Saturday, January 29, 2011

EGYPTIAN PROTESTERS-INFILTRATED

RADICAL MUSLIMS INFILTRATE EGYPT PROTESTS
ISAIAH 19:1-25 (EGYPTS TROUBLES)
1 The burden of Egypt. Behold, the LORD rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.
2 And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.(ETHNIC TRIBE AGAINST ETHNIC TRIBE)
3 And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof; and I will destroy the counsel thereof: and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards.(THEY WILL SEEK MEDIUMS-OCCULTISTS)
4 And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts.
5 And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up.
6 And they shall turn the rivers far away; and the brooks of defence shall be emptied and dried up: the reeds and flags shall wither.
7 The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks, and every thing sown by the brooks, shall wither, be driven away, and be no more.
8 The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish.
9 Moreover they that work in fine flax, and they that weave networks, shall be confounded.
10 And they shall be broken in the purposes thereof, all that make sluices and ponds for fish.
11 Surely the princes of Zoan are fools, the counsel of the wise counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish: how say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings? (THESE LAST VERSES SEEM TO SAY THAT EGYPT IS DECIEVED BY THE ISLAMIC RELIGION TO ME)(VERSES 11-14)
12 Where are they? where are thy wise men? and let them tell thee now, and let them know what the LORD of hosts hath purposed upon Egypt.
13 The princes of Zoan are become fools, the princes of Noph are deceived; they have also seduced Egypt, even they that are the stay of the tribes thereof.
14 The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit.
15 Neither shall there be any work for Egypt, which the head or tail, branch or rush, may do.(NO WORK-THATS WHY THESE RIOTS IN EGYPT NOW)
16 In that day shall Egypt be like unto women: and it shall be afraid and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the LORD of hosts, which he shaketh over it.
17 And the land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt, every one that maketh mention thereof shall be afraid in himself, because of the counsel of the LORD of hosts, which he hath determined against it.
18 In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the LORD of hosts; one shall be called, The city of destruction.
19 In that day shall there be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the LORD.
20 And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt: for they shall cry unto the LORD because of the oppressors, and he shall send them a saviour, and a great one, and he shall deliver them.
21 And the LORD shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the LORD in that day, and shall do sacrifice and oblation; yea, they shall vow a vow unto the LORD, and perform it.
22 And the LORD shall smite Egypt: he shall smite and heal it: and they shall return even to the LORD, and he shall be intreated of them, and shall heal them.
23 In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians.
24 In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land:
25 Whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance.

ISAIAH 20:1-6
1 In the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod, (when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him,) and fought against Ashdod, and took it;
2 At the same time spake the LORD by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and put off thy shoe from thy foot. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.
3 And the LORD said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia;
4 So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.
5 And they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory.
6 And the inhabitant of this isle shall say in that day, Behold, such is our expectation, whither we flee for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria: and how shall we escape?

DOUG AND LAURIE TALK ABOUT THIS AND OTHER ISSUES FOR 3 HRS JAN 28,2011
http://therothshow.com/show-archives/january-2011/
EZEKIEL 38 & 39 READ ALSO WITH THIS WAR
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2008/01/ezekiel-chapters-33-48.html

ITS SAT JAN 29,11 11:00AM AND I HEARD IN EGYPT THEY CALL HOSNI MUBARAK THE LAST PHARAOH AND THE NEW VICE PRESIDENT OF EGYPT IS AN ETHIOPIAN.THE REPORTS HAVE IT 38 EGYPTIAN PROTESTERS WERE KILLED SO FAR AND AT LEAST 1,000 HURT IN THE PROTESTS SO FAR IN DAY 2 OF THE SERIOUS UPHEVEAL.MUBARAK REFUSES TO GIVE UP HIS DICTATORIAL POWERS SO FAR.

WITH ALL THE MUSLIM NATIONS FALLING TO PROTESTERS,THIS WILL GIVE RUSSIA MORE POWER TO LEAD ALL THE MUSLIM-ARAB COUNTRIES WITH THEIR INFLUENCE GETTING GREATER AS THE MORE THE MUSLIM NATIONS FALL.AND I PREDICT ALL THE NEW LEADERS IN THE MUSLIM COUNTRIES THAT FALL WILL BE RADICAL ISRAEL HATERS AND WILL CUDDLE UP WITH RUSSIA-CHINA IN ANY DECISIONS AGAINST ISRAEL.THEN I PREDICT SYRIA GETS IN THE ACT.ISRAEL NUKES DAMASCUS.EGYPT-RUSSIA-CHINA PUTS UP A STINK ABOUT IT.THAT FORCES THE RUSSIA-ARAB-MUSLIM LEADERS TO ALL TEAM UP AND GO AGAINST ISRAEL WERE 5/6TH OF THE RUSSIA-ARAB-MUSLIMS WILL BE DEFEATED AND FORCED BACK TO THE SIBERIAN DESERT IN RUSSIA BECAUSE THEY WILL NE NUKED ALSO BY ISRAEL.JUST REMEMBER WORLD GOD(KING JESUS) WILL PROTECT ISRAEL THROUGHT THIS WORST TIME IN HISTORY THE BIBLE SAYS.

PROPHECY IS QUICKLY COMEING TOGETHER NOW AND ALL WILL BE FULFILLED LITERALLY.

11am JAN 28,11 BY STAN L RADICALS INFILTRATE PROTESTS IN EGYPT

THE RADICAL MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD HAS INFILTRATED THE EGYPTIAN PROTESTS.WHICH COULD GET OUT OF CONTROL IN EGYPT.THE POLICE AND PROTESTERS HAVE CLASHES GOING ON.

EGYPTS STOCK MARKET DROPPED 16% THIS WEEK INCLUDING 10% ALONE YESTERDAY.PROTESTERS DECLARED A FRIDAY OF WRATH TO DEMAND MUBARAKS RESIGNATION AS FOOD PRICES AND UNEMPLOYMENT SKYROCKET.EGYPT HAS CUT PHONE AND INTERNET SERVICES(OVIOUSLY SO NO PICTURES GET OUT)TO THE WORLD.EGYPT HAS PUT A CURFEW OUT TO PROTECT ITS CITIZENS.

WITH THESE RADICAL MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD INFILTRATING THE MOSQUES AND PROTESTS,WATCH OUT FOR THIS TO SPILL OVER TO ISRAEL AS THE RADICALS COULD START SHOOTING ROCKETS INTO ISRAEL WHICH WOULD FORCE ISRAEL TO START BOMBING EGYPT TO PROTECT ITSELF FROM THE RADICAL MUSLIMS.I WILL BE WATCHING THIS CLOSELY.

POSSIBLY TENS OF THOUSANDS ARE INVOLVED IN THESE PROTESTS AND DEMANDS.I LIKE WHAT ONE REPORTER SAID,THIS IS A ROLLING STONE THAT COULD GET WORSE AS THE RADICAL INFILTRATERS YELL OUT ALLAH AKBAR (god is great) IN THE CROWDS.HERES PROOF ITS BECOMING AN ISLAMIC RADICAL MOVEMENT AND NOT JUST NORMAL PROTESTS.AND THE RADICALS DARED THE POLICE TO SHOOT AT THEM AS THEY WERE PRAYING.


WATCH OUT ISRAEL IS ALL I HAVE TO SAY IF THESE PROTESTERS,RADICAL MURDERERS GET RILLED UP.

AS OF 12:30PM GOLD HAS SKYROCKETED $20.00 TO $1,338.50 AND OIL ROSE TO $89.28 DUE TO THESE RADICAL PROTESTS IN EGYPT AND THE DOW HAS DROPPED 183 POINTS AT THE LOW SO FAR AND FALLING.

ITS 3:30PM AND GIBBS IS HAVING A PRESS CONFERENCE.AND HE SAID SOETORO-OBAMA WILL NOT BE COMING ON THE AIR TO COMMENT ON EGYPTS SITUATION.IN PRIVATE HE IS PROBABLY BOWING TO MUBARAK LIKE HE DOES TO EVERY OTHER MUSLIM COMMUNIST DICTATOR IN THE WORLD.


MUSLIM NATIONS

EZEKIEL 38:1-12
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog,(RULER) the land of Magog,(RUSSIA) the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW)and Tubal,(TOBOLSK) and prophesy against him,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW) and Tubal:
4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,(GOD FORCES THE RUSSIA-MUSLIMS TO MARCH) and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5 Persia,(IRAN,IRAQ) Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer,(GERMANY) and all his bands; the house of Togarmah (TURKEY)of the north quarters, and all his bands:(SUDAN,AFRICA) and many people with thee.
7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.(RUSSIA-EGYPT AND MUSLIMS)
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.

ISAIAH 17:1
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.

PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they (MUSLIMS) have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,(JORDAN) and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, PALESTINIANS,JORDAN) and the Hagarenes;(EGYPT)
7 Gebal,(HEZZBALLOH,LEBANON) and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA,ARABS,SINAI) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)

DANIEL 11:40-43
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south( EGYPT) push at him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) and the king of the north (RUSSIA AND MUSLIM HORDES OF EZEK 38+39) shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.
41 He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.(JORDAN)
42 He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.
43 But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.

EZEKIEL 39:1-8
1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog,(LEADER OF RUSSIA) and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech (MOSCOW) and Tubal: (TUBOLSK)
2 And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts,(RUSSIA) and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:
3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands,( ARABS) and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
6 And I will send a fire on Magog,(NUCLEAR BOMB) and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
7 So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.
8 Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken.

