Machnouk vows strict measures against prison guards
Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk has pledged to “cut off heads” if mobile phones were allowed to be smuggled into...
Monday, 12 January 2015
Obama: 'If We're Going To Be Connected, Then We Need To Be Protected'
The president spoke about one measure aimed at the data collected in schools, through increasingly popular educational software. "Michelle and I are like parents everywhere," Obama said. "We want to be sure our children are being smart and safe online." Carolyn Kaster/AP hide caption
itoggle caption Carolyn Kaster/AP
The president spoke about one measure aimed at the data collected in schools, through increasingly popular educational software. "Michelle and I are like parents everywhere," Obama said. "We want to be sure our children are being smart and safe online."
Carolyn Kaster/AP
President Obama said Monday he wants the federal government to do more to prevent cyber attacks. He outlined a series of proposals designed to safeguard personal data — steps he'll talk more about in next week's State of the Union address.
The same day, the government itself became a target.
Hackers, claiming ties to the so-called Islamic State militant group, temporarily took over the Twitter feed of U.S. Central Command, tweeting out threats against American service members, as well as personal information and what appear to be military maps.
A Pentagon spokesman downplayed the Twitter takeover as more of an annoying prank than a genuine security threat. But it did underscore the president's point about the need for stronger data security in a world where just about everyone is banking, buying, and communicating more through digital networks.
"If we're going to be connected, then we need to be protected," Obama said. "As Americans, we shouldn't have to forfeit our basic privacy when we go online to do our business."
One measure is aimed specifically at the data collected in schools, through increasingly popular educational software.
"Michelle and I are like parents everywhere," Obama said. "We want to be sure our children are being smart and safe online. That's our responsibility as parents. But we need partners."
Obama wants Congress to pass a law modeled on one in California that prevents software companies from selling students' data or using it to craft targeted ads.
"The bottom line is data in the classroom and in school should only be used for educational purposes," says Jim Steyer of Common Sense Media, an advocacy group that helped write the California law. "Not to sell to other people. Not to reveal inappropriate data."
Dozens of software companies have already signed a voluntary pledge not to misuse students' data. But some in the industry worry that a new federal law would go too far.
"We just want to make sure that we're not simply adding additional layers that would further complicate the situation," says Mark Schneiderman, senior director of education policy for the Software and Information Industry Association.
Obama is also calling for new laws governing the handling of consumer data after a series of high-profile breaches at retail chains such as Target and Home Depot. Big stores support the president's call for a uniform, national requirement that customers be notified within 30 days of any data breach. But they're wary of the Administration's broader push for a "Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights."
In protecting consumers, the government should be careful not to compromise retailers' ability to innovate, said Nick Ahrens,vice president of privacy and cybersecurity for the Retail Industry Leaders Association.
Obama is trying to strike his own balance this week. He'll be talking about both the benefits of faster, cheaper broadband service, and the growing need to guard against cyber attacks.
The President Announces New Actions to Protect Americans' Privacy and Identity
In the lead-up to the State of the Union next Tuesday, President Obama's been traveling across the country unveiling some of the ideas he'll be talking about in the address.
Today, he stopped by the Federal Trade Commission offices to talk about how we can better protect consumers from identity theft and safeguard everyone's privacy, including our children. He laid out a number of new steps and proposals, which you can read more about below.
"Since I've only got two years left in the job, I tend to be impatient and I didn't wait to wait for the State of the Union to start sharing my plans," the President quipped at the top of his remarks.
Cabinet approves waste treatment plan
BEIRUT: The Cabinet finally approved Monday a controversial plan to manage the country’s solid waste after the strategy sparked sharp divisions among ministers and threatened to paralyze the government’s work.
Under the plan, the deadline for closing the notorious Naameh landfill, south of Beirut, which expires Saturday, will be extended for three months and can be renewed for another three months, Information Minister Ramzi Joreige told reporters after a five-hour special session chaired by Prime Minister Tammam Salam at the Grand Serail.
Two other contracts that were supposed to expire Saturday will be extended for the same period.
One with Sukleen, the company responsible for sweeping and cleaning streets in Beirut and Mount Lebanon and transferring garbage to Burj Hammoud and another one with Sukomi company which treats the wastes transferred to Burj Hammoud and delivers them to Naameh.
The approved plan, which seeks decentralization of waste management, divides Lebanon into six blocks: Beirut and its suburbs, the north and Akkar, the south and Nabatieh, the Bekaa Valley and Baalbek-Hermel, Baabda, Chouf, Aley and Jbeil, Metn and Kesrouan, Joreige said.
The Cabinet decided to confine the licensing of garbage collection to one contractor in two blocks at most under a seven-year contract that can be renewed for additional three years, Joreige said. He added that the Cabinet set the rules for the licensing of sweeping, garbage collection and landfills.Contractors who win the tenders should secure the locations of a landfill in each block, but if they fail to do so within a month, the Environment Ministry and the Council of Development and Reconstruction must secure them at the contractors’ expenses, Joreige said.
The Cabinet also decided to task the finance and environment ministries with launching the necessary tenders for the waste management plan within two months at the utmost, he said. The Cabinet decided to form a committee headed by the environment minister to assess all contracts for solid waste treatment.
The solid waste treatment plan, proposed by Environment Minister Mohammad Machnouk, had been opposed by the Kataeb Party’s ministers, who argued that it lacked transparency. However, the approved plan seemed to allay the their concerns. The party had demanded that the state must be the side making the decision about the locations of landfills throughout Lebanon.
