Kahwagi to Aoun: your presidential bid not my problem

BEIRUT: Lebanese Army commander Gen. Jean Kahwagi was quoted as telling visitors that Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun has a problem winning the presidential election, local daily As-Safir said Thursday.

“The problem is not with me,” he was quoted as telling visitors. “Frankly, I tell Gen. Aoun ‘I’m not the one hindering or preventing his arrival to the presidency.’”

“If he [Aoun] was elected [president] I will be at the forefront of the well-wishers at Baabda Palace.”

Kahwagi said the obstacle preventing Aoun from reaching the country’s top seat was “because there are some Lebanese components that refrain from supporting Aoun; and this is not my responsibility.”

“Yes, the Army commander, by virtue of the position he holds, automatically becomes an obvious presidential candidate regardless of his opinion,” Kahwagi was quoted as saying.

The Army chief, however, insisted that he was not running for president.

“I’m not in any way plunged into the presidential battle.”

“When I meet political or diplomatic figures I avoid raising the presidential issue, and if the topic was raised, I discuss it generally in terms of the national interest, without personal considerations,” he told visitors.

But Kahwagi said he would not shy away from his “national responsibility” if consensus was reached on his name.

“I will not run away from taking national responsibility. At the same time, I would not object any other selected name that may be agreed upon.”

Rfi: arrangements for Samaha to appear before STL

Rfi: arrangements for Samaha to appear before STL

Arrangements were being made for terror suspect Michel Samaha to appear before the international tribunal prosecuting...

President Obama Sends Warm Wishes for the Lunar New Year

Today, the White House released a video message from President Obama welcoming the Lunar New Year:

Watch on YouTube

Echoing the President’s message, the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) and the President’s Advisory Commission on AAPIs send our best wishes to all those celebrating the Lunar New Year.

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Future, Hezbollah open talks on anti-terror strategy

BEIRUT: The Future Movement and Hezbollah have begun discussing a joint national strategy to fight terrorism, Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk said Wednesday night, reflecting the two parties’ concern over growing security threats posed by Islamist militants entrenched in areas near the border with Syria.

Machnouk’s remarks came as the Future Movement and Hezbollah ended a new round of talks Wednesday night focusing on defusing sectarian tensions and ways to prevent the threat of ISIS and the Nusra Front from destabilizing the country.

“The dialogue [between the Future and Hezbollah] is based on finding a constitutional mechanism to implement this [anti-terror] strategy. We are fighting a new kind of war different from wars that we were accustomed to in the past,” Machnouk said in an interview with Future TV.

Machnouk, one of three senior Future officials representing the movement in the dialogue with Hezbollah, said the issue of fighting terrorism was discussed Wednesday for about three hours, but no conclusive results were reached as further talks were needed.

“We need to find a national common ground to fight terrorism with the participation of everyone. We discussed this issue for three hours today without reaching any result,” he said, “but we have outlined our position based on [former premier Saad] Hariri’s speech. The party’s [Hezbollah’s] leaders have also outlined some stances and asked for time to continue discussion of this point.”

But Machnouk stressed that any anti-terror strategy should be handled by the state alone, rather than by political parties. “The only cover capable of finding common ground [for an anti-terror strategy] is the state,” he added.

He said the fire of the 4-year-old war in Syria had spread to Lebanon.

“Takfiri groups exist on Lebanese territories. The Army and security forces know this,” he added.

“There are terrorist organizations along all the outskirts adjacent to the Syrian border. These organizations have tools to do things that we do not want to happen,” he added.

Machnouk said the dialogue with Hezbollah which began in late December was serious and would continue, stressing that its success depended on shrouding it in secrecy.

Wednesday’s sixth round of dialogue between the Future Movement and Hezbollah, held at Speaker Nabih Berri’s residence in Ain al-Tineh, came against the backdrop of fiery speeches by Hariri and Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah.

Addressing a Future rally at the BIEL complex last Saturday to mark the 10th anniversary of the assassination of his father, former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Saad Hariri lambasted Hezbollah’s military intervention in Syria, calling it an act of madness. He renewed Future’s calls on Hezbollah to quit Syria. Hariri also called on Lebanese parties, especially Hezbollah, to work on a national strategy to fight terrorism.

Responding to Hariri’s speech, Nasrallah, in a televised speech two days later, rejected calls by his rivals for the party to withdraw its fighters from Syria and invited them instead to join Hezbollah’s battle against extremists in Syria and Iraq. However, he supported Hariri’s call for a national anti-terror strategy.

Machnouk said there was one thing in common between Hariri’s and Nasrallah’s speeches: Finding a Lebanese strategy in which all the Lebanese would participate to fight terrorism.

He ruled out any key appointments in the military and security agencies before the election of a new president. He said the term of Army commander Gen. Jean Kahwagi and Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Basbous would be extended.

The Future Movement and Hezbollah said in a statement after Wednesday’s meeting that they continued their dialogue in “a serious spirit on the issues under discussion. They positively assessed the security plan in the Bekaa and the steps taken to remove [political] flags and pictures in various areas and serious commitment to it.”

The participants called on “political parties and leaders to help in halting the phenomenon of gunfire on occasions whatever the reason is,” the terse statement said. It added that the two parties addressed mutual calls for reaching a national strategy to fight terrorism. “Discussion was opened on its mechanism,” the statement.

In addition to senior Future and Hezbollah officials, the meeting was also attended by Finance Minister Ali Hasan Khalil, a political aide to Berri.

It was not immediately clear whether the 9-month-old presidential deadlock was discussed during the meeting.

The two rival influential parties have voiced support for a government security plan being implemented by the Lebanese Army and security forces in the northern Bekaa Valley region to crack down on kidnappings for ransom, vendettas, drug smuggling and car thefts.

Separately, Hariri hosted a dinner for MP Michel Aoun at his Downtown Beirut residence Wednesday. Aoun, accompanied by his son-in-law, Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, met Hariri, with whom he discussed the political situation in Lebanon and the latest regional developments, according to a statement released by Hariri’s media office.

