Commentary: Mercenaries And Murder In Iraq

2009-08-14

It would be nice to celebrate the recent withdrawal of the remaining British troops from Iraq as the end of the U.K.'s direct involvement in the military occupation there. But such festivities would unfortunately be premature.

The killing last Sunday in Baghdad's Green Zone of two armed contractors working for the London-based mercenary firm ArmorGroup by another British contractor from the company, serves as a grim reminder that Brits are still deeply involved in the prosecution of the war.

In fact, with no countries officially left in the so-called "coalition of the willing", contractors are now playing a more important role than ever, as the Obama administration begins to slowly scale back the war in Iraq.

In June, a Pentagon report revealed that there are still 132,610 contractors in Iraq - effectively doubling the size of the occupation - and that the use of armed "private security contractors" in the country actually increased by 23% during the second quarter of 2009.

The U.S. Defense Department doesn't break down its data by nationality, but the report does specify that there are 60,244 "third country nationals", or contractors that are neither American nor Iraqi, on the payroll in Iraq. Therefore, the number of British citizens that are part of this shadow army is likely in the thousands.

Sunday's shooting should also dispel the myth, if anyone still believes it, that incidents like this are somehow avoidable. Unlike its competitors Dyncorp, Triple Canopy and Blackwater, whose outrageous scandals continue to mount, ArmorGroup has with few exceptions managed to steer clear of negative press.

Moreover, the company has been an outspoken advocate for more rigorous vetting of armed contractors and for greater outside regulation of the industry as a whole. Back in 2005, for example, an ArmorGroup spokesman said: "We are demanding regulation. It is extraordinary that … any Joe Public can get a Kalashnikov and work with a security company abroad. This is an issue of accountability."

Yet, when ArmorGroup hired Daniel Fitzsimons, who shot his two co-workers during a scuffle after a late night of drinking, the obvious warning signs were not heeded.

In 2007, Fitzsimons was fired and fined $3,000 for "extreme negligence" by Aegis, another British mercenary firm in Iraq, after only a few months on the job. Colleagues said that he had a history of violent conduct and had "been a loose cannon for years".

Not surprisingly, Fitzsimons was also apparently traumatized by his experiences in war. On his Facebook and MySpace profiles he wrote about the challenges of the "war inside your head" and his constant use of alcohol and drugs to numb the pain.

"When I come home from each rotation I give my liver, kidneys and brain cells a good hiding to teach them a lesson, and to help me achieve this I get as wasted as possible at every opportunity," he wrote. "Remember reality is a condition caused by lack of drugs."

ArmorGroup apparently did not pick up on these red flags, however, perhaps because such personal problems are likely par for the course when you enter the world of mercenaries. "Violent conduct" isn't a worrisome trait, but in the end what these security contractors are trained to do. Hence, just as the "laws of war" have not stopped soldiers from torturing and committing war crimes, no amount of internal vetting or government regulation of the mercenary industry - even with the best of intentions - will be able to stop such tragedies from happening again.

Source: Free Internet Press.
Link: http://freeinternetpress.com/story.php?sid=22530.

Clashes Kill Over 20 People In Russia's North Caucasus Region

More than 20 people were killed in violent clashes in Russia’s North Caucasus region in the last two days, including a mysterious attack on seven women in a sauna, underscoring the Kremlin’s continued struggles to bring the volatile area under control.

In one of the first attacks on Thursday night, about 10 men opened fire with automatic weapons on a police post in the city of Buinaksk in Dagestan, killing four officers, the investigative branch of the prosecutor general’s office said in a statement. The gunmen then entered the sauna complex a short distance away and killed seven women who worked there, in a rare attack on unarmed civilians.

“After the crime, the unidentified men fled the scene with weapons stolen from the murdered police officers,” Nimizam Radzhabov, a spokesman for the Dagestan prosecutor’s investigative team, told Channel One, a Russian TV station.

In neighboring Chechnya, a gun battle between the police and two men suspected of belonging to a militant group erupted at almost the same time, investigators said. Both suspected militants were killed in the fight. Four police officers also died, and four others were wounded.

On Friday, gunmen killed two traffic police officers in Dagestan’s capital, Makhachkala, Interfax reported. Three suspected militants were also killed in Dagestan on Friday in a separate episode.

