Posts Tagged ‘report’
Bi-Weekly Report (#15) on Lebanon and the Near East (April 2, 2009)
There are a few good news. First, The Italian government finally delivered a scientifically equipped ship to the Lebanese Council for Scientific Research in order to study the Lebanese 200 km of coastal water characteristics. This ship named Qana-CNRS was 18 months in the making and Italy will send marine scientists and technologists to train the Lebanese counterparts. Lebanon has signed international agreements to investigate and remedy maritime ecosystems.
Second, the Academic Scientists of Lebanon has met for another opening ceremony in the Princeton Club in New York. I was under the impression that this council was already functional and active and has gone beyond media opening ceremonies a year ago. It finally got a license in the USA. This scientific council was in the organization stage since late Rafic Hariri PM. It will hold a discussion group this autumn in Lebanon. Four more members from Lebanon proper are contemplated to be included. The goal of this academy is to stand tall against the Israeli academy in the Middle East.
Professor Edgar Chouweiry is heading this council; he is a head director at Princeton University for physical research. The council members include Michael Attiyeh, director of mathematics at Cambridge University; Jean-Francois Bach, Professor of immunology at Necker Hospital in Paris; George Bahr, Professor of virology at the Balamand University in Lebanon; Andre Cabron, ex-Professor of immunology at the Pasteur Institute; Michel Dercour, professor at Piere and Mary Curie University; Mohammad Al Hassan, head of the African academy of sciences; Joan Nasr Allah, Professor of plants at Cornel University; Mouna Nemer, head director of cells at the Ottawa University; Eve Kirie, head at the French Politecnique University; Edward Simon, astrophysist at Villanova University; Professor Samir Zard, director of biology in France; Professor Hussein Zabeeb, mechanics of material at Washington State University; and Professor Charles Elachy, director at Jet propulsion laboratory in Passadena.
Among the attendees at the ceremony were many scientists, entrepreneurs, and surgeons such as: biochemist Wadih Jreidiny, Jack Merheb, Ray Debbany, Wael Shehab, Salah Selman, Cesar Shedyac, George Lotfy, George Fares, Nichola Khoury, Edgar El Shaar, Nada Aneed, George Younane, Ghasan Abu 3Alfa, and Nabil Housami.
The third good news is that President Suleiman offered Lebanon to be the liaison among the Arab States and the South American States for economic development and cooperation since the Lebanon emigrants enjoys large presence in South America. More probably, the liaison will be jointly undertaken by Syria and Lebanon since Syria has as many emigrants as Lebanon there.
The fourth good news is that the South American head of States met with the Arab head of States in Qatar and the process is being formalized on regular basis.
Syria has appointed an ambassador to Lebanon Ali something Ali.
General Aoun is confident that he would gather 35 deputies in the next election on June 7; the interviewer was skeptic.
Geaja slept over in Zahle to drum up supporters; Amine Gemayel joined him: he would like to share recognition for any kind of leadership.
A US Intelligence report predicts that the State of Israel will cease to exist within 20 years. It seems that there are over 2 millions Israelites with at least US residency status and most of them will be heading to the USA as the world economy stabilizes. There are also over 2 millions Israelites with European citizenships and they too will be residing in their States of origin and Europe in general. The level-headed Israeli Jews have finally realized that the Zionist ideology never contemplated a peaceful and stable state with its neighboring States. All the successive Israeli governments’ policies and actions never offered any willingness to co-exist with the Near Eastern populations.
Bi-Weekly report (#14) on the Middle East and Lebanon (March 7, 2009)
Three major activities are running concurrently. First, there is a flurry of diplomatic trips initiated by the US Administration to Japan, Korea, China, Russia, Syria, Egypt, Pakistan, and the Middle East. Second, there is this UN persistence to bringing Sudan’s President Hassan Al Basheer to face trial for crimes against humanity. Third, we notice a serious quest by the “Arab Moderate” States, like Saudi Arabia and Egypt, to patch up political difference with Syria and the Palestinian resistance forces..
