All jazeera.net Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, has criticised the international investigation into the 2005 asssassination of Rafiq al-Hariri, Lebanon's former prime minister. Nasrallah said on Friday that a decision by a UN-backed court to free Lebanese officers held over the murder does not mean the tribunal is "honest" and instead "is proof that...their detention was political." He also called on Lebanon to widen its investigation into the assassination to include the possibility of Israeli involvement.

"Whoever says that Israel did not have the motive or interest in killing al-Hariri would be killing al-Hariri a second time," he said.

By ROBERT F. WORTH BEIRUT, Lebanon — A judge ordered the release of four high-ranking Lebanese security officials on Wednesday, all being held here in connection with the 2005 killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The decision was seen here as a blow to the political movement led by Mr. Hariri’s son.

The judge, Daniel Fransen, said there was not enough evidence to keep holding the four men, who have been detained without charge since September 2005 and are widely believed to have had some knowledge of the killing or involvement in it. They were the only suspects in the custody of the international tribunal based in The Hague that was formed under United Nations auspices after Mr. Hariri’s death in a powerful car bombing on Feb. 14, 2005.

The announcement was met with wild volleys of celebratory gunfire from the generals’ supporters in Beirut and in the southern suburb that is the stronghold of Hezbollah, Mr. Hariri’s political adversary.

“Some Lebanese are not relieved by this decision,” said Saad Hariri, the former prime minister’s son, grim-faced during a news conference here after the decision. But he added that he welcomed any decision from the tribunal in The Hague. He also said releasing the generals would disprove recurring accusations that the tribunal was politicized in favor of Mr. Hariri’s allies.

By Sami Moubayed, DAMASCUS - Last week, one of America's top allies in Lebanon, Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, caused a row when he made remarks - off the record - criticizing his allies in the pro-Western March 14 Coalition. Among other things, Jumblatt scoffed at his patron Saad al-Hariri, the head of the largest bloc in the Lebanese parliament, for having tried - and failed - to combat Hezbollah on the streets of Beirut last May.

Then, Hariri's armed men were round up and disarmed in a matter of minutes by the well-trained Hezbollah fighters. "We have seen the Sunnis in the field, huh!" he said, adding, "They didn't last for more than 15 minutes!” Jumblatt quickly apologized - but the damage was already done.

Shortly afterwards, when landing in Beirut, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did not meet the Druze warlord - who had often played host to her predecessor Condoleezza Rice, and been received previously at the Oval Office by George W Bush.

Jumblatt is a symbol of a loud anti-Syrian and anti-Hezbollah stance in Lebanon. The fact that he has lost faith in his own allies - who have bankrolled him for years - and was snubbed by Clinton, are testimony to how much things have changed in Lebanon. This is the same man after all who called for regime change in Damascus, and betted on American and Israeli forces to disarm Hezbollah in 2006.

BEIRUT: The annual Progress Report of the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) issued by European Commission in Beirut on Friday indicated that Lebanon has showed "very limited" progress during 2008. "This is a missed opportunity for Lebanon," said the head of the Politics Department at European Commission in Lebanon during a meeting with reporters.

Michael Miller explained that Lebanon was at the "bottom of the scale" in terms of asking for the help of the EU.

"It's a pity that Lebanon is one of our worst partners," he said, adding that while Morocco filed 44 project proposals since the partnership with the EU was established in  2007, Lebanon has so far submitted four proposals only.   

The document, which covers the period between January and December 2008 shows that the slowdown in development was caused by the recent state of political turmoil that the country faced since the 2005 parliamentary elections. The report cites the summer 2006 war with Israel, the delay in electing a president, and the May 2008 street conflicts between opposition fighters and gunmen from the March 14 Forces. 

By Linda Feldmann | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Washington - On the basketball court, Barack Obama likes the old "up and under" move. When he has the ball, he'll fake one way, wait for the guy who's covering him to jump, then duck under him.

That observation from Denver sportscaster Vic Lombardi – who lucked into a game of pickup hoops last year with the future leader of the free world – is too juicy to pass up as a possible metaphor for the new president's governing philosophy: Barack Obama likes to keep people guessing.

