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Bible Quotation For Today/Just as it was in the days of Noah, so too it will be in the days of the Son of Man
Luke 17/26-30: "Just as it was in the days of Noah, so too it will be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking, and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed all of them. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot: they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day that Lot left Sodom, it rained fire and sulphur from heaven and destroyed all of them. it will be like that on the day that the Son of Man is revealed."

Bible Quotation For Today/So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty
Letter of James 02/01-13:"My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favouritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, ‘Have a seat here, please’, while to the one who is poor you say, ‘Stand there’, or, ‘Sit at my feet’, have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonoured the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you? You do well if you really fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For the one who said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’, also said, ‘You shall not murder.’ Now if you do not commit adultery but if you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. For judgement will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgement."

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on September 02-03/15
The groups protesting in Beirut/Myra Abdallah/Now Lebanon/September 02/15
Iran's 'Frozen' Assets: Exaggeration on Both Sides of the Debate/Patrick Clawson/Washington Institute/September 02/15/
Golden dinars are all what will remain of ISIS/Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/September 02/15/
The king finally comes to town/Bruce Riedel/Al-Monitor/September 02/15
The Fiction of Political Islam/Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute/September 02/15
Will Egypt's Zohr Gas Field Sink Israel's Leviathan?/Gal Luft/Journal of Energy Security/September 02/15
Lebanon’s Hot Tin Roof/Eyad Abu Shakra/Asharq Al Awsat/September 02/15
The Return of the State/Ali Ibrahim/Asharq Al Awsat/September 02/15

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin for Lebanese Related News published on September 02-03/15
Lebanon's real near future as of today
Obama-Ayatollahs deal winning in the Senate?
Presidential Elections Postponed to September 30
Berri on Upcoming Dialogue: It is a Real Chance to 'Lebanonize' Presidency
Mashnouq: Future Attempt to Assault State Institutions Will be Dealt with by Force
Environment Minister Says Protests 'Directed at Wrong Person
Jumblat Calls for Talks between Protesters, Officials to Find Alternative Landfill
Mustaqbal Rejects 'Coup-like Pressure' for Any Minister's Resignation
Diplomats: Security Council to Hear Briefing on Lebanon Protests
Hariri Slams 'Baseless Rumors' on Alleged Qatari Role in Protests
Hezbollah official’s son arrested for selling arms to ISIS: report
The groups protesting in Beirut
FPM Convoys Roam Streets ahead of Friday Demo

Lebanon's real near future as of today...
Walid Phares DC/Face Book/September 02/15
While Lebanese are sinking in debates and protests for and against the "Zbele' uprising" the fate of the country seems to be played -especially as of today- inside Washington DC. With one vote for the Iran deal in the US Senate secured by the Obama White House, many countries in the region, including Lebanon, will be now shifting to the table of the "Iran-Obama" kitchen. If the deal passes Congress, and one vote will pass it, unless an unpredictable event occurs, Lebanon will be transferred to the Iranian sphere of influence, though the US will maintain some bits of influence regarding marginal matters. Instead of organizing a massive anti Iranian deal demonstration in Beirut, to signal to Congress and the United Nations that a majority of Lebanese while it is frustrated with its street trash, it is also opposed to see their country being handed over to the wider Iranian basket, Beirut is exploding with colorful and chaotic marches. There will be no national protest of the Iran deal in Lebanon. Zbele has taken over the city and it has become too high for people to see what's coming above the trash walls. The "Mencheviks" are damaging the inefficient politicians, who are hated by the people, and the Bolsheviks -not the Mencheviks- will be forming the next Government, inline with the "Iran deal."

Obama-Ayatollahs deal winning in the Senate?
Walid Phares DC/Face Book/02 September/15
Firewall for Ayatollahs deal in Senate reached with one vote in the Senate. Sources within the Beltway confirmed "firewall" was reached with the consolidation of needed numbers in the Senate to stop a bypassing of President Obama's projected veto to a Senate predicted simple majority rejection of the Iran deal. The sources explain that the White House believes has now enough votes in the Senate Democrats minority to block the anti-veto response. Some though still believe that no real guarantees that such firewall exist until the actual voting session. The Iran deal provides 150 billion dollars to the Ayatollahs regime, which is on US terror list and will be purchasing advanced weapons with parts of the cash. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., announced her support for the Iran deal as Secretary of State John Kerry delivered a lengthy and detailed address in Philadelphia defending the accord. With Mikulski's vote, the Senate majority would lose its ability to defeat the veto to be used by President Obama to overcome a simple Senate majority opposition to his deal with the Ayatollahs regime. An Obama-Ayatollahs victory in the US Senate would open the path for an unparalleled influence by the Iranian regime in Washington. Such an influence would impact US Foreign Policy regarding the Middle East in general and Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Gaza, Israel and Jordan, to start with. The Mikulski vote would be responsible for the dramatic events that would follow in the region and worldwide.

Presidential Elections Postponed to September 30
Naharnet/September 02/15/A session to elect a president was postponed again after the needed quorum at parliament was not met. Speaker Nabih Berri scheduled the next session for September 30. Commenting on the postponement of the elections for the 28th time, Lebanese Forces MP Georges Adwan said: “There is great pressure from the people to elect a president.”He also voiced the LF's backing for the adoption of proportionality in a new parliamentary electoral law, “which will achieve the best representation at parliament.”Numerous electoral sessions have been scheduled, all but one were postponed over a lack of quorum. Disputes between the rival March 8 and 14 camps over a compromise candidate have thwarted the election of a successor to Michel Suleiman whose term ended in May 2014. There are several candidates but none of them is willing to make compromises that would allow lawmakers to attend a session aimed at electing a head of state. The presidential vacuum has hindered the government's ability to tackle growing security, economic and social problems.

Berri on Upcoming Dialogue: It is a Real Chance to 'Lebanonize' Presidency
Naharnet/September 02/15/Speaker Nabih Berri stressed on Wednesday the importance of dialogue to resolve pending disputes in Lebanon, saying that the presidential elections and a parliamentary electoral law are the primary issues that need to be discussed. On his call for dialogue, he said: “It is a real chance to 'Lebanonize' internal affairs, especially the presidency.” The dialogue may yield “zero or a hundred results,” he said during his weekly meeting with lawmakers at Ain el-Tineh. The speaker recently called on parliamentary blocs to dialogue, which will kick off on September 9 and will be attended by more than 17 politicians, in addition to Prime Minister Tammam Salam. Earlier, Berri defended Environment Minister Mohammed al-Mashnouq against demonstrators calling for his resignation, saying he is not corrupt. According to As Safir daily published on Wednesday, Berri told his visitors that “al-Mashnouq is clean and is not corrupt.” “Calls for his resignation are out of place,” said the speaker, describing al-Mashnouq's decision to suspend his participation in the ministerial committee tasked with resolving the waste crisis as a “bold move.” Protesters are demanding al-Mashnouq's resignation over his failure to resolve the garbage crisis that erupted last month when the Naameh landfill was closed. Following three huge protests over the past two weeks, the main group behind the protests known as "You Stink" gave the government a Tuesday deadline to begin responding to its demands, starting with the resignation of the environment minister. He refused, resigning instead from the ministerial committee. On Tuesday, a group of about 30 protesters from "You Stink" stormed the ministry. But security forces ejected the protesters, raising more tension over their campaign against the uncollected garbage and the stagnant political class. Berri denied to his visitors that his call for dialogue among the leaders of parliamentary blocs came as a result of the anti-government protests. “When someone sees dark clouds on the horizon, he could expect rain which either brings with it mud or good news,” said Berri, adding he called for the talks because he only forecasted mud.

Mashnouq: Future Attempt to Assault State Institutions Will be Dealt with by Force
Naharnet/September 02/15/Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq emphasized on Wednesday that future attempts by protesters to occupy and rally at state institutions will be “dealt with immediately.”He announced in a press conference to address the recent civil society protests: “Future attempts will be dealt with by force.”He stressed however that the security forces “have preserved and will continue to preserve the people's right to hold peaceful demonstrations.”“The security forces are bound by their duty to protect the state and public property,” he added. “We will exercise all efforts to peacefully prevent rallies at state institutions,” continued Mashnouq. Furthermore, he condemned the insults made by protesters against the security forces, especially those who accused them of “lacking dignity”. “We say that such remarks are an assault against them,” he declared. “I salute the protesters who formed a human chain to act as a barrier against those attacking the security forces,” Mashnouq added. “The security forces are the same as the poorest of citizens in their need for electricity, water, and the resolution of the waste management crisis,” he remarked. “The security forces are of the people and those who see otherwise are blind to national causes,” he noted. “Are the protesters the only people with problems? The security forces have families and needs as well,” he said before reporters. “There are more wounded among them than the protesters and we have not heard a word of sympathy towards them,” he said in reference to accusations that the demonstrators were assaulted.
He reiterated his acknowledgment that security forces used “excessive force” during an August 22 rally, saying that a number of them have been disciplined for their shortcomings. Mashnouq concluded by stressing that the election of a new president and approval of a new parliamentary electoral law will serve as the beginning of resolving Lebanon's pending problems. Earlier, the minister acknowledged that some security members on Wednesday made “limited mistakes” while they were forcing protesters out of the Environment Ministry the day before, As Safir newspaper reported. “The protesters were given more than one chance to evacuate the government building,” he said. “Some security members made limited mistakes when they were forcing the protesters to willingly evacuate the building, where a stampede took place” he added while asserting that no serious injurers were reported which can be proven through the Red Cross reports. On Tuesday, protesters from the “You Stink” movement occupied the eighth floor of the Environment Ministry to demand the resignation of Minister Mohammed al-Mashnouq. The activists said police had beaten some of them and the Red Cross said medics treated several for wounds sustained in scuffles with security forces. Imad Bazzi, one of the organizers of the "You Stink" campaign, said police had shoved a dozen activists from the building shortly after the rest had been driven out. The same movement had led in recent weeks rallies in protest against the ongoing waste management crisis that started with the closure of the Naameh landfill in July. Politicians have so far failed to find an alternative for it. The civil society campaign has gained thousands of followers, evolving into a movement protesting against the corrupt political class.

Environment Minister Says Protests 'Directed at Wrong Person'
Naharnet/September 02/15/Environment Minister Mohammed al-Mashnouq refused on Wednesday to budge on his decision to remain in office despite protests calling for his resignation over his failure to resolve the waste crisis. Following talks with Prime Minister Tammam Salam at the Grand Serail, al-Mashnouq said the protests are “directed at the wrong person.” He stressed that he would remain in office. “I am part of this government. I don't mind discussing (with protesters) any other issue.”On Tuesday, “You Stink” movement activists briefly took over the environment ministry in downtown Beirut and demanded al-Mashnouq's resignation. They have so far staged three large protests over the government's failure to deal with the garbage crisis that erupted following the closure of Lebanon's largest landfill in Naameh on July 17. Skirmishes also erupted Tuesday outside the environment ministry as dozens of protesters outside pelted security forces with bottles and stones. The protests have attracted supporters from across Lebanon's political and religious divides, reflecting the growing frustration with the corrupt political class. But al-Mashnouq said his conscience was clear and hoped the waste crisis would be resolved. He reiterated that several political parties were to blame for the failure to resolve the problem.

Jumblat Calls for Talks between Protesters, Officials to Find Alternative Landfill
Naharnet/September 02/15/Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat has stressed that the resignation of Environment Minister Mohammed al-Mashnouq over his failure to resolve the snowballing waste crisis is “useless.”Jumblat told An Nahar daily published Wednesday that the authorities should start cooperating with the young protesters calling for al-Mashnouq's resignation to find an alternative for the Naameh landfill. The garbage crisis erupted when the landfill serving Beirut and Mount Lebanon was closed last month. Waste began piling up on the streets, drawing angry protests organized by the “You Stink” movement. On Tuesday around 30 of its members stormed the environment ministry, calling for al-Mashnouq's resignation. The protests have attracted supporters from across Lebanon's political and religious divides, reflecting the growing frustration with an aging and corrupt political class that has failed to provide basic services, but for which there appears to be no clear alternative. Jumblat called for “calm” measures to discuss their demands, among which are al-Mashnouq's resignation and holding parliamentary elections. The country has been without a functioning parliament — the last elections were held in 2009 — and no president for the past 15 months.

