forgive a girl that has been abroad for about a month not to be aware of all the “new” gossip in lebanon. but to hear people talk of bringing back jamil elsayyid and considering him a “good” candidate for the interior ministry has got to be a drastic change! and to have amal and HA guys discussing amongst themselves that maybe el sayyid could be the next head of parliament must be amazing!!

what is going on in this country we call home?

what are we doing to ourselves?

have we become so tired of maybe seeking independence and decided that the syrian boot is all we can achieve? yeah i guess that must be it. we just dont like being free.

are we destined to run around in circles bringing back criminals once and again until they die? if that is our destiny, i’d rather not worry anymore, let them have full reign, let us all think of leaving.

and whats even more funny is that these people believe we should compensate el sayyid jamil el sayyid for his days in prison by giving him an important role. now isnt that nice? i wonder whether el sayyid compensated the old man that stood up to him one night in a restaurant because he didnt want to leave the table on el sayyid’s orders? i wonder if that man was compensated for being taken to jail on a whim?

but no, of course we should compensate a dirty, corrupt, criminal…

 i dont know what to say, the disappointment i feel is increasing by the moment and by ever word that comes out of my fellow patriots’ mouths.

I read this comment on a Lebanese blog and i found the facts that this guy “omare” wrote very interesting and worthy discussing. I have also heard about reports done by French news reports on how chaotic the war was and how unorganized and how low was the soldiers’s morale, not to mention the generals.

I am still looking for an Israeli thourough explanation on that issue because it does raise a lot of questions for future conflicts, especially if Olmart doesnt stay in power.

Point 1:
——-
Israel had nasrallah located and his top leadership right early afternoon wednesday after the border attack.

They intercepted communications and had them in 4 crowded buildings in beirut that the iaf wanted to hit and olmert refused to pull the trigger. That was the one chance they had them. The difference between nasrallah not being here is having a kadima milktoast pm instead of a likud pm.

Point 2:
——-
They also could have shut down al manar but shutting down the international satellite from lebanon. Olmert refused that.

They could have caused choas in beirut by hitting the 2 billion power grid in beirut but olmert refused.

Point 3:
——-
You could greatly diminish these rockets with a laser anti rocket system that could shoot them down. It wouldn’t be able to stop a massive barrage but it would stop a lot of them. You could protect your major cities with this system but the kadima useless govt refused to fund it.

Same think with the cornet. Those anti tank rockets should be useless. Israel has a system to shoot down those incoming rockets for tanks. Only 4 of their tanks had them in lebanon and they weren’t hit. The useless kadima party didn’t fund the system or else all 400 of those tanks could have stopped all those cornets. In the field testing they are stopping all of them. Also there is technology to jam ied’s which the u.s and israel didn’t fund and are now only funding.

Israel didn’t have the bunker buster bombs that could have taken out the bunkers in beirut and taken out the rockets in the bunkers. Halutz rejected them.

Israel didn’t have the new cluster bombs they were firing vietnam era cluster bombs that were useless.

Point 4:
——-
Israel will be much better off years down the road with this new technology and a likud prime minister who will also land helicopters behind enemy lines from the start and attack from behind. Syria will regret not going to war with Ehud Olmert because Israel will be far better militarily with a prime minister like bibi than Ehud the liberal.

I demand explanations from our 14th of March allies, mainly Hariri and Fatfat.
Today was the first annual conference for the “Liberation Party”, that was legalied by Mr.Fatfat few weeks ago if not more.

I cannot understand how did we allow for such a party to be founded. It is a party that does not even recognize Lebanon. In fact, it calls itself
“حزب التحرير – ولاية لبنان”
meaning Lebanon is only a branch in their Islamic umma, how can we legalize a Lebanese party that does not accept Lebanon in the first place ?

It is true that we had such parties before like that, such as the SSNP, but does that mean we should let more parties similar to the SSNP grow? Didnt we learn how much harm those parties did to us ?

The Liberation party calls for applying the “Islamic Succession” in Lebanon and therefore for turning Lebanon into an Islamic state. It adds that Lebanon cannot be excep a Muslim country,
and that only the succession plan will only save Lebanon.

بيعته وتكوينه، وعليه، فاننا ندعو الى اعادة لبنان الى ما كان عليه قبل عام 1920، جزءا لا يتجزأ من بلاد المسلمين، فينعم هو وسائر بلاد المسلمين باستقرار الدولة الكبرى ورخائها. وهذا هو مشروع الخلافة”.