Throughout his presidential campaign, Mr. Obama refused to embrace an ideology (though as a senator, he was a safe liberal vote). He called himself a "pragmatist," with an eye toward "what works." In January, when Obama introduced the new chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Tim Kaine, he tiptoed a step further, saying that both he and the Virginia governor share a "pragmatic, progressive philosophy."

BEIRUT – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton reassured the Lebanese people Sunday that Washington supports "voices of moderation" and will never make a deal with Syria that undermines the country's interests. Clinton spoke on a surprise visit to Beirut ahead of a critical June 7 election that could see the pro-U.S. Lebanese government ousted by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah and its allies, possibly paving the way for renewed Syrian influence over the country.

"The people of Lebanon must be able to choose their own representatives in open and fair elections without the specter of violence or intimidation and free of outside interference," Clinton told a news conference in Beirut after meeting with President Michel Suleiman.

"Beyond the elections, we will continue to support the voices of moderation in Lebanon and the responsible institutions of the Lebanese state they are working hard to build. Our ongoing support for the Lebanese armed forces remains a pillar of our bilateral cooperation," she added.

daily star, BEIRUT: The head of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, will arrive in Beirut on Saturday for talks in the wake of an Egyptian security operation that has prompted Cairo to accuse Lebanese authorities of "conspiring" with a Hizbullah cell captured in Egypt. The arrest of 49 men accused of belonging to Hizbullah reignited a bitter war of words between authorities in Cairo and the group's chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. Now Cairo appears to be trying to draw Lebanese officials into the spat.

Egyptian security authorities have claimed that the Hizbullah member accused of running the group, known as Sami Shehab, was traveling on a false passport issued by the Lebanese Interior Ministry.

Cairo is demanding that Lebanon launch an investigation into what is being described in Egypt as a "conspiracy" aimed at helping the cell to carry out attacks in the country.

Egyptian sources say that the use of official Lebanese government stamps by the group are indicative of "grave breaches" and "serious deviations" that should be investigated, the Al-Hayat newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Lebanese Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar pledged to investigate the matter but warned against jumping to conclusions. "This is very dangerous and it rarely happens," Najjar said. "Probably the passport was issued as a result of a fake ID." He added that it was "premature" to take an official position on the matter.

By ROBERT F. WORTH, It is election season in Lebanon, and Hussein H., a jobless 24-year-old from south Beirut, is looking forward to selling his vote to the highest bidder. “Whoever pays the most will get my vote,” he said. “I won’t accept less than $800.”

He may get more. The parliamentary elections here in June are shaping up to be among the most expensive ever held anywhere, with hundreds of millions of dollars streaming into this small country from around the globe.

Lebanon has long been seen as a battleground for regional influence, and now, with no more foreign armies on the ground, Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region are arming their allies here with campaign money in place of weapons. The result is a race that is widely seen as the freest and most competitive to be held here in decades, with a record number of candidates taking part. But it may also be the most corrupt.

Votes are being bought with cash or in-kind services. Candidates pay their competitors huge sums to withdraw. The price of favorable TV news coverage is rising, and thousands of expatriate Lebanese are being flown home, free, to vote in contested districts. The payments, according to voters, election monitors and various past and current candidates interviewed for this article, nurture a deep popular cynicism about politics in Lebanon, which is nominally perhaps the most democratic Arab state but in practice is largely governed through patronage and sectarian and clan loyalty.

BEIRUT: Net capital inflows into Lebanon amounted to $2.036.4 billion in the first two months of 2009, up by 0.3 percent when compared to the same period of 2008. When compared to the same period of 2007, however, the rise was at a much sharper 77.5 percent. "The influx of capital into the country in the first two months of the year is deemed significant, even though the yearly increase was mild," Bank Audi's Weekly Monitor said.

It added that amount of capital inflow into Lebanon in the first two months of 2008 was a record high when compared to the same months of previous years back then, and now, in the first two months of 2009, capital inflows have maintained their record high level, rising slightly above their value in the same period of 2008.

Although the trade deficit contracted in the first two months of 2009, as compared to the same period of 2008, it remained relatively large. Capital inflows of the first two months of 2009 not only managed to fully cover the trade deficit, rather it resulted in the momentous cumulative balance of payments in the first two months of the year, which also hit peak levels when compared to the same months of previous years.

