Hezbollah blasts Syria’s human rights report
Hezbollah has criticized as “bias” the U.N. human rights council’s annual report in which it accused the resistance...
Monday, 30 March 2015
Hezbollah blasts Syria’s human rights report
Hezbollah blasts Syria’s human rights report
Hezbollah has criticized as “bias” the U.N. human rights council’s annual report in which it accused the resistance...
President Obama Helps Dedicate the New Edward M. Kennedy Institute
President Obama, Vice President Biden, and the First Lady traveled to Boston today to celebrate the opening of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate. The building — complete with a full-scale replica of the United States Senate chamber — honors the life and legacy of Edward "Ted" Kennedy, who served as a U.S. Senator from 1962 to 2009.
Located adjacent to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, the Institute offers interactive exhibits, a replica of Sen. Kennedy’s D.C. office, and historic documents and memorabilia from the Senator’s life.
“The John F. Kennedy Library next door is a symbol of our American idealism. The Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate is a living example of the hard, frustrating, never-ending, but critical work required to make that idealism real,” President Obama said today.
President Barack Obama delivers remarks during the dedication of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in Boston, Mass., March 30, 2015. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)
Nigerians Await Results Of Closely-Contested Election
NPR's Audie Cornish speaks with Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, assistant secretary for the Bureau of African Affairs at the State Department, about the latest on Nigeria's elections.
Yemen differences threaten Cabinet with new crisis
BEIRUT: Signs of a new crack within Lebanon’s Cabinet emerged Monday with a Hezbollah minister criticizing premier Tammam Salam’s speech at the annual Arab League summit, arguing it justified the “aggression on Yemen and its people.”
Meanwhile, Lebanon’s top spiritual leaders pleaded with rival political factions to elect a new president, warning that the 10-month-old vacuum in the top Christian post put the country’s security and sovereignty in jeopardy.
The plea by Muslim and Christian religious leaders coincided with Speaker Nabih Berri’s call for a new Parliament session Thursday to elect a president, amid signs that the session was doomed to fail over a lack of quorum like the previous 20 attempts, heralding a prolonged presidential vacuum.
Industry Minister Hussein Hajj Hasan, one of two ministers representing Hezbollah in the 24-member government, said Salam’s speech at the Arab summit did not represent Lebanon’s official position and was not discussed by the Cabinet. He said he would raise Hezbollah’s objections to Salam’s speech at the next Cabinet session scheduled for Thursday.
“We have heard Salam’s speech at the Arab summit conference in Sharm el-Sheikh in which he justified the aggression carried out by some Arab countries on Yemen and its people and also [announced] his support for the creation of a joint Arab force through the Arab League,” Hajj Hasan said in a statement.
“These two stances were not discussed by the Lebanese government. Salam’s remarks express the viewpoint of a portion of the Lebanese and do not reflect Lebanon’s official position as represented by the Lebanese government,” he said.
His comments come three days after Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah denounced Saudi Arabia for spearheading a coalition of 10 countries to launch a military offensive in Yemen.
Since its formation over a year ago, the Cabinet has been riven by political wrangling that has crippled its work and reduced its productivity.
At the end of their two-day summit held in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh Sunday, Arab leaders voiced support for the Saudi-led military intervention against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen and agreed to create a joint Arab force.
In his speech at the summit, Salam avoided taking a clear stance either supporting or rejecting the Saudi campaign in Yemen, in a move apparently designed to avert a split within the Cabinet, but said Lebanon supported “the formation of a joint Arab force to fight terrorism and safeguard pan-Arab security.” This was viewed as an implicit support for the Saudi campaign in Yemen.
The presidential election deadlock was a main theme at a Muslim-Christian spiritual summit held at Bkirki, the seat of the Maronite Church, north of Beirut.
In a statement issued after a four-hour meeting chaired by Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai, the country’s top religious leaders stressed that the election of a president should remain the “pivotal and pressing issue because the Christian Maronite president is an essential guarantee for the continuity of [sectarian] coexistence and, subsequently, the survival of the Lebanese state.”
“The spiritual summit expressed its deep concern and resentment over the continued vacuum in the presidency. This constitutional vacuum poses a threat to Lebanon’s sovereignty, security and safety, and even to its cultural formula,” they added.
Describing the Parliament sessions held since last April as “futile,” the spiritual leaders called on all political parties to give priority to the election of a president. “The delay in the presidential election reflects negatively on all constitutional and public institutions, thus crippling one institution after the other,” they said.In addition to Rai, the summit was also attended by Grand Mufti Abdel-Latif Derian, deputy head of the Higher Islamic Shiite Council Abdel-Amir Qabalan, Druze spiritual leader Naim Hasan and other senior Muslim and Christian religious figures.
The spiritual leaders called on the international community to increase its aid to help Lebanon cope with the presence on its territory of over 1.5 million Syrian refugees, in addition to thousands of Iraqi refugees and more than half a million Palestinian refugees.
They warned that the “unorganized influx” of Syrian refugees into the country had put the Lebanese citizens’ security and their various services sectors at risk, in addition to straining Lebanon’s cash-strapped treasury.
The religious leaders condemned the wave of terrorism and religious extremism roiling the region, and called for facing it with “boosting the positions of moderation and developing religious speeches that stress reconciliation, forgiveness and coexistence.”
They praised the “constructive role” played by Lebanon’s Army and security forces in protecting the country’s security and stability against Syria-based jihadis entrenched near the Lebanese border. They called for supplying the Army and security forces with arms and equipment to enable them to “repulse the aggression trying to infiltrate [Lebanon] across the border” with Syria.