Terror Ops room at Roumieh Prison dismantled
BEIRUT: Security forces stormed Lebanon’s notorious Roumieh Prison Monday, transferring militant Islamists to another jail block, in an unprecedented nine-hour operation linked to last week’s twin suicide bombings in the northern city of Tripoli.
A security source told The Daily Star that security forces raided the prison Monday morning, clearing the jail’s Block B of its Islamist inmates after intercepting calls between the militants and members of the cell behind Saturday’s suicide bombings in Tripoli that killed at least nine people and wounded more than 30.
“We have ended the legend that was Roumieh Prison and we have begun a new phase,” Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk told a news conference at the prison after overseeing the security operation at the overcrowded facility. He noted that a large part of the suicide bombings that targeted a crowded cafe in the predominantly Alawite neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen in Tripoli was directed from the Block B section.
Investigations probing the Tripoli bombings led security forces to intercept calls between Islamist inmates in Block B and the two suicide bombers who carried out the twin attack, Machnouk said.
“The operations room in Roumieh Prison that directed many terrorist operations in Lebanon and which was in contact with terrorist bases in the region has ended today,” he added.
Machnouk said the raid was carried out in “a clean and professional manner,” noting that no inmates were injured in the process. He said the operation had been prepared three or four months ago and Monday was the right time to carry it out, two days after the Tripoli bombings. “The operation came as a result of a political decision backed by all political parties.”
He added that the operation was carried out by the Internal Security Forces’ Information Branch and its elite unit, known as Al-Fouhoud (Arabic for panthers), in cooperation with and support from the Army.
“What was happening in Block B could not continue,” Machnouk said, adding that Block B Islamist prisoners were transferred to the newly rehabilitated Block D. “Confronting terrorism will continue. We will continue with the security plan.” Machnouk said Roumieh Prison was originally built to hold about 3,500 inmates, but it is now crammed with 8,000 prisoners.
The clearing of the prison’s Block B came after years of warnings that the overcrowded section was a meeting point for militants to plot attacks. Prisoners were known to call into TV shows using mobile phones smuggled into the facility, where many detainees have been held for years without trial.
Machnouk reiterated that preliminary investigations indicate the two suicide bombers were affiliated to ISIS, despite the Nusra Front’s claim of responsibility in which it named the bombers before their identities were publicly revealed.
The ISF had announced that the plan was to move some prisoners out of the Block B, but The Daily Star’s security source said a decision was made to clear all cells after witnessing the great damage to the prison’s infrastructure.
Block B is known for holding many suspected and convicted Islamist militants who manage to operate with relative impunity from inside the prison.
The ISF started its operation at 7 a.m., and a security perimeter has been imposed around Roumieh, the security source said. As the operation got underway, Lebanese Army helicopters hovered at low altitudes above the overcrowded complex.
The source stressed that the operation’s purpose was first to separate prisoners in well-monitored cells and to end the previous chaos, where they had illicit access to mobile phones and the Internet. “Security forces have seized all phones,” Machnouk said, adding that the move served to “stop a process of communication that was facilitating terrorism.”
As the raid began, some prisoners burned their mattresses in protest but no casualties were recorded.
Machnouk and the ISF said some prisoners had links to the twin suicide bombing in Tripoli.
In response to the Roumieh raid, the Nusra Front warned that all the Lebanese would pay for what it called the Lebanese Army’s “reckless acts.”
“All Lebanese sects must bear the consequences of the Lebanese Army’s reckless acts,” the group said on its Twitter account Monday night.
Earlier, the Nusra Front, which along with ISIS is holding 25 Lebanese servicemen captive near the border with Syria, threatened to resume killing the captives.
“Due to the deterioration of the security situation in Lebanon, you will hear some surprises about the fate of our war captives, so wait for it,” it said on its Twitter account. The same account later showed a picture of a dozen captive soldiers laying face down in the snow and five gunmen standing behind them with a caption that read: “Who will pay the price?”
Machnouk downplayed the Nusra Front’s threat to harm the 25 Lebanese captives, saying that “Nusra wouldn’t hurt the servicemen because security forces didn’t mistreat the prisoners.”
Roumieh’s Block B holds around 900 prisoners, including more than 300 who are labeled as terrorists by security forces.
Excluding Lebanese prisoners, most inmates in Block B are Syrians and Palestinians – though other Arab and non-Arab nationals are also present. The block also boasts a collection of dangerous individuals accused of belonging to militant Islamist movements such as ISIS; Al-Qaeda and its Syrian affiliate, the Nusra Front; and Fatah al-Islam, among others.
Protesting the crackdown in Roumieh, a number of relatives of Islamist prisoners attempted to block roads at Tripoli’s Abu Ali roundabout, but the Lebanese Army quickly intervened to open the roads.
A grenade blast was later heard in Bab al-Tabbaneh area in Tripoli around 10 a.m., while people riding a Renault Rapid car were stopped by the Army for using a loudspeaker to call for protests and road closures.
In the southern city of Sidon, masked gunmen who had briefly cut off roads leading to two neighborhoods inside the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh, pulled out after the camp’s security committee intervened to ease tensions, security sources said.
The Islamist gunmen, who are led by Palestinian commander Haitham al-Shaabi, had fanned out across the streets, blocking access to Al-Tawarek and Taamir neighborhoods for a while before they were ordered to retreat, the sources said.
But relatives of Palestinian inmates from the Mubarak family insisted on blocking streets inside the camp, ignoring the committee’s call for ending their protest.
