ISIS wants 22-1 deal with Lebanon: report

ISIS wants 22-1 deal with Lebanon: report

ISIS has reportedly demanded the release of 22 Islamist prisoners for each Lebanese serviceman held hostage by...

Machnouk: Lebanon prepared to face challenges

BEIRUT: Lebanon is prepared to face security challenges as a result of the Syria and Iraq conflicts, Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk said in remarks published Wednesday.

“Information made available to us indicate that we are ahead of a difficult security year in Syria and Iraq, which would have negative consenquences on Lebanon and is likely to make [Lebanon] more susceptible to shakeups and challenges,” Machnouk told the local newspaper As-Safir.

Nevertheless, Machnouk stressed that Lebanon “stands ready to face all possibilities.”

He said Lebanese security agencies were mobilized for battle and multiple scenarios had been drawn up to curb unrest.

“The worst is yet to come.” Machnouk warned. “That’s no surprise, and I’m responsible for my words.”

“Fires are breaking out everywhere now,” he said, while pointing to “groups in Lebanon that consider what is happening in Syria as an existential issue for them and what is happening in Iraq as a matter of life or death.”

For that reason, he said, it was impossible to hold parliamentary elections in the presence of takfiri and terrorist groups and car bombs.

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President Obama Holds a Meeting on Ebola, Discusses Attacks in Jerusalem

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Former Georgia Gov. Carl Sanders, A Racial Moderate In A Split South, Dies

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Former Georgia Gov. Carl Sanders shakes hands with members of the crowd at a campaign event leading up to a runoff against Jimmy Carter for the Democratic nomination for Governor in Atlanta. AP hide caption

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Former Georgia Gov. Carl Sanders shakes hands with members of the crowd at a campaign event leading up to a runoff against Jimmy Carter for the Democratic nomination for Governor in Atlanta.

AP

Carl E. Sanders, who served as governor from 1963 to 1967 and is credited with bringing about more racial integration to Georgia, died in Atlanta on Sunday. He was 89.

Sanders was considered to be a Southern moderate and fought to create a "New South." His politics set him apart from other lawmakers who tried to keep public schools and facilities segregated.

In his inaugural address in January 1963, Sanders said:

"We are faced with both the greatest challenge and the brightest promise of our history.... We shall apply as the test of our progress not whether we add to those who have much, but whether we provide larger opportunities for those who have little."

Though even Sanders acknowledged that he was hardly a racial progressive in all matters, according to the New York Times :

"In July 1963, he told a United States Senate committee shaping what became the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that the federal government had 'no authority, constitutional or otherwise' to ban discrimination in privately owned public accommodations. He said Georgia had made progress on civil rights voluntarily.

When asked about how he viewed Georgia in more recent history, Sanders said in a 2006 interview with the Atlanta Journal Constitution : "In some ways, it's better; in other ways, it's not. It's certainly bigger."

While Sanders was governor, two sports teams — the Braves and the Falcons — came to Atlanta.

Sanders was born on May 15, 1925 in Augusta, and his father was a salesman for a meat-packing company and his mother worked in a dime store. In high school, Sanders was a star athlete, landing himself a football scholarship with the University of Georgia, which he would eventually leave to fight in World War II with the Army Air Forces. (He learned to fly bomber planes, and would name his "Georgia Peach.")

Sanders had a colorful personal life, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution :

"He dated a Hollywood starlet. He became a lawyer, then a lawmaker, then a governor — all by the age of 37 — then went on to become a leading business figure."

He's survived by his wife, two children and grandchildren.

Food scandal finally forces closure of notorious Karantina slaughterhouse

BEIRUT: Kilometers away from the Karantina slaughterhouse the pungent smell overwhelms the senses. The stench – a cocktail of animal feces, urine, rotting carcasses and dry blood – emanates across east Beirut, even reaching suburbs like Dora, Dikwaneh and Burj Hammoud. Beirut Governor Ziad Chebib told The Daily Star Tuesday that the slaughterhouse would be temporarily shut down for renovation works as of Wednesday morning.

Slotted away off the Karantina highway, on the Beirut River, the 20-year-old slaughterhouse is surrounded by an industrial park where rats scurry around underneath trucks and feral cats fight over food. Things only get worse upon entering the slaughterhouse grounds.

The cattle waiting for slaughter are tightly packed into barns in the shadow the slaughterhouse building. They struggle for space in their own feces, openly exposed to the rats and feral cats strolling in from the industrial park.

None of this appears to be a controlled and sanitized environment.

While the issues surrounding the Karantina slaughterhouse are not new, the topic has become even more potent over the last week following Health Minister Wael Abu Faour’s campaign against restaurants selling contaminated meat.

Abu Faour caused mayhem in the Lebanese food industry when he announced that several of the country’s most prominent restaurants and supermarkets were selling contaminated products.