For his part, Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt launched a scathing verbal attack on Iran, saying Tehran’s support for Shiite militias in Iraq represented a quest for expansion. He also voiced support for the ongoing dialogue between the rival Lebanese factions.
Jumblatt said in his weekly statement in the Al-Anbaa online newspaper that Iran has left an imperial footprint in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Palestine. He proposed changing the name of the Islamic Republic of Iran to “Islamic Persia.”
Refugees, host communities hope Kuwait III will bring funds
BEIRUT/ZAHLE, Lebanon: Prime Minister Tammam Salam voiced hope Tuesday evening that a high-profile donor aid-pledging conference in Kuwait would net needed funds for the Syrian refugee crisis. “We hope that this conference ... will help us to continue shouldering our burdens,” Salam said after arriving in Kuwait City.
As the Syrian war enters its fifth year, humanitarians, host communities and refugees are pinning hopes on continued charity from the international community.
Sitting on an overturned bucket, Obeid Ahmad watched as the rain fell outside his tent. Ahmad and his family fled Hama two years ago and have settled into a consistent if not comfortable routine in the Bekaa Valley. But as the crisis enters its fifth year, Ahmad worries that the already sparing humanitarian aid he receives will begin to dry up.
“Now money is going to all different crises,” he said. “We’re becoming a lesser priority.”
At the Kuwait conference, international donors are expected to pledge much-needed funds to help Syrian refugees and host communities. The need is great: The regional response plan for 2015, which would aid both Syrian refugees and vulnerable host communities, is just 6 percent funded, according to a press release issued by the United Nations Security Council last week.
As new conflicts erupt in the region, some are concerned that the international community has lost interest in the Syrian refugee crisis. “Money is now going to fight terrorism,” Ahmad said.
Ross Mountain, the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon, cited conflicts in Iraq, Yemen and Libya as potentially drawing donors’ attention away from the Syrian crisis and its impact on neighboring countries.
Still, Mountain told The Daily Star that he was “not pessimistic” about the Kuwait conference: “In my view it’s an excellent opportunity to state [Lebanon’s] case before a very important audience.”
Donors, he said, have been receptive to the idea of helping refugees and host communities together, and have begun opening development coffers.
“This is not just a humanitarian crisis, it is also very much about maintaining stability in Lebanon.”
A diplomatic source revealed that the United States would make “a substantial pledge to Lebanon,” of more than $100 million at the conference. Previous reports that the U.S. would pledge $500 million to Lebanon were incorrect.
It remains unclear, however, if other countries will be as generous.
“There is donor fatigue,” said Mario Abou Zeid, a research analyst at the Carnegie Middle East Center. Moreover, he added that donors have been frustrated by “the high level of corruption and the lack of coordination between international agencies and the [Lebanese] government.”
Without donations from the international community, however, the “Lebanese internal security and stability” may be put “at risk,” he said.
Without adequate support from the international community, Syrian refugees in Lebanon “will have to resort to any resources available” including criminal activity or even joining deep-pocketed radical groups, Abou Zeid added.
“We need the international community now more than ever,” said Hamad Hassan, the Mayor of Baalbek. “But there is no interest by the international community to help.”
The city is hosting tens of thousands of Syrian refugees.
According to Hassan, this has increased security concerns and brought tourism to a staggering halt. Despite promises to fund development projects in the city, he “cannot say that any project has been implemented.”
“What worries me the most is that we are left alone to fight without support,” Hassan said.
At the Kuwait conference, Hassan hopes Lebanon “will be allocated a certain amount of aid so we can stand upright.”
Lebanese officials, led by Salam, are expected to ask for $2.1 billion to finance both humanitarian aid for refugees and development projects for host communities.
As many as 78 nations and 40 international organizations will attend the conference in Kuwait, also known as Kuwait III.
The previous two gatherings collected nearly $3.9 billion in aid pledges. However, U.N. humanitarian agencies have complained that many donor countries have failed to follow through on pledges.
Refugees, host communities hope Kuwait III will bring funds
BEIRUT/ZAHLE, Lebanon: Prime Minister Tammam Salam landed in Kuwait Tuesday evening for a high-profile donor aid-pledging conference which will net funds for the Syrian refugee crisis. As the Syrian war enters its fifth year, humanitarians, host communities and refugees are pinning hopes on continued charity from the international community.
Sitting on an overturned bucket, Obeid Ahmad watched as the rain fell outside his tent. Ahmad and his family fled Hama two years ago and have settled into a consistent if not comfortable routine in the Bekaa Valley. But as the crisis enters its fifth year, Ahmad worries that the already sparing humanitarian aid he receives will begin to dry up.
“Now money is going to all different crises,” he said. “We’re becoming a lesser priority.”
At the Kuwait conference, international donors are expected to pledge much-needed funds to help Syrian refugees and host communities. The need is great: The regional response plan for 2015, which would aid both Syrian refugees and vulnerable host communities, is just 6 percent funded, according to a press release issued by the United Nations Security Council last week.
As new conflicts erupt in the region, some are concerned that the international community has lost interest in the Syrian refugee crisis. “Money is now going to fight terrorism,” Ahmad said.
Ross Mountain, the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon, cited conflicts in Iraq, Yemen and Libya as potentially drawing donors’ attention away from the Syrian crisis and its impact on neighboring countries.