They said they had received information from inside Roumieh Prison that one of their relatives had been wounded in the raid. However, the ISF said in a statement that no prisoners were wounded during the operation. – Additional reporting by Antoine Amrieh and Mohammed Zaatari
U.N. report finds Tripoli a deeply deprived city
BEIRUT: More than half of families in Tripoli suffer from deprivation, with the figure rising to more than four in five families in the notoriously restive Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood, according to a newly released study by a U.N. body.
The data comes as the city saw a deadly twin suicide attack over the weekend, and appears to further back up those who link the poverty and lack of opportunities that mark parts of the northern city with the high levels of violence and growing trend of extremism.
The Urban Deprivation Index, put together by the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, revealed that 57 percent of Tripoli’s families are struggling to attain an acceptable standard of living, and of these, 26 percent are considered “extremely deprived.”
The index is based on four factors – economic status, accommodation, health, and education – which are each measured by three indicators.
For example, in the field of education, the indicators focused on whether both of the parents had completed their elementary education, whether children between the ages of 4 and 15 were enrolled in school and whether anyone in the family held a high school diploma.
A high score in six out of the total of 12 indicators meant the family was deprived, while high scores in eight indicated extreme deprivation.
Some 87 percent of households in the Bab al-Tabbaneh-Swayka area are considered deprived, and out of these, about 52 percent live in extreme deprivation.
The index focuses on measuring poverty by looking at more than income, and was prepared by ESCWA’s Regional Advisor Adib Nehme and the Arab Urban Development Institute, among others.
Its findings on Tripoli stem from a October 2011 survey of 1,271 families from seven major Tripoli neighborhoods: Basateen Tarablous, al-Tal-Zahreyah, the Old City, Bab al-Tabbaneh-Swayka, Qibbeh-Jabal Mohsen, Basateen al-Minaa and Mina.
In four of these neighborhoods, the percentage of households living in deprivation surpassed the city’s average, leading the researchers to conclude that “in general Tripoli is a deprived/poor city.”
Tripoli is the second-largest city in Lebanon and was an economic powerhouse before the civil war.
Its standing has deteriorated over the years, with various security-related challenges, uneven development policies and border closures having serious repercussions on the city’s industries.
The report found that the percentage deprived in terms of the economic status factor was the highest (77 percent), whereas 35 percent were deprived in terms of accommodation, 35 percent for health and 25 percent for education.
At 95 percent of its households, Bab al-Tabbaneh-Swayka ranked No. 1 among Tripoli neighborhoods for economic deprivation.
The report is likely to bolster arguments by those who say the poverty and neglect that has long marked Lebanon’s northern capital is a major contributing factor to the ongoing cycle of violence there.
Although the problems there date back to the Civil War, the situation in Tripoli has been especially turbulent since the war in neighboring Syria broke out.
The on-again-off-again clashes between residents in the mostly Sunni Bab al-Tabbaneh and those in the mostly Alawite Jabal Mohsen, along with sporadic clashes by Islamist militants who appear to have found fertile ground for recruitment, have wrecked the city’s economy.
This has led to increasingly fewer jobs and opportunities and is believed to have played an important role in pushing many young men into joining extreme rebel groups, both here in Lebanon and in Syria.
Two such men were behind last Saturday’s attack, which killed at least nine and wounded 30.
Commenting on the gap between the study period and now, ESCWA’s Nehme said: “The situation now is worse than 2011.”
Fear of blowback ruled at Roumieh Prison
BEIRUT: In the beginning the signs were as innocuous as the wife of an Islamist inmate attempting to smuggle in a ring emblazoned with the black and white standard of ISIS.
But when a Block B guard confiscated the contraband item in September, he knew it was imperative to proceed with caution. The ramifications of such a move would surely ricochet well beyond the walls of Roumieh Prison.
Up until the early hours of Monday morning, the Internal Security Forces had avoided using force to impose order in the notorious Block B. Police raided the jail block after intercepting calls between Islamist inmates and members of the cell behind Saturday’s twin suicide bombings in Tripoli that killed nine people.
Authorities had previously refrained from using force because of the ramifications it might have on the ongoing negotiations to free 25 servicemen captured by ISIS and Nusra Front militants during clashes in Arsal in August.
Over the course of six months, security sources from the prison repeatedly told The Daily Star that the negotiations over the captive servicemen had bolstered the confidence of some prisoners. The release of Islamist inmates is a key demand for the militants who are holding the Lebanese servicemen hostage.
Both the families of the hostages and of the inmates questioned the timing of Monday’s operation at Roumieh Prison.
“Why now? Why mess with the No. 1 demand of the Nusra Front now?” asked Sheikh Khaled Sayyed, a spokesperson for inmates’ families.
The Nusra Front vowed on a Twitter account that it would deliver “some surprises about the fate of our war captives.” The same account later published a picture of a dozen captive soldiers laying face down in the snow and five gunmen standing behind them with a caption reading, “Who will pay the price?”
On their WhatsApp group forum, the families of the hostages were franticly taking turns deciphering the Nusra Front’s cryptic threat.
“No call from Nusra or ISIS, yet,” Nizam Helou, the father of a hostage wrote late in the evening Monday.
Prison staff and officials familiar with the situation at Roumieh say maintaining order at Block B posed a unique set of challenges.
“Block B is difficult to control because those inside are considered ‘special security cases,’” said Omar Nashabeh, an aide to former Interior Minister Ziad Baroud.
“The ISF is given the task of managing and guarding the prison, but it shouldn’t be the job of the police, this is a specific field that requires specialization,” he said, adding that the Interior Ministry ought not to have disclosed that the raid was linked to Saturday’s bombings in Tripoli.