Mustaqbal Rejects 'Coup-like Pressure' for Any Minister's Resignation
Naharnet/September 02/15/Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Tuesday slammed the storming of the Environment Ministry building by “You Stink” activists as a “dangerous coup-like method,” warning that such tactics serve the interests of “those who are seeking chaos in Lebanon.”“In principle, peaceful protest highlights the vigor of the Lebanese people, who had revolted in March 2005 against tyranny and hegemony … Therefore, the return of the Lebanese to peaceful protest underscores their patriotism and adherence to the peaceful, democratic and civil heritage,” said the bloc in a statement issued after its weekly meeting, in reference to Saturday's mass rally in downtown Beirut.“Real peaceful and democratic change is a legitimate right related to freedom of expression … and it should not descend to violence in the streets or stirring chaos through groups of infiltrators whose only objectives are destruction and sabotage,” Mustaqbal warned. It cautioned that “storming the Environment Ministry or any other state institution serves the interests of those seeking chaos in Lebanon, not those of the peaceful protest movement.” Mustaqbal also stressed the need for the current government to “continue performing its missions,” warning against “its fall or resignation amid the presidential vacuum.”“In this regard, the bloc also rejects pressure for the resignation of any minister or official in this dangerous coup-like method which was tried today,” it added. Proposing solutions, Mustaqbal reiterated its call for “the immediate election of a president and consequently the formation of a new government that addresses all the national, political, economic and social issues, including the drafting of a new electoral law.” Earlier in the day, protesters from the You Stink movement and other groups occupied part of the environment ministry in downtown Beirut, in an escalation of a campaign against the country's trash crisis and a stagnant political class. In the evening, riot police forcibly removed the protesters from the building after a several-hour standoff, which left several activists injured. The activists said they stormed the ministry building to push for the resignation of Environment Minister Mohammed al-Mashnouq, who is close to Mustaqbal, over his failure to resolve the country's waste crisis. But al-Mashnouq refused to resign, telling TV stations: “I am carrying out my duties.”During its last protest in downtown Beirut on Saturday, “You Stink” issued a 72-hour ultimatum for the authorities to meet their demands, including the resignation of the environment minister, holding Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq accountable for police violence in previous demonstrations, and releasing funds for municipalities to begin their own garbage management programs. In longer term goals, the activist group called for new parliamentary elections and the election of a president to fill a post that has been vacant since May last year due to political squabbling.
The waste crisis erupted after the closure of the Naameh landfill that lies south of Beirut on July 17.

Diplomats: Security Council to Hear Briefing on Lebanon Protests
Naharnet/September 02/15/The U.N. Security Council is expected to hold an emergency session on Wednesday to discuss anti-government protests that have rattled Lebanon in the past two weeks, diplomats said. One of the diplomats told An Nahar newspaper that the Council will hear a briefing from U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Sigrid Kaag via video conference on the latest developments in the country, mainly the protests against the political class. It was not clear, however, if the Council would issue a statement on the demonstrations. Another diplomat told the daily that the department headed by U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman, who is a former U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon, called for Tuesday's session. Angry protests that suddenly erupted last month over the government's failure to deal with the garbage crisis have evolved into the most serious anti-government demonstrations in Lebanon in years. The protesters seek to challenge the political class that has dominated Lebanon and undermined its growth since its civil war ended in 1990. The waste crisis erupted when the Naameh landfill that lies south of Beirut was closed on July 17.

Hariri Slams 'Baseless Rumors' on Alleged Qatari Role in Protests
Naharnet/September 02/15/Al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri stressed Wednesday that “rumors implicating the name of the State of Qatar in the current Lebanese events are definitely baseless.”“Qatar is a brotherly state that cares about Lebanon's stability and it did not hesitate to help the country under all circumstances,” Hariri tweeted. Hailing the “fraternal ties” with Qatar and its political leadership, the ex-PM expressed “gratitude for everything it has offered to Lebanon and Lebanese.” On Monday, Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq, a member of Hariri's Mustaqbal movement, alleged that “a small Arab state is playing an active role in financing and instigating the protests.”“Its name will be revealed when the investigations end,” he told Al-Arabiya television. And on Wednesday, the pro-Hizbullah al-Akhbar newspaper hinted that Qatar is involved in the popular protests, noting that LBCI television chairman Pierre al-Daher and al-Jadeed TV deputy chairperson Karma Khayyat had visited Doha in the past week. Earlier, some protest organizers and politicians had accused “thugs sent by political parties” of infiltrating peaceful demos to spark riots and clashes with security forces. The protests started over a rubbish collection crisis but have become a movement targeting the country's stagnant and corrupt political class. The demands of the protest movement, which is spearheaded by the “You Stink” campaign, have expanded beyond a solution to the waste crisis to calls for the environment minister's resignation, new parliamentary elections and accountability for violence against protesters. On Tuesday, Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun voiced concern that the protests could descend into violence similar to the one that marred Arab Spring demonstrations in several Arab countries, warning that some parties could be “mobilizing” the protesters to achieve malicious goals.

Hezbollah official’s son arrested for selling arms to ISIS: report
Now Lebanon/September 02/15/BEIRUT – Syrian security forces have allegedly arrested the son of a high ranking Hezbollah military official on charges of buying weapons from Syrian army soldiers and selling them to ISIS members in Qalamoun. Lebanese news site Janoubia reported that Syrian intelligence in mid-August rounded up a group of army recruits who were selling light to mid-level arms and ammunition to a Lebanese individual, who was also arrested. The Syrian security service discovered that the detained Lebanese national—identified only as Ammar Y.Sh.—was a member of Hezbollah, a trusted source in the Bekaa told the outlet, which has an editorial line opposing the Shiite party. Janoubia added that Ammar Y. Sh.—the eldest son of a high ranking Hezbollah military official in the Bekaa—was able to enter and exit Syria freely with the weapons due to his position in the party, which is fighting on behalf of the Bashar al-Assad regime. The investigation by the Syrian security forces also revealed that the weapons had been smuggled through Lebanese territory to ISIS, which has a presence along certain Qalamoun fronts bordering Hezbollah controlled areas, as well as in the mountains around Lebanon’s Ras Baalbek. So far the Syrian security forces have refused to hand over the accused Hezbollah member to the Lebanese party on grounds that Syria has jurisdiction over him since his crime was perpetrated on Syrian territory, the report also said. According to Janoubia, Hezbollah has been informed that a death sentence has been issued against him and the other members of the smuggling network, and that it will be implemented shortly.

The groups protesting in Beirut
Myra Abdallah/Now Lebanon/September 02/15
NOW maps the civil society groups protesting in central Beirut and looks at their demands.
It started with the #YouStink campaign launched at the beginning of August by a group of civil society activists and bloggers. Their original demand was a permanent, sustainable solution to the garbage crisis, as mountains of trash were growing across the Lebanese capital and the country’s cabinet was struggling with police deadlocks over petty issues. But when security forces became violent with demonstrators on 22 August, the number of protesters and demands grew. Several civil society groups demonstrated in Martyrs’ Square at one of the biggest demonstrations Lebanon has seen since the Cedar Revolution. NOW looks at their demands and their social orientation.
You Stink
You Stink was the first movement to take to the streets in the context of the Lebanese trash crisis. Its organizers describe it as a grass roots movement created as a response to the government’s inability to solve the ongoing trash crisis in a sustainable manner. The movement is pushing for:
1. Sustainable solutions provided by several environmental experts with a focus on returning to a municipality-level system while implementing nationwide recycling.
The organizers of the movement — most of them social media activists — called for the first big protest on 8 August and launched an online donation campaign, providing a full report of the expenses. Starting with 8 August, the You Stink campaigner staged a sit-in in front of the Lebanese government building in Riad al-Solh Square.
The most dramatic development was the 22 August demonstration, when Lebanese security forces retaliated with force against the protesters. The next day, clashes with riot police resulted in severe damage in downtown Beirut. Violent protesters were accused of having been sent by political parties to infiltrate and discredit the anti-trash movement.
By 29 August, the movement split. In addition to calling for an end to the trash crisis, the remaining You Stink campaigners called for the election of a new president.
On 1 September, activists stormed the Ministry of Environment, demanding the resignation of Environment Minister Mohammad Machnouk.
We Want Accountability
We Want Accountability is a splinter group from the original You Stink movement. It was created by activists linked to the Lebanese Communist Party, the People’s Movement, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party and other independent activists who did not feel You Stink adequately represented them.
They say they want to address the cause, not just the effects. Their demands are:
1. To nationalize the waste sector and stop public bidding; to make trash disposal a municipal responsibility
2. Accountability of the security forces for violence against protesters
3. Dropping the charges against the arrested protesters
4. The right to protest and of freedom of expression
5. A new secular electoral law with Lebanon as one district
6. The resignation of the Lebanese cabinet.
On 29 August the We Want Accountability group gathered at the Interior Ministry. Although the group was smaller than others, their chants gathered many supporters. The group left Martyrs’ Square and moved the protest to the Grand Serail in Riad al-Solh Square.
To The Streets
To The Streets declared itself against corruption as well as against the Lebanese political establishment — both March 8 and March 14 alike. They call the politicians the “ruling elite” and want radical change in the Lebanese political system.
The activist group became famous for launching the “Kelloun ya’ni kelloun” campaign (All of them means all of them). Their most controversial banner drew criticism for depicting Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, among other politicians accused of corruption.
The groups’ demands:
1. A solution to the waste crisis, taking into consideration environmental and health standards
2. An investigation into security forces’ crackdown on protestors in Riad al-Solh square
3. The resignation of Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk for the crackdown on the protests
4. The resignation of Environment Minister Mohammad Machnouk, who is directly responsible for the waste crisis
5. Holding the Ministry of Energy accountable for corruption and waste of public money and the deterioration of basic electricity services
On 29 August supporters of To The Streets movement gathered at the entrance to Gemmayzeh and marched towards Martyrs’ Square.
Smaller or regional groups
Akkar is not a Dump was created to slam a plan by the cabinet to transfer garbage from Beirut to North Lebanon in exchange for $100 million in development projects.
22 August Revolution is a splinter group of the You Stink movement created to express a wider range of demands. The organizers believe that “a revolution does not need the You Stink campaign to motivate it or order it to take to the street or withdraw from it.” The movement calls for protests related not only to the garbage crisis, but also to take down the political system. The group is calling for a rally on Friday, 4 September.
Youth Against the System also reject sectarianism and demand basic rights such as water, electricity, sanitation, health care, a new electoral law, and an end to corruption.
The People Want also demands the release of all detained protesters, accountability of security forces for the crackdown on protests, the resignation of Nohad Machnouk and Mohammad Machnouk, the restoration of waste management to municipal administration, the prosecution of high corruption cases, and that a date be set for parliamentary elections.