Still, Mountain told The Daily Star that he was “not pessimistic” about the Kuwait conference: “In my view it’s an excellent opportunity to state [Lebanon’s] case before a very important audience.”
Donors, he said, have been receptive to the idea of helping refugees and host communities together, and have begun opening development coffers.
“This is not just a humanitarian crisis, it is also very much about maintaining stability in Lebanon.”
A diplomatic source revealed that the United States would make “a substantial pledge to Lebanon,” of more than $100 million at the conference. Previous reports that the U.S. would pledge $500 million to Lebanon were incorrect.
It remains unclear, however, if other countries will be as generous.
“There is donor fatigue,” said Mario Abou Zeid, a research analyst at the Carnegie Middle East Center. Moreover, he added that donors have been frustrated by “the high level of corruption and the lack of coordination between international agencies and the [Lebanese] government.”
Without donations from the international community, however, the “Lebanese internal security and stability” may be put “at risk,” he said.
Without adequate support from the international community, Syrian refugees in Lebanon “will have to resort to any resources available” including criminal activity or even joining deep-pocketed radical groups, Abou Zeid added.
“We need the international community now more than ever,” said Hamad Hassan, the Mayor of Baalbek. “But there is no interest by the international community to help.”
The city is hosting tens of thousands of Syrian refugees. According to Hassan, this has increased security concerns and brought tourism to a staggering halt. Despite promises to fund development projects in the city, he “cannot say that any project has been implemented.”
“What worries me the most is that we are left alone to fight without support,” Hassan said. At the Kuwait conference, Hassan hopes Lebanon “will be allocated a certain amount of aid so we can stand upright.”
Lebanese officials, led by Salam, are expected to ask for $2.1 billion to finance both humanitarian aid for refugees and development projects for host communities.
As many as 78 nations and 40 international organizations will attend the conference in Kuwait, also known as Kuwait III.
The previous two gatherings collected nearly $3.9 billion in aid pledges. However, U.N. humanitarian agencies have complained that many donor countries have failed to follow through on pledges.
Samaha trial set to go ahead after case separated from Mamlouk’s
BEIRUT: Ex-Minister Michel Samaha and the head of the Syrian National Security Bureau Maj. Gen. Ali Mamlouk will face separate trials on terrorism charges, a judicial source told The Daily Star Monday.
The two were charged in 2013 over allegedly smuggling explosives into Lebanon to carry out bombings, but the trial has been repeatedly postponed due to the authorities’ failure to communicate with Mamlouk.
Government Commissioner to the Military Tribunal Judge Sakr Sakr agreed Monday to separate the trials, meaning the trial of Samaha, arrested in 2012, may move forward.
A judicial source told The Daily Star that the proposal to disengage the two files was initially made by the head of the Military Tribunal, Gen. Nizar Khalil, in order to facilitate Samaha’s trial, after the Lebanese authorities had failed on more than one occasion to notify Mamlouk about the dates of hearings.
The Military Tribunal can now start Samaha’s prosecution as scheduled on June 15, the source said, noting that the session could take place earlier if requested by the former minister’s defense lawyers.
Lebanon’s Al-Akhbar daily reported Saturday that the trial would start next month, but the judicial source could not confirm whether that was true.
The decision implies that there will be no trial in absentia for Mamlouk, the source added.
In 2013, the Court of Cassation approved an indictment that recommends the death penalty against Samaha as well as Mamlouk and an aide of the Syrian official, who was identified as Col. Adnan.
Military Investigative Judge Riad Abu Ghayda charged the men with plotting to assassinate political and religious figures in north Lebanon.
The indictment also charged the three men with orchestrating a plot to assassinate Syrian opposition figures and arms traffickers entering Syria from Lebanon.
Samaha has been a close ally of Syria and served as a minister when the country was under complete Syrian tutelage, a period which lasted for 15 years starting in 1990.
As medical system struggles, risk of epidemic outbreak grows
SIDON, Lebanon: A leading infectious disease specialist has warned of the risk of epidemic outbreaks in Lebanon, as a number of factors increase pressure on the country’s already fragile medical system.
The Syrian refugee presence, inadequate medical infrastructure, a lack of safe drinking water and chronic water shortages are all major factors that increase the risk of epidemics, according Dr Abdul-Rahman Bizri.
A former mayor of Sidon, Bizri said the resulting conditions have increased the chance of an outbreak of diseases such as cholera and hepatitis A, adding that there’s only so much the existing infrastructure can handle.
Studies from as far back as the ’50s and ’60s have shown that more than half of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon live in ill-equipped camps. A study by the American University of Beirut and UNRWA in 2010 showed little change, according to Bizri.
“This is of great consequence, because conditions in the camps – unsafe health conditions and incomplete infrastructure, coupled with overcrowding and a lack of necessary medical services – facilitate the spread of disease,” Bizri told The Daily Star in an interview.
Even with a relatively strong infrastructure, with the influx of Syrian refugees and the rise in Lebanon’s own population the health care system was doomed to collapse, according to Bizri, and its failures have been reflected in number of ways, including the emergence of new epidemics.
“Recently, Lebanon has suffered from three epidemics, the first of which is Leishmania.”
Leishmania is a parasitic disease that used to be uncommon in Lebanon, with only one or two cases reported each year, Bizri explained.
“[But] the disease is very well known in Syria,” he said. “With the Syrian migration, the dermatological disease spread to Lebanon.”