You might think that the new US Administration is intent on containing a flammable world and establishing peace and stability through diplomatic means. It might be partially true on the face of it. The long term purpose is preparing a major war in order to partitions Sudan into colonial zones of influence to exploit fully this vast State.
Sudan is practically a virgin continent in superficies, raw materials, oil, water, cultivable land, under populated, and “poorly mismanaged” for the greed of the superpowers. The plan to partition Sudan has been worked out many decades ago and all these civil wars and strife that the Sudanese have been subjugated to were mainly foreign instigation and meddling to setting the ground for an excuse to partition it.
In order for the US, China, France, Britain, and Russia to be successful in their enterprise they have first to agree on the zones of influence in Sudan and manage the various “hot zones” that are dispersing their efforts, militarily and financially. The main critical area to cool down is Pakistan/India and thus, Pakistan is to be strengthened in order to regain control of all the regions, bordering east Afghanistan, which Taliban and Moslem extremists are now administering. The US General in Afghanistan claimed recently that only 10% of Afghanistan is the hotbed of 80% of “terrorist activities” against the US coalition forces. Thus, once Pakistan is able to control its border frontiers with Afghanistan then the military adventure can be won.
The second “hot zone” is settling the Israeli/Palestinian two-state initiative, on a “temporary” piece of land for the Palestinians, which has been sidetracked by the Bush Junior administration for over 7 years.
The third “hot zone” is finalizing a peace treaty between Syria and Israel with many occupied areas managed as “eco systems”.
The fourth “hot zone” is how to manage the “expansionist policies” of Iran in the Arab Peninsula, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
The fifth “hot zone” is how to vacate Iraq with the least amount of casualties and establishing a political system that would be consistent with US policies and purposes in that region.
How the superpowers are going to “cool down” the hot spots before partitioning Sudan? The first step is to bring Pakistan and India into a common purpose for stabilizing their regions. The second step is to force the Arab States, under the Arab League, to put a farcical front of unity; thus Sudan President difficulties should be a foretaste of the destiny of any Arab leaders that dares to defy the superpower plans in Sudan. Obviously, Al Basheer is not to be brought to trial, the Arab League is working as a unified front on that matter because the UN is not that serious about it in the first place, at least for the time being. A unified “Arab League” would politically pressure Iran into a manageable negotiating attitude by isolating Syria, its main ally in the Middle East, and encouraging Turkey into playing a focused role in that region. Senator John Kerry has stated recently that the US understands that Syria is not going to dissociate from Iran but that should not be an obstacle to negociating seriously with Syria regarding its occupied land by Israel.
What about Lebanon? Well, Lebanon is having a fun time preparing for a farcical election just to keep busy and manage Hezbollah politically; Britain has opened direct lines of communications with Hezbollah.
What about Israel? Well, Israel has never been but an advanced outpost for the US in particular and Europe in general. All these internal election gimmicks in Israel are fundamentally excuses to sidetrack policies that the US did not mean to be executed.
Bi-Weekly Report (#11) on the Middle East and Lebanon (February 19, 2009)
The Sudanese author Al Tayyeb Saleh died in London this Wednesday at the age of 80; he had cancer. I reviewed one of his books “Seasons of Migration to the North” which received so far more than 180 hits before it was surpassed last week by my review of the biography of Al Waleed Bin Talal.
The theocratic Saudi regime has undergone an “artificial” skin shedding re-structuring of its government posts. The media claim that the Saudi Monarch is moderating the religious leaders of the Wahhabi sect; he appointed 150 members to the “Shoura” (an assembly of theologian versed in the Islam laws). Maybe it is a first step re-organization before some changes in the Ministry of the Interior and the National Security administrations.