FPM Convoys Roam Streets ahead of Friday Demo
Naharnet/September 02/15/The Free Patriotic Movement staged another motorized protest on Wednesday to mobilize supporters ahead of Friday's downtown Beirut demonstration.The convoys gathered outside the Mirna Chalouhi Center in Sin el-Fil before roaming several towns and villages in the Metn region. LBCI television said one of the convoys briefly blocked the presidential palace's main entrance in Baabda to demand the election of a “strong president.”State-run National News Agency meanwhile said Republican Guard troops took strict security measures around the palace “over reports that young men from the FPM will head to the presidential palace.”FPM supporters also staged a motorized protest in several coastal and mountainous Keserwan areas, NNA said.The agency said meetings aimed at preparing for Friday's demo were held at the FPM office in the Mirna Chalouhi Center. Ministers Jebran Bassil and Elias Bou Saab and MPs Ibrahim Kanaan and Nabil Nicolas took part in the meetings. The movement has organized several similar protests in recent weeks. One of the demos descended into clashes with security forces that left several troops and protesters injured. Last Friday, FPM chief MP Michel Aoun reiterated his call for the election of a president through a popular rather than a parliamentary vote. He also invited FPM supporters to carry out a protest next Friday “to ask for reform and for participation in decision-making, and to call for fighting corruption.” The demonstration is scheduled to be held at 5:30 pm in downtown Beirut's Martyrs Square. Aoun also called for the approval of an electoral law based on proportional representation and the formation of a government that introduces reforms.In recent months, the FPM chief has slammed what he calls the “marginalization” of Christians in state institutions, amid a dispute in cabinet over military appointments and another over the government's decision-making mechanism amid the absence of a president.The disputes prompted Aoun and his ministers to accuse Prime Minister Tammam Salam of infringing on the jurisdiction of the Christian president.

At Least 28 Dead, 75 Hurt in IS Suicide Blasts at Yemen Shiite Mosque
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 02/15/The Islamic State group claimed twin bombings of a Shiite mosque that killed at least 28 people and wounded 75 in the Yemeni capital Wednesday. The Sunni extremist group, which has claimed similar bombings in the past, said a man named Qusai al-Sanaani blew himself inside the mosque and that a bomb-laden vehicle parked nearby subsequently exploded. The attack was to "avenge Muslims against the Rafidah (Shiites)," said the statement on Twitter. IS has claimed similar bombings of Shiite mosques in Sanaa. It considers Shiites to be heretics and has also bombed their mosques in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.Witnesses earlier gave AFP a slightly different account, saying the suicide attack took place outside the mosque, after which a bomb-laden car driven by another suicide attacker exploded.But a security official quoted sabanews.net, the website of the Shiite rebels controlling the capital, confirmed the IS account of the incident. He also confirmed the death toll of 28 killed and 75 wounded provided by medics but said it was "not final."

Car Bomb Kills 10 in Syria Regime Bastion Latakia
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 02/15/Ten people were killed and dozens wounded on Wednesday in a rare car bombing in the Syrian city of Latakia, the coastal bastion of President Bashar Assad, state media said. "Terrorists detonated a car laden with many explosives at noon (0900 GMT) in Hamam square in Latakia, killing 10 people," the official SANA news agency reported. It said the explosion had also wounded 25 people and caused significant damage to nearby cars and buildings. State television aired footage of charred cars with their windows blown out, and firefighters attempting to put out blazes in the city. Latakia, the heartland of the minority Alawite sect to which the Assad clan belongs, has been largely spared the violence that has wracked Syria since an uprising against regime rule erupted in March 2011. But SANA reported that officials had discovered two cars full of explosives in Latakia on Tuesday and "arrested those responsible". The car bomb that went off on Wednesday was the biggest of its kind in Latakia since the war broke out, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. "This is rare for Latakia city, which is usually hit by rockets," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. Rebel fighters entrenched in the hilly terrain around Latakia regularly fire rockets and other missiles into the city. Abdel Rahman said the car bomb detonated on the northern edges of the city and "wounded dozens, including four or five in critical condition". Many Syrians displaced by violence in neighboring regions have taken refuge in Latakia province and some businesses have moved to the relative safety of the area. The province is home to Assad's ancestral village and support for his government remains strong there, although the war has also taken a toll among conscripts and volunteers from the area. Rebels and jihadists have long made the region a target, in part for its symbolic value as a regime stronghold. In recent months, a rebel alliance that includes Al-Qaida affiliate Al-Nusra Front has been battling to capture the Sahl al-Ghab region that borders Latakia. It has claimed some territory but is facing strong resistance from Syrian forces backed by Lebanon's Hizbullah movement. Elsewhere on Wednesday, two students were killed and 15 people wounded when mortar rounds hit an engineering college in Damascus, SANA said. State television later reported another three people were killed and 45 wounded in opposition shelling on Jaramana, an area southeast of the capital. More than 240,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which began with anti-government protests in March 2011 but spiraled into a complex civil war after a government crackdown.

Ukraine Ceasefire Undermined, EU Extends Sanctions
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 02/15/Two civilians were killed Wednesday in eastern Ukraine, undermining fresh efforts to end continuing violence as the European Union extended sanctions against individuals deemed responsible for the conflict. A Western-brokered ceasefire agreed in February has been punctuated by frequent deadly incidents. In a fresh bid to restore peace, Ukrainian government and separatist representatives last week agreed to seek to end ceasefire violations from Tuesday as children began school term. But after several days of a relative lull in the war-ravaged industrial east, a group of civilians and law enforcement officials were caught in an ambush in the rebel-controlled Lugansk region during an anti-smuggling operation. Two civilians were killed and four soldiers wounded, said military spokesman Andriy Lysenko. "During a clash, a volunteer and a member of the state fiscal service were killed," Lysenko told reporters, saying that it was an ambush and that the road was mined. "An enemy sharpshooter was also at work," he added. In July, Ukraine set up groups of law enforcement officers, tax officials and volunteers to combat smuggling of contraband goods across the demarcation line in eastern Ukraine. The two victims were the first participants in such a group to be killed. An aide to President Petro Poroshenko, Yuri Biryukov, wrote on his Facebook page that a member of the SBU security service and several paratroopers were wounded as a result of the attack. Observers warn that gangs of smugglers are seeking to take advantage of the Ukraine conflict that has claimed more than 6,800 lives since April last year. The attack came as EU sources said the 28-nation bloc would extend sanctions for another six months against Ukrainian and Russian figures accused of backing pro-Moscow rebels.
"There is a political agreement; (officials) agreed to extend the sanctions for six months to March next year," one source told AFP after a meeting of diplomats from European Union nations to discuss the sanctions. The sources said EU member states are expected to formally endorse the decision ahead of the scheduled expiry of the sanctions on September 15.
Elsewhere in war-ravaged eastern Ukraine, the shaky truce appeared to be holding, the authorities said. But some ordinary Ukrainians said they were sceptical that the ceasefire would last long. "We had the same situation this past winter: they announced a ceasefire, things got quiet but then the shooting began again with renewed vigor," said Irina Shinkarenko, a 60-year-old retiree from rebel-held Donetsk. Kiev and the West accuse Russia of backing the rebels with weapons and troops, a claim the Kremlin denies.
Under the Western-backed deal agreed in February, Kiev must grant pro-Russian separatists a degree of autonomy but Ukrainian ultra-nationalists oppose the plan. Proposed reforms, which were given initial backing by lawmakers on Monday, set off street battles in Kiev immediately, with hundreds of protesters, some armed with hand grenades and baseball bats, clashing with police outside parliament. The clashes killed three members of the National Guard and wounded more than 140 in the worst unrest in Kiev since a bloody uprising ousted the Moscow-backed president in early 2014, unleashing in turn a separatist insurgency in the east.
On Wednesday, hundreds of servicemen paid their last respects to one of the guardsmen. Many clutched flowers, while others held portraits of the other two victims. The government blamed ultra-nationalists for the unrest, saying activists had thrown a live grenade outside the parliament. President Petro Poroshenko has called the clashes a "stab in the back" and said the organizers would be severely punished. The Ukrainian leader has found himself in a tight spot as the right-wing Radical Party quit his ruling coalition on Tuesday in protest at the draft reforms. Opponents of the reform bill have branded it "un-Ukrainian" and observers say it may ultimately struggle to win final parliamentary approval. Kiev's Western allies see the reforms giving the east more autonomy as a chance to end the armed conflict in the east. The February truce calls for Kiev to implement "decentralization" by the end of this year. The West has voiced support for the controversial proposals, but expressed disquiet over Monday's violence.

Russia gearing up to be first world power to insert ground forces into Syria
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report September 1, 2015/Despite strong denials from Moscow, Russian airborne troops are preparing to land in Syria to fight Islamic State forces. The surprise attack on Monday, Aug. 31, by ISIS forces on the Qadam district of southern Damascus, in which they took over parts of the district - and brought ISIS forces the closest that any Syrian anti-Assad group has ever been to the center of the Syrian capital - is expected to accelerate the Russian military intervention. Moscow is certainly not ready to endanger the position of President Bashar Assad or his rule in Damascus, and views it as a red line that cannot be crossed. If Russia intervenes militarily in this way, Russia will be the first country from outside the Middle East to send ground forces into the Syrian civil war.
debkafile’s military sources report that discussions by the Russo-Syrian Military Commission, which was established last month in Moscow to coordinate the intervention, accelerated during the last few days. Our intelligence sources point out that the concerted activities of the commission are taking place amid the nearly complete paralysis of the US Central Command-Forward-Jordan (CCFJ), where operations against the rebels in southern Syria, including those holding positions across from Israel’s Golan, are coordinated. Officers from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Israel are attached to the CCFJ. Most of the operations of the CCFJ have been halted due to a conflict that erupted between the Syrian rebels and the U.S. Central Command, CENTCOM. The US military is opposed to the rebels cooperating with Al-Qaeda-linked groups, such as the Al-Nusra front, while the rebels claim that this cannot be avoided if they are to defeat the forces of Bashar Assad and Hizballah. The paralysis of the CCFJ is spurring the Russians to try to show that their “central command” for Syria is operating without any difficulties. In recent weeks, the Russians have taken four military steps related to Syria: 1. On Aug. 18, six of Russia’s advanced MIG-31 Foxhound interceptor aircraft landed at the Syrian Air Force’s Mezze Airbase, which is the military section of Damascus international airport. After the fighters landed, they were immediately followed by giant Russian Antonov AN-124 Condor cargo planes carrying 1,000 of Russia’s 9M133 Kornet anti-tank missiles. The advanced jets are intended to serve as air support for the Russian units that arrive in Syria. 2. Before the Russian planes landed in Damascus, Moscow reached an agreement with Washington for the removal of NATO’s Patriot missile batteries from Turkey. The removal was carried out gradually during the month of August, thus preventing the possibility that NATO Patriot missiles could hit Russian fighters carrying out operations in Syrian airspace. 3. During the last week of August, a large number of Russian troops, mostly logistical teams whose job is to lay the groundwork for the arrival of the combat units, arrived in Syria. The troops were seen in Damascus and in Jablah district of Lattakia province, where the Russian forces are building a military base. 4. Our intelligence sources also report that Moscow has started to supply Damascus with satellite imagery of the ground situation on the different fronts. debkafile’s military and intelligence sources report that all of these preparatory steps by Moscow for the introduction of ground forces are being carried out in coordination with Washington and Tehran. The more that the three capitals tighten their coordination in support of Assad, the sooner the Russian intervention is expected to take place.

