Army commander criticised for calling Bashar Assad

Suleiman's speech to army graduates, in which he exonerated Syrian intelligence from arming Fatah al-Islam, was met with silence in Lebanese political circles. Mustapha Alloush, an MP in Hairi parliamentary bloc, broke the silence in an interview with Now Lebanon, revealing that the army commander called Bashar Assad-- something that was not reported in the media.

Alloush criticized Suleiman's assertion that Fatah al-Islam was neither supported by Syrian intelligence nor the Lebanese government. He said linking the terrorist group to the government does not need a denial, especially not by the army which acted on an order from the government.

Alloush said that Fatah al-Islam's link to al-Qaeda was never denied by the government. "Here I ask the army commander, who sent Shaker al-Absi to Lebanon, and how did the pro-Syrian Fatah Intifada hand over its positions to Fatah al-Islam without a fight?"

Alloush revealed – and I could not find this in any online version of Suleiman's speech—that the army commander said he contacted Bashar Assad. Alloush does not explain the context of the call, so I will assume that it was to inquire about the connection between Syrian intelligence and the Fatah al-Islam group. Note that it has been reported before that Suleiman sent pro-Syrian Islamist Fathi Yakan to Syria during the army's negotiations with the Fatah al-Islam terrorists.

Alloush said he didn't understand how the army commander could contact another state's president without going through his government first. "If true," Alloush said, it would be "strange and undemocratic".

Alloush added that Suleiman should quit delivering advice to politicians as his post is not political. 'Whether he resigns or not is up to him,… but he has to assume his responsibilities as long as the political authority in the country has charged him with these responsibilities. He should not say that he is staying in his position. There is a tradition in Lebanon that army commanders change with the president, and… I think this must continue".

It seems that March 14 is increasingly uncomfortable with Suleiman's entry into the political scene. Suleiman's visit to the Patriarch last week was given a lot of interpretations. One is that he's eyeing the presidency, until it emerged today that he wouldn't mind becoming an interim prime minister.

Finally, Suleiman has complained about the nature of military aid the army has received, saying it was mostly promises and ammunition. "It's as if they are telling us to die first and support will come later, we are currently looking for sources to acquire weapons".

Considering that most of this allegedly useless aid came from the US, I don't think Suleiman's exoneration of Syrian intelligence will encourage the Americans to send him more weapons. Especially not when he's aspiring to become another Michel Aoun, minus a "liberation war". 

Excerpt from Alloush's interview with Now Lebanon follows:

واضاف علوش: "قائد الجيش قال انه اتصل بالرئيس السوري بشار الاسد، وانا لست افهم ايضاً كيف يتصل موظف من الفئة الاولى بدولة اخرى حتى لو كان قائداً للجيش برئيس دولة ثانية دون الرجوع الى حكومته، هذه مسألة مستغربة وخارجة عن الاطار الديمقراطي ولا اعتقد انها اذا كانت صحيحة في موقعها. السؤال يجب ان يوجه مباشرة الى السلطات السورية لماذا تم اطلاق العبسي مع انه مطلوب بجريمة اغتيال في الاردن؟ ولماذا تم توجيهه بعيد القرار 1559 الى لبنان لمواجهة تداعياته كما صرح العبسي نفسه الى صحيفة "الحياة"؟ الكل يعرف ان السجون السورية لا تطلق بسهولة المعتقلين لديها".
وعلّق علوش على تمني قائد الجيش ان يلهم الله الحكمة لزعماء هذا الوطن المعذب، فقال: "لا اظن ان الموقع الذي يشغله العماد سليمان له اي دور سياسي ليوجه هكذا رسائل، ولكن على كل الاحوال نحن موافقون على هذا التوجه ونتمنى على كل الموظفين والمسؤولين الاخذ به".
علوش اكد ان "قرار استقالة العماد سليمان او عدمه يعود له، وطالما صرح بذلك سراً او علناً وتمّ تناقله في وسائل الاعلام، فان هذه المسألة تصبح مؤكدة. ويجب ان يتحمل المسؤوليات طالما ان السلطة السياسية في البلد قد حملته هذه المسؤوليات. ويجب الا يقول العماد سليمان انني باق. على كل هناك تقليد متبع في لبنان وهو تغيير قائد الجيش مع تغيير رئيس الجمهورية - الا في حالات نادرة - وانا اعتقد ان هذا الامر يجب ان يستمر".

Comments

[JoseyWales]

If this is M14's response to Sleiman, I am underwhelmed.

[Louis-Noel Harfouche]

A self-respecting government would long since fired that piece of dung Sillyman.

