From Beirut to the Beltway

UN report: Lebanon border with Syria in shambles

A team of UN experts examining border procedures said Lebanon is unable to control its border with Syria, let alone stop arms smuggling. In a 45-page report released today, the five independent international security experts blamed this sad state of affairs on -- surprise-- lack of coordination between security agencies, a poorly trained Lebanese army and absence of cooperation with the Syrian regime.

The U.N. assessment team recommended that Lebanon set up "a multi-agency mobile force focusing on arms smuggling with the purpose of creating seizure results within a short time span through its intelligence and rapid interception capabilities."

It also lamented the fact that "there is no (cross border) cooperation" at the operation level between Lebanese and Syrian authorities and urged both sides to remedy the situation.

It expressed concern about the presence of "several heavily armed Palestinian military strongholds covering both sides" of the border, saying they "constitute pockets of territories where the Lebanese security forces are denied the possibility to exercise their mandate."

The report also criticized the "lack of operational cooperation and coordination" among Lebanon's four different security agencies: the Lebanese Armed Forces, the Internal Security Forces, the General Security and the General Customs.

It said that during the nearly 30 years of Syrian domination which ended in 2005 "no concept of border security at the border was ever implemented." (Naharnet)

The UN team recommended the deployment "of international border security experts" to back up the multi-agency mobile force.

On a worrying note, the UN experts said that during their three-week mission, which coincided, mind you, with widespread reports of arms smuggling and military buildup by pro-Syrian factions (scroll down), "not a single on-border or near-border seizure of smuggled arms has been documented to the team".

The report added that "poor layout of border control points and lack of fixed procedures resulted in 'non-controllable passengers', vehicles and cargo flow within the facilities."

Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr maintained in the past that the Lebanese army is fully capable of monitoring the border. He also denies arms were being smuggled through the border, despite a UN report warning of rampant influx of weapons from Syria, which prompted the Security Council to authorize the mission to examine border procedures on the Lebanese side (the team did not go to Syria). Last week, the defense minister declared an end to military operations in the Nahr El Bared camp, where Assad-backed terrorists have been fighting the Lebanese army for weeks. As many of my readers know, the battle has not ended. Murr told al-Arabiya today that that the military now controls 80 percent of Nahr el-Bared camp, and that Fatah al-Islam leader, Shaker Abssi was now taking "residents as human shields".

Murr, who has just finished meeting with FBI director Robert Mueller, has a lot of questions to answer. Of course, someone has to ask those questions first. 

Hizbullah's clues

Hizbullah has launched a probe into Sunday's attack on UNIFIL troops in southern Lebanon, and vowed to share the findings with the peacekeeping troops and the Lebanese army "if they like". Hizbullah has not indicated whether it would share those findings with the legitimate cabinet, which has yet to release the results of its own investigations into a multitude of attacks on civilians, army, businesses, women and children.

While the government relies on press leaks to point the finger at Syria, Hizbullah will likely point its fingers, toes and other shortcomings in the same direction of its 30,000+ rockets. A statement two days ago by a coalition of pro-Syrian Lebanese parties had insinuated that the attackers singled out Spanish troops for diverging with the US and pulling troops out of Iraq.  The Party of God was the first to denounce the attack, which apparently happened in a strategic area (for them) near Khiam, their unofficial headquarters. A Hizbullah statement labeled the attack as "suspicious", which in Hizbullah's dictionary means that it's part of a US/Israeli conspiracy.

Even if Hizbullah's "investigation" finds ties with "al-Qaeda" or some Sunni Islamist variety, will it acknowledge the latter's ties to the Assad regime? The answer is no. For in Hizbullah's world, Islamists arrive through the Beirut airport under the watch of German security experts imported by the anti-Hizbullah ISF. Or this is what they like you to believe. The word on the "opposition's" street is that this Zionist government imported al-Qaeda via the airport and installed them in the north and other places to curb the Shia party. Haven't you read Seymour Hersh? Says a born again Shia salesman who, until recently, had never heard of the American journalist, who a few months ago accused the "pro-US" government of arming Sunni fundamentalists, after he heard it from Robert Fisk, who heard it from someone else, who is nowhere to be found.

This street, which consists of impoverished cab drivers and repressed teenagers in pursuit of an idol, and a few secular "intellectuals" with no peripheral vision, forgets that even if fundamentalists had entered the country through the Rafik Hariri airport, Hizbullah and the Assad regime will have known about their arrival before the ISF, which has limited access to the Hizbullah-run General Security.   