JOEL 2:3,20,30-31
3 A fire(NUCLEAR BOMB) devoureth before them;(RUSSIA-ARABS) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army,(RUSSIA,MUSLIMS) and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.(SIBERIAN DESERT)
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(NUCLEAR BOMB)
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

Jordan's opposition: Arabs will topple tyrants
JAN 29,11


AMMAN, Jordan – The leader of Jordan's powerful Muslim Brotherhood has warned that unrest in Egypt will spread across the Mideast and Arabs will topple their tyrant leaders allied with the U.S.Hammam Saeed says Arabs have grown disgruntled with U.S. domination of their oil wealth, military occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and its support for totalitarian leaders in the region.Saeed did not specifically name Jordanian King Abdullah II — a key U.S. ally who has promised reforms in recent days in an apparent attempt to quell domestic discontent over economic troubles and a lack of political freedoms.Saeed spoke Saturday at a rally he and some 100 leftists held outside the Egyptian Embassy in Amman.The rally called on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to step down.

Egypt's Mubarak names vice president for 1st time By MAGGIE MICHAEL and DIAA HADID, Associated Press - SAT JAN 29,11

CAIRO – Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak named a vice president Saturday for the first time since coming to power nearly 30 years ago. It was a clear step toward setting up a successor in the midst of the biggest challenge ever to his rule from tens of thousands of anti-government protesters.Mubarak named his intelligence chief and close confidant Omar Suleiman, state television reported.Mubarak was widely seen as grooming his son Gamal to succeed him, possibly even as soon as in presidential elections planned for later this year. However, there was significant public opposition to the hereditary succession.Suleiman has been in charge of some of Egypt's most sensitive foreign policy issues, including the Palestinian-Israeli peace process and inter-Palestinian divisions.His appointment as vice president answers one of the most intriguing and most enduring political questions in Egypt: who would succeed the 82-year-old Mubarak? Like Mubarak, Suleiman has a military background. The powerful military has provided Egypt with its four presidents since the monarchy was toppled nearly 60 years ago.

Egypt unrest rattles tourists By TAREK EL-TABLAWY, AP Business Writer - JAN 29,11

CAIRO – Foreign tourists and Egyptians flocked to Cairo's main airport on Saturday, scrambling to find flights out of the country as days of often violent protests that forced the resignation of the government showed few signs of abating.Israeli carrier El Al was trying to arrange a special flight Saturday to take roughly 200 Israeli tourists out of the country, a Cairo International Airport official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media. Israel's embassy in Egypt declined to comment.The efforts came as between 1,500 and 2,000 travelers were at the airport's two main departure terminals, most without reservations and frantic to find any available seats of outbound flights. But the bid could prove difficult, if not futile, as some European and U.S. airlines began to announce cancelations or suspensions of service to Cairo and Egypt's national carrier was said to be experiencing lengthy delays.

EgyptAir had suspended overnight departures Friday because of a government-imposed curfew. The carrier had yet to take a similar step Saturday, though the expansion of that curfew to between 4 p.m. and 8 a.m. made it increasingly unlikely that travelers would be able to head to the airport for evening flights.German carrier Lufthansa said it had canceled both of its two scheduled flights to Cairo on Saturday. Air Berlin canceled one flight to Cairo. U.S. carrier Delta Airlines, which flies direct to Cairo from the U.S., said service to and from Cairo would be indefinitely suspended as a result of civil unrest.The violence that gripped Cairo, the Egyptian capital, and several other cities over the past few days has presented President Hosni Mubarak with the biggest challenge of his nearly 30-year rule. The protesters are demanding his ouster and that measures be taken to address rampant poverty and corruption, the rising cost of living and the growing disparity in income distribution.But the protests threaten to undercut one of Egypt's key foreign revenue generators — tourism, which accounts for about 11 percent of Egypt's gross domestic product. Tourism brought in over $9 billion for Egypt in the first nine months of 2010 and $10.8 billion the year before.

Egypt's military closed off access to the pyramids in Giza — with tanks and armored personnel carriers sealing off the site on the Giza Plateau. The area is normally packed with tourists and is a main draw for those who come to Cairo.The move — aimed at ensuring the tourists' security — was likely to be seen as another worrying indicator in a nation that until earlier this week had been a pillar of stability in a trouble-prone region.Officials said that about 40 percent of the throngs of travelers at the airport were Egyptians, with the rest Westerners and other Arabs. It remained unclear what options were available to them given the limited flights.
EgyptAir flights were running late, in some cases because crew were unable to reach the airport, or were worried about the drive to the facility, said the airport official.The United States on Friday had cautioned its citizens to avoid nonessential travel to Egypt and urged those already in the country to remain at home or in their hotels. The calls were echoed by other Western government, with Germany's foreign office on Saturday calling on its citizens to avoid traveling to Cairo, Alexandria and Suez — the three cities hardest hit by the protests.So far, the protests appear to have mainly affected travel plans to Cairo, while the Red Sea resorts favored by the Europeans and Russians who make up the majority of foreign tourists to Egypt.Two of the biggest German tourism agencies, TUI and Thomas Cook, gave their customers the option to either cancel their trips to Egypt or to chose a different destination without incurring penalties.A spokeswoman for Thomas Cook, Nina Kreke, said that so far there had not been any requests for cancelations.

Anja Braun, a spokeswoman for TUI, said that most German tourists were vacationing in resorts along the Red Sea where the situation was calm.Nobody has asked to return early to Germany, Braun said, adding that while there had been a few cancelations and customers changing their travel destinations to other countries instead of Egypt, one could not say that there was a wave of cancelations.Both TUI and Thomas Cook could not say how many tourists travel to Egypt every week with their agencies, but according to the German Travel Association some 1.2 million Germans vacation in Egypt every year. Rene-Marc Chikli, president of the CETO association of French tour operators, said the group was suspending all departures this weekend for Egypt. Many travelers who are already in Egypt are being routed away from Cairo to see other destinations, such as Luxor, Aswan or the Red Sea, he told France Info radio. France's Foreign Ministry updated its website to advise travelers to Egypt to postpone all non-urgent travel. French citizens already in Egypt are advised to limit their movements to what is strictly necessary and stay far away from crowds.
Associated Press writers Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin and Angela Doland in Paris contributed.

Egypt's Mubarak defies demands for him to go
By Edmund Blair – Sat Jan 29, 4:52 am ET


CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak clung to power Saturday as protesters took to the streets again to demand that he quit.Mubarak ordered troops and tanks into the capital Cairo and other cities overnight and imposed a curfew in an attempt to quell demonstrations that have shaken the Arab world's most populous nation, a key U.S. ally, to the core.Government buildings, including the ruling party headquarters, were still blazing Saturday morning after being set alight by demonstrators who defied the curfew.Cairo was strewn with wreckage from a day of protests in which tens of thousands of people called for an end to Mubarak's 30-year-rule, an unprecedented turn of events in the tightly-controlled country.At least 24 people were killed and 1,000 wounded in clashes Friday between the protesters and police firing rubber bullets, teargas and wielding batons, medical sources said.

Mubarak went on television Friday night to appeal for calm and promising to address the people's grievances. He sacked the cabinet but made clear he intended to stay in power.A government spokesman said the cabinet would formally resign at meeting about noon (5 a.m. ET) Saturday and a new one was likely to be formed swiftly.But about 2,000 demonstrators gathered in Cairo's central Tahrir Square Saturday to press their demands that he quit, the first clear indication that those behind the street action were not satisfied by his remarks.Go away, go away, they chanted, gathering in Tahrir Square in full view of troops. Peaceful, peaceful, they said.Tanks were parked on roads leading into the square. One army armored personnel carrier had been gutted by fire. The square was strewn with rubble, burned tires and charred wood that had been used as barricades overnight.The demonstrators, many of them young urban poor and students, complain of repression, corruption, and economic despair under Mubarak, who has held power since the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat by Islamist soldiers.The unrest, which follows the overthrow of Tunisian strongman Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali two weeks ago in a popular uprising, has sent shock waves through the Middle East, where other autocratic rulers may face similar challenges.

It also poses a dilemma for the United States. Mubarak, 82, has been a close ally of Washington and beneficiary of U.S. aid for decades, justifying his autocratic rule in part by citing a danger of Islamist militancy.Egypt plays an important role in Middle East peacemaking and was the first Arab nation to sign a peace treaty with Israel.President Barack Obama said he had spoken to Mubarak shortly after his speech and urged him to make good on his promises of reform.I want to be very clear in calling upon the Egyptian authorities to refrain from any violence against peaceful protesters, Obama said.U.S. officials made clear that $1.5 billion in aid was at stake.

ARMY POSITION

The deployment of army troops to back up the police showed that Mubarak still has the support of the military, the country's most powerful force. But any change of sentiment among the generals could seal his fate. The army's deployment had initially been welcomed by crowds, frustrated by heavy handed police tactics. But damage to army vehicles showed that feeling swiftly wore off and protesters overnight accused the army of taking the same police line.What happened was a betrayal of the people ... We were celebrating the army's presence when they got to Tahrir, we let them through to take over from the dirty riot police and then we got fired at again, said Marzouq, a protester in his 20s. Protesters mocked Mubarak's decision to sack his cabinet as an empty gesture.It was never about the government, by God. It is you (Mubarak) who has to go! What you have done to the people is enough! said one.Protesters directed their rage overnight by attacking public and ministry buildings, all symbols of Mubarak's government.Mahmoud Mohammed Imam, a 26-year-old taxi-driver, said: We were hoping that he was delivering a speech to tell us he was leaving.

