Berri calls for Egypt summit to address Israeli threats

BEIRUT: Speaker Nabih Berri called Tuesday for an Arab League summit in Egypt for a unified response to Israeli threats as he stressed the need to boycott Israel and end all forms of normalization with Tel Aviv.

“A response to Israeli crimes against humanity cannot be faced with statements of condemnation but calls for a united Arab stance to re-establish the decision of the Arab League boycott office and abolish all measures for normalization of ties with Israel,” Berri said.

“The Arab stance should also restore to the Palestinian cause its political and historical roots as a cause of people and rights starting with an Arab founding summit at the headquarters of the Arab League in Cairo rather than anywhere else to achieve Arab consensus to face Israeli challenges,” Berri added.

Earlier this month, Berri called for boycotting the upcoming Arab League summit scheduled to be held in Libya next March.

He said Lebanon should not send a delegation to the Arab League summit in Libya since it could not host such a meeting as it fueled numerous crises “from Chad to Darfur.”

The Lebanese widely blame Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi for ordering the abduction of Iranian-born Lebanese Imam Moussa al-Sadr, together with his two companions, during an official trip to Libya in August 1978.

Tripoli has denied the allegations and claimed that Sadr, also the spiritual and political leader of the Movement of the Deprived (Amal) in Lebanon that is headed currently by Berri, had already left for Italy before his disappearance.

The speaker also stressed that “Israeli threats of war against Arab states as well as beyond Arab borders, [a reference to Iran] have reached their peak after attempts to rip off the Palestinian people from their land.”

Israel has lately been hurling threats of war against Lebanon, Syria and Iran with Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem and Iranian President Ahmadinejad warning Israel that they would retaliate strongly if attacked.

Commenting on Hamas official Mohammad Mabhouh’s assassination, Berri said Israel proved that it represented “the peak of official terrorism.”

After the incident, the Dubai police released names and photos of an alleged 11-member hit squad accused of stalking and killing Mabhouh.

The police appealed for an international manhunt, saying the assailants forged European passports to enter the emirates.

Hamas has accused Israel’s Mossad secret service of masterminding the slaying and has vowed revenge.

“Israel proved in sound and picture that it represented without a doubt the peak of official terrorism after the execution of the assassination operation of Mabhouh in Dubai through forgery,” the speaker said.

Berri added that the operation had been followed by another decision by Israeli Premier Benyamin Netanyahu to annex Ibrahim Al-Khalil and Bilal Ben Rabah Mosques respectively in the cities Al-Khalil and Bethlehem to Israeli historic tourist sites.

“Israeli crimes are a continuation of a series of attempts targeted against the Palestinian people, their land, trees and history in parallel with the Israeli siege on Gaza and the rise of new settlements to suffocate Jerusalem as well as attempts to Judaize Al-Aqsa Mosque,” the speaker said.

Source: The Daily Star.
Link: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=112079.

UN: Haiti quake problems overwhelm world response

New York - The giant earthquake that hit Haiti has caused "huge, difficult and complex" challenges never encountered by the United Nations before, which will affect and delay the world relief to the underdeveloped Caribbean nation, a UN official said Wednesday. Not all of the 1 million Haitians who have lost their homes to the magnitude-7 quake that struck Port-au-Prince on January 12 will be sheltered when the rainy season hits in coming weeks, said Anthony Banburry.

Some 350,000 homeless have so far received shelter, living in tent cities, while a current plan calls for providing shelter to all homeless people.

"It's not going to be easy for the quake victims and we have to be realistic," said Banburry, the acting principal deputy UN special envoy for Haiti. He was sent to Haiti five days after the earthquake and has remained there with the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti.

"In Haiti, the UN response is not perfect and we still have a long way to go," he said.

Banburry said the Haitian earthquake and the massive loss of lives and buildings have created problems with a magnitude that far surpasses the humanitarian crises when the tsunami hit Indonesia in 2004 and Cyclone Nargis destroyed the delta in Myanmar in 2008.

"The earthquake was like a dagger in the heart of Haiti," Banburry said.

He cited the destruction of most major government buildings in Port-au-Prince, particularly the ministry of justice, the Supreme Court and police headquarters, which robbed the country of its judiciary system and crippled the government of President Rene Preval.

UN and Haitian officials said Wednesday the death toll from the mammoth earthquake has climbed to 222,517 and the number of injured to 310,000.

Banburry said the UN-led relief campaign to assist the 3 million people affected by the quake, including the 1 million homeless people, is "not perfect" because of the overwhelming and complex problems.

He cited the problem of shelter for the homeless. Finding a site to set up tents means clarifying land ownership and providing or certifying sanitation. Sanitation can be made worse during the rainy season because of the lack of facilities and the threat of diseases spreading among the population.

