Week in Review: Net Neutrality, My Brother's Keeper, and Protecting Your Savings

This week, the President announced a new initiative to protect Americans' retirement savings, hosted governors at the White House, thanked advocates for their work in securing a free and open Internet, and celebrated the first anniversary of the My Brother's Keeper initiative.

Find out more about the past week at the White House in our latest weekly wrap-up.

Protecting Your Savings

On Monday, the President announced major actions to update the rules in place to protect you and your retirement savings. Under our current system, financial advisors can accept a back-door payment or hidden fees for directing you toward a retirement plan that's not in your best interest. On average, these conflicts of interest cost Americans $17 billion in total losses every year.

"After a lifetime of hard work, you should be able to retire with dignity" —President Obama: http://bit.ly/1ASSk4G http://bit.ly/1ASSk4I

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 23, 2015

That's why the President is directing the Department of Labor to crack down on this kind of behavior. Check out this quick explainer video and see what the President is doing to help.

read more

Jeb's Rowdy Supporters Help Him Escape the CPAC Lion's Den

i

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush shakes hands with the audience after speaking at CPAC Friday. Carolyn Kaster/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Carolyn Kaster/AP

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush shakes hands with the audience after speaking at CPAC Friday.

Carolyn Kaster/AP

Jeb Bush walked into the lion's den of the Conservative Political Action Conference Friday, and walked out smiling — thanks to a few busloads of his supporters who proved louder and more persistent than his hecklers.

Bush, a likely 2016 presidential candidate, started out unevenly in his interview-style appearance, rushing through his answers to Fox News host Sean Hannity, using clunky phrases from his stump speech, and at times almost shouting to overcome boos and taunts.

But his own backers strategically occupied the center of the cavernous ballroom at the Gaylord National Resort just outside Washington, D.C. They easily drowned out the hecklers (many of them sporting Rand Paul t-shirts), and Bush quickly hit his stride.

"If we share our enthusiasm and love for our country and belief in our philosophy, we will be able to get Latinos and young people and other people that you need to win," he said to loud cheers.

Bush's views on immigration and the Common Core education standards rile many conservatives, and his brother George W. Bush's Iraq war angers many in the Republican Party's libertarian wing who tend to support Paul, the junior senator from Kentucky and also a likely 2016 presidential candidate. It was this group that tried to organize a mass walkout on Bush's appearance.

That didn't come to pass, and Bush cruised through his 25 minutes with Hannity staying on the message he came to deliver, including a recitation of a conservative record in his two terms as Florida's governor. "It's a record of accomplishment, of getting things done," Bush said. "Florida is a place where conservative principles have helped not just Republicans, but everybody."

Bush spoke to his supporters afterward, and acknowledged their role. "It made a huge difference," Bush said to the packed conference room. "That was raucous, and wild, and I loved it."

Friday's appearance was only Bush's second at CPAC. He'd stayed away from the annual gathering during his governor years as part of his strategy to avoid events that fed presidential speculation.

His appearance in 2013 came as part of his publicity tour for a new book, Immigration Wars, which argued for policies similar to those that wound up in the Senate immigration overhaul that passed later that year.

Bush used that occasion to scold his party for seeming "anti-everything," but also prescribed the same optimistic message of a "right to rise" that is the theme of his pre-campaign. It was not well received by that audience, but neither did he face the open hostility he saw Friday.

Bush, 62, served two terms as Florida governor. He cut $14 billion in taxes, signed gun-rights laws, including the controversial "stand-your-ground" bill, created three private school voucher programs, and spent public money to persuade women to avoid abortions.

Many conservatives nevertheless mistrust him because of his support for more stringent education standards in Common Core and for an immigration overhaul that does not call for the deportation of all those in this country illegally.

Army gears up for retaliatory attacks by ISIS, Nusra

BEIRUT: The Army chief vowed Friday to crush Syria-based jihadis threatening to destabilize Lebanon, as troops geared up for possible retaliatory attacks by militants in response to their expulsion from two key positions on the northeastern border with Syria, a senior military official said.

The remarks by Army commander Gen. Jean Kahwagi came a day after Lebanese troops drove Islamist militants out of two strategic hilltop outposts on the outskirts of the northeastern Bekaa town of Ras Baalbek in a pre-emptive strike aimed at fending off jihadis holed up in the rugged border area with Syria.

Kahwagi traveled to Ras Baalbek Friday along with Defense Minister Samir Moqbel to meet with troops in what was seen as a morale-boosting visit to Army units deployed around the mainly Christian town and other areas near the border with Syria.

“The Army has no choice but to win over terrorism,” Kahwagi told troops during an inspection tour of military units deployed in Ras Baalbek, where he was briefed by officers on the conditions of soldiers and field measures taken following the swift operation on the town’s outskirts at dawn Thursday aimed at preventing terrorist groups from infiltrating Lebanese territories.