All he said were empty promises and lies. He appointed a new government of thieves, one thief goes and one thief comes to loot the country.This is the revolution of the people who are hungry, this is the revolution of the people who have no money against those with a lot of money.Anthony Skinner, Associate Director of political risk consultancy Maplecroft, said Mubarak's conduct was reminiscent of that of Tunisia's Ben Ali, who also fired his cabinet hours before he was forced to flee.
Mubarak is showing he is still there for now and he is trying to deflect some of the force of the process away from himself by sacking the cabinet. We will have to see how people react but I don't think it will be enough at all.Markets were hit by the uncertainty. U.S. stocks suffered their biggest one-day loss in nearly six months, crude oil prices surged and the dollar and U.S. Treasury debt gained as investors looked to safe havens.(Additional reporting by Dina Zayed, Marwa Awad, Shaimaa Fayed, Sherine El Madany, Yasmine Saleh, Alison Williams and Samia Nakhoul in Cairo, and Alexander Dziadosz in Suez; Writing by Angus MacSwan, editing by Peter Millership)

Egypt imposes night curfew after day of riots By SARAH EL DEEB and MAGGIE MICHAEL, Associated Press - JAN 28,11

CAIRO – President Hosni Mubarak imposed a night curfew and signaled he was about to send the military out in the streets for the first time to quell an unprecedented challenge to his regime by tens of thousands of protesters who rioted on Friday. One demonstrator was killed and even a Nobel Peace laureate was placed under house arrest after joining the protests.State television said the curfew would be in force from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. in Cairo, the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria and the flashpoint city of Suez east of the capital. It said the military will work in tandem with the police to enforce the ban.It was the most drastic measure so far to quell daily riots and protests that began Tuesday and spiraled into chaos on Friday after noon prayers.Groups of thousands of protesters, some chanting out, out, out, defied a ban on any gatherings and turned out at different venues across Cairo, a city of about 18 million people. Some marched toward major squares and across scenic Nile bridges. Burning tires sent up plumes of black smoke across the cityscape as the sun set.Security officials said there were protests in at least 11 of the country's 28 provinces.

It was a major escalation in the movement that began on Tuesday to demand 82-year-old Mubarak's ouster and vent rage at years of government neglect of rampant poverty, unemployment and rising food prices. Security officials said protesters ransacked the headquarters of Mubarak's ruling party in the cities of Mansoura north of Cairo and Suez, east of the capital.Some of the most serious violence Friday was in Suez, where protesters seized weapons stored in a police station and asked the policemen inside to leave the building before they burned it down. They also set ablaze about 20 police trucks parked nearby. Demonstrators exchanged fire with policemen trying to stop them from storming another police station and one protester was killed in the gun battle.The death brought the toll of those killed in four days of protests to eight.

Egypt’s Internet Kill Switch: Coming To America
Steve Watson Infowars.com January 28, 2011

http://www.infowars.com/egypts-internet-kill-switch-coming-to-america/

In response to widespread protests and mass unrest, the authoritarian Egyptian government has completely shut down the country’s access to the internet, eliminating the use of social networking websites, other effective tools of communication and organisation, and effectively sealing Egypt off from the rest of the world.Internet intelligence authority Renesys has confirmed that virtually all of Egypt’s Internet addresses are now unreachable, worldwide.At 22:34 UTC (00:34am local time), Renesys observed the virtually simultaneous withdrawal of all routes to Egyptian networks in the Internet’s global routing table. Approximately 3,500 individual BGP routes were withdrawn, leaving no valid paths by which the rest of the world could continue to exchange Internet traffic with Egypt’s service providers. Renesys’ analysis states.Vodafone said in an emailed statement: All mobile operators in Egypt have been instructed to suspend services in selected areas. Under Egyptian legislation, the authorities have the right to issue such an order and we are obliged to comply.

Prior to the complete shut down, tweets and live mobile phone feeds from the Egyptian protests in Suez and Cairo were providing up to the minute coverage. Links to photos on Twitpic, videos on YouTube and postings on Facebook were aiding protesters organize their movements.As The Electronic Freedom Foundation notes, When protestors in Cario’s Tahir Square experienced an outage in cell phone data service, nearby residents reportedly opened their home Wi-Fii networks to allow protesters to get online.The Egyptian authorities could not stand for this. Following the revelation of Associated Press footage showing a protester being shot dead in the street, one of at least eight victims who have been killed since the uprising began, an apparent Internet kill switch was thrown.The action is unprecedented in Internet history. It is clearly the action of a desperate tyrannical government on its last legs.Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s government is also reportedly arresting bloggers, attacking journalists, and rounding up anyone else the regime sees as dissidents.Still, the Obama administration, which currently funnels $1.3 billion in military aid to the Egyptian government per year, refuses to condemn the Mubarak regime, and further more, is looking to embrace the exact same internet control mechanism in America.Indeed, when Senator Joe Lieberman attempted to justify draconian legislation that would provide President Obama with a figurative kill switch to shut down parts of the Internet indefinitely, he cited the Communist Chinese system of Internet policing as model which America should move towards.

Right now China, the government, can disconnect parts of its Internet in case of war and we need to have that here too, Lieberman told CNN’s Candy Crowley last June.Of course, the Chinese government routinely shuts down the already heavily filtered internet at any politically sensitive time, not only in case of war as Lieberman claims. Furthermore, Twitter, Facebook and Youtube are all permanently banned.News websites in China now require users to register their true identities in order to leave comments, so that any dissident can be tracked and appropriately dealt with. A truly frightening Orwellian reality you may think, yet this exact move towards abolishing Internet anonymity and creating a virtual ID card is a key centerpiece of the US government’s cybersecurity agenda.The Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act (PCNAA), which now includes a removal of all judicial oversight, is still circulating and will be voted on later this year. Lieberman has stated that the legislation should be made a top priority.The recent actions of the Egyptian government in the face of widespread public backlash, and the ongoing stifling of the free flow of information in China should provide a stark warning to Americans that such Internet control mechanisms are the tools of oppressive authoritarian governments and have no place in a free society.

MUBARAK CLINGS ON AS LAWLESSNESS IS ON

Lawlessness on Egypt streets, Mubarak clings on By Samia Nakhoul and Sherine El Madany - 8:45PM JAN 29,11

CAIRO (Reuters) – Looted stores, burned out cars and the stench of blazing tires filled the streets of Cairo early on Sunday as President Hosni Mubarak sought to bargain with angry crowds and security forces struggled to contain looters.In five days of unprecedented protests that have rocked the Arab world, more than 100 people have been killed, investors and tourists have taken fright, Mubarak has offered a first glimpse of a plan to step down and 80 million long-suffering Egyptians are caught between hope for democratic reform and fear of chaos.The United States and European powers were busy tearing up their Middle East policies, which have supported Mubarak at the head of the most populous Arab nation for 30 years, turning a blind eye to police brutality and corruption in return for a solid bulwark against first communism and now militant Islam.The biggest immediate fear was of looting as all public order broke down. Mobs stormed into supermarkets, banks, jewelry shops and government buildings. Thieves at the Egyptian Museum damaged two mummies from the time of the pharaohs.They are letting Egypt burn to the ground, said Inas Shafik, 35.On Saturday, the 82-year-old Mubarak bowed to protesters and named a vice-president for the first time, a move seen as lining up Omar Suleiman, hitherto his chief of intelligence, as an eventual successor, at least for a transition. Many also saw it as ending his son Gamal's long-surmised ambitions to take over.

Fearful of a descent into anarchy, some Egyptians may have been reassured by signs Mubarak may be readying a handover of power within the military establishment.

But those on the streets of Cairo, a teeming megalopolis of 15 million that is the biggest city in the Middle East, have scented weakness and remain impatient for Mubarak to go now.This is not acceptable. Mubarak must step down. Public unrest will not stop until this is achieved, Mohammed Essawy, a 26-year-old graduate student, said of the appointments.In Washington, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said: The Egyptian government can't reshuffle the deck and then stand pat.Since protesters toppled Tunisia's leader two weeks ago, demonstrations have spread across north Africa and the Middle East in an unprecedented wave of anger at authoritarian leaders, many of them entrenched for decades and enjoying U.S. support.This is the Arab world's Berlin moment, said Fawaz Gerges of the London School of Economics, comparing the events to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The authoritarian wall has fallen, and that's regardless of whether Mubarak survives.As in Tunisia, Egypt's exploding young population, most of then underemployed and frustrated by oppression at the hands of a corrupt and rapacious elite, were demanding a full clear-out of the old guard, not just a reshuffle of the governing class.Police shot dead 17 people in Bani Suef, south of Cairo, as street battles intensified in some towns, even as police seemed to leave much of Cairo to the army, an institution generally respected by Egyptians and less associated with oppression.According to various estimates more than 100 people have been killed during the week in Egypt's capital and other cities.

VIGILANTES

On the Corniche promenade alongside the River Nile in Cairo, people stayed out after the curfew deadline, standing by tanks and chatting with soldiers who took no action to disperse them.At one point, dozens of people approached a military cordon carrying a sign reading Army and People Together. Soldiers pulled back and let the group through: There is a curfew, one lieutenant said. But the army isn't going to shoot anyone.Still, while many defied the curfew in a sign of political defiance, others took the opportunity to roam for booty. Civilian vigilantes stepped in to fill the void left by a vanished police force.There are no police to be found anywhere, said Ghadeer, 23, from an upscale neighborhood. Doormen and young boys from the neighborhoods are standing outside holding sticks, razors and other weapons to prevent people from coming in.

