LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
September 24/16
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletin16/english.september24.16.htm
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Bible
Quotations For Today
But many who are first will
be last, and the last will be first
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 10/28-31/:"Peter began to
say to Jesus, ‘Look, we have left everything and followed you.’Jesus said,
‘Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or
mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good
news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age houses, brothers and
sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions and in the age to
come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be
first.".
To everyone who conquers I
will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give a white stone, and on the
white stone is written a new name that no one knows except the one who receives
it
Book of Revelation 02/12-17/:"‘To the angel of the church in Pergamum write:
These are the words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword: ‘I know where you
are living, where Satan’s throne is. Yet you are holding fast to my name, and
you did not deny your faith in me even in the days of Antipas my witness, my
faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan lives. But I have a few
things against you: you have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who
taught Balak to put a stumbling-block before the people of Israel, so that they
would eat food sacrificed to idols and practise fornication. So you also have
some who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Repent then. If not, I will
come to you soon and make war against them with the sword of my mouth. Let
anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. To
everyone who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give a
white stone, and on the white stone is written a new name that no one knows
except the one who receives it."
Titles For Latest LCCC
Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on September
23-24/16
Is this how Hezbollah serves Michel Aoun/Nayla Tueni/Al Arabiya/September 23/16
Could Orthodox Churches Recognise The Pope? It’s No Longer Completely
Unthinkable/Mark Woods/Christian Today/23 September 2016
Clinton vs. Trump on Key Middle East Issues: Prepping for the Debate/Aryeh
Mellman./Washington Institute/September 23/16
Russian-Syrian Aleppo tactics await the South/DEBKAfile/September 23/16
Is Obama’s ‘Narrative Battle’ with ISIS or Reality/Raymond Ibrahim /FrontPage
Magazine/September 23/16
Why proposed blasphemy law horrifies many in Gaza/Adnan Abu Amer/Al-Monitor/September
23/16
Muslim Brotherhood's ties to the Obama Administration/Slater Bakhtavar/Family
Security Matters/September 23/16
Egyptian Youths Escape Sharia Inferno/Ashraf Ramelah/Family Security
Matters/September 23/2016
France: The Great Wall of Calais/Soeren Kern/Gatestone Institute/September 23/16
Art and war: The struggle of recollection and oblivion/Fahad Suleiman Shoqiran//Al
Arabiya/September 23/16
Two years after the coup: What’s up with the Houthis/Dr. Theodore Karasik/Al
Arabiya/September 23/16
In Contrast To Rohani Allegations In UNGA, Senior Iranian Officials Confirm U.S.
Has Met Its Obligations Under JCPOA/Y. Carmon and A. Savyon/MEMRI/September
23/16
The Terrorist “Wing” Scam/A.J. Caschetta/Middle East Quarterly
Titles
For Latest Lebanese Related News published on on September
23-24/16
Is this how Hezbollah serves Michel Aoun
Rahi Shames Politicians over Failure to Fill Prolonged Presidential Vacuum
Qahwaji Says Army Can Face Terror, Protect Stability despite Circumstances
Army Raids Bourj al-Barajneh Refugee Gatherings as Yassine's Plots Unveiled
Qassem: No One Can Monopolize Power, Taef Accord Still Valid
Moqbel Vows to Extend Qahwaji's Term if No Agreement on Successor
Syrians Held in Hasbaya over Australia Travel Scam Ring
British Ambassador Inaugurates Solar Powered Street Lighting in Sidon
Report: Berri to Pass Financial Laws with 65 Parliament Votes
Report: Settlement Reached in Beddawi to Remove Security Cordon
Lebanese Shun Pricey, Polluted Beaches for Trips Abroad
Ambassador Richard Welcomes New University Scholar Program Students
Rahi from Hasroun: We condemn refraining from electing new president
Kahwaji: Security situation under control
Tightened security measures in Zkak Blat as car draws suspicions
No explosives found in Zkak Blat suspicious car
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous
Reports And News published on on
September 23-24/16
Lavrov Says U.S.-Russian Agreements on Syria Must be Saved
Kerry Says 'Bit of Progress' with Lavrov on Syria
U.N. Eyes Alternate Aid Delivery Route for Syria's Aleppo
Mideast Peace 'Quartet' Hears from France and Egypt
France Accuses Assad of Seeking to Break Up Syria
Missiles Blast Aleppo as Syria Army Readies Ground Assault
Pressure Mounts to Release Video of Charlotte Shooting
Rouhani: Zionists pressuring US to violate Iran nuclear deal
At Least 133 Bodies Recovered from Egypt Migrant Shipwreck
Morocco Asks to Rejoin African Union after 32 Years
Palestinian Wounded Trying to Stab Israelis in W.Bank
Links From Jihad Watch Site for on
September 23-24/16
Egypt: “Christians are original inhabitants of the nation,” says
Coptic bishop
The Last Supper: The Plight of Christians in Arab Lands
New York: Muslim indicted for death threats against SUNY professor
Dallas Morning News: “Islamophobia” leads to high cholesterol, obesity, and
cancer
Ethiopia: “Her clothes were covered with blood…Her husband was shouting that she
should die for forsaking Islam”
Muslim cleric calls Jews “brothers of apes and pigs,” prays, “O Allah, destroy
America”
Pakistan: Muslim mob beats Christians with metal rods, calls them “ritually
impure”
UK: Muslim who murdered Muslim for disrespecting Islam calls for
beheadings in prison videos
Links From Christian Today Site for on
September 23-24/16
Donald Trump Appoints 33 Top Catholics As Advisers
What's Happening Now Is Annihilation': Airstrikes Pound Rebels In Aleppo
Christians 'Hung On A Cross Over Fire', Steamrollered And Crushed To Death In
North Korea
Mexican Priest Missing After Two Kidnapped And Killed
Relentless Decline Of The US Episcopal Church Continues
'Our Lives Have Become Miserable': The Indian Christians Ostracised For Their
Faith
Bishop Of Exeter Slams Cathedral Dean For Lack Of Spiritual Leadership
Aleppo: Warplanes And Artillery Bombard Rebels, Dooming Ceasefire Hopes
Battle For Mosul Looms: Pray For Those Trapped, Says Open Doors
New Anglican Church For Conservative Christians Launches In
England
Latest Lebanese Related News published on on September
23-24/16
Is this how Hezbollah
serves Michel Aoun?
Nayla Tueni/Al Arabiya/September 23/16
If we believe in Lebanon as a democracy, we accept that Christian leader Michel
Aoun becomes president if he is elected by a majority in parliament. Democracy
obliges us to accept results no matter what they are. It means we must
congratulate the new president, give him a chance to implement his plan, and
help him whenever possible because Lebanon - like all countries - needs a
president and the regulation of institutions’ work.
However, in Lebanon we live a different reality that does not resemble democracy
at all. The era of Syrian tutelage, which long controlled the presidency, seems
to go on as Hezbollah has inherited its role and is telling the world and the
Lebanese people: “Either elect Aoun or there will be no president.”Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General Naim Qassem reiterated this stance on Sunday:
“He who wants to elect a president only has one path to take, and it leads to…
Aoun. Superpowers, regional countries, the UN Security Council and the Arab
League can’t alter this path. They’ve tried to do so for more than two years
now, and haven’t achieved anything… The region’s developments, whether negative
or positive, can’t change this path.”
If Hezbollah really wants Aoun as president, it should negotiate to help achieve
this goal instead of taking to platforms and defying everyone
Helping or hindering?
I do not know if Hezbollah thinks it is serving Aoun with this provocative and
snobbish approach - which does not take anyone inside or outside Lebanon into
consideration - or whether it is adopting a policy of burning him by increasing
others’ intransigence, so it eventually tells him: “We did what we were supposed
to do but couldn’t achieve any results.”If Hezbollah really wants Aoun as president, it should negotiate to help achieve
this goal instead of taking to platforms and defying everyone. It has even lost
those who could have met it halfway. It must also soften its sharp rhetoric
against Arab countries. It must not hail insults and threats against them, then
ask them not to object to its presidential candidate.
Hezbollah is harming Aoun and his history of struggle and domestic and foreign
relations, and pushing others to reject him. If it manages to present him as a
candidate by defying everyone, not via consensus, this establishes an era where
Aoun’s failures almost precede his successes. Why does he accept all this? Is he
not aware of what the “me or nobody else” approach means in the history of
people and their countries?
This article was first published in an-Nahar on Sept. 19, 2016.
Rahi Shames Politicians over
Failure to Fill Prolonged Presidential Vacuum
Naharnet/September 23/16/Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi said on Friday that
the failure of politicians to elect a president is linked to “personal and
sectarian interests,” as he shamed them over the prolonged vacuum. “It is not
enough to verbally demand the election of a president. The politicians must
first come up with new initiatives. Shame on the political parties that over two
years and five months since the term of the president ended, they fail to find a
solution or suggest new initiatives because of their adamant stances,” said Rahi.
“The whole issue related to failure to elect a head of state is linked to many
personal and sectarian interests,” he went on to say. Lebanon has been without a
president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, MP
Michel Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been
boycotting the parliament's electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed
quorum.
Qahwaji Says Army Can Face
Terror, Protect Stability despite Circumstances
Naharnet/September 23/16/Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji reassured Friday
that the army has the “full ability” to “confront terrorism” and “protect
stability” despite the current circumstances in Lebanon and the region.“The
security situations are under control and the army has the full ability to
confront terrorism and protect national stability, despite the circumstances
that are surrounding the country,” said Qahwaji during an inspection visit to
the Logistic Brigade in Kfarshima.The army chief also lauded “the precise and
professional operation that was carried out by a force from the Intelligence
Directorate yesterday and resulted in the arrest of the emir of the Islamic
State group in the Ain el-Hilweh camp,” Imad Yassine, an army statement said.
The arrest “spared the country bloody bombings that the detainee and his network
had been plotting for several Lebanese regions,” the statement added. According
to media reports, Yassine was coordinating with the IS leadership in Iraq to
stage major “Iraq-like bombings” across Lebanon. An army statement issued
Thursday said Yassine had been plotting to stage bomb attacks against “army
posts, vital and touristic facilities, shopping centers, popular gatherings and
residential areas in several Lebanese regions.”As Safir newspaper reported
Friday that Yassine's bank of targets had included Casino du Liban, downtown
Beirut, the Central Bank, the power generation plants in Jiyeh and al-Zahrani,
Nabatiyeh's “Monday Market”, UNIFIL forces in the South, KFC outlets in Dbaye,
army patrols and posts, in addition to firing rockets at Israel in a bid to
ignite the southern front. Al-Joumhouria newspaper meanwhile reported that
Yassine had been plotting to assassinate political figures in Sidon and Beirut,
including Speaker Nabih Berri.
Army Raids Bourj al-Barajneh
Refugee Gatherings as Yassine's Plots Unveiled
Naharnet/September 23/16/Army troops carried out raids Friday at a number of
Syrian refugee gatherings in the Beirut southern suburb of Bourj al-Barajneh,
state-run National News Agency reported. The soldiers raided areas in the Ain
al-Sikkeh and Baajour neighborhoods which are adjacent to the Bourj al-Barajneh
Palestinian refugee camp, NNA said. “Several people were arrested for not
carrying identification papers,” the agency added. Troops also checked the IDs
of passersby in the area. The crackdown comes a day after the army managed to
arrest a dangerous Islamic State militant, Imad Yassine, in an unprecedented,
special operation in the Ain el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in the South.
According to media reports, Yassine was coordinating with the IS leadership in
Iraq to stage major “Iraq-like bombings” across Lebanon. An army statement
issued Thursday said Yassine had been plotting to stage bomb attacks against
“army posts, vital and touristic facilities, shopping centers, popular
gatherings and residential areas in several Lebanese regions.” As Safir
newspaper reported Friday that Yassine's bank of targets had included Casino du
Liban, downtown Beirut, the Central Bank, the power generation plants in Jiyeh
and al-Zahrani, Nabatiyeh's “Monday Market”, UNIFIL forces in the South, KFC
outlets in Dbaye, army patrols and posts, in addition to firing rockets at
Israel in a bid to ignite the southern front. Al-Joumhouria newspaper meanwhile
reported that Yassine had been plotting to assassinate political figures in
Sidon and Beirut, including Speaker Nabih Berri.
Qassem: No One Can Monopolize Power, Taef Accord Still Valid
Naharnet/September 23/16/Hizbullah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem stressed
Friday that no Lebanese party has the ability to “monopolize power” in the
country, noting that the 1989 Taef Accord is still valid for running the
country's affairs. “Everyone must admit that no Lebanese party has the ability
to monopolize power and that the Taef Accord is still valid and appropriate for
securing balance among the various parties and stability in Lebanon,” Hizbullah
number two said.
“Instead of sectarian gains, we must seek national gains, which are beneficial
for everyone,” he added. Qassem also called for a “fair electoral law” and an
“upright judiciary,” while urging the Lebanese to “behave according to the
principle that we are living together.”Hizbullah's ally Speaker Nabih Berri has
recently stressed that “there is no alternative” to the Taef Accord that ended
the civil war while ruling out the possibility of holding a so-called
constituent assembly in the foreseeable future. There are fears in the country
that the ongoing political and presidential vacuum might eventually lead to
introducing constitutional amendments or holding a constituent assembly that
would radically change the current political system that is based on a delicate
distribution of power among the country's sects. Berri himself and Hizbullah
have been accused of seeking a constituent assembly aimed at altering the
political system in their favor. In June 2012, Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan
Nasrallah openly called for “a constituent assembly elected by the people.”“Why
don't we form a constituent assembly elected by the people -- not on a sectarian
or regional basis but on the basis of competency -- in order to discuss all
options. Let it discuss the Taef Accord, a new social contract or a
non-sectarian system,” he said. Lebanon has been without a president since the
term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, MP Michel Aoun's Change
and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the parliament's
electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed quorum. Al-Mustaqbal Movement
leader ex-PM Saad Hariri, who is close to Saudi Arabia, launched an initiative
in late 2015 to nominate Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the
presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main
Christian parties as well as Hizbullah. Hariri's move prompted Lebanese Forces
leader Samir Geagea to endorse the nomination of Aoun, his long-time Christian
rival, after months of political rapprochement talks between their two parties.
The supporters of Aoun's presidential bid argue that he is more eligible than
Franjieh to become president due to the size of his parliamentary bloc and his
bigger influence in the Christian community.
Moqbel Vows to Extend
Qahwaji's Term if No Agreement on Successor
Naharnet/September 23/16/Defense Minister Samir Moqbel confirmed Friday that he
would extend anew the term of Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji if the
political parties fail to agree on a successor. “Should the premier call for a
September 29 cabinet session, it would be my responsibility to suggest three
candidates for the army chief post,” Moqbel said in remarks to MTV. “The names
will be suggested according to hierarchy and I don't have a favorite candidate.
They will be suggested according to hierarchy, years of service and reputation,”
he added. Asked about his similar move that preceded the extension of Higher
Defense Council chief Maj. Gen. Mohammed Kheir's term and was described as a
“farce” by the Free Patriotic Movement, Moqbel said the FPM is “free to say
whatever it wants.”“The real farce is being practiced by those who are not going
to parliament to elect a president,” the minister added. “Should the political
parties fail to agree on the appointment of an army commander, my constitutional
responsibilities give me the jurisdiction to take the decision of postponing the
retirement of the army chief in order to prevent vacuum,” Moqbel went on to say.
Asked when he would take such a decision, the minister said: “Should the cabinet
fail to convene on September 29 or should it convene and fail to appoint a new
chief, be confident that I will issue the decree before the midnight of
September 29.”As for the term of Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Walid Salman, which
has already been extended twice and expires on September 30, Moqbel said he
would take a similar decision should no agreement be reached over a successor.
Told that it would be illegal to extend Salman's term in light of the number of
his years of service, the minister stressed that he will find a solution because
he refuses to allow any vacuum in these “two key posts.”“We will find an edict
that would be 100% legal,” he added. The FPM, which says it opposes term
extensions for all senior officers, has recently suspended its participation in
cabinet sessions in the wake of a decision by Moqbel to extend Kheir's term. The
movement has also suspended its participation in national dialogue meetings and
threatened street protests and a “political system crisis” over accusations that
the other parties in the country are not respecting the 1943 National Pact that
stipulates Christian-Muslim partnership. Qahwaji's term has been extended twice
since 2013 despite objections from the FPM, which had been reportedly lobbying
for the appointment of former Commando Regiment chief Brig. Gen. Chamel Roukoz
as a successor to Qahwaji. Roukoz is the son-in-law of FPM founder MP Michel
Aoun.
Syrians Held in Hasbaya over
Australia Travel Scam Ring
Naharnet/September 23/16/Two Syrians were arrested Friday in south Lebanon for
forming a travel scam ring, Lebanon's National News Agency reported. “General
Security arrested the Syrians M. Q. and J. H. in the town of Hasbaya for forming
a gang that was operating in the border villages and claiming that it had the
ability to secure the travel of Syrian refugees to Australia in return for sums
of money that exceed $5,000,” NNA said. They were referred to the relevant
judicial authorities for further investigations aimed at unveiling the rest of
the ring's members. Five years into the Syria conflict, tiny Lebanon is hosting
more than a million Syrian refugees, most of whom are living in dire conditions.
British Ambassador
Inaugurates Solar Powered Street Lighting in Sidon
Naharnet/September 23/16/Thousands of residents will benefit from a UK-funded
project designed to assist municipalities in meeting community needs, part of
UNDP and the Ministry of Social Affairs’ project: The Lebanon Host Communities
Support Project, a press release said on Friday. In his first official visit to
Sidon, where he met with Mayor Mohammed el-Saudi and members of the municipal
council, Ambassador Hugo Shorter inaugurated a solar-powered street lighting
system funded by UK Aid. He was accompanied by UNDP Country Director Luca Renda,
and the National Coordinator of the Lebanon Host Communities Support Project at
the Ministry of Social Affairs, Suheir El Ghali. The 115 solar-powered lamp
posts are aimed at reviving the Old Sidon waterfront and once again turning the
sea front into a popular pathway that brings together thousands of residents,
visitors and local vendors. Speaking from Sidon Ambassador Shorter said: “After
coming to the Sidon Festival last week-end, I am pleased to make my first
official visit to Sidon, one of the oldest cities of the world, and to have the
opportunity to meet some of its people to learn more about the city’s future as
well as its history - and also to visit the castle.
“We are here today because we believe in good investment and we are proud that
UK Aid has been a major donor to the Lebanon Host Communities Support project
since it began in 2013. What we have is a project that was identified as one of
the main priorities by the community in Sidon through the Maps of Risks and
Resources, where the local community comes together to determine their
priorities. This lighting project that ensures public lighting for up to 12
hours/day shows real team work with all stakeholders, the Lebanese government
and local communities to target the most urgent community needs. I have seen
pictures of how the corniche looked before this project and I am pleased to see
tonight the 'After' and the positive impact it will have for road and personal
safety. It is heart-warming to see families, youth, children, visitors and
vendors able to wonder up and down in the evening in a much safer environment,
and enjoy the evening sea-breeze. Even the fishermen's port as I have seen has
benefited, allowing the safe departure and return of fishing boats to and from
sea. “This is one of 90 projects the UK is funding across 49 municipalities
throughout the country. We realize that the need is great and we shall continue
to support similar initiatives in collaboration with our local and international
partners.” Ahmad El Baba, a 50 year old resident of the Old Sidon waterfront
said: “The waterfront area was drowning in darkness, but now it is filled with
life. We thank you for your efforts that will improve security conditions in
Sidon.”Renda said: “Modern technology and traditional design were combined for
the installation of the new solar-powered streetlamps which will illuminate the
corniche in Old Sidon, contributing to the security of the local community and
the beautification of the area. We are delighted to see one more result of our
longstanding collaboration with the Municipality of Sidon. We are especially
grateful to the UK for funding this project and for its strong commitment to
support Lebanese communities in partnership with UNDP and the Ministry of Social
Affairs.”