He praised the continuing sacrifices made by soldiers on the eastern frontier with Syria “to protect villages and towns near this border from the infiltration of terrorist organizations and their attacks.”

“The qualitative military operation, which was carried out yesterday [Thursday] and was crowned with great success, reflected the Army’s firm decision to fight terrorism and ward off its danger from citizens,” Kahwagi said. “Ensuring the border’s safety from infiltration and aggression is the first defense line [to safeguard] Lebanon’s unity, security and stability.”

A senior military official said the Army was gearing up for the possibility of militants retaliating for their expulsion from the hilltop positions of Sadr al-Jarash and Harf al-Jarash, northeast of Tallet al-Hamra on the outskirts of Ras Baalbek.

“The Army is always ready for all eventualities, including the possibility of the terrorists launching retaliatory attacks in response to their defeat on the outskirts of Ras Baalbek,” the official told The Daily Star.

“The Army will continue its pre-emptive operations as part of its ongoing battle against terrorism.” On the significance of Kahwagi’s trip to Ras Baalbek, the official said: “The visit was meant to send out a strong message that the Army is determined in its battle against terrorism.”

According to the official, the Army Friday morning sporadically pounded militants’ hideouts on the northeastern border with Syria with rockets and artillery fire, a day after troops killed at least three Islamists in the pre-emptive operation on the outskirts of Ras Baalbek. The Army said three soldiers were lightly wounded during Thursday’s clashes with the militants believed to be affiliated with ISIS.

For his part, Moqbel commended troops for demonstrating a “high skill in combat in driving out the terrorists so quickly from two strategic hilltops in Ras Baalbek.” He congratulated soldiers on “this great achievement ... in the face of terrorism.”

Thursday’s operation has “proved, beyond any doubt, that the Army is professional and cohesive with a solid patriotic ideology free of political and sectarian poisons,” Moqbel said.

“The Army only lacks more qualitative weapons and equipment, which we hope to receive soon,” he said, clearly referring to French weapons funded by a $3 billion Saudi grant to bolster the military’s capabilities in the battle against terrorism.

The French Defense Ministry said Wednesday that it would begin shipping $3 billion worth of weapons paid for by Saudi Arabia to the Lebanese Army in April.

Under the deal first announced in 2013, France would supply French armored vehicles, warships, attack helicopters, munitions and communication gear to the Lebanese military.

In a TV interview later Friday, Kahwagi said the Saudi-funded French weapons to the Army were on the right track.

“The money has been transferred and the Army Command is waiting for the arrival of a French delegation [in Beirut] to put the final touches to the deal,” he said. He added that the Army’s pre-emptive attack on the outskirts of Ras Baalbek was 100 percent successful.

The policy of pre-emptive shelling was put in place after eight soldiers, including an officer, were killed and 22 others were wounded in fierce clashes with ISIS militants on the outer edge of Ras Baalbek last month.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk said the security situation in Lebanon was under control despite the mounting threats posed by ISIS and the Nusra Front, which are still holding 25 Lebanese soldiers and policemen hostage on the outskirts of the northeastern town of Arsal.

“Lebanon is threatened by crises that are threatening the other countries in the Arab world where there are takfiri organizations,” Machnouk told reporters after meeting Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby in Cairo Friday. “However, the [security] situation in Lebanon is under control. We are capable of tackling matters with the minimum losses.”

Machnouk said he had discussed with Elaraby the situation in Lebanon, including the “obstacles that are preventing the election of a president.”

Army preps for possible jihadi offensive

BEIRUT: The Lebanese Army push in the past two days to seize a key high point east of Ras Baalbek strengthens the defensive line protecting populated areas of the northern Bekaa and comes ahead of possible early summer offensives mounted either by militant groups holed up along the border with Syria or by the Army itself.

The seizure of the Sadr al-Jarash mountain closes a dangerous loophole that had allowed suspected ISIS militants to stage two deadly ambushes in December and January against Lebanese soldiers on Tallet al-Hamra, a 1,517-meter hill 5 kilometers east of Ras Baalbek. Tallet al-Hamra overlooks a broad swath of mainly flat terrain to the east and southeast that extends some 10 kilometers to the mountain range that marks the Syrian border. It makes for a useful observation point in addition to the heavily fortified watchtower on a smaller hill called Im Khaled just south of Tallet al-Hamra.

The problem lay in accessing the hilltop safely. The single track that leads to the summit swings out to the east, perilously close to the ISIS lines before looping back westward to the top of the hill.

Although the Army was constructing a new direct route to the hilltop from Ras Baalbek, the rugged terrain slowed progress, forcing soldiers to keep using the dangerous track.