BEGINNING OF THE END

While clearly anxious to avoid an anarchic collapse that might destabilize a region vital to world oil supplies, Mubarak's allies in Western governments appear to share a sense that what has happened so far does not go far enough.In Europe, the German, French and British leaders issued a joint statement thanking Mubarak for his contribution to stability in the Middle East -- Egypt led the way in agreeing to a peace with Israel -- but demanding that he now start the move to free elections, a move that would certainly end his power.Of Suleiman's appointment, analyst Gamal Abdel Gawad Soltan said: This is the beginning of a process of power transfer.At the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Jon Alterman said: I can't see how this is not the beginning of the end of Mubarak's presidency. It seems that his task now is to try and manage the transition past his leadership.If the plan is for Mubarak to hand power to Suleiman, it remains to be seen whether the population would tolerate him.He is just like Mubarak, there is no change, one protester said of Suleiman, a key figure at the top of Mubarak's inner circle and hated security apparatus.The prospect of even greater upheaval across the Middle East is prompting some investors to see risks for oil supplies that could in turn hamper global economic growth.Many saw Mubarak's concessions as echoes of those made two weeks ago by Tunisia's Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. Just a day later, Ben Ali had fled his country, deserted by an army which preferred to back less hated figures in his government.Like other Arab leaders, the president portrays himself as a bulwark against the West's Islamist enemies. But Egypt's banned opposition movement the Muslim Brotherhood has been only a small part of the week's events, and lays claim to moderation.A new era of freedom and democracy is dawning in the Middle East, Kamel El-Helbawy, a cleric from the Brotherhood said from exile in London. Islamists would not be able to rule Egypt alone. We should and would cooperate.

THE ARMY'S MOMENT

While the police are generally feared as an instrument of repression, the army is seen as a national institution.Rosemary Hollis, at London's City University, said the army had to decide whether it stood with Mubarak or the people: It's one of those moments where as with the fall of communism in Eastern Europe they can come down to individual lieutenants and soldiers to decide whether they fire on the crowd or not.So far, the protest movement seems to have no clear leader or organization. Prominent activist Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace Laureate for his work with the U.N. nuclear agency, returned to Egypt from Europe to join the protests. But many Egyptians feel he has not spent enough time in the country.Hosni Mubarak has not heard the people, ElBaradei told Al Jazeera, renewing his call for the president to step down.Banks will be shut on Sunday as a precaution, Central Bank Governor Hisham Ramez told Reuters. The stock market, whose benchmark index tumbled 16 percent in two days before shutting on Friday for the weekend, will also be closed on Sunday.
(Additional reporting by Dina Zayed, Marwa Awad, Shaimaa Fayed, Sherine El Madany, Yasmine Saleh, Alison Williams and Samia Nakhoul in Cairo, Alexander Dziadosz in Suez, Arshad Mohammed in Washington and Peter Apps, Angus MacSwan and William Maclean in London; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Peter Graff)

Egypt shutdown worst in Internet history: experts by Katia Dolmadjian – Sat Jan 29, 12:05 pm ET

PARIS (AFP) – The scale of Egypt's crackdown on the Internet and mobile phones amid deadly protests against the rule of President Hosni Mubarak is unprecedented in the history of the web, experts said.US President Barack Obama, social networking sites and rights groups around the world all condemned the moves by Egyptian authorities to stop activists using cellphones and cyber technology to organise rallies.It's a first in the history of the Internet, Rik Ferguson, an expert for Trend Micro, the world's third biggest computer security firm, told AFP.Julien Coulon, co-founder of Cedexis, a French Internet performance monitoring and traffic management system, added: In 24 hours we have lost 97 percent of Egyptian Internet traffic.According to Renesys, a US Internet monitoring company, Egypt's four main Internet service providers cut off international access to their customers in a near simultaneous move at 2234 GMT on Thursday.Around 23 million Egyptians have either regular or occasional access to the Internet, according to official figures, more than a quarter of the population.In an action unprecedented in Internet history, the Egyptian government appears to have ordered service providers to shut down all international connections to the Internet, James Cowie of Renesys said in a blog post.

Link Egypt, Vodafone/Raya, Telecom Egypt and Etisalat Misr were all off air but Cowie said one exception was the Noor Group, which still has 83 live routes to its Egyptian customers.He said it was not clear why the Noor Group was apparently unaffected but we observe that the Egyptian Stock Exchange (www.egyptse.com) is still alive at a Noor address.Mobile telephone networks were also severely disrupted in the country on Friday. Phone signals were patchy and text messages inoperative.
British-based Vodafone said all mobile operators in Egypt had been instructed Friday to suspend services in some areas amid spiralling unrest, adding that under Egyptian law it was obliged to comply with the order.Egyptian operator ECMS, linked to France's Telecom-Orange, said the authorities had ordered them to shut them off late Thursday.We had no warning, it was quite sudden, a spokesman for Telecom-Orange told AFP in France.The shutdown in Egypt is the most comprehensive official electronic blackout of its kind, experts said.Links to the web were were cut for only a few days during a wave of protests against Myanmar's ruling military junta in 2007, while demonstrations against the re-election of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009 specifically targeted Twitter and Facebook.Egypt -- like Tunisia where mass popular unrest drove out Zine El Abidine Ben Ali earlier this month -- is on a list of 13 countries classed as enemies of the Internet by media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

So far there has been no systematic filtering by Egyptian authorities -- they have completely controlled the whole Internet,said Soazig Dollet, the Middle East and North Africa specialist for RSF.Condemnation of Egypt's Internet crackdown has been widespread.Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Cairo to restore the Internet and social networking sites.Facebook, the world's largest social network with nearly 600 million members, and Twitter also weighed in.Although the turmoil in Egypt is a matter for the Egyptian people and their government to resolve, limiting Internet access for millions of people is a matter of concern for the global community, said Andrew Noyes, a Facebook spokesman.Twitter, which has more than 175 million registered users, said of efforts to block the service in Egypt: We believe that the open exchange of info & views benefits societies & helps govts better connect w/ their people.US digital rights groups also criticised the Egyptian government.This action is inconsistent with all international human rights norms, and is unprecedented in Internet history, said Leslie Harris, president of the Center for Democracy and Technology in the United States.

Israel watches Egypt uprising with fear By Josef Federman, Associated Press – Sat Jan 29, 4:12 pm ET

JERUSALEM – Behind an official wall of silence, Israel watched nervously Saturday as anti-government unrest worsened in Egypt, fearful that the violent and growing street protests could topple Israel's most important ally in the Arab world.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered his government to remain silent about the situation in Egypt. But in a clear reflection of Israel's concerns, Sun D'Or, a subsidiary of Israel's national airline, El Al, whisked dozens of Israelis, including diplomats' families, out of Egypt on an emergency flight. The government also urged Israelis to avoid travel to Egypt.The stability of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's regime is a key interest for Israel.Egypt was the first Arab country to make peace with Israel, and since succeeding the assassinated Anwar Sadat in the wake of that historic peace treaty three decades ago, Mubarak has steadfastly honored the deal.While relations have often been cool, Mubarak has remained a key bridge to the Arab world, frequently mediating between Israel and the Palestinians. Mubarak also has cooperated with Israel in containing the militant Hamas group, which rules the Gaza Strip, a volatile coastal strip that borders both Israel and Egypt.

Israeli officials, ordered to speak on condition of anonymity, expressed grave concerns about Mubarak's tenuous grip on power. Some said they feared the violence could spread to neighboring Jordan, the only other Arab country with a peace deal with Israel, or to the Palestinian territories.There were also concerns that anti-Israel opposition groups, including the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, might gain a larger voice in Egyptian decision-making.A stable Egypt with a peace treaty with Israel means a quiet border, one Israeli official told The Associated Press. If there is a regime change Israel will have to reassess its strategy to protect its border from one of the most modern militaries in the region.Early Saturday evening, the Sun D'Or International Airlines plane touched down in Israel with about 40 Israelis who were in Egypt on private business plus an undisclosed number of diplomats' spouses and children on board, officials said. The Israeli Foreign Ministry said its diplomats would remain in Egypt for the time being.The Egyptian unrest dominated Israeli media. Israeli TV news channels provided nonstop updates throughout the day. State-funded Israel Radio reported extensively on developments and dubbed its broadcasts Fire on the Nile.Writing in the Haaretz daily Saturday, columnist Aluf Benn speculated that Mubarak's fading power leaves Israel with few friends in the Middle East.

Mubarak has faced days of massive anti-government protests, with tens of thousands of people filling the streets of Cairo and other major cities demanding his resignation after nearly 30 years in power. The protesters have said they are fed up with the massive unemployment, lack of opportunities and corruption that plague the country.On Saturday, Mubarak named Omar Suleiman, his powerful intelligence chief, as vice president, the first time someone has held that position since he became president in 1981. It was unclear whether the move, which followed promises of reform and a new government, would be enough to calm the unrest.There was no immediate reaction from Israel, but the appointment was likely to calm nerves in Israel, where Suleiman is a frequent visitor and has good working relations with his Israeli counterparts.Israeli officials said it was unclear if Mubarak would survive the protests, and they fear that ties could be damaged if Egypt's popular opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, makes gains.Israeli lawmaker Benyamin Ben-Eliezer, who has maintained a friendship with Mubarak, broke ranks with other Israeli officials who remained silent about events in Egypt.He told Israeli Channel 10 TV that he had spoken with Mubarak in the past few days, and that the Egyptian leader sounded optimistic, saying he had known that riots would break out and that he had prepared for it.Still, Ben-Eliezer said he was concerned about Egypt's future. This could lead to a completely different regime, one that is a lot more radical Islamic.
Eli Shaked, a former Israeli Ambassador to Egypt, offered similar speculation on Channel 10. It's good that Israel is keeping quiet, but there is no doubt that what is happening in Egypt is not good for Israeli interests,Shaked said. It will only be a matter of time before a leader of the revolution arises and he will come from the Muslim Brotherhood.

