Today's Stories

March 4, 2009

Marjorie Cohn
Blueprints for a Police State

March 3, 2009

Conn Hallinan
Ethnic Cleansing and Israel

Fawzia Afzal-Khan
The Long, Dark Night of Pakistan

Brian M. Downing
The Changing Game in Afghanistan

Robert Larson
External Damnation: Companies are Designed for Destruction

Daniel P. Wirt, MD
Single-Payer Health Reform

Russell Mokhiber
Burn Your Health Insurance Bill!

William Loren Katz
Obama, One Ape and Two Newspapers

Kathy Sanborn
The Lazy Man's Guide to the Economic Crisis

Pauline Imbach
A New Start for the World Social Forum?

Christopher Ketcham
The Best Journalism You'll Write is Priceless

Website of the Day
The Surveillance Self-Defense Project

March 2, 2009

Andrea Peacock
A Poisoned Town's Shot at Justice

Paul Craig Roberts
Obama's Budget

Peter Lee
Pakistan Lurches Toward the Abyss

John Blair
Locking Down Big Coal

Peter Morici
Treasury's Flawed Plan for Citigroup

Uri Avnery
10 Ways to Kill Fatah

Michael Donnelly
Resistance to the War on the Wild

Fred Gardner
The Judge Who Ruled Marijuana is Medicine

Sonia Nettnin
Middle East Medical Mission Heroes

Andrew Lehman
A New Deal for the Web

Website of the Day
Pentagon Papers II?

Feb. 27 - March 1, 2009

Alexander Cockburn
Is Nancy Pelosi Really Against War Crimes?

Harry Browne
Where the Cheats Have No Shame

Anthony DiMaggio
From Bush to Obama: Seven Years of Wartime Propaganda

Sasan Fayazmanesh
Dennis Ross and Iran: the Fox and the Chicken Coop

Mischa Gaus
The Banks' War on Workers

Felice Pace
The Economy and the Big Picture

Mike Whitney
Is Free Market Capitalism Possible Without Accountability?

Lee Sustar
Blaming the Autoworkers

Peter Lee
The Other Side of the Coin in Afghanistan

Nicole Colson
Ruining Young Lives for Profit

Roger Burbach
Et Tu, Daniel? The Betrayal of the Sandinista Revolution

Rannie Amiri
King Abdullah Has No Robes

Missy Beattie
Owning Disaster

Dave Lindorff
America's Stupid Health Care Debate

Robert David Steele Vivas
Intelligence for the President--and Everyone Else

John Ross
Teotihuacan Gets Mickey-Moused

Ralph Nader
Civic Heroism Awards

Yves Engler
Haiti's Harsh Realities

Alan Farago
The Story of Leonard Abess, Banker

Zulfikar Majid
Understanding Kashmir

David Yearsley
Don't Stay Up Too Late, Johan!

Charles R. Larson
Sleeping with Dogs

Kim Nicolini
Spitting at Dark Times: Mike Leigh's "Happy-Go-Lucky"

Lorenzo Wolff
So You Wanna Be a Garage Rock Star

Poets' Basement
Puthoff, Payne, Gaffney and Gray

Website of the Weekend
Sleep Now in the Fire

February 26, 2009

Dave Lindorff
Obama's Address to Congress

Jonathan Cook
Israel's Military Mephistopheles

Patrick Cockburn
Did the US Learn Anything in Iraq?

Mike Whitney
The Geithner Put

Eamonn McCann
"Make Bono Pay Tax"

Tim Wise
Eric Holder and the Whitewashing of Racism

Tom Barry
Napolitano's Hard Line

Harvey Wasserman
Obama's Excellent Atomic Omission

Adam Turl
The Enemies of Unions and the Lies They Tell

David Macaray
When People are Fired Illegally

James McEnteer
Rush to the Rescue: Limbaugh's Secret Plan to Save the Economy

Website of the Day
The Carbon Casino

February 25, 2009

Chris Sands
Afghanistan: Chaos Central

M. Shahid Alam
Israel in 1948: Poised for Expansion

Chris Floyd
Obama's Non-Withdrawal Withdrawal Plan

Dave Lindorff
Wall Street and Bernanke: the Blind Leading the Blind

Norman Solomon
The Slow Pullout Method

Rachel Godfrey Wood
Neoliberals Do The Amazon

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Teacher and Student: the New Class Struggle

Ron Jacobs
It Ain't Over Till It's Over

Nadia Hijab
The First Waltz

Dennis Loo
The Water Line

Website of the Day
Hitchens Gets Stomped by Syrian Nerd

February 24, 2009

Paul Craig Roberts
How the Economy was Lost

Uri Avnery
Coalition Theory

Peter Morici
Is Nationalization Inevitable?

