The trouble with Lebanon

Re: Israel Israel lodges additional complaint with UN on Hezbollah fire

Puppets of the USA & meaner to boot.

Have you seen the updated ArabNews site? Spiffy.
 
Re: Israel Israel lodges additional complaint with UN on Hezbollah fire

Not sure which one you're referring to yet somehow i doubt it would shock me in any way.
 
Re: Israel Israel lodges additional complaint with UN on Hezbollah fire

as i was away when this thread was originally begun i do find it interesting how much of the 'if the coalition invades iraq then israel/us forces etc will be attacked' or other scenarios involving the expansion of the conflict by syria, lebanon [etc] actaully seems to have come to very little.
 
Re: Israel Israel lodges additional complaint with UN on Hezbollah fire

ris said:
as i was away when this thread was originally begun i do find it interesting how much of the 'if the coalition invades iraq then israel/us forces etc will be attacked' or other scenarios involving the expansion of the conflict by syria, lebanon [etc] actaully seems to have come to very little.
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Thank god for that. Big surprise that the Arab leaders would be full of pomp.
Many of the Arabs actually believed what their leaders told them in that Iraq would be another Vietnam for the Americans and were greatly distrought at how quicly Iraq folded. This has done great psychological damage even to the Palestinians. Many people miss that this is exactly what the bush administration had intended. I tell you what i'd really love to see though. I love to see The Arab world rally at this time and hang about half their current leaders replacing them with moderate governments.

Ok i'll wake up now...
 
Re: Israel Israel lodges additional complaint with UN on Hezbollah fire

HeXp£Øi± said:
I tell you what i'd really love to see though. I love to see The Arab world rally at this time and hang about half their current leaders replacing them with moderate governments.

Ok i'll wake up now...
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"I have a dream..." that is in the works as we type & argue & blather back & forth. This war is a stepping stone in the re-working of the middle east. One huge step forward & years until fruition. Don't pinch yourself yet, it's just starting to look interesting.
 
Re: Israel Israel lodges additional complaint with UN on Hezbollah fire

Unfortunately Gonz, i think we're going to lose this one and Israel will end up paying the price. Granted it will take another decade of suffering first. We won't win this one without the worlds support.
 
Iraq's weapons of mass destruction in Lebanon?

Israeli intelligence tracks tractor-trailer
shipments to Bekaa Valley

Posted: August 15, 2003
5:00 p.m. Eastern


Israeli intelligence has identified what are
believed to be Iraqi weapons of mass
destruction goods in Hezbollah-controlled
Lebanon, U.S. officials said.

The Israelis used a spy satellite to photograph
several tractor-trailer loads of suspected
weapons into the Bekaa Valley, where the
Islamist terrorist group is based.

Shipments there began in early January and
ended the first week of March.

According to Israeli intelligence, Saddam paid
Syrian leader Bashar Assad $35 million to hide
the weapons.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah, which enjoys backing
from both Syria and Iran, now has an
estimated 12,000 Katyusha rockets to use
against northern Israel. The terrorist group also
has anti-aircraft guns and sophisticated
communications systems.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=34117
 
Re: Iraq's weapons of mass destruction in Lebanon?

U.S Suspects Iraqi WMD in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley
Tuesday, August 26, 2003

U.S. intelligence suspects Iraq's weapons of mass destruction have finally been located.

Unfortunately, getting to them will be nearly impossible for the United States and its
allies, because the containers with the strategic materials are not in Iraq.

Instead they are located in Lebanon's heavily-fortified Bekaa Valley, swarming with
Iranian and Syrian forces, and Hizbullah and ex-Iraqi agents, Geostrategy-Direct.com
will report in Wednesday's new weekly edition.

U.S. intelligence first identified a stream of tractor-trailer trucks moving from Iraq to
Syria to Lebaon in January 2003. The significance of this sighting did not register on
the CIA at the time.

U.S. intelligence sources believe the area contains extended-range Scud-based missiles
and parts for chemical and biological warheads.