Over the past couple of years, Lebanon’s health care system has treated “1,300 to 1,400” cases.
“This called for a fast mobilization,” Bizri said. “Centers for early detection and treatment were created, and those affected were given free care.”
“The disease has been confined and is starting to fade away, but this should not prevent us from maintaining readiness,” Bizri said.
The second epidemic affecting the country’s medical infrastructure is measles, according to Bizri. A huge treatment campaign was launched seven years ago by the Health Ministry and the country continues to battle the disease, but “during the past two years, measles rose back,” he said.
This pushed medical bodies in Lebanon to take more drastic actions to contain the disease. Vaccination and immunization campaigns were launched in different areas.
“This is in addition to the adjustment of the national immunization program: a vaccine for measles was reintroduced in the program for 9-month-old children.”
Two doses of the MMR vaccine – measles, mumps and rubella – are also starting to be given to children between 1 and 2 years old. “This fast mobilization led to the control of the spread of measles, but the vaccination processes [must continue].”
Bizri said hepatitis A, the third epidemic, is the most important, as it’s yet to be contained.
“Lebanon now suffers from the presence of more than 4,000 cases of hepatitis A, and the number is expected to increase,” Bizri said.
Its projected rise is due to the pressures on available medical resources and the country’s polluted drinking water. “Lebanon, until now, has not had a response to this problem, and as experts we recommend the Health Ministry include hepatitis A vaccine in the national immunization program,” Bizri stressed.
There have also been warnings that the disease is emerging in Syrian towns and is then being transferred by refugees to Lebanon.
Bizri said the pressure on Lebanon’s medical infrastructure requires the country to focus on two approaches. “The first is refugee medicine and the second is crisis medicine,” he said.
The latter focuses on how to deal with medical crises during wars and natural disasters. The World Health Organization warns in such conditions, three diseases are at risk of emerging: Ebola, cholera, and polio.
Cholera could emerge because of the water problem in Lebanon and Syria, according to Birzi, and the warning regarding polio is a result of the lack of immunizations during times of war. The disease has been recorded in Syria.
Bizri explained that neither Ebola nor polio currently exists in Lebanon but warned of unpreparedness. He recommended the training of Lebanese doctors, nurses and paramedics in crisis medicine, and said there is also a need to train medical and health institutions to better provide services to refugees.
“The world has become a small village, diseases are now easily transferred from one country to another,” Bizri explained.
“The government and its institutions are responsible for the Syrian refugees; it should give medical care a great deal of importance.”
Hostage families resume protests
BEIRUT: Families of the 25 captive servicemen resumed protests Monday, briefly blocking roads in Downtown Beirut and threatening to take the hostage negotiations into their own hands.
After holding a one-hour protest on in Saifi, the families of the hostages threatened that they would permanently close the road the next day if the government continued to keep them in the dark.
“If they do not give us any serious information on the case, we will be taking surprising and unprecedented escalatory measures starting tomorrow,” the families said in a joint statement at the end of their protest. “We will now wait for officials to call us with real news.”
Hussein Youssef, father of hostage Mohammad Youssef, told The Daily Star that the move came after the Nusra Front, which holds most of the hostages, announced that dialogue with Lebanese authorities to release the servicemen was getting nowhere.
“We received a Nusra Front statement that said the negotiations were not advancing, and that we as families should form a committee and meet with the Qatari mediator,” he said. “We took this statement seriously, simply because the authorities did not negate it.”
Youssef said a committee representing the families was ready to hold direct talks with the Nusra Front to replace the government mediators.
The bottom line for the families is to receive information that guarantees that negotiations are progressing.
“We are ready to negotiate with the Nusra Front and find out who is lying,” Youssef said. “In our view, the government is lying to us.”
Later Monday, the families burned tires outside the Grand Serail.
Youssef said the move was carried out by the mothers of the captives who were expecting a call from one of the officials involved in the case.
After waiting for updates, the mothers became “fed up” and started burning tires in front of the Grand Serail, he added.
Nusra and ISIS are holding 25 servicemen hostage on the outskirts of the northeastern town of Arsal.
More than 30 soldiers and policemen were initially kidnapped during deadly clashes between Army and militants in Arsal last August. Each of the two groups has killed two hostages, while Nusra has freed eight.
After holding intense protests in Beirut over the past months, the families halted their action in light of assurances by Lebanese officials that talks have made significant progress. No positive outcome has materialized yet.
Controversy Continues Over Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act
Fallout continues over whether Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act sanctions discrimination. People on both sides point out that such laws are not new, but the controversy over them is.
After Reelection Win, Netanyahu Faces Demands From Right-Wing Base
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been backing off campaign pledges, under threats from the White House. But that has generated a backlash at home from his right-wing political base.
Money Rules: Candidates Go Around The Law, As Cash Records To Be Smashed
Would-be presidential candidates are ditching "testing the waters" and "exploratory committees" to hold onto unlimited and undisclosed cash for longer. Mark Wilson/Getty Images hide caption
itoggle caption Mark Wilson/Getty Images
Would-be presidential candidates are ditching "testing the waters" and "exploratory committees" to hold onto unlimited and undisclosed cash for longer.
Mark Wilson/Getty Images
This is Part One in an occasional series of features on campaign finance, called "Money Rules."
The hunt for big bucks is changing the way politicians run for president.
When a candidate finally admits he or she is a candidate, donors are limited to gifts of $2,700. (A donor can give an additional $2,700 if the candidate makes it through to the general election.)