Jonathan Cook
Arab Parties Face Most Hostile Knesset in History

Paul Fitzgerald /
Elizabeth Gould
The Man Who Shouldn't be King (of Afghanistan)

Andy Worthington
Who is Binyam Mohamed?

Brian Horejsi
Crisis Creates Hope for Reality

Julia Stein
I was a Writer for the Government

Norm Kent
How Judges Disgrace the Bench

Rachel Smolker /
Brian Tokar
Biofuels, Promise or Threat?

Dennis Loo
The Water Line: Doing What Must be Done

James McEnteer
The Oscar for Denial

Website of the Day
How to Destroy a Fox News Anchor

February 23, 2009

Michael Hudson
The Language of Looting

Mike Roselle
On Cherry Pond: Going Up Against Big Coal in W. Virginia

Patrick Cockburn
The New War in Iraq

Franklin Spinney
Obama Steps on the Pentagon Escalator

Einar Már Guðmundsson
A War Cry From the North

Ralph Nader
How Credit Unions Survived the Crash

Jordan Flaherty
A New Orleans Intifada?

Helen Redmond
Ted's Table: Kennedy and the Corporate Lobbyists Craft a Health Plan

Dennis Loo
The Water Line

Harvey Wasserman
Jet Crashes and Nuclear Reactors: Feds Ignore a Serious Risk

Terry Lodge
The Intelligence is Wrong

Website of the Day
BadCreditReport.Com

February 20 / 22, 2009

Alexander Cockburn
The Lawyer's Tale

Michael Neumann /
Osha Neumann
Remove Our Grandmother's Name from the Wall at Yad Vashem

Ismael Hossein-zadeh
Herbert Hoover Copycats

Paul Craig Roberts
Bill of Rights Under Fire

Linn Washington Jr.
The NY Post's Chimpanzee Cartoon

Saul Landau
On the Road Again

Marjorie Cohn
War Criminals Must be Prosecuted (And Their Lawyers Too)

Binoy Kampmark
Cricket and Cartels: the Fall of Sir Allen Stanford

Dave Lindorff
Using the Recession to Hammer Workers

David Yearsley
Edward Said's Greatest Musical Writings

David Macaray
A Closer Look at the Employee Free Choice Act

James McEnteer
Last Mambo in Minnehaha

Rick Salutin
A Canadian Looks at Obama

Wayne Clark
South Carolina Nears the Abyss

Richard Rhames
Got Farms?

Stephen Martin
Silver Mist Descending

Mitu Sengupta
Slumdog Millionaire's Dehumanizing View of India's Poor

Charles R. Larson
Slumdog Reality?

Richard Morse
Carnival Ramble in Haiti

Lorenzo Wolff
Desperation in an Unavoidable Groove

Poets' Basement
Three Poems of Tu Fu (Trans. K. Rexroth)

Website of the Weekend
Ron Paul: What If the People Wake Up?

February 19, 2009

Norman Finkelstein
The Cleanser: Lobbyists Whistle Up Cordesman to "Prove" Israel Waged a Clean War in Gaza

Harry Browne
How Ireland Went Bust

Robert Bryce
Why the Promise of Biofuels is a Lie

Brian M. Downing
The Winding Road: From Western Europe to Kyrgyzstan

Fred Gardner
The DEA Chief's $123,000 Flight

Andy Worthington
Obama's Uighur Problem

Wajahat Ali
Aftermath of a Beheading

Laura Carlsen
A New Attitude at the White House Toward Bolivia and Venezuela?

Deb Reich
Gaza: Choose Life!

Christopher Ketcham
Crisis? What Crisis?

Website of the Day
Taking Back NYU

February 18, 2009

Paul Craig Roberts
President of Special Interests

Mike Whitney
Trouble at Treasury

M. Shahid Alam
Afghan Pitfalls

Patrick Cockburn
A Real Surge at Last

Conn Hallinan
Death's Laboratory

Dave Lindorff
Whatever Happened to Antitrust?

