[WCUSP] Lebanon & the US role there today.

[KATHARLOW at aol.com]

Hersh: Bush administration arranged  support for militants attacking Lebanon  
    
David Edwards and Muriel  Kane   
Published: Tuesday May 22,  2007      
In an  interview on CNN  International' s Your World Today, veteran 
journalist  Seymour Hersh explains that the current violence in Lebanon is the result 
of an  attempt by the Lebanese government to crack down on a militant Sunni 
group,  Fatah  al-Islam, that it formerly supported.  
 

 
Last March, _Hersh  reported _ 
(http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/03/05/070305fa_fact_hersh) that American policy in the Middle East had shifted to 
opposing Iran, Syria, and their Shia allies at any cost, even if  it meant 
backing hardline Sunni jihadists. 
 

 
A key element  of this policy shift was an agreement among Vice President 
Dick Cheney, Deputy  National Security Advisor Elliot Abrams, and Prince Bandar 
bin Sultan, the Saudi  national security adviser, whereby the Saudis would 
covertly fund the Sunni  Fatah al-Islam in Lebanon as a counterweight to the Shia 
Hezbollah.  

 
Hersh points  out that the current situation is much like that during the 
conflict in Afghanistan in the 1980's -  which gave rise to al  Qaeda - with the 
same people involved in both the US and Saudi Arabia and the "same  pattern" 
of the US using jihadists that the Saudis assure us they can control. 
 

 
When asked why  the administration would be acting in a way that appears to 
run counter to US  interests, Hersh says that, since the Israelis lost to them 
last summer, "the  fear of Hezbollah in Washington, particularly in the White 
House, is acute." 
 

As a result,  Hersh implies, the Bush administration is no longer acting 
rationally in its  policy. "We're in the business of supporting the Sunnis 
anywhere we can against  the Shia. ... "We're in the business of creating ... 
sectarian violence." And he  describes the scheme of funding Fatah al-Islam as "a 
covert program we joined in  with the Saudis as part of a bigger, broader program 
of doing everything we  could to stop the spread of the Shia world, and it 
just simply -- it bit us in  the rear."   
---------------------------------------------
 
The Complicity of the Siniora Government --The Great Bank  Heist of Tripoli
_http://www.counterpunch.org/amiri05232007.html_ 
(http://www.counterpunch.org/amiri05232007.html) 



By RANNIE  AMIRI


"If you think you understand Lebanese  politics, it obviously has not been 
explained to you  properly."
 
-  Anonymous
 
CounterPunch  May 23,  2007
 
It started out simple enough. A group of  men robbed a bank in the northern 
Lebanese town of Amyoun and then fled into the  teeming Nahr al-Bared 
Palestinian refugee camp in Tripoli after being pursued by  police. The Lebanese Army 
quickly became involved, and before you knew it, a  raging battle with a Sunni 
militant group calling itself Fatah al-Islam within  the camp ensued. A score 
of Lebanese soldiers were killed just as swiftly. 
 
What  happened?
 
As with all things that transpire in  Lebanon, the exact details remain 
murky. What it conflagrated into has not: the  bloodiest days of fighting amongst 
Lebanese, Palestinians, et al since the days  of the civil war.
 
The leader of Fatah al-Islam, a  Salafi/jihadi outfit, is Shaker al-Absi, a 
colleague of the erstwhile Abu Musab  al-Zarqawi. Having served a number of 
years in a Syrian jail, he was sentenced  to death in absentia in Jordan in 2004 
for the 2002 murder of US diplomat  Laurence Foley. The agenda of his 
organization, apparently comprised of only a  few hundred men with scant support from 
other resident Palestinian factions, is  quite typical of al-Qaeda. Narrowly 
it is to establish Islamic law within the  camp; more broadly to attack 
American interests in the region and expel all  troops (specifically UNAFIL) from 
Lebanon. Not surprisingly, their membership  includes many foreign fighters 
recently completing tours of duty in  Iraq.
 
There are many interesting windows this  story has opened. 
 
