Obama told me so: 01/03/15

Saturday, 3 January 2015

Former Republican Sen. Edward Brooke Dies At 95

Former Massachusetts Sen. Edward William Brooke speaks in the Rotunda on Capitol Hill in Washington, in 2009 during a ceremony where he received the Congressional Gold Medal. Brooke died on Saturday at age 95. Alex Brandon/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Alex Brandon/AP

Alex Brandon/AP

Former Massachusetts Sen. Edward Brooke, the first African-American to be popularly elected to the U.S. Senate, died today at age 95, a spokeswoman for the state Republican party said.

Brooke, a Republican who had been Massachusetts attorney general, was first elected in 1966, defeating former Massachusetts Gov. Endicott Peabody. Brooke served until 1979.

Kirsten Hughes, chairwoman of the Massachusetts Republican Party, and a family spokesman both confirmed the death.

He was a leading advocate against discrimination in housing and, along with Democratic Sen. Walter Mondale, co-authored the 1968 Fair Housing Act. In 1969, he led a bipartisan push to defeat President Nixon's Supreme Court nominee, Clement Haynsworth, who faced opposition over allegations that he favored segregation and had failed to recuse himself from cases where he had a personal financial stake.

The Boston Globe writes: "Mr. Brooke's eminence had a paradoxical aspect. What made him such a figure of racial progress wasn't his emphasizing race but transcending it. He had no choice: The year he was elected attorney general only 2 percent of Massachusetts voters were black."

The newspaper said Brooke described himself as "a self-described 'creative moderate.':

"[He] entered the Senate with Charles Percy and Mark Hatfield. A year before, John Lindsay had been elected mayor of New York. All four men were vigorous, telegenic, forward looking. They seemed the cutting edge of a new, revived GOP, turning to the center after Barry Goldwater's landslide defeat in 1964. Instead, the new, revived GOP belonged to Goldwater — and Ronald Reagan."

After the Senate, Brooke practiced law in Washington, D.C., and served as chairman of the Boston Bank of Commerce. Later, he was named to the board of directors of defense contractor Grumman.

In 2004, President George W. Bush awarded Brooke the Presidential Medal of Freedom and in 2009, he was given the Congressional Gold Medal.

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ISIS seeking bases inside Lebanon: security chief

KAWTHARIET ASSIYAD, Lebanon: ISIS militants holed up in the Qalamoun Mountains on the Syrian-Lebanese border are seeking to gain control of nearby Lebanese villages to support their fighting positions, the head of Lebanon's main security apparatus told Reuters.

Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim said Lebanese forces were on high alert to prevent the hard-line militants from seizing any Lebanese territory near the Qalamoun Mountains, which demarcate Lebanon's eastern border with Syria.

Such crossborder incursions would add to concern that Lebanon, which suffered its own civil war in 1975-90, could be drawn further into the conflict in neighboring Syria.

Fighting from Syria has regularly spilled into Lebanon since the war erupted nearly four years ago. In 2014, ISIS and Syria's Al-Qaeda wing attacked the border town of Arsal and took Lebanese soldiers captive. Gunmen including militants linked to ISIS also clashed with the army in the coastal city of Tripoli.

Ibrahim, who is the head of Lebanon's General Security office, said ISIS had recently boosted its numbers in the Qalamoun area with the aim of securing crossborder territory to support its Syrian operations.

"Islamic State does not want to dominate Qalamoun ... but they want to use it to secure their backs in the region through controlling [Lebanese] villages on the front lines with the Qalamoun area," he said.

"The [Lebanese] military and security forces are on full alert," he told Reuters at his village home in southern Lebanon.

ISIS controls land in Syria and Iraq and has declared an Islamic caliphate. The group is being targeted by U.S.-led strikes in both countries.

Ibrahim said ISIS had become the dominant armed group in Qalamoun. "In the recent period about 700 new fighters pledged allegiance, and so they are now more than 1,000 fighters," he said.

Fighting has escalated in Qalamoun and other areas along the border since the summer, pitting Islamic State and other insurgents against forces fighting on behalf the Syrian government.

Sunni Islamist militants attacked strongholds of Hezbollah in Lebanon several times in 2014. Hezbollah has sent thousands of its fighters to battle on the side of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Referring to ISIS and other militant groups like Nusra Front, the Lebanese army chief warned in November that Lebanon was facing "the most dangerous terrorist plot in the whole region." Lebanese residents near the border have said they are ready to take up arms to defend their homes.

Ibrahim, who narrowly escaped a suicide bombing in June, said the security services had arrested many militants in broad security sweeps across the country and dismantled networks of fighters in operations that it did not always publicize.

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Machnouk sees progress in hostage negotiations

BEIRUT: Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk sounded cautiously optimistic Saturday about the case of the 21 servicemen held by Islamist militants, saying there was progress in the case and that negotiations over their release were ongoing.

“There is progress in this case, but I will not announce it today, awaiting the final word on it,” Machnouk told reporters after meeting with Maronite Bishop Boulos Matar at the archdiocese in Ashrafieh.

“It is clear now that the ongoing negotiations have progressed, they will not fall back and the negotiations are no longer frozen.”

