition attacks on opposition-held areas," Mary Warenham, HRW's arms advocacy director and editor of the report, told a press conference. "And at the moment we see evidence of cluster munition attacks every week, if not almost every day, which is highly disturbing," Warenham added.Russia has repeatedly denied using cluster bombs, which spray bomblets indiscriminately. HRW admitted it was difficult to determine whether it was specifically Russian or Syrian forces which had used the bombs. "Nonetheless, this is a joint military operation, so collectively together they are responsible for the actions of their coalition," Warenham said. A total of 248 people were killed or injured by the munitions in Syria last year, almost all civilians, the Cluster Munition Monitor report said. The bombs also killed or maimed 104 people in Yemen in 2015. The study provides an overview of how countries are implementing a landmark 2008 convention which bans all use, production, transfer and stockpiling of the weapons. Syria and Russia are not among the 100 signatories of the convention, but HRW says they remain bound by international law, which bans the indiscriminate attacks that are the hallmark of cluster bombings.
Russian offensive
Attacks in Syria using the illegal weapons fell considerably in late 2014 and early 2015, but rose again after Russia began supporting Assad's forces last year, HRW and its partners said. In the four years since the Syrian regime launched its first air strikes in July 2012, at least 360 cluster munition attacks have been recorded, with 76 since Russia's intervention began last September."The actual number is likely far higher," the report said.The report, which was co-authored by several groups including Handicap International, said there was "compelling evidence" that cluster bombs had been used "on opposition-held areas of governorates such as Aleppo, Homs and Idlib, and on armed opposition groups."
Soviet-era bombs
Syrian government forces have used at least 13 different types of cluster munitions produced by Russia and Egypt and some dated from the Soviet era, the report said. Several of the cluster bombs dropped since Russian forces entered the Syrian war last year were produced in 1989-91, it added. The report said this appeared to be "a noticeable shift" from before the Russian intervention, "when production markings on the cluster bombs used in Syria showed they were produced in the 1970s and 1980s." A total of 417 people fell victim to the munitions worldwide last year, with children making up 43 percent of those killed or injured. Yemen is the only other country where cluster bomb attacks have been documented since July 2015. The report said the Saudi-led coalition waging a military campaign in support of Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi's embattled government carried out at least 19 cluster munition attacks between April 2015 and last February. Saudi Arabia has denied using cluster munitions against civilian targets. "The best way to ensure that cluster munitions don't harm civilians in Syria and Yemen is to stigmatize their use and press countries that are using them to stop the attacks," Warenham said. Syria and Yemen dominate the statistics, but six other countries recorded casualties, mainly from unexploded submunitions from attacks that took place years ago. Many of these devices fail to explode on impact, meaning countries such as Cambodia, Iraq, Laos and Vietnam often find it impossible to clear what become de facto landmines. Furthermore, many bomblets are brightly colored, attracting children and exploding when they are picked up.

Syria Rebels Make Gains in Major Hama Offensive
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 01/16/Syrian opposition fighters have seized several areas in a rapid advance against government forces in central Hama province, prompting a wave of regime air strikes, a monitor said Thursday. At least 25 civilians, including children, were killed in the strikes early Thursday as fighting raged in parts of Hama, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The Britain-based monitoring group said an alliance of rebel and jihadist forces had launched an offensive on Monday in Hama, which is south of the opposition-held Idlib province. The alliance, which includes the jihadist Jund Al-Aqsa force, is aiming to take control of the airport in Hama, from which regime helicopters fly regular sorties against opposition fighters. "They are about 10 kilometres (six miles) from the airport" in Hama, Syria's fourth-largest city, said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman, whose group relies on a broad network of sources inside Syria. The rebels are also likely seeking to ease pressure on opposition fighters in the battleground northern city of Aleppo by distracting regime forces. In three days the rebel alliance seized control of 13 populated areas, mainly in the north of Hama province, including the towns of Halfaya and Suran. They were also threatening the historic Christian town of Mahrada to the west along the road. Hama province is of vital strategic importance to President Bashar al-Assad, separating opposition forces in Idlib from Damascus to the south and the regime's coastal heartlands to the west. Major demonstrations erupted in Hama in 2011 during the outbreak of Syria's civil conflict but were suppressed in a deadly government crackdown. Assad's father and predecessor Hafez Assad brutally put down a Muslim Brotherhood uprising in Hama city in 1982, killing thousands of people.

Explosions as Turkey Clears Mines from Syrian Border
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 01/16/Turkish military experts on Thursday cleared mines from the area of the Syrian town of Jarabulus captured from jihadists last week, using controlled explosions that sent clouds of dust and smoke into the sky, an AFP photographer said.
Pro-Ankara Syrian rebels, backed by Turkish aviation and tanks, took Jarabulus from Islamic State (IS) fighters in a lightning operation and now enjoy full control of the town. The de-mining operation on the Syrian side of the border was easily visible from the Turkish border town of Karkamis, with the controlled explosions creating huge white-and-grey clouds of smoke and dust. An AFP photographer on the border heard at least a dozen explosions and said that the de-mining work was continuing. IS jihadists are believed to have left large quantities of mines and explosives around Jarabulus and operations to destroy them have been in progress since the capture of the town a week ago. Artillery fire could also be heard on the other side of the border, the photographer added. Turkey says its offensive inside Syria, which began with the capture of Jarabulus, is aimed at ridding the border area not just of IS jihadists but also a Kurdish militia that Ankara regards as a terror group. But Turkish strikes on the Kurdish People's Protection Units militia (YPG) have worried the United States, which regards the group as an ally in the fight against IS. There have been Turkish air strikes and artillery fire on YPG targets while a Turkish soldier was killed inside Syria when his tank was hit by a rocket fired by the YPG. Three other soldiers were injured in anti-tank fire in an IS-held area west of Jarabulus, Turkish media reported. Turkey on Wednesday denied a US claim it had agreed a truce with the Kurdish militia but the Turkish-backed fighters confirmed there was at least a lull in the fighting.

10,000 Syrian Refugees Find New Home in U.S.
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 01/16/On Sunday, Nadim Fawzi Jouriyeh participated in a ceremony in Amman, Jordan, to mark the United States hitting its target of taking in 10,000 Syrian refugees in a year-old resettlement program. On Wednesday, the 47-year-old former construction worker and his family were walking grocery aisles, stocking up on roasted chicken, milk and lemons for their new home outside San Diego. It didn't take long for Jouriyeh, his 42-year-old wife and four children, ages 8 to 14, to feel welcome. "America is a beautiful country," he said through an Arabic translator at the office of the International Rescue Committee in El Cajon, a San Diego suburb that has been a magnet for Iraqis and, more recently, Syrians who are fleeing war. "The way they treat people and the people of America are very nice ... When you go down the streets, everyone smiles at you. Even if they don't know you, they just smile at you."San Diego, the nation's eighth-largest city, has received 626 Syrian refugees since Oct. 1, more than any other in the United States. Many smaller cities have accepted outsized number of Syrians, including Erie, Pennsylvania (205), Toledo, Ohio (109), and Boise, Idaho (108). California and Michigan are neck-and-neck among states for receiving the most Syrian refugees, followed by Arizona, Texas and Illinois. Cities with large numbers include Chicago (469), Glendale, Arizona (384), Troy, Michigan (325) and Dallas (293).
Refugees are typically assigned to cities where they have family and friends or, failing that, where there is an established community of immigrants who share their culture, said David Murphy, executive director in San Diego for the International Rescue Committee, one of nine organizations that helps refugee settle in the United States. In El Cajon, population 100,000, some store signs on Main Street are in Arabic. Merchants, bank tellers and school teachers speak the language. Three decades ago, an Iraqi Chaldean immigrant settled in El Cajon and the impact "snowballed" into a large Arabic-speaking community, Murphy said. Iraqis have been coming for years but Syrians are relatively new. "It's really kind of tough to know how they're going to do. They haven't been here long enough to start businesses or anything like that," Murphy said. Jouriyeh, who left school after ninth grade in his native Homs to work, fled his war-ravaged city for Jordan in 2014. Daily bombings frightened the children as the Syrian government retook the city. Jouriyeh had to stay indoors for three days straight because it was too dangerous to go to work. A drive to the Jordanian border that would normally take two hours required three days as the family tried to avoid roadblocks, arrest and crossfire. Jouriyeh said about 80 people were killed in his convoy. Extensive vetting by the International Organization of Migration and the U.S. State and Homeland Security departments in Jordan led him to San Diego.
The U.S. said its target of resettling 10,000 Syrian refugees in the 2016 fiscal year was reached Monday, more than a month ahead of schedule and the night Jouriyeh reached San Diego. The U.S. resettlement program focuses on the most vulnerable refugees, including those who were subjected to violence or torture or are sick. Close to 5 million Syrians have fled civil war since 2011. Most struggle to survive in tough conditions in neighboring countries, including Jordan, which hosts close to 660,000 Syrian refugees. The future of the U.S.'s role may be tied to presidential politics. Republican nominee Donald Trump said Wednesday that he would suspend arrivals from Syria, portraying them as a potential security threat. Jouriyeh said his top priorities are to find a job, enroll his children in school and find permanent housing. He wouldn't say if he would ever return to Syria. "We hope our children succeed in education and be able to have a good future here," he said. Their days are filled with chores like opening a bank account and getting a phone. International Rescue Committee offers classes on English, job-hunting and citizenship. While grocery shopping on Wednesday, a Syrian vendor who came to the United States in 2010 introduced himself to Jouriyeh and asked about his journey. The strangers chatted pleasantly for a few minutes and said goodbye.