One is how, almost reflexively, many  Lebanese blamed Syria for the events in 
Tripoli. Nevermind that a secular  Ba'athist regime like that in Syria 
loathes nothing more than Salafi radicals,  whom they regard as a threat to their 
own existence first and foremost (witness  the late Syrian President Hafez 
al-Assad's 1982 crackdown in the town Hama,  killing10,000 25,000 members of the 
Muslim Brotherhood). Indeed, Syria closed  their border with Lebanon soon after 
fighting began in  Tripoli.
 
The second is the absolute miserable  conditions of the Palestinian refugee 
camps in Lebanon, completely isolated from  the rest of the country, mired in 
abject poverty and whose neighborhood are run  by one gang or other. 
Desperation is always fertile soil for groups like  al-Qaeda to plant their roots.
 
The most disturbing aspect of the fighting  in Tripoli though, has been 
lost--or deliberately obfuscated--by discussion of  the above.
 
Namely, the absolute complicity of  Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and 
allies like Saad Hariri, leader of the  parliamentary majority in Lebanon, in 
bringing groups like Fatah al-Islam to  Lebanon, where they knowingly allowed 
them to operate, all in a greater bid to  stem the ascendancy of Hezbollah. 
 
Fatah al-Islam and al-Qaeda more broadly,  after all, have a visceral hatred 
for Shi'a Muslims, whom they regard as  infidels. Who better to bring into the 
country via the squalid Palestinian camps  of Lebanon than them?
 
It was Seymour Hersh, in the March 2007  New Yorker who recognized a shift in 
the policy of the United States and their  cronies (Siniora government, 
Jordan, Saudi Arabia) in patronizing radical Sunni  organizations to act as a 
bulwark against perceived widening Iranian influence. 
 
How foreboding was Hersh's article? 
 
Alastair Crooke, who spent  nearly thirty years in MI6, the British 
intelligence service, and now works for  Conflicts Forum, a think tank in Beirut, told 
me, "The Lebanese government is  opening space for these people to come in. It 
could be very dangerous." Crooke  said that one Sunni extremist group, Fatah 
al-Islam, had splintered from its  pro-Syrian parent group, Fatah al-Intifada, 
in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp,  in northern Lebanon. Its membership at 
the time was less than two hundred. "I  was told that within twenty-four hours 
they were being offered weapons and money  by people presenting themselves as 
representatives of the Lebanese government's  interests-presumably to take on H
ezbollah," Crooke said. 
 
During an interview with Hasan Nasrallah,  when Hersh posited if it was 
Israeli assassination he most feared, Nasrallah  replied that it was other Arabs 
Jordanian intelligence, and Salafi/Wahabi  jihadists--who were his greatest 
threats. Was it also Fatah al-Islam and  affiliates' ultimate mission, at the 
behest of the Siniora government, to  assassinate Hasan Nasrallah? 
 
It is a bit puzzling why the Lebanese Army  is now waging a battle against 
Fatah al-Islam, something which even perplexed  the intrepid veteran reporter of 
Lebanon, Robert Fisk. The workings of Lebanon  politics can be quite 
mysterious and no doubt there is more to this story than  meets the eye. 
 
Regardless, Fouad Siniora and Saad Hariri  learned a hard lesson: hired guns 
often shoot the hand which pays them. As a  consequence of their reckless 
venture, the innocent continue to pay with their  lives.
 
Again,  Hersh:
 
In an interview in Beirut, a  senior official in the Siniora government 
acknowledged that there were Sunni  jihadists operating inside Lebanon. "We have a 
liberal attitude that allows Al  Qaeda types to have a presence here," he  
said.
 
Along with Fatah al-Islam, the Siniora  government has the blood of dozens of 
Lebanese soldiers and Lebanese and  Palestinian civilians on their hands.
 
And that is a fact which hits us straight  between the eyes.
 