“This may be seriously damaging to the whole investigative process.”
On that September day when the shrewd warden discovered the ring, a security source recounted, he did two things that encapsulated just how prisoner-police dynamics had changed since the August clashes in Arsal, when the lives of the Islamist prisoners became inextricably linked to those of the hostage servicemen.
The guard paged staff surrounding the waiting area where the families of inmates were undergoing routine security checks and informed them to keep calm, a sign that his next move might rile up prisoners.
“I can’t do anything by force,” a source from the prison had told The Daily Star back in October. “Because I think if you want to do anything by force you will have to expect that on the other side of the country, someone’s head will roll.”
The ring was meant for inmate Talal Abdul Rahman Radwan, known as Abu Arabi, a high-profile Fatah al-Islam member sentenced to death by the Judicial Council for his role in the 2007 Nahr al-Bared clashes. Prison staff seldom spoke to the inconspicuous man but it was known that he had a bad temper.
Eight months of interacting with the Islamists of Block B had taught police to be direct but never confrontational. “I have to act normal with them, make them feel like I’m not doing anything wrong,” one prison source said.
The warden walked over to the jail from his office, prevented Abu Arabi’s wife from visiting, and when the incensed prisoners prepared to make noise, he made it plainly known that the ISIS-inscribed ring would not enter the parameters. An intense debate ensued, tensions rose. “It’s like having arrows thrown at you from all sides,” a security source said, describing interactions such as these.
But while the matter with the ring was resolved, similar heated moments would come to define relations between Roumieh staff and Islamists inmates. By November, prisoners linked to Fatah al-Islam, in particular those expecting harsh sentences, began refusing to attend Judicial Council hearings. At this time, the question of employing elite ISF forces to oblige them to leave their cells was considered but ruled out.
“They believe ISIS will take them out,” a security source said. “Whenever ISIS says something about the officers in their custody, [to the effect of] ‘you take our friends, we take your friends,’ the people in the block believe they will be part of a trade.”
“Somebody maybe told them it was better to be detainee and not a convict, maybe because if you have a ruling its more difficult to get a pardon,” the source added.
During this time prison staff felt caught between the defiant prisoners and an affronted judiciary. They worked to convince inmates and to appease judges, but when the use of force was broached, “someone up in the sky” decided against it, a security source said. And so, some inmates stopped going to trial.
In Block B, as in any organized society, there were leaders and followers. Of the thousand or so prisoners housed there, about 328 are considered national security cases. Among them are approximately 74 inmates who are members of Fatah al-Islam, 55 from Tripoli neighborhood Bab al-Tabbaneh, 16 detained during the Abra clashes of June 2013, and two-dozen are ISIS and Nusra Front members, many of them young men, detained since the Arsal clashes.
“The security operation [of Monday] is not only about Fatah al-Islam prisoners anymore,” said Sheikh Sayyed, the spokesperson. “There are many different inmates and it’s more complicated.”
At the helm were 10-15 prisoners, some of them preachers, who rarely engaged with the staff and remained ensconced in the block’s third floor, where they held Islamic classes.
Other high-profile detainees include Syrian national Yaser Mohammad Shukairi, or Abu Saleh, a preacher implicated in the Ain Alak bombing of 2007, Yemeni nationals Salim Abdulkarim Saleh, or Abu Turab, an explosives expert, and Naser Mohammad Shiba, or Abu al-Hor, both of whom have not been sentenced but expect the death penalty.
At the top of the list, according to security sources, are Nouri Nasr Hajji, or Abu al-Baraa, an explosives expert, and Syrian Mohammad Saleh Zawawi, or Abu Salim Taha, Fatah al-Islam’s former spokesperson and preacher.
Before Monday’s raid it was widely assumed that certain inmates were communicating with jihadi groups, using smartphones that are technically forbidden. Days before ISIS announced the beheading of soldier Ali Sayyed in September, a security source said an inmate relayed the news murkily during a casual exchange: “He said to wait because they would announce ‘something’ in the coming days.”
But the issue of clamping down on cellphone usage inside the facility has always been a double-edged sword, Nashabeh explained: “On one hand it [lax cellphone regulation] allows [the ISF] to surveil their [inmates] calls.” Perhaps, he said some might argue, at the expense of national security.
Fear of blowback ruled at Roumieh Prison
BEIRUT: In the beginning the signs were as innocuous as the wife of an Islamist inmate attempting to smuggle in a ring emblazoned with the black and white standard of ISIS.
But when a Block B guard confiscated the contraband item in September, he knew it was imperative to proceed with caution. The ramifications of such a move would surely ricochet well beyond the walls of Roumieh Prison.
Up until the early hours of Monday morning, the Internal Security Forces had avoided using force to impose order in the notorious Block B. Police raided the jail block after intercepting calls between Islamist inmates and members of the cell behind Saturday’s twin suicide bombings in Tripoli that killed nine people.
Authorities had previously refrained from using force because of the ramifications it might have on the ongoing negotiations to free 25 servicemen captured by ISIS and Nusra Front militants during clashes in Arsal in August.
Over the course of six months, security sources from the prison repeatedly told The Daily Star that the negotiations over the captive servicemen had bolstered the confidence of some prisoners. The release of Islamist inmates is a key demand for the militants who are holding the Lebanese servicemen hostage.
Both the families of the hostages and of the inmates questioned the timing of Monday’s operation at Roumieh Prison.
“Why now? Why mess with the No. 1 demand of the Nusra Front now?” asked Sheikh Khaled Sayyed, a spokesperson for inmates’ families.