Iran Says Ex-General Shot in Syria in Coma, Not Dead
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 01/16/Iran denied on Thursday that a retired general had been killed in Syria, saying he was still in a coma after being shot in the head. "According to latest news received on the brave commander... brother Brigadier Haj Ahmad Gholami is in a coma and therefore we request all dear ones and fighters to pray for his health," said a letter from his brigade published by Iran's Mizanonline news agency. Gholami, an ex-general who served as a senior Revolutionary Guards commander in the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, was reported dead by Iranian media on Wednesday after being shot in the Syrian city of Aleppo. He was said to have volunteered to fight in Iraq and Syria. Iran is the principal regional backer of President Bashar Assad, providing military as well as financial support. It denies any of its professional soldiers are involved in combat, insisting its commanders act purely as military advisers.But it also leads large volunteer forces, comprised of fighters from both Iran and neighboring Afghanistan.

G20 Offers Putin One More Stab at Obama on Syria, Ukraine
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 01/16/The G20 summit starting in China on Sunday gives Russian President Vladimir Putin one more chance to try to strongarm U.S. leader Barack Obama over Syria and Ukraine as their fraught relationship nears an end. In recent years the two world leaders have barely been able to hide their disdain for each other as ties between Washington and Moscow fell to their lowest level since the Cold War over the crisis in Ukraine. Now with elections for a new U.S. president just over two months away, Russian analysts say an emboldened Putin could see the G20 as an opportunity to press for concessions from Obama, particularly on Syria if he wants to make progress on the war before leaving office. While neither the Kremlin nor the White House have announced any official bilateral meeting at the two-day gathering in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, it is expected that the pair will talk at least informally. Putin "will try to get from Barack Obama... what he hasn't been able to obtain from Washington in the past," independent political analyst Maria Lipman told AFP. - 'Crisis of confidence' -But commentators said that with relations between the two sides in the gutter it was unlikely any major breakthrough would happen before the end of Obama's time in power. "There is very little time left," Alexei Makarkin, from Moscow-based think tank The Centre for Political Technologies, said. "And there is a huge crisis of confidence between the two countries."
Russia and the United States back opposing sides in Syria's five-year war, which has left 280,000 people dead and forced half the population to flee their homes. Moscow, an ally of Damascus, and Washington, which supports moderate rebels fighting to unseat Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, are nominally co-chairs of the international effort seeking a negotiated end to the fighting.
The pair have been trying to hammer out a deal on a new ceasefire in Syria and possible cooperation against the Islamic State group and other radical jihadists, but their top diplomats failed to clinch a final agreement at talks in Geneva last week. Obama said earlier in August that while "the U.S. remains prepared to work with Russia to try to reduce the violence and strengthen our efforts" against jihadists, there remained a fundamental gulf. "I'm not confident that we can trust the Russians and Vladimir Putin," he said. - From reset to rupture -When Obama first came into the White House there was some hope in the U.S. that Moscow and Washington could improve ties after bitter disputes over the invasion of Iraq and Moscow's war with Georgia. Ex-lawyer Dmitry Medvedev was president and in 2009 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton launched her bid to "reset" relations with the Kremlin. But the much hoped for boost in ties failed to materialise. When ex-KGB officer Putin -- whom Obama had chided for his "Cold War approaches" -- returned to the presidency in 2012 amid mass protests the Kremlin blamed on the West, it appeared to spell the end for any real attempts at rapprochement. Ties were ultimately ruptured by Moscow's response to the 2014 pro-EU revolution in Kiev that ousted Russian-backed leader Viktor Yanukovych and threatened to wrench Ukraine out of Moscow's orbit. The Kremlin seized the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine in March 2014 -- in a dramatic rewriting of post-Soviet borders -- before, according to the West, going on to fuel a separatist conflict in Ukraine's east.The U.S. slapped sanctions on Moscow and tried to isolate Putin, but the Russian strongman muscled his way back to center stage by launching a surprise bombing campaign in Syria in September 2015 to back Assad.
Despite his harsh criticism of the Russian leadership throughout his two terms, Russian foreign policy analyst Fyodor Lukyanov said Obama has always appeared "very prudent" in handling Putin. In 2013 Washington backed away from using military force against Assad's regime after it crossed the "red line" of using chemical weapons, allowing Putin instead to help push Damascus to give up its stockpiles. Despite firm diplomatic backing, the U.S. has also refused to send much-needed weaponry to Ukraine to help Kiev battle the pro-Russian rebels. "Together Putin and Obama have avoided the worst," Lukyanov said. "They have prevented Russian-American relations from turning into a direct conflict."And with the more hawkish Hillary Clinton now favorite to beat Donald Trump to be the next president, Lukyanov said that Moscow realized it might face a tougher U.S. response in the future. "It will be very difficult for Moscow to find common ground with Washington after Obama's departure," he said.

U.S. Campaign in Libya Enters Second Month as Local Forces Make IS Gains
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 01/16/The U.S. air campaign targeting the Islamic State group's former Libyan stronghold entered its second month Thursday, with the steady pace of strikes continuing as local forces advanced on the jihadists' last remaining holdout. When the Pentagon announced its latest front in the war against IS on August 1, officials said the campaign to help local forces push the jihadists from the coastal city of Sirte would likely be quick, taking "weeks, not months." The military action came following a request by the U.N.-supported Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA), and the Obama administration has stressed that US involvement would continue to be framed by the interim Libyan government's needs. As of September 1, the US had conducted 108 strikes via drones, bombers and helicopter gunships in Sirte. "Though operational security precludes us from speculating on a timeline, the U.S. will continue to support the GNA as they look at options for Libya's future once Sirte is liberated," Robyn Mack, a spokeswoman for the U.S. military's Africa Command, told AFP. The Tripoli-based GNA launched an operation in May to retake the IS bastion of Sirte, the hometown of slain strongman Moammar Gadhafi which the jihadists have controlled since June 2015. Libyan pro-government forces this week said they were advancing on the last remaining IS holdout in Sirte -- an area known as district Number Three. Many of the strikes are being launched from the USS Wasp, an amphibious assault ship off the Libyan coast in the Mediterranean. The vessel can launch Marine Corps AH-1W SuperCobra attack helicopters and Harrier jets. Mack said the pace of strikes remained "steady," and noted that it takes time for the United States to vet target requests from the GNA to ensure no unwanted casualties occur. The fall of Sirte, 450 kilometers (280 miles) east of Tripoli, would represent a significant blow to IS, which has also faced a series of setbacks in Syria and Iraq.

Brazil's Rousseff Appeals against Losing Presidency
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 01/16/Impeached Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff filed a Supreme Court challenge Thursday to her removal from office in an early blow to new President Michel Temer's bid to stabilize the country. The appeal, filed by Rousseff's lawyer Jose Eduardo Cardozo and seen by AFP, demands "the immediate suspension of the effects of the Senate decision." The Senate voted Wednesday to convict Rousseff on charges of having illegally manipulated government accounts, stripping her of her office and replacing her with Temer, her bitter enemy and former vice president. Cardozo's appeal asks for "a new trial" during which Temer -- who was sworn in as president up until the end of 2018 -- would be downgraded to interim president. Temer is now in China, attending a G20 summit, while Rousseff remains in the Alvorada presidential palace in Brasilia. She is expected to leave shortly for her personal apartment in the southern city of Porto Alegre. Rousseff was convicted by a two-thirds Senate majority of taking illegal state loans to patch budget holes in 2014, masking the country's problems as it slid into economic disarray. Senators voting for her removal said she had contributed to Brazil's economic crisis and acted with criminal irresponsibility. Rousseff, from the leftist Workers' Party, denied doing anything illegal and claimed to be the victim of a right-wing coup d'etat. In a surprise move, a Senate vote on barring Rousseff from public office for eight years failed, meaning she is free to reenter political life. The ban had been considered by many to be a standard consequence of removal in an impeachment trial.
Challenges for new leader
Rousseff left office with rock bottom ratings after being blamed by most Brazilians for the country's slide into double digit inflation and unemployment. She has also been tainted by the revelation of a colossal embezzlement and kickbacks scheme at state oil giant Petrobras, although she has not been accused of participating herself. Temer, from the center-right PMDB party, rode that dissatisfaction all the way to the presidency in an impeachment process he describes as giving Brazil a chance to put its house back in order. Soon after being sworn in Wednesday he told the nation that his only goal was to serve until 2018, leaving behind "a country that is reconciled, pacified and growing economically."But Rousseff, who describes Temer as a coup plotter, went down fighting -- and promises not to give up now. "They have convicted an innocent person and carried out a parliamentary coup," she said after the Senate vote on Wednesday, adding, defiantly, that she'd "be back." Rousseff's coup accusation has gained only scattered support abroad and in a boost for Temer the US State Department said that the impeachment process was "in accordance with Brazil's constitutional framework."
"We're confident that we will continue the strong bilateral relationship that exists between our two countries as the two largest democracies and economies in the hemisphere. Brazil and the United States are committed partners," said spokesman John Kirby on Wednesday. Temer's struggle to consolidate power will face repeated challenges from the Workers' Party and allied leftist organizations, especially when he attempts to push through austerity reforms that he says are needed to bring Brazil back to economic health. Spending cuts, privatizations and attempting to curb the generous pension system -- including by setting a minimum retirement age -- are likely to provoke strong opposition both on the streets and in Congress. "The priority for Temer will be addressing the country's fiscal deficit, which is currently at 10.1 percent of GDP and widening," said a post-impeachment vote analysis by IHS Country Risk. However the measures needed "are highly likely to meet resistance in Congress, particularly in the short term as coalition members will likely oppose the implementation of unpopular measures prior to October's municipal elections.""Strikes and industrial action risks are likely to increase over the next year," the analysis said.