Not so long ago, a "testing-the-waters" or "exploratory" committee was the usual first step in a campaign. But that's changed. After the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United ruling, in which individuals, corporations and unions can give unlimited to tax-exempt groups loosely — and sometimes quite closely — aligned with candidates, a new trend has emerged: candidates who have figured out how to stay outside the system — and game it.
By not declaring, and thus not being constrained by federal limits, they are free to coax billionaires into writing multi-million dollar checks. In other words, they can raise more money, more easily, than if they were official candidates, spending it to set up staff and travel to places like Iowa and New Hampshire freely.
In this new world, things like rides on someone else's luxury jet, for example, wouldn't raise a flag for the Federal Election Commission – until a potential candidate actually became a declared one. And it's one reason that in 2016, more money is likely to be raised and spent than ever before in a presidential campaign, but much of it will never be seen or tracked.
This is the big explanation of why, approaching the second quarter of the off-year, there's just a single official candidate: Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican. Cruz, who had been an afterthought for primary voters and in the polls so far, had his own reasons for announcing "early," not the least of which was gaining attention and, in turn, raising money.
At least 19 other would-be candidates are delaying the big step. That's a big reversal from the 2008 presidential cycle, the last time no incumbent president was seeking reelection. By late March 2007, there were already 15 announced candidates.
Of what we'll call this year's 19 un-candidates, four are testing the waters or, less formally, "exploring" — Democrats Hillary Clinton and Jim Webb, a former senator from Virginia; plus Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson on the GOP side.
It's not possible to know yet how much their committees have raised, or from whom.
The 15 remaining un-candidates are operating "outside the system" — that is, avoiding the statutes that Congress enacted during and after the Watergate scandal 40 years ago. These politicians want to build their Super PACs' bank accounts before the day that candidacy becomes official, a legal wall goes up between candidate and Super PAC, and they are officially limited.
They seem to be skirting a legal provision that anyone who stockpiles cash for a presidential campaign automatically becomes a candidate, subject to contribution limits and donor disclosure rules.
Republican Jeb Bush appears to be the most aggressive of the outside-the-system un-candidates. This past winter, he launched two committees with matching names. Right To Rise PAC is standing in for a campaign committee yet to come. Right To Rise Super PAC will have to do its advocacy independent of the Bush campaign — once one exists.
Until then, Bush is busy raising cash. The PAC has limits of $5,000 per donor. For the Super PAC, Bush can accept as much as a donor will give.
Elizabeth Warren On Hillary Clinton And Running For President
Sen. Elizabeth Warren on 2016 to WBUR's Here & Now: "What I care about is that everyone who runs for president who runs for any national office right now talks about this core set of issues." Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP hide caption
itoggle caption Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
Sen. Elizabeth Warren on 2016 to WBUR's Here & Now: "What I care about is that everyone who runs for president who runs for any national office right now talks about this core set of issues."
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
No one in politics today is hearing more calls from progressives to run than Elizabeth Warren, the popular and populist Massachusetts senator. Warren denies any interest, though, in the presidency and continued to do that Monday in an interview with Jeremy Hobson on WBUR's Here & Now.
"I'm out here fighting this fight," Warren said. "I'm fighting it every single day in the United States."
Asked if she wants to run, Warren said bluntly, "I do not."
That doesn't mean Warren won't have an impact on 2016 or Hillary Clinton, the current front runner for the Democratic nomination.
"What I care about is that everyone who runs for president who runs for any national office right now talks about this core set of issues about what kind of a country we are and what kind of a future we're building. For me this is really personal."
She also said she won't challenge Chuck Schumer to be Democrats' top Senate leader and all but endorsed the New York Democrat whom some on the left have accused of being too close to Wall Street.
On the issues, Warren warned that banks that were "Too Big to Fail" seven years ago, are even bigger now.
"The financial institutions that were too big to fail in 2008— are you ready for it?" she quipped. "They're about a third bigger now."
Interview Highlights
Who is at fault for the 2008 financial crisis?
Well, let's face it. The biggest financial institutions loaded up on risk and the did it in two ways. They sold mortgages to people all across this country that were designed to explode and... they knew at it the time they were selling it. ... Each little mortgage, it was almost like [financial institutions] selling grenades with the pins pulled out and then putting them in big packages and selling boxes of grenades with the pins pulled out. ... The regulators...looked the other way while the banks did it. The banks were raking in the profits doing this and the regulators in effect were saying "Hey. La, la, la, I can't hear you. There's no problem here."
Did the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (which Warren headed) — in the Dodd-Frank banking regulation bill — work?
That agency has really worked. Here it is, it's only been up and running about four years now, it's already forced the largest financial institutions to return about five billion dollars directly to customers that they cheated. It's returned homes to service members who banks had cheated them out of. It's helping level the playing field but don't kid yourself, the financial institutions that were too big to fail in 2008— are you ready for it? They're about a third bigger now than when they...
Why is that?
Money talks. Never forget that. Especially in Washington, boy is that the message. The biggest financial institutions, remember what they did? First they load up on risk and they manage to get their regulators to look the other way, they crash the economy, the get a bailout from the American taxpayer and then they turn around and instead of saying, "We're sorry; we did this the wrong way," instead they started spending more than a $1 million a day, lobbying against financial reforms, trying to weaken them as much as possible.
On interest in running for president
I'm working on those ideas, I'm pushing those ideas forward, I'm fighting for those ideas, every single day.
But you don't want to run, still?
I do not.