Rannie Amiri may be reached at _rbamiri at yahoo.com_ (mailto:rbamiri at yahoo.com) 
 
_http://www.counterpunch.org/amiri05232007.html_ 
(http://www.counterpunch.org/amiri05232007.html) 



 
____________________________________
 See what's free at _AOL.com_ (http://www.aol.com/?ncid=AOLAOF00020000000503) 
. 

 --------------------------------    
 
_http://www.counterpunch.org/lamb05242007.html_ 
(http://www.counterpunch.org/lamb05242007.html) 


Who's Behind the Fighting in North  Lebanon? 
Inside Narh al-Bared and Bedawi Refugee  Camps

By Franklin Lamb
Tripoli, Lebanon.
CounterPunch
05/24/07

Wearing a beat-up ratty UNCHR  tee-shirt left over from Bint Jbeil and the 
Israeli-Hezbollah July probably  helped. As did, I suspect, the Red Cross 
jersey, my black and white checkered  kaffieyh and the Palestinian flag taped to my 
lapel as I joined a group of  Palestinian aid workers and slipped into Nahr 
el-Bared trying not to look  conspicuous. 

Our mission was to facilitate the delivery of food,  blankets and mattresses, 
but I was also curious about the political situation.  Who was behind the 
events that erupted so quickly and violently following a  claimed 'bank robbery'? 
A heist that depending on who you talked to, netted the  masked bandits $ 
150,000, $ 1,500 or $ 150!

It seems that every Beirut  media outlet has a different source of 'inside 
information' based on which  Confession owns it and 'knows' the real culprits 
pulling the strings. But then,  even we who are particularly obtuse have 
realized, as the late Rafic Hariri  often counseled: "In Lebanon, believe nothing of 
what you are told and only half  of what you see!"

My friends made we swear out loud that I would claim to  be Canadian instead 
of American if Al Qaeda types stopped us inside the Camp. My  impression was 
that they were not so worried about my safety but for their own  if they got 
caught with me. It would not be the first time that I relied on my  northern 
neighbors to get me out of a potential US nationality jam in the Middle  East, so 
I ditched my American ID.

We were advised as we approached the  Fatah al Islam stronghold that we would 
be in the cross-hairs of Lebanese army  snipers from outside of Nahr el-Bared 
Camp as well as Fatah al-Islam snipers  from the inside, and that any false 
move or bad luck could prove  fatal.

After three days of shelling and more than 100 dead and with no  electricity 
or water, Nahr el-Baled reeks of burned and rotting flesh, charred  houses 
with smoldering contents, raw sewage and the acrid smell of exploded  mortars and 
tank rounds.

Press figures of 30,000-32,000 are not accurate.  45,000 live in Bared! 
Contrary to some reports food and water still not being  allowed in.

15 to 70 percent of some areas destroyed. Some light shooting  this morning 
and afternoon. Army shelling at rate of 10-18 shells per minute  from 4:30 am 
to 10 am on Tuesday. Army will not allow Palestinian Red Crescent  to move out 
civilians because they don't trust them. Only the Lebanese Red Cross  is 
allowed. It is possible to enter Bared from the back (east side). The Army  taking 
cameras of journalists they catch. The Lebanese government is controlling  the 
information and don't want extent of damage known yet. Still unrecovered  
bodies. 40 per cent of the camp population have been evacuated. The rest don't  
want to leave out of fear of being shot or that they are losing their homes for 
 the 5th time or more for some.

No electricity and cell phone batteries  are dying. Relatives who fled are 
telling families to stay because there are not  enough mattresses at Bedawi 
Camp. Bared evacuees are living up to 25 in one room  in Badawi schools etc. 3,000 
evacuees in one school in Bedawi. UN aid is  starting to arrive at Badawi but 
workers not able so far to deliver it to Bared  due to attack on relief 
convoy on Tuesday.

I met Abdul Rahman Hallab  famous for Lebanese candy factory in Tripoli. 
Helped him unload 5,000 meals to  evacuees from Bared staying in Badawi. He is 
Lebanese not  Palestinian.

The camp population all say that Fatah Al-Islam came in  September-October 
2006 and have no relatives in the camp. They are from Saudi,  Pakistan, Algeria, 
Iraq, and Tunisia and elsewhere. No Palestinians among them  except some 
hanger ons. Most say they are paid by the Hariri  group.