Rannie Amiri
The Perils of Blogging in Egypt

Gareth Porter
Pushing Back Against Petraeus on Pullout Risks

Eric Hobsbawm
Remembering V. G. Kiernan

Christopher Brauchli
The Pope's Predicament

Martha Rosenberg
It's the Cymbalta Stupid

Website of the Day
Red Gold

February 17, 2009

Michael Hudson
The Oligarchs' Escape Plan

Mike Whitney
The Global Ditch

Ralph Nader
The One-Dimensional Congress

Joanne Mariner
Benchmarking Obama: How to Evaluate the New Administration's Counter-Terrorism Policies

John Ross
Commodifying the Revolution: Zapatista Villages Become Hot
Tourist Destinations

Belén Fernández
The Venezuelan Referendum From the Back of a Pickup Truck

Mats Svensson
Who is a Terrorist?

David Macaray
Why America Needs Labor Unions

Gregory Vickrey
$400 in Change

M. Junaid Levesque-Alam
Another Hamastan?

Michael Dickinson
Unrest in Istanbul

Website of the Day
Take a Stand for Open Access

February 16, 2009

Patrick Cockburn
Iraq Reconstruction: the Greatest Fraud in US History?

Oscar Guardiola-Rivera
The Truth About Colombia's New Emperor

Paul Craig Roberts
Who Remembers Guns and Butter?

Uri Avnery
Livni's Bitter Options

P. Sainath
The Meltdown: Whose Crisis Is It?

Dedrick Muhammad / Michael Brown
White Recession, Black Depression

Carla Blank
A New New Deal for the Arts

Patrick Irelan
Venezuela Ends Term Limits

Dan Bacher
Is Delta Pumping Driving Salmon and Orca Decline?

Fidel Castro
Chavez's Clarion Call

Harvey Wasserman
Hail to the Spleef: Did George Washington Smoke Pot?

Website of the Day
Mining Black Mesa

February 13 - 15, 2009

Alexander Cockburn
On the Rocks

Joshua Frank
The Myth of Clean Coal

Mike Whitney
Geithner's Coming Out Party

George Ciccariello-Maher
Venezuela's Term Limits: More Hypocrisy From the NYT

Nikolas Kozloff
Venezuela Beyond the Referendum

Brian M. Downing
Pakistan on the Brink

Paul Craig Roberts
Deficit Nonchalance

Christopher Ketcham
Israel's Ball Boys

Ron Jacobs
At a Campus Sit-In Against Israeli Occupation

Dave Lindorff
Why Can Judd Gregg See What Obama Can't?

Alan Maass
Lincoln at 200

Chuck Spinney
Grassley Sounds Off on Obama's Man at the Pentagon

Phil Gasper
Mr. Darwin's Reluctant Revolution

Stephen Lendman
A Short History of Business Handouts

Charles Thomson
Tate Cruises: Caveat Emptor on the High Seas

Kathy Sanborn
The Suicide Rush

Saul Landau
Bowled Over

Len Wengraf
The Nightmare in Somalia

Harvey Wasserman
Striking a Blow Against Nuclear Power

David Macaray
An Easy Call for Obama on Joining a Union

Tom Stephens
Four Freedoms, Four Changes

Seth Sandronsky
Lincoln and the Collective Mind

David Yearsley
On the Road Again

Lorenzo Wolff
Freaking Out With Danny Barnes

Kim Nicolini
The Body of the Worker: What "The Wrestler" Says About the State of America

Poets' Basement
Anderson, Buknatski and French

Website of the Weekend
The Iranian Revoution and the US Dual Containment Policy: a Presentation

March 4, 2009

"What's Hezbollah Done for Us Lately?"

Grumbles as Lebanon Heads into the Elections

By FRANKLIN LAMB

Haret Hreik, South Beirut.

In Lebanon rapt attention is focussed on the probable, but not certain, June Parliamentary elections, variously described as “the most important in Lebanon’s history”, the event that will determine the outcome of the Arab peoples’ central cause Palestine”, whether Lebanon becomes “Iranistan”, or is turned over by Washington, to a regional power to administer.