But oh what fun it is to lie in Hizbullah's bed. Let them investigate, maybe they will conclude, as Syria's information minister did, that it was Antoine Lahd's defunct South Lebanon Army that regrouped and killed UNIFIL troops out of spite for Syria. After all, doesn't Hizbullah subscribe to the notion that anything that could harm or appear to harm the Assad regime will harm Lebanon? Aren't we supposed to pre-empt any potential harm to that regime by killing our economy, our soldiers, mothers, fathers and children?

What is Lebanon, if not a battleground for Hizbullah, a warehouse for their weapons? And what are Lebanese lives, if not feed for the party, who has transformed itself into a more lethal version of the Guardians of the Cedars? No, Hizbullah is the new South Lebanon Army. They have gone where the Lebanese Forces, the Kataeb and the Young Phoenicians never dared go. They have sold Lebanon to the butcher, and now they want to investigate its collapse.

And they let them. The UNIFIL, which is in Lebanon to support the Lebanese government, is begging an anti-government militia for information. Why not go to Damascus? Oh, I forgot. It's Lebanon first. Meaning: nous, ze French, we sponsor dialogue for les Libanais to try to split the pro-Syrians from the Syrians because if we don't the Syrians will blow us up. We, ze French, say to les Libanais: vous etes Libanais.

Well, bla bla bla. The Assad regime has the Europeans by the balls precisely because UNIFIL is a prime target. While the French try to separate the pro-Syrians from the Syrians, Bashar tries to draw a separate path for the Europeans, away from the US. So he blows up a few Spaniards, and there's more to come.

Voila, Inspector Nasrallah.

Welcome to Bashar's hell

Hours after the Lebanese army battled a sleeper terrorist cell in north Lebanon, UNIFIL troops in southern Lebanon were targeted in what may have been a suicide attack (LBC). Five Spanish troops were killed and at least three were wounded according to AP. The attack on UNIFIL comes after confessions by terrorists affiliated with the Assad regime revealed plots to attack the peacekeeping force.

Last week, Defense Minister Elias Murr declared victory on Fatah al-Islam but refused to point the finger at the Assad regime "before the dossier was completed". Murr, this blogger believes, is either living in denial or trying to re-align the army after accidentally shifting to the right, on the side of the legitimate Lebanese cabinet. The Siniora cabinet had been briefing the UN Security Council and Arab delegates about the Assad regime's smuggling of terror and weapons through the border over the last couple of weeks. Several Syrian nationals were charged with forming terror groups .  However, Murr felt more comfortable pointing the finger at al-Qaeda, warning of sleeper cells, despite the numerous leaks to the press, and a UN security council berating the Assad regime.  Murr even refused to deploy international troops along the border with Syria, and nominated army commander Michel Suleiman for the presidency!

Speaking of Arab delegates, the Moussa initiative hit the Assad wall, as we all predicted here. Shortly after news of a Moussa-sponsored dialogue emerged, the Assad regime sent its allies a reminder not to enter into any form of dialogue with the government. Or else.

After the attack on UNIFIL, will the world let Lebanon and UNIFIL slide into a confrontation with Syrian-sponsored terrorists on its soil, or fight the battle at the source?

Syria to shut the "gates of evil"

While Amr Moussa is going around the country wishing upon a star, hoping to separate the Lebanese file from the "regional" by sponsoring dialogue, Assad's proxies are renewing their threats to make the "Lebanese pay a heavy price" if Lebanon dared to monitor its border with Syria.

In a statement issued today, the pro-Syrian SSNP accused the "government team" of trying to abort the Arab initiative by involving the Arab delegation in fabricated reports about arms smuggling through the Syrian border. The SSNP accused Siniora of fabricating confessions of detained Fatah al-Islam fighters linking the Assad regime to terror plots. The statement said "this is proof of escalation against Syria and [attempt to] sow division among Arabs, in service of an American agenda".

The SSNP warned about "turning Lebanon into a passage way for anti-Syrian conspiracies under the pretext of deploying international troops along the border with Syria," adding that this violates Lebanese security, and that Syria "can protect its security, stability and sovereignty, and whenever it feels that Lebanon turned into a source of threats, it will not hesitate to shut the gates of evil". The statement added that "the Lebanese will pay a heavy price". 