Health insurance for the self-employed: Special offer

Mutually-lucrative Iraqi-Syrian arms transactions are nothing new. Firas Tlas, son of
Syrian Defense Minister Mustafa Tlas, has been the key to Syria's rogue alliance with
Iraq. He and Assad made hundreds of millions of dollars selling weapons, oil and drugs
to and from Iraq, according to the May 13, 2003 edition of Geostrategy-Direct.com.

The CIA now believes a multi-million dollar deal between Iraq and Syria provided for
the hiding and safekeeping of Saddam's strategic weapons.

Not surprisingly, U.S. inquiries in Beirut and Syria are being met with little substantive
response, U.S. officials said.
http://216.26.163.62/2003/ss_iraq_08_25.html
 
Re: Iraq's weapons of mass destruction in Lebanon?

HeXp£Øi± said:
U.S. intelligence first identified a stream of tractor-trailer trucks moving from Iraq to Syria to Lebaon in January 2003. The significance of this sighting did not register on the CIA at the time.
Click to expand...

What sort of a joke is that? What they really mean is "we have no longer any idea where to look so we're going to invent a few stories, even if we have to make ourselves look like fools but at least no-one will suspect we did it on purpose".
 
Re: Iraq's weapons of mass destruction in Lebanon?

Very intelligent, your karma comment btw..
baby.gif
 
Re: Iraq's weapons of mass destruction in Lebanon?

i think the bit i find least beleivable is that the cia didn't take any notice of a stream of tractor-trailer trucks moving to syria in january this year.
 
Re: Iraq's weapons of mass destruction in Lebanon?

a13antichrist said:
Very intelligent, your karma comment btw..
baby.gif
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Thanks. I took a note from your book and decided to think with my ass instead of my head... and i meant every word of it. :D
 
Re: Iraq's weapons of mass destruction in Lebanon?

ris said:
i think the bit i find least beleivable is that the cia didn't take any notice of a stream of tractor-trailer trucks moving to syria in january this year.
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Dude, that was precisely what I was talking about.. ;)
 
Re: Iraq's weapons of mass destruction in Lebanon?

yeah, but i didn't get any bad karma for my post ;) :D
 
Re: Iraq's weapons of mass destruction in Lebanon?

Actually a13 i think you're the first and only person i've ever given any negative feedback to.
 
Lebanon's pro-Syrian PM resigns

BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- Lebanon's pro-Syrian prime minister has announced his resignation and that of his government amid protests over the assassination of former PM Rafik Hariri, who criticized Syria's presence in the country.

Following Monday's statement by Prime Minister Omar Karami in a special speech to parliament, a Lebanese opposition figure called for popular protests in Beirut to continue until Syria leaves.

"The battle is long, and this is the first step, this is the battle for freedom, sovereignty and independence," opposition MP Ghattas Khouri told a cheering protest in central Beirut, according to Reuters.

The opposition has raised its rhetoric in recent days, taking its cue from international pressure -- led by the U.S. and France -- to force Syrian troops from Lebanon following Hariri's killing.

Karami, whose speech was broadcast by Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation, said he would have won a no-confidence vote scheduled for later in the day, but was resigning to avoid making his government a stumbling block to peace.

"I'm afraid we will have a vacuum in the country," said House Speaker Nabih Berri, who asked for the floor. "I should be allowed to say something." He was not given the floor.

Earlier Monday, tens of thousands of demonstrators defied a ban and poured into Beirut's city center Monday to protest against Syria's military presence in Lebanon.

"We are asking for Syrian withdrawal," said opposition leader Camille Chamoun of the National Liberation Party, which has helped orchestrate numerous protests in recent days.

"The Syrian occupation forces and their security systems have to go back to Syria.

"We don't want anything against the Syrian people," said Chamoun, whose grandfather, also named Camille Chamoun, was president of Lebanon from 1952-58.

"We are not a nation that likes war. We just want everybody to be on his own side."

An estimated 50,000 people gathered Monday in Beirut's Martyr Square despite an order a day earlier by Lebanon's Interior Ministry for military forces to "use all necessary means" to make sure the demonstrations did not take place.