The contest, just 12 weeks away, has tightened dramatically and it is commonplace to hear citizens list the names of the countries backing one faction or another with money, political influence or both.

Earlier predictions of a Hezbollah landslide have evaporated with the Party of God and its allies now playing scrappy defense in face of an intense US orchestrated political onslaught.

So far, no generally respected voter preferences polls have emerged in Lebanon, but Parliamentary insiders predict when the votes are counted as few as five seats may separate the US-backed March 14 ‘Majority’ and the Hezbollah-led Opposition. One just released 3/04/09 Now Lebanon poll showed that 89 per cent of likely voters believe the June election “is of pivotal importance” and “the most important in the modern history of Lebanon as a State.”

It is generally conceded that the next government will be formed by whichever side polls best in the mountainous Metn district, east of Beirut, traditionally the area that witnesses Lebanon’s “mother of electoral battles.” How Metn goes may come down to how the crafty Armenian Christians vote.  According to Beirut’s Daily Star, it is these Christian swing voters in the middle of the political spectrum, who will be most susceptible to vote buying since hard core loyalist voters aren’t easily persuaded or trusted to cross over for cash.

The “unity” Cabinet had hoped to appoint an independent electoral monitoring commission as an election watchdog body but this plan collapsed over political bickering about how to choose the ‘non-aligned’ members. Hezbollah wanted the members appointed on a consensus basis but the March 14 team insisted on a majority vote, giving them effective control.

With Lebanese voters lacking confidence that the elections will be honestly run, the European Union and France, among others, have offered to help monitor the election. Both the majority and the opposition appear to welcome former President Jimmy Carter’s much experienced Election Monitoring Teams to come to Lebanon to increase public confidence in the election results.

Lebanon’s increasingly cosmic electoral battle pits two unlikely hombres against each other leading opposing electoral teams. Calling the shots for the pro-US Majority the election committee Chair, now that David Welch has retired, will be the former US Ambassador to Lebanon and currently Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, and former art major, Jeffrey Feltman. He will be sending in the play signals to the US fielded team via ‘secure’ communications and State Department video conferences. Lest his head coach position be doubted, on 3/04/09 the State Department announced that Feltman and Daniel Shapiro of the US National Security Council will visit within days Lebanon “to learn firsthand the conditions prevailing in the country … in terms of Washington's continued support for the sovereignty and independence of Lebanon and its territorial integrity.” The two men will be in town “to support the holding of parliamentary elections smoothly and transparently and to confirm the continuation of the armament and training of the Lebanese army,” the report read.

For the Opposition, or the “home team” as some in Dahieyh prefer,  it is former Chemistry Professor, Religious scholar, and Hezbollah’s number two, Naim Qassim.  Sheik Qassim is said to enjoy the rough and tumble of electioneering and to have a knack for drawing schematic issue and voter district diagrams, maybe acquired from years with sketching element charts and diagrams in his chemistry classrooms.  Qassim is credited with much of Hezbollah’s 17 years of ballot box success.

“Sheik Qassim is a terrific stump speaker with a great sense of humor.  Not at all like the severe image his opponent’s project of him”, according to Dahiyeh resident, Human Rights Ambassador Ali Khalil who has known Naim Qassim since the 1980’s when he was his chemistry student.

Qassim summarized Hezbollah’s basic program to me, saying: “We seek to protect the country, to reject foreign tutelage, to solve economic issues on the basis that people have social needs, to end financial corruption, not to pawn the country to foreign firms,  and equal development in all regions." Specifics will be announced very shortly, he added.

Qassim believes that neither March 14 nor Hezbollah Forces are capable of governing the country alone, adding that “If the opposition wins, Hezbollah wishes to form a national unity government." Qassim affirmed that opposition forces would run united in all districts in Lebanon with the hope of running a "fair and honest campaign”.

This past weekend, opening Hezbollah’s election campaign in the Bekaa Valley, Qassim pledged that “Hezbollah would encourage development by attending to the economical situation at all levels. We call for reinforcing the state’s role in combating monopolies and the huge public debt. We also call for building state institutions, provided that they are not used to serve the interests of only certain people or groups. We want the Resistance to pave the way for development and we want development to reinforce the Resistance,” noting that the party would campaign under a slogan of ‘resistance and development’. For us the word ‘resistance’ means the following concepts: Full independence and a rejection of foreign guardianship, even if it is camouflaged by so-called cooperation and coordination.”