Amnesty Condemns 'Heightened Crackdown' on Bahrain Opposition
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 01/16/Amnesty International urged Bahraini authorities Thursday to end a "heightened crackdown" on its Shiite opposition, after some 60 clerics were summoned or arrested for participating in a protest. The clerics were among scores of other demonstrators detained after taking part in a sit-in protesting the stripping of top Shiite cleric Isa Qassim's citizenship. "The Bahraini authorities should halt immediately their heightened crackdown on peaceful critics and opponents," said the rights watchdog in a statement. Bahrain has been shaken by unrest since security forces crushed Shiite-led protests demanding a constitutional monarchy and an elected prime minister in 2011. Despite repeated calls from their Western allies, the kingdom's rulers have made no concessions to the Shiite opposition and have intensified a crackdown on critics. The Gulf archipelago is home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet. Amnesty said four of the arrested clerics were sentenced to between one and two years in prison following the sit-in in the village of Diraz and nine others remain in detention and are facing trial. It said most of the 60 have been charged with "illegal gathering" or "inciting hatred of the regime" as well as taking part in the Diraz protest. Qassim, who is considered the spiritual leader of the majority Shiite community in Sunni-ruled Bahrain, went on trial in July on charges of illegal fundraising and money laundering, just weeks after authorities revoked his citizenship. A statement by Shiite clerics denounced the prosecution of their comrades, including a two-year jail sentence on Wednesday against cleric Majid al-Mishaal, who heads the country's Shiite clerical council. "We urge authorities to stop inflaming the country with the fire of sectarian persecution," the clerics' statement said.

Israel to Obey Order to Demolish Settlement
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 01/16/Israel will carry out a court order to demolish the wildcat Jewish settlement of Amona in the West Bank by the end of the year, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Thursday. However, a proposed plan to simply move the settlement nearby has raised international concern. "I have said before and I say again to the settlers of Amona, there is a judgement of the (Israeli) Supreme Court and we shall honor it," Lieberman said at a Jewish school in the occupied West Bank on the first day of the new school year. Amona, home to about 40 families, was built on lands privately owned by Palestinians, who successfully petitioned Israeli courts for the outpost's removal. After repeated delays, the Supreme Court ordered the settlers' eviction and the demolition of their homes by December 25 this year. Last month, Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now said that Lieberman's defense ministry was working to transplant Amona residents to confiscated Palestinian land a few meters (yards) from the present site, effectively legalizing the rogue outpost. "We proposed a lot of alternatives and I hope we can find an option that the Amona settlers will also accept," Lieberman said on Thursday. The United States has said it is "deeply concerned" by the relocation plan. "This would represent an unprecedented and troubling step that's inconsistent with prior Israeli legal opinion and counter to longstanding Israeli policy to not seize private Palestinian land for Israeli settlements," State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said last month. Washington issued a fresh rebuke Wednesday over what it said was Israel's accelerated settlement building, in the face of mounting international concern."This significant expansion of the settlement activity poses a serious and growing threat to the viability of a two-state solution," President Barack Obama's spokesman Josh Earnest said. "We are particularly troubled by the policy of retroactively approving illegal outposts and unauthorized settlements," Earnest added.

Scouts Probe Claims Palestinian Branch Lauded Attacker
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 01/16/The world Scout movement said Thursday it was investigating claims its Palestinian branch held an event in support of a man who attacked Israelis on a bus.A Palestinian Scout troop in annexed east Jerusalem is alleged to have held a training course dedicated to Bahaa Alyan, who along with another man shot and stabbed passengers on a Jerusalem bus last October, killing three. Alyan was killed by security forces. "We are definitely investigating and we hope to respond as soon as possible," Srinath Venugopal, executive director at the World Scout Bureau's office of the secretary general, told AFP.  "Due to the nature of the issue it takes a little time to establish the facts. "Please be assured that the World Organization of the Scout Movement is not supportive of any terrorist activities."He said it was too early to speculate on potential punishments, though the family of one of the victim's has called for the Palestinian Scout Association to be expelled. Micah Lakin Avni, whose 76-year-old father Richard Lakin died after being shot and then stabbed on the bus, said he was calling for the "complete removal" of the Palestinian branch from the wider Scout movement. "I am outraged," he told AFP. "To name a program after a cold-blooded murderer is outrageous."The Scouts are a program all around the world teaching millions of people how to be good citizens and how to treat people with respect," he said. "This was not an isolated incident or a single leader, it is something that was decided by the leadership." A spokesperson for the Palestinian Scout Association said they did not yet have a formal response. Alyan's body was returned by Israel overnight after being held by Israel for 10 months, family members confirmed.There were over 33,000 registered members of the Palestinian Scout Association, according to the World Scout Bureau’s 2014 census. It was only given full voting rights in February.There are 163 national Scout organizations in more than 220 countries and territories across the world.

Iran: Raheleh Rahemipour summoned, interrogated again
Thursday, 01 September 2016/Evin Prison's prosecutor summoned Ms. Raheleh Rahemipour for the second time on Monday, August 29, 2016.Ms. Rahemipour has been threatened to refrain from participation in (protest) gatherings otherwise she would receive a prison sentence.
Raheleh Rahemipour has been following up on the case of her nephew who is missing since 1981, when her father was executed.
Source: http://women.ncr-iran.org/iran-women-news/3052-iran-raheleh-rahemipour-summoned-interrogated-again

Iran: Woman political prisoner under torture
hursday, 01 September 2016 /NCRI - Political prisoner Afsaneh Bayazidi has been under torture by agents of the Intelligence Department to make forced confessions.
Ameneh Darvishi, the prisoner's mother said, "Afsaneh has been detained in the lavatory of the Intelligence Department of Orumiyeh for 11 days to extract confessions from her. Intelligence agents have been feeding my daughter in the lavatory. They have tortured her for three months such that she had to undergo two weeks of treatment afterwards."Afsaneh Bayazidi, student from Boukan, was arrested at her residence on April 24, 2016. She is accused of collaborating with Kurdish parties. Source: http://women.ncr-iran.org/iran-women-news/3051-iran-woman-political-prisoner-under-torture