Ghali said: “This project is funded by the UK and was identified by the
residents of Sidon as one of their top priorities through the "Maps of Risks and
Resources" methodology adopted in the selection and implementation of projects
within the Lebanon Host Communities Support Project. It is not unusual that the
residents of Sidon chose this project in particular. The city which has major
potential for tourism was deprived from its beautiful jewels and security fears
took over the streets. The waterfront lighting project is one of the projects
that restores hope for the people of Sidon in their city.”“The solar lights
project brought life back to Sidon and lit the longest and most beautiful street
in the city,” said Mohammed Saudi, Mayor of Sidon. “On behalf of the
municipality and the residents of Sidon, I would like to thank the government of
the UK, the UNDP and MoSA,” he added. Ambassador Shorter also called on MP
Bahiya Hariri in Majdelyoun and met with a group of Palestinian youth to hear
more about projects they have designed and implemented to benefit the local
community.
Report: Berri to Pass
Financial Laws with 65 Parliament Votes
Naharnet/September 23/16/Speaker Nabih Berri stressed on Friday that he is
determined to hold parliament meetings with the start of the second legislative
session in October dedicated to financial issues, and that he will not be
deterred by the number of deputies who approve the laws even if it means that
only 65 MPs pass them, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Friday. “I am determined
to hold one or more legislative sessions with the start of the normal
legislative sessions to address pressing financial issues and redress the
financial threats facing Lebanon,” Berri was quoted by his visitors. “I will not
stop at any charter in this regard taking into consideration the financial risks
at hand, and therefore I do not need more than 65 deputies here to approve the
financial issues,” he added.“I might call for more than one session if needed,”
dedicated to urgent financial issues and to redress the financial threats facing
Lebanon he stated. The regular legislative sessions of the parliament begin the
first Tuesday after October 15. A two-thirds majority, or 86 MPs, is required to
convene the sessions. The Speaker pointed out: “The political imperatives compel
us to reach understandings on mainly three issues: the presidency, the
government and the electoral law. I have always said and I reiterate that our
only exit is through understanding.”Berri's comments come in light of an ongoing
political deadlock in the country and a repeat boycott by lawmakers which compel
him to postpone legislative sessions.
Report: Settlement Reached in
Beddawi to Remove Security Cordon
Naharnet/September 23/16/Political and security contacts between Palestinian and
Lebanese officials were able to find a settlement to the crisis in Tripoli's al-Bedddawi
Palestinian refugee camp and loosen the security cordon that was imposed by the
Lebanese army days ago, As Safir daily reported on Friday. The army was able to
get a pledge to interrogate Palestinian (Sh. Khatib) about his relationship with
armed terrorist groups in Syria and recruiting young men to their advantage,
added the daily. The step came to deter a dangerous situation that arose after a
shooting incident at an army checkpoint in the vicinity of the camp by one of
the most wanted individuals three days ago. Despite the fact that the assailant
was turned in by the Palestinian factions after the incident, the step did not
dispel concerns about the possibility of a “fifth column exploiting the
situation to tamper with the security of the camp and drag it into a
confrontation with the army. Moreover, the army has taken strict security
measures after an armed clash that occurred in Eid al-Adha in an amusement park
adjacent to the camp that led to casualties, and the escape of the perpetrators.
The security apparatuses were able later on to arrest those involved except for
four Palestinians from inside the camp. After a series of contacts, two of them
were turned in, the third was arrested while the fourth is still undergoing
treatment. However, handing the assailants was not the only requirement of the
army that mainly wanted fugitive Sh. Khatib to turn himself in, which created a
problematic issue inside the camp mainly after the army arrested Khatib's
brother although he has no arrest warrants against him. Efforts succeeded later
on to find a settlement to the file. Khatib's brother is to be released in
return for turning himself in to the committee tasked to follow-up the issue
with the Lebanese army. According to available information, the army restored
the situation back to normal and withdrew its troops Thursday to the positions
where they were previously situated, clearing the way for closing the file once
and for all by the Palestinian factions. The Palestinian factions hailed the
army's “positive” steps, said the daily, and is working to address all the files
related to the security of the camp.The leadership of the Palestinian national
security in the north issued a statement stressing that it “stands by the
Lebanese state institutions.”
Lebanese Shun Pricey,
Polluted Beaches for Trips Abroad
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 23/16/Lebanese like Hamza al-Sees should
have no problem finding a beach to while away the summer in a country stretching
along the Mediterranean. But as private developers have gobbled up seafront land
and families complain of ever-more polluted waters, many Lebanese say it is
cheaper and cleaner to fly abroad than go to the beach at home. "I went to
Cyprus for five days, stayed in a luxury hotel and enjoyed the beauty of the
Cypriot coast," said Sees, who hails from Lebanon's southern beachfront city of
Sidon. "For the ticket, the hotel and all the expenses -- including transport,
food, drink, clubs and activities -- I paid $1,000," the 23-year-old shopkeeper
said. "I even bought gifts and souvenirs for my family," he said, adding it was
the second year in a row that he and friends had made the trip. In Lebanon, by
contrast, expenses start piling up long before beachgoers even dip into the
water. "The costs start with the valet parking at these beach spots," Sees said.
"Then you have the entrance fee, which won't be less than $30, and then the cost
of just juice, water and a normal meal would be at least $40." For Lara Aoun,
34, a five-day getaway to Cyprus to escape Lebanon's polluted seafronts was
well-worth $500.
'Swim alongside bottles'
"The sea in Lebanon and Cyprus is the same, but there the beaches are clean and
free," Aoun said."Here we either swim alongside bottles and cans at the free
beaches, or pay a fortune at private resorts," she said, describing the options
along Lebanon's 220-kilometre (130-mile) coastline. Open dumping of solid trash
is common in Lebanon, which has been rocked by a waste management crisis since
the summer of 2015. The "overwhelming presence" of factories along Lebanon's
coast has also resulted in severe water pollution, including with toxic
materials, according to a 2012 report from Lebanon's University of Balamand. And
more than 150 kilometres of coastline was contaminated in 2006 by an oil spill
resulting from the Israeli bombardment of a major power plant south of Beirut,
the report added. The increasing number of Lebanese looking for beaches abroad
has prompted travel agencies to organise charter flights to attract more clients
with cheaper packages. Hassan Dahir, owner of the Five Stars travel agency, said
Turkey's seaside resorts of Marmaris, Bodrum, Antalya and Alanya have become top
destinations for Lebanese, followed by Cyprus and Egypt's Sharm al-Sheikh. "You
can go to Marmaris in Turkey for five days, stay at a mid-range hotel, and spend
$425, including food and drink," he said. Dahir said an average of 10 charter
flights a week -- each carrying 150 to 190 passengers -- were taking off to
various beach destinations abroad between June and September.
'No real public beaches'
Much of the problem stems from a dearth of clean and free public beaches or
swimming pools at home. "Public beaches in the usual sense of the term don't
exist in Lebanon," said Mohammad Ayub, executive director of the civil society
NGO Nahnoo. Lebanon "is one of the rare countries that allows construction on
its public coastal land," he added. But many of the resorts that now restrict
access to Lebanon's coast are unlicensed, built on land that was obtained during
the country's 1975-1990 civil war. A 2012 report by the Ministry of
Transportation said around five square kilometres of the coastline was now built
up, most of it illegally. "All the state agencies and politicians are
offenders... and the solution is to cancel the law that allows investment on the
coast," Ayub said. Activists have protested against developers building on the
last remaining public beaches, including earlier this month in the seaside
village of Kfarabida. Hundreds gathered on its rocky shore in northern Lebanon,
calling on the government to "save our beaches". "The government must turn this
place into a natural reserve," said blogger and activist Nadine Mazloum. For
those who can't afford to travel overseas, Lebanon's few public beaches are the
only option. This year, the public beaches in Tyre and Naqura in southern
Lebanon have overflowed with visitors, despite a lack of facilities. And sun
worshippers have also flocked to Anfeh, in the north, where restaurants sit on
the shoreline, offering visitors sea access in return for their custom. "We've
gotten to know Anfeh to avoid the pollution and high prices," said Rose Matteh,
sitting with her family at one of the restaurants, which are painted blue and
white to resemble Greece's Santorini. "Elsewhere, we end up paying $80 to enter
and another $80 for food. At least here we can eat, drink and enjoy the sea for
only $80."
Ambassador Richard Welcomes New University Scholar Program Students
Fri 23 Sep 2016/NNA - Press Release: "Today, US Ambassador to Lebanon Elizabeth
Richard visited the Lebanese American University (LAU) Beirut campus to welcome
73 new students under the University Scholarship Program (USP). Through USP, the
United States Agency for International Development (USAID) supports public
school graduates, selected through a merit-based process, with full four-year
undergraduate scholarships that include tuition fees, housing expenses, medical
insurance, textbooks, and a monthly stipend. In her remarks, Ambassador Richard
highlighted US Government support for education in Lebanon. In the last ten
years, USAID has invested more than $288 million in education. And since 2010
alone, the U.S. government has provided more than $130 million in scholarships
for Lebanese students. "The United States values the long-standing partnership
we have forged with the Lebanese people through education… We believe that
education has to be accessible to everyone. This is something that is critical
to the success of every country. It cannot be because of where you were born,
who your parents were, or what economic status you happened to be born into.
Education is for everyone."In his turn, LAU's President Dr. Joseph G. Jabbra
congratulated the scholars saying, "This is a golden opportunity for you
(students) to earn your university education thanks to the gracious generosity
of the American people, who profoundly believe in the importance of education
for the youth of Lebanon. On behalf of LAU and on your behalf, we extend our
gratitude to the American people for making their financial support to you
through USAID. We salute USAID and its staff for their wonderful and supportive
collaboration with LAU.''Since 2010, nearly 740 students have been provided with
access to top quality education at LAU and the American University of Beirut.
The student beneficiaries, through USP, will experience LAU's rigorous academic
standards and a campus environment that promotes social equality and critical
thinking."
Rahi from Hasroun: We condemn refraining from
electing new president
Fri 23 Sep 2016/NNA - Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Mar Beshara Boutros Rahi
chaired on Friday a mass service celebrating the day of Saint Labi the Messenger
of the Bcharre town of Hasroun. After his sermon, the prelate deplored the
current situation in the country, hoping that politicians would lock horns to
activate the paralyzed state institutions and boost ailing economy, instead of
doing so only to sharpen rift and division. "We condemn and deplore their
refraining from electing a new president of the republic," Rahi said. "It is
everybody's responsibility, yet not equally," he added, explaining that some
sides are contributing indirectly to the failure to choose a new state head.
Kahwaji: Security situation under control
Fri 23 Sep 2016/NNA - Army chief, Jean Kahwaji stressed on Friday that "the
security situation in Lebanon is under control". He added that the Army is
capable of confronting terrorism and protecting national stability regardless
the surrounding circumstances. His remarks came during a visit to the logistics
base of the Lebanese Armed Forces in Kfarshima. Kahwaji praised the latest and
qualitative operation carried out by the Army Intelligence yesterday (Thursday)
and resulted in the detention of Amir Daesh in Ein Helweh camp.
Tightened security measures in Zkak Blat as car
draws suspicions
Fri 23 Sep 2016/NNA - A number of residential roads in central Beirut were
closed this evening as a suspicious car was found next to Zkak al-Blat's "Husseiniya",
a worship house auxiliary to the locality's mosque, National News Agency
correspondent reported on Friday. The Lebanese army immediately worked on
dispersing the crowds, and cut off a number of roads connected with the scene.
No explosives found in Zkak Blat suspicious car
Fri 23 Sep 2016/NNA - No explosives were found in the car that had drawn
suspicions in the Beirut locality of Zkak al-Blat, National News Agency
correspondent reported on Friday.
Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on on September 23-24/16
Lavrov Says U.S.-Russian Agreements
on Syria Must be Saved
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September
23/16/Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the United Nations on Friday
that U.S.-Russian agreements aimed at ending the war in Syria must be salvaged
as fighting raged on the ground. Lavrov said there was "no alternative" to the
Russian and U.S.-led peace process and insisted that "now it is essential to
prevent a disruption of these agreements." The foreign minister addressed the
General Assembly after holding talks with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on
reviving a ceasefire in Syria that was shattered this week. The Syrian army
declared an end to the truce on Monday following a U.S.-led coalition strike on
Syrian soldiers near Deir Ezzor that Washington said was unintentional. The
US-Russian ceasefire deal was further endangered by an attack on an aid convoy
in Aleppo province on Monday the left 20 dead and destroyed 18 trucks. The
Russian foreign minister called for an "unbiased, impartial investigation of the
incidents in Deir Ezzor and Aleppo that undermine these agreements." The Syrian
crisis will not be resolved unless the United States and its allies rein in
opposition rebels fighting alongside the Islamic State group and the
al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, Lavrov said. "We will not be able to improve the
humanitarian situation without the rooting out of the terrorist groups," he
said. From the U.N. podium, Lavrov asserted that Russia's military intervention
helped "prevent the collapse of statehood and disintegration of Syria" that
would have plunged the Middle East further in chaos. Kerry told reporters that
there had been "a little bit of progress" during talks on the effort to put the
ceasefire back on track. Discussions have focussed on a U.S. proposal to ground
Syrian and Russian planes over designated areas, which Kerry said would restore
"credibility" to the ceasefire plan. Nearly 30 civilians including several
children were killed and dozens wounded in raids on Friday by Russian warplanes
and regime aircraft on Aleppo, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory
for Human Rights.
Kerry Says 'Bit of Progress' with Lavrov on Syria
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 23/16/U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry
met with his Russian opposite number on Friday and made what he said was "a
little bit of progress" on resolving their differences over the Syrian crisis.
"We're evaluating some mutual ideas in a constructive way, period," Kerry told
reporters at the United Nations, one day after international envoys failed to
find a way to revive a U.S. and Russian-brokered truce. Kerry and Russia's
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov have met several times this week in New York,
including on Thursday as joint chairs of the 23-nation International Syria
Support Group (ISSG). But they have failed to agree on a way to revive the deal
that they had reached in Geneva on September 9, under which Moscow would ensure
its ally Bashar al-Assad honors a ceasefire and Washington would rein in Syrian
rebels. Both men are due to leave the city later Friday but there has been no
sign of an agreement, with Kerry demanding that Moscow order Syria's air force
to be grounded and Lavrov accusing the opposition of breaking the truce. "I met
with the foreign minister, we exchanged some ideas and we had a little bit of
progress," Kerry said. Earlier, before the meeting, Lavrov had been asked
whether there was any way to revive the ceasefire. He replied simply: "You
should ask the Americans."
U.N. Eyes Alternate Aid Delivery
Route for Syria's Aleppo
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 23/16/The U.N. said Friday it was
considering a different route to send desperately needed aid to east Aleppo, to
circumvent the blocked main supply route as new air raids pounded Syria's second
city. "We are trying to see by all means available how we can reach east
Aleppo," Jens Laerke, spokesman for the U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA, told
reporters in Geneva. He said the lack of access to the estimated 250,000
residents of rebel-held east Aleppo amid renewed air strikes and fighting was
"tragic."The U.N. had hoped to send aid from Turkey and along the key Castello
Road into east Aleppo, militarily encircled since early July. As part of the now
broken ceasefire pact agreed between the U.S. and Russia, the U.N. had expected
assurances that the Castello Road would be clear and safe. But those assurances
have not come, and the Syrian army has announced a new offensive aimed at
retaking all of the divided second city, with Syrian and Russian aircraft
pounding the area on Friday. "What has been happening in Aleppo is not a
situation where you can confidently say, yes we can confidently drive a
humanitarian aid convoy into that carnage," Laerke said, describing the
situation as "grim." The U.N. resumed deliveries on Thursday after a pause in
the wake of a strike on a humanitarian aid convoy in Syria's north that killed
20 civilians and destroyed 18 aid trucks.
Route via Damascus?
Laerke explained that the U.N. was now considering sending aid along a much
longer route through Damascus, but that when such a convoy could move would
depend on the security situation on the ground. "That is still being planned
for. When that will happen, frankly that is out of our hands," he said. In the
meantime, 40 trucks are still sitting at the Turkish-Syrian border waiting to
move if the situation improves. The United Nations humanitarian taskforce for
Syria, Jan Egeland, told reporters Thursday that the food in those trucks would
go bad within days, but Laerke said that statement was incorrect. "The food in
those 40 trucks is fit for consumption for several months," he said. Laerke said
that a convoy of 23 trucks had successfully delivered aid, including medical
supplies, for 35,000 people to the besieged Damascus suburb of Moadamiyat
al-Sham.
The conflict in Syria has cost more than 300,000 lives since 2011, and forced
more than half the population to flee their homes.
Mideast Peace 'Quartet' Hears
from France and Egypt
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 23/16/The diplomatic "Quartet" piloting
efforts to nudge Israel and the Palestinians towards a negotiated solution to
their conflict on Friday heard from France and Egypt on their parallel
peacemaking efforts. The Quartet -- the United States, Russia, the European
Union and the United Nations -- is tasked with overseeing international peace
efforts, but both France and Egypt have expressed an interest in helping out.
Washington, in particular, has been hesitant to endorse a French role on what
has traditionally been U.S. diplomatic turf. But with the conflict on the ground
only getting worse, the U.S. has agreed to welcome fresh ideas. "Our goal is
still the same: It's to organize an international conference before the end of
the year with both parties present," French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault
told reporters. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Russia's Foreign Minister
Sergey Lavrov, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and EU High Representative
Federica Mogherini met at the United Nations in New York to review their
efforts. They were joined for the latter part of their discussion by Ayrault and
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry. "All agreed on the importance of close
and continuing coordination of all efforts to achieve the common goal of the
two-state solution," the Quartet said in a statement released after the talks.
Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has offered to play a greater mediating
role in the conflict and to seek a solution under a revived version of a 2002
plan that would see more Arab countries recognize Israel in exchange for it
ceding occupied Palestinian land.
France Accuses Assad of Seeking to Break Up
Syria
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September
23/16/France on Friday accused Bashar al-Assad and his allies of seeking to
break Syria apart, as Russian-backed regime forces prepared to storm rebel-held
eastern Aleppo. Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault was also critical of
Washington, accusing it of excluding its allies from the diplomatic search for a
solution to the conflict. "In bombarding Aleppo, the regime is playing the card
of a partition of Syria, and his allies are letting him get away with it," he
said, at the United Nations. Ayrault said Assad's regime was trying to win sole
control over the populous west of Syria, including Aleppo, Damascus and the
Mediterranean coast. "The situation can fairly be called desperate," he said. On
Thursday, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Ayrault was one of more
than 20 international ministers who met as the International Syria Support
Group. The ISSG, chaired by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russia's
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, was set up to press for a ceasefire and a
negotiated end to the war. But Washington and Moscow have taken the lead in the
process and this month negotiated a bilateral plan to impose a ceasefire, which
promptly collapsed. "The negotiations between the Russians and the Americans are
continuing, but they seem interminable," Ayrault said, adding that the U.S. has
a "special responsibility." "It's time to move to a more collective approach,"
he declared. The ISSG meeting broke up with no new plan to salvage the
ceasefire, but both U.S. and Russian officials floated the possibility of more
Kerry-Lavrov talks on Friday.