Reports that Fateh al-Islam helps people in Bared are denied. "  All they do 
is pray, one woman told me..and do military training.. They are much  more 
religious than the Shia" she said.

Population of Badawi camp was  15,000 and as of of this morning it is 28,000. 
Four bodies arrived this morning  at Safad, the only Palestinian Red Crescent 
Hospitals in north Lebanon.

I  was told the army will have to destroy every house in Bared to remove 
Fateh al  Islam.

I expect to stay in Bared tonight with aid workers. Some say FAI  with die 
fighting others than a settlement could be negotiated. I may try the  latter 
with NGO from Norway here. Not sure if anyone in government is  interested. One 
minute ago a member of Fateh at_Islam walked into the medical  office I am 
using at Safed Hospital and said they want a permanent ceasefire and  do not want 
more people killed or injured.

They claim to have no problem  with the army

Now some background about Nahr el-Bared. Like the other  Palestinian camps in 
Lebanon, it is inhabited by Palestinians who were forced  from their homes, 
land, and personal property in 1947-48, in order to make room  for Jews from 
Europe and elsewhere prior to the May 15, 1948 founding of Israel.  

Of the original 16 Refugee camps, set up to settle the more than 100,000  
refugees crossing the border into Lebanon from Palestine during the Nakba, 12  
official ones remain. The camp at Tal El-Za`tar was ethnically cleansed by  
Christian Phalange forces at the beginning of the 1975-1990, Lebanese Civil War  
and the Nabatieh, Dikwaneh and Jisr el-Basha camps were destroyed by Israeli  
attacks and Lebanese militia and not rebuilt. Those remaining include the  
following which currently house more than half of Lebanon's 433,276 Palestinian  
refugees:

Al-Badawi, Burj El-Barajna, Jal El-Bahr, Sabra and Shatilla,  Ain El-Helwa, 
Nahr El-Bared, Rashidieh, Burj El Shemali, El-Buss, Wavel, Mieh  Mieh and Mar 
Elias.

Nahr el-Bared is 7 miles north of Tripoli near the  stunning Mediterranean 
coast and is home to more than 32,000 refuges many of  whom were expelled from 
the Lake Huleh area of Palestine, including Safed. Like  all the official 
Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, plus several 'unofficial'  ones, Nahr 
el-Bared suffers from serious problems including no proper  infrastructure, 
overcrowding, poverty and unemployment. 

Tabulated at  more than 25%, Nahr el-Bared has the highest percentage of 
Palestinian refugees  anywhere who are living in abject poverty and who are 
officially registered with  the UN as "special hardship" cases. 
Its residents, like all Palestinians in  Lebanon are blatantly discriminated 
against and not even officially counted.  They are denied citizenship and 
banned from working in the top 70 trades and  professions (that includes 
McDonald's and KFC in downtown Beirut) and cannot own  real estate. Palestinians in 
Lebanon have essentially no social or civil rights  and only limited access to 
government educational facilities. They have no  access to public social 
services. Consequently most rely entirely on the UNRWA  as the sole provider for 
their families needs.

It is not surprising that  al-Qaeda sympathies, if not formal affiliations, 
are found in the 12 official  camps as well as 7 unofficial ones. Groups with 
names such as Fateh al-Islam,  Jund al-Shams (Soldier of Damascus) , Ibns 
al-Shaheed" (sons of the martyrs)  Issbat al-Anssar which morphed into Issbat 
al-Noor - "The Community of  Illumination" and many others.
Given Bush administration debacles in Iraq and  Afghanistan and its 
encouragement for Israel to continue its destruction of  Lebanon this past summer, the 
situation in Lebanon mirrors, in some respects,  the early 1980's when groups 
sprung up to resist the US green lighted Israeli  invasion and occupation. But 
rather than being Shia and pro-Hezbollah, today's  groups are largely Sunni 
and anti-Hezbollah. Hence they qualify for US aid,  funneled by Sunni financial 
backers in league with the Bush administration which  is committed to funding 
Islamist Sunni groups to weaken Hezbollah.

This  project has become the White House obsession following Israel's July 
2006  defeat.