Gen Hugh Shelton: Isn’t it time to call for justice for victims of 1988 massacre in Iran
Thursday, 01 September 2016/The recent historic leak about the mass executions of political prisoners in 1988 in Iran not only does it present an opportunity for justice for the 30,000 victims and their families, but it could and should also shape some of the most important debates in foreign policy today, General Hugh Shelton, former chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff writes in the Washington Times.
In the summer of 1988, the Iranian regime summarily and extra-judicially executed tens of thousands of political prisoners held in jails across Iran. The massacre was carried out on the basis of a fatwa by the regime’s then-Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini.
More than 30,000 political prisoners were massacred in Iran in the summer of 1988. The massacre was carried out on the basis of a fatwa by Khomeini. The vast majority of the victims were activists of the opposition PMOI (MEK).On August 9, 2016, an audio tape was published for the first time of Khomeini’s former heir acknowledging that that massacre took place and had been ordered at the highest levels.
Below is the text of article by General Hugh Shelton published in the August 31, 2016 issue of The Washington Times:
Holding the mullahs accountable for crimes against humanity
Iran’s theocrats are guilty of killing thousands of Christians — and Muslims
By Hugh Shelton - - Wednesday, August 31, 2016
ANALYSIS/OPINION:
In August, damning evidence was made public about those responsible for the biggest massacre of political prisoners since World War II. The massacre took place in Iran, now portrayed as being run by moderates.
The brutality and radical ideology that guided the mass executions in 1988 are alive and well. Just ask the people of Iran itself, as well as those of Syria, Iraq and elsewhere. How is it that this historic leak has, with few exceptions, been met with indifference? Not only does it present an opportunity for justice for the 30,000 victims and their families, but it could and should also shape some of the most important debates in foreign policy today.
Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri wasn’t someone you would call a liberal, or even a moderate. He detested democracy, favoring instead the ideology of Velayat-e Faqih, which espoused the notion of giving the clergy unlimited power to decide the fate and daily life of the Iranian people. Once slated to succeed Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Montazeri was an ideologue of the ridged Shia dogma that would lead to the massacre of 30,000 innocent men, women (even if pregnant) and children. Yet, as the newly released audio recordings clearly indicate, even Montazeri felt compelled to speak out against the bloodbath.
The carnage targeted dissidents the regime had already sentenced, activists of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK), who were in prison and could not be pegged with more fabricated charges by the government. In Montazeri’s recorded words, “This sort of mass executions without trials, particularly as it relates to prisoners and captives — they are your captives, after all — definitely over time will favor them, and the world will condemn us and they will be even more encouraged in their resistance. Killing is the wrong way to resist against a thought, an idea . They have one thought, one idea. Responding to a process, a logic, even a faulty logic, with killing will solve nothing. It will make it worse . We will not be in power forever. In the future, history will judge us .”
One would expect that this sort of objection from a senior cleric and zealot of the extremist, reactionary ideals of the establishment would bring about change, and that those who had committed these unspeakable crimes would not be in favor forever. It turns out that there was change: Montazeri was sacked and those who murdered innocent prisoners on an unimaginable scale were promoted.
The members of the “death commission” are now serving in senior positions within the so-called moderate government of Hassan Rouhani. Mostafa Pourmohammadi is the justice minister in Mr. Rouhani’s Cabinet. Hossein-Ali Nayyeri is the current head of the Supreme Disciplinary Court for Judges. Ebrahim Raeesi was the clerical regime’s prosecutor general until several months ago and has recently been appointed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei as the head of the Astan Quds-e Razavi foundation, which is a multibillion-dollar religious, political and economic conglomerate and one of the most important political and economic powerhouses in the clerical regime.
These mass murderers’ current positions aren’t just an insult to those Iranians who paid the ultimate price in 1988; they are also a death sentence for innocent Iranians today, and a warning of the intentions of the Rouhani government abroad. At home, under Mr. Rouhani’s “moderate” leadership, Iran is the world’s No. 1 state executioner as no less than 2,600 people, including many dissidents, have been executed. Religious and ethnic minorities number disproportionately among the several thousand perceived opponents who have been hung from cranes over the past few years. Abroad, the regime has become ever more brazen due to Western inaction and ransom payments in the framework of nuclear negotiations. In Syria, Iraq and beyond, Iranian meddling and direct action supports despots such as Bashar Assad and suffering and death on a massive scale.
Just a few days ago, a five-year-old Syrian child named Omran Daqneesh became the face of the latest round of suffering and death in Syria, in a campaign made possible by the Iranian government. Unlike the 1988 victims of terror, today’s victims are likely to be more than a number, to have a human face like Omran’s — covered in dirt and blood from an airstrike — their shock and despair captured on camera. Such scenes should act as a wake-up call; no longer can we sit idly by as innocents are slaughtered. It is time for us to raise our voices in the name of the victims of Iranian terror who cannot, either because they are being suppressed or already dead.
Isn’t it time to call for justice for the victims of the 1988 massacre and hold the perpetrators accountable?
• Hugh Shelton, a retired U.S. Army general, is a former chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Iran Justice Minister confirms his role in Mass Execution of political prisoners
Thursday, 01 September 2016/Press release- Brussels- Friends of a Free Iran in European Parliament - 1 September 2016
EU and UN must call for an international tribunal to investigate
The shocking revelation of an audio file of the late Ayatollah Montazeri, who was the designated successor of Khomeini,founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, has continued to shake the Iranian establishment in the past few weeks.
The audio file that was recorded during the mass execution of political prisoners in Iran in 1988, disclosed the talks held between Mr Montazeri and the members of the “Death Commission” - a committee composed of four of the regime’s top officials at the time that was tasked with ordering the executions.
An estimated 30.000 political prisoners, many of whom had finished their sentences, were secretly massacred in summer of 1988 in Iran and buried in mass graves following the fatwa of Ayatollah Khomeini.
One of the members of the ‘Death Commission’ whose name and voice is clearly heard on the audio, is Mostafa PourMohammadi, then representative of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and current Justice Minister in the so called “moderate” government of President Hassan Rouhani.
On Sunday 28 August 2016, Pour-Mohammadi confirmed his role in the massacre: “We are proud we have implemented God’s order about the ‘hypocrites’ (PMOI or MEK). We have stood against the enemy of God and people and confronted them with power.” A day later he added: “I didn’t even have one night of sleeplessness in all these years because I acted according to the law and Islamic Sharia.”
These remarks leave no doubt that the current Iranian government of Hassan Rouhani is complicit in one of the worst crimes against humanity in recent history which has not yet been brought to an international tribunal. Amnesty International, the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), Human Rights Watch as well as the Canadian Parliament have all described the 1988 massacre in Iran as a ‘crime against humanity’. *
We therefore call for Iran’s 1988 massacre to be placed on the agenda of the upcoming session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in September 2016. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights should issue a call for an investigation in this regard.
We also call on the upcoming session of the UN General Assembly in New York (September – December 2016) to issue a resolution and call for an investigation into this massacre and refer its dossier to the Security Council. The UN Security Council should form an international tribunal to examine this case and prosecute its masterminds.
Before entering into any kind of so called ‘human rights dialogue’ with this regime, the EU must insist on the dismissing of Pour-Mohammadi from the government and to send all those involved in the 1988 massacre in Iran to international tribunals for crimes against humanity.
President of Friends of a Free Iran in European Parliament (FOFI)
Friends of a Free Iran (FoFI) is an informal group in the European Parliament which was formed in 2003 and enjoys the active support of many MEPs from various political groups
*In elaborating on some of the details of the massacre, many human rights organizations have already described the 1988 Massacre of Political prisoners in Iran as a crime against humanity:
Amnesty International in its November 2, 2007 report wrote: “Amnesty International believes these executions amount to a crime against humanity. Under international law, valid in 1988, crimes against humanity consist of widespread or systematic attacks against civilians on discriminatory, including political, grounds.”
The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) wrote on September 20, 2013: “A quarter of a century ago, in the summer of 1988, thousands of Iranian political prisoners who had already been tried and were serving prison sentences, stood show summary re-trials and were executed. As of today, the Iranian authorities, some of whom were also in power at the time, have not acknowledged these crimes. In a report published today, ‘25 years on, and still no justice: 1988 prison executions remain unpunished’, FIDH and LDDHI qualify them as extrajudicial and arbitrary executions and crimes against humanity. While their extent remains unknown, it is certain that in the span of a few months, several thousand prisoners were executed. Iranian sources have managed to document the names and particulars of at least 4,672 victims so far.”
Human Rights Watch wrote on October 24, 2005: “The deliberate and systematic manner in which these extrajudicial executions took place constitutes a crime against humanity under international law.”
Canada’s Parliament adopted the following motion on June 5, 2013: “That the House condemn the mass murder of political prisoners in Iran in the summer of 1988 as a crime against humanity, honour the memory of the victims buried in mass graves at Khavaran cemetery and other locations in Iran, and establish September 1 as a day of solidarity with political prisoners in Iran."

Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on on September 01-02/16

Daniel Pipes: Trump's Muslim Immigration Policy Is Evolving for the Better
Breitbart/September 01/16
http://www.meforum.org/6235/daniel-pipes-breitbart-trump-immigration-policy-evolving