Missiles Blast Aleppo as Syria Army Readies Ground Assault
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September
23/16/Missiles rained down on rebel-held areas of Syria's Aleppo on Friday,
causing widespread destruction that overwhelmed rescue teams, as the army
prepared a ground offensive to retake the city. Nearly 30 civilians including
several children were killed and dozens wounded in the raids by Russian
warplanes and regime aircraft, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a
Britain-based monitoring group. The intensity of the bombardment, which included
artillery barrages and barrel bombings by helicopters, brought new misery to the
estimated 250,000 civilians besieged by the army. The escalation came after U.S.
Secretary of State John Kerry failed to reach an agreement with Russian
counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Thursday on terms to salvage a failed ceasefire.
The two met again on Friday at the United Nations and made what Kerry said was
"a little bit of progress" on resolving their differences on Syria. "We're
evaluating some mutual ideas in a constructive way, period," Kerry told
reporters. Asked at the U.N. earlier whether the truce could be reinstated,
Lavrov simply said: "You should ask the Americans."He later told the U.N.
General Assembly that U.S.-Russian agreements aimed at ending the Syria conflict
must be salvaged, saying there was "no alternative" to the process. "Now it is
essential to prevent a disruption of these agreements," Lavrov said. Thursday's
Kerry-Lavrov talks in New York broke up after Russia refused U.S. demands that
it promise to immediately ground the Syrian regime's air force.
'Partition card'
Also in New York, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault accused Syrian
President Bashar Assad of "playing the card of a partition" of his country with
the Aleppo offensive. The Syrian opposition coalition, meanwhile, condemned what
it termed the regime's Russian-backed "criminal campaign... targeting the
besieged residential districts of Aleppo." An AFP journalist in rebel-held east
Aleppo reported relentless air raids and artillery fire overnight and Friday
morning. Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which supports hospitals
in Aleppo, said the city's residents "already suffocating under the effects of
the siege, have yet again come under horrific attack.""In many areas, the
wounded and sick have nowhere to go at all -– they are simply left to die," said
Carlos Francisco, the MSF head of mission in Syria. An AFP correspondent inside
the city said the barrage had flattened entire apartment blocks, overwhelming
rescue teams from the White Helmets civil defense organization. In the al-Kalasseh
district, three buildings were leveled by a single strike, and rescue workers
tried frantically to reach survivors using a single bulldozer and their bare
hands. The White Helmets' headquarters in the Ansari district was badly damaged
and a second center operated by the group was also hit. Rescue workers told AFP
their stock of diesel was down to 2,000 liters (530 gallons), forcing them to
ration fuel and make choices on when to intervene.Also in Aleppo province, the
Observatory reported 15 deaths including 11 children in a Russian raid on the
rebel-held town of Beshkatine and 11 killed in raids by unidentified aircraft on
Islamic State group stronghold al-Bab.
Ground assault
The bombardment came a day after the Syrian army announced an offensive to
recapture east Aleppo, which has been held by the rebels since mid-2012 but has
been surrounded by government forces since July. The army urged civilians to
distance themselves from "the positions of terrorist groups" and pledged that
fleeing residents would not be detained. A high-ranking military source
confirmed that the bombardment was preparation for a ground assault. "We have
begun reconnaissance, aerial and artillery bombardment," he told AFP. "This
could go on for hours or days before the ground operation starts. The timing of
the ground operation will depend on the results of the strikes and the situation
on the ground."The conflict in Syria has cost more than 300,000 lives and
displaced over half the country's population since March 2011. In a bid to
relaunch peace talks, Kerry and Lavrov announced a ceasefire on September 9,
with Moscow responsible for forcing government troops to stand down and allow in
U.N. aid convoys. Washington was supposed to pressure rebel forces to respect
the truce and distance themselves from jihadists, but the ceasefire fell apart
acrimoniously and the Syrian army declared it over on Monday. U.N. peace envoy
Staffan de Mistura said Thursday's failed talks were "long, painful and
disappointing" and warned of escalating violence. In Geneva, the U.N. said
Friday it was considering a different route to send desperately needed aid to
east Aleppo to circumvent the blocked main supply route. But Lavrov said in New
York: "We will not be able to improve the humanitarian situation without the
rooting out of the terrorist groups."
Pressure Mounts to
Release Video of Charlotte Shooting
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September
23/16/Investigators in Charlotte faced mounting pressure Friday to release video
footage of the police shooting of an African American man, after protesters
defied a curfew and took to the North Carolina city's streets for a third
straight night.
The death Tuesday of 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott was the latest in a
seemingly steady string of police-involved killings of black men that have
fueled outrage across America. The victim's family -- who like many in Charlotte
dispute the assertion that Scott was armed -- have viewed police footage of his
shooting and are leading calls for it to be made public. But police here are
refusing so far to release the dashcam video, arguing among things that this
might interfere with a parallel state probe into the incident. Their handling of
the case stands in stark contrast to a similar police shooting last Friday
involving an African American man in Tulsa, Oklahoma. There, the video has been
released and the white officer involved has already been charged with first
degree manslaughter. In Charlotte, the officer identified as having shot Scott
is black. Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts said Friday she backed the idea of
releasing the video -- which has been viewed by Scott's family -- but not just
yet. "I would like to have it released," Roberts told CNN. But she echoed
Charlotte police chief Kerr Putney's argument that care must be taken not to
jeopardize the state probe. One risk, the mayor said, is that if witnesses to
the shooting see the video they might change their account of what happened.
City hall is in talks with investigators and "I think it is only a matter of
time" before the video is released, Roberts said. The chorus of calls appealing
for the release was joined Friday by the New York Times, which praised police in
Tulsa and said the response in North Carolina was wrong. "There is no legal
reason to withhold the video from the public, and in this fraught situation, the
best way to allay the community's distrust is complete transparency," the Times
said in an editorial. Also appealing for the release are the American Civil
Liberties Union and the NAACP, the U.S. black community's main civil rights
organization. Scott was shot and killed in an apartment complex parking lot
during an encounter with police officers searching for another person wanted for
arrest. Police say Scott was armed with a handgun while his family says he was
holding a book.
Victim was 'acting calm'
No gun is visible in the video, which shows Scott stepping backward when he was
shot, one of the family lawyers told CNN. "His hands are down by his side. He is
acting calm," Justin Bamberg said. "You do see something in his hand, but it's
impossible to make out from the video what it is."
Police chief Putney has said a handgun was recovered at the scene, and that no
book was found, contrary to the family's assertion. He says the video footage
does not provide "absolute definitive visual evidence that would confirm that a
person is pointing a gun." But the footage indicates the officer identified as
having shot Scott -- Brentley Vinson, who is also black -- was justified, he
says."The officer perceived his failure to comply with commands, failure to drop
the weapon and facing the officers as an imminent threat," Putney said on Fox
News.
Curfew
North Carolina's governor has declared a state of emergency in Charlotte, and
several hundred National Guard troops and highway police officers were deployed
to reinforce local police protecting city infrastructure and businesses. Mayor
Roberts said a midnight curfew in Charlotte will remain in effect Friday night.
In the protests Thursday night, hundreds of people marched to the city police
station carrying signs saying "Stop killing us" and "Resistance is beautiful."
But the atmosphere was far calmer than the previous two nights. Several hundred
protesters remained on the street following the midnight curfew, but security
forces took a hands off approach and did not enforce the restriction. Protesters
held an impromptu vigil on the sidewalk where the man was struck by a bullet
from a shooter who remained at large. They lit candles and offered prayers. The
protester, who was shot by a civilian in Wednesday night's protests, died in
hospital on Thursday. A handful of protesters confronted police on Thursday
night. However, many marched past officers who posed a less intimidating
presence on the streets despite their greater numbers. "Black lives don't matter
in this country," said a 34-year-old protester with a mask around his neck who
identified himself only as Amen-Ra. "We're coming together to make them matter,
to force America to make them matter -- either through violence or peacefully."
Rouhani: Zionists pressuring
US to violate Iran nuclear deal
J.Post/Reuters/September 23/16/Iranian President Hassan Rouhani addressed the
71st session of the General Assembly of the United Nations on Thursday, and did
not miss an opportunity to disparage Israel on the global stage. Rouhani blamed
"Zionist pressure groups" for continued sanctions and the seizure of Iranian
assets, threatening that if the Washington does not follow through with its
commitments under the nuclear agreement, it will lead to the discrediting of the
US. Accusing the US Supreme Court ruling which ordered the seizure of Iranian
assets of "breaking the norms of international law," Rouhani continued to claim
that Iran was growing stronger in the aftermath of the deal signed last year.
Rouhani, whose Islamic Republic sponsors Shi'ite militias accused of atrocities
in Iraq and Syria, along with terror organization Hezbollah and the Assad
regime, began his speech by invoking the 2001 September 11 attack in New York,
before condemning the actions of various actors in the Middle East. "Nobody
imagined that this (September 11) would lead to a larger disaster leading to a
devastating war in the Middle East and the spread of instability... sowing the
seeds of borderless terrorism everywhere on earth," he said.
Singling out Israel, he refereed to the Jewish state as "the usurping Zionist
regime" and what he charged were its "web of apartheid politics and atrocities."
Also during his speech, Rouhani called on Iran's regional rival Saudi Arabia to
"cease and desist" from division if Riyadh was serious about regional peace and
security.On Saudi Arabia, Rouhani said that if the government "is serious about
its vision for development and regional security, it must cease and desist from
divisive policies, spread of hate ideology and trampling upon the rights of
neighbors."
At Least 133 Bodies Recovered from
Egypt Migrant Shipwreck
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 23/16/The death toll from a migrant boat
disaster off Egypt's coast climbed to 133 on Friday as rescuers recovered more
bodies from the Mediterranean. Survivors have said up to 450 migrants were on
board the overcrowded fishing vessel that was heading to Italy from Egypt when
it keeled over off the port city of Rosetta on Wednesday. "The death toll from
the illegal migrant boat that capsized off the coast of Rosetta... has reached
133," the health ministry said in a statement. The military said it had rescued
163 survivors. Recovery attempts were continuing. Rescuers had said search
operations would focus on the boat's hold where witnesses said around 100 people
had been when the vessel flipped over. Authorities have arrested four suspected
people traffickers over the tragedy, the latest in what the U.N. refugee agency
expects to be the deadliest year on record for the Mediterranean. The accident
comes months after the EU border agency Frontex warned that growing numbers of
Europe-bound migrants were using Egypt as a departure point for the dangerous
voyage. Traffickers often use barely seaworthy vessels and overload them to
extract the maximum money in fares from desperate migrants. The International
Organization for Migration said most of those rescued were Egyptians but also
included Sudanese, Eritreans, a Syrian and an Ethiopian. After Balkan countries
closed the popular overland route in March and the EU agreed a deal with Turkey
to halt departures, asylum-seekers turned to other ways to reach Europe. Frontex
chief Fabrice Leggeri said in June that the crossing from Egypt to Italy, which
often takes more than 10 days, was becoming increasingly popular. The U.N.
refugee agency said on Friday that more than 4,600 non-Egyptians, many of them
Sudanese and Ethiopians, had been arrested this year trying to depart from
Egypt's northern coast. More than 10,000 people have died attempting to cross
the Mediterranean to Europe since 2014, according to the United Nations. At
least 300,000 migrants have crossed the sea so far this year from various points
of departure, the U.N. said this week. The number is down from 520,000 in the
first nine months of 2015. But despite the lower numbers attempting the
crossing, fatality rates had risen, with 2016 on track to be "the deadliest year
on record in the Mediterranean Sea," said the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR). The
European Union launched "Operation Sophia" last year to destroy smuggler boats
that could be used to ferry migrants across the Mediterranean.
Morocco Asks to Rejoin African Union
after 32 Years
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 23/16/Morocco on Friday made an official
request to return to the African Union, 32 years after quitting the bloc in
protest at its decision to accept Western Sahara as a member. "The Kingdom of
Morocco has officially submitted a request to accede to the African Union (AU)
Constitutive Act, and therefore, become a Member of the Union," the AU said in a
statement. Rabat first announced its intention to return to the club in July,
with King Mohammed VI saying his country wanted to "take up its natural place
within its institutional family."Morocco quit the AU in protest in 1984 when the
Saharan Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) -- commonly known as Western Sahara --
was admitted as a member. Morocco has occupied the sparsely populated Western
Sahara area since 1975 in a move that was not recognized by the international
community.
It maintains that Western Sahara is an integral part of the kingdom even though
local Sahrawi people have long campaigned for the right to self-determination.
In 1991, the United Nations brokered a ceasefire between Moroccan troops and
Sahrawi rebels of the Algerian-backed Polisario Front but a promised referendum
to settle the status of the desert territory is yet to materialize. The Moroccan
monarch in July said his nation's decision to return to the AU did not mean it
was changing its stance on Western Sahara.Rabat's membership bid must be
approved by a vote of the AU Commission in order to be accepted.
Palestinian Wounded Trying to Stab Israelis
in W.Bank
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 23/16/Israeli troops on
Friday shot and wounded a Palestinian who the army said was attempting to stab
Israelis at a bus stop in the occupied West Bank. "An assailant attempted to
carry out a stabbing attack at the Elias junction, near the community of Kiryat
Arba," a military statement said. "Forces at the scene shot the assailant, who
is receiving medical treatment."An army spokeswoman told AFP that Israeli
civilians had been waiting at the stop with soldiers standing guard nearby and
it was not known who was the intended target. She said the attacker was a
Palestinian male, but had no further details of his identity. Kiryat Arba is an
Israeli settlement in the southern West Bank close to the flashpoint Palestinian
city of Hebron. The incident occurred at the same spot where one week ago two
Palestinians rammed a car into the bus stop, lightly injuring three civilians
before troops killed one of the assailants. His female companion was shot in the
stomach and taken to a Jerusalem hospital in serious condition. The latest
incident was the 10th since September 16, when 28-year-old Jordanian citizen
Saeed Amro tried to stab police officers in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem and
was killed by a policewoman on the spot. The Elias junction car ramming followed
later the same day. The upsurge of the past seven days has shattered several
weeks of relative calm. Violence since last October has killed 230 Palestinians,
34 Israelis, two Americans, one Jordanian, an Eritrean and a Sudanese, according
to an AFP count. Israel says most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out
knife, gun or car-ramming attacks. Others were shot dead during protests or
killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza. Many analysts say Palestinian frustration
with the Israeli occupation and settlement building in the West Bank, the
complete lack of progress in peace efforts and their own fractured leadership
have helped feed the unrest. Israel says incitement by Palestinian leaders and
media is a main cause of the violence.
Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from
miscellaneous sources published on on
September 23-24/16
Could Orthodox Churches Recognise
The Pope? It’s No Longer Completely Unthinkable
Mark Woods/Christian Today/23
September 2016
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/09/23/mark-woodschristian-today-could-orthodox-churches-recognise-the-pope-its-no-longer-completely-unthinkable/
Is the thousand-year-old breach
between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches a little closer to being mended?
Given the history of suspicion, hostility, political game-playing and
theological intransigence that has marked the process so far, it seems unlikely.
But after a significant meeting between theologians from the two sides, there
are signs that change is in the wind. The 14th Plenary Session of the Joint
Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Orthodox Church and the Roman
Catholic Church met in Chieti, Italy, and has just completed its work.
What’s significant is that it has approved a common document on a key cause of
the division between the Churches. Its title is unpromising – Synodality and
Primacy during the First Millennium: Towards a Common Understanding in Service
to the Unity of the Church – but it deals with an issue of supreme importance:
who’s in charge? According to Roman Catholics, it’s the pope; according to the
Orthodox, he may be first among equals but he has no authority over patriarchs
of the other Churches. So the question of how the pope’s office was seen in the
formative years of the Christian Church, before the Great Schism that divided
East and West in 1054, is absolutely crucial.
The Chieta document is a working paper that will go back to the Churches for
discussion and – possibly, in time – approval. It follows a previous version
approved at a meeting in Ravenna in 2007, which established that – with
different nuances between Eastern and Western understandings of the word – the
primacy of the Bishop of Rome was accepted by all Christians. But on that
occasion the representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church walked out before
discussions had even begun and were not party to the final agreement. Now,
however, they are.
This is only the beginning of the next stage of the journey, and it would be
unwise to predict anything approaching the “reunion” of the two communions in
anything like the foreseeable future. Papal primacy is one thing, but the exact
form of this primacy is another thing entirely – and there are three major
stumbling blocks for the Orthodox Church on the road.
The first is the status of the Uniate or Eastern Catholic Churches, which are
Orthodox in theology and liturgy but in communion with Rome. Orthodox Churches
see this as unacceptable. The Russian Orthodox Church’s ‘foreign minister’,
Metropolitan Hilarion, said after the Chieta meeting: “I can predict that there
will be many divisive issues and that we will not agree on every point. However,
the aim of our dialogue is not simply to agree on the points of which we agree
anyhow, but we have to explore also the points of disagreement. And the issue of
Uniatism is one such extremely burning issues.” The problem is particularly
acute with regard to the Ukrainian Greek Catholics, who have infuriated the
Russians both by their staunch Ukrainian loyalty and their insistence that they
are a valid Church with no intention of submitting to Moscow’s ecclesiastical
authority.
The second is what one eminent Orthodox theologian, Metropolitan Zizioulas of
Pergamon, refers to as the “Orthodox Taliban”. Stridently nationalist and
theologically fundamentalist, these priests and scholars are vehemently opposed
to any form of dialogue or compromise with Rome or with Protestant Churches,
which they refuse to recognise as Churches at all. The Georgian Church pulled
out of the recent Pan-Orthodox Council because it believed it gave too much away
to ecumenism. On Wednesday this week Georgian Orthodox ultranationalists and
priests demonstrated outside the Vatican embassy in Tblisi to protest the
forthcoming visit of Pope Francis: the organisers said the visit amounts to a
“spiritual aggression by the Vatican and an attempt by the Catholic Church to
colonise Georgia”.
It is hard to see this as anything but xenophobic paranoia, but it represents a
deep suspicion that is felt elsewhere in the Orthodox world as well. Against
such resistance, any advances in understanding are likely to take decades rather
than years.
The third is the wider political landscape, particularly as it affects the
Russian Orthodox Church. It dwarfs the others in terms of its numbers and
wealth, and it is intimately tied to the regime of Vladimir Putin. As well as
theological considerations, there are others that are purely political: how
would any rapprochment between the Orthodox East and Catholic West play out in
terms of Russia’s domestic and foreign affairs?
There’s still a long road ahead. As Gianni Valente for Vatican Insider puts it,
it’s best to avoid both “sugary optimism and defeatist pessimism when judging
the forced stops, U-turns and abrupt restarts in the journey the Catholic and
Orthodox Churches have embarked on to overcome age-old divisions and restore
sacramental unity”. But this agreement is something, and not to be sneezed at.
Clinton vs. Trump on Key Middle East
Issues: Prepping for the Debate
This compendium was prepared by Aryeh Mellman./Washington Institute/September
23/16
Read what both candidates and their parties have said about Syria, ISIS, the
Iran nuclear deal, U.S.-Israel relations, and host of other pressing regional
issues.