I don't know much about constitutional law, but it doesn't take a genius to know that a state functionary (and to boot, one that wears a uniform with a name-tag, not diplomatic attire) has no business contacting foreign officials with whom the State maintains no diplomatic relations; unless, of course, said functionary was authrorized BY the state and OFFICIALLY entrusted with such a "mission."
Otherwise, citizen Sillyman should be in the unemployment line by now (or better yet in the slammer, with his mugshot on page-one of the Army Gazette.) BTW, wouldn't that have been his fate had his interlocutor been President S. Perez instead of Bashar?

But of course, that's Lebanon we're talking about. Eat your heart out George Orwell.

[Charlie]

And the joke continues!!!

[ghassan karam]

Coincidentally enough I learned today that Jelly Fish are not only spineless but they also do not have a brain. This is the scientific truth, I kid you not.
Our Pm; Mr. Jellyfish/weeping willow; has a golden opportunity to demonstrate that he is an exception, a jelly fish with a brain. He can do that by issuing a strong reprimand to Suleiman and initiate the process of dismissing him. The stand of General Suleiman does not surprise this reader. I had been extremley suspicious of General Suleimans' intentions based on the way that he reacted to the University disturbances but especially to every statement ever since the Naher El Bared started in May. It was obvious that he did not want the involvement but his hand was forced when the initial 17 army personnel were butchered. If Mr. Jellyfish has the wisdom to surprise us all then I would also suggest getting rid of Elias Al Murr that other useless pretender. I am not holding my breath though.

BV
Khattar held a portfolio in the Mikati cabinet and I understand that his chances are better than the other two mentioned so far since my information says that he is acceptable to Beri and actually pushed by Bkirki. The man does not seem to have left any paper trail. Google has not heard of him.

[Bad Vilbel]

Yup. I've been waiting for a reaction from a Jumblatt or a Geagea...I'm also undewhelmed.

And I'll echo Louis-Noel's sentiment here. An army commander has no business playing diplomat, no business calling foreign heads of state and no business being involved in politics period.

I stated he should be fired about a month ago, when he first "gave advice to politicians". I still think he should be fired RIGHT AWAY. No questions asked. What a joke Lebanon is for allowing this shit to continue going on.

And make no freakin mistake, people, Suleiman is NOT A COMPROMISE. Even though that idiot Sfeir has been fooled into accepting Suleiman as a compromise, Suleiman is nothing but a Syrian tool, much like Lahoud. M14 should under NO circumstance fall for this "compromise" ploy.

[R]

By the way, Sleiman's willingness to lead a transitional government was only reported second-hand by Albert Mansour, not quoted first-hand...

[JoseyWales]

Gus, try Googling Damianos Kattar (not Khattar) you will find stuff, though not much.

Lou, when are you back in the US (and blogging)?

[ghassan karam]

Josey, Tnx for the correction. ( I am still baffelled by his apparent total lack of credentials. So he was a professor and he served in the Mikati government for two months. I am not impressed.

BV/ Josey/ ...
Have you read the "Al Karass Al Tawjihi" of the Lebanese army? It would have been funny had it not been so serious. Many segments could not have been written by a Lebanese Ex The Lebanese army is very mindful of the special relations with sisterly Syria; Just and comprehensive peace in the region demand (a) return of Sheba'a farms (b) return of the Golan and (c) return of the Palestinian refugees; Globalization and US hegemony pose a serious threat to Lebanese sovereignty. No wonder Suleiman calls Damascus for his orders. Is there any chance whatsoever that the people will say that they have had enough and that they just cannot take it any longer. Could there be another impromptu demonstration on the scale of March 14 that will change the structure, the architecture of this country in an effort to save it?

[Bad Vilbel]

GK,

The answer to your question is "No".
I don't see the Lebanese sheeple "getting it" anytime soon. We're just doomed to see more of the same crap.

Can you believe that biased propaganda coming from the Army's own leadership? (The stuff you just quoted).
In what country is this kind of overlap between politics and military allowed? Cuba perhaps. But certainly not in any self-respecting democracy.

What a joke Lebanon is.

[JoseyWales]

Gus, I have to be as pessimistic as BV.

Neither side gets it, Sfeir does not get it, and the army is, like everyone else, awash with all the bad ideas that got us in this mess: arab brotherhood, Palestine uber alles, resistance and the rest of that claptrap.

[Kamal]

For your enjoyment, the latest salvo in the Joshua Landis vs Michael Young feud:

http://joshualandis.com/blog/?p=351#comment-59782

[ghassan karam]

It is true that necessity is the mother of invention. The Lebanese Air Force did not use the Gazelle chopers to fire rockets into Naher Al Bared they used the helicopters to drop 40 year old bombs that are left over from the Hawker Hunters. Fubar, your expert comment on this would be helpful; Is this a common practice? Is it safe? how does one make sure that such old ammo would still explode? ( I heard that each helicopter had a sharp shooter on it, does that make sense?).