The Nusra Front vowed on a Twitter account that it would deliver “some surprises about the fate of our war captives.” The same account later published a picture of a dozen captive soldiers laying face down in the snow and five gunmen standing behind them with a caption reading, “Who will pay the price?”
On their WhatsApp group forum, the families of the hostages were franticly taking turns deciphering the Nusra Front’s cryptic threat.
“No call from Nusra or ISIS, yet,” Nizam Helou, the father of a hostage wrote late in the evening Monday.
Prison staff and officials familiar with the situation at Roumieh say maintaining order at Block B posed a unique set of challenges.
“Block B is difficult to control because those inside are considered ‘special security cases,’” said Omar Nashabeh, an aide to former Interior Minister Ziad Baroud.
“The ISF is given the task of managing and guarding the prison, but it shouldn’t be the job of the police, this is a specific field that requires specialization,” he said, adding that the Interior Ministry ought not to have disclosed that the raid was linked to Saturday’s bombings in Tripoli.
“This may be seriously damaging to the whole investigative process.”
On that September day when the shrewd warden discovered the ring, a security source recounted, he did two things that encapsulated just how prisoner-police dynamics had changed since the August clashes in Arsal, when the lives of the Islamist prisoners became inextricably linked to those of the hostage servicemen.
The guard paged staff surrounding the waiting area where the families of inmates were undergoing routine security checks and informed them to keep calm, a sign that his next move might rile up prisoners.
“I can’t do anything by force,” a source from the prison had told The Daily Star back in October. “Because I think if you want to do anything by force you will have to expect that on the other side of the country, someone’s head will roll.”
The ring was meant for inmate Talal Abdul Rahman Radwan, known as Abu Arabi, a high-profile Fatah al-Islam member sentenced to death by the Judicial Council for his role in the 2007 Nahr al-Bared clashes. Prison staff seldom spoke to the inconspicuous man but it was known that he had a bad temper.
Eight months of interacting with the Islamists of Block B had taught police to be direct but never confrontational. “I have to act normal with them, make them feel like I’m not doing anything wrong,” one prison source said.
The warden walked over to the jail from his office, prevented Abu Arabi’s wife from visiting, and when the incensed prisoners prepared to make noise, he made it plainly known that the ISIS-inscribed ring would not enter the parameters. An intense debate ensued, tensions rose. “It’s like having arrows thrown at you from all sides,” a security source said, describing interactions such as these.
But while the matter with the ring was resolved, similar heated moments would come to define relations between Roumieh staff and Islamists inmates. By November, prisoners linked to Fatah al-Islam, in particular those expecting harsh sentences, began refusing to attend Judicial Council hearings. At this time, the question of employing elite ISF forces to oblige them to leave their cells was considered but ruled out.
“They believe ISIS will take them out,” a security source said. “Whenever ISIS says something about the officers in their custody, [to the effect of] ‘you take our friends, we take your friends,’ the people in the block believe they will be part of a trade.”
“Somebody maybe told them it was better to be detainee and not a convict, maybe because if you have a ruling its more difficult to get a pardon,” the source added.
During this time prison staff felt caught between the defiant prisoners and an affronted judiciary. They worked to convince inmates and to appease judges, but when the use of force was broached, “someone up in the sky” decided against it, a security source said. And so, some inmates stopped going to trial.
In Block B, as in any organized society, there were leaders and followers. Of the thousand or so prisoners housed there, about 328 are considered national security cases. Among them are approximately 74 inmates who are members of Fatah al-Islam, 55 from Tripoli neighborhood Bab al-Tabbaneh, 16 detained during the Abra clashes of June 2013, and two-dozen are ISIS and Nusra Front members, many of them young men, detained since the Arsal clashes.
“The security operation [of Monday] is not only about Fatah al-Islam prisoners anymore,” said Sheikh Sayyed, the spokesperson. “There are many different inmates and it’s more complicated.”
At the helm were 10-15 prisoners, some of them preachers, who rarely engaged with the staff and remained ensconced in the block’s third floor, where they held Islamic classes.
Other high-profile detainees include Syrian national Yaser Mohammad Shukairi, or Abu Saleh, a preacher implicated in the Ain Alak bombing of 2007, Yemeni nationals Salim Abdulkarim Saleh, or Abu Turab, an explosives expert, and Naser Mohammad Shiba, or Abu al-Hor, both of whom have not been sentenced but expect the death penalty.
At the top of the list, according to security sources, are Nouri Nasr Hajji, or Abu al-Baraa, an explosives expert, and Syrian Mohammad Saleh Zawawi, or Abu Salim Taha, Fatah al-Islam’s former spokesperson and preacher.
Before Monday’s raid it was widely assumed that certain inmates were communicating with jihadi groups, using smartphones that are technically forbidden. Days before ISIS announced the beheading of soldier Ali Sayyed in September, a security source said an inmate relayed the news murkily during a casual exchange: “He said to wait because they would announce ‘something’ in the coming days.”
But the issue of clamping down on cellphone usage inside the facility has always been a double-edged sword, Nashabeh explained: “On one hand it [lax cellphone regulation] allows [the ISF] to surveil their [inmates] calls.” Perhaps, he said some might argue, at the expense of national security.
Parliament abuzz as MPs return to work
BEIRUT: The Parliament was busy Monday as Lebanese leaders swung into full action after the holiday break, with lawmakers and ministers meeting to continue their work on several matters.
Under the food safety campaign launched by Health Minister Wael Abu Faour late last year, the subcommittee tasked with drafting a food safety law convened to conduct a final reading.