"We have to solve all those problems simultaneously," Banburry said. He said the Haitian crisis is totally different from previous humanitarian crises in which relief was handled in clusters that were not totally dependent on each other to make them work.

In Haiti, shelter and sanitation, which is a major problem, is linked with the resolution of land ownership, he said as an example.

Haiti's judiciary and police systems are overwhelmed by criminals who escaped prisons destroyed by the earthquake. About 7,000 prisoners walked out of their collapsed prisons, including an estimated 300 hardcore criminals who have regrouped into gangs, the UN said.

Banburry said the UN peacekeepers in Haiti had not been prepared to face earthquake problems and suffered the trauma of losing some of their own people to the quake.

Ninety-nine UN personnel were killed and seven are still unaccounted for, he said.

In Washington, the International Monetary Fund said it was working with Haiti's central bank to design a partial credit guarantee fund aimed at maintaining financial stability and restarting private sector credit.

"This proposal will be critical to allowing the private sector to fully play its role in rebuilding the economy and providing jobs, in the context of the broader reconstruction and economic recovery," the IMF said in a statement.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/311089,un-haiti-quake-problems-overwhelm-world-response.html.

At least two of new Dubai suspects have namesakes in Israel

Tel Aviv - At least two of the 15 new suspects named by Dubai police as part of their investigation into the January murder of a Palestinian militant commander have namesakes in Israel, Israeli television reported Wednesday. A father of five from the town of Ben Shemesh, near Jerusalem, with the name of Philip Carr said he was "in shock" on hearing the news that one of the suspects had allegedly used his identity.

Carr confirmed he had a British passport, which he said he had only used once to travel abroad, because he also had Israeli and South African passports. He said he was born in Britain, but grew up in South Africa, before immigrating to Israel.

"I'm still a little in shock that I heard such a thing today. I'm simply a little in shock," he told Israel's Channel 10 news.

"It surprises me."

Mark Daniel Sklar, whose name was also on a British passport used, according to Dubai police, by one of the suspects, too said he had nothing to do with the Dubai operation.

"Of course I don't. No! No! No!," he told the channel.

"In a while it'll be 7 million, all of Israel's inhabitants," he quipped.

An Israeli man named Stephen Kayat, meanwhile, said he only had one passport, an Israeli one, with that name and that he was not the Stephen Keith Drake whose name was used in one of the allegedly fake British passports.

Some seven of the 11 suspects earlier named by Dubai police are also said to have namesakes in Israel.

Dubai authorities have said they are "99 per cent" certain the Mossad, Israel's spy agency, was behind the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a senior Hamas commander from Gaza allegedly suffocated to death in his Dubai hotel room, most likely with a pillow.

Hamas and Israel said al-Mabhouh was charged with smuggling rockets from Iran to the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

The 15 new names brought to 26 the number of suspects in the case after police had identified 11 suspects earlier this month.

Twelve held British passports, six had Irish ones, four French, three Australian and one suspect carried German documents.

Channel 10's military affairs correspondent, Alon Ben-David, said it seemed unlikely to him that 26 people would have participated in the assassination of one man.

"Even if you combine together, according to the theory of espionage, according to espionage books, the team which followed him, the assassination team, those in charge of the escape and logistics, 26 sounds like a lot," he said.

He suggested some of the assassins could have used more than one identity, or some of those exposed by Dubai police as having used forged passports, following the investigation of the al-Mabhouh murder, could have been involved in an entirely unrelated mission.

"I remind you that Dubai is a center for a lot of Iranian and of terrorist activity, a place which Israel - and also the rest of the world - is very much interested in," he said.

Dubai police said 14 of the new suspects used credit cards issued by the same US bank.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/311106,at-least-two-of-new-dubai-suspects-have-namesakes-in-israel.html.

First Guantanamo prisoner arrives in Spain - Summary

Madrid - An inmate from the US detention facility in Guantanamo, Cuba, arrived Wednesday in Spain, Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said. The Palestinian man was the first of up to five inmates Spain has agreed to receive, in an attempt to help US President Barack Obama close the prison camp.

Rubalcaba did not give details about the prisoner's arrival, but the daily El Periodico de Catalunya said he was due to be flown in on a US military plane. An additional three Guantanamo detainees were taken on the same plane to Albania.

US State Department spokesman PJ Crowley confirmed the transfers, telling reporters in Washington the number of prisoners remaining at Guantanamo had been reduced to 188.

"We are grateful to both nations and their governments for their willingness to support US efforts to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay," he said.

The Palestinian from Gaza had lived in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, where he was detained and handed over to the United States, Palestinian officials said earlier.

Rubalcaba declined to reveal the man's identity for what he described as security reasons and to protect his privacy.

The daily El Mundo, however, identified the man as 29-year-old Walid Hijazi.