Saudi Arabia had launched in the last three decades vast proselytizing campaigns of the Wahhabi sect in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, and Egypt. Extremist Islam is the trademark of the Najd sect mainly funded by the Saudi regime and applied by Al Qaeda, Taliban, and the Somali Moslem regime. They tried to infiltrate Lebanon via the city of Tripoli but were crushed in the Nahr Al Bared Palestinian refugees’ camp by the Lebanese army. With the advent of a new era in the USA and the serious willingness of Obama to negotiate with Iran then Saudi Arabia is scrambling to put up a face of a viable and sustainable regime to deal with in the region.
The Ambassador of Saudi Arabia in Lebanon, Al Shaer, was made Minister of the Media. There are strong rumors in Lebanon that Al Shaer had “fishy financial transactions” with the Hariri clan and our Seniora P.M. Seniora stated that he used the cash money aid of Saudi Arabia for the reconstruction of South Lebanon as collateral for borrowing money; go figure, using cash as collateral to borrow money!
That many foreign officials, who overstayed in their positions in Lebanon, ended up learning the trade of financial embezzlements and bribery is no news. The Syrian mandated officials in Lebanon, for over 15 years, learned the trade and almost wrecked havoc to the Syrian economy. Before the Syrian, the Israeli army had to retreat quickly to the southern strip in Lebanon because hashish transactions and arms selling business flourished enormously among the Israel Defense Force. No wonder that the stoned Israeli soldiers were no match to the clean, sober, and decided Lebanese resistance forces.
The people of Gaza are waiting for an agreement among the political factions for the entrances normal re-opening to traffic. It appears that Israel is unwilling to come to an agreement before its government is formed; the latest election did not produce any clear cut winner and no single party has enough power to decide for peace; all that Israel is capable of doing is engaging in more of the useless offensive wars for internal benefits among the political parties. Hamas has shown enough flexibility but Egypt has proven to be just a mediator with no will or capability to impose any change on any of the belligerent parties until Obama makes up his mind.
Parliamentary election is priority on the mind of the Lebanese politicians. The Hariri clan has already paid for chartered airplane prior to June 7 for expatriates. Millions are earmarked for the election though every politician agrees that the difference in seats between the government and the opposition alliances will not exceed three deputies out of a total number of 120 deputies. Saad Hariri is visiting the Sunni Arab States and submitting his obedience, especially Egypt as the vanguard of the Sunni power and dominance.
The real battlefield in the election is in the Christian districts. The government alliances want to recoup the Christian majority seats off the Change and Reform Movement (Tayyar) of General Aoun who offered critical internal credibility to Hezbollah. The one special district is the Christian Metn district where the government wants to discredit the dominance of the Tayyar of General Aoun. The Phalange (Kataeb) is joining with Michel Murr (two major electoral forces in Metn). Michel Murr is saying that the Tayyar barely contributed 10,000 votes for a total of 50,000 votes to win; that he let the Tayyar win the Metn district and then they discarded his opinions in the last four years and thus this fight is “kasser athem” (bone breaking).
The last election to fill the vacancy of late deputy Pierre Gemayel was a close call to the Tayyar; the Armenian voter made the difference. During the defeat speech, the ex-President Amine Gemayel (the candidate) alienated the Armenian voter even further by branding this “minority” as essentially not Lebanese patriot. Michel Murr gave his supporters the choice; the majority of his supporters favored the leader of the Phalange Amine Gemayel. The other district is Baabda with sizeable Druze voters; in the last election Hezbollah’s Shiaa voters made the difference because it was then allied to the government coalition and thus, permitted Walid Jumblatt to make a clean sweep of both districts of Baabda/Aley and the Choof.
Senator (D) John Kerry visited Damascus, Beirut, Gaza, and Israel. What I heard from Kerry is that Bush Junior was not wrong in his Middle Eastern policies and that the Obama Administration has no plans to review these policies. According to Kerry, the only fault of Bush Junior is for not starting with political negotiations but to sending out Powell and Ramsfeld to dictate the US policies to the regional leaders through a short list of “do and don’t do”.