The clashes were among the bloodiest to hit the largely Muslim region in recent months, though bloodshed occurs almost daily, particularly in Chechnya, Dagestan and another North Caucasus republic, Ingushetia. This week, Ingushetia’s construction minister was killed by gunmen in his office, just as the republic’s president, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, was planning to return to work after being seriously wounded in a suicide attack on his convoy in late June.

Most of the violence centers on fighting between the police and various radical Islamist or more secular separatist organizations, some of which are remnants of the militant groups that fought federal forces in Chechnya’s two wars. Also common is violence among organized crime groups and competing ethnic clans.

Although civilians are targets less frequently, three human rights workers were murdered in Chechnya in the last month. Just this week, the leader of a charity that helped children scarred by the war there was kidnapped and murdered along with her husband, who also worked for the organization. And in July, Natalya Estemirova, who for years had documented the abductions and kidnappings that continue to plague Chechnya, was kidnapped and killed.

No suspects have yet been named in these cases or in many other murders of prominent human rights workers focused on the Caucasus carried out in recent years.

Russia’s president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, reiterated during a meeting on Friday with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, his commitment to solve these and other high-profile murders.

"I have given all the necessary orders, as I did last time, to find the murderers, bring them justice and punish them," he said. "This is the priority task of all law enforcement agencies."

Afghanistan Passes 'Barbaric' Law Diminishing Women's Rights

Afghanistan has quietly passed a law permitting Shia men to deny their wives food and sustenance if they refuse to obey their husbands' sexual demands, despite international outrage over an earlier version of the legislation which President Hamid Karzai had promised to review.

The new final draft of the legislation also grants guardianship of children exclusively to their fathers and grandfathers, and requires women to get permission from their husbands to work.

"It also effectively allows a rapist to avoid prosecution by paying 'blood money' to a girl who was injured when he raped her," said the U.S. charity Human Rights Watch.

In early April, Barack Obama and Gordon Brown joined an international chorus of condemnation when the Guardian revealed that the earlier version of the law legalized rape within marriage, according to the U.N.

Although Karzai appeared to back down, activists say the revised version of the law still contains repressive measures and contradicts the Afghan constitution and international treaties signed by the country.

Islamic law experts and human rights activists say that although the language of the original law has been changed, many of the provisions that alarmed women's rights groups remain, including this one: "Tamkeen is the readiness of the wife to submit to her husband's reasonable sexual enjoyment, and her prohibition from going out of the house, except in extreme circumstances, without her husband's permission. If any of the above provisions are not followed by the wife she is considered disobedient."

The law has been backed by the hardline Shia cleric Ayatollah Mohseni, who is thought to have influence over the voting intentions of some of the country's Shias, which make up around 20% of the population. Karzai has assiduously courted such minority leaders in the run up to next Thursday's election, which is likely to be a close run thing, according to a poll released yesterday.

Human Rights Watch, which has obtained a copy of the final law, called on all candidates to pledge to repeal the law, which it says contradicts Afghanistan's own constitution.

The group said that Karzai had "made an unthinkable deal to sell Afghan women out in the support of fundamentalists in the August 20 election".

Brad Adams, the organization's Asia director, said: "The rights of Afghan women are being ripped up by powerful men who are using women as pawns in maneuvers to gain power.

"These kinds of barbaric laws were supposed to have been relegated to the past with the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, yet Karzai has revived them and given them his official stamp of approval."

The latest opinion poll by U.S. democracy group the International Republican Institute showed that although Karzai was up 13 points to 44% since the last survey in May, his closest rival, Abdullah Abdullah, had soared from 7% to 26%.

If those numbers prove accurate, it would mean the contest would have to go to a second round run-off vote in early October. In that scenario, 50% of voters said they would vote for Karzai and 29% for Abdullah.

The survey was conducted in mid to late July, so it is not known whether Abdullah has made further gains on Karzai.

He could further increase his chance of victory by joining forces with Ashraf Ghani, the former finance minister who is also running on a platform fiercely critical of Karzai.

Fifty-eight per cent of the 2,400 people polled by IRI said they would like to see an alliance between Abdullah and Ghani, who is polling in fourth place.