Several establishments blamed meat traders they said were certified by the government, which has now shifted the spotlight onto the Karantina slaughterhouse.

The Daily Star visited Beirut’s largest slaughterhouse Monday evening during slaughtering hours to observe the conditions.

Karantina provides meat to several of Beirut’s butchers and restaurants, and it is all on display at the entrance to the building. Full carcasses hang from hooks on the ceiling as traders chop them up wearing no gloves and the meat rubs against rusty pillars. The slaughterers’ children can also be seen running around the complex helping their parents.

The other half of the building is where the slaughter takes place. Dead sheep are lined up across the concrete floor; several cows are hung from the ceiling by their legs waiting to be slaughtered; while others run around in confusion with their necks tied to a rope attached to the ceiling. The staff poke and prod the cows, waiting for a moment to tie their legs and hoist them up. Blood streams everywhere.

The resident vet Dr. Zeineddine Hasan assured The Daily Star there is nothing wrong with the process.

“If there’s anything wrong with the animal then I say, “No,” and it gets taken away,” he said. “If it’s OK then I mark it and it’s good to go.”

Shortly after meeting The Daily Star, Hasan changed into a white doctor’s coat. Moments later, a rusty wheelbarrow rolled past with some visibly rotten meat that had been slaughtered earlier in the day. After some commotion, Hasan briskly ordered the meat to be taken away.

He explained that “it’s clear” when an animal is fit to be slaughtered or sold.

“It has that yellowish color, you see?” he elaborated, gesturing toward the carcass of a dead sheep hanging from the ceiling.

Before being slaughtered, all the cows are visibly fearful as they struggle against the rope tied around their necks.

After their legs are tied the cows are hoisted up and then their heads are slammed against the concrete floor, which is often covered in the blood of a cow that has been slaughtered right next to them.

Hasan reassured The Daily Star that there is nothing inhumane about the way the cows are being slaughtered. “This is the way it has always been done; they don’t feel anything,” the veterinary doctor, who is employed by the Beirut municipality, said.

Compassion In World Farming, an NGO that campaigns to end factory farming, has been calling for the Karantina slaughterhouse to be shut down since last year.

The campaign was launched when the CIRW learned that cattle are shipped from the European Union, where they enjoy extensive protection, to Lebanon and slaughtered in ways that do not meet European Union regulations.

Pru Elliot, a campaign and investigations officer at CIRW, said the Karantina slaughterhouse had “some of the worst slaughter conditions ever documented.”

“The lack of training that the staff had in basic animal handling principles ... resulted in animals being really brutally beaten,” Elliot told The Daily Star.

She emphasized that the main issue with the slaughterhouse is the lack of order. Due to the range of smells and shiny objects in the slaughterhouse, cows are also likely to become scared and restless prior to slaughter, which can lead to other problems.

“They’re more likely to injure themselves ... they’re more likely to kick urine, feces and blood all over carcasses that are being processed [which can lead to contamination,” she said.

Cows also tend to struggle for some time after their throats are cut. The Daily Star observed one cow with its neck open rattle into a gutter that was already filled with blood from other animals.

Several of the staff made it clear to The Daily Star that they were also not happy with the conditions.

One staff member said that the slaughterhouse’s location was originally intended to be temporary as it was only moved due to construction. The building, which has a rippled metal roof and ad-hoc lighting, looks as though it was not built to last.

Joey Ayoub, an activist, blogger and public health graduate, completed a report on the Karantina slaughterhouse some years ago and concluded that it should either be completely renovated or shut down.

He told The Daily Star that it’s highly likely that food is contaminated there.

“[During our visit to the slaughterhouse] it took about 50-55 minutes for the cow to die,” Ayoub said.

“While alive, the cow can get contaminated,” he added.

Ayoub, author of the Hummus for Thought blog, stressed that, beyond the severe animal rights violations, allowing the cows to roll around in feces and blood on the cement floor before being killed can lead to contamination.

He also pointed out that this method cannot be considered halal, as the animals clearly suffer prior to their slaughter.

Several vans were parked outside the slaughterhouse Monday night waiting to load their trucks as clothing lines of fresh meat were brought out into the open air. One trader wrapped the meat in a cotton cloth that he claimed would dry the meat of any blood before he loaded it into the back of a van.

He guaranteed to The Daily Star that it was the best way to transfer the meat and said that his product was the cleanest in Beirut.

Beirut governor closes slaughterhouse

BEIRUT: Beirut Governor Ziad Chebib said Tuesday he issued a decision to temporarily close down Beirut’s infamous slaughterhouse to carry our renovation and refurbishment works. Chebib said he had signed a decision to begin upgrading the slaughterhouse and equipping it so that it meets health and safety standards.

Activities inside the facility would be suspended as of Wednesday until the decision is fully implemented, Chebib added.