CNN's Brent Sadler described Monday's protests as non-confrontational.

"There is a standoff that is not in any way tense," he reported. "It is a mild-mannered ... standoff. The army and the police ... have ringed off a very large area in downtown Beirut."

The demonstrations have focused on whether Syria played a role in Hariri's death on February 14.

Since then, thousands of demonstrators have peacefully protested Syria's military presence in Lebanon.

"The free world is really helping Lebanon restore its sovereignty," Chamoun said. "I imagine there is quite a bit of pressure on Syria to leave. I hope they leave in a peaceful way."

Chamoun accused the Lebanese government of taking orders from Syria.

"They have taken over our parliament with making bad elections three times consecutively," he said. "They have taken over power in Lebanon. The people in government in this country are their allies and obey unconditionally any orders from Damascus."
'Schedule to withdraw'

Syria has denied meddling in Lebanese affairs, and the Lebanese government has denied following Syria's lead.

Syrian Cabinet Minister Bouthaina Shaaban denied Sunday that Syria was involved in Hariri's death, despite the U.S. State Department's contention that Syria is a state sponsor of terrorism and that Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Hezbollah operate with Syrian support.

"Syria has never carried out a terrorist attack against anyone," she told CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer."

Asked whether Syria was prepared to withdraw its forces from Lebanon, Shaaban said, "Syria has been redeploying its forces from Lebanon long before anybody in the international community asked Syria to do that."

Asked when that "redeployment" might be finalized, she said only that the two countries have "a schedule for the forces to withdraw" but not what that schedule stipulated.

U.S. Senator Arlen Specter, a Republican from Pennsylvania, was not impressed.

"I thought those responses were weak," he told CNN. "When she talks about redeployment, it's an excuse for 'no withdrawal.' We know that Syria has housed the terrorists in Damascus for decades."

He added: "I think Syria is in deep trouble, unless they make big changes, and right away."

Specter said the country could face "more sanctions" under the Syrian Accountability Act.

A U.N. team set up to investigate the assassination of Hariri is at work in Beirut.

Syria keeps thousands of troops in Lebanon, left over from their larger deployment after the 1975-90 Lebanese civil war.

U.S. President George W. Bush said this month that Syria was "out of step" with other nations in the Middle East and said the United States would work with other countries to pressure Damascus to remove its troops from Lebanon.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State William Burns met this month with Lebanese Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hammoud, demanding that Syria immediately comply with U.N. Resolution 1559, calling for withdrawal of some 13,000 Syrian troops stationed in Lebanon.

Syria's Shaaban also dismissed a report that Syria and Iran -- which the United States accuses of harboring a nuclear weapons program -- have created a common front against the United States.

Shaaban said the story stemmed from Syria's prime minister, who said in Arabic that "cooperation existed between Syria and Iran for years and will continue to exist."

But that comment was translated poorly into English, said Shaaban, who added that she worked for 10 years as an interpreter and "laughed" when she heard the translation.

"He was not speaking about a military pact," she said.
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cnn

Looking more and more like Lebanon will be the flashpoint. This and Syria is purposly creating strife in order to derail the peace process.
 
It's more than the PM...The Government quit.

BEIRUT, Lebanon - With shouts of "Syria out!," more than 25,000 flag-waving protesters massed outside Parliament on Monday in a dramatic display of defiance that forced the resignation of Lebanon's prime minister and Cabinet two weeks after the assassination of an opposition leader.

Cheering broke out among the demonstrators in Martyrs' Square when they heard Prime Minister Omar Karami's announcement on loudspeakers that the government was stepping down. Throughout the day, protesters handed out red roses to soldiers and police.

"It is the first victory, but it will not be the last," opposition leader and former information minister Ghazi al-Areedh told the crowd in a scene broadcast live around the Arab world.

But in the northern port of Tripoli, Karami's hometown, about 50 supporters angered by his resignation shot pistols in the air and blocked a street in front of his office.

However, opponents drove around the city, honking in joy.
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Thank you GW.
 
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