Do you think it will be better for the party though if Hillary Clinton has a challenger in the primary?
Now, come on Hillary Clinton has not declared.
Do you think it would be better if she sails through the nomination or if she has a challenger from the left?
What I care about is the everyone who runs for president who runs for any national office right now talks about this core set of issues about what kind of a country we are and what kind of a future we're building. For me this is really personal.
Interested in being Democratic leader in the Senate?
Nope.
Not interested?
Nope.
On Chuck Schumer
I think it's pretty clear that Chuck is going to be a leader...and I talk about this in my book that Chuck was one of the first people to support the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and to get out there and fight for it. I remember the very first press conference that he helped put together where we brought this idea up and then got out there and started fighting for it. He's been there on the front lines.
He's not too close to Wall Street?
Look, I worry about everyone being too close to Wall Street, let's be clear. When you're talking about Wall Street the wind only blows from one direction and that's Wall Street's direction, Wall Street's money, but there are people who have said, "I'm gonna fight for middle class families; I'm gonna get out there and make this happen." Chuck was very much there on the consumer agency setting it up, building it, protecting it, very much there...on student loans...on social security...these are powerful issues and we fought side by side. I think he's going to be terrific on that.
Salam's Yemen remarks do not represent Lebanon: Hezbollah minister
Lebanon religious summit urges election of president
Lebanon’s most prominent religious leaders announced Monday that they would hold meetings every three months to...
Arsal man kidnapped in apparent tit-for-tat act
Arsal man kidnapped in apparent tit-for-tat act
A man from the volatile northeastern border town of Arsal was kidnapped by unknown gunmen Monday, less than two weeks...
Amid Criticism, Indiana's Republicans To Revisit Religious Freedom Law
Indiana Senate President Pro Tem David Long, left, and House Speaker Brian C. Bosma, both Republicans, discuss their plans for clarifying the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act during a news conference today at the Statehouse in Indianapolis. Michael Conroy/AP hide caption
itoggle caption Michael Conroy/AP
Indiana Senate President Pro Tem David Long, left, and House Speaker Brian C. Bosma, both Republicans, discuss their plans for clarifying the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act during a news conference today at the Statehouse in Indianapolis.
Michael Conroy/AP
Republican leaders in Indiana say they will work to ensure the state's controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act does not allow discrimination against gays and lesbians.
"This law does not discriminate and it will not be allowed to do so," Indiana Senate Pro Tem David Long said at a news conference with House Speaker Brian Bosma.
They said they would "encourage our colleagues to adopt a clarifying measure of some sort to remove this misconception about the bill." The Associated Press says the measure "prohibits state laws that 'substantially burden' a person's ability to follow his or her religious beliefs. The definition of 'person' includes religious institutions, businesses and associations."
As Indiana Public Media reports, the two Republicans said the state's GOP governor, Mike Spence, was unclear about the law when he appeared Sunday on ABC's This Week. (Pence spoke of an "avalanche of intolerance that has been poured on our state" but declined to say whether the law makes it legal to discriminate.)
As NPR's Scott Neuman reported over the weekend, Pence in media interviews said he supports an effort to "clarify the intent" of the legislation while acknowledging surprise over the hostility it has sparked.
The Religious Freedom Restoration Act stoked controversy almost from the moment it was passed by the state's Republican-dominated legislature and signed by Pence on Thursday. Pushback came not only from Hoosiers and the hashtag #boycottindiana, but also from some of the country's biggest corporate figures, including Apple CEO Tim Cook and Salesforce. (Scott has a roundup of the criticism here.)
Pence and other supporters of the measure note that Indiana is not the only state with such a law on the books. But as Scott noted, "Although the law is similar to a federal one and those in 19 other states, sexual orientation is not a protected class in Indiana, leaving the door open for discrimination, critics say."
At today's news conference, Long said the law "doesn't discriminate and anyone on either side of this issue suggesting otherwise is just plain flat wrong."
Bosma added: "What it does is it sets a standard of review for a court when issues of religious freedom and other rights collide due to government action."
Democrats want the measure repealed, but Long and Bosma said that was unlikely.
Reinforcing the U.S.-Africa Partnership
Last summer, the United States paved new pathways for our relationship with Africa by hosting the historic U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit. Fifty-one African leaders joined President Obama in Washington for a discussion on "Investing in the Next Generation", the theme of the Summit. This gathering resulted in $33 billion dollars in new commitments to support economic growth across Africa, as well as tangible U.S. and African efforts to improve security, promote human rights and good governance, and provide opportunities for Africa’s sizeable youth population.
As the White House announced earlier today, the United States is partnering with the Government of Kenya to host the sixth annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES). The President will travel to Kenya this summer – his fourth trip to sub-Saharan Africa and the most of any sitting U.S. president – where he will participate in bilateral meetings and attend this important event.
Launched by President Obama in 2009, GES will bring together more than 1,000 entrepreneurs and investors from across Africa and around the world to showcase innovative projects, exchange new ideas, and help spur economic opportunity. This year’s Summit in Kenya will have an overarching focus on generating new investments in entrepreneurs, particularly women and young entrepreneurs. Choosing Kenya as the destination for GES underscores the fact that Africa, and Kenya in particular, has become a center for innovation and entrepreneurship. Kenya is a world leader in mobile money systems like m-pesa and a driver of innovation, through creative spaces like “iHub.” These are just a few tangible demonstrations of the entrepreneurial spirit that is deeply rooted on the African continent.