وحذر من "خطورة جعل لبنان مقرا وممرا للمؤامرات على سوريا تحت مظلة نشر قوات دولية، لأن في ذلك استباحة لأمن لبنان واللبنانيين قبل أن يكون استهدافا لسوريا. فسوريا تستطيع حماية أمنها واستقرارها وسيادتها، وحينما تشعر أن لبنان تحول مصدر تهديد لها، فلن تتأخر عن إغلاق أبواب الشر، وهذا ما سيدفع اللبنانيون ثمنه باهظا".

This bit about Lebanon becoming a passage way for anti-Syrian conspiracies is straight out of Bashar's war declaration speech. You will also recall that several SSNP members were arrested in connection with ongoing investigations into terrorist bombs. A truck load of weapons and explosives was found in their possession.

The SSNP statement is a renewed promise of terror if the Lebanese government continues to oppose Syrian designs. The bit about "closing the gates of of evil" is probably a threat to close the last remaining legitimate border crossing with Lebanon, in what Anton Effendi aptly called "economic terrorism".

Meanwhile, four people—3 of whom are Syrian nationals—were charged today with attempting to murder Defense Minister Elias El Murr on July 12, 2005. All 3 Syrian nationals have left the country. In related news, 10 Syrians, 3 Palestinians, 2 Lebanese and 1 Saudi were charged with forming a terrorist gang and carrying out the Ain Alaq terrorist bombing on February 13th.  Fatah al-Islam leader Shaker al-Absi is among the accused.

Enough said.

The Moussa dialogue

  Amr Moussa will personally sponsor a new round of dialogue between Lebanese parties, al-Hayat reports. The idea sprung to life during a meeting between Moussa and Saad Hariri, who reportedly told the Arab League secretary general that March 14 would attend talks if he himself chaired them. Hariri's idea was in response to a challenge by Moussa: "why agree to talks in a foreign capital and not in Lebanon", to which Hariri responded with the abovementioned idea.

The dialogue got commuted to dialogue between second-tier politicians from both camps following an intervention by Nabih Berri. It was agreed that participants would serve a week, after which the higher class of politicians will decide whether they would face each other and restart the whole process.

The Arab League delegation, meanwhile, continues to learn about the confessions of Fatah al-Islam members directly while the rest of the Lebanese population has to search for the same information in the pages of dailies, some of which aren’t even published in the country.

According to al-Hayat, one of the plots involved downing a plane carrying an Arab delegation to a foreign ministers meeting during the Israeli-Hizbullah war last August. The missile would have been launched from a spot near the airport. One wonders if the Israelis got to the Syrian missile before it killed Arab ministers! 

The delegates were invited by the parliament's majority to tour military positions of pro-Assad militias in the Bekaa and south of Beirut to see for themselves how, explained Saad Hariri in one meeting, "Ahmad Jibril on orders from Bashar Assad can shut down the airport at any moment". Hariri was referring to the recently reinforced PFLP-GC military outpost in Naameh, south of Beirut, which everybody in Lebanon has seen, visited and even filmed. The Israelis also bombed it a few times.

On closed borders and dead ends

The Assad regime has closed the Joussieh-Qaa border crossing in northeast Lebanon, the Lebanese National News Agency reported today. Syrian authorities gave no explanations for the closure, which comes amid reports of arms smuggling through the border.

An-Nahar reported today that four trucks loaded with weapons tried to cross the Douris area near Baalbeck last night. The Lebanese army forced them to "turn back and vanish into the darkness".  This is the same area where the Lebanese army intercepted a Hizbullah truck carrying rockets recently.

Meanwhile, and while we are left to wonder about the fate of the four (or five) trucks, the Arab League delegation was treated to a "slide show" by Fouad Siniora on the confessions of detained Fatah al-Islam fighters, linking the terrorist group to Syrian intelligence. According to An-Nahar, Siniora used maps to show the delegates military positions in the Bekaa valley, presumably belonging to the Damscus-based PFLP-GC and Fatah Intifada.

The Arab League delegation is on a quasi fact-finding mission, also doubling as an initiative, although secretary-general Amr Moussa refused to describe it as such. The delegation has been touring the Lebanese officialdom, listening to divergent points of views. It's not like the Arabs don't already know everything there is to know. Hopefully, Siniora's facts, which he refuses to share with commoners like us, helped clear some of the more muddled Arab brains. Sadly, however, the delegates began their tour at Berri's, who told them the cause of the problems in Lebanon and Palestine is "lack of unity", and urged them to "find out what our national partners want", in reference to March 14.  By the time they got to Jumblatt's house, their numbers had shrunk because the Qatari delegate is apparently boycotting the Druze leader, who has been accusing the Qatar Emir of backing the Syrian-Iranian axis and sabotaging a "Saudi-Iranian initiative".

