Obama To Pick Sally Yates To Be Deputy Attorney General, AP Reports

President Barack Obama is preparing to nominate the top federal prosecutor in Atlanta to the No. 2 position at the Justice Department, according to two people familiar with the move.

They said Sally Quillian Yates is Obama's pick for deputy attorney general. If confirmed by the Senate, she'll oversee day-to-day operations.

The individuals, not authorized to discuss the decision by name before it's formally announced, requested anonymity.

Yates is currently the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia. Another U.S. attorney, Loretta Lynch, has been nominated for attorney general and faces confirmation hearings early next year.

Yates has been U.S. attorney since 2010. She was previously a prosecutor in that office and prosecuted Eric Rudolph in the 1996 Summer Olympics bombing in Atlanta.

She's also served as vice chair of the Attorney General's Advisory Committee.

Jumblatt: Serious offer from captors on hostage crisis

French arms set to arrive soon: Salam

France will start delivering to the Lebanese Army weapons paid for by a $3 billion Saudi grant once the deal has been...

Geagea: If Aoun is lucky to win election so be it

Geagea: If Aoun is lucky to win election so be it

Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea said he would not give up on dialogue with his rival Christian leader Michel Aoun,...

French arms set to arrive soon: Salam

BEIRUT: France will start delivering to the Lebanese Army weapons paid for by a $3 billion Saudi grant once the deal has been finally signed in Saudi Arabia within three weeks, Prime Minister Tammam Salam said Sunday.

Speaker Nabih Berri, meanwhile, said the planned dialogue between the Future Movement and Hezbollah would kick off with the participation of senior officials from both sides before the New Year.

Salam said that during his official visit to France earlier this month, he had asked French President Francois Hollande to expedite the delivery of French arms to the Lebanese Army through the Saudi-funded deal to help it face Islamist militants threatening the country’s security and stability.

“In addition to strengthening bilateral relations, the arming of the Lebanese Army through the unprecedented $3 billion Saudi gift was one of the most important issues discussed in France,” Salam said in an interview with Al-Jadeed TV station.

“The final lists [of arms] have been finally approved and within two to three weeks, the final signature will take place in Saudi Arabia after which the delivery of arms will begin.”

He added that under the Saudi-French deal, the arms delivery will stretch over 45 months.

“During our visit to France, we hoped that the delivery of weapons which the Army needs to bolster its capabilities to face terrorism would be accelerated. There was a favorable response in this matter,” Salam said.

Following talks with Hollande on Dec. 12, Salam said the French president issued “the necessary orders to expedite the delivery of the arms, especially since the confrontation with terror is still ongoing.”

The Lebanese Army is locked in an open battle against ISIS and Nusra Front militants who are still holding hostage 25 soldiers and policemen captured during bloody clashes in the northeastern town of Arsal in August. The militants are holed up with the hostages in the rugged mountains of Arsal.

In another interview Sunday, Salam said Lebanon hoped France would deliver helicopters to the Lebanese Army faster than planned so it can fight jihadis encroaching from neighboring Syria.

France and Lebanon signed a $3 billion Saudi-funded deal in early November to provide French weapons and military equipment to the Lebanese Army, which has few resources to deal with the instability on its border and has been seeking to modernize its military hardware.

“We are still in talks for the helicopters to be delivered at the beginning of the program rather than at the end, so that we can use missiles as soon as possible against the jihadis in the mountains,” Salam told weekly paper Le Journal du Dimanche. “[ISIS] is present in the region of Arsal, on the Lebanese-Syrian border. If it manages to invade Lebanon, it will impose its extremism everywhere.”

Salam said the airstrikes carried out by the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS and Al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front in Syria were insufficient and symbolic.

“To beat them, you need to be on the ground. But at this stage, who wants to go there?” he asked.

Lebanon is also under severe strain from a flood of civilians fleeing the conflict, with over 1 million refugees now equaling a quarter of its population. Syrian refugees even had their food aid suspended earlier this month because a U.N. agency ran out of money, before being reinstated after an emergency fundraising campaign.

“Nobody has really grasped how fragile our situation is,” Salam said. “If the Syrian refugees in Lebanon aren’t fed, we will be confronted to a very worrisome situation, maybe even a revolt.”

In the interview with Al-Jadeed TV, Salam ruled out an imminent solution to the 4-month-old hostage crisis and criticized politicians for using the issue for media coverage.