As the first presidential debate approaches, here is a collection of quotations
by Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, Republican candidate Donald Trump, and
their respective party platforms on key Middle East policy issues.
SYRIA
Clinton
“We have to support and maintain the ceasefire in Syria. And we should also work
with our coalition partners and opposition forces on the ground to create safe
areas where Syrians can remain in the country rather than fleeing toward
Europe.” (March 23 Stanford speech)
“I do still support a no-fly zone because I think we need to put in safe havens
for those poor Syrians who are fleeing both Assad and ISIS and so they can have
some place to be safe.” (April 14 debate)
Trump
Let’s say you get rid of Assad, you knock out that government — who’s gonna take
over? The people that we’re backing? And then you’re gonna have, like, Libya?”
(February 10 CBS interview)
“Assad is bad. Maybe these people [U.S.-backed Syrian rebels] could be worse.”
(October 13, 2015 Guardian interview)
“I would have stayed out of Syria and wouldn’t have fought so much…against Assad
because I thought that was a whole thing…So now you have Iran and you have
Russia in favor of Assad. We’re supposed to fight the two of them. At the same
time, we’re supposed to fight ISIS, who is fighting Assad.” (May 20 CNBC Morning
Joe interview)
“We have to get rid of ISIS before we get rid of Assad…How do you fight them
both when they are fighting each other? And I think ISIS is a threat that’s much
more important for us right now than Assad.” (July 21 New York Times interview)
IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL
Clinton
“Without a deal, Iran’s breakout time…would shrink to a couple of months. With a
deal, that breakout time stretches to a year, which means that if Iran cheats,
we’ll know it and we’ll have time to respond decisively.” (September 9, 2015
Brookings speech)
“I’ll hold the line against Iranian non-compliance. That means penalties even
for small violations…I will not hesitate to take military action if Iran
attempts to obtain a nuclear weapon.” (September 9, 2015 Brookings speech)
“This deal must come with vigorous enforcement, strong monitoring, clear
consequences for any violations, and a broader strategy to confront Iran’s
aggression across the region.” (March 21 AIPAC speech)
Trump
“My number one priority is to dismantle the disastrous deal with Iran…This deal
is catastrophic — for America, for Israel, and for the whole Middle East.”
(March 21 AIPAC speech)
“They can keep the terms and still get to the bomb by simply running out the
clock, and of course, they keep the [$150 billion].” (March 21 AIPAC speech)
“[The Iran deal] is one of the worst deals ever, ever made by this country. It
is a disaster.” (March 10 debate)
IRAN TERROR SPONSORSHIP
Clinton
“I will build a coalition to counter Iran’s proxies, particularly Hezbollah.
This means enforcing and strengthening the rules prohibiting the transfer of
weapons to Hezbollah, looking at new ways to choke off their funding, and
pressing our partners to treat Hezbollah as the terrorist organization it is.”
(September 9, 2015 Brookings speech)
“I do not think we should promise or even look toward normalizing relations
[with Iran]…Yes, they have to stop being the main state sponsor of terrorism.
Yes, they have to stop trying to destabilize the Middle East, causing even more
chaos. Yes, they’ve got to get out of Syria. They’ve got to quit sponsoring
Hezbollah and Hamas. They have got to quit trying to ship rockets into Gaza that
can be used against Israel.” (February 11 debate)
Trump
“We will totally dismantle Iran’s terror network. Iran has seeded terror groups
all over the world…including in the Western hemisphere very close to home.”
(March 21 AIPAC speech)
ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN PEACE PROCESS
Clinton
“Israelis deserve a secure homeland for the Jewish people. Palestinians ought to
be able to govern themselves in their own state, in peace and dignity. Only a
negotiated two-state agreement can provide those outcomes. If we look at the
broader regional context, converging interests between Israel and key Arab
states could make it possible to promote progress on the Israeli-Palestinian
issue.” (March 21 AIPAC speech)
Trump
“A lot will have to do with Israel and whether or not Israel wants to make the
deal — whether or not Israel’s willing to sacrifice certain things.” (December 3
AP interview)
“Let me be sort of a neutral guy [in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations].”
(February 17 MSNBC town hall)
“A [peace agreement] imposed by the UN would be a total and complete disaster…It
will only further delegitimize Israel and it would reward Palestinian
terrorism.” (March 21 AIPAC speech)
U.S.-ISRAEL RELATIONS
Clinton
“As president, I will make a firm commitment to ensure Israel maintains its
qualitative military edge. The United States should provide Israel with the most
sophisticated defense technology so it can deter and stop any threat.” (March 21
AIPAC speech)
Trump
“When I become president, the days of treating Israel like a second-class
citizen will end on Day One.” (March 21 AIPAC speech)
THE ISLAMIC STATE: U.S. RESPONSE
Clinton
“We cannot contain ISIS — we must defeat ISIS…We should intensify the coalition
air campaign against its fighters, leaders, and infrastructure; step up support
for local Arab and Kurdish forces on the ground and coalition efforts to protect
civilians; and pursue a diplomatic strategy aimed at achieving political
resolutions to Syria’s civil war and Iraq’s sectarian divide.” (March 23
Stanford speech)
“I think we also have to try to disrupt [the ISIS] supply chain of foreign
fighters and foreign money, and we do have to contest them in online space.”
(January 17 debate)
“We will not send American combat troops to either Syria or Iraq…But we do have
Special Forces, we do have trainers, we do have the military personnel who are
helping with the airstrikes that the United States is leading so that we can try
to take out ISIS infrastructure.” (February 4 debate)
Trump
“I have a simple message for [ISIS]. Their days are numbered. I won’t tell them
where and I won’t tell them how. We must, as a nation, be more unpredictable.”
(April 27 speech)
“We really have no choice…We have to knock the hell out of [ISIS]…I’m hearing
numbers of 20,000 to 30,000 [U.S.] troops [necessary to defeat ISIS].” (March 10
debate)
THE ISLAMIC STATE: ROOT CAUSES
Clinton
“The reason we are in the mess we’re in, that ISIS has the territory it has, is
because of Assad.” (December 19 debate)
Trump
“The decision to overthrow the regime in Libya, then pushing for the overthrow
of the regime in Syria…without plans for the day after, have created space for
ISIS to expand and grow.” (June 13 speech)
RADICAL JIHADISM
Clinton
“In our fight against radical jihadism, we have to do what actually works. One
thing we know that does not work is offensive, inflammatory rhetoric that
demonizes all Muslims…Demonizing Muslims also alienates partners and undermines
moderates we need around the world in the fight against ISIS.” (March 23
Stanford speech)
“From my perspective it matters what we do more than what we say. It mattered
that we got bin Laden, not what name we called him. I have clearly said whether
you call it radical jihadism or radical Islamism, I’m happy to say either. I
think they mean the same thing.” (June 14 CNN interview)
Trump
“As president, I will call for an international conference focused on this goal.
We will work side-by-side with our friends in the Middle East, including our
greatest ally Israel. We will partner with…Jordan and…Egypt and all others who
recognize this ideology of death that must be extinguished.” (August 15 speech)
“We have a president who wants to be so politically correct that he doesn’t want
to use the term ‘radical Islamic terrorism’…Unless you’re willing to discuss and
talk about the real nature of the problem and the name of the problem radical
Islamic terrorism, you’re never going to solve the problem.” (June 15 rally)
PARTY PLATFORMS
The following quotes are taken from the publicly released Democratic and
Republican party platforms:
Syria/Islamic State
Democratic: “Democrats will instead root out ISIS and other terrorist groups and
bring together the moderate Syrian opposition, international community, and our
regional allies to reach a negotiated political transition that ends Assad’s
rule.” (p. 42)
Republican: “We must stand up for our friends, challenge our foes, and destroy
ISIS…We will support the transition to a post-Assad Syrian government that is
representative of its people…and contributes to peace and stability in the
region.” (p. 47)
Iran
Democratic: “We support the nuclear agreement with Iran because, as it is
vigorously enforced and implemented, it verifiably cuts off all of Iran’s
pathways to a bomb without resorting to war…[We] will not hesitate to take
military action if Iran races towards [a nuclear bomb]…Democrats will push back
against Iran’s destabilizing activities including its support for terrorist
groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, counter Iran’s ballistic missile program,
bolster the capabilities of our Gulf partners, and ensure that Israel always has
the ability to defend itself.” (p. 43)
Republican: “We consider the Administration’s deal with Iran, to lift
international sanctions and make hundreds of billions of dollars available to
the Mullahs…non-binding on the next president…The defiant and emboldened regime
in Iran continues to sponsor terrorism across the region, develop a nuclear
weapon, test-fire ballistic missiles inscribed with ‘Death to Israel,’ and abuse
the basic human rights of its citizens.” (p. 46)
Israel
Democratic: “We will continue to work toward a two-state solution of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiated directly by the parties that guarantees
Israel’s future as a secure and democratic Jewish state with recognized borders
and provides the Palestinians with independence, sovereignty, and dignity.” (pp.
49-50)
Republican: “Support for Israel is an expression of Americanism, and it is the
responsibility of our government to advance policies that reflect Americans’
strong desire for a relationship with no daylight between America and Israel.”
(p. 47)
***This compendium was prepared by Aryeh Mellman.
Russian-Syrian Aleppo tactics await the South
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
September 23, 2016/In scores of air raids launched early Friday, Sept. 23,
Syrian and Russian bombers pulverized Syrian rebel strongholds in eastern
Aleppo, while, on the ground, Syrian military, Hizballah and pro-Iranian Shiite
militia forces hammered those targets in one of the most destructive onslaughts
yet seen in the nearly six-day Syrian civil war.
Cries of “annihilation!” came from rebel commanders, as they came under intense
aerial bombardment, combined with a fierce ground assault, backed by heavy
Russian T-90 tanks and artillery. Dozens of people including children are
trapped in the rubble
This offensive, say debkafile’s military sources, has the twin objective of
rooting the rebels out of eastern Aleppo and also driving out the app. 120,000
Sunni Syrian inhabitants penned in shrinking rebel-held neighborhoods, amid dire
shortages of food, medicines, water and basic supplies.
The Russian command in Syria and the Syrian General Staff are working to a
tactical plan, our sources disclose, that is intended to push the Sunni civilian
population as well as the rebels out of the city towards the Turkish border. If
this plan plays out - it is still being coordinated with Turkish military and
air force chiefs – then the refugees displaced from Aleppo will wind up in a
security zone, which the Turkish army is busy carving out, living under
Russian-Turkish rule in northern Syria.
debkafile’s intelligence sources add that if this master plan is realized in
northern Syria, it will soon be transferred to the south as a template for the
Russian-Syrian military tactics in areas abutting Israel.
On Thursday, Sept. 22, DEBKA disclosed that the Russians, the Syrian army,
Hizballah and pro-Iranian militias are concentrating strength around Quneitra on
the Syrian Golan, ready for a massive offensive to obliterate the Syrian rebel
presence near the borders of Israel and Jordan.
This region too is largely populated by Sunni Muslims, a community of around
120,000, like that of eastern Aleppo. However, here, the plan is to drive the
civilian population onto the Israeli and Jordanian borders. The IDF and
Jordanian army are bracing to handle the refugee crisis, which Russia and Syria
are about to manufacture.
For the background leading up to these events, read debkafile’s earlier report
of Thursday, Sept. 22.
Six steps by the Assad regime in the last few days, reported by debkafile’s
military sources, point to preparations for a massive Syrian army offensive,
backed by Hizballah, pro-Iranian Shiite militias and Iranian Rev Guards
officers, for clearing the strong rebel presence out of the Syrian Golan.:
1. The arrival in the Quneitra area of the armored brigades of the 4th Division,
which is the elite unit of President Bashar Assad’s armed forces and reserved
strictly for battles of the highest strategic importance for the regime.
2. The Syrian brigades came with advanced Russian T-90 tanks that were detached
from the Aleppo front in the north. Those tanks will be deployed for the first
time just 8km from the Israeli border.
3. Hizballah too has contributed its elite fighting unit, the Radwan Force,
which has arrived in Quneitra in the last few days to take part in the coming
offensive.
4. Also concentrated there are pro-Iranian Shiite militia forces, under the
direct command of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.
5. The Syrian president Assad took the unusual step of appointing a senior Druze
officer, Brig. Gen. Osama Zhar a-din, as the Golan front’s new commander. The
motive behind this is an attempt to drive a wedge between the IDF troops posted
on the Israeli Golan and the Druze inhabiting the local villages, while also
sowing discord between the Druze serving in Israel’s armed forces and their
Jewish brothers-in-arms.
According to our military sources, the current Syrian and allied lineup just
across the border from Israel is not deployed this time to attack Israel, but
for a clean sweep of all the Syrian rebel forces holding sectors of the
Golan-Israeli border.
The pro-Assad forces are expected to weigh in with artillery shelling and heavy
aerial bombing to force the local Syrian population of 140,000 to 160,000 to
flee. This scenario would confront Israel and the IDF with the possibility of
tens of thousands of Syrian refugees clamoring for sanctuary.
6. Our intelligence sources add that Iran, Hizballah and Syria have decided to
henceforth hit back at any Israeli air or artillery strikes against a Syrian
target on the Golan. This was decided at high-level three-way consultations in
Damascus on Sept. 15, two days after Israeli aircraft attacked the headquarters
of Syria’s 90th Brigade at al-Shaar, near Quneitra,
in reprisal for the Syrian shells that strayed across the border. Assad informed
his allies that he will not put up with any more Israeli attacks on Syrian
regional commands.
Is Obama’s ‘Narrative Battle’ with
ISIS or Reality?
Raymond Ibrahim /FrontPage Magazine/September 23/16
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/09/23/raymond-ibrahim-frontpage-magazine-is-obamas-narrative-battle-with-isis-or-reality/
According to White House press secretary Josh Earnest, “When it comes to ISIL,
we are in a fight—a narrative fight with them. A narrative battle.” Earnest said
this the day after two separate bombings occurred in New York, and an
ISIS-linked Muslim went on a stabbing spree in Minnesota. Obama’ spokesman later
elaborated:
… remember ISIL is trying to assert a narrative, that they represent the
religion of Islam in a war against the west and in a war against the United
States. That is mythology. That is falsehood. That is not true. That is bankrupt
ideology they are trying to wrap in the cloak of Islam.
This, of course, is a strawman argument: the real question isn’t whether ISIS
“represents” Islam, but whether ISIS is a byproduct of Islam. And this question
can easily be answered by looking not to ISIS but Islam. One can point to
Islamic doctrines that unequivocally justify ISIS behavior; one can point to the
whole of Islamic history, nearly 14 centuries of ISIS precedents.
Or, if these two options are deemed too abstract, one can simply point to the
fact that everyday Muslims all around the world are behaving just like ISIS.
For instance, Muslims—of all races, nationalities, languages, and
socio-political and economic circumstances, in Arab, African, Central and East
Asian nations—claim the lions’ share of Christian persecution; 41 of the 50
worst nations to be Christian in are Islamic. In these countries, Muslim
individuals, mobs, clerics, politicians, police, soldiers, judges, even family
members—none of whom are affiliated with ISIS (other than by religion)—abuse and
sometimes slaughter Christians, abduct, enslave and rape their women and
children, ban or bomb churches, and kill blasphemers and apostates.
Anyone who doubts this can access my monthly “Muslim Persecution of Christians”
reports and review the nonstop persecution and carnage committed by “everyday”
Muslims—not ISIS—against Christians. Each monthly report (there are currently
60, stretching back to July 2011) contains dozens of atrocities, most of which
if committed by Christians against Muslims would receive nonstop media coverage
in America.
Or consider a Pew poll which found that, in 11 countries alone, at least 63
million and as many as 287 million Muslims support ISIS. Similarly, 81% of
respondents to an Arabic language Al Jazeera poll supported the Islamic State.
Do all these hundreds of millions of Muslims support the Islamic State because
they’ve been suckered into its “narrative”—or even more silly, because we
have—or do they support ISIS because it reflects the same supremacist Islam that
they know and practice, one that preaches hate and violence for all infidels, as
America’s good friends and allies, the governments of Saudi Arabia and Qatar—not
ISIS—are on record proclaiming?
It is this phenomenon, that Muslims the world over—and not just this or that
terrorist group that “has nothing to do with Islam”—are exhibiting hostility for
and terrorizing non-Muslims that the Obama administration and its mainstream
media allies are committed to suppressing. Otherwise the unthinkable could
happen: people might connect the dots and understand that ISIS isn’t mangling
Islam but rather Islam is mangling the minds of Muslims all over the world.
Hence why White House spokesman Josh Earnest can earnestly dismiss 14 centuries
of Islamic history, doctrine, and behavior that mirrors ISIS: “That is
mythology. That is falsehood. That is not true.” Hence why U.S. media coverage
for one dead gorilla was six times greater than media coverage for 21 Christians
whose heads were carved off for refusing to recant their faith.
The powers-that-be prefer that the debate—the “narrative”—be restricted to ISIS,
so that the group appears as an aberration to Islam. Acknowledging that untold
millions of Muslims are engaged in similar behavior leads to a much more
troubling narrative with vast implications.
Even so, until this ugly truth is accepted, countless more innocents—including
many born Muslims who seek to break free from Islam—will continue to suffer from
the world’s oldest supremacist ideology.
Why proposed
blasphemy law horrifies many in Gaza
Adnan Abu Amer/Al-Monitor/September
23/16
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/09/23/adnan-abu-ameral-monitor-why-proposed-blasphemy-law-horrifies-many-in-gaza/
Hamas views itself as an Islamic movement with a moderate ideology. It does not
accuse anyone of disbelief, does not condone any killing based on religion and
according to its scholars, religious freedom is a right guaranteed by the
Quranic verse 256 of Surat al- Baqarah, “There is no compulsion in religion.”
But since Sept. 9, Khaled al-Khalidi, a professor of Palestinian history at the
Islamic University in Gaza with ties to Hamas, has been posting statements on
social media calling for the enactment of an anti-blasphemy law, provoking a
storm of reactions online.
It all started when Khalidi, whose studies have taken him from Palestine to
Saudi Arabia and Iraq, called on the Legislative Council to enact an
anti-blasphemy law to protect Muslims’ ideology from disbelief and misguidance
and for professors of Islamic law to participate in its drafting to define
"blasphemers" and the corresponding punishment according to Sharia.
Khalidi, the head of the Palestinian Encyclopedia of Historiography
Documentation, told Al-Monitor that his move is a response to the spread of
destructive ideas among Muslims in Palestine, such as not believing in the
Prophet Muhammad’s hadith, which open the door to intellectual deviation and
ideological mistakes. He bemoaned the failure of Gaza’s authorities to fend off
these ideas, especially the Ministry of Religious Affairs and associations
concerned with the welfare of future generations.
He added, “As a result, I will soon form an association of scholars to defend
Islam from the erroneous interpretations of some religious scholars. I was
accused by some of those who departed from religion of adopting the ideas of the
Islamic State, but this will not scare me. I will keep fighting them.”
The term "blasphemy" appeared in Islamic history for the first time in the
Abbasid period to refer to individuals who deny Islamic dogma, mock Islamic
teachings or do not believe in Islam. From an Islamic point of view, this term
is closely related to infidelity, atheism and apostasy.
The anti-blasphemy law would be the first of its kind in Palestine. On Sept. 9,
Khalidi asked the Palestinian Legislative Council to set forth deterrent
measures against individuals he believes are blasphemers. He also called on
Palestinians to cut ties with these people, refrain from marrying them,
employing them or even talking to them.