Middle East Forum President Daniel Pipes joined Breitbart London Editor Raheem Kassam on Wednesday's edition of Breitbart News Daily on SiriusXM to talk about Republican nominee Donald Trump's Muslim immigration policy.
Kassam opened the discussion by mentioning Trump's announced trip to Mexico on Wednesday to meet with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, which Pipes described as "a very high-risk undertaking.""The sides begin so far apart that unless they have some kind of groundwork in place, some kind of preliminary draft agreement on what they're going to say, it could work out to the detriment of Donald Trump," Pipes explained.
Kassam quoted Nigel Farage's observation that Trump was approaching politics with a "businessman's strategy of trial and error," which doesn't work in politics, because "people always hold you to your previous positions." Pipes offered a similar observation in a Washington Times article several weeks ago, concluding that Trump was learning "slowly and erratically from his mistakes."
"There clearly was a learning curve," Pipes told Kassam on Wednesday morning, adding:
I focused not so much on the Mexican question, but on the Muslim question. He came out with this extraordinary statement that there should be a complete shutdown and closure to Muslims entering the United States. He said that back in December, and he doubled down on it, repeated it, elaborated on it.
And then, starting in the middle of June, he started walking away from it, and he started talking about extreme vetting, and then he started talking about not taking in people from certain territories, which he implied would include places like France and Germany where there is a lot of political violence.
And finally he settled on his formulation – which is in fact, I think, the only workable one – which is that you keep out the Islamists. You keep out the nasties. You keep out the people who want to do you harm.
"It took him on the order of eight months to get there, but he did get there," Pipes said to Kassam. "And, as you correctly point out, in politics you can't always take that kind of time to change your positions. I'm delighted to see the change in position. I think it's a very important one. But, one need hardly point out, having a complete ban on Muslims was a preposterous idea, just like getting Mexicans to pay for a wall is a preposterous idea. You have to back away."
Middle East Forum President Daniel Pipes: "[T]he only workable solution is that you keep out the Islamists."Pipes clarified that he thinks Trump's earlier immigration proposals were both practically difficult and philosophically troubling. "There's a church in Germany where Muslims convert to Christianity. What are you going to do about that?" he asked. "It's also immoral. We don't judge people, these days, any more, by their skin color, by their religion, or by any other such group characteristics. We look at individuals."
"I've actually drawn up a very long list of questions to ask, to discern who is an Islamist," he said. "It might seem awfully difficult, but if you think about it, if you give it enough attention, enough time, enough resources, you can do it. You can find out who's who. We're not doing that now."
A list of Pipes' questions, plus a collection of Islamist screening questions proposed by others, can be found at DanielPipes.org.
As an example, Pipes noted that the San Bernardino couple "had posted, on Facebook, many of their views, but the law-enforcement community was prohibited from looking at Facebook."
"Is this a serious way to protect ourselves?" he wondered. "We have to ask questions, we have to do research, we have to find out who's coming into the country.""The key point is, it has to be done on an individual basis. We don't judge people by how they dress, how they look, what religion they are. We judge people on an individual basis."
Kassam agreed, pointing out that while he wouldn't describe himself as a practicing Muslim, he does come from a Muslim family, so a blanket ban against Muslim immigration would keep him out of the United States.
"I think it's good that this policy is being developed," Kassam said. "We don't want any softening on the approach to Islamists. I think you and I can both agree on that."Pipes said that his Middle East Forum has "become more and more of an operational outfit, as well as an intellectual one."
The Middle East Forum is seeking to "change the U.S. government's approach to the Palestine refugee question," says Pipes. "We're active in Congress, we're active in courtrooms, we're active on the campus. We're really bursting at the seams, in terms of activities," he said.
Among the Forum's activities in Congress is an effort to "change the U.S. government's approach to the Palestine refugee question, which has been in amber now for decades, sixty-plus years. It could use a shaking up."Pipes also said his group is "looking at donations by Islamist leaders in the United States to politicians, tracking who is giving to whom."
"It's not a big surprise, it's not a lot of money, in the larger scale of things – but it is significant, and it is noteworthy, to see who the Islamists see as their candidates," he said. "It's quite striking that Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine both have received significant amounts, and their Republican counterparts have not. In particular, Mike Pence has not, since he's been in politics a long time."
Kassam mentioned the Middle East Forum's work on tracking Saudi and Turkish funding for mosques in the United States and Europe. Pipes noted that Rep. David Brat (R-VA) has "introduced legislation that would say there needs to be reciprocity."
"If there isn't freedom of religion, and we can't do things over there – i.e. Saudi Arabia, which has no freedom of religion, is the most repressive country in the world, other than say North Korea – they can't do anything here," Pipes said of Brat's legislation, which he described as being "still in its infancy," but "a very important priority, because until now, it's just been ad hoc, not letting the Saudis build a mosque here or there."
**Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.