Hezbollah is getting an ear full on the hustings

The Party is hearing plenty from the voters and their opponents:

• With the Lebanese government, more than two and one years after the July War, still not  fully delivering reconstruction aid, the whole country  -- but  South Lebanon, the Bekas and Daheyh especially --  ponder regular Israeli threats to ‘burn Lebanon’ again.  Voters do not have much doubt that the US has already given the green light.
  
• Many voters, who seem genuinely impressed with Hezbollah’s record of social improvements and its “clean” image, mention nagging doubts about its ‘foreign connections’. Disquiet over “the unknowns” and ‘foreigners’ is hammered home in March 14 campaign messages.
• Some voters mention that Hezbollah has yet to explain in detail its “major economic program”, which is much needed and anticipated.
• In the Bekaa Valley, which is strong for Hezbollah but by no means 100 per cent, one hears some criticism of Hezbollah for not delivering needed services, given the virtual absence of the Lebanese government in the area.  For example, the cold and struggling families, in the Hermel area, north of Baalbek, are not happy.  This is the area, including the villages of Brital and Tarayya, where the still admired Sheik Subhi al_Tufayli, Hezbollah’s spokesman (1985-1989) and the Party’s first Secretary-General (1989-1992) led the July 1997 “hunger revolution”. Sheik Tufayli, one of the three original founders of Hezbollah, viewed by some as too radical for the increasingly moderate Hezbollah, has been critical of Hezbollah for their participation in Lebanese elections and being too cozy with Iran.
•  In villages around Baalbek one hears some grumbling: “I support Hezbollah and the resistance but we have very few government services of any kind out here and our families need electricity and jobs, not another war with Israel. Hezbollah needs to do more if they want us to vote for them”, a shop keeper near the Al Rayan Hospital north of Baalbek told me. “The Israelis bombed our house in 2006, killing my brother.  We are not even Hezbollah supporters but neither they nor the Lebanese government has helped me rebuild. They don’t even shop at my grocery store.  I only see Hezbollah if they come by to check that I am not selling beer. It is almost two in the afternoon and I have had only a few customers.  Nobody around this area has any money to shop.”
• The “Lebanese Red” hashish growing region, North Baalbek-Knesseh-Hermel district, experienced the Lebanese army staging highly publicized arrests and confiscation raids in late December and early January. A survey of some of the growers by this observer found more hype than substance in ‘the raids’. “We knew in advance they were coming and ditched the stuff”, one grower in Kenesseh explained, adding, “but next time they show up our families will fight!”  

Some of the families in the area rely on this ancient and cheap-to-grow cash crop, which aids the local economy significantly, and which the government has pretty much left alone since the July 2006 War. Hezbollah is blamed for not providing political cover and may lose some hashish growers votes.  Hezbollah responds that, despite the  history of hashish farming in the Bekaa, going back to Roman times, the party has religious, legal, and moral objections to drug cultivation and will not protect it.

• Recent security problems with Hezbollah’s vehicle fleet supplier, rumored to be a “Party insider” has shocked many in Hezbollah since the confessed Israeli spy “was one of our own”. It is feared that the incident may affect the public’s perception of Hezbollah “as competent and in control” of the Resistance and weaken its reputation for reliability as a bulwark against US-Israeli projects.

Some of the volleys being fired at the Hezbollah-led opposition as the election approaches:

• The FBI has renewed its  scare tactic anti-Hezbollah  warnings with Director Mueller claiming  in the  Kuwaiti daily Al Rai for 2/25/09, without offering any evidence, that  Hezbollah was a “ proven terrorist group  over the years and that’s why we keep our eyes open on them inside the U.S”. According to Mueller, San Diego and Seattle, cities with a significant pro March 14 Lebanese population (as opposed to say, Dearborn Michigan with many presumably pro Hezbollah Shia) could be targeted in a fashion similar to last month’s Mumbai attacks.  One critic said Mueller wants to encourage anti Hezbollah expat Lebanese to return to Lebanon to vote in the election. Mueller declined to answer a question concerning the recent disclosures that the FBI infiltrated with paid informants and agent provocateurs U.S. mosques who had participated in law enforcement outreach efforts over the past decade.