DAMASCUS: Lebanon's first ambassador to Syria took up his post in Damascus Monday in the latest sign of improving relations between the two neighbors after years of tensions. Career diplomat Michel Khoury assumed his duties as Lebanon's first ambassador to Syria, more than a month after Lebanon opened its first-ever embassy in Damascus. Syria has also opened an embassy in Beirut. The opening of embassies in both countries sealed the establishment of full diplomatic ties between the long-feuding rivals for the first time since they gained independence from France in the 1940s.

Relations between the two countries reached a turning point in August when they agreed to establish ties and demarcate their contentious border. The agreement marked a final break in Syria's longtime dominance over its smaller neighbor. Diplomatic ties with Syria have been a pressing demand by Lebanon's anti-Syrian factions, the US and other Western states. Syria had dominated its smaller neighbor since the 1970s, when it sent its army into Lebanon, then engulfed in Civil War.

Malek, Khazen; Reading the news these last 2 weeks in regards of the visit of His Holiness the Pope to Africa all what I find are extreme articles carrying hidden agenda against Catholics and clergy positions. You might be surprised and wonder is there new positions about condom use from the Catholics Church that we are not aware of? No they are not!! This is the disturbing part of it. These are ideological, spiritual believes that never changed and the Church has always argued against the use of condoms.

I will cite some titles of articles that were posted only during the days between Mach 26th and March 30th. The purpose of me citing these articles is to outline the extremism in most of the media thoughts:

النائب فريد الياس الخازن "للأنباء" :

ـ الإنفتاح على سوريا يشير الى بدء مرحلة جديدة في السياسة الدولية تجاه المنطقة

ـ المحكمة الدةلية أصبحت مستقلة ولن تتأثر بالمعطيات الإقليمية والدولية الجديدة

ـ مهما كانت نتائج الإنتخابات النيابية لن يكون بمقدور أي من الفريقين التفرد بالحكم دون مشاركة الفريق الآخر به

بيروت ـ زينة طبّارة

رأى عضو تكتل "التغيير والإصلاح" النائب د. فريد الخازن أن ما تشهده الساحة العربية من تحوّلات ومتغيرات إيجابية يأتي إستكمالا لمساعي المصالحات العربية ـ العربية التي بدأت في قمة الكويت إنما بوتيرة ملفتة بسرعتها في التنفيذ، معتقدا أن ما سبق يأتي بشكل خطوات إستباقية لمرحلة جديدة ستبدأ في السياسة الخارجية الأميركية بشكل عام وعلى مستوى المنطقة بشكل خاص، لافتا الى أن التوصيف بين ما يسمى بعرب الإعتدال وعرب الممانعة أو التطرف كان إنعكاسا للوضع المتأزم العربي ـ العربي خلال المرحلة السابقة وهو اليوم في طور فتح صفحة جديدة من العلاقات الإيجابية بين الصفين العربيين المعتدل والممانع .

ولفت النائب الخازن في تصريح "للأنباء" الى أن ما يجري على المستويين العربي والدولي من تطورات إيجابية والمتمثل بالإنفتاح على سوريا، يشير من جهة الى حسن تملص هذه الأخيرة من عزلتها العربية والدولية، وقد يكون من جهة ثانية ردّ إعتبار لها ولدورها وموقعها الإقليمي والعربي والدولي، وذلك مع إحتفاظ الدول المنفتحة على سوريا بأسبابها وإعتباراتها الخاصة التي أدت الى إرتسام الصورة الأقليمية الحالية والمسار العربي الجديد، مؤكدا أنه أيا تكن أسباب وأهداف الإنفتاح المشار اليه، فمما لا شك فيه أن تاريخا جديدا من المسارات العربية قد بدأ وقد ينعكس إيجابا على الداخل اللبناني .