Bassil attended last week’s Future rally to mark the 10th anniversary of the assassination of Hariri’s father.

Aoun last year launched a dialogue with the Future Movement in an attempt to win Hariri’s support for his bid for the presidency.

Meanwhile, Parliament failed Wednesday to elect a new president over a lack of quorum, prompting Berri to postpone the session until March 11.

It was the 19th abortive attempt by Parliament since April to end the vacuum in the country’s top Christian post as the rival political factions remain divided over who should be chosen as a successor to former President Michel Sleiman.

The repeated failure to elect a president has paralyzed Parliament’s legislation and is threatening to cripple the government’s work.

UNIFIL suspects Israel deliberately killed peacekeeper

BEIRUT: A Spanish UNIFIL peacekeeper killed three weeks ago by an Israel artillery shell following Hezbollah’s missile attack on an Israeli army convoy appears to have fallen victim to the Hannibal Protocol – the controversial Israeli policy of preventing the kidnapping of a soldier even at the expense of his life.

The deadly incident has left some UNIFIL officers convinced that Israel deliberately targeted one of their positions to “punish” the peacekeepers for not taking greater action against Hezbollah’s activities in the southern border district.

No Israeli soldiers were abducted in Hezbollah’s Jan. 28 attack. But the retaliatory shelling – a mix of mortar rounds and 155mm high explosive and white phosphorous artillery shells – was unusual in blanketing both sides of the Blue Line in a 3-kilometer arc from the village of Ghajar to the foot of the Shebaa Farms hills.

Unlike past retaliatory bombardments which target the sources of Hezbollah fire north of the Blue Line, the shelling around Ghajar indicates that the Israelis were attempting to hit a possible kidnap squad retreating to Lebanese territory with captive soldiers.

During Israel’s bombardment, the observation tower in a Spanish UNIFIL position at Abbasieh, 1 kilometer east of Ghajar, took a direct hit from an artillery shell, killing Cpl. Francisco Javier Soria Toledo.

“We can’t say they made a mistake ... the rounds were getting nearer and nearer and eventually they hit it,” a UNIFIL officer said, adding that the U.N. position had been bracketed by artillery rounds before it was struck.

The Hezbollah team that fired the missiles was not targeted at all, possibly because the Israelis seemed to be unaware of the source of fire and also because the priority in the confusing minutes after the attack commenced was to ensure that no soldiers were kidnapped. Hezbollah conducted an operation in November 2005 to kidnap Israeli soldiers from Ghajar, but was unsuccessful.

The Hannibal Protocol was devised in the late 1980s in response to Hezbollah’s abduction of two Israeli soldiers from Kounin near Bint Jbeil in 1986. Israel tends to pay a high price for the return of its kidnapped citizens which makes them a valuable commodity for its enemies. The remains of the two soldiers were swapped in 1996 for 45 detainees from Khiam prison and the bodies of 123 resistance fighters. The doctrine decrees that all measures must be taken to ensure that a soldier does not end up in the hands of the enemy, even if he should die in the process.

The Israeli military applied the Hannibal Protocol in the hours after Hezbollah kidnapped three soldiers from the Shebaa Farms in October 2000. Several vehicles were attacked by helicopter gunships around Shebaa, wounding 20 civilians. The protocol was invoked again on July 12, 2006, after Hezbollah snatched two soldiers from across the Blue Line near Aita Shaab. Armored vehicles crossed the Blue Line in hot pursuit only to fall into a deadly ambush. A total of eight dead soldiers and two more kidnapped that day spurred the Israeli government to escalate the border clash into a war.

As new details emerge of Hezbollah’s Jan. 28 missile ambush, it is clear the operation was meticulously planned and skillfully implemented.

The attack was Hezbollah’s response to the deaths of six of its fighters and an Iranian general in an Israeli drone strike on the Golan Heights 10 days earlier.

The Hezbollah team, equipped with two Kornet anti-tank missile launchers, was hidden above the Hasbani river gorge about 1 kilometer south of Arab Louaize village. The location grants good eastward views across the flat grassy plain to the foot of the Shebaa Farms hills. The assumption is that the team was in place for possibly more than a day, waiting for a target of opportunity to emerge. That target arrived at 11:30 a.m. on Jan. 28, when a convoy of military vehicles was spotted heading south.

The distance between the Hezbollah team and the target was in excess of 4.7 kilometers, the upper end of the Kornet’s 5.5 kilometer range.

Due to the distance, the team decided to fire two missiles simultaneously at the same target, the second vehicle in the convoy, doubling the chances of a strike. If they had fired at separate vehicles and missed, the element of surprise would have been lost, reducing the odds of causing casualties.

In fact, both laser-guided missiles struck the target. The first missile smashed into the rear of the vehicle and the second penetrated the passenger door, instantly killing the two occupants, an officer and a soldier. “That both missiles hit is amazing shooting at that distance,” a military observer said.

It takes around 25 seconds to load a Kornet launcher, ample time for the surviving members of the convoy to immediately exit their vehicles and seek cover. The third missile hit the third car in the convoy while the fourth struck a stationary civilian mini bus that had been traveling in the opposite direction. The passengers had already abandoned the vehicle. The fifth and sixth missiles missed.

The Israeli retaliatory bombardment began some 20 minutes later. Toledo, the Spanish peacekeeper, was killed shortly afterward.

Andrea Tenenti, UNIFIL’s spokesman, said the investigation into Toledo’s death was ongoing and that the results would soon be handed to the Lebanese and Israeli authorities as well as the U.N. in New York.

Israel has repeatedly accused UNIFIL of failing to curb Hezbollah’s alleged military activities in the southern border zone. In late December, UNIFIL commander Maj. Gen. Luciano Portolano was quoted as saying that the peacekeepers had “no evidence” of Hezbollah weapons in the border district. That statement prompted an anonymous Israeli officer to complain two days later that Hezbollah was conducting “intelligence-gathering operations” along the Blue Line every day, “often under UNIFIL’s noses.”