[Bad Vilbel]

I heard nothing about the gazelles dropping bombs. I did hear that the United Arab Emirates, who gave em to the LAF, took out their missile abilities and that the LAF ended up installing machine guns on them.

[ghassan karam]

BV
Lebanese TV has been running video clips and some news papers have pictures of it. I have no military knowledge whatsoever but my common sense tells me that a helicopter is not designed to drop bombs. That might be the surest way to lose one.( It makes the helicopter a standing target doesn't it?).

[Riemer Brouwer]

See also Harald's blog at http://harryzzz.blogspot.com/2007/07/again-teargass-for-nahr-al-bared-it.html for a possible option: simply use teargas on the 100m2 that the terrorists apparently still hold

[Ace]

Every once in a while you get lucky - and that's what happened to Sillyman. He has drug his feet during this entire operation, and there are many reports that it is the "core" of the Army that is leading the fight against both the terrorists and some of the high command. Sillyman gets all the credit and is now considered a National Hero. It will be tough for the Government to fight that ... but they have to. They can't afford to let an Army General usurp their authority, and that's exactly what he has done.

New report out today by Global Politician on Sillyman's statement :
""Lebanon Terror: The Syrian Moukhabarat Connection
Pierre A. Maroun - 8/16/2007
On August 13, 2007, Lebanese Army General Michael Suleiman shed some light on the military situation in Naher El Bared and the fight against Fateh el Islam terrorist group. In the process, General Suleiman mentioned that such a terrorist group is definitely linked to Al-Qaeda, yet, he added, it has no connection to Syria whatsoever. Such distortion of the truth triggered this document, in which most of its intelligence information came from the same Army that General Suleiman is the commander.""
http://globalpolitician.com/articledes.asp?ID=3274&cid=2&sid=5

The whole thing is worth a read ... they name names and Hezbollah and Syria are prominent.

[Mark]

Kamal,

Please never provide a link to that place ever again. I actually spent some time reading with Landis and his followers had to say, and I can't stop puking. It literally made me sick.

[aother_someone]

GK,

The free fall bombs were dropped from Hueys or the AB212 and not the Gazelles.

As for making sure if they would explode or not, it does not matter. What matters is the law of probability in this case.

[Omar Hamada]

It's only a matter of time before internal violence increases given that Hizballah refuses to concede governmental control to properly elected officials and will not give up until they are in control. They also will never have a policy of peace with Israel, but will continually seek conflict once they achieve their goal of governmental control. The only way out of this debacle is open, deliberate, and armed intervention by a foreign power such as France, Germany, or the US, and I don't see that happening. Then there's the Palestinian problem with Fatah al Islam.......

[ghassan karam]

Another call for help. I have not been able to find a single mention anywhere of what the nontraditional weapon that Nasrallah is threatening to deploy in the case of war. It cannot be nuclear and I hope that it is not chemical. But then what can it be? He promises that in case of a war he would use a surprise that will change the whole region? That must be something big but I have no idea of what it can be. Any suggestions ?

[Bad Vilbel]

There is no mention of it anywhere. That's the whole point of his "surprise".

Knowing the way the Hezbollah and arab mentality works, I'd venture to say that what they consider a "surprise weapon" might not be anything earthshattering. These are the same people who gloated for months about damaging an Israeli ship, or flying a drone into Israeli airspace.
It has to be taken within the "david vs. goliath" context that Nassrallah and most of the Arab world likes to paint themselves. Any slight dent in the vastly superior's armor is considered a victory. Hell, last year's war is considered a divine victory simply on account that Hezbollah supposedly put up harder resistance than Israel expected.

In other words, the standards of what they consider a "win" is not measured on an absolute scale.

I don't know what his secret weapon is, but I'm thinking it's something along the lines of longer range missiles (courtesy of Tehran), the ability to hit targets in Tel Aviv, for example. Or something that's a bit more technologically advanced than Katyushas (which are shit weapons that pretty much have close to zero targetting abilities).

That's my guess.

[Charlie]

There is no secret weapon. Nas is doing what he does best, hot rhetoric to pick up a fight so his sheeply are all charged up. What better way to put the presidential elections on hold and keep the light away from his failure to deliver on the grand construction plans he promised the people of the south and Dahiyet.

He better be careful what he wishes for though, this time he may not be able to claim any divine victories……

[fubar]

Ghassan,

I am chuckling because the only thing I could possibly claim expertise in dropping from a helicopter is me. I suspect that the way the LAF finds out if its old ordinance will still explode is to drop it and see. = )