The United States believes Hijazi to have received military training at the same al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan as several of the perpetrators of the attacks of September 11, 2001 in the US, according to the daily.

Hijazi denies having links with terrorism.

Rubalcaba said the Palestinian would get a residence permit, the possibility to work and freedom of movement within Spain, though Guantanamo prisoners taken by European countries could not leave those countries.

Spain only accepted prisoners with no criminal charges in the European Union, the United States or their countries of origin, the minister said.

Other Guantanamo inmates were also expected to arrive in Spain shortly, Periodico said. They were believed to include a Syrian and a Yemeni citizen.

The prisoners will be placed under surveillance not only to protect the Spanish public, but also to protect the individuals from eventual al-Qaeda reprisals over their possible revelations to US intelligence services, according to the daily.

The inmates were to be placed in different locations under the care of non-governmental organizations.

Spain is among the European countries to accept the most prisoners from Guantanamo. Obama's self-imposed deadline for its closure passed in January.

The Spanish EU presidency has encouraged other EU countries to take detainees from the prison camp.

Spanish-US relations have improved after cooling under Obama's predecessor George W Bush, who was angered by Spain's decision to recall its troops from Iraq.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/311129,first-guantanamo-prisoner-arrives-in-spain--summary.html.

Albania takes three more former Guantanamo detainees - Summary

Tirana - Albania has taken three former prisoners from the controversial US detention center for suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, the Interior Ministry confirmed Wednesday. The three men - Tunisian, Egyptian and Libyan nationals - arrived in Albania on Tuesday, following separate agreements between Tirana and Washington for each of them, the ministry said in a statement.

The three new prisoners bring to 11 those to whom Albania is providing shelter within the program to relocate freed suspects from detention to safe places in third countries. A fourth detainee, a Palestinian, was also dropped off in Spain, which has agreed to take five prisoners.

"We are grateful to both nations and their governments for their willingness to support US efforts to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay," US State Department spokesman told reporters in Washington.

The US has been harshly criticized by human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International, over the treatment of Guantanamo prisoners. Transferring prisoners to third countries is part of President Barack Obama's plan to shutter the facility. Crowley said there are now 188 prisoners still at Guantanamo.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/311130,albania-takes-three-more-former-guantanamo-detainees--summary.html.

Kadyrov blames Chechens for deportation to Siberia

A puppet TV channel in the occupied Province of Nokhchicho (AKA Ichkeria) aired a program on February 23 in which Kadyrov said that Chechens were themselves responsible for the deportation of 1944, as well as for the internal exile during the present war.

He said that "the Chechens should not make similar mistakes any more".

A statement in the Chechen language, dated February 23, was read after his speech, where Kadyrov used the phrase - "Let Almighty have mercy on those who died leaving their homes ..." instead of saying "... on those who had killed by being expelled from their homes ... ".
According to the Kadyrov's statement, it seems that the Chechens went to Siberia by their own free will and were not forcibly deported.

Residents of Chechnya say that Kadyrov now seems to be very nervous. He is afraid to utter even a word that might be misinterpreted in Moscow. That is why he made this blasphemous statement that the Chechens are responsible themselves for the deportation and that they "voluntarily left their homes."

Source: Kavkaz Center.
Link: http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2010/02/24/11493.shtml.

Tensions rise as Turkish military chiefs meet over coup plot arrests

Turkey's military has described the detention of scores of retired officers over an alleged plot to topple the government as a ''serious situation''.

All serving generals and admirals met at the headquarters of the chiefs of staff in Ankara on Tuesday to evaluate the arrest of more than 40 former officers, the army said on its website. The former officers, including previous heads of the air force and navy, were detained by police on Monday in raids across the country.

The arrests were the latest escalation of tensions between the Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the military. Erdogan has taken measures to curtail the military's role in politics as Turkey chases European Union membership.

The secular military has toppled four governments since 1960, including a predecessor of Erdogan's Justice and Development Party, which it suspects of introducing Islam into politics.

Possible military responses may range from mass resignation to a statement expressing faith in the judicial process, said Etyen Mahcupyan, the director of the democratization program at Tesev, an Istanbul research institute. ''For the General Staff the situation is extremely serious and this meeting reflects their need to decide on some kind of stance to adopt,'' he said.

On Tuesday seven former officers were remanded in custody in connection with the alleged plot, the Anatolia news agency reported.

They included two active-duty admirals, two retired admirals, a retired one-star general and two retired colonels. Six other suspects were released after questioning, Anatolia said.

The detentions follow a report in Taraf newspaper on January 21 that army officers drafted a plan in 2003 to stage bombings that would undermine confidence in Erdogan's government.

The Chief of General Staff, Ilker Basbug, called the allegations in Taraf ''unconscionable''.

Source: Kavkaz Center.
Link: http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2010/02/24/11488.shtml.