Along with subcommittee head MP Atef Majdalani, Abu Faour, Economy Minister Alain Hakim, Tourism Minister Michel Pharaon and Industry Minister Hussein Hajj Hasan were in attendance.
Officials used the opportunity to comment on the draft law before it was referred to the Parliament’s Joint Committees, which study draft laws before submitting them to Parliament for a vote.
The Parliament’s Administration and Justice Committee, headed by MP Robert Ghanem, also convened to continue discussing the new rent law following the Constitutional Council’s decision to annul a number of its articles last summer.
The council had disputed several articles that stipulated a committee should be formed to determine the amount of rent increases.
The new rent law, endorsed by the Parliament in April, went into effect last month and is said to affect around 200,000 apartments, many of which are in Beirut.
Separately, a joint news conference was held at the Parliament by MPs Joseph Maalouf, Yassin Jaber, Mohammad Qabbani and Farid Khazen, who have been tasked by Speaker Nabih Berri to follow up on laws passed by Parliament that were never implemented.
This occurs when ministers do not sign decrees that have otherwise been approved. From 2000-2014, some 32 laws have befallen this fate.
Criticizing this state of affairs, Jaber said some ministers had become stronger than Parliament, particularly in the wake of the presidential vacuum, while MP Marwan Hamade accused some of flat-out ignoring a number of laws passed.
With regard to the thorny issue of a new electoral law, the subcommittee of the Administration and Justice Committee also met Monday.
Subcommittee head MP Nawar Sahili said in a statement that it had “met with members of the committee that supervised the previous elections and discussed with them the committee’s role, the realities and gaps it faced, and how to solve them.”
Keeping the ‘Islamic State’ out of Lebanon, and Lebanon out of the ‘Islamic State’
All of us share the sadness of the French people at last week’s terrorist attack in Paris, and of the Lebanese people at the weekend attack in Tripoli. In their condemnation of the deaths in Paris, the four religious heads of Lebanon sent a powerful message against extremism. It was a reminder that many in this region have paid the ultimate price for freedom of expression.
Just as the U.K. stands united with the French people, so we stand firmly with Lebanon as it responds to the threat from ISIS and its allies. Neither Islamic nor a state, ISIS is a threat to real Islam. Across the globe, Muslim leaders have condemned their actions. The coalition of over 60 countries, including from the Middle East, is showing that the world will not tolerate ISIS’ brutality.
The risk to Lebanon is that the new threat of ISIS exposes old divisions. That’s what they want. So, as in France, the vast majority in Lebanon will need to show that they care as much about protecting Lebanon from this extremism as the extremists care about imposing it.
Victory inside Lebanon depends first and foremost on the Lebanese people. In the last few months, I’ve been asking them what can be done. Here are 10 ideas based on what they have suggested.
1. Back the security forces. More than ever, they are on the front lines. On the checkpoints, in the positions facing ISIS fighters, some are even held as hostages. The U.K. and others are getting kits and training to those confronting extremism. But many will feel exposed. They need to hear the full solidarity of the Lebanese people. Tell them why they matter so much.
2. Do something anti-sectarian. ISIS and extremism succeed if they provoke enmity and conflict between confessions. Every time connections are made that defy their hope, we strike back. Lebanon knows all too well what happens when “the other” side is stereotyped or ostracized. The vast majority do not want to go back to the destructive conflicts of the past. Those who understand that Lebanon’s diversity is its survival have to shout louder than those that don’t.
3. Keep calm and carry on. ISIS wants panic and fear. As with terrorists anywhere, the best response is to continue as usual. Don’t let it intimidate us. The people getting on with their lives and jobs in the face of intimidation are everyday heroes. Fatalism is a gift to the extremists.
4. Elect a president. It has been over 200 days since Lebanon has been without one. The president should be planning, troubleshooting, rallying, anchoring, leading. He or she would be a vocal presence in the international debates about the future of the region. Every day without a president is a missed opportunity, a day when the forces looking to destabilize the country become stronger, a day without a presidential voice arguing for the international community to help.
5. Fly the Lebanese flag. It is surely better to focus on what unites than divides. This country is not part of the “Islamic State,” it is the Lebanese state. That is something worth marching for.
6. Create jobs. There is a battle ahead for the hearts and minds of the poorest, those at most risk of radicalization. Government and businesses have to break that cycle, and create hope. We have to show that there is a better option than the nihilism offered by ISIS. Young entrepreneurs from Tripoli recently told me that they need security, decent Internet, hope. They’ll do the rest.
7. Don’t try to exploit the ISIS threat to make money. As the international effort develops, it is going to become even more risky to have any dealings with those behind this terror. So think twice if that includes you.
8. Establish sovereignty on the border. I think that this is an idea whose time has come. If the Lebanese state moves to fully secure its own border at last, at a time of such a threat from Syria, can any faction disagree?
9. Junk the stale narratives. I’m struck by how many people on one side of the debate claim that Israel, Saudi Arabia or Turkey created ISIS. And by how many on the other side tell me that, no, it was actually Iran. I’m sure that North Korea blames South Korea, and vice versa. We can have a legitimate debate about who, including the Assad regime, created the conditions in which ISIS flourished. But we need to go beyond simply using ISIS as just one more piece of evidence for our pre-existing worldview or pet conspiracy. This baggage gets in the way of dealing with the problem, together.
10. Don’t blame a refugee. Seventy-eight percent of Syrian refugees in Lebanon are women and children. Most are vulnerable, their lives already shattered by a brutal war. Winter is hitting them hard – try spending a night in a tent in the Bekaa if you think they have chosen to be there. The Lebanese people have already shown extraordinary generosity. Making refugees the scapegoats for what ISIS is doing creates an even bigger problem. Don’t push them into ISIS hands.