Saleh al-Raqab, the former minister of religious affairs and endowments in the
Hamas government and a professor of religion at the Islamic University, told
Al-Monitor, “The term 'blasphemy' is attributed to those who question Islam,
deny anything in it or repeat the arguments of infidels, and therefore blasphemy
is tantamount to disbelief. But we do not need to enact a law in the Legislative
Council to confront this phenomenon. The Palestinian Penal Code should be
amended to impose a penalty on insulting a divine being and to prosecute those
who promote deviant ideas. The Ministry of Religious Endowments and the
Palestine Scholars Association as well as satellite channels and radio stations
are called to launch religious awareness campaigns to warn of the danger of
blasphemy.”
The call for an anti-blasphemy law stirred a wild wave of reactions. Palestinian
intellectuals across the Gaza Strip and the West Bank argued over Khalidi’s
suggestion. On Sept. 10, journalist Bothaina Ashtowi expressed objections to
Khalidi’s idea and called for solving more pressing problems in Gaza before
demanding an anti-blasphemy law. On Sept. 14, one citizen, Abu Bakr al-Banna,
expressed support for the idea, attacked "blasphemers" for "distorting the image
of the companions of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad" and called them infidels,
warning them they were headed for the "ash heap of history.”
Opponents of such a law recall what happened in some stages of Islamic history,
when some enlightened figures such as al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, Al-Ma'arri, Abu Bakr
al-Razi and Ibn Rushd were accused of blasphemy and killed.
Yousef Farhat, the general director of the public administration for preaching
and guidance in the Ministry of Religious Affairs, fiercely attacked Khalidi. He
told Al-Monitor, “Calling for enacting an anti-blasphemy law is an intellectual
scandal that brings us back to the medieval inquisition era in the 15th and 16th
centuries, when people were persecuted and beheaded for their intellectual
views. Today’s calls to confront blasphemy are an extension of IS’ ideology.”
He added, “Throughout history, Islam has witnessed numerous situations in which
the right to disagree was admirably exercised but also witnessed unfair
situations where differences of opinion were described as blasphemy. Some are
trying to reproduce these unfair situations today by calling for an
anti-blasphemy law.”
Satirical cartoonists produced a video mocking the call for an anti-blasphemy
law while other social media users expressed fear that calling for such a law
would return Hamas to the dark ages. Other social media users attacked the idea
of an anti-blasphemy law, describing Khalidi’s call as worthy of IS.
Islamic writer Ahmad Abu Ratima, who strongly and openly opposes the
anti-blasphemy law, told Al-Monitor, “The accusation of blasphemy is a black
spot in Islamic history. It was used by dictators against every free voice, and
many Muslim scholars were killed on charges of blasphemy. Today, some people
want to assume the role of God and sit in judgment of human beings. This brings
us back to the dark ages. The accusation of blasphemy may have dangerous
repercussions such as physical violence against the accused individual. … This
is very similar to the extremist ideas of IS.”
Sheikh Mustafa Shawar, head of the Palestinian Scholars League and a Hamas
figure in the West Bank, told Al-Monitor, “Palestinians do not need an
anti-blasphemy law, which may do more harm than good. We should not confront
deviant ideas contrary to Islam through laws and sanctions, but rather through
dialogue and persuasion. Such laws will tarnish our image before the
international community in light of the international fight against IS and
others terrorist groups.”
The debate continues. Hamas now faces a choice, and has a chance to establish
its national Palestinian identity, Islamic ideology and moderate ideas as far
removed from extremism.
Muslim Brotherhood's ties to
the Obama Administration
Slater Bakhtavar/Family Security Matters/September 23, 2016
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/09/23/slater-bakhtavarfamily-security-matters-muslim-brotherhoods-ties-to-the-obama-administration/
This article is not meant to, or intended to be interpreted as a political
endorsement, or lack thereof, of any political candidate. Family Security
Matters takes no political point of view whatsoever.
"Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Qur'an is our law. Jihad
is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest aspiration."
The above is the motto of the Muslim Brotherhood, and organization founded in
Egypt in 1928 for the express purpose of rebuilding human civilization in a form
consistent with the customs of Shariah (Islamic) law and instituting a global
Muslim paradise. The group's own original bylaws leave little for
interpretation, declaring: "The Islamic nation must be fully prepared to fight
the tyrants and the enemies of Allah as a prelude to establishing an Islamic
state." As can be expected, then, the Brotherhood has been an enemy of the free
world since its inception, engaging in such malignant acts as aligning itself
with the National Socialist (Nazi) party in Germany during World War II, openly
committing terrorist acts on its own, and more recently, supporting other
terrorist organizations such as Hamas.
By any reasonable measure, the Muslim Brotherhood should be an unambiguous enemy
of any American, regardless of political stripe. That is why it's profoundly
disturbing to consider that the group has steadily risen in influence within the
United States, most particularly within the Democratic party. We see this
broadly in the findings of a 2014 analysis that shows Islamist campaign
donations overwhelmingly favor Democratic candidates over Republicans by a ratio
of 12 to 1 since 9/11, but a specific and disturbing example can be found in the
person of Huma Abedin, Vice Chairwoman of Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential
campaign and reportedly longtime personal friend of Mrs. Clinton. Through her
family, Abedin has a number of troubling ties to extremist Islam in general and
the Muslim Brotherhood in particular. Her father is known to have founded the
Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, an academic publication that has been called
a "sharia newspaper" by some. Her mother currently runs it, and Huma herself has
worked as an editor on it.
Her brother introduces further suspicions of extremist loyalties. Abedin's shady
connections to the Muslim Brotherhood - which the Democratic party never fails
to frantically deny or simply ignore - run so deep that five members of Congress
wrote a letter in 2012 to the State Department Inspector General, listing her
suspicious associations and contending that her family affinity with Islamic
extremism disqualifies her from the sort of high level security clearance that
would grant her access to someone like Hillary Clinton - an important and
powerful person, and possible future President of the United States.
Huma Abedin's role in American politics first rose to prominence when she served
as a top adviser to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (again, their
friendship stretches back considerably). Since then, the Muslim Brotherhood has
vastly strengthened its position within the US. Within that time period, the US
government has reversed a standing policy against formal contact with the
Brotherhood, went on channeling funds into Egypt despite the Brotherhood's
victory in post-Mubarak elections there, and hosted official Brotherhood
delegations in the United States. Abedin's level of involvement in these actions
can be debated, but whether she is personally responsible or not, what is beyond
question is that the Democratic party should not be coddling a known terrorist
organization like this.
One would think the Democrats had learned their lesson when it comes to backing
Muslim extremists. After all, that was their strategy in and immediately leading
up to 1979, when they forsook the United States' "stalwart ally" (as Ronald
Reagan put it) in the Shah of Iran, effectively allowing the Islamic Revolution
and the brutal, theocratic dictatorship that has followed ever since. Today
Iran, once a generally friendly nation toward the United States and potential
ally in the crucial Middle East, is a bitter enemy, its people strongly
sympathetic to American ideals while its fundamentalist government denounces the
US, and its absolute religious "Supreme Leader" works feverishly to acquire
nuclear weapons.
In case it was not obvious, all of the above obviates the fact that it is in the
best interests of the United States (and, ultimately, the people of the Middle
East) to support secular leaders and causes. Especially in countries such as
Iran and the northern part of the African continent, there are many younger and
well educated people who are far less indoctrinated in the uncompromising
religious dogma of the past than their elders. These are the people whom the
West should be supporting, both abroad and at home - while being exquisitely
careful to avoid allowing individuals like Huma Abedin to reach powerful
positions within the United States.
The Muslim Brotherhood is an unambiguously dangerous organization with a shady
and bloody past. It is imperative that the United States awake to the reality
that this organization must be combated and avoided, not embraced, and that
secular segments should be encouraged to flourish around the world - especially
at home, and in the Middle East.
**Slater Bakhtavar is an attorney, journalist, author and political commentator.
He is author of “Iran: The Green Movement”. He has appeared on hundreds of
network radio shows, including G Gordon Liddy, Crosstalk America, Les in the
Morning, NPR, Jim Bohannon Show and VOA.
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/muslim-brotherhoods-ties-to-the-obama-administration?f=must_reads
Egyptian Youths Escape Sharia
Inferno
Ashraf Ramelah/Family Security Matters/September 23, 2016
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/09/23/ashraf-ramelahfamily-security-matters-egyptian-youths-escape-sharia-inferno/
Mocking Islam or mocking the prophet of Islam spells doom. In Egypt you will be
arrested, home and property confiscated, and coerced to "force emigrate" from
your town. Then count on a five-year prison term. This was exactly the penalty
for four Coptic Christian school boys, ages 14 through 17, and their teacher.
Modernity grazed the 7th century when a lost cell phone turned up in the hands
of a sectarian street thug ready for Sharia justice against its owner. The sim
card showed a video of a 36-second skit mocking ISIS terrorists praying to
Allah. Away from home on a school trip, the boys used their teacher's phone to
record the funny scene they acted out, thinking ISIS was fair game and knowing
that Islam was not. Unfortunately for them, the cell phone was lost or stolen
and missing for a solid year. Found by Muslims who became offended by the
"blasphemy", the Egyptian courts overlooked the violent retaliation by the gang
prompted to attack homes and businesses and instead arrested the boys and their
teacher.
On the same day Muslims struck the town, the police were notified and arrested
the four Coptic boys and their teacher. Before their convictions by the courts,
the Christian blasphemers were forced to apologize. One month later, on May 27,
2015, the boys were released on bail, and February of this year they were
sentenced to prison for five years. They were allowed to pay a two thousand
pound fee per student to temporarily suspend the verdict's start date because
they were not present at the sentencing.
This last fact was a big factor in reversing their fortune. The boys were facing
the devastation of their remaining adolescence. They would soon be housed behind
bars in cells with jihadists, possibly members of the Muslim Brotherhood or
worse. The prospect was bleak, but all is well now thanks to anonymous channels.
The hidden hand of a courageous heart behind the scenes knowing the complexity
of such matters delivered the four boys from the Egyptian inferno. They were
enabled to tackle security to obtain their passports and move through customs
bound for Turkey (a country with bad diplomatic relations with Egypt). As
tragic, glaring examples of religious tyranny with "refugee" status as defined
by the U.N, the boys arrived in Switzerland where their request for religious
asylum was granted.
Upon arrival to safety in the West, one of the boys told a news reporter, "There
was no reason to be treated like that; all was a joke, but now we may have an
opportunity for a better life."
Egyptian authorities are alarmed from reactions around the world related to the
story and the negative publicity. The state is now bombarded with criticisms of
the regime and its court system broadcast by brave media hosts in Egypt. The
conversation goes on with some saying the boys were wrong to escape their
sentencing; it would have been better for them to respect the courts, honor
their country, and serve their time.
Of course the real goal of Sadat and Saudi Arabia is clear; as stated decades
earlier, the Middle East must be cleansed of Christians. The question remains;
will Islam succeed?
**FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Ashraf Ramelah is founder and
president of Voice of the Copts, a human rights organization drawing attention
to the suffering of Coptic Christians in Egypt and educating as to the chilling
effect of Sharia (Islamic law).
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/egyptian-youths-escape-sharia-inferno
France: The Great Wall of
Calais
Soeren Kern/Gatestone Institute/September 23/16
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9012/calais-migrants
Around 200 migrants
from Calais, the principal ferry crossing point between France and England, are
successfully smuggled into Britain each week, according to police estimates
cited by the Telegraph.
In recent months, masked gangs of people smugglers armed with knives, bats and
tire irons have forced truck drivers to stop so that migrants can board their
vehicles.
"Before, it was just attempts to get on trucks. Now there is looting and willful
destruction, tarpaulins are slashed, goods stolen or destroyed. Drivers go to
work with fear in their bellies and the economic consequences are severe." —
David Sagnard, president of France's truck drivers' federation.
"They want to go to England because they can expect better conditions on arrival
there than anywhere else in Europe or even internationally. ... They can easily
find work outside the formal economy..." — Natacha Bouchart, Mayor of Calais.
"The asylum seekers could apply for protection in France or the European country
they first landed in... they only reached Calais by crossing French borders.
France is part of the borderless Schengen Area of the EU, whereas Britain is
not." — James Glenday, ABC News.
Building work has begun on a wall in the northern French city of Calais, a major
transport hub on the edge of the English Channel, to prevent migrants from
stowing away on cars, trucks, ferries and trains bound for Britain.
Dubbed "The Great Wall of Calais," the concrete barrier — one kilometer (half a
mile) long and four meters (13 feet) high on both sides of the two-lane highway
approaching the harbor — will pass within a few hundred meters of a sprawling
shanty town known as "The Jungle."
The squalid camp now houses more than 10,000 migrants from Africa, Asia and the
Middle East who are trying to reach Britain. The migrants at the camp are mostly
from Sudan (45%), Afghanistan (30%), Pakistan (7%), Eritrea (6%) and Syria (1%),
according to a recent census conducted by aid agencies.
Construction of the wall — which will cost British taxpayers £2 million (€2.3
million; $2.6 million) and is due to be completed by the end of 2016 — comes
amid a surge in the number of migrants from the camp trying to reach Britain.
Around 200 migrants from Calais, the principal ferry crossing point between
France and England, are successfully smuggled into Britain each week, according
to police estimates cited by the Telegraph. This amounts to more than 10,000
so-called "lorry drops" — when illegal migrants hiding in the back of trucks
jump out after reaching the UK — this year.
In 2015-16, more than 84,000 migrants were caught attempting illegally to enter
Britain from the Ports of Calais and Dunkirk, according to Home Office figures
cited by the Guardian. On just one day, December 17, 2015, around 1,000 migrants
stormed the Channel Tunnel in a bid to reach Britain. Police, who used tear gas
to disperse them, said the number seeking to cross the Channel in a single day
was "unprecedented." Many of the migrants who are turned away move to "The
Jungle" and try over and over again.
Migrants at the camp have been using felled trees and gas canisters to create
makeshift roadblocks to slow trucks heading for Britain. When the trucks come to
a stop, migrants climb aboard to stow away as the vehicles head to Britain
through the Channel Tunnel or on ferries.
UK-bound migrants are building up to 30 barricades a night to stop vehicles
travelling through Calais, according to French officials. Teams of traffic
police now spend every night trying to keep the roads around Calais clear of
migrants and their debris.
In recent months, masked gangs of people smugglers armed with knives, bats and
tire irons have forced truck drivers to stop so that migrants can board their
vehicles. The Deputy Mayor of Calais, Philippe Mignonet, has described the main
route to the port as a "no-go area" between midnight and 6am.
Hundreds of migrants roam the highway near Calais, France, trying to stop trucks
headed for Britain, in an attempt to stow away on board. (Image source: RT video
screenshot)
In an interview with the French newspaper Liberation, Xavier Delebarre, who is
in charge of France's northern road network, said the migrants have "tools,
electric chainsaws that can be bought anywhere for fifteen euros." He added:
"There is a strategy in their concerted attacks. They launch simultaneous
assaults, and also diversions. Migrants build barricades by piling different
materials on the road, including branches, as well as mattresses and trash. They
set it on fire, and then put gas cylinders in the fire, which is very worrying.
They create traffic jams to storm the trucks, so they can board them to try to
get to England."
On September 5, hundreds of French truck drivers and farmers (who complain that
fields around the migrant camp are full of rubbish and human excrement) blocked
off the main route in and out of Calais, in an attempt to pressure the French
government to close "The Jungle." The blockage brought to a standstill the route
used by trucks from all over Europe to reach Calais and Britain.
Antoine Ravisse, president of the Grand Rassemblement du Calaisis, a coalition
of local businesses, said the protesters wanted assurances from the French
government that the roads in Calais will be made safe again. He said:
"The main image of Calais today in the newspaper and on TV is very negative, all
about the migrants and attacks on the highway. The first point is we want the
highways safe again. It's unacceptable that today in France you can't travel
without fear and without the certainty that you won't be attacked.
"We apologize to our British friends — our economy depends very much on the
business we do with England. We apologize to all the families but some of them
have experienced very bad times and dangerous times and they will agree it can't
go on.
"We are standing here and we will wait until we hear something back from the
government. We are not moving until we hear from the government."
David Sagnard, president of FNTR national truck drivers' federation, said:
"We have to do this. We have to escalate things, because for months now the
situation has been getting worse and worse. Before, it was just attempts to get
on trucks. Now there is looting and willful destruction, tarpaulins are slashed,
goods stolen or destroyed. Drivers go to work with fear in their bellies and the
economic consequences are severe."
The problems in Calais are a source of increasing tension between France and
Britain.
The Treaty of Le Touquet, signed between France and Britain in 2003, allows for
so-called juxtaposed controls, meaning that immigration checks are carried out
before people board trains or ferries, rather than upon their arrival after
disembarkation. France, for example, maintains an immigration checkpoint at the
Port of Dover in Britain to check the passports of all travelers bound for
France.
Conversely, British border police check the passports of UK-bound travelers at
checkpoints at Calais and Dunkirk. Travelers without proper documentation are
removed from cars, trucks, ferries and trains and left behind in France.
Migrants denied entry into Britain can apply for asylum in France or go
elsewhere.
Some French politicians are blaming Britain for the problems in Calais. Mayor of
Calais Natacha Bouchart said Britain's "black market economy" and "cushy
benefits system" were responsible for drawing migrants to her town. She said:
"They want to go to England because they can expect better conditions on arrival
there than anywhere else in Europe or even internationally. There are no ID
cards. They can easily find work outside the formal economy, which is not really
controlled.
"Calais is a hostage to the British. The migrants come here to get to Britain.
The situation here is barely manageable. The UK border should be moved from
Calais to the English side of the Channel because we're not here to do their
jobs."
Xavier Bertrand, president of the Calais region, said: "It's all England's
fault. The main reason we have so many problems is because of the English.
Either they change their rules, or we hand them back their border."
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is a candidate for presidential in
elections in 2017, has said the Le Touquet treaty should be renegotiated and
that Britain should be required to process asylum claims in the UK. During a
campaign speech, he said:
"I demand the opening of an asylum processing center in Britain for those who
are in Calais, so that the British do the work there. The British should
organize charter flights to send home people they do not want."
It was Sarkozy himself who signed the treaty with Britain in 2003 when he was
the French interior minister.
By contrast, British authorities view "The Jungle" as primarily a French
problem. In the words of correspondent James Glenday:
"Firstly, the camp is in France.... Secondly, the asylum seekers could apply for
protection in France or the European country they first landed in. Lastly, they
only reached Calais by crossing French borders. France is part of the borderless
Schengen Area of the EU, whereas Britain is not."
A European law known as the Dublin Regulation requires anyone seeking asylum in
the European Union to do so in the first EU country they reach. In other words,
according to EU law, French authorities should send most of the migrants in
Calais back to Italy or Greece, where they first entered the EU, rather than to
Britain.
The Dublin Regulation, however, has been in disarray since August 2015, when
German Chancellor Angela Merkel suspended the requirement for asylum seekers
from Syria. The move, which allowed Syrians reaching Germany to stay while their
applications are being processed, has resulted in a collapse of the EU's refugee
system — and has encouraged even more migrants to make their way to Germany.
Authorities in France are worried that any changes to the Le Touquet treaty
could attract thousands — possibly tens of thousands — of additional migrants to
Calais. This would play into the hands of Marine Le Pen, the leader of the
anti-immigration National Front party, and one of the most popular politicians
in France.