“I hope to resolve this case with the start of this new year.”

The case of the soldiers and policemen held by the Nusra Front and ISIS since August has been shrouded in secrecy for the past week after Prime Minister Tammam Salam criticized media leaks and statements by officials that he said only harmed the negotiations.

While the government has only officially tasked the head of General Security, Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim, with the case, it has remained open to other self-proclaimed mediators who are in close contact with Nusra and ISIS.

The groups, which have so far killed four of their hostages, have demanded the release of Islamist detainees in Lebanese and Syrian prisons in exchange for freeing the servicemen.

The government has not yet officially announced it was accepting a swap deal, but prominent political parties in the Cabinet have supported such a solution to end the five-month crisis.

Machnouk spoke about Lebanon’s future amid regional and internal crisis, including the failure to agree on a new president, saying that dialogue was the only means for the Lebanese to safeguard the country.

“No matter how much Lebanon [is shaken], it will ever fall. I reassure the Lebanese that Lebanon's future will be excellent, thought it may not happen so quickly,” the minister said.

“I am very optimistic, and I hope we will overcome this difficult phase in the short run and this would be achieved through dialogue among the various groups, which is what protects Lebanon.”

The minister said his meeting with Matar discussed the presidential paralysis, saying the bishop was optimistic about a possible solution.

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Sidon recalls Prophet’s birthday in years past

SIDON, Lebanon: In the alleyways of Dahr al-Mir Square in Sidon’s old city, Hajj Atef Garamteh prepares loukum, which with the help of his children and grandchildren, he will distribute to mark the Prophet Mohammad’s birthday. “This is a craft that I learned from my uncle when I was 8, but I am not as strong as I used to be, so now my kids and grandchildren help me,” the 88-year-old Garamteh said.

While adding pistachio, hazelnuts and walnuts to various flavors of loukum, Garamteh reminisced about past celebrations, including one incident in 1960 when someone unknowingly folded salt into his loukum mixture. “Back then, celebrating the Prophet’s birthday was a beautiful affair,” he said.

Many share his nostalgia, recalling a time preparations for the Prophet’s birthday, which will fall on Saturday this year, began months earlier.

This year, however, celebrations will be limited, restricted to the holding of banners and ceremonies at various mosques.

In the main streets of Sidon, banners bearing verses lauding the Prophet’s compassion and humanity were seen hanging. Some highlighted his views against racism and others portrayed him as a strong protector of women. Three domes and a crescent were set up atop the city municipality too for the day.

In the old city’s Musalabeyeh Square, Abu Hussam Batesh recalled how in the past the Prophet’s birthday was marked with parades headed by late Sidon MP Maarouf Saad, beginning at the door of the mosque and extending throughout the city.

“I used to spray perfume on them [those marching] and they never stopped playing swords and shields,” said Batesh, a hairdresser.

Abu Afif Hijazi echoed Batesh’s sentiments, recalling how he used to sell fresh juices and street food during the procession. “A month before the day, we used to set up a fountain and gather around it to play swords and shields,” he said.

Children of Hijazi’s generation would use banana and palm leaves to decorate entrances to neighborhoods. Hijazi explained how people would wear white for the occasion and beat drums as wealthier families distributed gifts to the poor.

“I used to sprinkle them with rosewater and people used to celebrate Prophet Mohammad’s birthday the same way they celebrated Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha,” Hijazi said. “But today the joy is gone and unfortunately they only raise banners and make speeches in the mosques.”

Mohammad Dyarbeh still has a black-and-white picture of a group of guys sitting by a fountain in the town’s square. “Beautiful were those days,” he recalled. “In those days, people would relay God’s message to each other, and children would read aloud poems praising the Prophet.”

But not all Muslim communities will be celebrating. Salafists, for instance, believe that marking the Prophet’s birthday is a man-made creation, and not one acknowledged by religious texts.

But Dyarbeh dismissed Salafist interpretation: “Is celebrating our love for the Prophet a sin?”

“When we were young, we used to use light fireworks ... we used to wait to get money from our parents and we used to spend it,” Adnan Rifai said.

Resident Mariam Jamal said back in the day, engaged men would present their fiancés with a piece of gold or a piece of fabric to make a dress from for the occasion.

“People used to wait for the [Prophet’s] birthday ... but today, the joy of the day is gone,” Jamal added.

Tyre’s Mufti Sheikh Medrar Hibal stressed that celebrating the Prophet’s birthday was an event condoned by the Ulama, or scholars, who hold that such celebrations don’t undermine faith or violate Shariah law.

On the contrary, he said, the occasion should serve to remind people about the examples set by the Prophet. “We find that a modern way for people to recall the sayings of the Prophet is through raising banners,” Hibal said. The sheikh has since started a campaign called “Prophet Mohammad Taught Me” which aims to remind people about true Islamic values, he said.

“Prophet Mohammad is the greatest teacher of values in history and he’s the greatest source to guide people about how to live a full life,” stressed Hibal, who is also the imam of Al-Quds Mosque.

These values ought to be revived and reinforced on the day of the Prophet’s birth, he added.