Obama told me so

Tuesday, 10 February 2015

Help Tripoli before it hurts the state: Lebanon minister

BEIRUT: Conflict-ridden Tripoli will bring down the rest of the country unless the government ends its neglect of the northern port city, Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas said Tuesday.

“The city of Tripoli has been exposed to things we can no longer tolerate,” Derbas said in remarks carried by the National News Agency.

“If the government could not afford to salvage Tripoli then the city will disrupt the state.”

Derbas acknowledged that the Lebanese government was capable of accruing “some financial assistance” in order to revive the city’s economy through projects such as the construction of a railway from Tripoli’s port to the Syrian border, and the creation of a free economic zone.

A plan was set up in 2008 to expand the Tripoli Port and set up a free economic zone in the city to help it overcome poverty and create more jobs, Derbas said. But the plan never came to fruition, he lamented.

All governments have pledged to assist Tripoli to overcome poverty and increase employment but none of these promises materialized, he added.

He accused the government of discriminating against Tripoli in a “deliberate invasion that serves to change the characteristics and features of the city.”

The poor, some of whom were loyal to the state, have become transformed into “heartless and immoral beings,” he added, in reference to the extremist militants raised in the city.

Last month, two suicide bombers from Tripoli blew themselves up near a cafe in the city, not far from their homes.

“We have all committed sins and not just mistakes against this nation, but it’s time to return to the homeland.”

Tripoli is one of the most impoverished cities in Lebanon. Hundreds of people were killed over the last few years in recurring battles between rival neighborhood divided over the Syrian conflict.

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Hands off Tripoli 'Allah' statue: north Lebanon sheikh

BEIRUT: An influential Tripoli sheikh rejected Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk’s reported proposal to replace the Islamist slogan in Tripoli’s main square with a more subtle Quranic verse.

Tripoli’s Nour Square currently contains a large ornament of the world “Allah” with the slogan “Tripoli, the fortress of Muslims” under it.

Salafist Sheikh Salem al-Rafei, who is a member of the Muslim Scholars Committee, urged authorities not to remove the ornament in comments Tuesday morning to Voice of Lebanon radio station (100.3-100.5).

In comments published by the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat newspaper earlier Tuesday, Machnouk said he had contacted Tripoli’s mufti as well as Rafei to suggest replacing the Quranic verse: “Enter in peace, safe [and secure].”

The verse describes how righteous believers will be welcomed into heaven.

Machnouk also told Al-Hayat that the black Islamist flags in the city must be removed because they had been used by “terrorist groups that executed servicemen in Arsal’s outskirts.”

However, Machnouk released a statement later Tuesday accusing Al-Hayat’s report of being “inaccurate,” and saying the newspaper used an incomplete part of his comments.

The statement did not indicate which part of the report he was contesting.

Police last week began removing religious and political signage in Tripoli and across other parts of the country.

The removal of black flags with scripture “There is no god but Allah, Mohammad is the prophet of Allah” left Salafist-inspired MP Khaled Daher fuming.

At a protest at Nour Square Sunday, he told his followers that Christians should be the first to remove their religious emblems from public spaces, kicking off a firestorm of criticism.

Daher described the measures as a campaign against Sunnis.

He later apologized, saying he didn’t mean to offend Christians.

Harsh reactions came in from his political allies and rivals alike.

Deputy Kataeb Party leader and Labor Minister Sejaan Azzi called for the ousting of Daher from the March 14 bloc, saying the remarks were “sectarian and offensive against Christians.”

Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi, a member of the Future Movement, was not convinced by the MP’s apology, and said “such issues must not be addressed during this critical phase.”

Future Movement MP Ahmad Fatfat also tried to distance his party from the Daher, saying that the lawmaker “is a member of the March 14 coalition, but not a member of the Future Movement.”

Daher on Monday said he was not trying to be offensive, but believed there was a need for equality between religious groups.

However, criticisms continued to pile on.

On Tuesday, Free Patriotic Movement MP Alain Aoun called on him to resign.

FPM activist Fuad Chehab filed a complaint against Daher, accusing him of inciting sectarian tensions, harming national unity and offending religious beliefs.

The removal of religious banners and political posters in Tripoli are in line with an agreement reached during dialogue sessions between the Future Movement and Hezbollah to defuse sectarian tensions in the country.

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In Likely Democratic Primary, Who's Joining Hillary Clinton?