A recent poll showed that if the French presidential election were held today,
Le Pen would win the first round with 29%, compared to 20% for Sarkozy and 11%
for the incumbent, French President François Hollande.
Not surprisingly, Hollande has ruled out making changes to the Le Touquet
treaty. He has also said that the decision by British voters to leave the EU
will have no bearing on the treaty, which is a bilateral agreement. He said:
"Challenging the Le Touquet agreement on the pretext that the UK passed the
Brexit does not make sense. What should perhaps be seen is how the UK and France
could better work together to improve the situation of these immigrants."
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve recently pledged to dismantle "The
Jungle" with the "greatest determination." Migrants at the camp are to be
relocated throughout the rest of France.
**Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute. He
is also Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based Grupo de
Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him on Facebook and on
Twitter.
© 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.
Art and war: The struggle of
recollection and oblivion
Fahad Suleiman Shoqiran//Al Arabiya/September 23/16
It seems Saudi singer Mohammed Abdo could not restrain his anger at the end of
his concert in Dubai as he screamed to the audience: “We meet at home. We don’t
want art to be in exile.” A few weeks prior, he held a concert at Souk Okaz in
Saudi Arabia. Later, there was talk about postponing two of his concerts due to
the hajj season.
When art sails in a culture where everything is linked, and you cannot realize
borders between religion, art and politics, art becomes the victim. The Saudi
art movement has been suffering from a worrisome deterioration since the start
of 2010, due to politics. Many art shows have been postponed due to developments
and unrest in other regional countries. Now, some are linking our big battle
against rebels in Yemen and art festivals. However, we can celebrate with art
and immortalize the glories of the heroes stationed at the frontlines.
Art leaves permanent marks in society. These marks carry memories and provide
space for expressing existence. The greatest and most mysterious thing that art
leaves behind is its effects. German philosopher Martin Heidegger says art
resists life’s triviality, because the depth of art lies in taking another look
at existence. He adds that the effects of art are almost like an incident that
resembles a struggle between the planet and humanity.
Art has a role in empowering society when it passes through difficult political
times
Memories
Art saves memories that are almost forgotten. It becomes like a space that
stores what humans have forgotten. Themes and musical notes are what sum up the
experience of nations’ truth, existence and reality. They were all established
while people worked in ploughing land and in nature. Society’s scattered
memories are now present via musical notes, phonemes and mawawil (traditional
vocal music). This is where the role of the community’s oblivion comes in
establishing the effects of art.
All artistic creativity comes following an oblivion. Vigilance, which is present
in the sentiment we feel when we interact with the effects of art, reflects the
desire to realize the essence of art, which does not have a tangible essence.
In her book “The Human Condition,” philosopher Hannah Arendt - who studied
philosophy with Heidegger, and who was close to his sentiment and heart - wrote:
“It’s this closeness to living recollection that enables the poem to remain, to
retain its durability outside the printed or the written page, and though the
‘quality’ of a poem may be subject to a variety of standards, its ‘memorability’
will inevitably determine its durability, that is, its chance to be permanently
fixed in the recollection of humanity.
“A poem, no matter how long it existed as a living spoken word in the
recollection of the bard and those who to listened to him, will eventually be
‘made,’ that is, written down and transformed into a tangible thing among
things, because remembrance and the gift of recollection, from which all desire
for imperishability springs, need tangible things to remind them, lest they
perish themselves.”
She described the poem and its artistic influence. The same applies to all forms
of art. Art takes its live path when it is understood not as something immersed
in life’s emptiness, or something related to the triviality of the product or
randomness of the behavior of people interacting with it, but as a wide space of
immortal sentences, symbols and voices linked to society.
Crises
Art has witnessed great leaps during times of wars and crises in Europe. Art
flourished during the most miserable and difficult times, as it is a partner
that plays a role in description. It has a role in empowering society when it
passes through difficult political times. This is only achieved when we master
understanding art and go beyond triviality.
In this case, we do not need to justify art concerts via political logic,
especially since the Saudi leadership has established the royal art academy,
whose task is to look after the sophistication of art and improve it so what
starts as a hobby is enhanced by academic work.
The cases of “art’s exile,” which Abdo spoke of, would not have happened if
there had been understood limits that protect different aspects (politics,
religion, art etc.) from obstructed communication. Art must be separated from
other fields and purified from other things. There is no logical justification
to halting art concerts, because they are a genuine part of the individual’s
existence, a part that is rather revived during times of conflict. As Heidegger
said, artwork is based on the active struggle between the planet and humanity.
**This article was first published in Asharq al-Awsat on Sept. 22, 2016.
Two years after
the coup: What’s up with the Houthis
Dr. Theodore Karasik/Al Arabiya/September 23/16
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/09/23/dr-theodore-karasikal-arabiya-two-years-after-the-coup-whats-up-with-the-houthis/
Two years ago the Houthi’s launched their most recent uprising in what is called
the 21 September Revolution, which ousted Yemeni President Abd Rabbuah Mansur
Hadi last year. Since Hadi fled to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia amid Houthi
advances on Aden, Yemen’s chaos has continued unabated.
The Houthis and Saleh’s General People’s Congress (GPC) hold most of Yemen’s
northern half, while forces working for the exiled government share control of
the rest of the country with tribes. At least 10,000 people have been killed in
Yemen’s 18-month-old civil war.
Several important factors explain why the Houthis are continuing to fight.
First, Houthi intransigence is killing the UN-sponsored talks to try to end 18
months of fighting in the southern Arabian Peninsula state. The negotiations
between the sides collapsed in failure this month.
The talks ended abruptly after the Houthis and Saleh’s General People’s Congress
(GPC) announced the formation of a ten-member governing council on August 6,
ignoring a warning from UN Yemen Envoy Ould Cheikh Ahmed that such a move would
violate UN Security Council resolutions on how to solve the conflict. Saudi
Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir stated that the Iran-backed Al Houthi militants
would not be allowed to take over Yemen.
Houthis and forces loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh intensified
attacks into the southern Najran province. Houthi militias fired rockets
targeting Saudi positions in Najran city in southern Saudi Arabia on August 16,
killing at least seven civilians. The casualties included four Saudi nationals
and three foreign nationals. Houthi forces fired a ballistic missile toward
Najran city two days earlier on August 14, killing at least six people.
Second, is the Houthi relationship with the Islamic Republic of Iran. After the
Houthi coup Iran stepped up support to Sana with supplies including missile
parts and maintenance. A GCC official stated “Iran resupplies the Houthis on a
regular basis despite attempts to block Tehran’s activity.”
The Assab Naval Base, used by the Kingdom and its allies, is critical in
blockading the Houthi-held ports on the Red Sea and preventing Iran from
resupplying the rebels. Clearly, this maritime solution is not 100 percent
effective and thus more exposure of this network is necessary.
The recent wave of missile attacks against Saudi targets in the kingdom’s
southern territory illustrates Tehran’s potential to maintain the Houthi forces’
means to bog the Saudis down on their southern border
Operation Decisive Storm
Of course, Saudi Arabia’s campaign against the Houthis and their allies has been
ongoing since March 2015 when the Kingdom launched Operation Decisive Storm
followed by the ongoing Operation Restore Hope. This multinational coalition led
by Riyadh is making progress against the Houthis and their capital of Sana.
Military operations, combined with humanitarian aid to besieged parts of the
country, is being used to achieve tactical and charitable goals. A notable
achievement by the Kingdom and its allies was Operation Golden Arrow in August
2015, when pro-Hadi forces retook the strategic southern city of Aden from the
Houthis.
Third, the Houthis are allowing al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and
ISIS to thrive in Yemen by creating more chaos. While AQAP is engaged in
fighting against the Houthis, ISIS is continuing to attack Yemen’s security
forces and their recruits. A suicide car bombing targeting young army recruits
in Aden killed some 71 people on August 29. ISIS took credit for the attack.
In addition, AQAP and ISIS are escalating their attacks in recent months,
notably in the southern port city of Aden. The Houthi rebels and their allies
are in the way of making progress against these extremist groups. There is no
doubt, thanks to the Houthis, that AQAP and ISIS are trying to position
themselves as the Sunni resistance to the Houthi rebel movement.
A key question is when will President Hadi return to power and what will the
internationally-recognized Yemeni president’s GCC backers do to improve the
prospects for his return to power? Having usurped de facto control of the
capital last January, the longer the Houthis maintain their grip on Sana, the
movement is putting forward a powerful message to their domestic and
international foes that continued military bombardment will fail to eject their
fighters from the country’s main northern city.
The Houthi delegation visit to Baghdad late last month for meetings with Iraqi
Foreign Minister Ibrahim Jaafari and Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq Cleric
Ammar al-Hakim is part of a wider, alarming campaign for finding regional
support.
In addition, by continuing to arm the Houthis, Iran communicates to Riyadh that
the Islamic Republic is capable of empowering its Shi’ite/Zaidi allies on the
kingdom’s borders, threatening Saudi Arabia’s national interests, and
consolidating its influence in Arab lands.
The recent wave of missile attacks against Saudi targets in the kingdom’s
southern territory illustrates Tehran’s potential to maintain the Houthi forces’
means to bog the Saudis down on their southern border at a time when the
Iranians are determined to distract Riyadh from the crises in Iraq and Syria in
which the Islamic Republic’s stakes are actually much higher than they are in
Yemen.
As the fluid, complicated and multifaceted conflict in Yemen continues to rage
on the second anniversary of the Houthi’s successful uprising, it is worth
questioning the Houthis’ agenda moving forward: Is Ansar Allah (the movement’s
dominant militia) fighting to establish a Zaidi proto-state in northern Yemen
along the Saudi border? Although appearing to be highly unrealistic, do the
Houthis have a vision of one day ruling all of the war-torn country?
Regardless, until the Houthis lay down their arms and make concessions which
they have not yet been willing to make based on offers from their adversaries,
Saudi Arabia will continue its campaign in Yemen.
In Contrast To
Rohani Allegations In UNGA, Senior Iranian Officials Confirm U.S. Has Met Its
Obligations Under JCPOA
By: Y. Carmon and A. Savyon/MEMRI/September 23/16
Inquiry & Analysis Series Report No.1268
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/09/23/y-carmon-and-a-savyonmemri-in-contrast-to-rohani-allegations-in-unga-senior-iranian-officials-confirm-u-s-has-met-its-obligations-under-jcpoa/
Introduction
In his September 22, 2016 speech at the UN General Assembly, Iranian President
Hassan Rohani accused that the U.S. is not meeting its obligations towards Iran
under the JCPOA. He said: “The lack of compliance with the deal on the part of
the United States in the past several months represents a flawed approach that
should be rectified forthwith... Any failure on the part of the United States in
implementing it (the deal) would constitute an international wrongful act and
would be objected to by the international community."[1]
Rohani's statements, which are part of an Iranian attempt in recent weeks to
create a false impression that the U.S. has not met its obligations towards
Iran, are in stark contradiction to statements made by senior members of the
Iranian negotiation team who explicitly admitted that the U.S. has in fact met
its obligations under the JCPOA (see below).
This Iranian measure is a response to the refusal of Western banks to conduct
transactions with Iran in dollars, despite the lifting of the nuclear sanctions
in January 2016, because the initial sanctions imposed on Iran by Congress for
human rights violations and for terrorism are still in force. As will be
recalled, Iran refuses to negotiate with the West on issues of terrorism, on the
grounds that these issues are internal sovereign matters.
Below is a MEMRI report on this issue published on August 15, 2016.
As the first year of the JCPOA is marked, and in light of Western banks'
rejection of Iranian transactions in dollars, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali
Khamenei and his supporters in the West have launched a campaign to pressure the
U.S. to lift the initial sanctions imposed on Iran by Congress for human rights
violations and for terrorism. Their aim is to have these sanctions lifted
without negotiations and without giving anything in return.
As will be recalled, Iran from the outset restricted the framework of the
negotiations to the nuclear issue, and refused to allow them to include other
issues such as human rights, terrorism, or missiles, which it considers internal
sovereign matters. Therefore, the initial American sanctions concerning these
areas remain in force.
A demand for lifting of all the sanctions, including the initial ones, was made
by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the months after the JCPOA was achieved in
July 2015.[2] Perhaps Tehran thought that with the lifting of the nuclear
sanctions, the entire sanctions regime would collapse, including those
concerning human rights, terrorism, and missiles. But this did not happen. The
U.S. Treasury Department is following the letter and the spirit of U.S. law, and
is warning banks worldwide that the initial sanctions remain in force.[3]
In light of this situation, Iran and the supporters of its regime in the West
are now working to create a false impression that the U.S. has not met its
obligations towards Iran. They claim that, in order to fulfill its commitments
towards Iran in the JCPOA, the U.S. is obligated to revoke or circumvent the
initial sanctions imposed on Iran by Congress, which currently prevent banks
from dealing freely with Iran. For example, Tyler Cullis, member of the Iranian
lobby in the U.S., the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), stated in a
recent policy paper that "the United States is committed to ensuring that
neither U.S. law nor policy is standing in the way of non-U.S. banks resuming
correspondent banking relations with their Iranian counterparts... If U.S. laws
or policies are interfering with Iran realizing the full benefit of the lifting
of sanctions on Iran’s financial institutions, then the U.S. is required to take
steps to ensure that those laws or policies no longer are running such
interference. To do so could require additional changes to U.S. laws or policies
governing the issue."[4]
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister and negotiating team member Majid Takhtravanchi
also demanded that the U.S. take explicit steps to remove any obstacles
currently preventing banks from dealing with Iran. He said on June 27, 2016,:
"Two [contradictory] messages are coming out of Washington: The State Department
says that there is no problem carrying out banking and financial transactions
with Iran, while the OFAC says the opposite... We want the OFAC... to guarantee
that there is no problem for the banks that are cooperating with Iran..."[5]
It should be mentioned that the Iranian implication that the U.S. has not met
its obligations towards Iran stands in contradiction to explicit statements made
recently by Iranian officials, mainly negotiation team members from Iran's
pragmatic camp, who confirmed that the U.S. had upheld its part of the JCPOA.
Deputy Foreign Minister and senior negotiating team member 'Abbas Araghchi said
on a television special marking the first anniversary of the JCPOA: "Both sides
have met their obligations under the JCPOA... In order to benefit from the JCPOA...
we must carry out several steps because there are restrictions that are not
connected to the JCPOA... The other side has implemented its obligations, and if
it had not, that would have been a violation of the JCPOA, and we would have
handled it in the Joint Committee...
"The JCPOA was meant to remove the obstacles of the sanctions from Iran's
economic path. [Indeed], these obstacles have been removed, but there are other
obstacles, such as the initial sanctions by America, FATF [Financial Action Task
Force on Money Laundering], and laws connected to money-laundering, which
require time [to take care of].
"From the outset, [the other side] was not meant to lift the sanctions that are
not connected to the nuclear issue; that is written even in the [2013] Geneva
Joint Plan of Action [about the lifting of] 'sanctions related to the nuclear
[issue], because we were negotiating about the nuclear issue [alone]...
"The sanctions on the dollar and the use of the financial apparatus of America
belong to the initial sanctions imposed long ago because of issues that are not
nuclear-related... We raised the matter in the negotiations, but the Americans
did not agree to lift these sanctions… and demanded additional concessions [from
us] in matters that were part of our red lines...
"The Americans are serious about maintaining their initial sanctions; this is
the essence of America. Iran is Iran and America is America, and as long as we
do not negotiate on bilateral relations [with the U.S.], these sanctions will
remain in force. The American Treasury Department tells [the banks worldwide]
that these sanctions are in force, and has warned them not to get in trouble
because of them. These sanctions are not related to the JCPOA."[6]
Deputy Foreign Minister and negotiating team member Hamid Ba'idinejad said at a
press conference marking the first anniversary of the JCPOA: "Up to this very
moment, the members of the [Iranian] negotiating team believe that the JCPOA has
not been violated [by the U.S.], and still believe that it is possible to solve
the problems [concerning transactions in dollars] with discussions,
recommendations, and talks... From the outset, the task set out [for the Iranian
negotiating team] was to resolve the nuclear issue [alone]. So far, the Islamic
Republic has made no decision to negotiate with America on [the other] issues in
dispute...
"Our regime never expected us to achieve the lifting of the sanctions for human
rights [in the framework] of the nuclear talks."[7]
Expediency Council head Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said: "America is telling
[the banks worldwide] that it has not lifted the [initial] sanctions because
this problem is related to human rights, terrorism, Palestine, and Lebanon.
These [issues] too we could have solved."[8]
However, after Khamenei warned, on August 1, 2016, that the U.S. had violated
its commitments, the negotiating team heads fell into line with him, and began
to state that the U.S. had indeed violated its obligations and to demand further
changes in U.S. policies and laws.
A U.S. capitulation to these Iranian demands would be a blow to the authority of
Congress, which imposed the initial sanctions, and to the separation of powers
in the U.S. Moreover, it would constitute U.S. support for Iran's ideological
camp – Khamenei, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the Basij, and
the ayatollahs connected to them – and not to the pragmatic camp, and would also
stand in contradiction to President Obama's commitment that the JCPOA deals only
with the nuclear issue.
* Y. Carmon is President of MEMRI; A. Savyon is the director of MEMRI's Iran
Media Project
Endnotes:
[1] Farsnews.com, September 22, 2016.
[2] See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 6151, Khamenei Declares That He Will Not
Honor The Agreement If Sanctions Are Merely Suspended And Not Lifted, September
4, 2015.
[3] See MEMRI Inquiry and Analysis No. 1249, Post-JCPOA, The IRGC Is The Factor
Stopping Iran From Integration Into The Western Economy, May 20, 2016.
[4] Niacouncil.org, August 2016.
[5] Tabnak (Iran), July 27, 2016.
[6] Fars (Iran), July 11, 2016.
[7] Fars (Iran), July 13, 2016.
[8] Fars (Iran), August 10, 2016.
The Terrorist
“Wing” Scam
A.J. Caschetta/Middle East Quarterly
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2016/09/23/a-j-caschettamiddle-east-quarterly-the-terrorist-wing-scam-2/
Modern terrorist organizations have managed to flourish despite their enemies’
attempts to squash them and have often done so by hiding in plain sight behind a
nominal disguise. The most successful groups have achieved a kind of parity with
the countries they attack by masquerading as complicated and diverse
establishments for which terror is but one facet of their true—and
variegated—nature. Nearly all terrorist organizations operating today have
learned to conduct effective subterfuge by pretending to diversify.
On the rhetorical level, the illusion is advanced when a terror organization
claims for itself an ancillary “wing,” “arm,” or “branch.” Most often it is
either a “charitable wing” that operates orphanages and hospitals and
distributes aid to the poor, or a “political wing” devoted to achieving the
group’s aims through negotiation. In reality though, the group and its
newly-sprouted wings are never separate but rather integral, interdependent
parts of a whole. The pose allows them to prosper by legitimizing their
continued existence as aid providers or embryonic governments rather than
terrorist groups.
The most successful terrorist organizations achieve respectability by launching
quasi-political branches or by operating charities.
Even if a group does not itself refer to the new organization as its wing, eager
journalists, academics and politicians surely will. The illusion of segmentation
is among the most effective tools in the terrorists’ propaganda kit as they
cleverly play on the compassionate nature of their targets and exploit the myth
that all charities are inherently good, that philanthropy is intrinsically a
praiseworthy undertaking, and that freedom to practice one’s religion is a
universal right even when that practice denies basic human rights to others.