Either Obama is using up these stupid democrats in the higher echelon of the Democratic Party and burning out their credibility or he is indeed comfortable with a bunch of lame outdated Democratic leaders. Either way, the Obama Administration is on the path of fishy decisions that will inefficiently consume the better part of his four years first tenure.
Note: I have updated my About.
Bi-weekly report (#5) on Lebanon (December 18, 2008)
President Michel Suleiman visited Jordan for two days and he made a detour to pray on the supposed location where Jean the Baptist stayed to baptize the Jews by the Jordan River. Before President Suleiman, the other Michel, General and Deputy Aoun visited Syria and followed the trails of St. Paul and other Christian Saints. You might think that there is a new religious Christian fervor in the Middle East; it is simply a highly political message to the USA and Europe: the Christians in the Middle East were the bedrock of Christianity, the first Christian communities were established in this region and all the initial Christian sects originated from here. The Christians in the Middle East were the backbone of civilizations during the Roman, Byzantine and Arab Empires.
These religious tours on the trails of the prophets and ancient churches are highly political and expressing the survival state of the Christians in this region because the western States have given the racist State of Israel the green light to relocate the Middle East Christians people. Israel wants to be the unique State religion, different from the Christians, in this Moslem region to draw constant sympathy and support. Israel also has taken advantage of the invasion of Iraq to assassinate most Iraqi scientists and professors (the names and profession of the assassinated Iraqi scientist are listed in the internet).
The Lebanese Parliament has been in session for three days and over 44 deputies are listed to talk extensively. The purpose is to lambaste the deficiencies of a government that is not even a government; this government objective is to prepare for a fair and just election in May. That is beside the point: the deputies consider this platform as sort of free and official election campaigns. We have a government of 30 ministers where 20 of them have no offices and do nothing but to vote during the council. It does not matter what the council of ministers votes on, it is Seniora PM the dictator for the moment and he can bypass any resolution and let the opposition parties and organization talk and demonstrate, “3ala ejro”. Seniora PM and the so-called March 14″ alliance are relying heavily on the oligarchic Saudi Arabia to finance their re-election campaigns with the political support of the dictator Mubarak of Egypt who does not care if the Palestinians in Gaza die of famine.
The minister of defense, Elias Murr, visited Russia and signed an agreement to have 10 used fighter jets MIG 29 delivered to Lebanon. This deal is pretty symbolic, just a recognition of the neighboring States for the independence and self-autonomy of Lebanon because the USA is politically unable to deliver fighter jets to Lebanon. This air fleet should be compatible to the Syrian air force for purposes of training and maintenance. We are still in the dark of who will be paying for the heavy expenses of flying and maintaining symbolic materials.
I read today that another political movement is being created and called “National and Social Renaissance Movement”; a splinter of the “Syria National Social Party”. The name Syria has been dropped and the purpose of this movement is to focus on the doctrines of the original leader late Antun Saadeh and to instituting study groups for reforms. The fact of insisting on the totality of doctrines that are 70 years old is not compatible to renaissance in my dictionary.
In a previous article I gave samples of our brand of political self-criticisms. I will mention just a few of these lovely and magnificent mea culpas:
“I embezzled the government. I ransomed the people. I slaughtered citizens on confessional basis. I jailed citizens in deep wells for years. I am not apologizing. I am just stating facts that all the other leaders also committed”
“I admit that I made errors and mistakes but it was all for the good cause” This leader didn’t see it appropriate to give samples of his atrocities such as assassinating prime ministers, clerics, and shooting army officers after their surrender. All these atrocities were for the “good cause”.
“I committed the worst atrocities to thousands of citizens but those who assassinated my father did the unforgivable. My country Lebanon can go to hell but I insist on my revenge.”
“I admit to errors and mistakes and would do them again under the same conditions”
Adonis Diaries 