• Days earlier (2/13/09), the new U.S. Intelligence Chief Dennis Blair offered the profound observation that “Hezbollah is a "multifaceted and disciplined" organization combining political, social, paramilitary, and terrorist elements and might consider attacking American interests because “we judge that armed struggle remains central of Hezbollah’s ideology and strategy”.

•  According to a just released (3/3/09) RAND Corporation study, Hezbollah is receiving $20 million annually from proceeds of pirated films in the tri-border area of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. Without offering proof or material evidence, the report warns that a terrorist connection “could increase in the future”.

• Middle East envoy George Mitchell has been more rational and moderate in his statements using the code language generally employed by American officials visiting the region:  “The United States supports Lebanon’s independence, sovereignty, democracy and peaceful elections”.  Meaning the US supports the March  14 team.

Saad Hariri, leader of Lebanon's anti-Syrian parliamentary majority, this week upped political pressure on voters contemplating voting for Hezbollah by declaring that his Future Movement would shun a unity government if Hezbollah and its allies win. The implication is that unless the US backed majority wins the balloting, the Hariri Empire fortune may no longer be available to help Lebanon.  In the same statement Hariri repeated the Majority mantra that a victory for the Hezbollah-led coalition would accelerate the Iranian takeover of Lebanon. Hezbollah has repeatedly stated that win or lose, it will join a unity government and seek consensus.  Saad Hariri’s announcement lends credence to current rumors that he has had enough of Lebanese politics and wants to join his family who have been forced out of Lebanon to live in safer surroundings abroad.

Will the Hezbollah-led Opposition fracture as the US flirts with Syria?
Since Hezbollah entered Parliament by winning eight seats in 1992, it has sometimes clashed with its Shia Party ally, Harek Amal. Among other reasons was that each Party preferred that its own loyalist stand for election in the same Shia district.

This may happen again this spring with an intra-coalition struggle taking place in Jezzine, north of Nabiteyeh.  In 2005, Amal and Hezbollah split the Christian seats, two to one respectively, but now Christian Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun is allied with both parties and plans to run Christian candidates there. Some have speculated that Hezbollah may support the FPM candidates which would weaken Amal.  Amal leader Nabih Berri objects and has defended his party's right to maintain both local seats it won in 2005.  In the past, Syria has mediated among March 8 ‘allies’ in order to settle internal rivalries. It may do so this year in the event that the two Shia parties can’t work things out.

The political alliance between Hezbollah and Amal is based largely on electoral convenience. Presumably Washington knows this and if Syria and Iran split so may Hezbollah and strongly pro-Syrian Amal.  One of the current political ironies in Lebanon is that the strongly nationalist Shia Hezbollah, will, if necessary, defend  Sunni and Christian Lebanon against Syria should it become necessary given the present  rapidly shifting currents in the region. This widely held supposition may bring Hezbollah some Sunni anti-Syrian election support from those who believe Hezbollah’s statements that it is “Lebanese first and last”.  While Hezbollah welcomes aid from several quarters in its struggle to liberate Lebanese and Palestinian territory from Israeli occupation, Hezbollah’s ultimate loyalty is to its own country, Lebanon.

While a great number of civil and international wars have been fought over the demand that Church and State be separated, in Lebanon, it’s the opposite. This country actually risks civil war before the June election if a serious movement forms advocating the apostasy of separation of Church and State.

Lebanon’s Maronite Cardinal Patriarch Boutros Sfeir, who regularly reminds the country that   “the Patriarchy rises above all conflicts because it unites all the Lebanese," rarely finishes a sermon without making barbed political pronouncements on behalf of his favored Maronite Christian flock.  Last month, following a meeting with US Ambassador Michele Sisson his Holiness announced at their news conference that: "If power shifts to March 8 Forces and March 14 Forces ceased to have power, mistakes would be committed that would weigh historically on the national fate.” The Patriarch added that “deep divisions among Christians were reflecting negatively on the fate of the Christians in Lebanon," and warned that "Christians alone from among other sects in the country do not control their differences." Sfeir criticized the presence of armed groups outside state control. "Every self-respecting state must be responsible for the arms within it," he said, taking another swipe at Hezbollah while ignoring the fact that the three main Chrilstian Militias in Lebanon are increasingly well armed.