Western nations are keen on rewarding those who participate in a democratic
process and engage in negotiations because this is seen as the rational,
civilized way to bridge differences. Mere participation in the political process
becomes a desirable outcome in and of itself. Western nations also give
generously to charitable causes and facilitate the work of others who do
likewise.
Terrorists understand this, and so like the proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing
they disguise their violent nature with the cloak of legitimacy through their
nonviolent wings. Only by exposing the “wing” charade can states begin to adopt
policies that effectively counter this ubiquitous tactic.
The Confidence Game
In the late nineteenth century, many radical organizations reveled in their
infamy and wore the label terrorist proudly.[1] But after World War II, most
sought to distance themselves from the newly-stigmatized term, calling
themselves instead revolutionaries, freedom fighters, or resisters to
imperialism.
At the same time, however, another trend emerged in which terrorists sought to
replace the notoriety of their predecessors with an appearance of legitimacy.
This was a means of survival rather than an ideological shift. By transforming
its image as a violent group into that of a provider of charitable services or a
legitimate political player, a terrorist group gains the time and space
necessary to sustain a campaign of violence.
Terrorist organizations that use this subterfuge are merely following a template
perfected by other criminal organizations. For traditional criminal syndicates
trading in stolen or illegal products and services, this has historically
involved the creation of “dummy” or “shell” companies to hide their illicit work
and profits. Likewise, criminal gangs and drug dealers have long known that
distributing goods to the poor (turkeys at Thanksgiving or toys at Christmas)[2]
can buy them a degree of support and silence. The most successful terrorist
organizations achieve a kind of respectability either by launching
quasi-political branches or by operating charities, thus purchasing the
toleration and even loyalty of those in their areas of operation.
A target state that agrees to negotiate with the political wing of a terrorist
organization does so largely because of a credible threat of violence. Once a
state falls for the phony compartmentalization, acknowledging or negotiating
with a terrorist group’s wing, the bait has been taken. The con then evolves as
the political wing offers to dissuade the military wing from undertaking more
violence. Similarly, a target state will often give money to the charitable wing
of a terrorist group in the hope that this action will sway hearts and minds
within the population from which future terrorists are likely to emerge. The
opposite, though, is true. A terrorist group with a charitable wing that
operates a hospital, school, or orphanage has cleared a path to hiding both
money and suspects; it can handily treat wounded terrorists and inculcate new
ones. Further, any outside funds that go to humanitarian initiatives run by the
terror group free up money for arms or violent undertakings. Any state that
criminalizes a terrorist organization’s militant wing but allows its charitable
wing to continue unfettered or negotiates with its political wing merely keeps
the conflict alive by perpetuating the scam.
Sinn Féin’s Original “Political Wing”
Irish nationalism had existed for centuries before Arthur Griffith founded Sinn
Féin in 1905 as a political party. Claiming to seek compromise through
diplomacy, Sinn Féin became the self-styled political wing of the resistance
while the violent, terroristic work was carried out by a series of militias (the
Irish Republican Army [IRA], the Provisional Irish Republican Army, the Real
Irish Republican Army). Whereas these militias insisted upon a no-compromise
approach to a complete break with Britain, Sinn Féin took a less rigid public
stance. Sinn Féin and the militias eventually agreed on what Brendan O’Brien
called the “long war strategy” whereby the “IRA command structure and its
illegal arsenal remained intact, waiting to see if ‘politics’ would deliver.”[3]
But without the threat of violence from unrepentant militarists, no British
government would have taken Sinn Féin seriously as a genuine political actor.
Sinn Féin was little more than a front for the IRA with a great deal of fluidity
between their membership; IRA commander Martin McGuinness, for example, became
Sinn Féin’s chief negotiator with the British government in the 1990s.
When it was expedient to do so, Sinn Féin claimed that it was trying to rein in
those among the resistance it euphemistically called “activists” or
“volunteers.” But whenever Sinn Féin members who were not IRA members tried to
dictate tactics, the limits of their power became clear:
“I’d have to say the army rules the roost,” said one involved, seasoned
observer. “The IRA people,” he said, “were very conscious that an integral part
of the struggle was propaganda and politics. So the long war strategy needed
Sinn Féin. But if there was a settlement the army didn’t like, Sinn Féin would
be pushed aside.”[4]
The IRA’s long war strategy proved to be very effective. During the Bill Clinton
presidency, Sinn Féin’s Gerry Adams was among the most frequent foreign
“diplomats” admitted to the White House (after arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat) and
was granted a seat at the table when the Good Friday agreement of 1998 was
negotiated. But after the 9/11 terror attacks, the George W. Bush administration
gave Sinn Féin and Adams the cold shoulder, joined surprisingly by Sen. Ted
Kennedy (Democrat, Mass.),[5] who had come to regret his earlier support for the
group.
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth beams at Martin McGuinness (left)—the “Butcher of
Bogside”—a former leader of the Irish Republican Army, the group responsible for
the murder of her cousin Lord Mountbatten in 1979. McGuinness and Gerry Adams of
the IRA/ Sinn Féin partnership perfected the bait and switch whereby the West
negotiates with terrorists pretending to be politicians. Their example has
served as a model for groups throughout the Middle East.
By 2005, Ireland’s justice minister Michael McDowell had publicly named Adams
and McGuinness as members of the IRA’s Army Council,[6] and in 2007, Bertie
Ahern, former prime minister of Ireland, put it more bluntly when he declared
that Sinn Féin and the IRA were “both sides of the same coin.”[7]
And yet, to those desperate for an end to violence, the prospect of a moderate
political wing with which to negotiate continues to offer hope, throwing a
lifeline to the terrorist organization it does not deserve. In June 2012,
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth shook the hand of Martin McGuinness—the “Butcher of
Bogside”[8]—a former leader of the Irish Republican Army, the organization that
was responsible for the murder of her cousin Lord Mountbatten in 1979.[9]
McGuinness and Adams have perfected the swindle whereby the West negotiates with
terrorists pretending to be politicians, and their example has served as a model
for other groups throughout the Middle East.
The Muslim Brotherhood’s “Charitable Wing”
While Sinn Féin and the IRA were founded separately and only later formed their
symbiotic relationship, Hassan al-Banna originally founded the Muslim
Brotherhood in 1928 as an umbrella organization with units devoted to politics
(Islamism and the restoration of the caliphate) and to charity (mostly focused
on poor Egyptian boys). Only later, in 1940, did a militant wing appear. Drawing
recruits from his version of the Boy Scouts, Banna used graduates of the
Brotherhood’s “Rover Scouts” to make up the core of an elite vanguard known as
the Apparatus or the Special or Secret Apparatus (al-Jihaz or al-Tanzim al-Khass,
al-Jihaz as-Sirri) willing to kill for the cause.[10] Still later, in 1944,
Banna launched a medical wing that operated clinics and pharmacies, and in 1945,
founded the Muslim Sisters, which ran a girls’ school.
The Brotherhood’s charities provided shelter, support, and new recruits to the
cause.
As a result of its assassination of Egyptian prime minister Mahmud Fahmi
Nokrashi on December 28, 1948, the Brotherhood was forced to go underground
although its charities, hospitals, schools, social clubs, and youth groups
remained intact for a time and continued to provide shelter, support and, most
importantly, new recruits to the cause.
After an attempt on President Gamal Abdel Nasser’s life in 1954, however, all
known Muslim Brotherhood leaders in Egypt were rounded up and either executed or
imprisoned. The organization might have withered to nothingness had it not been
for Zaynab Ghazali’s Muslim Women’s Association (Jama’at as-Sayyidat al-Muslimat),
which had pledged allegiance to the Muslim Brotherhood and managed to provide
food, medical care, and other support to … help reconstitute the organization,
serving as a liaison among dispersed members andsympathizers, and conducting
seminars on Islam with activists in her home.[11]
Physicians in a Muslim Brotherhood “field hospital” treat injured demonstrators
in Egypt, 2013. The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in 1928 as an organization
devoted to politics and to charity. In 1940, a militant wing was formed. In
1944, the Brotherhood launched a medical wing, and in 1945, founded the Muslim
Sisters, which ran a girls’ school.
Over the next six decades, the legal status of the Brotherhood in Egypt seesawed
between outright banning, to sporadic, intense repression, to a begrudging but
limited acceptance, to a brief spell in power under Mohamed Mursi’s presidency.
The organization has regularly franchised student, charitable, and even media
wings throughout its sphere of influence while successfully camouflaging its
relationship to these organizations.[12] From the beginning, its “method was to
employ flexibility [muruna] and concealment [taqiya or kitman] in order to
spread Islam,”[13] especially in the West, and this wing charade was perpetuated
either covertly or openly in every country to which the Brotherhood spread. In
Jordan, for instance, the Muslim Brotherhood is a legal group that participates
in politics through its “political wing,” the Islamic Action Front, while its
connections to Hamas account for its militant wing.[14] The Pakistani terrorist
group Lashkar-e-Taiba, itself a Brotherhood offshoot, retains a subsidiary
called Jamaat-ud Dawa (JuD) as its charitable wing. Alongside supplying medical
relief and establishing emergency clinics, JuD publishes a decidedly political
weekly (Jarrar) and runs more than three hundred seminaries inculcating the
Brotherhood’s Islamist message.[15]
One Brotherhood document calls for the destruction of American society through
“civilizational jihad.”
In the aftermath of 9/11, some of the Brotherhood’s secretive doings and
strategic imperatives have begun to be uncovered by U.S. and European
authorities. A document dated December 1, 1982, which came to be known as “The
Project” was discovered in a 2001 raid on the home of Youssef Nada, the director
of the at-Taqwa Bank of Lugano, Switzerland. In it, Muslims worldwide are
exhorted to set up dawa(proselytization) groups in the form of charities and
other religious, cultural, and political organizations, which can operate out in
the open expressly for the purpose of providing cover for violent jihad.[16]
“An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North
America” dated May 19, 1991, is another document that came to light that
elaborates on the concept of wings, arms, and branches in the Brotherhood.
Written by Muhammad Akram (a senior official of both the Brotherhood and Hamas)
it calls for the destruction of American society through “civilizational jihad”
modeled on the actions of the prophet Muhammad:
our prophet Muhammad … placed the foundation for the first civilized
organization, which is the mosque, which truly became “the comprehensive
organization.” And this was done by the pioneer of contemporary Islamic dawa,
Imam martyr Hasan Banna … when he and his brothers felt the need to
“reestablish” Islam and its movement anew, leading him to establish
organizations with all their kinds: economic, social, media, scouting,
professional, and even the military ones.[17]
Akram concluded that America was “a country which understands no language other
than the language of the organizations, and one which does not respect or give
weight to any group without effective, functional and strong organizations” and
cited as tools for the overall objective of overthrowing the United States a
list of twenty-nine Brotherhood organizations including the Islamic Society of
North America, the Muslim Students Association, the Islamic Circle of North
America, the Muslim American Society, the Council on American-Islamic Relations,
and the Occupied Land Fund (aka Holy Land Foundation).[18]
Although these documents and their implications are in the public domain and
were widely reported on in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, over time these
wings have been treated by reporters and pundits as moderate organizations
largely because they have not been involved in acts of violence. The Muslim
Brotherhood itself received a tremendous boost to mainstream acceptance by none
other than U.S. president Barack Obama who pushed to have its leadership invited
to his now-infamous Cairo speech of June 4, 2009. The Obama administration has
not only supported the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and abroad but has also
served the group’s interests domestically, treating the organization as a
moderate ally, even hiring Brotherhood activists for important posts influencing
foreign policy.[19] In the latest wrinkle to this stratagem, many of the
original twenty-nine front groups listed in the explanatory memorandum have
coalesced into an American Muslim Brotherhood political PAC called the U.S.
Council of Muslim Organizations,[20] in essence becoming the political wing of
the charitable wing of a terrorist organization.
Palestinian Terror Groups
Yasser Arafat, a founding member of the Fatah terror group and subsequent
chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), was perhaps the
consummate master in the art of terror dissembling. Under his leadership, a
ragtag group of saboteurs morphed into a national liberation movement, which in
turn became a government-in-exile, finally to be transformed into an oppressive,
kleptocratic regime in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, courted by politicians
the world over. Arafat ultimately convinced the world that the PLO was a
political party, only loosely affiliated with a series of autonomous terrorist
organizations. But in fact, neither the PLO nor Fatah, its foremost constituent
organization, have ever renounced violence as asserted by the 1968 Palestinian
National Charter, which Arafat pledged to revise as part of the Oslo “peace
process” but never did, and which was reaffirmed by Fatah’s sixth general
congress as late as August 2009: “Armed struggle is the only way to liberate
Palestine. This it is the overall strategy, not merely a tactical phase.”[21]
Yasser Arafat (left) of the Fatah terror group meets with Romanian dictator
Nicolae Ceausescu. In 1976, the dictator urged Arafat to feign small concessions
in order to reap financial rewards from the West. “Brother, Arafat, how about
pretending to break with terrorism? The West would love it.” Arafat was an apt
pupil.
Ion Pacepa, former Romanian spy chief, recounts how his former boss, dictator
Nicolae Ceausescu, urged Arafat to feign small concessions in order to reap
financial rewards from the West: “How about pretending to break with terrorism?”
Ceausescu reasoned. “The West would love it.”[22] Arafat initially balked, but
the Romanian dictator assured him that no real transformation was necessary:
Nothing serious, only a few cosmetic changes. Like transforming the PLO into a
Palestinian government-in-exile … In the shadow of your government-in-exile, you
can keep as many operational groups as you want as long as they are not publicly
connected with your name. They could mount endless operations all around the
world while your name and your “government” would remain pristine and unspoiled,
ready for negotiations and further recognition.[23]
Arafat took up Ceausescu’s advice with a vengeance, and this deception
culminated in the signing of the Oslo accords, which enabled the PLO to
establish control over the Palestinian population in the West Bank and the Gaza
Strip (via its dominated Palestinian Authority, [PA]) without effectively
shedding its commitment to Israel’s destruction.
When the PLO/ PA’s rivals in terror, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ),
engaged in suicide bombings, Arafat found himself forced to condemn their
violence or risk appearing diplomatically irrelevant. But in order to continue
to be relevant on the Palestinian street and to continue his violent campaign
against Israel, his next move was to sprout a new and more militant wing called
Tanzim, which itself sprouted yet another even more violent wing, the al-Aqsa
Brigades (later called the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades), which would become one of
the deadliest suicide bombing groups of the Oslo era.[24]
Arafat’s bait-and-switch tactics can be contrasted with those of Palestinian
Islamic Jihad, founded in 1980 strictly on terroristic principles and initially
with no pretense of nonviolent charitable or political aspirations. The PIJ’s
operating principles reflected the opposition of its founders (Fathi Shiqaqi,
Abdel Aziz Odeh, and Bashir Musa) to “the gradualism of the Muslim Brotherhood
and the PLO’s strategy of ‘occupation management.’”[25]
The FBI and U.S. Immigration Service exposed several U.S. academic and
charitable groups as terror front groups.
But the group also soon decided to use Western gullibility to further its goals.
In 1988, Sami Arian, a tenured professor at the University of South Florida
(USF), founded the Islamic Committee for Palestine (ICP) along with the World
and Islamic Studies Enterprise (WISE) on the university’s Tampa campus. ICP
itself was an outgrowth of the Islamic Concern Project ostensibly dedicated to
“helping the poor, the refugees, the displaced, the orphans, the sick, the
handicapped and the homeless” while WISE purported to be a think-tank affiliated
with USF’s Committee for Middle East Studies. By 1995, the FBI and the U.S.
Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) exposed these as academic and
charitable front groups and shut them down; the investigation found, among other
incriminating evidence, a letter soliciting a rich Kuwaiti for funds so that
suicide bombings and the “jihad effort in Palestine” could continue.[26]
Charity Spawns Hezbollah
While the Iranian-created terror group Hezbollah was born on the ruins of the
Lebanese civil war (1975-90), its origins go back to a group of Shiite clerics
educated in Najaf, Iraq, in the 1950s and 1960s who relocated to Lebanon and
“wove a clandestine network that became known as Hizb al-Dawa—the ‘Party of the
Calling.’”[27] One of those clerics, Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah (1935-2010) was
at the center of a series of charitable organizations which morphed into
Hezbollah.
Cleric Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah organized a series of clinics, youth clubs,
schools, and orphanages in Lebanon and, later, the Mabarrat Charitable
Association. One of the association’s wings eventually became Hezbollah. The
group’s ability to conduct terrorist attacks has always been dependent upon its
ability to undertake “charitable work.”
Fadlallah was a mesmerizing sermonizer alert to the suffering of the
disenfranchised Shiite community of Beirut but was perhaps an even better
“community organizer.” He established social and cultural associations including
clinics, youth clubs, and schools, and as the Lebanese civil war began to take
its humanitarian toll, created the Mabarrat Charitable Association. Out of this
organization grew a number of wings including the benign-sounding Muslim Student
Union and a militant arm, which came to be known as Hezbollah.
Though Fadlallah insisted until the day he died that the Dawa party and
Hezbollah were not connected and that he was not a member of Hezbollah, few
scholars believe him. An exception is Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, who vehemently denies
a Fadlallah-Hezbollah connection, but then devotes much of her work to
whitewashing Hezbollah’s terrorist activities, portraying it as a group of
“guerilla fighters who were practicing their legitimate right to resist a
foreign occupation.”[28] Few scholars deny the connections between Fadlallah and
Hezbollah, and analyst Matthew Levitt has shown how the Dawa party is “a key
constituent element within Hezbollah” providing it with new members such as
terrorism mastermind Imad Mughniyeh, who joined Fadlallah’s Muslim Student
Union, itself described as a branch of Fadlallah’s Dawa Party.[29] Fadlallah
also seems to have taken lessons from the Sinn Féin-IRA playbook as seen by his
willingness to act as a supposedly neutral intermediary between Hezbollah and
Western governments seeking the return of their citizens taken hostage by the
group.
Hezbollah’s success can be attributed to its domination of all levels of Shiite
society. Its ability to conduct terrorist attacks has always been dependent upon
its ability to conduct “charitable work.” Hezbollah outperformed its rival
Lebanese militia AMAL by controlling the world they shared on
three levels: the ideological-religious, with the aim of mobilizing society and
incorporating into it motifs such as religious activism, resolve, and
willingness for personal sacrifice for the sake of the whole; the social, with
the aim of abolishing ethnic discrimination and social injustice and improving
the living conditions of the Shiite population; and the military, with the aim
of bringing about the expulsion of all foreigners.[30]
But rather than recognizing the cohesion of Hezbollah’s interests and how such
interests enabled the organization to flourish, Western journalists, academics,
and politicians chose to apply the wing metaphor and ignore how its activities
were all interconnected. What is particularly galling is that a number of
Hezbollah leaders have been surprisingly open about the con game they are
running. Naim Qassem, Hezbollah’s “deputy secretary-general,” has denied that
there are distinct wings to Hezbollah and admitted that the “same leadership
that directs the parliamentary and government work also leads jihad
actions.”[31] Another Hezbollah member (and former Lebanese member of
parliament), Ismail Sukariyya, has stated publicly that “it is impossible to
separate the political [arm] from the military one.”[32]
In spite of these affirmations of the unity among Hezbollah’s parts, the West is
still unwilling to give up on the wing construct. After Bulgarian police and
Interpol proved Hezbollah’s culpability for a July 2012 bombing that killed five
Israelis and one Bulgarian, the European Union (EU) finally decided to designate
Hezbollah a terrorist organization—only to “clarify” that the “militant wing”
alone would be so designated.[33] The decision was a deadly farce, for money
sent to the charitable or political wing of Hezbollah—or any other terrorist
organization for that matter—inevitably finds its way to the militant wing. At
least their fellow Arabs understand: The Saudi press called such a distinction
“an insult to people’s intelligence”[34] while the six-member Gulf Cooperation
Council (GCC) named Hezbollah a terrorist organization, opening up the
possibility of further sanctions against the group.