"Liberal" Turkey Claims Europe Is Racist
Burak Bekdil/Gatestone Institute/September 01/16
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8820/turkey-liberal-racist
"There is no such religion as Christianity ... In reality, Jesus Christ was a Muslim coming from Jewish tradition ... The name of the religion revealed to Christ was Islam ..." — Abdurrahman Dilipak, columnist, Yeni Akit.
In Turkey, not even the smallest village of a few hundred inhabitants has a non-Muslim mayor.
Against this embarrassing background, Turkey is accusing Europe of being racist. That would be like North Korea accusing Europe of being a rogue state.
It's not a bad joke; it's a very bad joke. Turkey, where all variants of ethnic and religious xenophobia are a national pastime, is accusing the West of being racist.
Speaking after a spat with Austria and Sweden over news reports and tweets from those countries that accused Turkey of allowing sex with children under the age of 15, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu claimed that the behavior of European countries reflected the "racism, anti-Islamic and anti-Turkish (trend) in Europe."
He is talking about the same Europe where the inhabitants of one of its biggest cities, London, recently elected a Muslim as its mayor. In Turkey, not even the smallest village of a few hundred inhabitants has a non-Muslim mayor.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (left) blasted European countries for "racism, anti-Islamic and anti-Turkish (trend)," partly in response to a tweet by Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom (right) that read: "Turkish decision to allow sex with children under 15 must be reversed. Children need more protection, not less, against violence, sex abuse."
In "racist" Austria, the police immediately arrested two suspects in connection with an attempt to set fire to a Turkish cultural center in the northern Austrian town of Wels -- and at a time of rising tensions with Turkey. By contrast, Turkish law enforcement officials arrested five former gendarmerie intelligence officers just recently -- nine years after the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink. These officers would probably never have been implicated if the two Islamist allies, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Fethullah Gulen, his staunchest political ally when Dink was assassinated, had not turned into each other's worst nemesis in power-sharing fight in 2013.
Yeni Akit is an Islamist newspaper and one of Erdogan's media darlings, a kind of Turkish Pravda in its fanatical support of the president. Its editors always find a seat in the elite group of journalists who accompany the president in his private jet traveling to foreign capitals.
Recently, one of Yeni Akit's most prominent columnists, Abdurrahman Dilipak wrote:
"There is no such religion as Christianity ... In reality, Jesus Christ was a Muslim coming from Jewish tradition ... The name of the religion revealed to Christ was Islam ... Christianity is nothing more than a cultural adherence ... Judaism is already a tradition that has imprisoned itself to its own race ... [Jews'] fears are as big as their rage."
Funny, Dilipak is an Islamist and his holy book acknowledges the two monotheistic religions he denies.
In another column, Dilipak claimed that "there is no such thing as the Greek nation or the Greek civilization." Then, in following lines that exhibit typically an Islamist's confused mind, he claims that "the Greek civilization is a civilization of ... plagiarism."
Yeni Akit did not need to hide its racism even in the aftermath of a bloodshed the entire world -- except Islamist- denounced. In July, in Nice, France, shortly after the Islamist terror attack that killed more than 80 civilians, the newspaper's headline read: "France, the perpetrator of genocide in Africa, deserves worse."
Yeni Akit is a perfect reflection of Turkey's popular and official racism. In March, when a jihadist suicide bomber killed three Israelis and one Iranian on a busy Istanbul street, Irem Aktas, head of the women's and media division of the AKP branch in Istanbul's Eyup district, commented on social media that: "Let the Israeli citizens be worse, I wish they all died." When she wrote that in her Twitter account, at least 11 Israeli citizens injured by the bomb were being treated at Turkish hospitals. She was not prosecuted for her remarks that "wished death" to injured Israelis.
Turkey's religious -- and ethnic -- xenophobia can take amusing turns, too. In September 2015, Turkish authorities banned showing religious symbols and playing music related to various religions at yoga centers. They said that having Buddha sculptures and mantra symbols, as well as playing religious music and burning incense, could be considered violations which could lead to the closure of these centers.
About a month before Turkey's war on the "religion of yoga," the country's top religious body, the Religious Affairs General Directorate, issued a warning about the spreading of the new "religion" of Jediism" -- the religion of the Jedi warriors in the Star Wars series. "Jediism ... is spreading today in Christian societies. Around 70,000 people in Australia and 390,000 people in England currently define themselves as Jedis," the article said, before engaging in an Islamic-based critique of a number of Hollywood blockbusters.
Against this embarrassing background, Turkey is accusing Europe of being racist. That would be like North Korea accusing Europe of being a rogue state.
**Burak Bekdil, based in Ankara, is a Turkish columnist for the Hürriyet Daily and a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
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The Secession of French Muslims
Yves Mamou/Gatestone Institute/September 01/16
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8793/france-secession-muslims
In the French republic, state schools were built to fight the grip of the Catholic church on the whole of French society. The thinking was that Darwin is better at explaining the origin of the human race than the Bible. To build a country of free citizens: knowledge first; belief only if you insist, and even then, only by yourself.
If the hijab or burkini had anything to do with modesty or piety, the Islamic fundamentalists would have sought private beaches, not insisted on forcing themselves on the public. ... If the hijab becomes an accepted public phenomenon, a modern society cannot teach its future generations that a woman's dress is not an excuse for rape". — Hala Arafa, writing in The Hill.
A French Muslim society that often seems to feel as if it still belongs to its country of origin, appears to have decided that the game of secularism and "living together" should be over. With veils, burkinis and guns, various Islamists groups seem to be trying to embed the same message: We remain Muslims first and have decided to pay no attention to the culture of countries in which we are living.
For many today, French secularism is an anti-human rights ideology, a kind of moral deformity close to racism.
How can a free country, they ask, even think of doing such a thing as trying to ban a veil or a burkini -- the full body covering for women to wear on the beach? How, they ask, can the French Republic call itself free and remain free when many of its citizens would like to rob Muslim women, peacefully obeying their own religion, of the freedom to choose their own clothes?
The current radicalization in France is not like that of the recent migration of Muslims to other European countries. Muslims have been coming to France in large numbers since the French left Algeria in 1962. The French never made any distinction between the French of "Gaul" and the French of North Africa. The current radicalization is not of those who came then, but of the younger generation -- of French Muslims. They were born in France, speak French, were schooled in France -- but they are not at ease with the values of France.
Islamic fundamentalism in France has been imported from the outside -- by avenues such as Al Jazeera and Muslim wars in the Middle East. Now, therefore, these young French Muslim citizens have a real wish for secession from the rest of the population -- like the wish of the Confederate states for secession from the United States, before and during the U.S. Civil War. These young French Muslims apparently do not want to live in the same country anymore. They seem to want a separate country, or a different country.
For more than 25 years, the French Republic, right and left, has been trying to disentangle the country from the "Muslim textile problem" (hijab, niqab, burka, burkini and so on). When the problem began back in 1989, the head of Creil College expelled three Muslim girls for wearing the Muslim veil, the hijab. A strong debate followed: pro-veil vs. anti-veil. Same arguments: as usual, tolerance, freedom of choice, and freedom of religion were on one side, secularism and respect for rules on the other side.
Rules? What rules?
Central to the history of France, is that, in the republic, state schools were built to fight the grip of the Catholic church on the whole of French society. At the end of 19th century, until the First World War, republican teachers worked hard to build schools separated from the Pope and the church. The thinking was that Darwin is better at explaining the origin of the human race than the Bible's crediting God with creating the world in seven days. To build a country of free citizens: knowledge first; belief only if you insist, and even then, only by yourself.
The Islamic veil at school, or the burkini at the beach, seems an attempt to "re-religiousize" France and break the French consensus for secularism. For a hundred years, the consensus has been accepted by everyone -- Catholics, Jews, Protestants -- except for Muslims.
Four policemen in Nice, France, are pictured forcing a woman to remove part of her clothes because her outfit violated the city's "burkini ban," on August 23. They also fined her for the violation. (Image source: NBC News video screenshot)
The consensus can be summarized like this: Religious beliefs cannot belong to the public sphere without risking tyranny or civil war. If French citizens want to live in peace democratically, all disturbing subjects -- especially faith in a country of multiple faiths -- must remain strictly private.
For almost 30 years now, Muslims organizations in France have been telling everyone they do not accept this old private-public rule. Even at public schools, there are constant attempts to remodel the curriculum to align with religious faith.
In 2002, a group of teachers published a book, The Lost Territories of the Republic ("Les territoires perdus de la République"), about daily life in school classrooms where Muslims were numerically the dominant group. The general environment, according to the book, was violence, sexism, anti-Semitism and Islamism. The book was such a shock that everyone in the media boycotted it.
In June 2004, Jean-Pierre Obin, General Inspector of the National Education, gave the Minister of Education a written report, entitled, "The signs and manifestations of religious beliefs in schools of the Republic". The report was mostly about the behavior of Muslim secondary school students. In every school where Muslims were dominant in number, according to the report, boys refused to mix with girls in the classroom and at sports. The Muslim students understandably refused non-halal food at school cafeterias, did not come to school when there were Muslim holidays, such as Eid el Kebir, Eid el Fitr, Ramadan -- and virtually all of the students displayed a virulent anti-Semitism.
More problematic was that many of the Muslims in secondary schools began objecting to the school curriculum, according what is halal (permitted) or haram (forbidden):
"Very frequently there is a refusal or an objection to certain kinds of literary works. Philosophers of the Age of Enlightenment, especially Voltaire and Rousseau, and all the philosophical works who submit religion to rational examination. 'Rousseau is contrary to my religion,' explained one student while leaving the class before the end. Molière and especially "Le Tartuffe" -- a satire of religious bigotry -- were the most popular targets: there was refusal to study, refusal to play, refusal to attend or else disturbances when actors were on stage. The same rejection applied to literary works that many considered licentious, (example, "Cyrano de Bergerac"), free-thinking or in favor of the freedom of women (Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert). They also refuse to study authors such as Chretien de Troyes because they believe the goal of that teaching is to promote Catholicism... There is every indication that students are encouraged from the outside to distrust everything the teacher can teach them, and to distrust any food proposed to them at school's cafeteria. They are encouraged to select what they want to learn according the religious categories of halal and haram".
In trying to teach history, the problems -- perhaps not for everyone but for many -- were worse:
"On a general matter, everything that is connected to history of Christianity and Judaism is a matter to be contested. There are many examples, some surprising: refusal to learn about the construction of cathedrals, or to open the history book on a page where there is a reproduction of Byzantine church. They also refuse to learn about pre-Islamic religions in Egypt or the Sumerian origin of writing. Sacred history is continuously opposed to factual history. The objection becomes the norm and can escalate to radicalization when the program addresses sensitive issues such as the Crusades, the genocide of the Jews (they negate the reality of the Holocaust), Israeli-Arab wars and the Palestinian problem. In civic education, secularism is considered anti-religious".
The Obin report was so frightening for politicians that it was buried for many months and put online as discreetly as possible on the website of the ministry of education. In an interview given to the French magazine l'Express in 2015 , Jean-Pierre Obin said:
"Many of the young people are conducting a secession from the French nation. This secession expresses itself in clothes (the veil, or full Islamic dress), the requirement of halal food, and absenteeism for religious reasons. In certain schools, some students were introducing carpets for praying, or protesting noisily to have a mosque inside the school. (...) More than ten years later, we can say the situation is worse. Our education system is unable to integrate people from different origins, and this difficulty is bigger for low income families"
What is the connection between the burkini at the beach and Islamism at school?
What seems to stand out is that although many of the burkini women may, of course, just be enjoying the beach in accordance with the precepts of their religion, many others appear to be Islamist militants who want to plant Islamic markings on all levels of society. The problem, as the philosopher Catherine Kintzler writes in Marianne, is that:
"The tolerance level is decreasing inside the country. The collective condemnation of the burkini is so fast and so unanimous that it becomes a problem of public order... Public opinion accepts less and less a closed religious affiliation, the marking of bodies and territories, the control of values, campaigns to make preferred practices uniform on behalf of a religion, which is in reality a policy".
Hala Arafa, writing in The Hill, describes Muslim women's attire more or less as a tool of war:
"... no one is denying them the right to practice their religion in private. They don't have the right, however, to invade the public space and impose their ideology and belief system represented by their dress. ... If the hijab or burkini had anything to do with modesty or piety, the Islamic fundamentalists would have sought private beaches, not insisted on forcing themselves on the public. But as they did before, they want to become part of the accepted social scene and part of the new norm of the society. ... If the hijab becomes an accepted public phenomenon, a modern society cannot teach its future generations that a woman's dress is not an excuse for rape".
In the process of a Muslim secession, the burkini is just another opportunity to mark bodies and territories. A French Muslim society that often seems to feel as if it still belongs to its country of origin, appears to have decided that the game of secularism and "living together" should be over. With veils, burkinis and guns, various Islamists groups seem to be trying to embed the same message: We remain Muslims first and have decided to pay no attention to the culture of countries in which we are living.
The problem is that politicians in France -- and in other countries -- do not want to analyze these questions properly. They remain persuaded that an "Islam of France," supposedly compatible with French society, remains an option. The politicians will not protest this attempt to carve a religion into France once again: the people doing that also vote.
*Yves Mamou, based in France, worked for two decades as a journalist for Le Monde.
© 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.