A stronger Muslim Brotherhood could also affect the balance of power between the rival Palestinian camps, the government of President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank and the rival Hamas regime in Gaza.Abbas is backed by the West, while his Islamic militant rivals draw their support from Iran, Syria and Hezbollah. Hamas is the Gaza branch of the Muslim brotherhood and could gain strength if their Egyptian brethren rise to power.Abbas on Saturday called Mubarak, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa. Abbas told the Egyptian leader that he is eager to see Egypt stable and secure, the agency said. There was no immediate comment from Hamas.In Gaza, Palestinian residents rushed to buy extra gasoline, concerned that fuel supplies would run out. In the past few years, the majority of Gaza's fuel has come from Egypt through underground smuggling tunnels on the Gaza-Egypt border.Palestinian smugglers who work in the tunnels said Saturday that there were fewer fuel supplies available from Egypt, but that they were continuing to smuggle Egyptian fuel into Gaza. The Hamas-run National Economic Ministry, which oversees fuel supplies, said there were currently no fuel shortages in Gaza.Hamas Interior Ministry spokesman Ihab Ghussein said there were no infiltrations on the Gaza-Egypt border.The southern border with the Gaza Strip is quiet. There is no security breach on that border, Ghussein said.Ibrahim Barzak in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report.

Iranian opposition leader hails Egypt protests By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press – Sat Jan 29, 12:32 pm ET

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's opposition leader expressed hope Saturday that protests engulfing Egypt can bring the kind of change that has so far evaded his own country.
Mir Hossein Mousavi compared the uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen with the protest movement that followed the 2009 disputed presidential election in Iran.Mousavi, who claims to have been the real victor in the vote, said Iran's protest movement was the starting point but all aimed at ending the oppression of the rulers.The wave of protests that erupted after the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the biggest challenge faced by Iran's clerical leadership since it came to power in the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Hundreds of thousands took to the streets in support of Mousavi, and some powerful clerics sided with the opposition.But a heavy military crackdown suppressed the protests, and many in the opposition — from midlevel political figures to street activists, journalists and human rights workers — were arrested. The opposition has not been able to hold a major protest since December 2009.Mousavi said he hoped protesters in Egypt and Yemen would succeed in bringing change to their country amid a wave of Arab unrest that was unleashed when Tunisians succeeded in driving their authoritarian president from the country earlier this month.

Our nation respects and salutes the huge revolution by the brave Tunisian people and the rightful uprising of the Egyptian and Yemeni people, Mousavi said in a comment posted Saturday on his website kaleme.com. We demand that God bestow on them victory in their truthful struggle.Mousavi said Iranians peacefully took to the streets to demand where is my vote? and now Egyptians chant the nation wants the ouster of the regime.In a twist, Iran's hard-line rulers also have tried to take credit for the uprisings, calling them a replay of the 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the pro-U.S. shah and brought hardline clerics to power.An Islamic Middle East is taking shape, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami said in his Friday prayer sermon. A new Middle East is emerging based on Islam ... based on religious democracy.He said chants of Allahu Akbar, or God is Great, from protesters signal a new Middle East based on Islamic values, not U.S. goals, is emerging.Iran and Egypt broke diplomatic relations in 1979 after Tehran condemned Egyptian President Anwar Sadat for signing the Camp David peace treaty with Israel. In the late 1980s, they resumed contact but at a low level. They now have interest sections, not embassies, in each other's capitals.

Lebanon PM designate briefs president on government
– Sat Jan 29, 5:58 am ET


BEIRUT (AFP) – Lebanon's premier-designate Najib Mikati, who is backed by Hezbollah, on Saturday briefed the president on his talks on forming a new government, set to be boycotted by outgoing prime minister Saad Hariri.Mikati, appointed this week after the Shiite Hezbollah toppled Hariri's pro-Western government, did not make any comments after his meeting with President Michel Sleiman.The telecoms tycoon and former premier held two days of talks with parliamentary groups on forming his government, ending on Friday with the Hariri camp still refusing to join his administration.A source close to Mikati told AFP that Mikati's cabinet would likely consist of 24 to 30 ministers, most of whom would represent political parties but which would also include technocrats.Contacts are ongoing with all parties in order to secure the widest participation possible in the new government, the source said.

Mr Mikati wants to form his government quickly but not hastily.The Hariri government collapsed on January 12 when Iranian- and Syria-backed Hezbollah and its allies pulled 11 ministers from cabinet in a dispute over the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL).The Netherlands-based STL is investigating the 2005 assassination of Rafiq Hariri, father of the outgoing premier, and is expected to implicate Hezbollah operatives in the murder.The Shiite militant group has warned against any such accusation and is demanding Lebanon end all cooperation with the tribunal.A Hariri-led alliance in turn is demanding Mikati, a political moderate with good ties to former powerbroker Syria, guarantee he will not disavow the tribunal.Saudi-backed Hariri has refused to join a cabinet led by a Sunni prime minister whom he says was appointed by the Shiite Hezbollah.

Paraguay says recognizes Palestinian state
– Fri Jan 28, 12:10 pm ET


ASUNCION (Reuters) – Paraguay's government said on Friday it had decided to recognize a Palestinian state based on borders before the 1967 war, following similar moves by other South American countries in recent months.Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia and Uruguay have recently recognized a Palestinian state along the pre-war borders. Chile and Peru have also given recognition to a Palestinian state, but without specifying borders.Announcing the decision, Paraguay's Foreign Ministry said bilateral negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, which are currently at a standstill, are essential for both peace and security.Israel disputes the Palestinian claim on the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem, areas it captured from Jordan during the Six-Day War in 1967, and peace negotiations have stalled numerous times over the last few years.Israel said last month the recognition of a Palestinian state by Latin American countries was highly damaging interference by countries that were never part of the Middle East peace process.

U.S. Under Secretary of State William Burns said in a recent visit to Chile that the move by Latin American nations was premature.Paraguay's move comes just before a summit between Latin American and Arab countries, which will be held in Lima in February.(Reporting by Daniela Desantis; Writing by James Matthews; Editing by Helen Popper and Jackie Frank)

In memoirs, ex-Israeli PM regrets failure of talks By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press – Fri Jan 28, 11:23 am ET

JERUSALEM – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas made a historic mistake by rebuffing an Israeli peace offer during negotiations in 2008, Israel's former prime minister wrote in excerpts from his forthcoming memoirs published Friday.The new details from Ehud Olmert's memoirs were published days after the Arab TV station Al-Jazeera released secret documents revealing the details of the Palestinians' positions during the same negotiations, in which both sides appear to have been prepared to make major concessions.Talks have largely been deadlocked since Olmert left office in early 2009.Olmert offered Abbas a state including the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza, according to the excerpts published in the daily Yediot Ahronot. Israel would have annexed 6.3 percent of the West Bank to retain major Jewish settlements and would have given an equivalent amount of land inside Israel to the Palestinians as compensation.The proposal would have seen the area around Jerusalem's Old City, with its holy sites, governed by an international consortium, and a 40-kilometer tunnel linking the West Bank and Gaza through Israeli territory. The contents of the negotiations were kept secret at the time, but have emerged slowly since then.

Olmert said he made the offer on September 16, 2008, placing a map on the table at his official residence in Jerusalem.Abbas looked at me and I looked at him. He was silent, Olmert wrote.He said he couldn't decide immediately and needed time. I told him he was making a historic mistake.Abbas said he wanted to consult.No,I answered. Take the pen and sign now. You will never get a more fair or just offer. Don't hesitate. It's difficult for me, too, but we cannot opt out of an agreement. Even in another fifty years there will not be a government in Israel that will offer you what I offered.I saw that he, too, was anguishing over it. Finally, he told me, Give me a few days. I'm no expert in maps,Olmert wrote.Abbas, known as Abu Mazen, suggested a meeting the next day between Israeli and Palestinian advisers, but then postponed it, Olmert wrote. The meeting never took place. I did not meet Abu Mazen after that. The map remained in my hands, he wrote.The sides were closer to a deal than at any time in the past, he wrote.Abbas told The Washington Post in May 2009 that he didn't accept the offer because the gaps were wide.Israel was prepared to absorb 5,000 Palestinian refugees over five years, a number the Palestinians considered far too low. And the Palestinians were prepared to agree to a land swap of just under 2 percent of the West Bank, not the 6.3 percent proposed by Olmert.

Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat has said they made a counteroffer three months later. But by then Olmert's time in office was running out because of mounting corruption charges, and shortly thereafter Israel launched a military offensive in the Gaza Strip to halt Palestinian rocket fire.Weeks after the offensive ended, hard-line parties won a national election in Israel and Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu formed a government.The documents released by Al-Jazeera this week show that the Palestinians were prepared to allow Israel to retain sovereignty over most of the Jewish neighborhoods built in east Jerusalem.Though Palestinian negotiators told their Israeli counterparts that refugees must be able to choose if they want to return to what is now Israel, the leaks quoted Abbas as telling Palestinian negotiators that it would be illogical to expect 5 million or even 1 million to exercise the right of return.Those revelations have sparked outrage among some Palestinians, and Abbas' rivals from the Islamic group Hamas have called him a traitor. The Palestinians wanted Netanyahu to use Olmert's offer as a starting point for negotiations, but the more hawkish Likud leader has taken it off the table. The Palestinians have demanded a full freeze to Israeli settlement construction as a condition for talks — a demand they did not make of Olmert.

Negotiations between Abbas and Netanyahu began only in September 2009, only to break down three weeks later when an Israeli settlement freeze expired. Deadlock has ensued.In the excerpts published Friday, Olmert said President Barack Obama's administration had erred in making a settlement freeze central to talks. I believe this was a grave error, and I was sorry the U.S. administration was dragged into that trap, he wrote.Olmert also described his transformation from a hard-line supporter of Israeli settlements to a believer in territorial compromise.Many, and I among them, ignored the ramifications of the mixing of the populations, of the grave harm to freedom of movement, quality of life and civil rights of Palestinian residents who lived next to the growing Jewish population, he wrote.