Just as President Kennedy’s historic visit to Ireland in 1963 celebrated the connections between Irish-Americans and their forefathers, President Obama’s trip will honor the strong historical ties between the United States and Kenya – and all of Africa – from the millions of Americans who trace their ancestry to the African continent, to the more than 100,000 Americans that live in or visit Kenya each year. The President’s trip will be an opportunity to point to the progress already made in improving health, education, human rights and good governance, security, and economic growth across the continent, while helping to spark new opportunities for future generations.
Grant Harris serves a Special Advisor to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs on the National Security Council. Shannon Green is the Senior Director for Global Engagement of the National Security Council.
Lebanon religious summit urges election of president
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s most prominent religious leaders announced Monday that they would hold meetings every three months to discuss mutual concerns and issue recommendations. After their first meeting at Bkirki, the seat of the Maronite church, the figures called on Lebanon to elect a president.
Attendees of the “Spiritual Summit” issued a joint statement following a four-hour-meeting, which included Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai, Grand Mufti Abdel-Latif Derian, Deputy Head of the High Islamic Shiite Council Abdel-Amir Qabalan, and Druze spiritual leader Naim Hassan.
The summit’s final statement urged the election of a new president for Lebanon, after 10 months of presidential vacuum.
“The attendants express their concern and devastation because of the continuation of the presidential void,” the statement said. “This void threatens the sovereignty, security and safety of Lebanon.”
Describing the presidential election sessions that the parliament had held since last May as “sterile,” the clerics called on the parties engaging in dialogue to tackle the matter.
“The ongoing dialogues between some parties, although we encourage and support them, have had little outcome and are yet to treat the major source of pain,” they said.
The statement also tackled socioeconomic difficulties in Lebanon, calling on the Cabinet to approve a budget as soon as possible.
They said Lebanon ought to reduce public waste and increase the government’s “investment-oriented spending” to create more jobs.
The religious figures addressed the international community, asking for an increase in aid to support Lebanon in handling the Syrian refugee crisis.
They warned that the “unorganized flow and spread” of Syrian refugees in the country had put the Lebanese citizen’s security and their various services sectors at risk.
Participants also commented on the deterioration of the security conditions in Yemen, calling on Arab states to “contain the escalation and protect the sovereignty, security and unity of all Arab countries.”
They expressed concern about the conflicts taking sectarian forms in the region.
The rise of fundamentalism and terrorism was also an item on the meeting’s agenda.
The statement condemned the aggressive behavior of “terrorist groups that have put on the coat of religion,” calling for moderate religious speech to confront extremism.
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Samaha terror case split from Syrian general
BEIRUT: Ex-minister Michel Samaha and the head of the Syrian National Security Bureau Maj. Gen. Ali Mamlouk will face separate trials on terrorism charges, a judicial source told The Daily Star Monday.
The two were charged in 2013 over allegedly smuggling explosives into Lebanon to carry out bombings, but the trial has been repeatedly postponed because of the failure of authorities to communicate with Mamlouk.
Government Commissioner to the Military Tribunal Judge Sakr Sakr agreed Monday to separate the trials, meaning the trial of Samaha, arrested in 2012, may move forward.
A judicial source told The Daily Star that the proposal to disengage the two files was initially made by the head of the Military Tribunal, Gen. Nizar Khalil, in order to facilitate Samaha’s trial, after the Lebanese authorities had failed on more than one occasion to notify Mamlouk about the dates of hearings.
The Military Tribunal can now start Samaha’s prosecution as scheduled on June 15, the source said, noting that the session could take place earlier if requested by the former minister’s defense lawyers.
Al-Akhbar reported on Saturday that the trial would start next month, but the judicial source could not confirm if that was true.
The decision implies that there will be no trial in absentia for Mamlouk, the source added.
The public trial of the former minister and Mamlouk, who were accused in 2012 of plotting terrorist attacks in Lebanon, has been delayed several times because the judiciary was unable to notify the Syrian official.
In 2013, the Court of Cassation approved an indictment which calls for the death penalty against Samaha as well as Mamlouk and an aide of the Syrian official, who was identified as Col. Adnan.
Military Investigative Judge Riad Abu Ghayda charged the men with plotting to assassinate political and religious figures in north Lebanon.
The indictment also charged the three men with orchestrating a plot to assassinate Syrian opposition figures and arms traffickers entering Syria from Lebanon.
Lebanon hostage families threaten to bypass government negotiators
BEIRUT: Families of the 25 captive servicemen launched a fresh protest Monday, briefly blocking the northern entrance to Downtown Beirut and threatening to take the hostage negotiations into their own hands.
The families warned that Monday’s one-hour protest on the Saifi road would be followed by its permanent closure the next day if the government continues to keep them in the dark.
“If they do not give us any serious information on the case, we will be taking surprising and unprecedented escalatory measures starting tomorrow,” the families said in a joint statement at the end of their protest. “We will now wait for officials to call us with real news.”
Hussein Youssef, father of hostage Mohammad Youssef, told The Daily Star that the move came after the Nusra Front, which holds most of the hostages, announced that the negotiations were getting nowhere.
“We received a Nusra Front statement that said the negotiations were not advancing, and that we as families should form a committee and meet with the Qatari mediator,” he said. “We took this statement seriously, simply because the authorities did not negate it.”
Youssef said a committee representing them was ready to hold direct negotiations with the Nusra Front to replace the government mediators.