UNIFIL has a long history of suffering casualties at the hands of Israeli artillery and airpower. Four U.N. observers were killed in an Israeli air attack on their post in Khiam in the 2006 war. A French U.N. observer was killed in 2005 beside the Shebaa Farms by an Israeli tank round. The most notorious incident was in April 1996 when Israeli artillery shells hit the Fijian battalion headquarters in Qana, killing 107 civilians. A U.N. investigation subsequently concluded that it was “unlikely” the Qana shelling was a mistake.

The White House Names Dr. DJ Patil as the First U.S. Chief Data Scientist

Today, I am excited to welcome Dr. DJ Patil as Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Data Policy and Chief Data Scientist here at the White House in the Office of Science and Technology Policy. President Obama has prioritized bringing top technical talent like DJ into the federal government to harness the power of technology and innovation to help government better serve the American people.

Across our great nation, we’ve begun to see an acceleration of the power of data to deliver value. From early open data work by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which provides data that enables weather forecasts to come directly to our mobile phones, to powering GPS systems that feed geospatial data to countless apps and services — government data has supported a transformation in the way we live today for the better.

DJ joins the White House following an incredible career as a data scientist — a term he helped coin — in the public and private sectors, and in academia. Most recently, DJ served as the Vice President of Product at RelateIQ, which was acquired by Salesforce. DJ also previously held positions at LinkedIn, Greylock Partners, Skype, PayPal, and eBay. Prior to his work in the private sector, DJ worked at the Department of Defense, where he directed new efforts to bridge computational and social sciences in fields like social network analysis to help anticipate emerging threats to the United States.

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LU stuck in squabble over directors’ appointments

BEIRUT: The Tripoli branch of the Lebanese University’s faculty of economics and business has been rocked by recent protests.

But the demonstrators were not demanding lower tuition fees or higher standards at the state-run university, which provides almost free education for more than 70,000 students.

Instead, the protesters were mainly drawn from civil society groups and rival Sunni political parties, including supporters of the Future Movement and former Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

They were objecting to a decision by university President Adnan Sayyed Hussein to appoint a non-Sunni as director of the Tripoli branch. The Future Movement viewed Sayyed Hussein’s appointment of Christian Professor Antoine Tannous as the final straw in what they view as ongoing sectarian discrimination in the appointment of directors. Tannous is close to MP Sleiman Frangieh’s Marada Movement.

The group alleges that Sayyed Hussein has ignored the tradition of maintaining an equal number of Sunni and Shiite LU directors, a norm which had prevailed in previous years.

They also complain that Sayyed Hussein, a former minister close to Hezbollah, does not discuss the appointment of Sunni directors with parties which represent the sect, whereas he confers with Shiite parties on the nomination of Shiite directors.

According to Amer Halawani, head of the Future Movement’s education office in Tripoli, Sayyed Hussein is applying a double standard in his selection of new directors.

“The president discusses the appointment of Shiite directors with Shiite leaders, but appoints Sunni directors without consulting the political parties which represent Sunnis,” he told The Daily Star. “The weakest Sunnis are then appointed so that they will obey orders.”

Halawani added that in many cases, the opinions of Christian parties were also not being taken into consideration before the appointment of Christian directors.

“This has been the case for a long time, but it is only receiving media coverage after [the protests] in Tripoli,” Halawani alleged.

Halawani added that neither the dean of the faculty of business and economics nor the directors of its six faculty branches across the country were Sunnis.

“All what we are asking is that all groups be dealt with fairly. If the president wants to use solely academic criteria to govern appointments, and to ignore sectarian and political affiliations, then let this apply to all groups.”

“If he chooses instead to confer with political parties before making the appointments, then he must do so with all of them.”

Sayyed Hussein has strongly denied the allegations.

“I do not discuss appointments with any political leader. I choose the director of the branch from three candidates selected by all the branches [of the faculty],” Sayyed Hussein told The Daily Star.

Eleven of LU’s 16 faculties have several branches across the country.

He added that this procedure was stipulated in Law 66, which was amended in 2009.

“It is the university president – rather than the minister, sheikh, or party leader – who appoints directors,” Sayyed Hussein said. “When I meet Speaker Nabih Berri, I meet him in his capacity as speaker rather than as a Shiite leader. I discuss decrees and draft laws with him [related to the Lebanese University].”

“I also meet Prime Minister Tammam Salam as part of running the affairs of the university – because he is the prime minister, not because he is a Sunni leader.

Halawani complained that Sayyed Hussein had ignored the norm of a sectarian balance in the number of directors, stating there were now 13 Shiite to 11 Sunni directors across Lebanon.

But the LU president contended that there were actually 12 Sunni directors. “Rawiya Majzoub, director of the Lebanese University’s Restoration Center, is a Sunni, but they [the Future Movement] don’t count her because she is not politically affiliated with them,” Sayyed Hussein said.

He added that according to Law 66, sectarian balance is not the only consideration of appointment.

“It depends on the sects of the candidates presented to the president. Muslims might number more than Christians, and Sunnis more than Shiites, but there are always directors from various sects.”

Sayyed Hussein added that he has appointed 38 directors to replace those whose terms expired this year, adding that 11 others have yet to be selected, and that upcoming appointments would help address the issue of balance.

“If Shiite directors outnumber Sunni directors by one, this does not warrant calling for protests and accusing the university president of sectarian bias,” the president said.

“It is not my job to distribute equal shares to political parties. I am disgusted when the issue is raised as such,” he said.

In light of the Tripoli protests, Sayyed Hussein suspended Tannous’ appointment and tasked Ghassan Shlouq, the dean of the faculty, with managing the Tripoli branch.