This party is questioning the existence of Lebanon and the Greater Lebanon declaration of 1920 and is refusing the pluralistic nature of our society, it wants another Lebanon, a purely Islamic one.

Added to that, it supports the Hezbollah ‘heroic’ acts against Israel and wants the Islamic Umma to stand against Israel and the Americans and the West.

I wanna ask first Mr.Fatfat why did he allow this party ? And second and most importantly i wanna ask Hakim why didnt we critisize or oppose this decision in the first place ?
Are we too busy meeting with Jamaa Islamiyya ?

In the mad unchained symphony that is Lebanon, General Michel Aoun has always managed to be the false note that reminds the listener of the foolishness of human nature.

His screw ups always ended up in splitting the Christian street. Knowingly or unknowingly, and both scenarios are equally as dangerous, he is acting like the spearhead in the war of attrition that aims at weakening Christianity in the Middle East.

In 1989, this lead to the destruction of the Christian stronghold in east Beirut that had managed to stay out of the Syrian grips. The result was fifteen years of oppression, repression and suppression of any manifestation of freedom of speech by the Christians or any demands for sovereignty and independence of Lebanon from the dictatorial grip of its neighboring country.

The Lebanese people to this day remember how his angry followers stormed Bkerki, the head quarters of the Lebanese Maronite patriarch and proceeded to insult and abuse the old man, on the account of him not supporting the general’s mad schemes.

Today, in 2006, almost seventeen years day for day after that dreadful dark moment in history, we hear him, once again, attacking the patriarch, and this time again for the same egoistical reason: the patriarch refuses to give in to Aoun’s crazy, megalomaniac flip flops. This time its about the toppling of the government… The patriarch in his wisdom saw that this was just the tip of the iceberg and that the demand for a change in government was a mask for other schemes, namely the cancellation of the International court that is to rule in the wave of assassinations that ripped the country in the last two quarters of 2005.

(more…)

“Every time i heard someone scream when he was on the Balanco or being electrocuted or I heard the squeak of a door, I woud feel a terrible pain in my stomach. I would shiver. I felt myself at the edge of utter despair trying to shut out the sounds of the screams. Even so I would hear everyone one of them, every electric shock.”
Jihad Sleiman, May 5, 1995

For those who dont know,
Jihad Sleiman was in charge of the security of Dr. Samir Geagea, the leader of the Lebanese Forces and was brought to Ministry of Defence after Hakim was jailed.

Those pictures below were drawn by George el Alam, another LFer who was arrested and tortured countless times.

Full Report

SOLIDA PRESS RELEASE

URGENT : repressive measures against SOLIDA

Last Thursday, SOLIDA (Support of Lebanese Detained Arbitrarily) made public a report on Human Rights violations that were committed by the Army’s Intelligence Services at the detention center in the Lebanese Ministry of Defense, which has served since 1992 as an interrogation and detention place under the sole control of the Army Intelligence Services.

The report details the acts of torture, the unfair trials and the horrible conditions under which individuals are held at that location. The Defense Ministry’s detention center is a legally-sanctioned prison since 1995 in which an unknown number of people are held today and whose access is denied to the International Committee of the Red Cross. This situation has made it such that no detention center in Lebanon is inspected by the international organization, in contravention to a 2002 decree granting it the authorization to conduct such visits. The report in fact highlights this specific issue, among others.

The potentially positive impact of the publication of the report must be noted first and foremost: On Saturday, the Lebanese Press reported that a meeting took place on Friday between Public Prosecutor Said Mirza, Internal Security Forces (ISF) Chief Ahraf Rifi, and the Army Intelligence Services Chief General George Khoury to consider a visit by the Red Cross to Lebanese prisons. SOLIDA is very pleased that one of the recommendations of the report has been heard and hopes that it will translate into a positive and actual follow through.

In contrast, the announcement of the publication of the report has resulted in a series of repressive measures against SOLIDA, which is a French Human Rights organization affiliated with the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (REMDH) and which has been struggling since 1996 against the practices of arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances and the impunity of those who commit egregious violations of Human Rights in Lebanon. SOLIDA opened an office in Beirut in May 2006, owing to the “changes” in the political climate since the assassination of Prime Minister Hariri and the end of the Syrian occupation.