Israeli Druze reservists want to give back Protective Edge commendations
Ynetnews/Lior El-Hai, Yuval Karni/Published: 09.02.15/Several Druze combat soldiers have decided to protest what they say is the State of Israel's poor treatment of their community by giving back their Operation Protective Edge participation commendation.
One of the protesters is Captain (res.) Youssef Hassoun from Daliyat al-Karmel. "When I came back from the operation (Protective Edge) after 38 days, I found out that our water at home was cut off. They disconnected us, claiming we were illegally connected to the water network. We proved that we weren't ilegally connected, and only then did they reconnect us. I'm a law-abiding citizen, not a pirate," he said, "This situation saddens me. Why are they hurting us, all these years? We always feel like we have a big rights deficit. Many Druze homes don't have electricity." Il Asa'ad, 40, from the village of Kisra, who fought in Gaza as well after being called in for reserve duty, said, "For decades we've been stepping up and fighting alongside Jews with great sacrifice, shoulder to shoulder and sword by sword. But at home we don't have infrastructure, we don't have electricity. It's a big problem."Asa'ad, who is the head of the Druze forum at the Bayit Yehudi party, says that this kind of treatment is why Druze soldiers are giving back their Protective Edge commendations to the state.
Asa'ad's friend Youssef Alman, 30, from Kisra, said, "I left my wife and kids at home and went away to fight, but my house isn't connected to the water or power grids. I get them through a pirated connection to my neighbors. It's hurtful. How much can we suffer? We complain, get told that it's being taken care of, but nothing really is." Absam Shami, 40, from Daliyat al-Karmel said, "There's no denying our commitment to the country, but we're fighting for equal rights. I didn't participate in Protective Edge, but I can certainly understand my friends' wishes to give back their commendations." MK Nissan Slomiansky (Bayit Yehudi) came to Daliyat al-Karmel after hearing about the protest and met with its representatives. He expressed understanding for their plight, but tried to convince them to keep their commendations. "We're blood brothers," said Slomiansky, "the Druze people fight fiercely for the country, suffer losses, but some of them don't have anywhere to come back to. No home, no electricity. "They give the country their souls – but the country doesn't care about them because the Druze people are a small sector," he continued. "We try to help them by promoting municipal outline plans and getting them approved, by approving building licenses, and we are also trying to get them connected to the electrical grid in an organized and legal manner. The system is quite slow and the protest is justified, but nonetheless I am against giving back the Protective Edge commendations. They earned them."

Obama 1 senator shy of guaranteeing Iran deal
Ynetnews/Yitzhak Benhorin, Itamar Eichner/Published: 09.02.15 / Democrats Bob Casey, Chris Coons declare support for deal signed with Islamic Republic; 1 more vote will give US president capability to veto Republican attempt to shut down deal. Washington - Supporters of the Iran nuclear deal are on the cusp of clinching the necessary US Senate votes to keep the contested agreement alive and hand President Barack Obama a major foreign policy victory in spite of furious opposition. Democratic Senators Bob Casey and Chris Coons on Tuesday became the 32nd and 33rd senators to announce support for the deal, just one shy of the 34 votes needed to uphold an Obama veto of Republican legislation aimed at blocking it. "This agreement will substantially constrain the Iranian nuclear program for its duration, and compared with all realistic alternatives, it is the best option available to us at this time," Casey said in a statement. In remarks at the University of Delaware, Coons said, "I will support this agreement despite its flaws because it is the better strategy for the United States to lead a coalesced global community in containing the spread of nuclear weapons." Earlier Tuesday Sen. Ben Cardin, top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, predicted that Obama would get to 34 votes by week's end despite two Democrats who have openly declared their opposition to the deal. Congress returns from its six-week break on September 8 and the Senate will begin debating the Iran deal. Republicans unanimously oppose the deal with 54 votes, aiming to curb Iran's nuclear program in exchange for relief from economic sanctions, and the Israeli government is vehemently opposed. But critics have failed to use Congress' summer recess to turn the tide against the deal. Only two Democratic senators have come out against it. With 34 votes looking to be within reach, supporters have begun aiming to get 41 votes, which would block the disapproval resolution from passing in the first place, and would spare Obama from having to use his veto pen. Cardin, who said he remains undecided, didn't address that possibility.
In a session with students at Johns Hopkins University, Cardin discussed the pros and cons and said his decision will be made on which approach is likeliest to keep Iran from becoming a nuclear weapons state. Either decision carries risks, he said. "I think it's a tough call and I sort of bristle when people say this is such an easy decision, why haven't you made it," Cardin said. "I don't think it is an easy judgment call. I think there are high risks either way." Officials in Jerusalem were unsurprised Tuesday at Obama's impending victory, having predicted such an outcome from the beginning. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Office refused to comment. The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Obama clinches support needed to approve Iran deal
Ynetnews/Associated Press/Published: 09.02.15,/President secures ability to uphold veto as Sen. Barbara Mikulski announces she will vote in favor of nuclear deal. US President Barack Obama secured a landmark foreign policy victory on Wednesday over ferocious opposition from Republicans and the government of Israel when Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski became the 34th vote in favor of the Iran nuclear deal. Mikulski's backing gives supporters the margin they need to uphold an expected Obama veto of a congressional resolution of disapproval that Republicans hope to pass later this month. And it spells failure for opponents of the international agreement who sought to foil it by turning Congress against it. Leading that effort were Israel and its allies in the US, who failed to get traction after spending millions of dollars trying. Jerusalem sources said following the news that "the prime minister made clear before his speech to Congress in March that his duty is to present Israel's concerns about the agreement to the American people and its representatives. A solid majority of the American public and in Congress agrees with this stance."The agreement signed by Iran, the US and five other world powers limits Iran's nuclear program in exchange for relief from hundreds of billions of dollars in sanctions. Republicans and Israeli leaders contend that concessions made to Iran could empower that country, which has sworn to destroy Israel. Soon after news of Mikulski's announcement broke, Secretary of State John Kerry delivered a speech defending the deal at Philadelphia's National Constitution Center. Kerry compared the situation to a house fire – no one would refrain from putting out a fire because of concern about what might happen in 10-15 years. One would, Kerry said, put out the fire and begin preparing for the future. "No deal is perfect, especially one negotiated with the Iranian regime," Mikulski said in a statement. "I have concluded that this Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action is the best option available to block Iran from having a nuclear bomb. For these reasons, I will vote in favor of this deal."
Secretary of State John Kerry is sending a letter to all members of Congress outlining US security commitments to Israel and the Gulf Arab states in light of the nuclear deal. The letter comes as Kerry delivers a major policy speech Wednesday in Philadelphia that focuses on how the international agreement makes the US and its allies safer and how the deal is being mischaracterized by some opponents. "I really believe the fastest way to a genuine arms race in the Middle East is to not have this agreement," Kerry said in a nationally broadcast interview Wednesday. "Because if you don't have this agreement, Iran has already made clear what its direction is."With opposition to the agreement failing to take hold on the Democratic side, supporters may even be able to muster the 41 votes needed to block the resolution from passing in the first place, sparing Obama from having to use his veto pen. That would require seven of the 11 remaining undeclared senators to decide in favor of the deal. Only two Democratic senators have come out against the deal – Chuck Schumer and Robert Menendez – while in recent weeks undeclared Democratic senators, even from red states, have broken in favor one after another. Even if Congress were able to pass the disapproval resolution, it can't stop the deal, which was agreed to among Iran, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China. In July, the UN Security Council unanimously endorsed the nuclear deal, approving a resolution that would lift the international sanctions on Iran in 90 days. Interviewed on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program Wednesday, Kerry said that the absence of an agreement is what could lead to a nuclear arms race in the region. Putting the deal in place, he said, will keep other nations "from chasing a weapon on their own." Kerry also said that if the US rejects the deal, it would confirm the fears of Iran's leaders "that you can't deal with the West, that you can't trust the West."

Petraeus: Al-Qaeda fighters can fight ISIS
By AFP | Washington/Wednesday, 2 September 2015/Former CIA chief and retired general David Petraeus wants the U.S. to consider working with some members of an Al-Qaeda-affiliated organization to tackle the ISIS in Syria, he said on Tuesday. In a statement to CNN, Petraeus said some members of the Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front might be persuaded to join the coalition battling the ISIS group. “We should under no circumstances try to use or co-opt Nusra, an Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, as an organization against ISIL,” Petraeus told CNN, using another acronym for the ISIS group. “But some individual fighters, and perhaps some elements, within Nusra today have undoubtedly joined for opportunistic rather than ideological reasons: they saw Nusra as a strong horse, and they haven’t seen a credible alternative, as the moderate opposition has yet to be adequately resourced.” So, Petraeus argued, it may eventually be possible to “peel off so-called ‘reconcilables’ who would be willing to renounce Nusra and align with the moderate opposition to fight against Nusra, ISIL, and (Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.)”. Petraeus became a household name in the U.S. when he oversaw the troop “surge” in Iraq in 2007, and U.S. leaders credited him for salvaging the troubled war effort. Part of that operation saw the decorated general convince Sunni fighters to stop fighting with Qaeda and to work with the US military.
Politically toxic
His statement on Tuesday followed the publication of a story in the Daily Beast that pointed out the irony of the U.S. working with anyone connected to Qaeda, which carried out the September 11, 2001 attacks and triggered America’s so-called war on terror. The Daily Beast said several officials it had spoken to found Petraeus’s idea to be politically toxic and almost impossible to carry out and strategically risky. In his statement to CNN, Petraeus said using any Nusra fighters would require “both the rise of much stronger, moderate opposition groups - backed, again, by the US and the coalition seeking to defeat ISIL - and at the same time, intensified military pressure on all extremist groups.”Petraeus, 62, had a spectacular fall from grace this year when he pleaded guilty to providing classified secrets to his mistress. He was given two years’ probation and a $100,000 fine.

Video shows man lift hand then being shot by police in U.S.
By | Reuters/Wednesday, 2 September 2015/County commissioners in the San Antonio area on Tuesday approved funds for additional body cameras for sheriff's deputies, a move that comes hours after the release of a video showing two deputies appearing to fatally shoot a man who had his hands up in the air. Bexar County Commissioners also asked the sheriff's department to review the department's "use of force" policy following the release of the cell phone video shown on local TV that shows Gilbert Flores, 41, being fatally shot in an incident on Friday with two deputies. The two deputies and the victim were Hispanic. The Texas shooting came after questions have been raised about racial bias in U.S. policing due to incidents that sparked protests nationwide, including the killing of an unarmed black teenager in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri, about a year ago by a white officer. Bexar County deputies had been called to a domestic disturbance in an upscale neighborhood last Friday. They encountered a woman and a three-week-old old baby who had been injured, and also found Flores, 41, who police said in a report was "armed." "The deputies attempted to use less than lethal methodologies," sheriff's spokeswoman Rosanne Hughes said on Friday. "When that did not work, they were forced to discharge their weapons." The video recorded by a neighbor about a block away and aired on station KSAT-TV appeared to show Flores raising his arms as if surrendering before being shot. "The video of Gilbert Flores' fatal shooting by two deputies raises serious concerns over whether these officers used force that was proportional to the circumstances," said Terri Burke, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas. In a statement, Sheriff Susan Pamerleau asked for calm. "We are diligently working to complete the investigation, so we can move to the next step," she said. Sheriff's department officials said the video only recorded the last few minutes of a lengthy encounter and did not include any audio of the conversations. A new law that took effect in Texas on Tuesday provides state funding to get body cameras onto more officers in more departments across the state. Many U.S. cities have moved toward supplying body cameras to patrol officers following rising tensions and protests over what critics see as an indiscriminate use of force by police against unarmed civilians, especially racial minorities and the mentally ill

CIA ‘launches secret drone campaign’ in Syria
By Staff writer | Al Arabiya News/Wednesday, 2 September 2015/A secret drone campaign targeting ISIS leaders is being carried out by the CIA and U.S. special forces in Syria, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday. According to the paper, the clandestine program is using armed drones to kill the militant leaders, in a move that has been separated from wider American military operations against ISIS in territory held by the militants in Syria and Iraq. The strikes are being carried out by the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), while the CIA's main role in the operation is identifying and locating senior ISIS leaders. So far, the program has only resulted in a handful of strikes focusing on “high value targets,” officials told the Post. The CIA and U.S. special forces are carrying out a secret campaign using armed drones to target and kill Islamic State leaders in Syria, the Among those so far killed is Junaid Hussain, a militant hacker from Britain who the Pentagon said was recruiting ISIS sympathizers to carry out lone wolf attacks in the West. A decision to use the Central Intelligence Agency's Counterterrorism Center (CTC) and JSOC in the operation reflects rising anxiety about the spread of ISIS fighters, the Post reported.The CTC led the hunt for Osama bin Laden and JSOC includes the elite Navy SEAL team that carried out the mission to kill the former al-Qaeda leader in 2011. Drone strikes are politically contentious in Washington and President Barack Obama wants the CIA to return to its core activity of spying, and away from paramilitary actions. Instead, he wants the Pentagon to take over the drone strikes. But Senator Barbara Feinstein of California, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, has said she was not convinced the military could carry out drone strikes with the same "patience and discretion" as the CIA. (With AFP)