To understand what is going on with Fatah al-Islam at Nahr  el-Bared one 
would want a brief introduction to Lebanon's amazing, but shadowy  'Welch Club'.

The Club is named for its godfather, David Welch, assistant  to Secretary of 
State Rice who is the point man for the Bush administration and  is guided by 
Eliot Abrams.
Key Lebanese members of the Welch Club (aka: the  'Club') include:

The Lebanese civil war veteran, warlord, feudalist and  mercurial Walid 
Jumblatt of the Druze party( the Progressive Socialist Party or  PSP)

Another civil war veteran, warlord, terrorist (Served 11 years in  prison for 
massacres committed against fellow Christians among others) Samir  Geagea. 
Leader of the extremist Phalange party and its Lebanese Forces (LF) the  group 
that conducted the Israel organized massacre at Sabra-Shatilla (although  led 
by Elie Hobeika, once Geagea's mentor, Geagea did not take part in the Sept.  
1982 slaughter of 1,700 Palestinian and Lebanese).

The billionaire, Saudi  Sheikh and Club president Saad Hariri leader of the 
Sunni Future Movement  (FM).

Over a year ago Hariri's Future Movement started setting up Sunni  Islamist 
terrorist cells (the PSP and LF already had their own militia since the  civil 
war and despite the Taif Accords requiring militia to disarm they are now  
rearmed and itching for action and trying hard to provoke Hezbollah).

The  FM created Sunni Islamist 'terrorist' cells were to serve as a cover for 
 (anti-Hezbollah) Welch Club projects. The plan was that actions of these 
cells,  of which Fatah el-Islam is one, could be blamed on al Qaeda or Syria or 
anyone  but the Club.

To staff the new militias, FM rounded up remnants of  previous extremists in 
the Palestinian Refugee camps that had been subdued,  marginalized and 
diminished during the Syrian occupation of Lebanon. Each  fighter got $700 per month, 
not bad in today's Lebanon.

The first Welch  Club funded militia, set up by FM, is known locally as 
Jund-al-Sham (Soldiers of  Sham, where "Sham" in Arabic denotes Syria, Lebanon, 
Palestine & Jordan)  created in Ain-el-Hilwa Palestinian refugee camp near Sidon. 
This group is also  referred to in the Camps as Jund-el-Sitt (Soldiers of the 
Sitt, where "Sitt" in  Sidon, Ain-el-Hilwa and the outskirts pertain to Bahia 
Hariri, the sister of  Rafiq Hariri, aunt of Saad, and Member of Parliament). 

The second was  Fateh-al-Islam (The name cleverly put together, joining Fateh 
as in Palestinian  and the word Islam as in Qaeda). FM set this Club cell up 
in Nahr-al-Bared  refugee camp north of Tripoli for geographical balance.

Fatah el-Islam  had about 400 well paid fighters until three days ago. Today 
they may have more  or fewer plus volunteers. The leaders were provided with 
ocean view luxury  apartments in Tripoli where they stored arms and chilled 
when not in  Nahr-al-Bared. Guess who owns the apartments?

According to members of  both Fatah el-Islam and Jund-al-Sham their groups 
acted on the directive of the  Club president, Saad Hariri. 
So what went wrong? "Why the bank robbery" and  the slaughter at Nahr 
el-Baled?

According to operatives of Fatah  el-Islam, the Bush administration got cold 
feet with people like Seymour Hirsh  snooping around and with the White House 
post-Iraq discipline in free fall.  Moreover, Hezbollah intelligence knew all 
about the Clubs activities and was in  a position to flip the two groups who 
were supposed to ignite a Sunni ­Shia  civil war which Hezbollah vows to 
prevent.

Things started to go very  wrong quickly for the Club last week.
FM "stopped" the payroll of Fateh  el-Islam's account at the Hariri family 
owned back.

Fateh-al-Islam, tried  to negotiate at least 'severance pay' with no luck and 
they felt betrayed.  (Remember many of their fighters are easily frustrated 
teenagers and their pay  supports their families). Militia members knocked off 
the bank which issued  their worthless checks. They were doubly angry when 
they learned FM is claiming  in the media a loss much greater than they actually 
snatched and that the Club  is going to stiff the insurance company and 
actually make a huge  profit.