On Dec. 2, seven soldiers were killed when their soft-skin vehicle was ambushed by suspected ISIS militants while following the track to the summit of Tallet al-Hamra. On Jan. 23, eight soldiers died in a similar ambush at Tallet al-Hamra when militants overran the unprotected observation site. There followed a grueling eight-hour battle as soldiers fought to retake the hill from the militants, who appeared determined to keep it.

Heavy artillery fire and multiple airstrikes from the Army’s Cessna aircraft armed with Hellfire missiles eventually drove the militants away. The bodies of 47 militants were recovered from the battlefield.

A security source who saw the aftermath of the battle and some of the bodies noted that while the dead militants were “filthy dirty” and clearly living in harsh conditions, their weapons were clean and that their fighting capabilities should not be underestimated. In the aftermath of the Jan. 23 battle, a fortified Forward Operating Base was constructed on Tallet al-Hamra.

The action of the past two days has seen the Army capture an adjacent mountain top on a ridge 1.5 kilometers northeast of Tallet al-Hamra where some militants had been holed up. The seizure of the mountain safeguards Tallet al-Hamra, pushes the militants further to the east and also allows the Army to dominate the ground to the north, which includes Wadi Rafeq, midway between Ras Baalbek and Al-Qaa.

The track running through Wadi Rafeq has been used in the past by militants to infiltrate car bombs into Lebanon, but is currently blocked with earth berms and land mines.

The Army now operates a string of FOBs and observation posts from Naamat on the northern border to just south of Arsal, providing a strong defensive line against the militants in the mountains to the east.

The latest moves by the Army come amid renewed speculation that ISIS and the Nusra Front, Syria’s Al-Qaeda affiliate, could be planning to launch an offensive when the weather improves to seize one or more villages in northeast Bekaa.

Recent reports say the militants have been bulldozing new tracks and fortifications in the mountains in preparation for an attack. Potential targets of a militant offensive are the villages of Al-Qaa, Ras Baalbek, Fakiha and Arsal, all of which are accessible via valley systems running out of the eastern mountains.

There are an estimated 3,000 militants in the northeastern mountain chain, most of them either with ISIS, which is mainly deployed opposite Ras Baalbek, or with the Nusra Front, which operates further south opposite Arsal. The Free Syrian Army units that used to dominate the Qalamoun area has either withdrawn or its cadres joined up with the two extremist groups.

Despite the harsh environment in which they live – the snow-swept mountains that straddle the border – the militants have been able to develop logistical supply routes to ensure a steady flow of personnel, weapons, ammunition and food.

According to diplomatic sources, the Nusra Front’s main supply route extends from its stronghold in Idlib province in northern Syria across the desert via Quarytayn, 70 kilometers southeast of Homs, before slipping into Qalamoun from the east.

ISIS is also thought to use Quarytayn to reach Qalamoun from Palmyra and other areas under its control in eastern Syria.

Nevertheless, it is unclear what the militants could expect to gain from attacking Lebanese villages in the northern Bekaa. Even if they were successful in breaching the Army’s defensive lines and seizing a village, they would quickly find themselves besieged and under attack.

Their supply line back to the border area would also be vulnerable to attack by the Army.

If there is a spring or early summer offensive in the northeast mountains it may instead be carried out by the Army in an effort to push the militants back into Syrian territory.

Security sources say there is a mood within the Army to conduct such an offensive but it would be dependent on the timely arrival of promised new weapons systems from France and the United States as part of the Saudi grant packages totaling $4 billion.

The Army recently received 12 M109 self-propelled 155mm artillery guns from Jordan and 72 M198 towed 155mm cannons from the U.S. along with large quantities of ammunition. The missing factor for now is sufficient air support.

Abu Faour shuts down hospital in north

BEIRUT: Health Minister Wael Abu Faour Friday announced the unprecedented closure of a hospital in the north, while another medical facility in the south came under scrutiny by the Labor Ministry.

The Minyeh Hospital in north Lebanon is the first medical facility to be ordered shut since the ministry launched a sweeping public health campaign in November, although its closure is temporary and it could reopen if it addresses its violations.

The campaign has previously targeted Beirut’s slaughterhouse and fish market along with hundreds of restaurants, supermarkets and beauty clinics across the country.

The decision to order the hospital shut came after the ministry revealed that the facility violated health standards, according to a statement released by Abu Faour’s office.

Abu Faour gave the facility two months to carry out the reforms. If the changes are not implemented within that period, the hospital’s license would be revoked, he said.

He also terminated the Health Ministry’s contract with the hospital.

Last week, Abu Faour ended the government’s contract with one of Lebanon’s most prestigious hospitals after it violated its agreement with the ministry.

Abu Faour’s decision came after Hotel Dieu Hospital in Beirut’s Ashrafieh district refused to admit a patient with a physical disability.

Separately, the Labor Ministry referred the case of a hospital in the southern city of Tyre to the Health Ministry after inspections revealed a set of legal and health violations.