Hamas
In 1973, Ahmad Yasin, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood living in Gaza,
established the Islamic Center (al-Mujamma al-Islami), ostensibly to operate
schools and clinics. Over the next decade, this Islamist organization, which
eventually emerged as Hamas (acronym for Harakat al-Muqawamma al-Islamiya—the
Islamic Resistance Movement), grew steadily at the PLO’s expense:
While the welfare and charity arms of Israel’s public enemy number one, the PLO,
were compelled to remain clandestine in Gaza and the West Bank throughout the
1970s and 1980s, the Mujamma was able to operate openly and freely. From its
legally registered offices in Gaza, it set up kindergartens charging reduced
fees and offered free food and clothing donations. It established clinics
offering primary health care and free or subsidized medicines.[35]
After proclaiming its existence to the world on December 14, 1987, in August
1988, Hamas issued its covenant, which described the nascent organization as “a
wing of the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine.”[36] Hamas itself purports to have
three separate branches: a political wing, which plays the Sinn Féin role,
dealing with governments and nongovernmental organizations (though it is far
less interested in feigning moderation than Sinn Féin was); a military wing, the
Qassam Brigades, named after a Syrian Islamist killed by the British army in
Palestine in November 1935; and the social wing, or the dawa (proselytism)
infrastructure—a complex socio-political operation geared to widening Hamas’s
popular base by economically supporting ordinary Palestinians, rather than its
followers alone, while exposing them to its values and jihadist ideology and
creating widespread financial dependency on the assistance it provides.
Hamas, founded by Ahmad Yasin, began as a charity, operating schools and
clinics, and grew into a radical Islamic movement. Reporters, academics, and
Western politicians speak of its wings as distinct, separate units. But Yassin
declared: “We cannot separate the wing from the body. If we do so, the body will
not be able to fly. Hamas is one body.”
The press, most academics, and virtually all Western politicians accept the
fraudulent separation premise, treating members of the political wing as
diplomats, peace partners, or subjects for interviews rather than murderers or
collaborators in murder. But again, this is an illusion, deployed to hoodwink
gullible Westerners into ignoring “the myriad ways in which virtually every
Hamas political and social activity is inextricably bound up with its terrorist
mission.”[37] Like the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas is structured in a strict
hierarchical fashion with the political leadership overseeing all fields of
activities, setting the movement’s goals and strategy, and delegating
responsibility for their implementation to the various bodies and organs. Both
Hamas’s founder, Yasin, and his immediate successor, Abdul Aziz Rantisi,
admitted as much, with Yasin stating in 1998: “We cannot separate the wing from
the body. If we do so, the body will not be able to fly. Hamas is one body.”[38]
Rantisi reiterated in 2001 that
Hamas’ political wing determines the overall policy for the movement [and the]
military wing operates at the pleasure of the political bureau, and is
subordinate to it.[39]
This, however, did not prevent former president Jimmy Carter from praising Hamas
leader Khaled Mishal as someone who is “strongly in favor of the peace
process,”[40] a sentiment echoed by British Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn.[41]
Understanding the Metaphor
Any fight against a terrorist organization is a propaganda war as much as it is
a legal case or a military engagement. Nation-states are often slow to
acknowledge (let alone react to) words and ideas deployed as tactical weapons.
The first step in fighting any tactic is understanding it, and yet there is
scant rhetorical analysis of the terms and few attempts to tease out meanings
through apparent etymologies.
By treating the wings of a terrorist group as separate entities, journalists,
analysts, and politicians are abetting these groups.
For instance, why has “wing” emerged as the preferred term in Western discourse?
Why not refer to the counterfeit segments as “divisions” or “branches” or even
the United Nations’ preferred term, “organs”? Though these terms are sometimes
used, each connotes a kind of unity that terrorists seek to conceal: “Division”
is too corporate, and “branch,” a tree metaphor, suggests natural outgrowth. The
goal is to create an illusion of separation, and these terms simply do not work.
Likewise, the seldom-used terms “organ” and “arm” suggest a kind of unity from
which there is no escape. In a witty 2005 Washington Times column, Tony Blankly
argued insightfully that the militant and political arms of the IRA and
Hezbollah were not separate entities at all. He derided
the gorgeous vision of dealing separately with the political and military arms
of a terrorist organization—in the expectation that the political arm will grow
while the military arm will wither. Unfortunately both arms are connected to the
same body, which is governed by the same brain. And it is the brain of a
killer.[42]
So the term “wing” has become the mainstay trope camouflaging nearly every
significant terrorist organization’s true structural integrity. But its meaning
is not unambiguous. One option is to see the metaphor as implying the anatomy of
a bird or the parts of an airplane; thus a wing in this usage denotes a “lateral
part or appendage.”[43] The Hamas covenant suggests this possibility toward the
end of Article 27 where it distinguishes between Hamas and the “secularist” PLO:
“One’s cousin is the wing one flies with—could the bird fly without wings?” But
such a reading of the metaphor is problematic since many terrorist groups have
more than two wings and since, like arms or branches, it implies an organic
unity that terrorists want to obscure.
Another option is to consider the term’s meaning in military jargon: “Either of
the two divisions (right wing, left wing) on each side of the main body or
centre of an army or fleet in battle array” or “each of the two divisions of a
regiment of an air force.” But this does not shroud the militaristic nature of
the organizations; rather, it does the opposite. Therefore, the most logical
reading of the term is to consider it an architectural metaphor, with the
“resistance” as a large building and wing denoting a “subordinate part of a
building on one side of the main or central part.” This usage insinuates the
difficulty for those, say, at the top floor of the building (the political wing)
to follow and control the activities of those at the basement (the militant
wing), and it likens the resistance to an amorphous, unnamed body caught in the
middle. It also portrays the terrorist organization as something all Westerners
can relate to: a giant bureaucracy with inevitable glitches and miles of
frustrating red tape.
A government wishing to preserve the illusion that it does not negotiate with
terrorists may welcome a bogus political wing partner.
Repeated and thoughtless use of the term reinforces the deception and increases
the likelihood of its success. By accepting the premise of the metaphor and
treating the wings of a terrorist group as separate entities, journalists,
analysts, and politicians are in fact abetting these groups. Their reasons for
doing so vary. A government wishing to preserve the illusion that it does not
negotiate with terrorists while doing precisely that may welcome a bogus
political wing as a negotiating partner.
Journalists who identify more closely with terrorists than with their victims,
wishing to avoid the term “terrorist” at all costs, have been more than willing
to play along with the ruse:[44] Whenever a new wing of a group is discovered to
be engaged in terrorism, or too closely-related to the main terrorist power
structure, it sprouts a new wing that distances itself from the parent wing
until its true nature is also discovered after which it sprouts another new
wing. The entire process is thus potentially unending.
Conclusion
Rather than treating terror groups’ wings as separate parts of a building with
discrete and independent functions, governments should take the metaphor but
subvert it. The first step would be to make clear that all wings of a terrorist
group will be considered parts of the same building, hidden behind a facade—an
elaborate and decorative but false front of a building that disguises its true
shape. Governments can then proceed by inflicting legal damage on one part of
the structure that will invariably weaken the entire edifice.
In the United States at least, the tools for inflicting such damage are
available in two “material support” statutes enacted in 1994 and 1996.[45]
Acting U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks noted, following the conviction of the Holy
Land Foundation trial defendants in 2009, that the statues recognize
that money is fungible, and that money in the hands of a terrorist
organization—even for so called charitable purposes—supports that organization’s
over-all terrorist objectives.[46]
In practical terms, just as the Treasury Department’s forensic accountants track
down shell companies set up by criminal organizations and then bring in law
enforcement to break up the gangs, so Western nations must deal with the shell
charitable organizations that terrorist groups routinely set up to hide and then
transfer resources to their militant wings.
The Canadian government seemed to be taking just the right steps when it revoked
the legal charity status of the Canada Development Foundation (DF) of the
Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) but still fell into the trap posed by
terrorist con artists. The ISNA, one of the original twenty-nine Muslim
Brotherhood front groups listed in the Brotherhood’s 1991 explanatory
memorandum, had established a Canadian branch which, in turn, set up a separate
charitable wing called the ISNA Development Foundation. The Development
Foundation was found to have sent money to the Pakistani Relief Organization for
Kashmiri Muslims with its own strong ties[47] to the Islamist group
Jama’at-e-Islami,[48] which has its own militant wing, Hizbul Mujahideen.[49]
But while the Canadian Revenue Agency shut down the so-called Development
Foundation, it has not thus far revoked the charity status from the parent
group, ISNA Canada, leaving it free to launch another wing if it so chooses.[50]
As illustrated by much of the West’s response to some of Israel’s military
actions during Operation Protective Edge in 2014, the wing charade poses serious
diplomatic and public relations problems for targeted states. When Israel was
forced to retaliate against missile launchers and weapons caches secreted in
Gazan schools and mosques, there was an immediate uproar from many Western
capitals. “Civilized” nations would not condone military tactics turned on
charities, hospitals, and orphanages, despite evidence that they were being used
to target Israel’s citizens and notwithstanding repeated Israeli warnings to
remove all civilians from these hot zones.
Charities affiliated with terrorist groups must not be allowed to turn donations
into detonations.
This ruse must be challenged and defeated. Charities affiliated with terrorist
groups must not be treated as genuine aid organizations. In the United States,
they should not be granted 501(c) status and allowed to operate freely, thereby
turning donations into detonations. This will be a difficult task for Western
nations, hobbled by their tendency to treat all charity and philanthropy as
intrinsically valuable and untouchable.
Similarly, governments with a history of treating the political wings of
terrorist organizations as legitimate state actors will find it difficult to
reverse course although they must. The example of Sri Lanka and its fight
against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is instructive here. In
addition to a navy, air force, and ground forces, as well as suicide squadrons,
the LTTE maintained a political wing. Following the election of President
Mahinda Rajapaksa in 2005, a new Sri Lankan offensive against the rebels
commenced, culminating in the deliberate targeting and killing of the head of
this political wing, S.P. Thamilchelvam.[51] Despite world-wide condemnation,
the Sri Lankan government did what it needed to cut off the head of this
particular hydra, defying the wishes of the international community and fighting
back with overwhelming, rather than merely proportionate force. So did Egyptian
minister-of-defense-turned-president Abdel Fattah Sisi by toppling the Muslim
Brotherhood government, then outlawing the movement as a terrorist organization
despite the Obama administration’s harsh response to this move.[52] Yet even
Sisi stopped short of following his policy to its logical conclusion by
proclaiming Hamas’s military wing—but not the organization itself—a terrorist
organization.[53]
Perhaps the most notorious terror group currently operating, the Islamic State,
aka ISIS, has taken on the trappings of an actual state by setting up ruling
institutions, selling oil from the territory it captured, and even minting its
own currency.[54] It has also undertaken a propaganda campaign, portraying
itself as the caretaker of children stricken with cancer[55] and, like
Hezbollah, opening its own schools.[56] Whether the West will be gulled by this,
should ISIS also tone down its anti-Western rhetoric and actions, remains to be
seen.
Columnist Tony Blankley pointed out that both Al Capone and the Nazis engaged in
charitable services for the poor of Chicago and Germany respectively. He wrote,
“Any political party that has its own private army is inherently not a
democratic institution. Nor is it likely to evolve into one.”[57]
Taking this advice one step further, the civilized world should agree that any
entity calling itself the nonviolent social, charitable, or political wing of a
terrorist group should be treated exactly as its militant wing is treated.
Terrorists use the term “wing” as a rhetorical ploy to divert attention from
their crimes and to help finance their violence. Though the ploy is ubiquitous,
and the premise of separation is widely accepted, all evidence indicates that
the wings of a terrorist group are never separate. Rather, like Odysseus’s
horse, they disguise the warriors within. Western governments should not repeat
the Trojans’ mistake.
A.J. Caschetta is senior lecturer at the Rochester Institute of Technology and a
Shillman-Ginsburg fellow at the Middle East Forum.
[1] See Walter Laqueur, ed., Voices of Terror (Naperville, Ill.: Sourcebooks,
2004), especially Bakunin, “Revolution, Terrorism, Banditry”; Sergey Nechaev,
“Catechism of the Revolutionist”; Nikolai Morozov, “The Terrorist Struggle”;
Pyotr Kropotkin, “The Spirit of Revolt”; and John Most, “Advice for Terrorists.”
[2] See, for example, Tristram Korten, “Our Hero the Drug Dealer,” The Miami New
Times News, Apr. 23, 1998.
[3] Brendan O’Brien, The Long War: The IRA and Sinn Féin, 2nd ed. (Syracuse:
Syracuse University Press, 1993, 1999), p. 13.
[4] Ibid., p. 285.
[5] The New York Times, Mar. 15, 2005; The Washington Post, Mar. 17, 2005.
[6] Jim Allister, “n-must-prove-it-supports-the-rule-of-law-28414328.html”>Sinn
Fein must prove it supports the rule of law,” The Belfast Telegraph, Jan. 9,
2007.
[7] Ibid.
[8] John Simpson, “Martin McGuinness: Butcher of Bogside to brave statesman,”
BBC, June 27, 2012.
[9] The New York Times, June 27, 2012.
[10] Gudrun Kramer, Hasan al-Banna (Oxford: One World, 2010), pp. 70-5; Richard
P. Mitchell, The Society of the Muslim Brothers (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1993), p. 206.
[11] “Zaynab al-Ghazali, 1917-2005,” in Roxanne L. Euben and Muhammad Qasim
Zaman, eds., Princeton Readings in Islamist Thought (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 2009), pp. 275-82; Gilles Kepel, Muslim Extremism in Egypt,
Jon Rothschild, trans. (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California
Press, 1985), pp. 29-30.
[12] Alyssa A. Lappen, “The Muslim Brotherhood in North America,” in Barry rubin,
ed., The Muslim Brotherhood: The Organization and Policies of a Global Islamist
Movement (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), p. 162.
[13] Ibid., p. 169.
[14] Barry Rubin, “Comparing Three Muslim Brotherhoods,” in Rubin, ed., The
Organization and Policies of a Global Islamist Movement, pp. 10-13.
[15] Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Special Dispatch 5647, Feb.
16, 2014.
[16] “The Muslim Brotherhood ‘Project’ (continued),” Dec. 1, 1982, in Front Page
Magazine, May 11, 2006.
[17] Mohamed Akram, “An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for
the Brotherhood in North America,” May 19, 1991, The Investigative Project for
Terrorism archives.
[18] Ibid.
[19] See, for example, John Rossomando, “Egyptian Magazine: Muslim Brotherhood
Infiltrates Obama Administration,” Investigative Project on Terrorism, Jan. 3,
2013; The Washington Times, June 3, 2013.
[20] “Muslim Brotherhood Now Has Its Own U.S. Political Party,” Investor’s
Business Daily (Los Angeles), Apr. 2, 2014.
[21] “The Palestinian National Charter: Resolutions of the Palestine National
Council July 1-17, 1968,” art. 9, Yale Law School, Avalon Project; “Fatah’s
Sixth General Conference Resolutions,” MEMRI, Aug. 13, 2009.
[22] Ion Mihai Pacepa, Red Horizons: Chronicles of a Communist Spy Chief (New
York: Kampmann and Co., 1987), p. 25.
[23] Ibid., pp. 27-8.
[24] Efraim Karsh, Arafat’s War (New York: Grove Press, 2003), pp. 213-35.
[25] Roxanne L. Euben and Muhammad Qasim Zaman, introduction to “Hamas 1987″ in
Princeton Readings in Islamist Thought, p. 7.
[26] Steven Emerson, Jihad Incorporated (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 2006)
p. 242.
[27] Martin Kramer, “The Oracle of Hizbullah” in R. Scott Appleby. ed.,
Spokesmen for the Despised (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997), p. 89.
[28] Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, Hizbu’llah, Politics and Religion (London: Pluto Press,
2002), p. 3.
[29] Matthew Levitt, Hezbollah (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press,
2013), pp. 22-48; Kramer, “The Oracle of Hizbullah,” p. 85; Augustus Richard
Norton, Hezbollah (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007), chap. 2, “The
Founding of Hezbollah”; Eitan Azani, Hezbollah: The Story of the Party of God
from Revolution to Institutionalization (New York: Palgrave, 2009), pp. 39, 50;
Jamal Sankari, Fadlallah, The Making of a Radical Shi’ite Leader (London: Saqi
Books, 2005), p. 15.
[30] Azani, Hezbollah, p. 63. Italics in original.
[31] European Jewish Press (Brussels), May 22, 2013.
[32] MEMRI Special Dispatch 5347, July 24, 2013.
[33] The Washington Post, July 22, 2013.
[34] MEMRI Special Dispatch 5401, Aug. 9, 2013.
[35] Beverly Milton-Edwards and Stephen Farrell, Hamas, Islamic Resistance
Movement (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2010), p. 47.
[36] “The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement,” Aug. 18, 1988, art. 2,
Yale Law School, The Avalon Project.
[37] Matthew Levitt, Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of
Jihad (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006), p. 33.
[38] Reuters, May 27, 1998.
[39] Levitt, Hamas, p. 39.
[40] Times of Israel (Jerusalem), May 2, 2015.
[41] The Telegraph (London), July 13, 2015.
[42] “Talking with terrorists,”The Washington Times, Mar. 15, 2005.
[43] All definitions are quoted from The Oxford English Dictionary.
[44] Honest Reporting, Apr. 10, Apr. 30, 2013.
[45] The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, 18 U.S.C. §
2339A; The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act § 2339B.
[46] “Federal Judge Hands Down Sentences in Holy Land Foundation Case,” U.S.
Justice Department, Office of Public Affairs, Washington, D.C., May 27, 2009.
Jacks also calls the HLF “the chief fundraising arm for the Palestine Committee
in the US created by the Muslim Brotherhood to support Hamas.”
[47] Animesh Roul, “Indian Investigations Reveal Funding System for Promoting
Jihad in Kashmir,” Terrorism Monitor, Jamestown Foundation, Washington, D.C.,
Apr. 4, 2014.
[48] MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 5564, Dec. 13, 2013.
[49] “Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM),” Global Security, Alexandria, Va., accessed Apr.
24, 2016; “Hizb-ul Mujahideen,” Institute for Conflict Management, New Delhi,
accessed Apr. 24, 2016.
[50] Mississauga News (Ont.), Sept. 24, 2013.
[51] Stephen Hopgood, “Tamil Tigers, 1987-2002,” in Diego Gambetta, ed., Making
Sense of Suicide Missions (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), p.74.
[52] BBC News, “Profile: Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood,” Dec. 25, 2013.
[53] Reuters, Jan. 31, 2015.
[54] CNN, Nov. 14, 2014.
[55] Jihadism and Terrorism Threat Monitor, MEMRI, Aug. 12, 2014.
[56] MEMRI Special Dispatch 5439, Sept. 9, 2013.
[57] The Washington Times, Mar. 15, 2005.
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