We must not underestimate the challenge. We must not underestimate the courage required. But if I have learned one thing in three years in Lebanon, it is that no one should ever underestimate the resilience of the Lebanese people. ISIS is a threat to all of us. It can only be faced together.
Tom Fletcher is the British ambassador to Lebanon.
Press Federation victory for Ash-Sharq publisher
BEIRUT: Awni al-Kaaki, the editor-in-chief and publisher of Ash-Sharq newspaper, will be elected the new head of the Press Federation Thursday, after members of his list won all 18 seats on the body’s board.
Speaking to The Daily Star Monday, Kaaki promised that the new board would lay down a program to improve the press in Lebanon.
“There are projects [that will be implemented]. The federation needs new momentum,” Kaaki said.
“I think all members of the new board want to make achievements. Everyone has a set of ideas that we will gather and see what we can implement,” he added.
The board is comprised of 18 members; 12 of these represent daily political publications, five represent weekly or monthly political publications, and one represents nonpolitical publications and news agencies.
The 17 board members representing political publications were elected by 46 owners or representatives of political publications who have paid their annual subscriptions to the federation. Those eligible to vote were representatives of 94 political publications, most of which are not published.
Kaaki’s list was elected for a three-year term. He replaces Mohammad Baalbaki, who had been repeatedly elected head of the Press Federation since 1982.
Besides Kaaki, those representing daily political publications on the new board are Rafik Khoury, Malek Mrowa, George Soulage, Yasser Akkawi, Ghassan Hajjar, Thaer Abbas, Fadi Nun, Talal Hatoum, George Bashir, Ghassan Omeira and Abdel-Karim al-Khalil.
Walid Awad, Marcel Nadim, George Traboulsi, Bassam Afifi and Faisal Abu Zaki are representing monthly or weekly political publications, while Philip Abi Aql won unopposed in the post representing the nonpolitical ones and news agencies.
Kaaki said that the newly elected members of the board were “serious” and highly representative of circulating publications.
The elections, which took place at the Press Federation headquarters in Raouche, were boycotted by Salah Salam, the editor-in-chief of Al-Liwaa newspaper, who formed an opposing list. Members of Salam’s list did not show up either.
Representatives of As-Safir and Al-Akhbar newspapers, both close to the March 8 coalition, also skipped the election in protest, along with representatives of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party’s Al-Binaa newspaper, or publications close to Hezbollah and the Kataeb Party.
Although both Salam and Kaaki are close to the Future Movement, the group chose to back Kaaki in the elections.
Kaaki said he respected the decision of those newspapers that decided to boycott the polls.
“This is a democratic state and based on democracy, they can attend and vote against us or they can express any form of opposition. This is their right which we respect,” Kaaki said.
“We enjoy practicing democracy.”
Kaaki said that the interference of political parties in the elections had been minimal this time.
The new board will meet Thursday noon to elect a head for the Press Federation, a deputy head, a treasurer, and a secretary, along with members for other positions.
Hussein Koteich, who was a candidate on Salam’s list, said the boycott was to express their disgust of the “flagrant fraud and manipulation” carried out by the voters on Kaaki’s list.
He said that candidates on Salam’s list were preparing to challenge the elections results before the relevant court.
Koteich said that while the Federation’s bylaws stipulated that the list of voters should be ready three weeks before the date of the polls, names were added to the list during that time.
“They even added the name of a representative for the Dabbour magazine just today,” he said.
Koteich added that four of the voters were absent and had people vote for them, which was illegal.
Ghassan Hajjar, who is the managing editor of An-Nahar newspaper, praised the first transition of power in the leadership post in more than three decades.
He said he had hoped all newspapers would attend the elections.
“This sector is not in need of problems but of uniting efforts because it is facing an existential threat,” Hajjar said.
He hoped that the new board would lay down a plan to support newspapers, which he said were suffering a lot.
Obama Announces Tech Proposals Ahead Of State Of The Union
On Monday President Obama called for new measures to protect consumers against identity theft and to safeguard students' electronic privacy. It's part of a weeklong series of technology-themed proposals as Obama prepares for next week's State of the Union address.
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Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.
Feinstein Proposal Would Lock In Anti-Torture Measures
The CIA's excruciating interrogations of suspected terrorists, widely seen as torture, are detailed as official acts in the Senate report released last month. Now Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who spearheaded that report, wants to prevent such acts from ever happening again. She's proposing legislation and administrative moves for which her Republican colleagues see little need and which activists deem too timid.
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Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.
White House Says It Should Have Sent More Senior Official To Unity March
On Monday, White House spokesman Josh Ernest said the administration erred in not sending a senior representative to join the unity march in Paris on Sunday.
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Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.
For Cuba, Hostile Relationship With U.S. No Longer An Alibi
The U.S. rapprochement with Cuba seems to be on track. On Monday, the State Department confirmed that Cuba has kept its pledge to release 53 political prisoners and a top state department official is moving ahead with her plans to visit the island next week.
Copyright © 2015 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.
Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.
2015 SelectUSA Investment Summit Is Now Open for Business
Ed. note: This is cross-posted on the U.S. Department of Commerce's blog. See the original post here.
In my first year as Secretary, one of my proudest moments was welcoming international investors to the 2013 SelectUSA Investment Summit. Alongside President Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, and U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman, we made it clear that America is “Open for Business.”