The move angered Education Minister Elias Bou Saab, who stated that the Christian director should not pay the price for altering the level of Sunni representation.

He claimed that Sayyed Hussein was addressing the issue irresponsibly, and was mishandling other LU affairs as well.

Bou Saab alleged that Sayyed Hussein did not properly consider the appointment or subsequent dismissal of LU directors, saying such behavior intensified sectarian tensions.

He also warned of a worsening crisis at the university in coming weeks.

Sayyed Hussein contended that he decided to suspend the appointment of Tannous after the issue took on a sectarian dimension, and gunmen joined the protests in Tripoli.

“Stability is more important than any one appointment, and Dr. Tannous can head another branch in the north,” he said.

Responding to Bou Saab’s criticisms, Sayyed Hussein said: “I will not bicker with the minister. He knows very well that I have to appoint one director out of three candidates. Appointing directors is in line with my powers. Anyone who advocates the independence of the university should help me implement the law and achieve independence for the university.”

New campaign portrays Gaza war in letters

New campaign portrays Gaza war in letters

A new campaign launched by daily As-Safir and ad agency Impact BBDO aims at telling the story of last year’s Gaza war...

Marshallism and Harirism in rebuilding war-torn nations

Many countries in the region gripped by conflict are at a crossroads for recovery and reconstruction. In this regard, the experiences throughout history of numerous war-torn nations, both industrialized and developing, have highlighted the harsh and intolerable challenges of the recovery, reconstruction, growth and development process, be it at the infrastructural, economic, social or security level.

Indeed, the postwar experiences of Europe on one side and those of Lebanon on the other highlight the heavy burden of such responsibilities, especially in the absence of resources needed to finance and carry out the reconstruction and recovery mission.

Postwar Europe would have resulted in a tragedy had it not been for the massive foreign aid and consistent external assistance that was provided over several years. World War II brutally impaired the economies of Europe, leaving many in a horrific state: cities and factories demolished, transport links severed, agricultural and industrial production disrupted and many refugees dislocated.

In fact, in 1947, Europe’s economies, well below their prewar levels, were recuperating slowly.

But Europe was provided with large grants mainly through the Marshall Plan which enabled it to rapidly overcome its recovery difficulties.

On June 5, 1947, U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall addressed the graduating class at Harvard University with his recommendations that became known as the Marshall Plan, recorded in history as the most successful civil-reconstruction project of the 20th century.

His proposal, as he said “was directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos.”

During the short period of the plan, the 16 nations benefiting from it experienced a dramatic increase in economic production with an economic growth of between 15-25 percent. Industrial and agricultural production sometimes surpassed prewar levels. Poverty and starvation experienced by so many displaced persons vanished instantly while standards of living improved drastically. All this led to a long-lasting period of social peace and prosperity in the history of modern Europe.

No doubt that the Marshall Plan was designed to offset the spread of communism in Europe, while contributing greatly to the economic divide between the rich West and poor East. Also, many have accused the U.S. of practicing “economic imperialism” by bonding the Western nations of Europe to them just as the Soviet Union dominated the East.

Nonetheless, the Marshall Plan accelerated the developmental process in Europe. It also played an important role in European integration as it removed trade barriers. In 1957 a few years after the Marshall Plan, the European Economic Community was formed with the signing of the Treaties of Rome, a development within Europe that continued to expand to ultimately form the EU.

Many argue that the Marshall plan could be replicated for developing countries. This remains questionable given the fact that the plan may be unique as it was a product of unusual mixtures: the huge wealth of the U.S. after the war, the production capacities and natural resources of Europe, the closely similar laws, governments, institutions and “culture” of Western Europe and the U.S., and finally the “prodigy” of postwar leadership on both sides of the Atlantic.

Here, the Lebanese model can serve as another example of postwar recovery. In the early 1990s, Lebanon was economically isolated, its human capital scattered throughout the world and its infrastructure demolished. It was also agonizing from a lag of 20 years during which the rest of the world was moved forward while the country was mired in chaos and destruction. The years of war and turmoil between 1975 and 1990 had a drastic effect on the Lebanese economy and society at the political, administrative, educational, military and security levels. According to the World Bank, the total damage of physical assets amounted to $25 billion.

Total direct and indirect losses suffered by Lebanon exceeded $100 billion, coupled with rising rates of inflation and unemployment, curbing confidence in the Lebanese pound. The total collapse of the state, the complete illness of the civil service and the resulting limitations on all private sector activities made Lebanon lose its competitive advantages in the Arab world.

In 1992, during his first speech at the AUB graduation ceremony, martyr Rafik Hariri – just like Marshall – publically expressed for the first time his political and economic vision for Lebanon, knowing that he was acting on it before, during and after the war’s end through his emergency plan at the human and infrastructural levels as well as his efforts toward realizing the Taif Accord. Hariri had a clear scheme from the beginning to return Lebanon to its previous status as the region’s touristic and commercial hub.

Hariri’s plan relied on reconstruction as a short-term task coupled with a long-term development policy, while ensuring the government’s capacity to achieve its social obligations such as education, pensions and health coverage.

To accomplish this, he was confronted with three options: The first was to wait for international donations before starting reconstruction, an avenue he believed was futile since it would not meet the needs of such a ruined country and would aggravate the deficit and public debt, among other emerging problems.

The second option was to reduce expenditures and increase taxes massively, which would have led to an economic decline and a severe recession while threatening social harmony and national reconciliation.

The third option was the Hariri choice, that of growth, development and construction. It mainly focused on rapidly restoring domestic and international confidence in the Lebanese economy, and founding an environment conducive to capital inflows and investment. This called for dependency on local loans and an influx of capital from abroad while persistently seeking international financial aid.

Although foreign aid was arriving in insufficient amounts, Lebanon relied on itself and borrowed domestically and internationally, and was therefore able to launch its reconstruction program and rebuild its political institutions. Consequently, the Lebanese pound was stabilized and strengthened and inflation reduced. Social service programs were also made along with re-establishing security throughout the country. In short, Lebanon has dramatically changed to a fully functioning state.