وردا على سؤال حول إمكانية عودة الهيمنة السورية سياسيا على لبنان بناء على المعطيات العربية والدولية الجديدة أعلاه، أكّد النائب الخازن أن لبنان قد خرج نهائيا من دائرة المقايضات الداخلية والإقليمية والدولية، وذلك لإنتفاء عناصر تلك المقايضات التي كانت سائدة منذ منتصف السبعينات حتى العام 2005، حيث كانت هناك على المستوى العربي ـ العربي والعربي ـ الإسرائيلي حاجة إقليمية ودولية لدور سوري في لبنان لاسيما خلال الوجود الفلسطيني فيه حتى أوائل الثمانينات، وحيث إستمدت سوريا خلال التسعينات، أثناء الحرب الباردة وبعدها، غطاء أميركيا ودوليا حيال وجودها وهيمنتها على قراره السياسي، مؤكدا عدم رغبة كافة الفرقاء اللبنانيين وكذلك سوريا في عودتها الى لبنان بعد الحدث الكبير المتمثل بإنسحاب جيشها منه في العام 2005، معتبرا أن مرحلة جديدة من العلاقات اللبنانية ـ السورية قد قامت بعد ذلك الحدث وستُبنى ليس فقط على رفض عودة الوصاية وليس أيضا على النموذج الذي برز مؤخرا والداعي الى شن الحروب على النظام السوري، إنما على علاقات طبيعية ضمن إطار إحترام كل من الدولتين لسيادة الآخر .

The March 14 majority leaders held Saturday in Beirut their second annual conference set to launch the parliamentary elections campaign under the title "June 7 - crossing over to a state," Future TV reported. March 14 Secretariat General Coordinator Faris Soaid read the charter of the group which he said is "committed to protecting Lebanon from Israeli threats by fully implementing UN resolution 1701, ensure that only the state has the complete control over the arms in the country, adopt democracy as the system of governing under which violence is refused, and commitment to the UN charter and UN resolutions."

Soaid said that their basic objective is to impose the authority of the state on all its territories according to the Taef accord, "which states that there should be no arms out of the state control."  All rival Lebanese parties gave up their arms according to the Taef accord which ended the civil war in 1989, except the Shiite group Hezbollah, which is still keeping its arms to resist Israel.  The charter pointed out that the upcoming elections on June 7 represent a crossing road which will determine the future of Lebanon by choosing between a threatened state and a permanently secure one. The March 14 charter also called for ending dispute with Syria, "which means the cease of Syrian intervention in Lebanese affairs and completing the exchange of diplomatic ties between the two countries," as well as the control and demarcation of boarders between them.

By Daniel Bases, NEW YORK, March 2 (Reuters) - Lebanon's bank deposit base should grow by at least 7 percent this year despite a possible decline in remittances, central bank governor Riad Salameh forecast on Monday. The governor told reporters in New York that, even if in a "worst case scenario" remittances were to drop by 30 percent the impact in the banking system would not be "important." "I mean in the sense that the banks will still have growth in their deposits by around 7 percent, which is enough to finance the public and the private sector," he said. Remittances from expatriates have been a key support for the Lebanese economy and the government finances during the global credit and financial crisis. Such remittances boosted Lebanon's bank deposit base by 15 percent in 2008, while helping the country register a balance of payment surplus of $3.4 billion. "We are looking at growth in deposits that can range from 7 up to wherever. The high of 2008 is still possible to be repeated," Salameh said. Salameh estimated the balance of payments surplus could decline by 15 percent this year if the worst-case scenario for remittances materializes

If the global economy further deteriorates, however, Lebanon's balance of payments would be supported by lower price of commodities and oil, the governor argued. Salameh, citing World Bank figures for the total amount of remittances in 2008, said they were about $6 billion. He stuck to his 2009 gross domestic product forecast of 4 percent growth which is slightly more favorable than the 3 percent predicted by the International Monetary Fund and the government's own budget. (Reporting by Daniel Bases, writing by Walter Brandimarte; Editing by Diane Craft)

(Reuters) - A special United Nations tribunal set up to try suspects in the 2005 killing of Lebanon's former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri began work in The Hague on Sunday. Here are some questions and answers about the tribunal:

HOW WAS IT SET UP? A suicide truck bomber killed Hariri and 22 others in Beirut on February 14, 2005. Anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians said Syria was behind the attack, a charge Damascus denies. An outcry over the killing forced Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon. The Lebanese government, led by an anti-Syrian alliance, asked the United Nations to investigate the crime, along with 20 other political attacks that may have been connected. The U.N. Security Council established the tribunal in 2007.