The Labor Ministry sent inspectors to evaluate the facility’s working conditions after receiving several complaints from the staff.

According to a statement, inspectors revealed that although the hospital is licensed, it is not registered with the Labor Ministry. It also does not have records of health certificates and work-related accidents and has employed Palestinian nationals who do not have work permits.

The statement said the hospital lacks adequate safety regulations with regard to the use of chemicals and prescriptions for medication. The facility is also inadequate with regard to fire safety, ventilation, lighting and cooling systems.

It also cited excess moisture in storage rooms for chemical and biological substances and noted the incompatibility of the facility’s water with safety standards.

The Labor Ministry will oversee the correction of hospital violations relating to employment, working conditions, and professional safety, while the Health Ministry will tackle issues relating to public health and medical practice.

Lack of thorough records hampering public works: expert

BEIRUT: The lack of comprehensive records is hindering the work of the Public Works and Transport Ministry, a road maintenance expert said Friday at the end of a UNDP program to boost the capabilities of ministry engineers.

Rami Chehade, a road maintenance supervisor at Transurban, a company with a corporate office in Washington D.C., told The Daily Star in an interview that the ministry doesn’t keep records of the facilities that fall under its control.

“To keep your home, don’t you need to know what’s in it?” he said.

“For example, you need to know what kind of air-conditioning and gates [are being used] in order to know what kind of maintenance they require. I asked them [employees]: Does anyone have a database to keep track of how many kilometers the roads are, or how many electricity poles and sewage systems you have? No one knows.”

In an attempt to find a solution, Chehade made a recommendation to the ministry that wouldn’t cost it very much money: hiring interns. He suggested that students willing to work at the ministry could be sent across Lebanon to survey its infrastructure.

Having a comprehensive database could help the ministry legitimize its public standing, Chehade explained. For instance, when it’s clear what aspects of infrastructure fall under its jurisdiction, the ministry would be able to demand a precise budget for maintenance-related work. “Now if they aren’t granted the budget that’s another issue ... but it shows that the ministry ... did all it could.”

Chehade is a Lebanese expatriate living in the United States. He came back to his home country on a short visit as part of a four-day training about emergency road maintenance. During the event, Chehade worked with 24 engineers from the Public Works and Transport Ministry to strengthen their capabilities.

The training was part of the U.N. Development Program’s “Transfer of Knowledge through Expatriate Nationals” project, which was implemented jointly with the Council for Development and Reconstruction.

The training ended Friday and certificates were distributed to the engineers in the presence of UNDP’s Country Director Luca Renda.

The status of Lebanon’s roads has been a controversial issue this year after successive storms overwhelmed the country’s infrastructure with heavy rains and snow.

During the training, weather was a crucial point of discussion.

Earlier this month Lebanon was hit by storm “Yohan,” which brought heavy precipitation, leading to the flooding of numerous roads such as the Nahr al-Kalb Highway linking Jounieh to Beirut.

In November, a tunnel near the Rafik Hariri International Airport was also flooded after showers.

Chehade informed the ministry that a clear database would have helped highlight the trouble spots causing drainage issues.

“We all know that it’s a crumbling infrastructure, with old and small pipelines paired with an increase in construction activity,” Chehade said.

Additionally, he said, the sewers need to be checked constantly with cameras that can detect whether they are blocked. The drainage system also needs to be cleaned during the summer and surveyed.

The coastal Dbayyeh road, which collapsed when Yohan hammered Lebanon with strong winds, was also tackled during the training. Chehade didn’t visit the road, but after seeing pictures, he made several recommendations.

Chehade said that in the case of “Yohan” the ministry should have followed up with contractors and checked to see whether they had implemented projects according to the agreed-upon map.

This should be double-checked with designers and other involved parties, so that construction-related issues can be ruled out when doing maintenance work.

The most recent storm “Windy” brought with it snowfall at low altitudes, blocking vital roads across the country. In such cases, Chehade recommended that the ministry remain in direct contact with the meteorological department. By keeping updated about unexpected changes in temperature and precipitation, the ministry would be better able to take necessary measures.

Chehade discussed with the engineers various issues to improve maintenance work such as implementing inspection guidelines, and gave safety improvement advice.

He also introduced the trainees to materials currently being used in the United States.

“We talked about what is being used now in terms of asphalt, the different mix designs and why to use them, different concrete mixes and different underground utility materials such as what kind of pipelines to use for the sewage system,” Chehade explained.

“We talked about the framework of the ministry’s asset management system,” Chehade said, adding that the system is set up similar to that in the U.S.

“They do have the technical knowledge,” Chehade said referring to the ministry’s engineers.

The problem, he added, was that they were being limited by the overall structure of work.

Computer models of Hariri crime scene relied on pictures

Lebanon joins UN world tourism program

Lebanon became the 63rd member of a tourism program organized by the United Nations' World Tourism Organization.