Lebanon’s example can serve as another model of postwar recovery for many developing countries in constant turmoil, given that their people are determined to work together to revive their nations and put them at a higher state of development, whereby the rule of law, democracy and private property and initiative are respected by all and equal opportunities are shared by all.

At the end, it remains up to us to learn and build on such legacies as Harirism and Marshallism, or else we are doomed to languish in eternal chaos.

Dima El Hassan is the director of programs at the Hariri Foundation for Sustainable Human Development.

Food safety training center to raise standards

BEIRUT: In line with efforts to improve Lebanon’s food safety standards, Industry Minister Hussein Hajj Hasan and the Lebanese Standards Institution (LIBNOR) announced the launch of a new food safety training center at LIBNOR in Sin al-Fil. “We are responsible for creating a new center for training owners and workers in the food industry. Management of food safety is necessary for health, for the image of Lebanon and our products,” Hajj Hasan told The Daily Star.

Several ministries have a hand in ensuring food safety, including the ministries of Health, Economy and Trade and Agriculture. As for the Industry Ministry, Hajj Hasan explained that his focus was on defining the necessary technical regulations, quality control and training.

LIBNOR is a public institution affiliated with the Industry Ministry. With regard to food safety, it sets national food quality standards and certifies products according to international guidelines.

The newly established training center will focus on proper implementation of standards and quality, and provide training courses for the public and private sector within several fields, including food safety, energy management and efficiency, social responsibility and management systems. LIBNOR has also built a new website aimed at educating clients and the public on the basics of proper food safety standards.

Within each sector, one can enroll in either basic or advanced training, over the course of several days. The basic training totals an average of 12 hours, and the advanced training 24 hours. Classes combine both theory and practice.

Mohammad Chamas, head of the services department at LIBNOR, said the first training would occur in the coming weeks. Looking forward, the organization hopes to expand into other areas of training, including sustainable development and occupational health and safety.

“We will be using an accelerated learning process,” Chamas said, explaining that workshops and practical experience would be offered “for restaurant employees to understand how to carefully handle food.”

LIBNOR is a member of the International Organization for Standardization and is affiliated with a number of international bodies for certifying safety standards. Using these standards, they help ministries apply rules on a national level.

Courses will soon be accessible through the organization’s website. Currently they are free of charge, but Chamas said LIBNOR would charge for training in the future.

The vast majority of training will occur at the Sin al-Fil location, but the staff said they may branch out to other locations should class sizes prove to be too large.

Chamas advises that food safety training is not merely about staff practices. Proper training of management is also essential.

“Before talking about food, we should talk about quality, because food safety is based on quality, in terms of the food itself and in terms of management. It is not something related to the final product only, or the packaging, it [requires] a holistic approach,” Chamas said.

LIBNOR director-general Lena Dargham said the institution had a five-year strategy in place “to enhance its presence at the national level and regional level.”

“We are working on the elaboration of standards,” she said, adding that the organization currently has over 2,000 standards published that are now used in inspections and ministry activities to protect food safety.

Health Minister Wael Abu Faour first brought deficient hygiene and food handling conditions to the attention of the Lebanese public at the end of 2014, when he publicized the names of restaurants and markets that violated safety standards.

Both Dargham and Chamas said that when it comes to maintaining hygiene standards, awareness through training of management and restaurant staff is among the most important factors.

“If I am opening a restaurant, nobody obliges me to do training, and nobody obliges training for my employees,” Dargham said. “You have a problem of awareness and of having safety management systems in place. In the food industry, [awareness] is a preventive action.”

For those interested in courses with LIBNOR, registration information will be available on www.libnor.gov.lb in the coming days. For further information, call LIBNOR directly at 01-485-927.

Army arrests 23 in Bekaa crackdown

BAALBEK, Lebanon: Lebanese authorities arrested 23 suspects in fresh raids in the Bekaa Valley Wednesday, but failed to prevent the murder of a Lebanese national despite the security crackdown, now in its seventh day.

The Army raided a house in the town of Al-Marj in the Western Bekaa, where it arrested four wanted suspects and seized three rifles, ammunition and unspecified military equipment, according to an Army statement released Wednesday.

The Army also arrested 19 Syrians in the city of Baalbek and the Baalbek villages of Hawsh Tal Safieh and Taybeh on charges of entering Lebanese territory illegally.

But despite the heightened security in the district, a resident was shot dead in a town 20 kilometers north of Baalbek.

Mohammad Fouad Hajj Hasan, 54, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in front of his house in Rasem al-Hasath.

According to security sources, a black vehicle with tinted windows was waiting for the victim outside his house. The motorists opened fire at Hajj Hasan moments after he got into his vehicle.

Security forces arrived at the scene shortly afterward and have launched an investigation.

Earlier Wednesday, General Security units dismantled checkpoints erected on Baalbek’s major streets.

The General Security had cordoned off the city of Baalbek Tuesday as Lebanese soldiers raided homes in search of criminals.

However, as of Wednesday, the only checkpoints left standing in the city were those erected by the Army at the entrances to the Baalbek neighborhood of Hay al-Sharawneh.

Security forces entered Baalbek for the first time Tuesday in the sixth day of raids since the launch of a security plan for the Bekaa and east Lebanon.

Several Lebanese citizens were detained, including one wanted on multiple warrants for his involvement in a series of shootings, according to a military statement.

Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk said Wednesday evening that the number of arrests made in the Bekaa since the launch of the security plan had reached 156. He stressed that any illegal weapons found would be immediately confiscated.

Meanwhile, General Security at Rafik Hariri International Airport arrested wanted Salafist sheikh Bilal Dikmak after his extradition from Turkey, where he had been hiding for several months, security sources told The Daily Star.