“There is no magic wand or miracles in this issue,” he said. “There is an open media competition in this issue as well as a competition among political forces, and even among the families [of the hostages] themselves.”

“I have said from the beginning that this is a sensitive and delicate issue. This issue can be dealt with only in secrecy rather than by bazaars, show off and a folklore,” Salam said.

He denied that a new mediator has been named between the government and the kidnappers, saying he heard about it from the media.

Health Minister Wael Abu Faour has appointed Arsal Deputy Mayor Ahmad Fliti to mediate talks between the government and the militants, Fliti and the hostage families said.

Fliti told The Daily Star that he was commissioned by Abu Faour under the directive of Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt to take charge of mediation. Jumblatt was “adamant on resuming negotiations to release the hostages,” Fliti said.

Salam said his Cabinet is split between one side that supports a swap deal with the kidnappers and another that opposes it. He said nine hostages are held by ISIS and the other 16 are held by the Nusra Front.

Asked if the Army had political cover from the government to launch a military operation to release the hostages, Salam said: “When the Army sees that it can achieve results through a military plan, it will not hesitate. We have given the Army a full political cover for everything a long time ago.” He praised the Army’s role in establishing stability in the country.

Meanwhile, Berri said the planned dialogue between the Future Movement and Hezbollah would start between senior officials from both sides before the New Year. He said the agenda of the talks between the two rival factions is open to all topics, except the divisive issues of Hezbollah’s arsenal and the party’s military intervention in the war in Syria.

“I am ready to host the dialogue because I will be sponsoring the first session,” Berri was quoted by visitors as saying. He said officials from the two sides are welcome to meet at his residence in Ain Al-Tineh.

“What matters is direct contacts between the two sides. We will try to see that this dialogue is serious and productive away from bickerings,” Berri said. He added that the most important outcome of the upcoming dialogue is to defuse Sunni-Shiite tensions in the country.

The speaker said he would convene a legislative session early next year once the joint parliamentary committees have finished studying a number of draft laws.

Berri said matters concerning the oil and gas exploration in Lebanon’s territorial waters have been put on the right track, adding that the Cabinet would hold a session to approve the two decrees necessary for the offshore gas licensing

Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai warned that Lebanon’s existence was at risk if it continued to be left without a president.

“Lebanon is passing through a very critical phase threatening its existence if it continues to be left without a president and if the violation of the Constitution and the [National] Pact [on power sharing] persists,” Rai said during Sunday’s Mass in Bkirki.

He renewed his call on lawmakers to elect a president “because he is the sole protector of the Constitution, the guarantor of national unity and a source of legitimacy for every activity in constitutional institutions.”

Arsal fears another attack by Christmas Day

ARSAL, Lebanon: Fears that militant infighting by the unmarked border between Lebanon and Syria will spill over during the holiday season have gripped the beleaguered residents of Arsal.

Security sources meanwhile contend the northeastern border town will not likely be targeted by ISIS or the Nusra Front.

The Lebanese Army strictly monitors individuals, especially Syrian nationals, entering and leaving Arsal, reinforcing its checkpoints leading to the outskirts of Arsal, where militants are positioned across a 30 km stretch.

Arsal’s residents are concerned about the implications of infighting between ISIS and the Nusra Front, as well as the Free Syria Army in the Syrian border area of Qalamoun.

The town is already weary of tough entry and exit measures in place since August, when four days of clashes consumed Arsal.

Nusra and ISIS militants worked in tandem and overran Arsal between Aug. 2-6 until a cease-fire brokered by the Muslim Scholars Committee led militants to withdraw, taking at least 30 captive servicemen with them.

Four captives have since been executed and it is believed 25 still remain in their custody.

“We are afraid to speak about the situation around Syrian refugees because they have the power to threaten Arsal residents with kidnapping; they have ties with the militants in the outskirts,” resident Mohammed Fliti said. Militants were known to have taken refuge in Syrian refugee camps in the town prior to the clashes in August.

According to Fliti, a shop owner was threatened with kidnapping after he demanded that a Syrian refugee customer pay him for goods from his shop. He claims Arsal residents suspected of collaborating with Hezbollah have also been “summoned” by a religious court run by the militants in the outskirts.

With time on their hands and trepidation occupying their thoughts, residents trade stories about the significance of infighting in the outskirts and how it might affect them in the near future. Rumors, based only on anecdotes, have served to fuel the residents’ sense of foreboding.