WHO ARE THE SUSPECTS? No indictments have been issued. The Lebanese authorities hold four generals in connection with the Hariri killing. A Lebanese judge freed three other detainees on bail last week. Detlev Mehlis, the first U.N. investigator, implicated senior Syrian officials whose names appeared in a draft report but were removed in the final version. Reports by Mehlis's successors, Serge Brammertz and Daniel Bellamare, who is now the prosecutor, have refrained from naming top suspects. "We will go wherever the evidence leads us," Bellemare wrote in an open letter to the Lebanese people last week.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? Investigations will continue. Bellemare has 60 days to ask Lebanon to transfer people, such as the four generals, and evidence to The Hague. In theory, the tribunal is above politics, so indictments could come at any time. However, the court might decide to wait until after Lebanon's June 7 parliamentary election to avoid sparking instability.

WHAT ABOUT SUSPECTS NOT IN CUSTODY? If indictments are issued, suspects can surrender voluntarily, the tribunal can ask the Security Council to press states to hand them over, or it can try them in absentia. Syria has said it will not hand over any of its nationals to the court, but will try them and execute them itself if they are proven guilty. The tribunal is unlikely to accept this or to share its evidence with the Syrian authorities. Lebanon has cooperated fully with the tribunal, but an election win for Syria's Lebanese allies might alter its stance. Pro-Syrian groups such as Hezbollah say they back the tribunal, but fear it could be used politically against them and Syria.

HOW LONG WILL IT ALL TAKE? The tribunal's registrar, Robin Vincent, said last week he expected the court to complete its work in three to five years. It will employ seven international and four Lebanese judges, and will apply Lebanese law, excluding penalties such as death and forced labor. Life imprisonment will be the maximum sentence.

WHAT ARE THE DIPLOMATIC IMPLICATIONS?The United States, other Western countries and anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians initially viewed the tribunal as a potent weapon against Damascus. Syria displayed corresponding anxiety. But as investigations proceeded at a deliberate pace, the tribunal has appeared more independent and less politicized. U.S. President Barack Obama is exploring a possible detente with Syria, raising fears among anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians that the tribunal might lose its teeth as part of a deal with Damascus. However, Obama marked the anniversary of Hariri's assassination by reaffirming U.S. support for the tribunal in bringing justice to those behind "this horrific crime."

Magdi has spent 15 years on death row, waiting for his execution in an airless, overcrowded prison cell. The jail where his life is supposed to end is wrapped in miles of barbed wire, surrounded by checkpoints and perched on top of the mountain that overlooks the Mediterranean.  Roumieh Prison is Lebanon' s biggest high-security jail, notorious for bloody riots and terrible conditions, and home to some of the country's most dangerous criminals.  But Magdi, a thin, greying man, says he never committed the murder he was charged with, and that the trial that put him on death row was rushed and unfair.  Over the years, he says, he has written countless letters to the authorities begging them to review his case, but he never received a reply.  Then one February afternoon in 2009, he suddenly had a chance to tell his story face to face, to some of the country's most senior officials.  "I was so nervous," Magdi recalls. "Just imagine - the prosecutor general, the minister of the interior, high ranking generals - they were all right here."  Magdi, along with his fellow inmates, was on the stage while the officials were the guests of honour at the opening of the Twelve Angry Lebanese, a theatre play of a kind the Arab world has never seen before.

Role reversal  For two hours, seated just inches away from the improvised stage, the representatives of Lebanon's government listened as inmates questioned the country's judicial system, talked about prison conditions and told personal tales through their adaptation of Twelve Angry Men, a play by Reginald Rose in which a jury of 12 men meets to decide the fate of a boy who is accused of murder. The performance was, the prisoners recall, a mind-boggling role reversal.  For Zeina Daccache, a young Lebanese actress and director with a passion for drama therapy, it was also a real triumph. "The problem was that no-one believed in the project, in fact everyone thought I was crazy," she said.  Lebanese prisons are closed to the public and the media, and Zeina Daccache's proposal of drama therapy was turned down twice.  But eight months after being rejected she secured funding from the EU she managed to gain access to the jail.  Prison authorities agreed to turn a former prayer room into an improvised theatre, and soon the 200 prisoners who applied to take part in the project began attending daily drama therapy sessions.  Within months of workshops and play sessions the group shrank to 45 inmates with whom Zeina began working on the actual play.  "I picked Twelve Angry Men because it's the perfect play for this situation. It gives the inmates a chance to reverse roles, to be the jury, which is therapy in itself," she says.  The group was diverse. The crimes of the inmates ranged from drug dealing to rape and murder. The sentences varied from a few years to life, and death row.