Who's behind seizing Turks in Baghdad?
By Menekse Tokyay | Special to Al Arabiya News, Istanbul/Wednesday, 2 September 2015/Turkey on Wednesday confirmed that 18 Turkish construction workers have been kidnapped by unknown individuals in the Iraqi capital Baghdad. "Eighteen Turkish citizens working for a construction company in Baghdad have been kidnapped," Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus told reporters. "We are in close contact with the Iraqi (interior) ministry and hope the incident will end positively."Although the identity of the masked men is currently unknown, Metin Gurcan, a security analyst and a former special-forces officer who previously worked in Kirkuk and Baghdad, said it can be either Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or a local criminal network for ransom, or Baghdad government which has nowadays problematic relations with Turkey. “Turkey has recently increased its visibility in the region to a significant extent. It inevitably renders Turkish citizens a precious target for various networks,” Gurcan told Al Arabiya News. “However, kidnapping so many people at the same time and conducting a long negotiation process for releasing them is a relatively new phenomenon for Turkey and shows to what extent the regional conflict reached in making troubles for the country,” he added. However, Gurcan noted, Turkish state and security apparatus should develop the necessary capacity and ability to overcome similar threats in its neighborhood. In a press briefing, the spokesperson of Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tanju Bilgic said that the masked team specifically targeted Turkish nationals, selected them from the rest and left behind the workers from other nationalities. The staff that was kidnapped comprises of 14 workers, 3 engineers and one accountant. Being one of the largest construction companies in Turkey, Nurol Construction Company, whose workers were taken away, shared a press statement with Al Arabiya News. “In the Sadr district of Iraq’s capital of Baghdad, our 18 Turkish staff, who were working on a stadium construction project contracted by our company, were abducted over the night of Sept 1 at about 03:00 am. Turkey’s Foreign Affairs Ministry and local security forces are currently investigating the incident,” the statement reads. The company also has a liaison office in Baghdad. Aydin Selcen, Turkey’s former consul general in Arbil who also worked in Bagdad between 2003-2006, said that in that period there have been various kidnappings and up to now about 110 truck drivers of Turkey were killed by the local militants. "Sadr City is one of the poorest neıghboorhoods entirely inhabited by Shia. Since its bloody civil war Baghdad unfortunately is a divided city with almost no mixed neighborhoods. Central authority is weak and criminal activity rampant," Selcen told Al Arabiya News. Selcen noted that Turkey’s recent engagement with the coalition forces against ISIS, and its permission for the use of its strategic bases by the coalition aircraft to strike against the terrorist group may also have been one of the catalysts for this kidnapping. “This engagement comes with a cost. Turkey should re-examine the preparedness of its security intelligence as well as the extent of its threat perception, while having a strong political will and an efficient communication policy for each of its moves in the region,” he said. Ozdem Sanberk, former undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Turkey, agrees. “There has been a security deficit in the region for a long time and today this vacancy is filled by jihadist and violent non-state actors who are opposed to the West,” Sanberk told Al Arabiya News. Sanberk said that the complexity of the regional conflicts, with intense sectarian violence, makes harder to identify the real motives of such kidnappings and the main actors behind it.

France drops investigation into Arafat's death
REUTERS/J.Post/09/02/2015/French investigating magistrates have decided to drop an inquiry into the death in France of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, whose widow alleged he was poisoned, the prosecutors office said on Wednesday. A lawyer for his widow Suha Arafat, who has argued that his death in 2004 was a political assassination, told Reuters that they would challenge the decision in an appeals court. Arafat, who signed the 1993 Oslo interim peace accord with Israel but led an uprising after subsequent talks broke down in 2000, died aged 75 in a French hospital four weeks after falling ill. The official cause of death was a massive stroke, but French doctors were unable at the time to determine the origin of the illness and no autopsy was carried out. An investigation was opened in August 2012 at the request of Suha Arafat, and his remains were exhumed for tests that were examined separately by French, Russian and Swiss experts. The Swiss reported their results were consistent with but not proof of poisoning by reactive polonium. The French concluded he did not die of poisoning and Russian experts were reported to have found no traces of polonium in his body.

Gaza could be ‘uninhabitable’ by 2020, U.N. warns
By The Associated Press | United Nations/Wednesday, 2 September 2015/A new United Nations report says Gaza could be "uninhabitable" in less than five years if current economic trends continue. The report released Tuesday by the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development points to the eight years of economic blockade of Gaza as well as the three wars between Israel and the Palestinians there over the past six years. Last year's war displaced half a million people and left parts of Gaza destroyed. Palestinian Manal Keferna, 30, cries upon her return during a 12-hour cease-fire to the family house destroyed by Israeli strikes in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 26, 2014. (AP) The war "has effectively eliminated what was left of the middle class, sending almost all of the population into destitution and dependence on international humanitarian aid," the new report says. Gaza's GDP dropped 15 percent last year, and unemployment reached a record high of 44 percent. Seventy-two percent of households are food insecure. The wars have shattered Gaza's ability to export and produce for the domestic market and left no time for reconstruction, the report says. It notes that Gaza's "de-development," or development in reverse, has been accelerated. Israel and Egypt have maintained a blockade of Gaza since the Islamic militant group Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007. The report comes as Egyptian military bulldozers press ahead with a project that effectively would fill Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip with water and flood the last remaining cross-border underground smuggling tunnels, which have brought both commercial items and weapons into Gaza. The report calls the economic prospects for 2015 for the Palestinian territories "bleak" because of the unstable political situation, reduced aid and the slow pace of reconstruction.

Iran police to confiscate cars of ‘poorly veiled’ women
Wednesday, 2 September 2015/Women drivers in Iran's capital could have their cars impounded by police if they are caught driving with a poorly fixed veil or without their heads covered, a police chief said Wednesday. "If a (female) driver in a car is poorly veiled or has taken her veil off, the vehicle will be seized in accordance with the law," the head of Tehran's traffic police, General Teymour Hosseini, was quoted as saying by the official ISNA news agency. He added that any woman who had her car seized would need to obtain a court order before getting it back.Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, wearing a veil in public has been mandatory for all women in Iran. But recent decades have seen a loosening of the rules governing female dress and many women in Tehran dress in a way that is far removed from the strict clothing regulations in other observant Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia. "Unfortunately, some streets of the capital have come to resemble fashion salons," Iran's judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani said this week, questioning the "tolerance" that has led to "such a situation".Iran's moderate President Hassan Rowhani has since his June 2013 election overseen some political and social reform but much of the country's political establishment remains deeply conservative.

Iran's 'Frozen' Assets: Exaggeration on Both Sides of the Debate
Patrick Clawson/Washington Institute/September 02/15/Before the nuclear deal was signed, the freezing of Iranian assets was incomplete, so the loosening of restrictions on these assets will have less impact than implied by past and current arguments. The Obama administration has long overstated the extent to which economic sanctions froze Iranian assets and the impact these actions had on the regime. Now the administration is facing the flip side of that overstatement, as critics of the nuclear deal exaggerate how much will be unfrozen and what that will mean for Tehran's ability to fund dangerous actors and activities in the region.
FROZEN OR RESTRICTED?
Some Iranian assets are frozen, that is, they cannot be used by their owners (whether the Iranian government or other entities). The Treasury Department's most recent "Terrorist Assets Report" cites $1.973 billion of Iranian financial assets frozen in the United States, and $19 million of unfrozen assets (e.g., funds belonging to Iran's UN mission, which are protected by diplomatic immunity). Due to problems evaluating the worth of real estate, the report's figures do not include tangible property (e.g., 650 Fifth Avenue in New York City, a building worth at least $800 million, which a court has ordered frozen). Other Iranian assets are subject to such heavy restrictions that they might as well be frozen. When the EU adopted tight restrictions on financial transactions with the Islamic Republic, Iranian banks and companies could not access money they had in Europe or were owed by Europeans. A prominent example is the $2.3 billion that Shell says it owes the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) for crude supplies delivered before the restrictions took effect (oil is typically paid for thirty or more days after delivery).
But the largest funds often described as frozen are those held in the central banks of countries to which Iran has recently been selling oil, especially China, Japan, India, and South Korea. These assets total at least $50 billion, and by some accounts more. Iranians are learning how to use these funds to purchase items in the countries where they are being held; that is, most of the restrictions only prevent use of the money to buy goods from third countries. Both Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew and Central Bank of Iran (CBI) governor Valiollah Seif have stated that $20 billion or more of these restricted funds are already committed for future Iranian purchases, arguing that this money should not be included in any calculation of assets that will become available to Iran once the nuclear deal is implemented. A different way of interpreting this fact is that the funds in question were never really frozen in the first place, illustrating how Iran retained substantial access to foreign markets well before the nuclear deal was signed. This is especially true in the case of China: Iranians have been able to spend more than $20 billion of oil revenues held in Chinese banks, using them to purchase Chinese goods and services.
REAL OR BOOK ENTRIES?
Some of the assets declared on the books of Iranian entities are actually worth much less than their declared value. For example, the CBI's books presumably carry Tehran's multibillion dollar loans to the Central Bank of Syria, which are unlikely to be repaid. And NIOC has acknowledged problems with some of its declared assets tied to energy projects abroad. Treasury Secretary Lew has referred to "tens of billions in additional funds [that] are non-performing loans to Iran's energy and banking sector." CBI vice governor Gholamali Kamyab has noted that firms under the supervision of Iran's Oil Ministry lent $22.4 billion for securing energy projects in China, "but now [the borrowers] do not have the ability to repay them, and in Budget Law for the current year they are given a two-year moratorium"; his statements raise the possibility that these loans are worth much less than $22.4 billion. Other statements by CBI Governor Seif suggest that the bank lent NIOC billions of dollars in foreign exchange for oil investments. If so, it is not clear how to place a value on these loans today. And whatever the extent of these dubious assets, the reality is that the losses occurred before the nuclear deal, so it was an exaggeration to include them when totaling up assets frozen pre-deal.
IRANIAN OR IRANIAN GOVERNMENT?
Other pre-deal exaggerations included the suggestion that the Iranian government bore the full burden of asset freezes. In fact, most of the frozen assets do not belong to the government.
One such category is the assets of Iranian banks. Kamyab has stated that $10 billion in blocked funds belong to commercial banks, while other Iranian sources speak of $15 billion. Yet both figures could be understated. According to the most recent International Monetary Fund report on Iran, the country's commercial banks held $67 billion in foreign assets as of March 2014. Some of that is presumably subject to restrictions, and this money does not belong to the Iranian government. While the most important Iranian banks are government-owned, their assets are largely matched by liabilities to their depositors, including tens of billions of dollars in foreign currency deposits by Iranians.
Another large category of restricted assets are those belonging to the CBI. Most Americans -- including most analysts of Iranian affairs -- are not well versed in how central banks work, leading them to conflate the government's budget with the CBI's foreign exchange reserves. In fact, the CBI's foreign assets are not Iranian government money, they are assets of the CBI, and like any such assets they are matched by the bank's liabilities. Most of these assets came from oil sales for which Asian customers paid NIOC in dollars; NIOC then sold those dollars to the CBI, which is holding them in the central banks of the Asian countries. When the CBI purchased those dollars from NIOC, it credited NIOC's Tehran office with Iranian rials, which NIOC then distributed. In other words, the rials long ago showed up in the government accounts as revenue. What has happened to the dollars since then has complicated how the CBI manages its foreign exchange reserves, but it has no implications for the government's budget. If the restrictions on those CBI assets held with Asian central banks are loosened post-implementation, that would not produce a single penny of revenue for the Iranian government.
It is tempting to think that when the CBI and banks have more access to foreign assets, they could lend more to the government. But in fact the government can already borrow more from banks if it is so chooses. Lending to the government is only a small portion of Iranian bank operations. The government has limited debt; the International Monetary Fund has placed it at 20% of GDP, half of which was arrears recognized only in 2014. Finance Minister Ali Tayyebnia has bemoaned the cooked books he inherited from former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, complaining that government debt is actually 25% of GDP. But even that figure is remarkably low by the standards of other countries, suggesting that the government could borrow much more.
If the government does in fact increase its borrowing from Iranian banks, it could cause problems. In particular, it could reduce the amount available to lend to others, including government-owned firms and other well-connected enterprises (as economists say, government borrowing might "crowd out" other borrowers). At the same time, more government spending financed by borrowing might stimulate the economy. Yet how that issue plays out will be the same whether or not sanctions are relaxed.
BENEFITS FOR IRAN'S GOVERNMENT
To be sure, while few of the so-called frozen assets belong to the government, Iranian authorities will still benefit if the nuclear deal significantly lifts restrictions on the assets of Iranian nationals, including the CBI. That is most obvious for the money owed to NIOC, such as Shell's $2.3 billion. Past remarks by Tayyebnia and Kamyab imply that such assets total $6 billion.
Once NIOC gets these dollars, it will sell them to the CBI. Technically, the rials NIOC receives from selling dollars to the CBI do not all go to the government -- the formula set by law is that, for sales at or below the budget's price assumption, 14.5% remains with the NIOC, 20% goes to the National Development Fund (NDF), 2% goes to deprived and oil-producing provinces, and 63.5% goes to the government's coffers. Yet the money earmarked for provinces and the NDF is effectively money for the government -- the more revenue that provinces get from oil sales, the less they need from the central government budget, and while the NDF is legally a nongovernmental public entity forbidden to lend to the government, its spending to promote development reduces what the government has to spend for the same purpose. Apparently, the government has not directly tapped the NDF for expenditures the way it did with the older Oil Stabilization Fund, which is still set to receive 85.5% of receipts from exporting oil at a price higher than the budget assumption. Yet credible reports indicate that the government is effectively reducing the NIOC's share, in part by requiring the company to make some of the cash payments to families introduced as part of the 2011 subsidy reform. The government has also postponed what was supposed to be an increase in the NDF's revenue share.
A clearer advantage for the government is that Iranian entities will be freer to buy from wherever they wish and use a wider array of channels, thereby facilitating dubious transactions. For instance, fewer restrictions will make it easier for the government to disguise foreign exchange transfers to Hezbollah. To date, however, Tehran does not appear to have faced great difficulties transferring money to such entities, so it is not clear how much difference the unfreezing of assets would make. Of course, loosened sanctions on foreign exchange could complicate efforts to enforce restrictions on arms exports or purchases of nuclear, missile, or dual-use items. And a greater variety of channels would help Iranian authorities -- revolutionary as well as regular government -- reduce the transparency of Iranian trade. In the grand scheme of things, however, this would represent only a modest advantage for the Iranian government compared to the situation it has enjoyed for the past few years. In short, the pre-deal asset freeze did not have as great an impact on the Iranian government as some statements from Washington suggested. And going forward, the post-deal relaxation of restrictions will not have as great an impact as some critics of the deal suggest.
**Patrick Clawson is the Morningstar Senior Fellow and director of research at The Washington Institute.