Romania denies reports of secret CIA prisons in its territory

Romania denied the reports that it hosted a secret prison of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Bucharest, saying the allegations groundless, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alin Serbanescu said on Thursday.

The New York Times reported on Thursday that a newly-decorated building on a busy street in Bucharest was one of secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe.

Serbanescu said that the Romanian parliament has established a special investigation committee to probe the allegations and the committee has found the reports groundless.

The Romanian side has cooperated with the international agencies in a positive and transparent manner during the investigations, Serbanescu added.

Allegations that the CIA had established secret detention centers in Eastern Europe, including Romania, were first reported by the Washington Post in November 2005 and caused quite a stir. However, Romania has repeatedly denied such reports and established a commission in 2006 to investigate the allegation.

Wildfires spread as California declares emergency

By BROOKE DONALD, Associated Press Writer

DAVENPORT, Calif. – Strong winds are spreading multiple wildfires across parched parts of California as officials worry the gusts could ignite more blazes and force more evacuations in areas already under a state of emergency.

The Lockheed Fire in the Santa Cruz Mountains has blackened close to 8 square miles of remote wilderness and prompted mandatory evacuations of the mountain communities of Swanton and Bonny Doon, which have about 2,400 residents and several wineries.

Lt. Gov. John Garamendi declared a state of emergency Friday for Santa Cruz County. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has returned to California after attending the Massachusetts funeral of his mother-in-law, Eunice Shriver, is scheduled to visit the fire zone Saturday.

The fire sent huge plumes of smoke across Monterey Bay and damaged two small structures. It also was threatening more than 1,000 homes and buildings but no injuries have been reported. The cause is under investigation.

Officials said Friday that the fire was moving toward more populated areas around Highway 9.

"The winds are going in so many different directions at the same time ... We can't build a line big enough," said Rick Hutchinson, a CalFire incident commander. "Unfortunately, if it does advance far enough to the southeast, it could ultimately lead to an evacuation of the Highway 9 area."

The blaze started Wednesday about 10 miles north of Santa Cruz. A change in winds shifted the fire away from Bonny Doon but closer to Swanton, CalFire spokesman Daniel Berlant said. By Friday evening, it was 15 percent contained, he added.

The steep, rugged terrain and dense vegetation have made it difficult to contain the blaze, so firefighters are focused on keeping flames away from homes, said Jim Stunkel, a battalion chief from San Jose.

"As the brush ignites, it's like a fireworks explosion, and the sparks rain down where the ranch houses are," he said.

Chris Sokoloff, 40, an electrician who moved to Bonny Doon from Portland, Ore., a week ago, spent the night at an evacuation center in Santa Cruz.

"It's really hit home this morning, seeing all the ash on the vehicles," Sokoloff said. "I got a big red hockey bag and that's all I got right now."

Hannah Good, a veterinarian who lives in Bonny Doon with her partner and two children, said workers helped to evacuate her birds, cats, donkey, pony and dog.

"It was quite a scramble getting the animals and our family out of there," Good said. "Once I smelled the smoke, I knew we had problems."

About 250 homes and ranches in canyons and ridges near a wildfire in the Los Padres National Forest were also under evacuation orders. That week-old fire has grown to nearly 108 square miles, said U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Maeton Freel.

In Yuba County north of Sacramento, a wildfire Friday destroyed one home, forced the evacuation of about 60 residences and knocked out power in the Sierra foothills town of Dobbins, according to CalFire spokeswoman Joann Cartoscelli. KOLO-TV in Nevada reported that smoke from the blaze was visible as far as Reno.

In Alameda County, more than 300 firefighters were struggling to control a wind-driven grass fire that had grown to about 16 square miles near Tracy, said Aisha Knowles, a county fire department spokeswoman. The Corral Fire was not threatening any structures but was moving toward the juncture of Interstate 5 and Interstate 580, where officials worried it could affect visibility and traffic.

It was about 20 percent contained, Knowles said.

In far northern California, Trinity County District Attorney Michael Harper has charged 60-year-old Brenda Eitzen of Los Molinos with two felonies and two misdemeanors alleging she negligently sparked a blaze by throwing away a lit cigarette Wednesday. The charges could bring a maximum four-year prison term. The Coffin Fire was expected to be contained Saturday.