One resident claimed that three officials from Raqqa, ISIS’ de facto capital in Syria, had arrived in Qalamoun, bringing with them 2,000 fighters.

Out of ISIS, Nusra and the Free Syria Army, all of whom are positioned in the outskirts, ISIS is the strongest, with the greatest access to supplies and funds.

Rumors are circulating in Arsal that ISIS will soon overtake the FSA, having given the group a deadline to pledge allegiance to their movement.

A source with the FSA in Qalamoun said that new ISIS members from Raqqa have not arrived to Qalamoun, but confirmed that vast numbers of FSA fighters were defecting to the group.

Khaled Hujeiri, an Arsal resident, said many stories were being propagated regarding when the militants might overrun the town, with some convinced the group will launch an attack during Christmas.

Others said they believe Al-Qaa or Ras Baalbek might be next, or even the Shiite village of Brital.

Residents say they are fearful because they lack confidence in the Lebanese Army’s ability to defend the town in the event of such an attack, pointing to the August clashes when militants temporarily took over warehouses and kidnapped soldiers. The militants have also evaded military artillery fire by hiding out in caves and other areas across the outskirts.

The security situation has prompted Arsalis to purchase weapons to defend themselves in the event of another attack.

A Lebanese security source agreed that ISIS was strengthening its capabilities in Qalamoun, especially areas bordering Arsal, Al-Qaa and Ras Baalbek. Another source close to Hezbollah corroborated the security source’s remarks.

But the security source said that although intelligence suggests that ISIS’ ultimate goal is to consolidate power in the Qalamoun area to connect it to Deraa and Qunaitra, in a bid to besiege Damascus, any progress made on this front would constitute a threat to Lebanon.

Hezbollah and the Lebanese Army have been preparing for ISIS’ expansionary goals to play out in Lebanon, the source said, and it will be very difficult for the militant group to successfully infiltrate the country.

Arsal fears another attack by Christmas Day

ARSAL, Lebanon: Fears that militant infighting by the unmarked border between Lebanon and Syria will spill over during the holiday season have gripped the beleaguered residents of Arsal.

Security sources meanwhile contend the northeastern border town will not likely be targeted by ISIS or the Nusra Front.

The Lebanese Army strictly monitors individuals, especially Syrian nationals, entering and leaving Arsal, reinforcing its checkpoints leading to the outskirts of Arsal, where militants are positioned across a 30 km stretch.

Arsal’s residents are concerned about the implications of infighting between ISIS and the Nusra Front, as well as the Free Syria Army in the Syrian border area of Qalamoun.

The town is already weary of tough entry and exit measures in place since August, when four days of clashes consumed Arsal.

Nusra and ISIS militants worked in tandem and overran Arsal between Aug. 2-6 until a cease-fire brokered by the Muslim Scholars Committee led militants to withdraw, taking at least 30 captive servicemen with them.

Four captives have since been executed and it is believed 25 still remain in their custody.

“We are afraid to speak about the situation around Syrian refugees because they have the power to threaten Arsal residents with kidnapping; they have ties with the militants in the outskirts,” resident Mohammed Fliti said. Militants were known to have taken refuge in Syrian refugee camps in the town prior to the clashes in August.

According to Fliti, a shop owner was threatened with kidnapping after he demanded that a Syrian refugee customer pay him for goods from his shop. He claims Arsal residents suspected of collaborating with Hezbollah have also been “summoned” by a religious court run by the militants in the outskirts.

With time on their hands and trepidation occupying their thoughts, residents trade stories about the significance of infighting in the outskirts and how it might affect them in the near future. Rumors, based only on anecdotes, have served to fuel the residents’ sense of foreboding.

One resident claimed that three officials from Raqqa, ISIS’ de facto capital in Syria, had arrived in Qalamoun, bringing with them 2,000 fighters.

Out of ISIS, Nusra and the Free Syria Army, all of whom are positioned in the outskirts, ISIS is the strongest, with the greatest access to supplies and funds.

Rumors are circulating in Arsal that ISIS will soon overtake the FSA, having given the group a deadline to pledge allegiance to their movement.

A source with the FSA in Qalamoun said that new ISIS members from Raqqa have not arrived to Qalamoun, but confirmed that vast numbers of FSA fighters were defecting to the group.

Khaled Hujeiri, an Arsal resident, said many stories were being propagated regarding when the militants might overrun the town, with some convinced the group will launch an attack during Christmas.