Golden dinars are all what will remain of ISIS
Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/September 02/15/He who buys and keeps the dinar of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is worthy of it because the group will be eliminated and the dinar will be evidence of contemporary history. Its price today is around $130, and its historical value on the market may be double. It will be an important souvenir of the most horrifying organization in this modern era. For ISIS, the dinar is not a currency but a message, as issuing currency indicates a state’s sovereignty. It is part of a propaganda battle to convince people that ISIS is standing its ground, and to differentiate itself from its rivals. The Free Syrian Army (FSA) uses the Turkish lira in the zones it controls, while the regime of President Bashar al-Assad prints its currency in Russia after other printing houses in Europe stopped printing it. ISIS is suffering from the most dangerous crisis since it emerged, and its dinars will not save it However, the ISIS dinar is more a souvenir than a currency. States issue souvenirs during special occasions, but no matter how many women ISIS kidnaps from Syria, how much gold it steals from Iraq or how much oil it tries to sell, it will not find enough pure gold to impose it as a currency or to trade it for other products in the market – unless it looted the gold storages of the banks in the cities under its control.
ISIS supporters claim the gold dinars express the stability of its governance and capability to develop its state project, but this is a big exaggeration. ISIS is suffering from the most dangerous crisis since it emerged, and its dinars will not save it. The number of parties to the international alliance against ISIS has increased, so it is capable of restraining and perhaps even crushing the terrorist organization.Turkey’s involvement in the alliance makes the latter complete. Ankara’s participation may not be significant at shelling ISIS, but its approval and involvement mean that a real siege is now imposed on the terrorist group as several military operations are now being launched from Turkey.

The king finally comes to town
Bruce Riedel/Al-Monitor/September 02/15
The first visit to Washington by Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud as the Saudi monarch comes as the kingdom faces multiple difficult challenges. The Sept. 4 summit will do little to address Saudi Arabia's deep problems, because they are impervious to an American solution.
Salman's top priority is to win the Saudi-led war in Yemen that Riyadh portrays as a decisive response to Iranian aggression and subversion. The king has been praised at home for developing the Salman Doctrine, which emphasizes self-reliance on security issues. The kingdom will henceforth aggressively and decisively defend its interests without depending on American leadership. The Saudis will lead coalitions of like-minded Sunni states to counter Iranian and other Shiite enemies. The doctrine is much more robust than the very cautious and risk-averse approaches characteristic of Salman's predecessors and a response to perceived American indecisiveness toward Iranian gains in Syria and Iraq. The Saudi coalition has made significant advances after five months of engagement. The port of Aden and the city of Taiz have been captured from the Houthis and their ally, former President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Pro-Saudi Yemeni recruits are being organized into so-called Salman Decisiveness Brigades. Forces loyal to President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi have faced difficulties trying to stabilize the territory recovered from al-Qaeda, southern separatists and other militants. Law and order remain elusive, especially in Aden. Hadi continues to stay in Riyadh rather than return home. The Hadi forces rely heavily on Saudi air power and armor provided by the United Arab Emirates.
Hadi and the Saudis say they will seek to take Sanaa from the Houthis this fall, by far the most ambitious operation yet. The city has a population of 2 million. The United Nations reports the Yemeni civilian population is suffering catastrophic conditions, with little food, water or medical supplies. Combat in a major urban area could exacerbate the humanitarian situation drastically. The Saudis already face charges of war crimes and human rights abuses. The king will push for more US logistical and intelligence support for the war and turn a blind eye to its consequences. The Houthis are not Iranian proxies in fact. They have been fighting Saudi hegemony in Yemen for more than a decade. So far, Tehran has done virtually nothing to help them. Their defeat will have at best only a marginal impact on Iran's regional strength. Meanwhile, the Saudis will face a massive reconstruction and reconciliation challenge in Yemen that will cost the kingdom billions for years to come and produce uncertain results. Saleh is no Iranian stooge either. He used to be Washington's man. For Tehran, Yemen is a perfect quagmire for bogging down the Saudis and Emiratis while it consolidates its influence in Iraq and elsewhere.
The Iranian nuclear deal is a less immediate priority for Riyadh. The Saudis want Iran to remain an international pariah, not to return to the global community with sanctions relief. Publicly they say they hope the deal will lead to better Iranian behavior, but the Saudis don't believe that will happen. Threats to build a Saudi nuclear project have been undermined by Pakistan's refusal to join the Yemen war despite intense Saudi pressure. If Islamabad refuses to send troops to fight the Houthis, it is unlikely to help procure a nuclear weapon.
The capture of Ahmed Ibrahim al-Mughassil, the mastermind of the 1996 Khobar Towers attack that killed 19 American airmen, is a useful reminder for the king to point to when he presses Washington to take tough measures in response to Iranian subversive activities. The Saudis will encourage Congress to pass new sanctions related to issues of terrorism. Mughassil's arrest also helps underscore the kingdom's important role in fighting al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. The Saudis need to be pressed by Washington to crack down on al-Qaeda in Yemen, a neglected aspect of their war with the Houthis. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is already operating in Aden and controls the port of Mukkalla.
The elephant in the room Salman wants to avoid is Saudi Arabia's second major challenge: succession politics at home. The kingdom is in the midst of a generational change of leadership, from the sons of the modern state founder, Abdulaziz Ibn Saud, to the grandsons. The sons have provided more than a half century of stability and growth. Salman has shaken the royal power structure by removing his half brother Prince Muqrin from the line of succession, without warning or explanation. The divestment of a sitting crown prince is unprecedented and has introduced uncertainty about the longevity of his replacement, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the most pro-American member of the family.
Power has been centralized in Salman's 30-year-old son, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, deputy crown prince and minister of defense, the main architect of the Yemen war. He controls all access to the king, oversees oil policy and has been the main interlocutor for dealing with foreign leaders. Intensely ambitious, Mohammed bin Salman is the epitome of the Salman Doctrine. His pursuit of power is producing strains within the family and uncertainty about the succession process. If the Yemen war is a success, however incomplete, the prince's position will be further strengthened. The kingdom's third and most difficult challenge is economic. The stability and survival of the monarchy depends on an expensive welfare state. The family bought off potential unrest during the Arab Spring with huge pay bonuses and other handouts. A prolonged period of low oil prices will test the kingdom profoundly. For the near term, the Saudis' huge reserves are cushioning the impact of the low oil prices. Saudi Arabia is much better prepared in this regard than Iran, Algeria and most other producers given its $700 billion or more in reserves. Salman has, however, spent more than $35 billion on bonuses this year, and the war is costing additional billions. New arms purchases will further undermine the social contract.
It is increasingly irrelevant whether Saudi oil production is kept high to protect market share or lowered to try to raise prices. Unless global demand sharply revives, there will simply be too much supply. US shale oil is a big part of the problem for Riyadh. American voters have no sympathy for the Saudis' oil woes. King Salman's health is a final question mark. As crown prince he maintained a vigorous foreign schedule, but persistent rumors of health concerns have been fanned by the king's long holiday this summer in France and Morocco. If his health appears to falter, his son will need to quickly move his uncle aside or risk becoming the second divested crown prince. Saudi Arabia and the United States have been uneasy allies for 70 years. They share interests, but not values. They fundamentally disagree about Israel and Palestine. They are drifting apart, but both leaders have an interest in appearing united. Having snubbed Obama once, Salman wants a more harmonious outcome this time.
Bruce Riedel
Columnist
**Bruce Riedel is a columnist for Al-Monitor's Gulf Pulse. He is the director of the Intelligence Project at the Brookings Institution. His new book, "JFK's Forgotten Crisis: Tibet, the CIA and the Sino-Indian War," will be published this fall.