On Tuesday, which is the day the call went out to the media convening them to attend the press conference for the release of the report, the “Press Contacts” cell phone of the organization was apparently tapped as evidenced by the constant static noises heard on that phone since that day.

During the night of Wednesday to Thursday, that is the night preceding the conference, the Central Unit, a Hard Drive, and an Internet Router were stolen from the offices of the organization in Dora. This robbery was conducted without a break-in, indicating that the door was opened using sophisticated methods. Since the door cannot be easily closed by slamming it, it was left ajar. All valuable items in the office were left intact, but some confidential files concerning the Lebanese detainees in Syria, which were stored in filing cabinets, were apparently carefully examined since they were found on a table.

On Thursday morning, and at the request of the office managers, the ISF came to record the theft and take fingerprints. They were followed by several Security Services whose mandate is categorically not to investigate this matter. Indeed, soon after the ISF left the office, three armed military personnel showed up at the office inquiring about happened. The next day, Friday, three men in Municipal Police uniforms came inquiring about the mission of the organization. In the afternoon, a SOLIDA official received a call on their cell phone from General Security inquiring about the legality of SOLIDA’s status in Lebanon and wanting to know about its potential “political enemies”. Finally, Saturday, the Al-Akhbar daily, citing sources close to the Interior Ministry, published an article according to which SOLIDA allegedly obtained its information from a former Lebanese Security official living in Paris and whom the organization contacted by way of his wife…

SOLIDA believes that all these actions are acts of intimidation against Human Rights defenders whose sole mission is to denounce violations, regardless of who the victims or the presumed authors of such violations may be. SOLIDA calls on the Lebanese Authorities to immediately cease their intimidations, to uncover and apprehend those responsible for the theft, and to implement the recommendations made in the report so that the practice of torture in Lebanon becomes a thing of the past.

For those who have been following news the past week, all local tvs are focused on the riots happening in South Beirut, In Raml el 3ali region.
This region is majorily occupied by Shiites, most of them Hezbollah and Amal supports, and most importantly, the majority living in illegal houses, and not paying taxes. What happened was that during war, occupants took advantage of the situation and started building extra floors on their illegal houses. The Beirut governor was uncapable of acting till few days ago when he sent the police to stop the buildings.

As mentioned in news articles, the officer in charge was a very calm and polite one and started negociating calmly with the concerned people on their illegal construction, however he was confronted with riots that led to gun fires and in the next days a 10 year old victim and several injuries in the police ranks.

Now what was Hezbollah and Amal’s reaction to the issue ?
They dont wanna interfer.

Those regions are controlled by those 2 parties, armed by those 2 parties, and they dont pay taxes because they are under their control, but no Hezbollah wont interfer.

More than 300 illegal constructions were spotted and riots are getting more violent by the day, yet Shiite political parties wont interfer, but dont mind blaming the government. Hezbollah claims that we need a stronger government, yet he arms his own people and initiates indirectly riots to trouble the country’s security.

We could have a repeat of what happened in 7ay el Selloum, but one thing is for sure, i do not see how we are going to rebuild Lebanon with such people, refusing to pay taxes, building on illegal property and shooting at security men.

We lost few days ago Bash Maroun, who was during the 70s a popular Militia leader.
I was told he has been serving as much as possible the Christian regions of Dekwaneh and Ain el Remmaneh throughout the past years and was respected by all there and banners were spotted in Dekwaneh giving him a last salute and praising him after his death.

You can find below a picture of Bash Maroun and his men celebrating victory after invading the Tal El Zaatar camp.

Here is a small biography of Bash Maroun from articles i gathered long time ago:

Bash Maroun Khoury

Bash Maroun was the leader of the Lebanese Youth movement, and the son of the ex-leader of Dekwaneh region Naim el Khoury. He was also a good friend of Raymond Edde back then.
He was living in Dekwaneh during the 70s and had contacts within the Tal el Zaatar military leaderships ( Palestinians) and was trying to calm things on both fronts. However after the continuous harrasments done by Palestinians against Christians, he started preparing himself for a very fierce battle.

Bash Maroun played an crucial role in the Tal El Zaatar battle where as he held the Dekwaneh front bravely while the LF, Kataeb, Ahrar and GOTC were busy freeing other fronts, and indeed when they freed Karantina and Dbayyeh, they moved to Tal El Zaatar and launched an attack led by the men of Bash Maroun.
The battle was a fierce one and Bash Maroun guys showed great strengh and determination and took over the bastion of Ra3i el Sale7 in less than 48 hours, a bastion that was among the strongest for the Tal El Zaatar camp.