Today, the representatives of the league met Syrian-installed president Emile Lahoud, who said he was not in favor of forming a second government. This confused many in March 14 and possibly Hizbullah supporters who had been led to believe that the "opposition" would resort to that measure if parliament failed to elect a president.

Anyway, Amr Moussa said he would report the results of his talks to the Arab League secretariat, which would then decide on a course of action. After Walid Eido's assassination, March 14 asked the Arab League to boycott the Assad regime. I expect the Assad regime to close the remaining border at Masnaa and blow up at least half of Lebanon before Arab officialdom unites against the Assad regime. And why would they? The countries that count on the international scene, namely Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt, are already silently boycotting the Assad gang.

All this raises many pertinent questions about the point of the Arab visit, the Arab League in general, and any "initiative" that does not openly acknowledge the destructive Syrian and Iranian roles not only in Lebanon, but also in the land many will soon stop calling Palestine.

True resistance

Photo credit: Michel Hallak, An-Nahar, Nahr El Bared after the destruction of a terrorist stronghold

Where do rockets come from?

Rockets fired into northern Israel invariably come from southern Lebanon, which is under the control of the Lebanese army, UNIFIL, and to an extent, Hizbullah. With the Lebanese army busy waging war in the north, guarding Hizbullah's occupation in downtown Beirut and deploying troops around sensitive parts in the country, today's attack on northern Israel was bound to happen. UNIFIL has no access to the refugee camps in the south, and their monitors seem to have switched to self-defense mode.

Israeli radios quoted defence officials as saying the rockets were fired by a Palestinian organisation in Lebanon, but gave no details. The Lebanese Shiite militant Hezbollah said it "denies any relation with the launching of rockets today toward occupied Palestine," according to the group's television station.

A number of pro-Syrian Palestinian groups which maintain armed bases in Lebanon have been previously accused of firing rockets at northern Israel. But Abu Imad Ramez, spokesman for the Damascus-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC), denied responsibility for the latest attack. (AFP)

With the Nahr El Bared episode reportedly drawing to a close, the rockets serve as a wake up call to those who thought security in the south was a done deal. Lebanon is not just infested with al-Qaeda subspecies, there are the regular "resistance" strains, the likes of the PFLP-GC and Fatah Intifada. These could be amateurs but they are on the way to becoming mini-armies after the latest Syrian wave of smuggling. The PFLP-GC in particular has been receiving reinforcements to their Naemeh "base" south of Beirut and other bases in the Bekaa.

The need for effective monitoring of the border with Syria has become, and has always been, a national imperative, as important as setting a date for by-elections. Equally important is dealing with the various security zones we have in the country.

After Nahr El Bared, the onus is on the army's leadership to help implement UNSC 1701 and go after Assad's other militias. The Internal Security Forces have to continue asserting their authority on the ground, especially in areas illegally policed by Hizbullah. The kidnapping of ISF members last week was scandalous, however, it pales in comparison to the kidnapping of the livelihood of thousands of Lebanese citizens who own or benefit from now shut down businesses in the city center.

There is no point in waiting for the Arab League to sponsor another useless round of dialogue or even putting pressure on the Assad regime. The regime has long forsaken the league of despots, forming its own with Iran. There is also no point in expecting the "opposition" to help secure the country. This "opposition", according to Hizbullah's Nabil Qaouk, is close to taking "new, brave, historic and strategic steps to protect the unity of Lebanon and its existence... we are not afraid of international resolutions that they threaten us with". (Lebanese National News Agency)

"ان المعارضة تقترب شيئا فشيئا من خطوات جديدة وشجاعة وتاريخية واستراتيجية تحمي وحدة لبنان وكيانه، وليست في موقع التهويل ولا تخشى القرارات الدولية التي يهددونها بها".