Saudi Writer: Islamic Law Prohibits Suicide Attacks – But Clerics Fear To Speak Out Against Them
MEMRI/01 September/16
September 1, 2016 Special Dispatch No.6593
On August 2, 2016, in his column in the Saudi daily Al-Watan, Sattam Al-Muqrin criticized clerics who fear to speak out against suicide attacks, which he states are prohibited by Islamic law. According to Al-Muqrin, terrorist organizations use Islamic texts to brainwash youngsters and recruit them to carry out suicide attacks with the promise of reward in the afterlife. At the same time, clerics issue weak admonitions but otherwise do nothing to combat the phenomenon and do not ideologically confront these groups.
The following are excerpts from his column:[1]
"Suicide is prohibited in Islamic law and is considered one of the worst transgressions after polytheism, based on the Koranic verse 'and do not kill yourselves. Indeed, Allah is to you ever Merciful [4:29].' Some Islamic clerics believe that one who kills himself commits a greater sin than one who kills another, and that he is a sinner and an aggressor against himself [and therefore] his body should not be washed or prayed over. Moreover, some clerics demand punishment for anyone attempting suicide...
"On this basis, the idea of suicide has become synonymous, in the consciousness of Muslim societies, with heresy and eternal hellfire. This begs the question: How do the theocratic leaders of terrorist groups manage to persuade innocent youngsters to blow themselves up and commit suicide, despite the opposition to this notion in Islamic societies?
"Terrorist organizations use two main methods to persuade terrorists to blow themselves up: First, they convince [the potential terrorist] that he will enter Paradise upon death – the Paradise of the black-eyed virgins – because he is a martyr for the sake of Allah, and it is known that a martyr does not die, but lives on and is rewarded by Allah, [as stated in Koran 9:111:] 'Indeed, Allah has purchased from the believers their lives and their properties; [in exchange] for that they will have Paradise. They fight in the cause of Allah...' Second, [they] convince the terrorist that he is killing himself to prove the righteousness of the cause [he serves] – victory for Islam and the Muslims and defense of the oppressed and weak, and making Allah's word supreme.
"After that, the brainwashing begins, with tales and traditions from Muslim history praising self-sacrifice for the sake of Allah, as well as with reiteration of a number of ancient and contemporary fatwas issued by certain clerics. They say, for example, that some clerics tend 'to allow a Muslim to be daring and stand against infidels who outnumber him if he intends to make Allah's word supreme and has the strength and the belief that he can have an impact. [In this case,] even if he knows he will die, this will not be seen as suicide.' They also say: 'If he seeks a martyr's death and his intentions are pure, let him bear this, since his goal is to harm one of the enemies [of Islam]!'[2]
"One of the famous historical tales used by terrorist groups to justify and extol the idea of suicide is that of Al-Baraa' ibn Malik, a Companion of the Prophet, according to which 'the Muslims reached a wall whose gate was shut by the polytheists on the day of the battle against Musaylimah the Liar.[3] Al-Baraa' ibn Malik sat on a shield and said [to his men:] Lift me up with your lances and throw me over the wall. And so they did, and he charged them and fought them until the gates were opened.' According to another version, this Companion of the Prophet was launched by trebuchet through the enemy's fortifications. This [story] is used as evidence [to justify suicide attacks], since launching [a man] from a trebuchet will certainly kill him – but this Companion of the Prophet still did it, with strength and courage, and out of a desire to die a martyr's death.
"Another tradition used as evidence is: 'The Messenger of God, Peace be upon Him, mentioned Paradise. A man said to him: If I die for the sake of Allah, where will I go [after death]? [The Prophet] said: Paradise. He [the Prophet] gave the man some dates [to eat], and he fought until he was killed...'[4]
"After relating these stories, they begin reciting ancient fatwas, such as those permitting suicide for four reasons: a man's desire to die a martyr's death; in order to subdue the enemy; in order to encourage the Muslims in the face of the infidels; and in order to weaken the enemy's spirit, so that they will think, If one of [the Muslims] can do this, what about the rest of them? Regarding contemporary fatwas – in response to a question about suicide bombings, one cleric said that 'this isn't considered suicide, since suicide is when a Muslim kills himself to be rid of a hard life, [whereas] these [actions] are jihad for the sake of Allah... But it should be noted that such an action must not be undertaken by an individual of his own accord, but rather in carrying out the order of a military commander. And if the military commander can afford to lose this seeker of self-sacrifice, and if he believes that his loss would be a gain, for example by leading to the deaths of a large number of polytheists and infidels, then his decision is final and it is a duty to obey it, even if the person [ordered to sacrifice himself] is displeased...'
"Obviously these examples are meant to justify and praise suicide for the sake of Allah. As for the civilian victims of suicide attacks, if they are infidels, [then] such was their fate – to be punished by Allah at the hands of the mujahideen; if they are Muslims, [the justifiers claim] that they too are considered martyrs and are guaranteed kindness from Allah, or [argue] that their deaths were necessary in the jihad. Thus, any potential human emotion in the terrorist is extinguished, eliminating any hesitation in committing his heinous crime.
"Some may say that Muslim clerics have already responded to these justifications used by terrorist groups when brainwashing their supporters to commit suicide bombings. But I don't think that they have done so sufficiently, because their responses are general and have not criticized, or even attempted to criticize, the historic traditions [cited by those promoting suicide attacks], and have not even revisited obsolete terminology that is lacking all concept of humaneness.
"Sadly, some clerics are still unable to criticize, or even to deeply examine, the issue of suicide attacks, for fear of criticizing [our] historic heritage, and out of opposition to innovation. When will they wake up – [will it be] before the religion is hijacked by terrorist groups, if it hasn't been already?"
Endnotes:
[1] Al-Watan (Saudi Arabia), August 2, 2016.
[2] Taken from the Encyclopedia of Fiqh published by the Kuwaiti ministry of religious endowments, entry on "suicide" (p 285).
[3] Musaylimah bin Habib claimed prophethood during and after the time of Muhammad, and is therefore known by Muslims as Musaylimah the Liar.
[4] Hadith that appears in Sahih Muslim.

Bikini versus burkini: Which one is winning?
Mohamed Chebarro/Al Arabiya/September 01/16
It is puzzling to follow the ongoing debate over the burkini in Western countries that are home to Muslim communities, since only a minority of this minority are likely to wear it. The debate coincides with the 70th anniversary of the invention of the bikini. This begs the question: Will the bikini be eclipsed by the burkini? The “conseil d’état,” the highest judicial council in France, intervened and rejected municipalities’ ban on the burkini on public beaches. The ban could be due to the politics of fear gripping European cities following terror attacks in the name of Islam, a peaceful religion. It is important not to mix the arguments for and against the burkini with those for and against the hijab, another divisive form of religious wear tolerated in most Western countries but frowned upon whenever there are bouts of terror attacks in the world. The full burqa and niqab are banned in schools, offices and hospitals in France, Belgium, Holland, and elsewhere in the world. Most Muslim schools of thought agree that it is necessary for religiously observant Muslim women to cover their hair. Covering the face with the burqa or niqab is debatable in various societies, from the Gulf to South East Asia. The burkini is supposed to give observant Muslim women access to the beach. The “conseil d’état” was right to uphold the freedom to choose what to wear, saying the decree banning the burkini “seriously, and clearly illegally, breached the fundamental freedoms to come and go, the freedom of belief and individual freedom.” The debate will not stop here in an election year in France. A few mayors have vowed to continue to apply the ban. By being on a beach, observant Muslim women are exposed to half-naked men and women. Islam calls on the devout to avoid places where nudity is rampant
Hypocrisy
However, some seem to support the burkini out of a desire to antagonize and carve out a political identity, rather than champion women’s right to be on public beaches and wear attire that enables them to enjoy the sea, sand and sun. Furthermore, observant Muslim women being on a mixed beach and wearing a burkini defies the essence of their religious teachings about upholding modesty by keeping their bodies hidden. The burkini clearly shows the body’s contours and shape. By being on a beach, observant Muslim women are exposed to half-naked men and women. Islam calls on the devout to avoid places where nudity is rampant. By wearing a burkini, women may be observing one rule and flouting another.
The West
In the Arab and Muslim worlds, one can see the emergence of beach clubs with women-only spaces or segregated beach access for observant men and women. This is unlikely to be replicated in the West anytime soon. Veils, beards and burkinis will continue to be divisive issues in the West, as we try to find the fine line between applying one’s freedom to live, pray and dress without infringing the freedoms, beliefs and cultural sensitivities of others. In Australia, France, the UK or US, liberty for all is guaranteed by written and unwritten constitutions. However, certain trends emanating from the expansion of political Islam are encouraging some to subscribe to a very visual Muslim identity. This is making some feel - and rightly so – that their way of life and identity are being infringed upon and maybe threatened, especially if random attacks continue to target shopping malls, beach promenades and concert halls in Western cities due to a twisted interpretation of Islam.