Lebanon's Internal Security Forces (newly recruited to serve the  bidding of 
the Club and the Future Movement) assaulted the apartments of  Fatah-al-Islam 
Tripoli. They didn't have much luck and were forced to call in  the Lebanese 
army.

Within the hour, Fatah-al-Islam retaliated against  Lebanese Army posts, 
checkpoints and unarmed, off-duty Lebanese soldiers in  civilian clothing and 
committed outrageous killings including severing at four  heads.

Up to this point Fatah-al-Islam did not retaliate against the  Internal 
Security forces in Tripoli because the ISF is pro-Hariri and some are  friends and 
Fatah al-Islam still hoped to get paid by Hariri. Instead Fatah al  Islam went 
after the Army. 

The Seniora cabinet convenes and asks the  Lebanese Army to enter the refugee 
camp and silence (in more ways than one)  Fatah-al-Islam. Since entrance into 
the Camps is forbidden by the 1969 Arab  league agreement, the Army refuses 
after realizing the extent of the conspiracy  against it by the Welch Club. The 
army knows that entering a refugee camp in  force will open a front against 
the Army in all twelve Palestinian refugee camps  and tear the army apart along 
sectarian cracks.

The army feels set up by  the Club's Internal Security Forces which did not 
coordinate with the Lebanese  Army, as required by Lebanese law and did not 
even make them aware of the "inter  family operation" the ISF carried out against 
Fatah-al-Islam safe houses in  Tripoli. 

Today, tensions are high between the Lebanese army and the  Welch Club. Some 
mention the phrase 'army coup'.

The Club is trying to  run Parliament and is prepared to go all the way not 
to 'lose' Lebanon. It still  holds 70 seats in the house of parliament while 
the Hezbollah led opposition  holds 58 seats. It has a dutiful PM in Fouad 
Siniora.

The club tried to  seize control of the presidency and when it failed it 
marginalized it. Last year  it tried to control of the Parliamentary 
Constitutional Committee, which audits  the government's policies, laws and watch dogs 
their actions. When the Club  failed to control it they simply abolished the 
Constitutional Committee. This  key committee no longer exists in Lebanon's 
government.

The Welch Club's  major error was when it attempted to influence the Lebanese 
Army into disarming  the Lebanese Resistance led by Hezbollah. When the Army 
wisely refused, the Club  coordinated with the Bush Administration to pressure 
Israel to dramatically  intensify its retaliation to the capture of the two 
soldiers by Hezbollah and  'break the rules' regarding the historically more 
limited response and try to  destroy Hezbollah during the July 2006 war.

The Welch Club now considers  the Lebanese Army a serious problem. The Bush 
administration is trying to  undermine and marginalize it to eliminate one of 
the last two obstacles to  implementing Israel's agenda in Lebanon.
If the army is weakened, it can not  protect _over 70% of the Christians in 
Lebanon who support General Aoun's Free  Patriotic Movement. The F.P.M. is 
mainly constituted of well educated, middle  class and unarmed Lebanese civilians. 
The only protection they have is the  Lebanese Army which aids in maintaining 
their presence in the political scene.  The other type of Christians in 
Lebanon is the minority, about 15% of Christians  associated with Geagea's Lebanese 
Forces who are purely militia. If the Club can  weaken the Army even more 
than it is, then this Phalange minority will be the  only relatively strong force 
on the Christian scene and become the "army" of the  Club.

Another reason the Club wants to weaken the Lebanese Army is that  the Army 
is nationalistic and is a safety valve for Lebanon to ensure the  Palestinian 
right of return to Palestine, Lebanese nationhood and the resistance  culture 
led by Hezbollah, with which is has excellent relations.

For  their part, the Welch Club wants to keep some Palestinians in Lebanon 
for cheap  labor, ship others to countries willing to take them (and be paid 
handsomely to  do so by American taxpayers) and allow at most a few thousand to 
return to  Palestine to settle the 'right of return' issue while at the same 
time signing a  May 17th 1983 type treaty with Israel with enriches the Club 
members and gives  Israel Lebanon's water and much of Lebanon's sovereignty.