Democratic Party possibilities for 2016, clockwise from top left: former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; Vice President Joe Biden; former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley; Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders; Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren; former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb.

itoggle caption Ethan Miller, Mandel Ngan, Patrick Smith, Mark Wilson, Chip Somodevilla (2)/Getty Images

There may not be any officially declared candidates for president yet, but prominent Republicans from Jeb Bush to Rand Paul and Marco Rubio are making big speeches and jostling for consultants and donors. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton may not formally announce whether she is running for months. But any number of polls would indicate, without even declaring, she has a lock on the Democratic nomination.

Which got me thinking — who are the other potential Democratic candidates?

This may not be an obvious place to start, but I figured why not ask the opposition? America Rising PAC is a Republican group that exists to dig up dirt on Democrats. And they're on the lookout for presidential candidates to target.

"It really is tough," says Tim Miller, the PAC's executive director. He says each quarter they have a meeting where they sit down and basically ask themselves, who other than Hillary Clinton should we be researching?

"And that list of strong candidates after Hillary is so small as to be potentially nobody."

To test the theory, I went to downtown Chicago — hotbed of Democratic politics — to ask people who they expect to run for president. Here are some of the responses I got:

April Williams, sighing: "The only one I can think of is Hillary Clinton. That's about it."

Martha O'Connor: "Honestly, to be honest with you, Hillary is kind of the only person that pops into my mind."

David Johnston: "Joe Biden, you know, vice president. They usually go for it afterwards."

Adrienne Wonzer: "Hillary Clinton, first of all, and then Liz. Oh my gosh. I can't think of her name. ... Liz Warren, number two. And I can't think of a third possibility."

Elizabeth Warren is a name that came up again and again. Hector Ortiz considers himself an independent voter, and said Warren is who he'd "like to run. I don't know if she will."

As for Warren herself, she told us back in December, "I am not running for president. Do you want me to put an exclamation point at the end?"

So, who does that leave? Biden, who says the field is wide open but has made no obvious moves toward running. And there are three names that didn't come up once among the many people I stopped on the street in Chicago: Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb and current Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

The Democratic Bench

Hillary Clinton is a clear favorite, but will the Democratic Party put up any other contenders? Here are some possibilities.

Joe Biden

Vice president

"To be blunt with you, I think I could do a good job. But that's not my focus now." (NBC's "TODAY," January 21, 2015)

Hillary Clinton

Former secretary of state

"I've been dodging this question now for a year and a half or more ... I'm going to keep dodging it, certainly until the midterm elections are over. I'm thinking hard about it." (Q&A with Canada 2020 in Ottawa, October 2014)

Martin O'Malley

Former governor of Maryland

"I am very seriously thinking about it, is what I would say ... I've been very encouraged as I travel around the country by a number of people who repeat again and again and again their desire for getting things done again as a country and also for new leadership to get those things done." (University of Chicago, January 8, 2015)

Bernie Sanders

Senator from Vermont

"I'm doing pretty well lately as a matter of fact. But that's because I've given thought to running for president." (NPR, November 19, 2014)

Elizabeth Warren

Senator from Massachusetts

"I am not running for president. Do you want me to put an exclamation point at the end?" (NPR, December 15, 2014)

Jim Webb

Former senator from Virginia

"[Clinton] has not announced that she's running. I have not announced that I'm running. If I were to run, it would not be sort of as a counterpoint to her. I have issues that I care about. I want to put them on the table, and we'll see." (NPR, January 30, 2015)

All this is making for a lonely time for New Hampshire Democrats who are accustomed to being heavily wooed at this point in the election cycle.

"You're seeing that fairly significantly on the Republican side, but on the Democratic side, not so much," says Kathy Sullivan, a prominent Democratic activist in the state.

On the Republican side, there are so many household names considering a run it's hard to keep track of them all. On the Democratic side, there's just Clinton.

One-time presidential candidate Bill Richardson has a theory about why. "The reason there's no bench is because she's the cleanup hitter that is so dominant nobody wants to challenge her. That's why there's no bench," he says.

Richardson is the former Democratic governor of New Mexico who ran in 2008 and ultimately endorsed President Obama — meaning he's not what you'd call a Clinton ally these days. The Democratic Party is in the midst of eight years of holding the White House, and pretty much the whole time Clinton has been seen as the next in line. But Richardson isn't so sure her dominance is good for her.

"The public may perceive that it's a coronation, that she's not hungry enough. And sometimes combat, primary combat makes you tougher, makes you stronger, makes you a better general election candidate," he says.

Whether this ends up being a problem for Clinton, assuming she decides to run, depends on how the Republican primary plays out.

Will the nominee be sharpened by the experience with a finely-tuned stump speech, or bruised, staking out positions unpopular with a broader public? For Democrats, the current situation represents a high-risk, high-reward proposition, but it may well be the only option they have.