To the east, 10 rural homes remained evacuated as wind spread a fire in steep terrain near Burney. Firefighters were using bulldozers to cut fire lines around the nearly 11-square-mile blaze about 200 miles north of Sacramento.

Suicide bomber in Pakistan's Swat kills 3 troops

By MUNIR AHMAD, Associated Press Writer

ISLAMABAD – A suicide bomber rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into a security checkpoint in Pakistan's northwestern Swat Valley on Saturday, killing at least three soldiers, police said.

It was the first suicide attack in Swat since July, when the government said a military offensive against the Pakistani Taliban in the valley and surrounding areas had largely been successful.

Several more soldiers manning the checkpoint were wounded in the attack in the town of Khawaza Khela, said senior police official Idrees Khan. He provided no further details and said officers were still investigating.

The military has been winding down its three-month offensive in Swat, although the army said it still faces pockets of Taliban resistance in the surrounding area. Hundreds of thousands of the roughly 2 million people who fled the area during the fighting have been returning home amid tight security.

Pakistan has said troops will remain in Swat until the fighters of notorious Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah — whose thousands of followers are blamed for the violence — are eliminated. Although the military says it has killed or captured a number of Fazlullah's commanders, he himself has evaded capture.

Meanwhile, a Pakistani army officer and two intelligence officials said Saturday that a clash between Pakistani and Afghan border guards killed a Pakistani soldier and wounded 12 others.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press, said the clash took place near the border town of Angore Adda in the South Waziristan tribal region after mortars fired from Afghanistan struck a Pakistani post Friday. They said Pakistani forces returned fire, and the shootout continued for two hours.

But Afghanistan's border police command said there was no clash, although there had been an operation carried out 12 miles (20 kilometers) inside Afghanistan in Khost province that borders Waziristan.

Skirmishes between Pakistani and Afghan forces along the border have occurred in the past, although none have been reported in recent months.

Pakistan is a key ally of the United States in its war on terror and it has deployed more than 100,000 troops near Afghanistan in an effort to flush out Taliban and al-Qaida operatives who are believed to be hiding there.

Separately, two other security officials said Pakistani fighter jets targeted a suspected militant hide-out in South Waziristan on Saturday, killing at least 5 insurgents. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record.

Pakistan moves to bring tribal belt into mainstream

by Sajjad Tarakzai



ISLAMABAD (AFP) – Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari unveiled political reforms in the country's tribal belt Friday in a bid to extricate the lawless region from the grip of Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants.

Pakistan's seven federally administered tribal areas (FATA) have become a stronghold for hundreds of extremists who fled after the US-led invasion toppled the hardline Taliban regime in neighbouring Afghanistan in late 2001.

"From today political activities will be started and be allowed in FATA," Zardari told senior politicians in a speech marking the 62nd anniversary of independence.

Since British rule in the 19th century, political activities have been banned in FATA, where politicians were subject to arrest. Zardari's announcement was seen as an effort to draw the lawless region closer into national politics.

"In the long run we must defeat the militant mindset to defend our country, our democracy, our institutions and our way of life," Zardari was quoted as saying by state news agency APP during his overnight address.

Although his civilian government is weak, Zardari is a key ally in US President Barack Obama's strategy to defeat Taliban and Al-Qaeda insurgents in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where 100,000 US and NATO troops are deployed.

Pakistan's fight against militants was given a boost last week by the reported death of public enemy number one, Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud, in a US missile attack on his South Waziristan tribal stronghold.

Mehsud's Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan movement appears to have been thrown into turmoil following his presumed death and analysts have urged Pakistan to now bolster efforts to eliminate militants in tribal strongholds.

Pakistan has waged countless military operations in the tribal belt, but talk of a major ground campaign in South Waziristan has so far come to nothing.

Although some people waving green and white Pakistani flags took to the streets on Friday, public celebrations for independence day have been muted in recent years over fears of extremist attack.

Zardari's spokesman presented the reforms as an historic achievement that would also relax harsh judicial detentions that would grant "basic human rights" to the estimated three million people living in the tribal areas.

"This is a revolutionary change. This shows the government is serious in tackling the problem of militancy at its source," Farhatullah Babar told AFP.

"To date only some religious parties were active in the tribal region, doing politics in the garb of religion and using mosques to promote their agenda.