Dikmak heads the Tripoli-based Islamist society “Iqraa” and was wanted on several charges of involvement in terrorist activities.

The salafist sheikh was deported from Turkey and arrived late Tuesday night in Beirut, where he was handed over to the Lebanese authorities, the sources said.

He is being interrogated at General Security headquarters on suspicion of forming a terrorist group and trying to establish an “Islamic emirate” in Tripoli and north Lebanon.

Dikmak is also suspected of recruiting Islamist youths for his gang and providing them with weapons and ammunition.

Hariri, Kaag discuss presidential stalemate, security, refugee crisis

BEIRUT: Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri discussed Wednesday with U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Sigrid Kaag the presidential election stalemate and the Syrian refugee crisis, as well as other developments in the region.

“It is natural that the meeting dealt with the situation in Lebanon and the region, with a particular focus on security and stability,” Kaag said following the meeting at Hariri’s Downtown Beirut residence, according to a statement from the former premier’s press office. Kaag’s meeting with Hariri was her first since she was appointed in her post late last year.

She said the meeting also tackled important issues such as the presidential deadlock and the social and economic impact of the Syrian crisis on Lebanon. “We discussed the necessary support needed for the [Syrian] refugees ... in addition to the need for continued support for all efforts made by the [Lebanese] government and Lebanese partners to maintain Lebanon’s stability and isolate it from any dangers and threats,” Kaag added.

She underlined the importance of respecting U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, while pledging support for the government of Prime Minister Tammam Salam.

The statement said Hariri also held separate meetings with Economy Minister Alain Hakim and a Kataeb Party delegation composed of MPs Elie Marouni, Nadim Gemayel, Samer Saade and Fadi Habr.

Hariri also received the Apostolic Nuncio to Lebanon Gabriele Caccia. During the meeting, discussions focused on the local and regional situation, particularly on the need to elect a president as soon as possible.

Caccia praised the ongoing dialogue in Lebanon, stressing the keenness of the Holy See to closely follow up the Lebanese situation.

Hariri also met with the Swedish Ambassador Diana Janse. The former prime minister discussed the current political situation with Defense Minister Samir Moqbel. Later on, Hariri tackled the security situation in the country with State Security Chief, Gen. George Qaraa.

Hariri returned to Lebanon last week to attend a ceremony to mark the 10th anniversary of the assassination of his father, former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Hariri’s last visit to Lebanon was in August following deadly clashes between the Army and Islamist militants in the northeast town of Arsal. He has been living in self-imposed exile between France and Saudi Arabia since January 2011 over security concerns.

What Would Jeb Do On Iraq? He Won't Say

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Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush answers questions Wednesday after speaking to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. The likely 2016 presidential candidate says he will be guided by his own thinking and experiences when it comes to foreign policy questions. M. Spencer Green/AP hide caption

itoggle caption M. Spencer Green/AP

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush answers questions Wednesday after speaking to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. The likely 2016 presidential candidate says he will be guided by his own thinking and experiences when it comes to foreign policy questions.

M. Spencer Green/AP

The son and brother of the last two Republican presidents vowed to be "my own man" in a foreign policy speech Wednesday. But he failed to outline a plan to deal with a major focus of those previous two Bush foreign policies: Iraq.

Likely presidential candidate Jeb Bush spoke and took questions for more than an hour at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. He addressed trade deals with Asia and Latin America, support for Ukraine, pushing democracy in Cuba, stopping nuclear proliferation, fighting the so-called Islamic State — even the revolution in Tunisia.

But on Iraq, the closest he came to a plan was conceding that George W. Bush's administration erred in its conduct of the war and accusing President Obama of encouraging the rise of ISIS by withdrawing U.S. troops from the country too soon.

"There were mistakes made in Iraq, for sure. Using the intelligence capability that everybody embraced about weapons of mass destruction turns out to not be accurate. Not creating an environment of security after the successful taking out of Hussein was a mistake," Bush said, then praising his brother's "surge" of troops to stabilize Iraq in 2007 as an act of political courage.

That "fragile" stability could have been built on by Obama but was not, Bush said, which allowed for the rise of ISIS. "The void has been filled because we created the void."

Two points he did not address: Would he, had he been president in 2002, also have invaded Iraq? And, should he be elected president in 2016, how will he handle Iraq now?

Bush telegraphed his likely response to that line of questioning last week at a Florida fundraiser for his mother Barbara Bush's literacy foundation. Bush told reporters he was not interested in "re-litigating" the Iraq war decision. "It's about trying to create a set of principles and ideas that will help us move forward," he said.

George H.W. Bush deployed American troops in 1990 to force Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's army out of Kuwait, which Hussein had invaded that August. That first President Bush, however, did not use the occasion to invade Iraq and depose Hussein — a decision which earned the ire of many conservatives.

In 2003, based on claims that Hussein was building chemical and possibly nuclear weapons, George W. Bush did invade Iraq, resulting in a years-long and progressively unpopular occupation by U.S. armed forces.

During his eight years as Florida governor, Jeb Bush backed his brother's foreign policy without any qualifiers and, given the circumstances, he was never questioned aggressively about that by the media. In the years since George W. Bush left the White House, Jeb Bush has continued to say that his brother kept America safe following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and that he was a good president. Bush repeated that praise in Chicago.

"Look, just for the record, one more time: I love my brother. I love my dad," he said. "And I admire their service to the nation and the difficult decisions that they had to make. But I'm my own man. And my views are shaped by my own thinking and my own experiences."

Bush, who just turned 62, is traveling the country this year raising tens of millions of dollars for two political committees that could help his run for the presidency. One of the groups is a superPAC that can accept contributions of unlimited size.

President Obama: "Writing the Rules for 21st Century Trade"

This afternoon, President Obama sent the following message to the White House email list, explaining why we have to ensure that America is the country that writes this century's rules for the world's economy.

Didn't get it? Sign up for email updates here.