Yemen and the idea of fighting ISIS
Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/September 01/16
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) carried out another suicide bombing in Aden, killing more than 60 fighters loyal to the legitimate government. This is part of a series of terrorist operations that ISIS is carrying out there with its sister organization al-Qaeda. The fighting clarifies the nature of alliances in the Yemen war. The rebel Houthis, supporters of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, al-Qaeda and ISIS are in one camp, against that of the legitimate government, loyalist tribes and the Saudi-led Arab military coalition. The US State Department said the bloody operation in Aden “underscores the urgency of a full and comprehensive settlement that will shrink the political and security vacuum that has been created by the ongoing civil war. In the absence of a political solution, we remain concerned that [ISIS] and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula will continue to take advantage of the instability.”There is no dispute that chaos nurtures terrorist groups, and that a political solution is the best option for Yemen and for all the fighting parties. However, giving in to the Houthis and Saleh, and handing them governance or allowing them to stay as an independent and influential power through any future agreement, will pose greater threats.
A political solution is the best option for Yemen and for all the fighting parties. However, giving in to the Houthis and Saleh will pose greater threats. For two years now, al-Qaeda and ISIS have targeted and attacked the legitimate government. They dealt in the past with Saleh’s government, and continue to deal with him as well as the Houthis until today. Even before the war, most al-Qaeda operations that were planned inside Yemen and targeted the US and Europe were exposed and thwarted by Saudi security forces, which handled the task of pursuing the organization during past years. During the past 12 months, the terrorist organizations have mainly targeted Emirati and Saudi forces in Yemen, and have tried to kill Yemeni government officials in the temporary capital Aden. The terrorist groups have played an influential role in obstructing coalition forces allied with the legitimate government, systematically targeting them in areas liberated from Saleh and the Houthis.
Political solution
There is an alliance between the terrorist groups and the rebels, so a political solution must not reward Saleh and the Houthis with great influence, otherwise they will enable terrorists to again attack the legitimate government to weaken it and dominate the state’s other pillars.
Saleh did so in the 1990s against his rivals in the unity government of the newly established republic of Yemen. He planned the assassination of dozens of South Yemen leaders, using extremist Islamists for that purpose. He repeated using al-Qaeda in the past 10 years, something the US refused to believe until it gathered a huge amount of information linking him to the group and revealed Saleh’s plans to attack his Yemeni rivals. ISIS and al-Qaeda know that the Houthis and Saleh are their best allies in any solution, because those fighting the terrorist groups in Yemen today are Saudi and Emirati forces, and US forces that depend on drones. Now the US wants a peaceful solution more because it is the best option. This is true, but it must not come at the expense of the solution that the UN adopted, which is based on holding elections, not on quotas that give the Houthis and Saleh seats and more influence just because they carry arms. The concept of quotas, which Iran promotes in Iraq and Lebanon, sabotaged these countries and led to the chaos we see there today. If the threat of al-Qaeda and its sisters in Yemen is the main motive behind American enthusiasm, they must adopt the concept of one strong central state that can fight terrorism, instead of allowing the establishment of a state of militias, which is currently being proposed under the name of reconciliation.
**This article was first published in Asharq al-Awsat on Sept. 01, 2016.

How is Nouri al-Maliki not in prison?
Dr. Azeem Ibrahim/Al Arabiya/September 01/16
The received wisdom in the West is that the United States is the main culprit for why Iraq today is a failed state. And there is certainly plenty, well documented evidence that the poorly planned invasion in 2003 had set the scene for years of conflict in the country. What is less understood is that the military and diplomatic failures of the initial invasion had largely been corrected, at great financial and human cost, through the Surge and the Awakening, by 2008-2009. The Surge, when the US recommitted itself to bringing order in the country in the wake of the Sunni-Shiite insurgency – and the awakening by which many of the militias formerly hostile the US and the American-backed Baghdad government had been brought around and persuaded to turn their weapons on the rising al-Qaeda elements in the country – had set the scene for a functional state, and even a working democracy in Iraq. The real failure since 2010 has been administrative.In this, the key culprit has been the Iraqi former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki. Maliki was elevated to the post of prime minister in 2006 by the Americans, as one of the few Shiite leaders of Iraq who would be able to command broad support amongst the diverse demographics of the country. And indeed, in his first years in the job he had been a major asset. He was key to the success of the initiatives which had brought Iraq to a promising position in 2009-2010. But his commitment, it turns out, was not to a united Iraq. Apparently, his primary allegiance was to his party, the Shiite Islamist Dawa party, and to his own pockets. As soon as the Americans, now under the pacifist-minded leadership of the Obama administration, looked all set to leave Iraq, Maliki moved in to capture the institutions of the Iraqi state for his Dawa party. He allegedly set up a system to funnel US aid funds out of the reconstruction effort and into allegedly his own private patronage network, buying the support of just enough followers, Shiite but also some Sunni and Kurdish leaders, to keep the gravy train rolling indefinitely. Some $500bn are alleged to have been funnelled off through various schemes during his 8-year tenure as Prime Minister, mostly from US companies and taxpayers. Maliki’s twin moves to monopolize the political process in Iraq while also robbing it of the funds it needed to rebuild seem to be the key reasons for the implosion of political consensus in the country
Implosion of political consensus
Maliki’s twin moves to monopolize the political process in Iraq while also robbing it of the funds it needed to rebuild seem to be the key reasons for the implosion of political consensus in the country, and the rise of violent confrontation between diverse groups. What is more, the chronically under-equipped Iraqi army was so vulnerable to the early advances of ISIS, arguably because the money it had received to buy equipment had largely been siphoned off by Maliki’s cronies. But while the main blame falls squarely on the corrupt Iraqi political leadership for the catastrophic mismanagement of the country since 2010, the United States is not without fault either. They had been warned by many of those working in the country for the American mission that Maliki was going to squander all the blood and money the US had invested in Iraq, for his own political and financial gain. Yet eager to leave Iraq as quickly as possible once it looked remotely stable, the Obama administration failed to heed the warnings. And, perversely, after all the Bush-era rhetoric about bringing democracy to Iraq, it was the liberal Obama administration which first signalled the catastrophic direction Iraq would take when they decided to stand by Maliki despite the charges that he had stolen the March 2010 election, in which he had nominally lost to a moderate, pro-Western, multi-ethnic coalition. However, he apparently managed to coerce the courts to rule in his favour. In doing so, the United States, led by Obama, chose to favour corrupt autocrats for the sake of “stability” over prospects of potentially destabilizing democracy. Except this time, the United States has not reaped “stability” from its choices. It has reaped ISIS. The question that still remains relevant though is the following: how is Nouri al-Maliki not in prison?

The heresy of the Protectors of the Homeland
Turki Aldakhil/Al Arabiya/September 01/16
If each man had his own weapon, this would undermine the state and strip it of its legitimacy. It seems the state, as the entity that embraces institutions in the Arab world, is witnessing rare challenges. A few days ago, the establishment of a paramilitary organization called the Protectors of the Homeland was announced in Lebanon, based in the north. Lebanese experts say there is a sectarian motive behind its establishment, as Sunnis fear Christian leadership. This is where the crisis of military organization comes. Lebanon’s interior minister vowed to raise the issue with the cabinet, while Hezbollah overlooked it and did not condemn it, unlike Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, who defended the state against militant expansion.
Challenges
There are challenges against the concept of the state, from the Houthis in Yemen, the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) in Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in North Africa. All these partisan formations are about to become a dangerous and flagrant challenge to state institutions. The state must monopolize weapons, but amid current crises weapons are threatening ordinary people as militant armament parallels that of the army and state apparatuses . The state must monopolize weapons, but amid current crises weapons are threatening ordinary people as militant armament parallels that of the army and state apparatuses. The infection of shattering institutions will spread, and this is the dome of civil wars. Prominent German philosopher Max Weber said: “The state is the only human community which lays claim to the monopoly on the legitimated use of physical force.” This is an important vision during this militant time.
**This article was first published in Okaz on Sep. 01, 2016.

Is Japan a role model for the Middle East?
Abdulaziz Turkistani/Al Arabiya/September 01/16
From my experience as a former ambassador, I can say that Japan can be a role model not only to Middle Eastern countries, but to all countries. There are a lot of things that can be said and learned from the Japanese model. Contrary to popular belief, Japan has spent over 200 years building its strength and did not only flourish only after the second World War II. In order to understand why Japan could be used as a model, it is important to address some of its historical traits and characteristics. What makes Japan distinctive is its strong belief in investing in and educating its people as a precondition for successful national development. For the Japanese, investing in human resources is considered as a precondition to any successful development of a country. To achieve that, they began by focusing on education at both the academic and moral levels.
Lessons to be learned
There are two important factors in this regard. First is teamwork, starting with Japan’s agrarian nature, where family members had to work together to produce crops. This expanded to cooperation between families in the villages, then in the cities. In addition, the country being prone to natural disasters - such as earthquakes, typhoons and volcano eruptions - have convinced Japanese that such challenges can only be overcome by teamwork. The region should learn from Japan’s experience in training programs and administration. Such programs could contribute to lowering unemployment in Arab countries. There is no doubt that teamwork is one of their most notable traits both historically and presently that have helped harmonize the Japanese society. The second factor is that Japan was able and willing to open its doors to the world and learn from other traditions – both East and West – without losing the essence of its own culture. This is still true, as Japan has stayed true to its identity and culture despite waves of globalization.
Power of the youth
The Middle East can learn from its experience in developing basic industries such as petroleum and petrochemicals, and in extracting useful metals from the ground. More importantly, Japan has expertise in transforming those metals and products into industries that serve the community.
The Middle East should convince Japanese companies that technology is needed in the region to create knowledge-based economies through research and development.
Saudi Arabia & Japan: 60 years of partnership
The region should also learn from Japan’s experience in training programs and administration. We should learn from the Japanese business philosophy of Kaizen where continuous improvement of working practices and personal efficiency are emphasized. We can follow some of their training programs, whether on-job or technical. Such programs, especially for youths, could contribute to lowering unemployment in Arab countries. A key example of Japanese harnessing the power of their youth was by training them in the technicalities of the car, electronic and plastic industries. Finally, it is also worth learning about Japan’s successful experience in sports and arts. For instance, the country won more medals than it expected to at this year’s Olympics.