“The Engineering Department of the Beirut Municipality was tasked with immediately searching and proposing locations for constructing a modern slaughterhouse,” the governor added.

The condition of the slaughterhouse came into the limelight after a food scandal emerged last week, with Health Minister Wael Abu Faour announcing the names of restaurants across Lebanon selling contaminated meat.

Chebib had inspected the slaughterhouse Monday.

The Daily Star visited the facility the same day and noted that, indeed, basic health and sanitation standards were not being observed.

Chebib said he had signed another decision to force workers at the slaughterhouse to meet specific health requirements.

According to the decision, anyone working at the slaughterhouse, including butchers who routinely buy meat from there, must present a permit, which they can acquire after demonstrating they meet standards.

“[The butcher] should undergo specific tests and be examined by the Beirut Municipality’s physician, who can request any type of laboratory test,” Chebib said.

“Based on the results of these tests, he will be granted a health certificate that will allow him to get a permit to enter the slaughterhouse.”

Chebib explained that only workers inside the slaughterhouse and butchers willing to buy meat to sell would be allowed in.

“The slaughterhouse will no longer be a big butchery for all, which is what is happening now, where meat is being sold at retail,” Chebib said. “This is causing all this chaos.”

Chebib added that his decision stipulated what workers should wear and how they should wash their hands while at work.

The governor explained that the temporary suspension of the slaughterhouse’s activities would have only a minor effect on the supply of meat in the capital.

“Contrary to what people think, the slaughterhouse of Beirut meets between 6 percent and 8 percent of demand in Beirut,” Chebib said.

He noted that renovations would be complete within a few weeks.

Appointed by the government in May, Chebib has an ambitious program to improve the quality of life in Beirut.

Unlike all other governorates in Lebanon, Beirut’s governor heads the executive authority in Beirut’s municipality. For its part, the municipality wields decision-making powers.

This has negatively affected the municipality, with Beirut Mayor Bilal Hamad accusing the capital’s acting Governor Nassif Qaloush of disrupting the implementation of many projects.

“I found that the best way to put things on the right track and be productive is through teamwork,” Chebib said. “This means that decision-makers and the head of the executive authority must sit together at one table.”

Chebib added that he attended a meeting of Beirut’s municipal council last week.

“It was a very important experience that had a positive impact and was welcomed by Mayor Bilal Hamad and all other members of the council,” he said.

Chebib added that there was a study being conducted to establish a modern public transportation system in Beirut. “We will make the appropriate decisions. We might have small buses or even a subway system.”

The governor added that a project to rehabilitate and reopen Horsh Beirut, Beirut’s largest park, was being studied.

“We will also renovate present public gardens and establish new ones,” he said.

Chebib added that after opposing the idea in the past, the municipality of Burj Hammoud agreed a few months ago to establish a waste water treatment plant in the area.

The plant, along with another one in the Beirut southern suburb of Ghobeiry, would treat waste water coming from the capital and its suburbs. Currently, sewage water is directed toward the sea.

Ghobeiry’s plant has already been constructed, but the municipality refuses to pay for installing the sewage network.

Chebib said that a method to finance the construction of the plant would soon materialize.

The governor added that the waters off Beirut’s coast would be the “cleanest in Lebanon” once both plants start functioning.

Before assuming his post, 40-year-old Chebib, who hails from the Akkar village of Oweinat, worked as a judge at the State Shura Council.

He said that the two posts were not completely different.

“The judge at the Shura Council ... deals with decisions made by the public administration ... he monitors them,” he said. “The governor makes these decisions.”

Although it was evening when The Daily Star interviewed Chebib, he said he rarely counted working hours. “We are fully dedicated to work.”

Future: March 8 allegiance behind country’s downfall

FPM: Rifi undermining Lebanon's judiciary

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Machnouk: Lebanon to be worse than Iraq and Syria

BEIRUT: Interior Minsiter Nouhad Machnouk warned Tuesday of looming security concerns in Lebanon that promise to be graver than those burdening other parts of the region, as he stood by his decision to hold off on the parliamentary vote.

“The security situation in the upcoming phase in Lebanon will be greater than all fires [ravaging] the region” Machnouk told Sky News Monday evening.

According to the interior minister, if polls are held in Lebanon, the country could face witness tensions worse than those in Iraq and Syria because citizens make electoral decisions according to “tribal mentalities.”

The problem in Lebanon is not merely an issue of border-control, but is also linked to the degree to which Lebanese mentalities are impacted by the struggle in Iraq and Syria, he said.

“Some groups considers what is happening in Syria to be an existential crisis [threatening] them and consider what is happening in Iraq to be a matter of life and death,” he added.

According to the interior minister, his opposition to holding elections stem from his role as interior minister and not his allegiance to the March 14 bloc that supported the extended mandate. Machnouk cited the polar division in Lebanon over the crisis in Syria as another cause behind the impossibility of holding polls.