My top priority as President is making sure more hardworking Americans have a chance to get ahead. That's why we have to make sure the United States -- and not countries like China -- is the one writing this century's rules for the world's economy.

Trade has an important role to play in supporting good-paying, middle-class jobs in the United States. Unfortunately, past trade deals haven't always lived up to the hype. That's why I've made it clear that I won't sign any agreement that doesn't put American workers first.

But we also should recognize that 95 percent of our potential customers live outside our borders. Exports support more than 11 million jobs -- and exporters tend to pay their workers higher wages. Failing to seize new opportunities would be devastating not just for our businesses, but for our workers too.

That's why my Administration is currently negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership -- so we can benefit from trade that is not just free, but also fair.

Watch this video my team put together, and then share it with anyone who needs to know exactly what's at stake.

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By The Numbers: White House Takes On Violent Extremism

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Hedieh Mirahmadi (left) of The World Organization for Resource Development and Education, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, and Vilvoorde, Belgium Mayor Hans Bonte, greet each other at the White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism. Carolyn Kaster/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Carolyn Kaster/AP

Hedieh Mirahmadi (left) of The World Organization for Resource Development and Education, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, and Vilvoorde, Belgium Mayor Hans Bonte, greet each other at the White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism.

Carolyn Kaster/AP

The White House is holding its Summit on Countering Violent Extremism this week, focusing on strengthening communities to fight home-grown terror.

"We know from experience that the best way to protect people, especially young people, from falling into the grip of violent extremists is the support of their family, friends, teachers and faith leaders," President Obama wrote in an Los Angeles Times op-ed.

Wednesday's schedule features a presidential keynote speech and sessions focused largely on domestic issues, highlighting programs in three American cities designed to combat recruiting by radical groups.

On Thursday, the summit will go global — discussing international efforts to identify and stop foreign fighters. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, whose city suffered its own terror attack last month, as well as mayors from Belgium and Morocco, and representatives from other "power nations" will be in attendance.

The summit is streaming live here, but if you're not able to follow along here's a quick look at the summit by the numbers:

3

The number of American pilot cities conducting programs to combat recruiting by radical groups: Boston, Los Angeles and Minneapolis-St.Paul.

20

The rate of foreign fighter travel is at its highest in at least 20 years, according to National Counterterrorism Center.

60

Representatives from more than 60 countries, as well as leaders from the United Nations and European Union, are attending the summit.

150

The number of Americans who've either traveled to Syria, or attempted to do so, to sign up with self-proclaimed Islamic State, according to the NCTC.

3,400

Estimated number of foreign fighters coming to Syria from western Europe and the United States.

20,000

The number of foreign fighters, in total, who counter-terrorism experts say have traveled to Syria as foreign fighters.

2014 Midterm Election Was The Most Expensive One Yet

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Republican supporters cheer in Colorado Springs, Colo., as a television broadcast declares the Republicans had taken control of the Senate. Republican candidates, party committees and outside groups spent about $44 million more than Democrats, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Marc Piscotty/Getty Images hide caption

itoggle caption Marc Piscotty/Getty Images

Republican supporters cheer in Colorado Springs, Colo., as a television broadcast declares the Republicans had taken control of the Senate. Republican candidates, party committees and outside groups spent about $44 million more than Democrats, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Marc Piscotty/Getty Images

As the presidential hopefuls chase after big donors, the Center for Responsive Politics brings us a quick look in the rearview mirror:

The 2014 congressional midterm elections cost $3.77 billion, the center says, making them (no surprise here) the most expensive midterms yet. CRP also reports that those dollars appeared to come from a smaller cadre of donors — 773,582, the center says. That's about 5 percent fewer than in the 2010 midterms.

CRP found that the average contribution swelled from $1,800 in 2010, to slightly more than $8,000 in 2014. That appears to reflect the growth of superPACs, political committees created by the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling and other court decisions earlier in 2010. SuperPACs disclose their donors but have no contribution limits.

Another flourishing sector of politics is the 501c4 secret-money groups, which don't disclose their donors or, in many cases, their spending. Conservative groups accounted for 78 percent of the known spending by secret-money groups. (Secret-money groups must disclose some overtly partisan advertising and some field work.) Liberal groups led in the disclosed-money arena of superPACs, with 52 percent of the spending.

Overall, CRP found that Republican candidates, party committees and outside groups spent $1.77 billion, about $44 million more than Democrats.

Besides the donors to secret-money groups, CRP's data don't include the number of donors who gave $200 or less. Those smallest of small donors are exempt from federal disclosure law.

Health Ministry shuts down Bekaa Valley pig nursery

Hariri, UN official discuss Lebanon, region

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri met with U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Sigrid Kaag to discuss the...

Families visit Lebanese captives in Arsal outskirts

BEIRUT: The families of two kidnapped Lebanese servicemen visited their sons Wednesday on Lebanon's northeastern border where they are being held by jihadis.

The families of Maher Fayyad and Pierre Geagea traveled to the outskirts of the town of Arsal, almost one week after the family of kidnapped soldier Abdel-Rahim Diab made the same visit, according to Hussein Youssef, the spokesman for the hostages' families.

Geagea and Fayyad are two of 25 Lebanese servicemen still held hostage by ISIS and the Nusra Front on the outskirts of Arsal since August.

More than 30 soldiers and police were abducted by the militants during a five-day battle with the Army in Arsal in August. Eight hostages have since been released and four killed.

According to Youssef, the families have yet to return from the outskirts.

Meanwhile, the head of the committee representing the hostage families, Sheikh Omar Haidar, was stuck in the outskirts of Hermel after his car was buried in snow. Military intelligence was able to determine Haidar’s whereabouts and later dispatched a patrol that rescued him.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam led Wednesday a meeting for the committee tasked with overseeing the hostage crisis. Convened in the Grand Serial, the meeting was attended by Defense Minister Samir Moqbel, Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk, Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi, General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim, and Secretary-General of the Higher Relief Committee Maj. Gen. Mohammad Khair.