The Tal el Zaatar was a very important victory for the Christian militias, and was the turning point for them back then, even though they paid hundreds of martyrs during this battle due to the lack of organization and synchronization between most groups.

I would like to share with you a friend’s opinion about the famous MoU signed in february  by two prominent political parties in our dear country…thanks Lebanonjohn

The Freak Pancreatic Movement has announced a new agreement with anyone who is willing to sign it with them.

Aptly Called the Memorandum of Aounderstanding , it reads as follows;

We the Freak Pancreatic Movement hereby declare that we shall abide by the following rules of behavior.

1. Divide the Christian street where and if possible and with any means available to us. Should this mean alliances with rogue or terrorist entities or even groups that would otherwise harm our existence, this alliance is justified so long as no other christian group exists to compete with us.

2. Take credit for any agreement or resolution reached even if we have absolutely no proof that we authored or lobbied or even influenced any part of it. Once proven and exposed that we had no part in it, immediately deny and condemn said agreement or treaty as unfit for Lebanon and our democratic ideals.

3. Take every opportunity to self inflate and magnify our lofty ideals no matter if no set of ideals actually exists. Should a new standard or cause appear that seems popular, immediately latch on to it even if it has less that 0.00001% chance of improving our leaders chances of reaching the presidency. No cause is too pathetic or too sad to espouse in this regard. THe presidency must be reached.

4. Constantly declare that polls have shown that our popularity exceeds 75% even if said poll was taken from a target group of 4 people, three of whom were the leaders children and the other being a mute with no arms. Continue to quote this poll and slowly inch the percentage up so as not to attract attention. This should continue until the number quoted exceeds 97% but does not reach 98%. THis is important so as not to confuse with election statistics of syrian presidency.

5. Lecture and Lecture ad nauseum about freedom, integrity and transparency then immediately find the most totalitarian state and accept funds from them while providing ample cover for their nefarious goals even if said goals entail the subjugation of the entire christian population including the Freak Pancreatic Movement.

6. Fabricate where possible any sort of ill repute and bad press about fellow christians, muslims, druze who happen to support a democratic Lebanon under the logic that no democracy is needed with western support. Lebanon is better off with Terror groups, Totalitarian sponsors and Syrian puppets rather than have Freedom, Democracy under evil American and European sponsorship. THis is only the case as long as western powers continue to ostracize our beloved leader. SHould they offer him the presidency, we shall imediately advocate their policy whatever that may be at the time. Note: should this happen , all must immediately pretend that we were working with them all along as undercover secret agents.

7. Praise , Applause and immediately sign MOUs with any terror group, dictator, homeless man, indian, philipino, egyptian, austalian aborigine, bum on the street, or even correctional facility inmate who is willing to endorse our leader for president.

8. Be prepared to adapt ourselves , be it change of religion,or beliefs, or nationality , or even sexual orientation to suit the ultimate goal of our leader; as we all know it to be : The presidency.

Maronite Bishops warned yesterday of ‘Clandestine Motives’ to hamper International Tribunal, as quoted by Naharnet today.

This position taken by Bkerke is a great boost to the Sanioura government and 14th of March team. In fact Maronite bishops claimed that the true intentions behind those plans were to block the creation of an international tribunal for Hariri’s assasination and most importantly the tens of other assassinations that followed.

Most importantly, Bkerke sent a clear message to Aoun that his plans with Hezbollah are not in the interest of the Christians. The interest of the Christians today does not consist in allying with Hezbollah and organizing a plot sponsored by Hezbollah and his Iranian-Syrian friends against the government.

This makes Aoun’s statement yesterday that he is forming a new line to preserve the Christians’ interests lacking any credibility and shows it as another lie to promote his hidden agendas.

Additionally, Maronite Bishops insisted on the international tribunal, not because they want to know the truth about Hariris’ assassination, but because suing and punishing those who killed Hariri and committed the other bombings that killed Tueni, Kassir, Hawi and others will put an end to those bombings and to any sort of Syrian hegemony or armed presence in Lebanon.

Harissa’s gathering has certainly influenced the Maronite Bishops’ call by showing that the Christians today see themselves as part of the government, as a vital group building the state of Lebanon, and not part of an Iranian-Syrian bloc wanting to trouble Lebanon’s security to promote their hidden non-Lebanese or selfish agendas.