Beirut, lebanon - The unusual sound of a hip-hop beat and a funky bass line thudded out of a sandwich shop in a trendy Beirut neighborhood last summer. As one patron bobbed his head and a teenager with slicked-back hair flipped another piece of flatbread onto the sandwich shop's stove, a gravelly voice began rapping earnestly in Arabic. "Who is that?" a passing foreigner asked. "What's he saying?" "It's the rapper RGB," said the man in broken English. The song, he explained, was about the situation in Lebanon – the violence, the corruption, and the poverty.  RGB is one of several Beirut rappers whose discs are passed around among a visible segment of Lebanese youth. Unlike most of the flashy pop music that Lebanon exports to the rest of the Arab world – think singers like Haifa Wahabi and Nancy Ajram – these rappers' music usually comes with a social message. Their core fans in Beirut have adopted hip hop, from its music to its style of dress and graffiti, as their chosen mode of expression.

In Lebanon, foreign music is nothing new. The country's huge number of emigrants – far more people of Lebanese descent live outside the country than within – means that music from all over the world finds its way to Beirut, from salsa to samba, jazz, punk, and heavy metal.  But unlike much of Beirut's music scene that draws heavily on foreign influences, rappers like RGB are fiercely Lebanese in everything they do. They talk about personal experiences in which they see the same kinds of injustice, violence, and lack of forums for addressing social problems that were the impetus for early African-American rap groups with a political message, such as Public Enemy.

"It's black music, in my opinion," RGB said in an October interview posted to YouTube. "But I feel like it doesn't have to be specifically just for blacks.... It has messages, stories of using your smarts, and a people victimized. It has power."  "I take hip hop like it's a big school and I'm learning from it," he added. Rayess Bek, who is something like the father of Arabic-language Lebanese rap, helped start the trend of hip hop as social commentary. "I lived the war.... I've been taken advantage of.... I'm speaking in silence," he sang a few years ago over a beat every bit as ominous as the shell-shocked landscapes of some Beirut quarters. A newer music video features him rapping against the backdrop of buildings destroyed by Israeli bombs in 2006.

وليد أبي مرشد

أفضل ما كشفته سجالات المسؤولين اللبنانيين الأخيرة حول عمليات التنصت على المخابرات الهاتفية الاعتراف الرسمي بوجودها... وأسوأ ما أوحته أنها صارت جزءا لا يتجزأ من أمن لبنان الداخلي - وحتى الخارجي أيضا.
غني عن التذكير بأن لبنان ليس الدولة الوحيدة في العالم التي تحصي أنفاس العباد عبر نظام تنصت مركزي. والخلافات التي كشفتها سجالات الحوار الأخيرة توحي بأن مشكلته قد تعود إلى كون النظام اللبناني جديدا على مهنة التنصت بحيث فضح، بنفسه، تلبّكه في ممارسة هذه المهمة.
ولكن، رغم أن نظام التنصت في لبنان لا يزال رحوما مقارنة بأنظمة بعض جيرانه، ورغم أن الضرورات الأمنية تبرره إلى حد بعيد... يبقى الربط بين الأمن والتنصت غريبا في نظام ديمقراطي كغرابة الربط بين العدالة والتعذيب في دول الأنظمة الشمولية (ودولة جورج بوش البائدة في واشنطن).
من الطبيعي الافتراض بأن بلدا مثل لبنان، حدوده مستباحة، وأبوابه مشرعة لكل فصيل مسلح هلّ عليه من كل حدب وصوب، وساحته متخمة بالخلافات السياسية الحادة، بحاجة إلى توسل كل الأساليب المتاحة لحفظ أمنه من أخطار الداخل والخارج... شريطة ألا يستتبع ذلك التفريط في الحريات العامة وتجاوز حقوق المواطنين بوسائل قد تمهد لكبتها لاحقا... إذا سمحت بذلك الظروف السياسية. قد يبدو هذا التخوف مبالغا فيه. ولكن دواعي إثارته تمليها أي قراءة متأنية بين سطور السجالات التي كشفت، من جهة، عن معدات متطورة للتنصت كانت موجودة في قصر الرئاسة في بعبدا في عهد الرئيس السابق أميل لحود لا يعرف اليوم بعهدة من أصبحت، وأبرزت، من جهة ثانية، تسليم جميع المتحاورين بحق السلطة المركزية في التنصت لحفظ أمن لبنان... وكأن الوسائل الأخرى لضبط الأمن القومي لم تعد ضرورية في عصر الهاتف الأرضي والجوال.
إذا كان هذا هو مفهوم ضبط الأمن في لبنان فأضعف الإيمان تحديد الخط الفاصل بين التنصت «لضرورات أمنية» والتنصت الآخر الذي اصطلح المتحاورون على تسميته بالتنصت «غير الشرعي»، أي، بتعبير أوضح، تعدي بعض الجهات غير الشرعية والحزبية على خصوصيات المواطنين وحقهم الطبيعي في المحافظة على سرية شؤونهم العادية، سواء أكانت فردية أم مالية أم مصرفية أم تجارية.
لافت أن سجالات التنصت في بيروت لم تعط هذا الجانب من ممارساته حقه من الاهتمام بشكل يكفل طمأنة اللبنانيين على مستقبل حرياتهم الشخصية. وربما كان لتوقيت جلسات السجالات قبل أسابيع معدودة من بدء أعمال المحكمة الدولية دورا في تركيزها على جريمة العصر في لبنان، أي اغتيال رئيس الحكومة الراحل رفيق الحريري.