Whatever the US Embassy thought of the Patriarch’s dictum ex cathedra, his rival Lebanese Christians were not happy and quickly cried foul.  The pro-Hezbollah Christian leader of the Free Patriotic Movement Michel Aoun replied that Patriarch Sfeir does not speak for the Christians on matters of politics, adding, "Christian society is democratic and the Patriarchs stance is well known to be with the March 14 Forces and he is not a centrist. This means he is against the opposition."

Former pro-Syrian Prime Minister Omar Karami assailed Sfeir criticizing religious authorities that intervene in politics. "Religious authorities should not get involved with alleyways of politics and any clergyman who becomes a party to politics should be criticized," Karami said.

At the ready to defend Patriarch Sfeir was a Member of the March 14 Forces' General Secretariat Michel Moawwad , who following a meeting with Samir Geagea  this week went before the microphones to wonder “why Iran, and not Bkirki, (the seat of Cardinal Sfeir)  “is allowed to interfere in domestic affairs.”

"Is the Faqih ruler allowed to meddle in Lebanese affairs while Bkirki is not allowed to interfere in politics?", Moawwad asked earnestly with his palms upturned and his gaze toward Heaven.  Moawwad’s comment was intended to remind voters that Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khameini, successor to Ayatollah Khomeini, has both religious and political authority and is also the spiritual leader of Shia Muslim Hezbollah.  Hezbollah did not reply to the provocation, but their allies, the rival Maronite Christian block, quickly demanded to know “Where was the Patriarch when Christians were being slaughter by Christians during the civil war”?  And why weren’t they excommunicated while now it (the Patriarchy) wants to practice this measure against those Christians who give a different opinion and support the (Hezbollah led) Opposition”?

Former President and leader of the Phalange Party, Amin Gemayel followed with an accusation that the Hezbollah-led March 8 coalition was undertaking "a scheme to build a state in which Beirut is replaced with Tehran, Tripoli with Damascus and Bkirki with Brad." He was referring to the Syrian village of Brad, which is located north of Aleppo and is the burial place of Saint Maroun. "Loyalty to Lebanon is worthless without loyalty to the state," he stressed, adding that the June election represents “a choice between God and sovereignty or foreign tutelage."

Not wanting to be left on the sidelines, the March 14 ‘Majority’  has now called on the U.N. to pressure Israel to pay compensations for the July war.

In a letter presented to U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon via Lebanon's permanent representative to the U.N. Nawwaf Salam, Lebanon informed the international body of Israel's repeated violations of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701. In the letter, Prime Minister Fouad Saniora had demanded compensation from Israel for the "unimaginable losses" to the nation's infrastructure and praises US generosity.  But opposition supporters are more inclined hold the US responsible since with the US arms and green light Israel could not have attacked Lebanon and hence the US should join Israel in paying for the destroyed.

According to the Lebanese government, 32 "vital points" came under attack in Israel most recent aggression, with some 109 bridges, 137 roads and 137 factories targeted by Israeli air strikes. Thirty UN positions came under "direct attack," added the report, resulting in the death of internationally "protected personnel." A number of medical facilities and private homes also came under fire, as did the world heritage sites of Tyre and Byblos. But Israel has never heeded repeated requests for compensation including the demand from UN Secretary-General Key Moon Ban that Israel to pay $1 billion in compensation, mainly for damage inflicted on the Lebanese coastline following Israel's bombing of an oil reserve. The attack, considered to be Lebanon's worst ever environmental disaster, released 12,500-15,000 tons of fuel oil into the Mediterranean Sea, polluting two-thirds of Lebanon's coastline and killing already endangered marine life. It also affected nearby countries like Syria, Cyprus and Turkey.

The US to ‘stick by’ Lebanon

The US Embassy announced on 2/27/09 that the US will provide Lebanon with UAV "Raven" unmanned aircraft to help “boost border control and combat terrorism across Lebanon and to strengthen Lebanon’s abilities to maintain internal security, defeat terrorism, protect the Lebanese borders and ensure the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1701." (read: confront the Lebanese Resistance while ignoring Israel’s  invasions of Lebanese airspace and continued occupation of Lebanese territory in violation of SGR 1701 ). This latest aid announcement follows dollops of assistance over the past few years, most of which is of little use to the Lebanese public.  Rather, it is aimed at presenting an image of the US “long term and durable friendship” as the Embassy here announced last Friday, and strengthening Lebanon’s ability to become “sovereign and independent” when in fact no such aid will come to Lebanon without first being vetted by Israel.