The bottom line for the families is to receive information that guarantee that negotiations are progressing.
“We are ready to negotiate with the Nusra Front and find out who is lying,” Youssef added. “In our view, the government is lying to us.”
Nusra Front and ISIS still hold at least 25 servicemen hostage on the outskirts of the northeastern town of Arsal.
More than 30 soldiers and policemen were initially kidnapped during deadly clashes between Army and militants in Arsal last August. Each of the two groups have killed two hostages, while Nusra has freed eight.
Renowned Lebanese fashion designer Basil Soda dies from illness
BEIRUT: Basil Soda, who helped put Lebanon at the forefront of the international fashion scene, passed away Monday. He was 47.
Soda, who spent two decades dealing in the world of fashion before starting his own clothing line in 2001, died at a Beirut hospital Monday after a two-year battle with an illness, a close aide told The Daily Star.
He opened his own design house in Horsh Tabet, east of Beirut, in 2009.
The famous designer dressed a large number of Hollywood stars as well as celebrities from around the world, including Katy Perry, Emily Blunt, Marion Cotillard, Jiang Yiyan, Morena Baccarrin and Guiliana Rancic.
Alongside his Couture line, his ready-to-wear collection was launched in 2010, opening doors for a new market to acknowledge the Basil Soda aesthetic.
His brand is in major international cities, including New York, Washington, Cannes, Toronto, Vienna, Moscow, Dubai, Beirut, all the way to Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore.
"We are sorry to announce the loss of Basil Soda, the great international designer, he who built his company single handedly from the ground up. A great man who will always be remembered for his craft and beautiful soul," his company announced in a statement.
It said funeral services will be held at 4 p.m. Tuesday at the Cathedral of our Lady of Annunciation in Beirut.
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Hillary's Email Controversy Hasn't Changed Much For 2016
Hillary Clinton listens to another panelist during an event at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank. Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP hide caption
itoggle caption Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
Hillary Clinton listens to another panelist during an event at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank.
Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
South Carolina Congressman Trey Gowdy's Benghazi Select Committee announced Friday in a statement that Hillary Clinton had wiped her private email server clean; the committee is getting no additional emails from her; it's leaving open the possibility of a third-party investigation; and Republicans are promising to bring Clinton in for more questioning.
Much of what the committee reported was already known. But the drama is likely to continue to play out — with questions of what she knew and when she knew it — over the next year right smack in the middle of a presidential campaign.
To be sure, the email controversy has not been good for Clinton. Instead of sitting back, watching Republicans duke it out, working on her presidential launch and trying to tailor her message, she has had to defend her exclusive use private email to conduct business as secretary of state.
But for all the attention it's gotten, not much has changed in the polls — so far.
In the nearly three weeks since Clinton's hotly watched press conference at the United Nations, there have been three major polls conducted dealing with Clinton and the emails specifically — CNN/ORC, CBS, and Reuters/Ipsos.
CNN's, conducted March 13-15 — less than a week after Clinton's news conference – showed Clinton continued to lead Republican contenders in similar numbers to before the news broke, and she saw just a slight decline in her favorability ratings from the prior poll.
She beats former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie 55-40 percent in hypothetical head-to-head matchups. She beats former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, 55-41 percent; Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, 55-42 percent; Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, 54-43 percent; and neurosurgeon Ben Carson, 56-40 percent.
Her favorability stood at 53 percent positive, 44 percent negative, down from 59-38 percent in November. But that plus-9 rating was better than the entire Republican field. Jeb Bush, for example, was minus-16 (31/47 percent), Walker was even (21/21), and Christie was minus-19 (25/44).
Some of the tightening happening with Clinton's ratings is to be expected as the campaign gears up. When she ran for president in 2007-2008, her positive-to-negative numbers were about even. When she was seen as non-political, as secretary of state, her ratings ballooned. And now, as she is about to likely embark on another presidential bid — as the far-and-away front runner for the Democratic nomination — she is being viewed more politically, and her numbers are returning to somewhere close to split.
In the CBS poll, conducted a little more than a week after the CNN one — from March 21 to 24 — about two-thirds said the email scandal did not change their opinion of Clinton. For fewer than 3-in-10, their opinion of her worsened. About the same percentage of independents also said so.
The poll also found Clinton would not be hurt at all in a primary. (There were no general election head-to-heads either asked or revealed.) In February, 81 percent of Democrats said they would consider voting for her. A month later — and after the news of the emails — it's exactly the same. Two-thirds of Democrats, though, do say they would prefer she have a strong primary.
Clinton's favorability ratings, though, were not strong in the CBS poll. Just 26 percent had a positive view of her, while 37 percent had a negative one. That is a 12-point drop since the fall of 2013 and an even steeper 31-point decline since her high of 57 percent favorable rating as secretary of state. Clinton's ratings, though, have taken a harder hit the CBS poll than in most other polls with a higher percentage of people saying they are undecided about Clinton, someone who has been in the public eye for more than two decades.
Reuters/Ispsos' tracking poll was conducted online — and therefore, is considered by the statistical community to be less reliable than live-caller polls — but a majority said the email story has had no impact on whether they will vote for her in a general election. Similar to CBS, just less than one-in-three said the emails story makes them less likely to vote for her. The poll did, however, find some softening of support among Democrats and support for a third-party investigation.
All of this is to say that this far out from an election, it's important to take a step back and take in all the data. Unquestionably, this email story is far from finished, but, at this point, it doesn't look like it's had a major impact on Clinton's standing.
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