"This was inducing militancy in the tribes," he said.

Babar said the local administration chief would no longer have the power to detain anyone without recourse to judicial authority, and that women and children would be exempted from arrest.

Pakistan has been hit hard by Islamist extremists, who have increasingly carried out attacks within the country rather than just using tribal areas as a base to strike US troops and the Western-backed government in Afghanistan.

More than 2,000 people have been killed in bombings since July 2007. Attacks on Sri Lankan cricketers in March wiped out hopes of hosting international sport and only an IMF bailout last year averted a balance of payments crisis.

But there was muted welcome from FATA tribesman to news of the reforms.

Wadood Afridi, a tribal leader in Khyber, which is rife with militancy and lies on the supply line for US and NATO troops in Afghanistan, opposed the move to allow political parties to operate in the belt.

"This will create chaos in the region," Afridi told AFP.

"The jirga system, under which tribal chiefs decide cases on the basis of tradition, should be restored. People should also have the option of going to an Islamic court for speedy justice," he said.

Last April, Pakistan launched a blistering assault against Taliban militants challenging the writ of the government after securing a deal for Islamic courts in northwestern districts Buner, Lower Dir and Swat.

Hamas: Leader of al-Qaida-inspired group killed

By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writer



RAFAH, Gaza Strip – Hamas security forces killed the leader of an al-Qaida-inspired group in the Gaza Strip Saturday in a shootout that claimed the lives of 22 people, Hamas said.

The fighting erupted Friday when Hamas forces surrounded a mosque in the southern Gaza town of Rafah on the Egypt border where about 100 members of Jund Ansar Allah, or the Soldiers of the Companions of God, were holed up.

The head of the radical Islamic group, Abdel-Latif Moussa, was killed when fighting resumed after dawn Saturday, Ihab Ghussein a Hamas Interior Ministry spokesman told the Associated Press.

"The operation is over and what is going on right now is searching and clearing the area," he said, adding that it wasn't clear if Moussa died from an explosives belt he was wearing or from Hamas gunfire.

Dr. Moaiya Hassanain of the Palestinian Health Ministry official in Gaza said a total of 22 people, including six Hamas police officers and an 11-year-old girl, were killed in the violence that also wounded 150.

The group's Web site vowed vengeance, meanwhile, saying "we swear to God to avenge the martyrs' blood and we will turn their women to widows."

Hamas also confirmed the death in the fighting of one of its high level commanders, Abu-Jibril Shimali, whom Israel said was behind the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier three years ago in a cross border raid.

Jund Ansar Allah claims inspiration from al-Qaida's ultraconservative brand of Islam but no direct links have been confirmed.

The confrontation was triggered when the leader of the group defied Gaza's Hamas rulers by declaring in a Friday prayer sermon that the territory was an Islamic emirate.

Jund Ansar Allah and a number of other small, shadowy radical groups seek to enforce an even stricter version of Islamic law in Gaza than that advocated by Hamas.

These groups are also upset that the Hamas regime has honored a cease-fire with Israel for the past seven months.

Hamas says it does not impose its religious views on others, but only seeks to set a pious example for people to follow, while these splinter call for a more forceful imposition of Islamic law.

The groups also call for a wider global jihad against the entire Western world while Hamas maintains the struggle is only against the Israeli occupation.

"They are inspired by unbalanced ideologies and in the past they carried out a number of explosions targeting internet cafes and wedding parties," said Ghussein, adding that they did not have any external ties.

The hard-line groups are perhaps the most serious opposition Hamas has faced since it seized control of Gaza and ousted its rivals in the Fatah movement in a five-day, bloody civil war in June 2007.

Hamas security blocked all roads to Rafah and declared the town a closed military zone. They said they have arrested about 40 members of the group so far.

Saeb Erekat, a senior peace negotiator with Israel and a member of Hamas' Palestinian rival Fatah group in the West Bank, described the situation in Gaza as "alarming."

"Gaza is going down the drain in chaos and lawlessness and those who rule by the sword will know that the sword will also be the communications language," he told the AP.

Jund Ansar Allah first came to public attention in June after it claimed responsibility for a failed attempt to attack Israel from Gaza on horseback.