Mideast peace talk leaks destabilising: Blair
– Fri Jan 28, 5:54 am ET


LONDON (AFP) – Middle East envoy Tony Blair said Friday he believed the leak of hundreds of documents on the Israel-Palestinian peace negotiations was destabilising.
I think it is hard to tell right now but its intention was to be extremely damaging, Blair told the BBC from the world economic forum in Davos, after being asked about the leaks to the Al-Jazeera television station.Citing one of his successes when he was Britain's prime minister, he said: We couldn't have done the Northern Ireland peace process if the entire time everything was being put out there, with frankly a pretty severe spin on it.So I think it is destabilising for the Palestinians.
However, I think we have just got to be big enough and strong enough to say 'OK, look, whatever Al-Jazeera are putting out, we are just going to get on with making peace'.The leak of more than 1,600 documents has shaken the Palestinian Authority, revealing that it offered Israel far-reaching concessions on the sensitive subjects of Jerusalem and refugees during peace talks.

In the West Bank, demonstrators have offered their support for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, but in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, protests have been held criticising Abbas for collaborating with Israel.Blair was Britain's prime minister between 1997 and 2007 and is currently envoy for the Middle East diplomatic Quartet of the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

HEZBOLLAH AGENTS ENTERING GAZA

Israeli minister: Hezbollah agents entering Gaza By JOSEF FEDERMAN, Associated Press – Thu Jan 27, 2:25 pm ET

JERUSALEM – Israel's minister of strategic affairs said Thursday the Lebanese Hezbollah guerrilla group has infiltrated agents into the Gaza Strip to train Palestinian militants.Gaza is ruled by the Hamas militant group, which, like Hezbollah, is sworn to Israel's destruction.The minister, Moshe Yaalon, Israel's former military chief of staff, told reporters that Hezbollah experts can get into the Gaza Strip, like the Iranian rockets are coming to the Gaza Strip. He said Hezbollah militants can go from Lebanon to Sudan, then to Egypt and on to Gaza.Israel charges that archenemy Iran sends rockets and other weapons to Gaza militants, smuggling them into the seaside strip through tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border.Yaalon said Hezbollah has a special unit, called 1800, to deal with the Palestinian militants. He said the Lebanese guerrillas also operate in the West Bank, paying militants.

Yaalon offered no evidence to support his claims.Israel has long accused Hezbollah and its Iranian backers of supporting Palestinian militants, but officials have said little about an actual physical presence of Iranian-backed militia in Gaza.Hamas has often denied that foreign forces are in Gaza. On Thursday, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum called Yaalon's claim fabricated, and said all the factions in Gaza are Palestinians.Yaalon's office said Hezbollah has been infiltrating Gaza quietly since Israel withdrew in from the seaside strip in 2005.Israel and Hezbollah fought a bitter monthlong war in 2006, when Hezbollah rained almost 4,000 rockets on Israel as Israeli forces caused widespread destruction in Beirut and south Lebanon. A year later, Israel launched a punishing war in Gaza to try to put a stop to daily rocket attacks by Gaza militants.Associated Press writer Ibrahim Barzak in Gaza City contributed to this report.

Lebanon overshadows U.S. ambassador's return to Syria
By Khaled Yacoub Oweis – Thu Jan 27, 1:47 pm ET


DAMASCUS (Reuters) – The United States resumed full diplomatic relations with Syria on Thursday just as tensions are growing again over neighboring Lebanon, where Damascus ally Hezbollah has gained the upper hand in a political crisis.New U.S. ambassador Robert Ford presented his credentials to President Bashar al-Assad, an official Syrian statement said, six years after Washington withdrew its top envoy following the assassination of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq al-Hariri.Assad wished Ford success in his mission, and the ambassador in turn said he hoped for improved U.S.-Syrian relations, which were downgraded in 2005 due to U.S. suspicions of Syrian involvement in the assassination -- which Damascus denies.But the diplomatic niceties masked differences over Lebanon where businessman Najib Mikati is trying to form a new government with support from the Shi'ite movement Hezbollah.This followed the crisis which pitted the armed group against U.S.- and Saudi-backed Sunni political leader Saad al-Hariri, son of the assassinated politician who was well connected in the West.

In a sign of tension over Lebanon, U.S. Senator John Kerry canceled a visit to Damascus that had been due this week, one diplomat said.President Barack Obama used a Congressional recess to bypass Republican opposition and nominate Ford.Obama went out of his way to send Ford. He will be expecting something in return. Lebanon is an obvious area but the Syrians realize that the United States does not have much more to pressure them with, another diplomat said.Washington imposed sanctions on Syria in 2004 for supporting Hezbollah and other militant groups, but the diplomat said it might not have many other tools for pressuring Damascus. Syria is already under U.S. sanctions. I think the Americans are scratching their head about what to do, he said.

Washington has also sought to weaken the alliance between Damascus and Iran. It is still pushing to resume peace talks between Syria and Israel, diplomats said, pointing out that Frederick Hoff, a U.S. official versed in the so-called Syrian-Israeli track, visited Damascus this month.Syrian political commentator Ayman Abdel Nour said Damascus was not averse to compromise if it felt the United States was lessening support for an international tribunal on the Hariri killing, which Syria views as a tool in the hands of its foes.An international investigation implicated Syrian security officials in the assassination. Damascus denies involvement.The United States is keeping the tribunal card close to its chest. But Syria is stronger on the ground in Lebanon, Abdel Nour said. He dismissed the possibility of Washington resuming a policy of internationally isolating Syria because Damascus has built ties with countries such as its northern neighbor Turkey.Ankara was not keen to see Saad al-Hariri fall from power, he said, but Turkey had enough interests with Syria to keep Damascus as an ally.Hariri fell from power after a deal collapsed between Syria and Saudi Arabia to push for a compromise involving their allies over the tribunal, which Hezbollah expects to indict its own members. The group deny any role in the killing.Billionaire Mikati, a friend of Assad, is now Lebanon's prime minister-designate.(editing by David Stamp)

US takes tougher line with Egypt, Arab allies By MATTHEW LEE and BRADLEY KLAPPER, Associated Press – Wed Jan 26, 4:52 pm ET

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration sharpened its response to political upheaval and brutal crackdowns in Egypt on Wednesday, telling its closest ally in the Arab world it must respond to its people's yearnings for democracy as the largest political protests in years swept Cairo streets.But with no clear picture emerging of a democratic and pro-Western alternative to the three-decade rule of Egypt's authoritarian President Hosni Mubarak, it was unclear how hard the United States was willing to press its case.A day after delivering a measured response to Egypt's demonstrations, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Egypt had to adopt democratic and other reforms and allow peaceful protests. She told Cairo to lay off social media sites like Facebook and Twitter even as activists are using them to organize street gatherings and destabilize the government.The White House declined a direct opportunity to affirm support for Mubarak, who traveled to Washington to meet President Barack Obama just four months ago. Asked if the administration still backed Mubarak, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs would say only: Egypt is a strong ally.The tougher tone came as the U.S. struggles to confront an explosion of instability in the Middle East as Arabs from Tunisia to Yemen rebel against decades of political repression. Adding to the confluence of crises is the emergence of an Iranian-backed militant movement as Lebanon's dominant force and potentially embarrassing revelations creating new obstacles to Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Clinton said Mubarak's government had the power to ease tensions with anti-government activists, who defied an official ban on protests Wednesday by pelting police with firebombs and rocks in a second day of clashes. Police forces used tear gas and fired live ammunition in the air to disperse demonstrators. Some people were beaten.I do think it's possible for there to be reforms and that is what we are urging and calling for, Clinton told reporters at a State Department news conference with visiting Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh.It is something that I think everyone knows must be on the agenda of the government as they not just respond to the protests but as they look beyond as to what needs to be done.The protests against Mubarak's three-decade grip on power were inspired by the ouster of another long-time leader, Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, in a popular uprising nearly two weeks ago.The day before Ben Ali fled into exile in Saudi Arabia, Clinton delivered a stark warning to Arab leaders across the Middle East that they faced possible revolt if they failed to address rampant social problems, repression and corruption that have alienated their populations, particularly the educated youth. Foundations of development and progress in the region were sinking into the sand, she warned.But having spent billions of dollars supporting its few Arab friends for decades, the United States is nearly as large a target for the unrest as the authoritarian regimes under siege.U.S. officials won't paint the problem as one of democracy versus loyalty, but Washington's labored approach to the protests in different countries illustrates a complicated blend of political idealism and realpolitik. It also points up the unpredictability of the tinderbox of Arab populism.Egypt represents the greatest challenge because of its strategic position bridging two continents, leadership status in the Arab world, lasting peace with Israel and the possibility of a hardline, Islamist movement filling the vacuum were Mubarak to be deposed.

The United States has urged peaceful political change in Egypt for years, but has tolerated routine police, judicial and human rights abuses there. It has provided Egypt with tens of billions of dollars in aid since it made peace with Israel in 1978. Last year, the country got more than $1.5 billion in economic support and military assistance from the U.S.Unlike Tunisia, a second-tier U.S. ally, Egypt has been the bulwark of American influence in the Middle East and served as an economically impoverished but politically powerful intermediary in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and beyond. When Mubarak last visited the White House in September it was to help relaunch moribund peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.Waiting in the wings is the Muslim Brotherhood, a cross-border Arab movement that has presented itself as the main opposition to Mubarak's rule in Egypt. That prospect is frightening to the United States and other Western nations because of its opposition to Israeli-Palestinian peace and much of the U.S. agenda in the region. Mubarak's weakened health in an election year and the questionable support for hereditary transfer of power to his son Gamal underscore the unsure footing for the country.