Long story  short, Fatah el-Islam must be silenced at all costs. Their tale, 
if told, is  poison for the Club and its sponsors. We will likely see their 
attempted  destruction in the coming days.

Hezbollah is watching and supporting the  Lebanese army.

Franklin Lamb's recent book, The  Price We Pay: A Quarter Century of Israel's 
use of American Weapon's against  Lebanon (1978-2006) is available at 
Amazon.com.uk. Hezbollah: A Brief Guide for  Beginners is expected in early summer. 

Dr. Lamb can be reached at fplamb  @ gmail.com. (http://www.ichblog.eu/) 
------------------------------------


Rania Masri on the situation in Lebanon

(KPFA Interview)  
 
 
_http://www.kpfa.  org/archives/ indexphp? arch=20358 _ 
(http://www.kpfa.org/archives/index.php?arch=20358) 
 

 
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Angry Arab New Service (_ http://angryarab.blogspot.com_ 
(http://angryarab.blogspot.com) )

The clashes in Lebanon. This is typical. We have seen this  before. The 
Lebanese Army is given an opportunity by the political class (and by  the sectarian 
sects--all of them) to show muscle, but only against the refugee  camps of 
Lebanon. I remember this from my childhood. Back in 1973, Israeli  terrorists 
(headed by Ehud Barak) sneaked into Lebanon and killed Palestinian  leaders: one 
of them was a poet sleeping in his bed (Kamal Nasir). The Lebanese  Army did 
not lift a finger--it never does against Israel. And all the historical  
accounts of 1948 war in Lebanese history books are plain false: the token  Lebanese 
troops that ostensibly were part of the Arab armies did not even cross  the 
border into Palestine. The Lebanese government in 1973, engineered an attack  
on the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon: the handful of Lebanese fighter  
jets were used to bomb the refugee camps. This time around, the Lebanese Army  
was dragged into this by the Hariri camp. They wanted to start a fight. 
Elements  of the conspiracy are connected: is it a coincidence that US-supported,  
financed, and armed Dahlan gangs were fighting Hamas in Gaza, while  
US-supported, financed, and armed Lebanese forces are used against the  Palestinians in 
Nahr Al-Barid refugee camp? Now let us be clear: Fath Al-Islam  should not 
even be seen as a legitimate Palestinian organization: it comprises  mostly 
fanatical Saudis and other Arab nationals. Their rhetoric is comparable  to that of 
fanatical fundamentalist groups although they deny links to  Al-Qa`idah. 
March 14th officials in Lebanon want to connect them to the Syrian  regime by 
insisting that Fath-Al-Islam is the same as Fath-Intifada although the  two groups 
are clearly different, if not divergent. The March 14th camp wanted  to 
instigate this in order to 1) blame this (like everything else) on Syria and  on 
the Palestinians--as usual in Lebanese political culture; 2) to render  services 
to the American patron of the Lebanese regime; 3) to claim that now it  is 
time for the Lebanese Army to hold a monopoly over the use of force in  Lebanon 
although we did not see any enthusiasm on the party of the Lebanese Army  to 
exercise its monopoly over the use of fores when Israel attacked Lebanon last  
summer, and other Lebanese resisted the invasion and occupation of Lebanon 
while  the Army either stood by or helped in secret--in secret. Have you ever 
heard an  Army defending the land in secret? Abbas Nasir (the Hizbullah supporter 
and  former correspondent for Al-Manar TV), the Beirut correspondent of 
AlJazeera,  was besides himself yesterday and today. He was repulsively cheering 
the  Lebanese Army, and merely reporting Lebanese Army propaganda claims. But he 
did  report one important story that has not been reported in any other 
Lebanese news  media: this will also be hidden from tomorrow's newspapers in 
Beirut. He  reported that armed groups (belonging to March 14th camp) showed up on 
the scene  and offered to help the Lebanese Army in killing Palestinians. And 
then you see  the Sunni Mufti of Lebanon--who has no credentials and is known 
for his weakness  vis-a-vis Hariri tri-monthly payments--came out from his 
hiding, to blame the  Palestinians and to offer his evaluations of what is truly 
Islamic and what is  truly Palestinian. And then mini-Hariri came out and read 
what they wrote for  him in Arabic: he denounced the "terrorists" forgetting 
that the Sunni fanatical  groups in Lebanon flourished since his family began 
its generous financial  support for such groups during the last parliamentary 
elections, and due to the  Hariri policy of intense sectarian agitations. The 
top Shi`ite cleric (again  chosen not for his scholarship but for his loyalty 
to the Amal movement),  `Abdul-Amir Qabalan, also came out to praise the 
Lebanese Army. What are they  praising: the scenes of Lebanese Army tanks shelling 
the refugee camps of Nahr  Al-Barid? But make no mistake: nothing will change. 
It will end like every other  incident of this kind ends: in a stalemate, and 
in things returning back to  abnormal. This is Lebanon.