In July, three Muslim extremists from the group holed themselves up in a building in southern Gaza, surrendering to Hamas police only after a lengthy standoff.

It is unclear how many adherents Jund Ansar Allah or other similar extremist groups have in Gaza.

Eight dead in clash between Hamas, pro-al-Qaeda group - Summary

Rafah, Gaza Strip - A pro-al-Qaeda group which declared a theocratic Islamic emirate in the Gaza Strip battled it out Friday with Hamas policemen, leaving eight dead and 46 wounded. The fate of Abdel Latif Moussa, leader of the Jihad al-Salafi group also known as the Warriors of God, was unknown after Hamas police blew up his house adjacent to the mosque in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah.

He and several followers had been holed up in the complex for hours.

The clashes began in the afternoon after Moussa, speaking at Friday prayers at a Rafah mosque, announced the theocratic emirate and demanded that the Islamic Hamas, which administers the Strip, impose strict Islamic law.

Dozens of group members, masked and brandishing AK-47 assault rifles, took up position outside the mosque. After the prayers had ended, they exchanged fire with members of the Hamas police force of the Islamic Hamas movement which administers the Gaza Strip.

Witnesses said they heard "intensive" gunfire and explosions around the Ibn Tahmeh mosque.

Doctors at al-Najr hospital said three of the injured were in serious condition. Two of the dead were members of the Izz-a-Din-al-Kassem, the Hamas armed wing, who had come to help root out the pro-al-Qaeda group.

Hamas police also took up positions in neighboring houses, and stormed Moussa's home, later blowing it up with explosives. It was unclear whether Moussa was killed in the blast, whether he had escaped, or whether he had been captured.

His associates have threatened to take bloody revenge on Hamas if he is harmed.

Membership in the Jiad al-Salafi has grown since Hamas, an Islamic group, seized control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007.

3 die, 70 wounded in blast near NATO HQ in Kabul

By RAHIM FAIEZ, Associated Press Writer

KABUL – Afghanistan's Defense Ministry spokesman says a suicide car bomb explosion in the Afghan capital has killed three civilians and wounded 70.

The blast occurred near the main gate of NATO's headquarters but it appeared protective barriers limited the damage to the NATO mission.

Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi says three civilians have been killed and 70 wounded in the blast.

A Taliban spokesman has claimed responsibility for the attack in a call to The Associated Press and said the bomb contained 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms) of explosives.

Nasrallah vows 'surprises' if Israel hits Lebanon

Resistance now 'three times stronger' than in 2006
By Elias Sakr
Daily Star staff
Saturday, August 15, 2009

BEIRUT: Hizbullah has the power to hit any location in Israel with its weapons and has more “surprises” up its sleeve in the event of a future Israeli attack, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said Friday. The Hizbullah leader also encouraged the authorities to continue their search for networks of Israeli spies in Lebanon, claiming that there are “agents in every village and every neighborhood.”

Nasrallah made the comments during a speech in front of thousands of supporters via a large screen in Beirut’s southern suburbs, to celebrate the third anniversary of the party’s “divine victory” in the July-August war of 2006.

“We no longer hear about the ‘new Middle East,’” Nasrallah said, arguing that the local, regional and international situation today “is not worse” than three years ago.

Nasrallah was defiant in the address, mocking the Israeli army’s military capability on several occasions, and urging the Lebanese to show national solidarity to prevent an outbreak of conflict, which he said Hizbullah didn’t want, but didn’t fear.

Nasrallah said that since the 2006 war, the Israelis have “been training and getting weapons, and changing their military leaders … if this is a ‘victorious’ army, what would a defeated army look like?”

Israel’s verbal campaign against Hizbullah in recent weeks has rebounded against the Zionist state, as the resistance party is now “three times stronger” than it was in 2006, Nasrallah said.

Amending a recent party slogan Nasrallah added the Beirut to the southern suburbs, promising that “if you bomb Beirut or the southern suburbs, we will bomb Tel Aviv.” The earlier slogan was “the southern suburbs for Tel Aviv,” as Nasrallah appeared to be reaching out to supporters beyond the party’s stronghold.

Amid the speculation and media reports of an imminent war, the Hizbullah leader said there were two choices for the Lebanese. “We can say ‘take it easy, Israel, we’re ready to do whatever you want.’ Or we can strengthen our capabilities, to prevent the possibility of war.”