March 14, or those in it who thought Hibzullah would welcome their olive branch, have learned, once again, that it's an all out war by the Assad regime and its allies. Saad Hariri, after offering to overlook the Iran role, is now presenting Hizbullah as an Iranian tool.  Nabil Qaouk and other Hizbullah point men today rejected (for the 100th time) the deployment of international monitors on the border with Syria, describing such a step as an "Israeli project" (National News Agency). MP Hussein Hajj Hassan even called (LBC news) UN Mideast envoy Terje Roed-Larsen "an Israeli, a Zionist" for reporting an increase in arms smuggling through the Syrian border to groups such as the PFLP-GC, who fought alongside Fatah al-Islam in the north:

"The men of the PFLP-GC are fighting [alongside] Fatah al-Islam," Brigadier General Ashraf Rifi, the head of Lebanon's paramilitary Internal Security Forces, told TIME. This week, Terje Roed-Larsen, a U.N. Mideast envoy, reported to the U.N. Security Council that the PFLP-GC and Fatah Intifada, a smaller pro-Syrian faction, appeared to be growing stronger in Lebanon due to a "steady flow of weapons and armed elements across the border from Syria." (Time/CNN)

If you don't care to believe any of the arguments presented in this blog for the past two years, take a walk to Verdun, a site of a recent terror attack, and the location of Berri's residence. A few days ago, residents of the area received bills from Berri's security apparatus ordering them to pay $200 per household. The bill is allegedly in return for security services rendered by Berri's bodyguards, which consisted of uprooting of trees that once lined up some of the streets of that area, installing security cameras, and placing large cement blocs around Berri's house.

Berri's deputies and their Hizbullah friends once described the interior ministry's plan to install security cameras in the city as "setting up a security regime". Here they are, however, charging residents fees for protecting themselves, while disregarding the safety and economic well being of the entire nation.

Getting rid of the country's security zones – all of them -- should be a top priority for the security forces, which now enjoy wide local and international. For those rockets might as well have been fired from Berri's security zone in Verdun or from Hizbullah-occupied downtown Beirut...

Lebanese army taking control of Nahr El Bared

The Lebanese army is saying that it has made major advances against the Fatah al-Islam gang in the Nahr El Bared camp,  seizing an ammunition cache and detaining one of the terrorists' medic, Omar Abu Merssi. The National News Agency is reporting that the group's spiritual advisor, Haitham al-Saadi, has surrendered to the army this afternoon.

Fatah's al-Islam's fighting power has diminished in the past two days, an army officer told AFP. The armed forces have been bombarding the group's positions from land, sea, and for the first time today, air. A Gazelle helicopter, one of many acquired recently, was seen firing several rockets at Fatah al-Islam positions in the west sector of the camp.

The army believes Abu Merssi knows the whereabouts of Fatah al-Islam leader Shaker al-Abssi and his deputy Abu Hureira. The seized ammunition cache was said to be large, proving that "this terrorist gang has destructive objectives," an army statement said.

Lahoud's conscience and Berri's anchor

When he's not extolling Syrian Lebanese relations in interviews to Syrian media, Lahoud entertains Syrian agents to discuss the progress of the campaign to eliminate his Lebanese opponents.  Yesterday, and while Lebanon watched the cold-blooded murder of March 14 MP Walid Eido, his son and other youths, the Syrian-installed president met with the head of Baath party in Lebanon, Assem Qanso, who undoubtedly briefed him about his recent visit to Damascus. Other guests included former minister Michel Samaha, who is always a phone call away from the nearest Syrian intelligence officer.

Before or after these meetings— the order is of no importance—Lahoud declared the country to be on the verge of collapse, not because of Syrian terror, but because of the "illegal and unconstitutional" government's transgressions! Lahoud did not reinvent the "opposition's" wheel when he laid the blame for the terror attacks on March 14, whose refusal to give Hizbullah and Syria veto power in the cabinet allegedly allowed the "enemies of Lebanon" to "sneak into" the Palestinian camps. And like his Syrian buddies, Lahoud said this was a plot to settle Palestinians in the country.

On the army's campaign north, the commander of the armed forces couldn't care less about the morale of the troops when he disassociated the government from the army, treating them as two independent entities—as if the army does not follow orders from the "illegal" cabinet.

Lahoud vowed to take action to end the country's "bleeding" in the near future. As to what, exactly, that action will be, Lahoud didn't specify. It will, however, be inspired by his "conscience" and the "constitution". Is it a second government? Constitutionally, he couldn't. However, if this cabinet loses one member, he and his Syrian masters will get their wish.

And since it's open March 14 season, the opposition's NBN TV station inadvertently showed the enthusiasm with which the murder of Eido was greeted, at least in the hallways of Nabih Berri's station.

During the live coverage of Eido's assassination, NBN's technical director forgot to kill the anchorwoman's microphone, so viewers heard her say "it took them long enough", in reference to Eido's murder.  In between rounds of laughing and gloating with her colleagues, they speculated that March 14 minister Ahmad Fatafat could be next, and tried to determine how many more March 14 members need to die to get rid of the parliament's majority.