The Fiction of Political Islam
Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute/September 02/15
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6427/political-islam
To this day, the Obama administration mourns the fall of Egypt's Islamist President Morsi, and turns a cold shoulder to forward-looking President el-Sisi, who is (sometimes) trying to take Egypt into the 21st century and extricate Egypt from its economic and societal crisis.
Muslim Brotherhood terrorism against the Egyptian regime is a perfect example of how this "political movement" is in reality a terrorist movement whose objective is the violent overthrow of Egypt's government. The White House, fully aware of the facts, continues hosting senior Muslim Brotherhood officials and shows them respect during consultations about the American Islamic community and U.S. policy in the Middle East. Events in Sinai prove there is no such thing as "political Islam." There is a radical Islamist leadership that represents itself to the gullible West as "moderate," preaches violence from mosques, cloaks itself in ideological-religious tradition, and employs Islamist terrorists to attack civilians and Egyptian government targets. It is hard not to conclude, looking at President Obama's record (ignoring protesters of 2009 in Iran; "I've got a pen, and I've got a phone"; the dictatorial way the Iran deal is bypassing the democratic process) that in his heart-of-hearts, he is far more committed to supporting extremist Islamist regimes -- whether the mullahs of Iran or the Muslim Brotherhood -- than to supporting democracy, individual freedoms or human rights. The Europeans are more aware of the situation but woke up too late. As hundreds of thousands of migrants from Muslim lands continue to pour over Europe's open borders, there is little doubt that radical Islam is poised to take over the West. Islamic communities and terrorist cells continue to mushroom throughout the cities of Europe.
The world is beginning to understand that the catastrophes of the Middle East have nothing to do with the resolution of the Palestinian issue but are caused by the innate homicidal tendencies of the Arab rulers and the regional Islamist terrorist organizations.
Hamas is in trouble. Its relations with Egypt are going from bad to worse, and the influx of money, primarily from Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the mosques in the Western world -- where charity (zakat) was collected to finance anti-Israel terrorism -- has dwindled to almost nothing. So has the flow of arms and explosives from Iran, Libya, Sudan and Lebanon. The resulted is the weakening of Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip, making it ever more difficult for Hamas to continue its ongoing subversion of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank and its non-stop attempts to overthrow President Mahmoud Abbas to take over the West Bank and establish there the sort of Islamic emirate it established in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas's military buildup was halted when the President Mohamed Morsi's radical Muslim Brotherhood regime in Egypt was toppled and General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was elected President. Morsi, it will be recalled, strangely received support from President Obama until he was ousted. The Obama administration supported him despite Morsi enabling for the flow of money and arms to Hamas in Gaza to continue unhampered through the tunnels in the Sinai Peninsula. The weapons were used not only to attack Israel, but also to sabotage peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians and, indirectly, to attack the Palestinian Authority.
The Islamist terrorism festivities ended when President el-Sisi clamped down on the Islamists in Egypt, destroyed the tunnels and sealed Egypt's border with Gaza. Since el-Sisi has been president of Egypt, Muslim Brotherhood rule has ended and the tunnels have been destroyed. It is hard to fathom why, to this day, the Obama administration mourns the fall of the Islamist Morsi administration and turns a cold shoulder to forward-looking el-Sisi, who is (sometimes) trying to take Egypt into the 21st century and extricate Egypt from its economic and societal crisis.
Since el-Sisi has been in power, money and arms no longer flow through the tunnels into the Gaza Strip; instead they began to flow in the opposite direction, from the Gaza Strip into Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. Since the Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliated terrorist organizations, Hamas among them, have not accepted defeat, there has been an increase in terrorist attacks targeting the Egyptian regime both inside the country proper and in the Sinai Peninsula. The terrorist campaign receives ongoing support from the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military-terrorist wing, and the ISIS-affiliated Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis. Both continuously attack the Egyptian police and army in the Sinai Peninsula, murder Egyptian officials and target Egyptian institutions.
The endless terrorist campaign in Egypt has proven yet again that the claim of a political Islam, separate from the terrorist organizations, is simply a lie. Muslim Brotherhood terrorism against the Egyptian regime is a perfect example of how the "political movement" tries to represent itself as dealing only with the da'wah [proselytizing], while in reality it is a terrorist movement whose objective is the violent overthrow of el-Sisi's administration. The White House, fully aware of the facts, continues hosting senior Muslim Brotherhood officials and shows them respect during consultations about the American Islamic community and U.S. policy in the Middle East. While being hosted by the State Department on a visit to Washington in January 2015, Muslim Brotherhood judge Waleed Sharaby (left) flashed the organization's four-finger "Rabia" sign. At right, ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi (from the Muslim Brotherhood) displays the Rabia sign. The events in the Sinai Peninsula prove there is no such thing as "political Islam." There is a radical Islamist leadership that represents itself to the gullible West as "moderate," preaches violence from the mosques, cloaks itself in ideological-religious tradition, and employs a hard core of Islamist terrorists to carry out attacks on civilians and Egyptian administration targets.
In the meantime, the real victims are the Egyptians. The Muslim Brotherhood's terrorism has paralyzed Egypt's tourist industry, as foreigners fear to visit Egypt's antiquities. And now there are terrorist threats to the New Suez Canal, a project initiated and carried out under the leadership of General Sisi to turn both banks of the two canals into an international logistics, commercial and industrial area.
The Islamists' plans are clear. First, they want to leverage violence, murder and countless Egyptian army casualties into establishing an autonomous terrorist enclave in the Sinai Peninsula. Then they will try to overthrow the Egyptian government and reinstate an Islamist Muslim Brotherhood regime headed by Morsi. That is exactly what their offshoot, Hamas, did in the Gaza Strip when it liquidated Palestinian Authority officials and established an Islamic emirate. The writing on the wall is still illegible as far as the U.S. government is concerned. Or else the Obama administration is still in the thrall of extremist Islam and its Muslim Brotherhood leaders. The two main ones are Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has just called new elections so that he can try again to acquire enough seats in parliament to amend Turkey's constitution to award himself a one-man Sultanate, an absolute dictatorship-for-life to go along with his new palace. The other is Mohamed Morsi, whom Obama apparently is still backing.
It is hard not to conclude, looking at the U.S. president's record (ignoring the protesters of 2009 in Iran; "I've got a pen, and I've got a phone" and the dictatorial way the Iran deal has been short-circuited to bypass the democratic process) that in his heart-of-hearts, he is far more committed to supporting extremist Islamist regimes -- whether the mullahs of Iran or the Muslim Brotherhood -- than to supporting democracy, individual freedoms or human rights.
The Europeans are more aware of the situation but unfortunately woke up too late. As hundreds of thousands of migrants from Muslim lands continue to pour over Europe's open borders, there is little doubt that radical Islam is poised to take over the West. Islamic communities and terrorist cells continue to mushroom and gather strength throughout the cities of Europe.
From the beginning of the wave of attacks in Egypt, senior Egyptian security officials threatened Hamas. Egypt warned Hamas to stop training, arming and sending its terrorists to collaborate with ISIS operatives in attacks against the Egyptian army. Hamas steadfastly denies any involvement, even as it continues collaborating with ISIS against Egypt. As far as Hamas is concerned, destroying the Egyptian army is essential, because its continued actions along the Rafah border and in Sheikh Zuweid in the northern Sinai Peninsula prevent Hamas from acquiring money and stockpiling weapons to fight Israel, which weakens its subversion against Mahmoud Abbas and its plans to take over the West Bank.
Despite profuse denials, at the end of August 2015, four operatives from Hamas's military-terrorist wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, were taken off a bus by armed Egyptians on the way from Rafah through the Sinai Peninsula to Cairo. Hamas immediately accused Israeli intelligence of responsibility and warned the Egyptian authorities that "the abduction of its operatives will not go unpunished." In response, Dina Ramez, a co-host on Egypt's official TV station, called Hamas out on its lies and denials of its terrorist activities in the Sinai Peninsula against the Egyptian regime. She asked Hamas, "If you are not involved in terrorism, what were your senior Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades operatives doing in Sinai?" and called them "cockroaches."
Sources in Hamas called her a "whore," and called Egypt a loser country defeated by Israel, using a peace treaty to sell Palestine to the enemy. Was that really the way to thank Egypt for everything it has done for the Palestinians, sacrificing its army and soldiers for us? It is a sad situation for the Palestinians and for our leadership. What have we Palestinians gained from Hamas's military actions against Egypt? What have we gained from our solidarity with Islamist organizations fighting against Assad in Syria, or joining organizations such as the "Palestinian Liberation Army" fighting for Assad? Why are we killing each other in the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp? Why do we refuse everything the Israelis offer us?
Anyone who remembers history remembers the ungrateful path trodden by the Palestinians against the Kingdom of Jordan, when our leaders, headed by Arafat, tried in 1970 to overthrow King Hussein, despite the refuge Jordan offered us during the catastrophes of the Nakba in 1948 and the Naksa in 1967. Then we did the same thing in Lebanon, to where we fled from Jordan. The PLO relocated its headquarters to Beirut, and went on to turn Lebanon into a terrorist country and the lives of the Lebanese into a nightmare. If the Israelis had not invaded Lebanon in 1982, and forced the PLO to relocate to Tunisia (where its behavior was also criminal), the Palestinians definitely would have destroyed Lebanon. The Middle East is in chaos, and Palestinian factionalism and ingratitude continue to inflame the dissolution of the Arab states and the internal Palestinian division between Hamas in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. The world is beginning to understand that the catastrophes of the Middle East have nothing to do with the resolution of the Palestinian issue, but are caused by the innate homicidal tendencies of the Arab rulers and the regional Islamist terrorist organizations. The only person left who believes the Israeli-Palestinian nonsense is President Barack Obama, even though he is witness to the murders, rapes, beheadings and the millions of refugees, next to which the Palestinian issue is an old, irrelevant and very tired joke.

Will Egypt's Zohr Gas Field Sink Israel's Leviathan?
Gal Luft/Journal of Energy Security/September 02/15
Originally published under the title "Will ENI's Discovery in Egypt Sink Israel's Leviathan?"
Egypt's gas pipeline to Israel
The discovery of the Italian energy company ENI of a giant gas field off the coast of Egypt has transformed the East Mediterranean energy play overnight. The newly discovered field called Zohr could hold a potential of 30 trillion cubic feet of gas – the largest discovery in the region, thirty percent larger than the Israeli Leviathan field, which held the title until today. Zohr's entry into the scene is a true game changer. It delivers a painful blow to both the Israeli and Cypriot economies, and more specifically to the gas partners, Delek Drilling and Noble Energy, which until now have held the only discoveries in the region: Tamar, Leviathan, Karish, and Tanin in Israel and Aphrodite in Cyprus. The finding will essentially annul the MOUs Israel and Cyprus recently signed with Egypt to supply gas to the domestic Egyptian market.
Egypt's Zohr gas field is 30% larger than Israel's Leviathan and easier to develop.
It will also kill any near-term hope for Israeli and Cypriot gas to feed the two idle LNG terminals in Egypt, which are craving for gas supply. Much shallower than Leviathan, Zohr would be easier to develop, and ENI, which has been operating in Egypt for decades, is not likely to face any of the regulatory obstacles Noble and Delek have faced in Israel. ENI believes it can begin to develop the field as early as next year whereas the current timing for the development of Leviathan is still unknown. Other than being a major shot in the arm to the struggling Egyptian economy the discovery raises again the prospect of LNG export to those countries in Europe that own regasification terminals, most importantly Italy, and - with the recent expansion of the Suez Canal - even to the Asian market. For Delek and Noble this fruit is hanging too high. Those two companies are facing a do or die moment, at least when it comes to their East Med operations. Just two weeks ago the Israeli cabinet approved the regulatory scheme to allow the consortium partners to develop Leviathan - more than five years after its discovery. However, the plan needs approval from Israel's Parliament, the Knesset, where even pre-Zohr it faced fierce opposition from many lawmakers on the ground that it does not do enough to ensure low prices and introduce competition. The new discovery is likely to give fodder to the naysayers who will refuse to surrender to Noble and Delek's price demands, reducing the chance of a Knesset approval of the deal.
Lack of LNG infrastructure in the region and huge cost of undersea pipeline construction require an alternative delivery system.
There seems to be no end to the Via Dolorosa that Delek and Noble have had to endure. Facing the likely loss of their largest customer – even the Jordanian market is far from secure as Jordan intends to build an LNG terminal in Aqaba and could then absorb Egyptian gas – as well as the inevitable downward pressure on the price of East Med gas, the two companies will have to go back to the drawing board and rethink their entire strategy The only hope for the consortium is to focus on developing those parts of the European market where they could still have competitive advantage: Greece, Cyprus, perhaps Turkey. But the lack of LNG infrastructure in this part of the Mediterranean and the huge cost associated with construction of undersea pipelines require an alternative gas delivery system.
This is the time to take a hard look at the option of marine CNG (Compressed Natural Gas), the cheapest, simplest and safest way to transport stranded offshore gas to regional markets within the range of 2,000 kilometers. Unlike LNG, CNG does not require liquefaction of the gas and therefore it avoids the need for costly LNG facilities.
There are many other reasons why it makes more sense to squeeze the gas than to freeze it: superior energy balance, no boil off, no need for cryogenic materials and simpler gas reprocessing. More, it enables island countries like Greece and Cyprus that are either too small or too poor to enter the LNG play to switch their electricity sector from costly liquid fuels to low cost natural gas. The technology to deliver gas as CNG already exists and it is certified for maritime transportation by the American Bureau of Shipping. The problem is that to date it has never been implemented in any market. There are many customers who want to be second in line to adopt it, but no one wants to be the first. But desperate times call for desperate measures and the economic distress of the Greek and Cypriot governments coupled with the distress of the consortium members can bring about a revolution in the way natural gas is transported globally. Roughly half the offshore gas of the world is stranded in fields that are too small for LNG development. With CNG this gas can reach its markets, where it can replace oil in both power generation and as transportation fuel.
Government foot-dragging in developing Israel's gas sector is proving costly.
The discovery of Zohr reaffirms two realities. The first is that the East Mediterranean is the new frontier in oil and gas production and we can expect much more product to come online with further exploration and hence more competition to the incumbents.
The second, and this lesson is for Delek, Noble and the Israeli government, is that the energy world is not sitting idly by. The foot-dragging of the Israeli government in developing the gas sector may now cost the consortium members their hegemony in the regional gas market – if not their entire future. Only innovation can be their rescue.
**Gal Luft is co-director of the Washington-based Institute for the Analysis of Global Security and a fellow at the Middle East Forum.