Jordan, the only other Arab state to make peace with Israel, is similarly vital to U.S. interests. Standing beside Clinton at the news conference, Judeh downplayed the chances of protests like those Tunisia and Egypt erupting in his country. He allowed that Jordanians have vented over rising oil and food prices, but maintained his country has the political openness to allow debate and dissent.That may not be the case in Yemen, a nation plagued by corruption, inequality and political divisions and which has emerged as a main battleground against al-Qaida. Yemen's government under the weak president Ali Abdallah Saleh fails most democratic litmus tests, but it has allowed U.S. drone strikes on suspected terrorists on its soil and become a key counterterror partner. It is unclear how instability and upheaval there would serve American interests. Linked to all of these crises is the diminished power of the United States — from global economics, where high U.S. unemployment and debt contrasts with booming growth rates in China, to the Middle East, where an intractable Iran has extended its influence over a large swathe of the Arabian peninsula.The U.S. has spent hundreds of millions promoting a pro-Western government in Lebanon, but saw the fragile coalition toppled by the Shiite militant group Hezbollah, which gets its backing from Iran. Hezbollah now holds the power in a new government being formed. That the process occurred constitutionally hasn't made it any easier for Washington to accept, and the Obama administration is threatening to withhold further direct support.Clinton said Wednesday that Israeli-Palestinian talks remained the No. 1 priority for the region, but an elusive peace deal six decades in the making was further complicated by this week's release of papers alleging wide-ranging Palestinian concessions.Clinton insisted that the U.S. remained absolutely committed to the peace process, though there's little to indicate that sentiment is shared by all parties.A final deal remains the official U.S. goal for this year, but prospects for such a monumental achievement failed to warrant even a mention in President Barack Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday — a suggestion the administration isn't too hopeful, either.

PA, Fatah can no longer speak for Palestinians
– Wed Jan 26, 2:08 pm ET


GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – Gaza Islamists said on Wednesday that the Palestinian leadership could no longer speak for its people after leaked reports of its cooperation with Israel.Hamas and Islamic Jihad officials said after a meeting of several groups that all were agreed that deals made with Israel by president Mahmud Abbas's western-backed Palestinian Authority and his Fatah movement were invalid.The participants declared ... that the Fatah authority was not entitled to speak in the name of the Palestinian people and that no agreement it makes with the occupier is binding upon our people, senior Hamas official Ismail Radwan told AFP.

On Sunday, Al-Jazeera television began releasing what it says are more than 1,600 documents known as The Palestine Papers, which have exposed some of the far-reaching concessions Palestinian negotiators have offered Israel during 10 years of secret peace talks.The leaks also purport to show close security cooperation between the Abbas administration and Israel in a common fight against Hamas, which is Fatah's bitter rival and is pledged to destroy the Jewish State.In Wednesday's Gaza gathering, Islamic militants agreed on the need to restructure the Palestine Liberation Organisation in a way that makes it relevant to the Palestinian people and to stop negotiations (with Israel), Khaled al-Batsh, a local Islamic Jihad leader told AFP.On-off Israeli-Palestinian peace talks collapsed in September over Israel's settlement policies and Abbas is refusing to renew then until Israel halts building in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

Arab world experts at Davos call for reform By Dan Perry, Associated Press – Wed Jan 26, 1:14 pm ET

DAVOS, Switzerland – The head of the Arab League said Wednesday that Arabs were angry and frustrated and the name of the game is reform — a call lent urgency by turmoil of recent days, when a corrupt regime was overthrown in Tunisia and several people died in anti-government riots in Egypt.Arab League's Secretary-General Amr Moussa, who is Egyptian, spoke to reporters at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, where a panel of Mideast economic experts convened separately to tackle the same question — and generally agreed the region needs better education, more transparent regimes, and cleverer business strategies.The issue that set off controversy at the closed session had to do with one characteristic the region's diverse countries generally share: the absence of genuine democracy. Audience members pushed the idea but the assembled experts seemed more skeptical — and, tellingly, most would not be quoted on the issue.One exception was Ennis Rimawi, a Jordan-based managing partner of Catalyst, a private equity firm specializing in energy and water technology.He said the efforts by Dubai to build a global financial center had inspired progress in other Gulf states, in clean energy, research and development and other areas. The Gulf was poised to be an economic powerhouse (with) a spillover effect in the poorer countries ... I'm very optimistic with the current leadership in place, largely in the (Gulf).

One panelist said the region needed strong but benevolent leaders — ones who would allocate resources fairly and transparently and nudge societies toward progress. It was the failure to sufficiently provide for the people this way that doomed the authoritarian leadership in Tunisia, he suggested.Another argued democracy was not part of Arab culture, with its respect for elders, tribalism and patriarchal traditions.A third suggested democracy was desirable — but not before the public was better educated and would not vote along tribal lines.Rimawi said Mideast nations should key on areas where they might naturally dominate, and identified three: the purchase of oil- and gas-related technical services needed by its main export industries, desalination-related business to resolve the water shortage, and solar energy to exploit the abundance of sun.But seizing these opportunities will be difficult under existing circumstances: Panelists noted that the Arab world lagged badly behind other regions in key innovation indicators such as patents per capita, and was generally seen as faring poorly in contract enforcement.

There was widespread agreement that the main problem was education.Many people have degrees but they do not have the skill set, said Masood Ahmed, director of the Middle East and Asia department of the International Monetary Fund. In part, this is because schools were turning out graduates prepared for work in the public sectors that dominate many of the region's countries — and not for driving a vibrant private sector more likely to innovate.The scarce resource is talent, agreed Omar Alghanim, a prominent Gulf businessman. The employment pool available in the region is not at all what's needed in the global economy.Ahmed said another problem was that most of North Africa's trade — some 80 percent — was with Europe, a region that was growing far slower than Asia and other parts of the world. For the region to better its current growth rate of some 4 percent — insufficient to leap out of the widespread poverty, especially given high population growth — it needed to diversify its industries and export markets.There were disagreements on whether the region's dirigiste economies were working. One panelist noted Dubai's government-mandated drive to create a world city inspired other regional states, while another said that the Arabs as a whole would never prosper in the Twitter generation until people were empowered and entrepreneurs freed of bureaucracy.

In his comments, Moussa said the Arab world was in flux.There is turmoil in the Arab world for so many reasons, internal as well as regional, and even international, he said.The Arab citizen is angry, is frustrated. That is the point. So the name of the game is reform.Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who was also attending the Davos forum, agreed that the solution is reform. But he warned that leaders might fear that if you open the door just a little, you cannot control it again.I hope they will take the right decision and move in the right direction and not clamp down,Annan said, adding that he expects what happened in Tunisia to have repercussions even beyond North Africa.Edith M. Lederer contributed to this report.

Iran's allies gain clout and possible softer edges By BRIAN MURPHY, Associated Press – Wed Jan 26, 11:46 am ET

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – From the Afghan badlands to the Mediterranean, evidence of Iran's reach is easy to spot: a mix of friend and foe for Kabul leaders, a power broker in Iraq, deep alliances with Syria and a big brother to Lebanon's Hezbollah and Hamas in Gaza.Tehran's proxy portfolio suddenly has a bit more aura after Hezbollah's political gambit — bringing down a pro-Western government in Lebanon and moving into position to pick its successor.To those keeping score, it would appear that Iran is winning some important points around the Middle East at the expense of Washington and its allies.But such gains have potential built-in costs, experts say. With Iran's extended family increasingly joining the ranks of power — first in Gaza, then Iraq and now Lebanon — there also comes pressure to moderate and make other compromises often required from those in charge.It eventually could bring some uncomfortable contrasts for Tehran — with its partners in the region embracing more flexible policies and Iran facing more sanctions and isolation for refusing to make concessions over its nuclear program.Certainly there is more visible Iranian influence around the region, said Salman Shaikh, director of The Brookings Doha Center in Qatar. But these are no longer just vassals of Iran. As they move into political roles, there will be changes that Iran cannot control. We shouldn't look at Lebanon as a zero-sum game between Iran and the West.

The same may hold true elsewhere.In Iraq, influence from Iran is on the rise now that backers of militant Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have joined the government in Baghdad, which already had deep ties with Iran. Al-Sadr remains fiercely opposed to American occupiers — which his Mahdi Army militia battled for years.But al-Sadr — who took refuge in Iran in 2007 — showed hints of trying to cultivate a more statesmanlike demeanor during his first visit back to Iraq. Al-Sadr this month held meetings that included pro-Western figures such as President Jalal Talabani and urged Iraq's majority Shiites and Sunnis to look beyond their past bloodshed.There's little chance that al-Sadr will ease his demands that the Pentagon stick to its timetable to withdraw all troops by the end of the year. And his Iranian links are obvious. At a speech in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, his guards wore Iranian style outfits: identical gray suits with shirts and no ties.Yet now he has to answer to the Iraqi people about rebuilding the country, said Hadi Jalo, a political analyst at Baghdad University. He goes from outsider to insider and that means he has to look in all directions, including the West, and not just toward Iran.

Syria, too, appears to be facing similar choices.Earlier this month, the first U.S. ambassador to Syria since 2005 took up his post in Damascus. Washington hopes the deeper diplomatic engagement will further nudge Syrian President Bashar Assad into the Western fold and perhaps make him more receptive to future talks with Israel and appeals to cut support for Hezbollah.About a week later, Iran's acting foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, held talks in Syria over regional developments, said Syria's state news agency SANA.High on the agenda was the political upheaval in Lebanon and their roles as co-patrons of Hezbollah, which became heroes in the Muslim world for its war with Israel in 2006. The Shiite militant group has added to its stature by becoming Lebanon's king-maker: On Tuesday, Hezbollah picked billionaire businessman Najib Mikati as its choice for prime minister.Lebanon's government fell after months of tensions over a U.N.-backed investigation into the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Many Lebanese blamed the killing on Syria and Hezbollah — with huge protests forcing Syria to end its 29-year military presence in Lebanon and opening the way for a pro-Western government led by Saad Hariri, the slain politician's son.The Hague-based tribunal has issued indictments, but they have not been made public. Many expect Hezbollah to be named.