Everybody I heard in the last few days, have either angered me or  
disappointed me: from March 14th, to Hizbullah, Gen. `Awn, to Amal, and the  Lebanese 
Communist Party, etc. Today, I heard Sulayman Franjiyyah. He made more  sense 
than all the rest (I never believe in the value of formal education). He  was 
the only prominent political figure I know who spoke against the shelling of  
the refugee camp. The opposition (and Hizbullah in particular) are busy sending  
salutations and congratulations to the Lebanese Army for shelling the refugee 
 camp in Nahr Al-Barid. Now, don't get me wrong. I know that the Lebanese 
Army  needed to boost its morale and restore (restore?) its prestige. It was  
humiliated yet again by the Israeli occupation army last summer, when 2400  
Lebanese fighters succeeded in humiliating the Israeli occupation army. The  
Lebanese Army feels that it needs to shell the camp to boost morale. Most  Lebanese 
seem to agree. Even my mother is supporting the Lebanese Army (she  thinks 
that it was set up by Hariri Inc).
------------------------------------
Hersh: Bush administration arranged support for  militants attacking Lebanon
David Edwards and Muriel  Kane   
Published: Tuesday May 22,  2007      
In an  interview on CNN  International' s Your World Today, veteran 
journalist  Seymour Hersh explains that the current violence in Lebanon is the result 
of an  attempt by the Lebanese government to crack down on a militant Sunni 
group,  Fatah  al-Islam, that it formerly supported.  
 

 
Last March, _Hersh  reported _ 
(http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/03/05/070305fa_fact_hersh) that American policy in the Middle East had shifted to 
opposing Iran, Syria, and their Shia allies at any cost, even if  it meant 
backing hardline Sunni jihadists. 
 

 
A key element  of this policy shift was an agreement among Vice President 
Dick Cheney, Deputy  National Security Advisor Elliot Abrams, and Prince Bandar 
bin Sultan, the Saudi  national security adviser, whereby the Saudis would 
covertly fund the Sunni  Fatah al-Islam in Lebanon as a counterweight to the Shia 
Hezbollah. 
 
Hersh points  out that the current situation is much like that during the 
conflict in Afghanistan in the 1980's -  which gave rise to al  Qaeda - with the 
same people involved in both the US and Saudi Arabia and the "same  pattern" 
of the US using jihadists that the Saudis assure us they can control. 
 

 
When asked why  the administration would be acting in a way that appears to 
run counter to US  interests, Hersh says that, since the Israelis lost to them 
last summer, "the  fear of Hezbollah in Washington, particularly in the White 
House, is acute." 
 

As a result,  Hersh implies, the Bush administration is no longer acting 
rationally in its  policy. "We're in the business of supporting the Sunnis 
anywhere we can against  the Shia. ... "We're in the business of creating ... 
sectarian violence." And he  describes the scheme of funding Fatah al-Islam as "a 
covert program we joined in  with the Saudis as part of a bigger, broader program 
of doing everything we  could to stop the spread of the Shia world, and it 
just simply -- it bit us in  the rear." 



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