Others said they believe Al-Qaa or Ras Baalbek might be next, or even the Shiite village of Brital.

Residents say they are fearful because they lack confidence in the Lebanese Army’s ability to defend the town in the event of such an attack, pointing to the August clashes when militants temporarily took over warehouses and kidnapped soldiers. The militants have also evaded military artillery fire by hiding out in caves and other areas across the outskirts.

The security situation has prompted Arsalis to purchase weapons to defend themselves in the event of another attack.

A Lebanese security source agreed that ISIS was strengthening its capabilities in Qalamoun, especially areas bordering Arsal, Al-Qaa and Ras Baalbek. Another source close to Hezbollah corroborated the security source’s remarks.

But the security source said that although intelligence suggests that ISIS’ ultimate goal is to consolidate power in the Qalamoun area to connect it to Deraa and Qunaitra, in a bid to besiege Damascus, any progress made on this front would constitute a threat to Lebanon.

Hezbollah and the Lebanese Army have been preparing for ISIS’ expansionary goals to play out in Lebanon, the source said, and it will be very difficult for the militant group to successfully infiltrate the country.

Tearful reception for Air Algerie crash victims

BEIRUT: The cargo terminal of the Rafic Hariri Airport hosted hundreds of relatives, soldiers, government officials and journalists Sunday night, all waiting in the cold for the arrival of the 19 Lebanese victims of the Air Algerie crash. Relatives of the victims dressed in black greeted each other with kisses on the cheek and warm embraces as they patiently waited for hours to see their loved ones.

It has been five months since the fatal accident and the families have been desperately calling for the bodies to be returned.

The flight from Algeria to Burkina Faso mysteriously crashed in Mali and claimed the lives of all 116 passengers, 19 of whom were Lebanese. After months of negotiations between France, Algeria and Lebanon, the bodies were finally returned to their families.

Jihad Assadallah Dhaini’s brother Bilal, his sister-in-law Karina Bird and their three children, Malik Olivia and Rayane, all died in the crash. He and his brother both lived in West Africa, and Bilal was on his way back to Lebanon for Eid al-Fitr. He spoke to him shortly before he boarded.

“You can’t imagine how I’m feeling right now,” Dhaini, who is from south Lebanon, told The Daily Star. “This isn’t something that people are supposed to feel. This was forced upon us I wouldn’t wish this upon anybody.”

Dhaini said it was critical to know how and why the flight crashed, to prevent such incidents in the future. The investigation into what exactly happened is ongoing and the cause of the crash is still unclear.

However, Hasan Suleiman, whose cousin Mounji was on the Air Algerie flight with his wife and four children, said the investigation was pointless.

“What difference does the investigation make? The person we care about died. What is it going to bring us?” he asked.

“I feel devastated right now. We’re accepting our family as cargo and not in the arrival terminal.”

Suleiman was also irritated by the fact that the government officials in attendance, Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, Environment Minister Mohammad Machnouk and Public Works and Transport Minister Ghazi Zeaiter, as well as MPs and religious figures, were all occupying seats while his cousin’s siblings were all made to stand.

The victims’ arrival was mired by a feeling of confusion.

Journalists scrambled to get quotes from the relatives and government officials, while soldiers attempted to keep everybody in order and away from government ministers. The sound of somebody weeping was never far away.

Families were growing noticeably more and more irritated by the combination of journalists hounding them and continuous delays by security forces. These feelings came to a boil when the 19 Red Cross ambulances, each carrying a coffin draped in a Lebanese flag, poured out from the plane.

The soft weeping turned into loud wailing as the families pressed against the ambulances to get a look at the coffins of the loved ones.

A military band played funeral music with the flood lights illuminating the scene reflecting off their saxophones. Soldiers present lifted their hands for a salute while the family members buried their heads in theirs in disbelief.

Moments later, the scene was disturbed by a man screaming, “We don’t want a picture! Get away from me!” at a group of photographers attempting to photograph his crying mother. His screams were slowly drowned out by several sheikhs reciting prayers as the ambulances passed by.

After all 19 ambulances had passed the gate, the religious figures formed a line with government officials and some family members behind them to pay their respects and give their respective blessings.

Facing them, behind the cameras and photographer, one man was almost hanging from an ambulance with his face pressed against the glass, staring at a coffin and weeping. As they recited their prayers, his voice rang out, “Why God, why?”