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President Obama: "Our Fight Against Violent Extremism"

Ed. Note: The following op-ed by President Obama appeared in the Los Angeles Times this morning.

The United States has made significant gains against terrorism. We've decimated the core al Qaeda leadership, strengthened homeland security and worked to prevent another large-scale attack like 9/11.

At the same time, the threat has evolved. The al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen actively plots against us. Since 9/11, terrorists have murdered U.S. citizens overseas, including in the attacks in Benghazi, Libya. Here in the United States, Americans have been killed at Ft. Hood and during the Boston Marathon.

Our campaign to prevent people around the world from being radicalized to violence is ultimately a battle for hearts and minds.

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Why Congress Doesn't Really Worry About What Most Americans Think

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Rep. Adam Schiff (left) and Sen. Tim Kaine, both Democrats, discuss President Obama's request to authorize military force against Islamic State. Kaine supports the president's request but has also said he's concerned about the "breadth and vagueness of the U.S. ground troop language." J. Scott Applewhite/AP hide caption

itoggle caption J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Rep. Adam Schiff (left) and Sen. Tim Kaine, both Democrats, discuss President Obama's request to authorize military force against Islamic State. Kaine supports the president's request but has also said he's concerned about the "breadth and vagueness of the U.S. ground troop language."

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

With each week, we have come to expect another jarring outrage from the self-proclaimed Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, the new breed of terrorists that is redefining terror.

News of the group's murder of two dozen Egyptian Christians captured in Libya has topped even the horrors of the previous week, when the world watched a Jordanian fighter pilot burned alive in a cage and the tragedy of aid worker Kayla Mueller dying as an ISIS hostage. These events followed on the videotaped beheadings of several other Western civilians in recent weeks amid a relentless campaign to recruit fresh blood from Muslim communities the world over.

Described as apocalyptic, fanatic and medieval, the Islamic State has supplanted al-Qaida in the imagination of Islamic radicals and in the nightmares of the West. Small wonder then, that President Obama is seeking specific authority to raise the stakes. Even this commander-in-chief, so renowned for his restraint and for downplaying dangers, is ready to follow in the footsteps of the two Presidents George Bush. Like them, he is asking Congress for a clear Authorization for Use of Military Force. It is hard to imagine a path from the past he would less like to tread.

Remarkably, however, the otherwise war-weary American people seem to be on board. Even after more than a dozen years of combat in Afghanistan and a disheartening and drawn out struggle in Iraq, this country appears willing to return to the field for yet one more "War on Terror."

The latest CNN poll says 78% of Americans are in favor of authorizing further actions against the Islamic State. Such aqn authorization, or AUMF, would be the first since President George W. Bush got one (his second) in the fall of 2002 and used it to invade Iraq.

Stunning as that number may be, it follows another earlier sounding by CNN that showed more than 80% supporting the request. Another poll by NBC News and Marist College has just found that even when the Obama name is attached to the question, only 32% of respondents object. And an amazing two-thirds of the respondents were ready to commit at least some ground troops to defeating the Islamic State.

Yet there is one group of Americans that is having far more trouble deciding how it feels about granting the president an AUMF. And that group is Congress.

Even with the latest atrocities reverberating in the media, the most common posture on the Hill has been standoffish. Many Republicans clearly favor stronger action than the president has taken to date, but they regard the current request as flawed and the president's leadership as lacking. They want him to ask, but they want him to ask for more.

Then you have the Democrats who think the three-year time frame envisioned by Obama is hopelessly broad and who blanch at any thought of a ground combat commitment. That is why the White House has explicitly abjured "enduring offensive ground combat operations," quite possibly a reference to George W. Bush's "Operation Enduring Freedom" in Afghanistan (now the longest military engagement in U.S. history).

It may strike many as remarkable that, even with the enormities being witnessed in the Middle East, Congress can maintain its distance from the president. This is all the more stunning given the institutional interest Congress has in sharing the war power.

After all, a large part of the current public support for an AUMF is a clear preference for some kind of process and orderly decision-making before the next wave of U.S. personnel is sent in harm's way. Hardly anyone is happy about this president or any other launching a thousand airstrikes on his own.

In 2002, Congress held days of debate before authorizing what became the invasion of Iraq. In the fall of 2001, just days after the terror attacks of September 11, Democrats in Congress still wanted to set some limits on the first phase of U.S. military response.

And in 1991, when the first President Bush already had several hundred thousand troops poised to smite Saddam Hussein in Kuwait, both chambers held lengthy and dramatic debates in the first two weeks of January before giving their wary assent.

In each of these cases, Congress showed a healthy awareness of the larger public debate going on around them. The individual member had to weigh his or her own conscience in the midst of that soul-searching exercise.

Today, Congress seems quite different. The heightened partisanship cemented in Congressional district lines has created safe havens where most Republicans and Democrats no longer worry about pleasing anyone other than primary voters. If the primary voter goes with the incumbent, the incumbent is almost certain to go back to Washington.

In the GOP, in particular, the risk now seems entirely in the intraparty struggle. Ask Eric Cantor, the Virginia Republican who a year ago was expected to be the next Speaker of the House. His political career came to a sudden halt when his Richmond-area district decided he wasn't really Their Guy anymore.

Primaries such as Cantor's throw a permanent chill into every member in both chambers, regardless of seniority or party standing. Republican districts are now more Republican than ever, and so are most Democratic districts. So as fewer and fewer members have "swing districts," the necessity of constant partisan emphasis grows worse and worse. Even the notion of compromise becomes hazardous.

For most members today, the kind of public opinion measured by CNN or Gallup or NBC News is just too broad and diverse and dispersed to matter. The audience that must be served is the far narrower one that cares about party and policy and issues — and works to elect candidates as devoted to their ideology and as hostile to the other party as they themselves are.