As 2015 begins, we are moving full speed ahead with registration for the second SelectUSA Investment Summit, which will take place in the D.C. metro area on March 23-24, 2015.
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert Will Debut in September
Stephen Colbert will officially take over for departing David Letterman on September 8, 2015, CBS announced this morning. The nightly program will keep its title format (The Late Show With...), and simply replace Letterman's name with Colbert's. As previously announced, Letterman's final show will take place on May 20. In an official comment on the new show to coincide with today's news from the TCA winter press tour, Colbert said, "I have nine months to make a show, just like a baby. So first, I should find out how you make a baby."
Watch the musical send-off from Colbert's final night on Comedy Central here, and watch a supercut of all the times Colbert broke character here.
Duncan's Post-NCLB Vision Maintains Testing
Education Secretary Arne Duncan speaks with reporters after he and Attorney General Eric Holder toured the Northern Virginia Juvenile Detention Center in Alexandria, Va., Monday, Dec. 8, 2014. Cliff Owen/AP hide caption
itoggle caption Cliff Owen/AP
Education Secretary Arne Duncan speaks with reporters after he and Attorney General Eric Holder toured the Northern Virginia Juvenile Detention Center in Alexandria, Va., Monday, Dec. 8, 2014.
Cliff Owen/AP
In a speech today at an elementary school in Washington, D.C., Education Secretary Arne Duncan laid out the president's position as the nation's largest federal education law moves on a "fast track" toward reauthorization.
According to his prepared remarks, Duncan called the 13-year-old No Child Left Behind law "tired" and "prescriptive." Nevertheless, he declared that the central requirement of No Child Left Behind should stand: annual, mandated statewide assessments in grades 3-8 plus once in high school.
Some Republicans in Congress have been discussing the idea of reducing or eliminating testing requirements.
In his speech Duncan invoked famous phrases used by both President Obama and President George W. Bush, the latter of whom introduced those requirements.
"This country can't afford to replace 'the fierce urgency of now,' " he said, "with the soft bigotry of, 'It's optional.' "
Duncan acknowledged that high-stakes accountability testing is one of the "hardest topics" in the nation's education debate. He called, as he has previously, for action on the state and district level to cut back on "redundant" and "unnecessary" additional tests.
He also said the federal government will request funding to improve the quality of tests, beyond the $360 million already spent to create Common Core-aligned PARCC and Smarter Balanced tests. And he wants student test scores to be included in teacher evaluations, as part of a "multiple measures" system.
The Senate education committee is scheduled to hold a hearing specifically addressing testing on Jan. 20, the same day as President Obama's State of the Union speech.
Among other notable points in Duncan's speech today were:
- The President's budget request will include $2.7 billion in increased education spending. Of that, $1 billion will be designated for high-needs Title I schools.
- A renewed call for expanded access to preschool.
- A call for distributing funding more equitably among public schools in high- and low-income areas. According to a 2014 report, in 19 states high-poverty districts receive less state and local funding than low-poverty districts.
France condemns north Lebanon suicide attack
France deploys 15,000 security forces to boost security
France is deploying 15,000 police and security forces to bolster security around "sensitive" sites and Jewish schools...
New garbage proposal 'great achievement': Amine Gemayel
BEIRUT: Kataeb Party leader Amine Gemayel said Monday that his party has achieved a great victory for the Lebanese people by pushing forward the amendments to the garbage management bill.
“There was a specialized committee from the party’s political bureau that cooperated with civil society to give all suggestions,” Gemayel said in a news conference Monday afternoon. “We made great achievements in this concern that ensure the highest possible extent of competition between different companies.”
The conference was held less than two hours before a cabinet session that Prime Minister Tammam Salam had called for which aims to reach a solution to the heated dispute over the garbage management controversy.
“We haven’t reached a final solution yet, there is a cabinet meeting tonight to achieve that,” Gemayel said. “We are not looking for any private or partisan interest.”
Environment Minister Mohammad Machnouk had submitted a draft policy to the cabinet last month, in which he included a plan to reform the garbage management sector and call for new tenders.
The plan was strongly criticized by the Kataeb, who then filed a list of suggestions to modify the policy “in a manner that increases transparency,” according to the party.
Kataeb official Alber Kostanian spoke after Gemayel to explain the details of the amendments that his party proposed.
He said the next call for tenders that will bring new companies to manage the sector will be postponed for an additional month, to allow companies to prepare for it and for Lebanon to receive the maximum amount of bids.
Kostanian stressed that having the highest extent of competition will save a lot of public money, and will allow a more transparent call for tenders to take place.
The Kataeb proposed new contracts of 15 years for waste treatment companies, and of seven years for garbage collectors.
One of the party’s suggestions, he explained, was to modify the administrative division of areas to facilitate the collection and management.
Kostanian said the suggestions also included a call for tenders that would hire new companies to monitor the performance of the waste management establishments, which would ultimately increase transparency in the sector.
He also stressed that the state must be the side making the decision about the locations of the future landfills to be established in Lebanon.
“If we leave the jurisdiction to choose the landfills’ locations to private companies, we will enter in some kind of corruption, because the companies will then need to work with local politicians to decide on that,” Kostanian held.
He said the landfills must only be built in abandoned quarries and mines to avoid any negative effects on public health, and the percentage of buried garbage must be reduced from the current 80 percent to 25 percent.
Financial motivation for home recycling was another notable element of Kataeb’s suggestions, Kostanian said, saying this method is used in most countries and has been proven effective.
The proposal also included the decentralization of waste management, by tasking municipalities with sweeping the streets, as well as spreading landfills and treatment plants all over Lebanon.
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