The Hizbullah leader said that when Lebanon possesses a deterrent capability, via a national defense strategy, it would be able to prevent Israeli leaders from “even thinking” about waging war.

“It’s not easy for any Israeli government to take the decision of war against Lebanon,” he said. “They won’t think 1,000 times, but one million times” before taking such a step.

“Any new war against Israel would involve ‘new rules of the game,’” he said.

He said the Israeli army had come up with the notion of the “suburbs doctrine,” a reference to the southern suburbs of Beirut, Hizbullah’s stronghold.

Nasrallah said Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and other officials had incited the international community against the party and its military capabilities. He said this had backfired, meaning that they were forced to admit to the Israeli people that Hizbullah’s arsenal could now hit anywhere in Israel.

In July 2006, “the people of Haifa, Nahariya and Kiryat Shemona fled,” Nasrallah said, adding that the entire population of Israel would flee their homes in the event of a new war.

Nasrallah devoted most of the speech to evaluating Israel’s recent stream of statements and threats, warning about Hizbullah’s military capabilities in Lebanon, and its supposed plans to target Israeli diplomats abroad, as revenge for the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh, the party’s special operations commander.

There will be “no war now,” Nasrallah said, calling the campaign a psychological ploy to sow fear and confusion, which he said would fail.

“The Israelis are like we were decades ago,” he said. “Whoever talks a lot and threatens a lot, doesn’t frighten.”

Nasrallah said the “Israeli media commotion,” helped by outlets in the United States and Great Britain, had several objectives: hampering the formation of a new government in Lebanon, focusing on Hizbullah’s weapons to put the resistance on the defensive, and obstructing the role of UNIFIL peacekeepers in the south, as a deadline approaches this month for the extension of the troops’ mandate.

Among those in attendance was Taimur Jumblatt, the son of Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt, who last week announced his group’s departure from the March 14 coalition. Accompanying Jumblatt’s son at the rally was PSP official and Aley MP Akram Chehayeb.

Nasrallah began his address by reading a statement by Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu that he said was made after the war, but before he became premier. The statement read by Nasrallah contained Netanyahu’s acknowledgment that due to the 2000 withdrawal from most of south Lebanon and the 2005 withdrawal of Israeli forces from within Gaza, Israel was “no longer seen as invincible in the eyes of its enemies, as well as its friends.”

Engaging in one of his trademark sarcastic comments, Nasrallah at one point mentioned Netanyahu’s name, then added “may peace be upon him,” drawing laughter from the crowd.

Lebanon in seventh week without cabinet

by Natacha Yazbeck



BEIRUT (AFP) – Lebanon's rival political blocs have been negotiating for nearly seven weeks on the make-up of a new unity government but the situation remains calmer than in previous years, analysts say.

The Saudi- and Western-backed alliance led by Sunni Muslim Saad Hariri won a clear majority in the 128-seat parliament in the June 7 election, defeating the Syrian- and Iranian-backed alliance headed by Shiite militant group Hezbollah.

After his June 27 designation as prime minister, Hariri agreed to form a unity government with his rivals to replace the one that emerged after deadly unrest in May 2008.

Fierce negotiations led to a deal on the number of ministers each political bloc will have in the 30-seat cabinet. Fifteen will go to Hariri's alliance, 10 to the Hezbollah-led opposition and President Michel Sleiman will appoint five ministers.

There is still disagreement over who will get what portfolios, particularly such key jobs as foreign affairs, finance, interior and telecommunications, but the head of the Beirut-based Carnegie Middle East Centre, Paul Salem, said he saw no cause for immediate concern.

"All of Lebanon's complicated coalition governments have taken a fair amount of time to come together -- this is not unusual," he said.

He said a thaw in Syria's relations with Saudi Arabia and the West had helped the rival camps to step back from the dangerous animosities that saw Hezbollah fighters occupy parts of Sunni west Beirut last year.

"A few years ago the two alliances were at each others' throats and their foreign backers were at war. Today the situation is relatively calmer," Salem said.

Hezbollah spokesman Ibrahim Moussawi told AFP he saw "no major obstacles" to the talks.

Ammar Houry, an MP in Hariri's bloc, agreed.