Neemtallah ABI NASR Naturalization

            استمعت بارتياح الى معالي وزير الداخلية والبلديات زياد بارود شارحاً عما تقوم به وزارة الداخلية من دراسة لملفات استعادة الجنسية التي يستفيد منها أكثر من سبعة آلاف عائلة بموجب القانون 68/67 كما استمعتُ إليه متحدثاً عن التدقيق في ملفات المجنّسين تنفيذاً لقرار مجلس شورى الدولة القاضي بنزع الجنسية من الذين حصلوا عليها بدون وجهِ حق .

      إنني أجدِّدُ التنويه بجديَّة الوزير بارود ، لكنَّني أسألُ نفسي لماذا تأخرت الحكومات اللبنانية في إنجاز هذه المعاملات بعد أن مضى خمسين عاماً على ورودها أي منذ 29 أيلول 1958 ، وماذا فعل أولئكَ الذين استمعوا بالأمس الى الوزير وقد كانوا قبله في سدَّةِ المسؤولية وتبوَّأوا وزارات هامة قبل الطائف وبعده بما فيها وزارة الداخلية ؟

      ولعلّهُ من المفيد أن نذكِّرَ أن المطالبة بتنفيذ هذه المعاملات بدأت في العام 1996 حينَ وجَّهتُ يومها بصفتي أميناً عاماً للرابطة المارونية كتاباً لوزير الداخلية ميشال المر أسأله عن السبب في عدم تنفيذ بيانات اختيار الجنسية هذه ، ولكنني لم أتلقَّ منهُ بالطبع أيّ جواب ، فالسلطة التي كانت قائمة آنذاك كانت مهتمَة بتجنيس الغرباء وليس باستعادة المغتربين الى وطنهم .

      لم أيأس بل رحتُ أوجِّهُ الرسائل الواحدة تلوَ الأخرى الى وزير الخارجية والمغتربين ليسأل هو بدوره وزارة الداخلية عن سبب التأخير في بتِّ هذه المعاملات دون أن يتلقَّى أي جواب لا من الوزير ميشال المر ولا من مدير الأحوال الشخصية آنذاك السيد غسان شحاده .

      ممَّا اضطرني في العام 2003 الى توجيه سؤالٍ الى الحكومة بواسطة رئيس مجلس النواب، وعندما تلقيتُ جواباً من الحكومة غير مقنعٍ طلبت تحويل السؤال الى استجواب ، وعندما أُقفلتْ كل الأبواب وتعطّل المجلس، تقدّمتُ في العام 2008 بشكوى أمام هيئة التفتيش المركزي مُطالباً بإجراء التحقيق اللازم حول سبب عدم تسجيل هذه المعاملات وتحديد المسؤولية ، فصدرَ عن الهيئة بتاريخ 17/7/2008 قرار بالإجماع قضى بوجوب الإستعجال في البتِّ بملف معاملات اختيار الجنسية .

قراءة سياسية لوقائع الاحداث ودعوة صريحة الى اصلاح القضاء والادارة

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