Meanwhile, the United States told visiting Lebanese Army Commander General Jean Kahwaji it will provide the military with "Raven" unmanned aircrafts to help "boost border control and combating terrorism" across Lebanon, the US Embassy in Beirut said on Friday. The embassy said in a statement that Kahwaji and top US officials discussed Washington's "continuous assistance to the Lebanese Army aimed at strengthening the military's abilities to maintain internal security, combat terrorism, protect the Lebanese borders and ensure the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1701." Kahwaji met on Thursday with US Central Command Commander David Petraeus and the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, who held a dinner banquet in his honor. The statement said Washington's assistance to the Lebanese Army "remains a cornerstone of US policy on Lebanon." It added that the Lebanese military "plays a vital role in maintaining law and order, preventing cross-border smuggling and ensuring that the government is the sole political and military authority in Lebanon."

The embassy concluded that Kahwaji's visit confirms that "the US-Lebanese ties are strong and durable."  The ‘strong and durable” label is small potatoes for many Lebanese who noticed that on the same day Hilary Clinton’s stated that “the US-Israel relationship is unshakable  whatever type of government emerges following the recent Israeli elections”.  Will the same apply to Lebanon following it elections, enquiring minds want to know.

Michele’s color coded Push Pins

If an observer is keen to quickly grasp what, where, and how US electoral aid is entering Lebanon its best to overlook the many unfulfilled promises and assurances by more than a dozen US officials since the July 2006 War. Much more instructive would be to have a look at the Push Pin Wall Map on the office wall of the US Ambassador in Beirut.  When visitors come to chat, and she is in a good mood, the Ambassador Michele Sisson will show off her fine Wall map of Lebanon with more than 150 brightly color coded pins poking in it.  The push pins represent where the Ambassador has visited, where specific US Aid projects are committed, launched, or are contemplated. Really special Lebanese visitors may warrant their hometown getting pricked with a “special Red, White and Blue “friend of the USA push pin.”
A glance at the Ambassador’s map shows where US support (read: political activity) exists or is contemplated. Notably the clumps of bright push pins in the areas where the Majority is entrenched --- Beirut, villages East and North of Beirut, up in the Tripoli/Akkar area and  midway South around the coastal town of Saida. 

Only a few shallowly embedded, wobbly, pins will be seen in Hezbollah areas like South Beirut, South Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley where the poorest, most bombed and targeted by US Military aid to Israel live. The first time visitor to Lebanon should be excused for mistakenly assuming that these upsh pinless areas are uninhabited wasteland.

For many Lebanese, the problem with the push pin map is that while it includes ‘aid’ projects, admittedly useful, the  type and amount is so feeble  that many Lebanese view it the gifts  as  ‘feel good’ without addressing basic economic problems  such as electricity, jobs and agriculture. Many are  insisting that the US and Israel pay reparations for more than 40 years of their country  being bombed  by US weapons  are preparing another push pin Wall Map to be presented to the Embassy to help in US aid projections.   It shows the locations where US artillery shells and bombs of different sizes have killed and wounded Lebanese since the 1970’s and where reparations are needed but have yet to  be offered.

When the polls close for what will the votes count?

It appears that Lebanon may be cascading deeper into the abyss of deadly sectarianism.

Lebanon, sad to say, remains an oligarchy more than a democracy, much of it locked  in a choke hold by tribal chiefs, mafia like leaders, and a primogeniture system wherein   defective sons are often handed the reins of power by  flawed fathers or grieving widows.  Not much of a place to raise your children as more and more realize, and many who can, leave for opportunities elsewhere.  Absent a political tsunami to churn up new matrix political strata, whence healthy growth could spring, Lebanon’s immediate political future looks bleak with formation of the next parliament perhaps eerily similar to the current one under the existing electoral framework.

The country appears to be glancing backward at beckoning Cyrenes from the 1975-90 civil war, not forward to a future as a real country for its people, gifted as they are, in so many ways.

Franklin Lamb is doing research in Lebanon and can be reached at fplamb@sabrashatila.org.

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