Lebanon’s Hot Tin Roof
Eyad Abu Shakra/Asharq Al Awsat/September 02/15
Some claim the street protests organized by civil society activists in the Lebanese capital Beirut point to the collapse of Lebanon’s political elite. Well, this isn’t exactly true since the Lebanese political elite collapsed and went bankrupt a long time ago. Thus, there was no need for a couple of hundred or thousand demonstrators—some frustrated and disappointed, others “shady” and under orders—to prove anything.
Add to the above the fact that accumulating rubbish is neither the real problem, nor something that has occurred suddenly; although it was what sparked the protests. In the long absence of a genuine environmental strategy it would be wrong to blame the current lame government alone.
Whoever said that uncollected and untreated rubbish is the only problem that has become worse due to the government’s failure? Every honest Lebanese accepts that the problem of electricity is almost catastrophic; so are the problems of falling educational standards and the mushrooming of colleges and universities which have graduated thousands of “certified illiterates”; as is lawlessness and the proliferation of arms; corruption of all shapes and forms and “mafiosi”; religious and sectarian extremism and bigotry; and high unemployment forcing Lebanon’s most promising, ambitious, and successful to emigrate—many for good!
All these problems have been accumulating for decades. However, ever since Lebanon’s “First Republic” (1943–1975) was brought down by the Lebanese themselves, major regional as well as international players have prevented the emergence of a healthy “Second Republic.” Consequently, Lebanon has since then lurched from one crisis to another, while the Lebanese made denial and self-delusion their only response.
Today what applies best to Lebanon is the famous English idiom “an elephant in the room,” which denotes an obvious truth that is either being ignored or not being addressed—or an obvious problem or risk no one wants to discuss.
This was clear the moment demonstrators first took to Beirut’s squares and streets. There was no picture of Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s secretary general, on the giant sign raised by the demonstrators containing the faces of all the Lebanese political leaders being blamed for the current crisis, pictures of whom were collaged and glued on to rubbish bags. Instead, they chose the face of another member of Nasrallah’s party. A few days later, when one Lebanese TV channel summoned up the courage to have Nasrallah’s face on its sign, fighting broke out forcing the channel to accept defeat and withdraw the “offensive” sign.
In addition to this “exception” that makes a mockery of genuine issue-based mass actions, the demonstrators called for the resignation of Prime Minister Tammam Salaam and his cabinet. This, as the organizers know only too well, has been an old political demand of an armed Lebanese party sponsored by a foreign country, which blackmails other parties and has been blocking the election of a new president because it insists on securing the post for its puppet candidate.
The huge “elephant in the room” which the Lebanese demonstrators do not or dare not see is of course Hezbollah.
Through its Secretary General Nasrallah, Hezbollah has openly boasted that it is a “party” and a “protagonist,” not a “mediator,” in the ongoing political crises plaguing Lebanon—although since the Israeli military withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000 it has continued to refer to its weapons stockpiles as the “arms of the Resistance”!
Why should the “arms of the Resistance” remain in the possession of a party that admits it has enemies and allies, like all other parties?
How can anyone accept that Hezbollah may keep its massive arsenal after it was used within Lebanon in 2008 against its own compatriots, and continues to be used in Syria without official endorsement from the legitimate Lebanese government in which Hezbollah has ministers and parliamentary deputies as well as influence through loyal security functionaries?
Also, as its secretary general proudly declares, Hezbollah follows the guidance of the Vali-e Faqih in Iran—that is, not a Lebanese authority, obviously—and not the Lebanese constitution. Furthermore, Hezbollah neither recognizes Lebanon’s sovereignty nor cares about its institutions given the fact it has ignored both as it fights outside Lebanon, receives weapons from foreign powers, and builds and runs its own infrastructure and security apparatus. All these factors make Hezbollah indeed a “state within a state,” albeit a more powerful one, which has stakes within it, as the sect it represents and dominates thanks to its arms, financial clout and “services,” is presented within the government like other sects.
If all the above is not enough, it is worth remembering that Hezbollah has never accepted the Taif Agreement, but for a while deemed it beneficial to conceal its opposition. For a while too it temporarily delayed turning Lebanon into a Shi’ite Islamic state. Now, however, it is purposefully striving to achieve two objectives:
(1) Bringing down the Taif Agreement.
(2) Preparing the ground for a Shi’ite Islamic state based on its tactical bet on an “alliance of minorities” some international players seem to support.
This is exactly what Hezbollah is doing at the moment. It is throwing its weight behind the hardline Christian leader Michel Aoun, and is working to make him the country’s sole Christian leader—although it is quite aware of Aoun’s political history, and listens daily to his provocative sectarian vitriol.
Through Aoun, an avowed enemy of the Taif Agreement who embroiled Lebanon in pointless wars and now accuses the moderate Sunni Prime Minister Tammam Salam of being an “ISISist,” Hezbollah persists in the task of destroying the Lebanese state for a very clear reason: it already has an “alternative” state of its own.
The wars fought by Hezbollah and its Christian henchman—as well as their ally the Damascus regime—during the years past have driven hundreds of thousands of talented Lebanese abroad, many for good. These wars have also destroyed Lebanon’s economic infrastructure, deprived the country of foreign investment, and prevented its services sector from benefiting from regional economic and development opportunities. Yet, despite this stark reality, Hezbollah is now attempting to ride the wave of popular discontent, and hijack the just demands of a frustrated youth, diverting it to serve its own political agenda.
In these difficult times Lebanon’s youth need to be aware and responsible. They must not partake in the destruction of a nation which the international community may be willing to turn into a failed state as a first step to putting it under an “Iranian mandate.”
In short, they must try hard not to be a present-day version of the Bourbons, who were once accused of having “learned nothing, and forgotten nothing.”

The Return of the State
Ali Ibrahim/Asharq Al Awsat/September 02/15
From Egypt to Lebanon and Iraq, we are seeing a resurgence in street mobilization. Each of the protest movements in these countries are calling for the state to once again fulfill its proper role, after people have suffered as a result of politicians’ attempts to turn these countries into “nation slums” ruled by militias who have created new forms of violence, terror, murder, and intimidation. In Iraq we are seeing anti-corruption protests on an almost weekly basis. The demonstrators are also calling for political reforms and better public services in Baghdad, and the protests coincide with the dire security situation in the Anbar province and Iraq’s second city Mosul, both of which have been overrun by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Meanwhile in Lebanon something similar is happening with the #YouStink protest movement—whose name refers to the garbage crisis that has blighted the capital Beirut, with piles of trash accumulating in the city for months without being removed. In Egypt, where the state has only just caught its breath after attempts to abduct it during the period of Muslim Brotherhood rule, the government has characterized the accumulating garbage problem as a “matter of national security.” I believe they are actually correct in this assessment. This phenomenon of the deterioration of the state and its failure to fulfill its role in a number of Arab countries is due to a variety of factors. It has had an effect on large, highly populated cities such as Cairo, Beirut and Baghdad, which have lost the beauty they boasted only two decades ago. Ugliness is now sadly the norm in these cities: piles of garbage and other images of decay and neglect. It is almost as if the task of cleaning the streets has become so difficult that it can only be accomplished by acquiring some unattainable technological marvel. These images are clear to see in many Arab cities; all you need to do is take a stroll through one of them and you will get a sense of their governments’ failure of management: traffic chaos, garbage, lack of cleanliness, failing electricity and water supplies—all of which are also related to other major economic problems, chief among them youth unemployment. Again, many factors are responsible for the deterioration in public services in many of these countries over the last decades, from bloated and inefficient bureaucracies to widespread, endemic corruption. We have reached the stage where the simple process of collecting garbage and disposing of it has become some kind of logistical nightmare for the state. But there is another factor responsible—and here, society as a whole, and not just the state, is to blame: the proliferation of militias. In some of these countries people and governments have allowed militias not only to grow, but also to begin rivalling the state itself by carrying out “parallel” public services which are solely the responsibility of the former. Garbage collection, for example, requires an entity that is not only organized but which also has teeth, so to speak, and is able to punish transgressors and engender respect. The problem is, however, that these groups, while they inspire loyalty and have prestige, only give power to themselves, which they attain on ideological and sectarian grounds. Moreover, where they do perform public services they do so only partially—and only for people belonging to their sect or who support their ideology.
The garbage problem is a symptom of an underlying political problem in these countries, and which has emerged in the wake of the Arab Spring—now wilting into an Arab Winter. These societies have entered into internal conflicts which have more-or-less obliterated the state, which has simply become an agent of division and in some cases has been co-opted by extremist groups whose only goal is to spread chaos.
The current protests in these countries are a positive development and a step in the right direction. Militias have no right to impose their control over societies and entire countries. The spread of such groups in these countries is therefore a lesson we can learn from, since the deterioration in governance is something that has been happening for decades. Countless protests have taken place without obtaining any tangible results. And we can see how the “resistance,” personified by groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, has created a never-ending cycle of sectarian violence. There were of course choices made by these governments to develop their economies which were unsustainable and resulted in state institutions being unable to continue to secure enough resources to carry out public services effectively. This has helped create a suitable environment in which violent groups can flourish. When the nation state fails, such groups grow and take its place. These protests we are now seeing, which call for an improvement in such basic and essential public services as garbage collection, show that people are tired of the state’s long absence and desire its timely return to restore some semblance of order to these societies.

News Bulletin Achieves Since 2006 Click Here to go to the LCCC Daily English/Arabic News Buletins Archieves Since 2006

News Bulletin Achieves Since 2006
Click Here to go to the LCCC Daily English/Arabic News Buletins Archieves Since 2006