The presence of terrorist groups and the threat of car bombing across the country justify the cancelation of the vote especially since the government wouldn’t be able to protect tens of thousands of individuals who would gather over a series of days to cast in their ballots, he said.

Despite his alarmism over potential security crises, he claimed that the current security situation in Lebanon “could still be described as under control.”

Speaking on the reasons behind the relative stability, Machnouk said that preemptive measures executed by security forces and a political truce agreed upon by Lebanon’s rival factions have prevented major escalations with regards to security threats.

According to the interior minister, the implicit truce between Lebanon’s rival factions stems from both necessity and pragmatism. Machnouk also said that a major regional shift would be unlikely.

Machouk dismissed the claim that Hezbollah was responsible for protecting Lebanon from ISIS. If it came down to Hezbollah protecting Lebanon from ISIS then the confrontation would be deemed “one sect fighting another sect and one extremist fighting another extremist,” Machnouk said while noting that extremists could not be defeated by their own kind.

Hezbollah however, remains integral to the preservation of political stability and the election of an upcoming president, the interior minister noted, stressing that dialogue with the party was essential.

With regards to the presidential stalemate that ensued after Former President Michel Sleiman left office last May, Machnouk said that neither of the two rival candidates, Lebanese Forces Leader Samir Geagea nor Free Patriotic Movement Chief Michel Aoun, would win the post of the presidency.

The interior minister forecasted a prolonged vacancy that wouldn’t be resolved any time soon given strategic differences between Lebanon’s rival parties, especially those pertaining to Hezbollah’s involvement in the crisis in neighboring Syria.

Speaking on negotiations to secure the release of 27 Lebanese servicemen held hostage by ISIS and the Nusra Front, Machnouk said that negotiations “are still at the start,” highlighting that the militants have yet to issue the exact names and numbers of Islamist inmates detained in Roumieh prison.

“Negotiations haven’t revealed any serious advancement, all that is happening is that the door for negotiations is still open,” he said.

When asked whether or not he supports a swap-deal in return for the abducted servicemen, Machnouk said that he preferred not to use that term, but said that negotiations were likely to lead to a “form of agreement.” The Nusra Front however, has yet to receive a response from the Lebanese government over this issue, he said.

The Nusra Front and ISIS militants are also asking for female prisoners detained in Syrian prisons.

According to the interior minister, Lebanon hasn’t directly communicated with the Syrian government through security channels. “There hasn’t been direct commination or specific requests,” he said.

Anger still seethes as Btedaai lays Fakhri to rest

BTEDAAI, Lebanon: Heavy gunfire characterised Baalbek's farewell to Sobhi Fakhri Tuesday, a local killed by two individuals from the Jaafar clan over the weekend, amid a lot of anger from residents and officials that the perpetrators remain at large.

The funeral procession of Fakhri was held in a local church in the town of Btedaai, after he succumbed to his wounds early Monday.

MPs Tony Abu Khater and Emile Rahme were amongst the throng of political, religious and local figures who attended the ceremony.

Fakhri’s casket was carried out of the church to the sound of gunfire, as mourners grieved his loss before laying him to rest in the family cemetery.

“There is no alternative for the state that knows exactly who carried out the crime,” Shawqi Fakhri, a prominent member of the family, said during the procession.

He added that the state could ensure the area’s security by detaining the perpetrators of the crime and called on the Jaafar clan to hand over those responsible.

The uncle of the alleged perpetrators, Ali Hatem al-Jaafar, stopped short of agreeing to hand over his nephews, but did say that “given the accident we place ourselves in the hands of the al-Fakhri family and we are prepared to [meet] any of their requests.”

During the funeral procession, Khater spoke on behalf of Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, condemning the lax security in the Baalbek area and calling on the government to tighten its grip on the region.

“This chaos has led to the catastrophic and grave crime of assaulting and killing civilians inside their homes,” he said.

Rahme called on the government to crackdown on the perpetrators as soon as possible.

Hezbollah MP Nawar Sahli condemned Fakhri’s killing - the first official condemnation delivered by the party since the incident occurred.

Sahli called on “security forces to speed up measures and beef up efforts to seize the perpetrators, who represent no one but themselves.”

The Hezbollah MP also called on the area's residents to maintain calm and abstain from portraying Baalbek as an area riddled with sectarian strife.

The fact that the Fakhri family is Christian and was attacked by members of the Shiite Jaafar clan has raised fears of heightened sectarian tensions.

All three MPs joined lawmakers from Hermel and Baalbek in a meeting held by Army commander Maj. Gen. Jean Kahwagi earlier Tuesday, over security in the north Bekaa.

Rahme said that Kahwagi was intent on pursuing the criminals until they are caught and referred to the judiciary.