Mikati, however, immediately sought to ease worries that Iran was now pulling the strings in Lebanon.I am not in a confrontation with the West, he told the private LBC station. We are looking to build good relations with the West.To some, it's not an empty promise — even as the Obama administration reconsiders its economic and military support for Lebanon, which has totaled $720 million since 2006. Israeli officials and others have noted that important U.S. allies in the Arab world, such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, have raised no serious objections to the U.S.-educated Mikati despite their deep-seated worries about Iran.Saudi Arabia, however, advised its citizens Wednesday not to travel to Lebanon until the return of calm and stability.Lebanon will not suddenly become more Iranian or more Hezbollian than it was two days ago, said a commentary in the Israeli daily Ha'aretz. It will primarily be more Syrian, and that is a major difference, as Syria — which seeks to move closer to the United States and, thanks to France, sees itself as close to Europe — does not want Iran to seize control in its traditional sphere of influence.That still doesn't lessen the entrenched suspicions many Lebanese have toward Hezbollah and its backers in Iran.A secret diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks describes an April 2008 meeting in Beirut in which Lebanon's telecommunications minister at the time, Marwan Hamadeh, tells a U.S. diplomat about a fiber optics network installed in Hezbollah-controlled areas. The memo, from the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, said Hamadeh called it a strategic victory for Iran's telecoms agency by creating an an important Iranian outpost in Lebanon that further binds Hezbollah to Tehran.

Earlier this week, Lebanon's Sunnis staged two days of riots, decrying Shiite Hezbollah for leading what they called an Iran-linked coup in bringing down Hariri's government and bringing in one of its own choosing.Meir Javedanfar, an Iranian-born political analyst based in Israel, said the unrest cannot be ignored by Iran's ruling clerics.It was Hezbollah's actions that convinced many Sunnis to pour into the streets ... shouting Death to Hezbollah, he said.This is something which Israel, despite its massive military superiority, could never achieve. Food for thought for Iran's senior decision makers.Iran also was stung by demonstrations in Afghanistan this month over Tehran's decision to temporarily suspend shipments of fuel over suspicions they were aiding NATO forces. Fuel prices shot up as much as 70 percent in impoverished Afghanistan. It was a display of both Iran's importance as an economic lifeline to Afghanistan and its apparent sympathies for groups fighting U.S. forces and others. Iran has deep cultural and linguistic ties to much of western Afghanistan, which was once part of the Persian Empire.U.S. officials have alleged that Iran is providing weapons and other support to the Taliban and the so-called Quetta Shura — or governing council — believed led by Taliban commander Mullah Omar. It would, however, be an alliance of convenience that could strengthen the same forces that once targeted Iranians.Iran was a staunch opponent of the Taliban when it ruled Afghanistan before the U.S.-led invasion triggered by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.In the short-term, Iran is playing its hand well, especially in Lebanon,said analyst Javedanfar. This will boost Iran's position in the region as well as its leverage in negotiations with the West over its nuclear program. However, the Iranian are not playing the long-term game very well.

Anger in Lebanon as Hezbollah-backed Mikati named PM
by Jocelyne Zablit – Tue Jan 25, 9:13 pm ET


BEIRUT (AFP) – Hezbollah-backed billionaire Najib Mikati has been named Lebanon's prime minister-designate, giving the Shiite militant group increased clout in the deeply divided nation and sparking angry protests.President Michel Sleiman asked the tycoon Tuesday to form a government amid a day of rage by fellow Sunnis who blocked roads and burned tyres in anger at his nomination, prompting France and the United States to voice concern.The US accused the Iran- and Syria-backed Hezbollah of wresting government control by force, and vowed that a UN-backed tribunal trying the killers of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri -- which Hezbollah has been accused of trying to fend off -- would press on with its work.Mikati shortly after his appointment rejected attempts to cast him as Hezbollah's man and said he would cooperate with all Lebanese to form an inclusive government.Don't prejudge me or my behaviour, please, especially the international community, the 55-year-old told AFP in an interview.I say in all honesty that my nomination by Hezbollah does not mean I am bound by any of their political positions, except as concerns the protection of the national resistance, he said, referring to the Shiite militant group's struggle against neighbouring Israel.

Hezbollah and its allies brought down the government of the Western-backed Saad Hariri, Rafiq's son, on January 12 after a long-running standoff over the UN-backed probe into the senior Hariri's 2005 assassination.The militant group has said it believes some of its members will be indicted by the Netherlands-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which it has denounced as part of a US-Israeli conspiracy.The make-up of Lebanon?s government is a Lebanese decision, but this decision should not be reached through coercion, intimidation and threats of violence,US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said in a statement.Unfortunately, Hezbollah, backed by Syria, engaged in all three in pursuit of its political goals, he said.The work of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon is of vital importance to stability, security and justice in Lebanon. Its work will continue, Crowley's statement added.

Mikati, who is close to Syria and is considered a moderate, earlier told reporters that he would reach out to all parties in forming his government.Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah echoed him, saying: The new government will not be a Hezbollah government nor will it be led by Hezbollah ... We don't want power.Protests had turned violent in the northern Sunni bastion of Tripoli, where frenzied demonstrators torched an Al-Jazeera van and ransacked offices of a local Sunni lawmaker who backed Mikati.Demonstrators also blocked roads in several other areas, including the capital Beirut, the southern coastal city of Sidon and the eastern Bekaa region.There were no immediate reports of any casualties, a security official told AFP.Mikati's appointment has angered Sunnis who see it as a bid by Hezbollah to sideline outgoing pro-western premier Hariri and impose its will in Lebanon.
According to Lebanon's power-sharing system, the country's prime minister must be a Sunni.I am a Sunni Muslim and I refuse to allow anyone to impose their candidate for premiership on our community, said Um Khodr, 50, who was among thousands of demonstrators in Tripoli.We will remain in the streets until the traitor Mikati leaves the post.Mikati told AFP that he would seek to address the thorny issue through dialogue.Stopping the tribunal today is no longer a Lebanese decision, he said, adding that Lebanon's cooperation with the tribunal was another question altogether. He did not elaborate.The United States, which continues to blacklist Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation, warned that a Hezbollah-controlled government would affect bilateral ties.A Hezbollah-controlled government would clearly have an impact on our bilateral relationship, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters.She said Washington was following closely and carefully developments in Beirut and harboured deep concerns about the influence of outside forces.Former colonial power France expressed concern for the stability of Lebanon and called for Mikati to form a government without outside interference.

Gaza rockets hit Israel, no casualties: army
– Tue Jan 25, 2:54 pm ET


JERUSALEM (AFP) – Two rockets fired by militants in the Gaza Strip hit southern Israel on Tuesday evening but there were no reports of casualties, the Israeli army told AFP.Israeli media said that the two home-built Qassam rockets landed in open ground near a kibbutz in the Sdot Negev district, just east of the coastal strip.
Two weeks ago, Gaza's main militant factions agreed to observe a period of calm after weeks of increased rocket fire and rising tensions along the border which prompted a warning from Arab leaders that there was a risk of a major new Israeli invasion.Gaza's Hamas rulers said they would ensure the national consensus truce was observed and deployed forces along the border zone.Since then the border has mainly been quiet, although one rocket was fired on January 17 and the following day Israeli tanks staged a rare incursion into the northern Gaza Strip, killing one Palestinian and wounding two, medical officials said.In the weeks before the latest truce, Gaza militants fired scores of rockets into the Jewish state, prompting a flurry of retaliatory air strikes and raising fears of another massive operation along the lines of the 2008-9 war.The 22-day conflict, which ended in a ceasefire on January 18, 2009, killed 1,400 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians, and 13Israelis, 10 of them soldiers.

UN chief condemns suggestion of Sept 11 cover up
– Tue Jan 25, 1:35 pm ET


GENEVA – The U.N. chief says a U.N. appointed expert on Palestinian rights made preposterous remarks when he alleged an apparent cover-up by U.S. authorities involving the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned Tuesday what he called the inflammatory rhetoric of Richard Falk, a U.N. special rapporteur appointed by the U.N.'s Human Rights Council in Geneva.Falk suggested the cover-up in a blog post this month and criticized mainstream media for being unwilling to look into doubts about the attacks in New York and Washington.Ban told the council that such statements undermine the U.N. and are an insult to the more than 3,000 people who died.Susan Rice, the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. in New York, also said Tuesday she is appalled by Falk's remarks.

Violence erupts during Lebanon day of rage
– Tue Jan 25, 6:14 am ET


TRIPOLI, Lebanon (AFP) – Protests turned violent on Tuesday in Lebanon's Sunni bastion of Tripoli as frenzied demonstrators torched an Al-Jazeera van while protesting the likely appointment of a Hezbollah-backed premier.Angry demonstrators set upon the vehicle, smashing the windshield and tearing down the satellite dish before setting it on fire, AFP reporters witnessed.Demonstrators also torched the mopeds of other media outlets considered close to the Iranian-backed Shiite group Hezbollah.An AFP photographers witnessed similar incidents in the capital Beirut, where media considered close to the Shiite militant Hezbollah and its allies were attacked by stone-throwing and baton-wielding demonstrators.There were no immediate reports of injuries in the city, where there was a heavy security presence.A security official told AFP shots were fired in the air in Beirut. Shots also rang out in Tripoli.

The demonstrators in Tripoli also attacked a building housing the offices of Sunni lawmaker Mohammed al-Safadi breaking windows, doors and throwing furniture from the second-floor balcony.Safadi had been allied with outgoing premier Saad Hariri's Western-backed coalition but is now backing the Hezbollah-backed candidate for premiership.The incidents came amid a day of rage by the country's Sunni community to protest the likely appointment of billionaire businessman Najib Mikati, who hails from Tripoli, to head the next government.Hezbollah's opponents view Mikati's candidacy as a bid by Hezbollah to impose on the Sunni community their choice for the premiership.According to Lebanon's power-sharing system, the country's prime minister must be a Sunni Muslim.