"There is no doubt Syrian-Saudi rapprochement has had a positive effect on the cabinet formation," Houry said. "But there are also internal details that must be dealt with."

Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun -- a key Hezbollah ally who holds 27 of the alliance's 57 seats -- has made a number of demands that the majority bloc is unwilling to accede to.

"Categorically, General Aoun is obstructing the cabinet formation," Houry told AFP.

"He wants his son-in-law (former telecommunications minister Gibran Bassil) to be given a ministry again, first and foremost. Secondly, he wants key portfolios."

Bassil failed to win a parliamentary seat in June and the majority insists that it will only agree to ministers who have proven they have the confidence of the electors.

Aoun has hit back, telling a local television channel on Thursday that it was the majority that was delaying the formation of the cabinet because it had to regularly "consult with its foreign backers".

Added to that, the majority bloc, dubbed March 14, has its own internal problems.

Earlier this month, Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, a loyal member of the Hariri camp for the past four years, announced that he "could no longer continue" because its alliance with right-wing Christian factions conflicted with the leftist principles of his Progressive Socialist Party.

He later backtracked, announcing he would "fully support" Hariri in forming the new government. Jumblatt's jockeying will be crucial to the balance of power as he has 11 of the alliance's 71 parliament seats and his departure from the ruling coalition would have stripped it of a clear majority.

But Salem said the Druze leader's political acrobatics undermined Hariri's confidence in the loyalty of Jumblatt's deputies.

"The most likely power-sharing outcome appears to be 12 ministers for March 14, three ministers for Jumblatt, five ministers for the president and 10 for the opposition," Salem wrote in The National Interest, a Nixon Centre publication.

"This would be a government with no clear majority and in which virtually all decisions would have to be made by consensus or reaching across coalition lines."

Hezbollah chief: We'll hit Tel Aviv if Beirut hit

By SAM F. GHATTAS, Associated Press Writer

BEIRUT – The leader of Lebanon's militant Hezbollah warned Israel Friday his fighters would hit Tel Aviv with rockets if Israeli forces attack Beirut or the guerrillas' stronghold in its southern suburbs.

Speaking on the anniversary of the end of the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said the Shiite militants are now capable of striking any Israeli city.

In 2006, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah rocketed the port of Haifa and other parts of Israel's north but spared Tel Aviv to the south. Israeli warplanes destroyed entire blocks in Beirut's southern suburbs, including Nasrallah's office and Hezbollah's headquarters. The inconclusive, monthlong war killed about 1,200 people in Lebanon, most of them civilians, and about 160 in Israel.

Nasrallah's speech added to the tension of back-and-forth warnings between Hezbollah and Israel that have escalated since a July 14 explosion at a suspected Hezbollah arms depot near the Israeli border.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Israel would hold the Lebanese government responsible for any attacks on Israeli targets by Hezbollah. He warned Lebanon against letting Hezbollah join the new government. He said the government in Beirut could not turn a blind eye to Hezbollah's activities while the group sits in the Lebanese parliament and plays a major role in the country's politics.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak made an even starker warning last week, saying that in the event of renewed hostilities, Israel would "go after not only Hezbollah but the entire state of Lebanon."

Nasrallah, appearing on a giant screen from his hiding place, addressed thousands of supporters waving yellow Hezbollah flags who gathered for the rally in south Beirut. He said recent Israeli warnings against Lebanon do not signal that Israel is planning to attack soon.

He said the Israeli warnings were part of a "psychological war" aimed at preventing the militant group from joining a new Lebanese unity government, whose formation has been stalled since the June 7 election.

"Today we are capable of striking any city or village" in Israel, Nasrallah told the crowd. He promised "surprises" if Israel launches a new war on Lebanon. He did not elaborate.

"It is our right to make (Israel) understand that if it bombs Beirut or the southern suburbs, we will strike Tel Aviv," Nasrallah said, drawing the cheers of supporters.

The 2006 war began when Hezbollah guerrillas launched a cross-border attack that killed three Israeli soldiers. Hezbollah calls the outcome of the war "a divine victory" because Israel failed to crush the guerrillas, who withstood massive Israeli airstrikes and artillery bombardment.

A U.N.-brokered cease-fire has held despite the threats from both sides.