For weeks now, we hear speeches by Aoun & Hezbollah and other Syrian allies attacking the government and asking for elections and threatening Sanioura.

First of all, we have Hezbollah during his so-called ‘divine’ victory where he called for a new government of national unity, of course according to his standards, and threatened that he will pause the issue until the end of Ramadan. Added to that, he has been asking for the Christians’ rights in recompensation for the Mountain war and for fair representation in the government.

Mr.Nasrallah now cares for us Christians and wants our best! I don’t believe I’ve seen a filthier and more arrogant politician.

As for Aoun, he has been attacking the government for weeks now, and has been meeting with all the Syrian loyal friends lately (met with Frangieh yesterday). Of course after signing an agreement with Hezbollah and claiming he is a secular person, Aoun wants now to secure the Christians’ rights and their representation and visited Bkerke 2 days ago.

Aoun wants to play on the Christian sentiment once again like he fooled all Christians when he came back from France.

The Plot against the government is being prepared from now, and it is proving to be very serious.

Even though there are many weaknesses in the current government, I believe every Lebanese should defend it till the end, since losing the current government will make us lose all the International & Arab support, get Syria back in the Lebanese political scene, puts the UNIFIL troops in great danger of terrorist threats, therefore causing them to abandon their mission etc…

Those 3 to 6 months are very crucial for our country and keeping the government is the only guarantee to stay on the right track.

Aoun & Hezbollah will be doing their best to drop the government, one for strategic purposes and obeying orders of his masters in Iran & Syria, and the other mad General willing to burn the whole country if this gets him to presidency.

Grand opening “Another You” Salon (Saloooon in syrian dictionary) for women. You get 50 % off on the first visit and two posters of Pr. Bashar el Assad.

I was honestly surprised to see the name of Eddie Abi Lamaa among the 14th of March committee that met with the Jamaa Islamiyya yesterday, especially after the list of points they agreed on.

In fact, as mentioned in Annahar today, Walid Eido, Wael Bou Faour, Atef Majdalani, Eddie Abi Lama3 and Antoine Haddad visited Sheikh Fayssal el Moulouwwi, secretary general of Al Jamaa in order to strengthen the bonds between the 14th of March and the Jamaa but did not sign an agreement paper as expected.

However, I expected at least the LF representative to give a statement explaining our differences with the Jamaa and show the disagreement with the several points they raised, mainly the ones concerning Hezbollah. We cannot attend such important meetings and be passive especially with an ideological group such as Jamaa that has Islamic plans for the Sunna in Lebanon.

I had the opportunity to meet with the Jamaa few years ago, and read their manifesto and their idea of co-existence in Lebanon was based on unbalanced powers between Christians and Muslims, where as they pointed out indirectly that Christians have to accept the fact that they should be governed by Muslims, and here i find the same statement in the article :

Added to that, The Moulouwi insists on having the best of relations with Syria and that Lebanon has no choice but to be in good relations with Syria, and be against Israel?!? What is the difference between Israel and Syria? I consider and the LF considers Syrians as our fiercest enemies and the harm Israel caused us is nothing compared to Syria’s actions in Lebanon.

And on top of that, Jamaa defends the ‘Resistance’ saying it is a necessity and it must not be armed and should be given the right to defend itself. Is Eddie Abi Lama3 ok with that ? Is the 14th of March ok with that ?

If that was an attempt to dialogue with Jamaa, this is not the way it is done. I understand they were and are still needed for electoral purposes, but that doesnt mean we cannot talk about our differences with them, but on the contrary meet and then come up with a statement saying we agreed on the basics and Jamaa is an essential party.

Where were you Mr. Abi lama3 ? Sleeping when he said that ?

Did you listen to Hakim’s speech 10 days ago ?

Shame.

I was rewatching Dr.Strangelove today ( Or How i learned to stop worrying and love the bomb) and Nasrallah came to my mind.

Stanley Kubrick was talking in this classic black comedy about a group of war-eager military men who trigger an ingenious, irrevocable scheme to attack Russia’s strategic targets with nuclear bombs.

We have our crazy war-eager Sayyed too who triggered a war on Lebanon by kidnapping 2 Israeli soldiers. I wish Kubrick was still around to produce another movie inspired from our crazy Nasrallah who has bizzare ideas about Lebanon’s future.

I am eager to know what would he call the movie though.
Dr.Strangelove
Or How i learned to start a war and hide like a rat.