Viagra helps Hizbullah stay up

"Prosecutors in Detroit charged 19 individuals with operating a smuggling ring that helped fund Hizbullah with profits generated from smuggled cigarettes, phony tax stamps, counterfeit Viagra pills and stolen rolling paper, according to an indictment issued by the U.S. Attorney's Office Wednesday.

U.S. Attorney Stephen J. Murphy announced the indictment that alleges that portions of the profits made from the illegal enterprise were given to Hizbullah. Nine of the individuals were arrested Wednesday morning.

The indictment charges that between 1996 and 2004, a group of individuals worked together in a criminal enterprise to traffic in contraband cigarettes, counterfeit Zig Zag rolling papers and counterfeit Viagra, to produce counterfeit cigarette tax stamps, to transport stolen property, and to launder money. The enterprise operated from Lebanon, Canada, China, Brazil, Paraguay and the United States."

Hizbullah substitutes for welfare state

"Hezbollah not only has armed and political wings – it also boasts an extensive social development programme. The group currently operates at least four hospitals, 12 clinics, 12 schools and two agricultural centres that provide farmers with technical assistance and training. It also has an environmental department and an extensive social assistance programme. Medical care is also cheaper than in most of the country's private hospitals and free for Hezbollah members.

Most of these institutions are located in the country's more marginalised areas, such as Beirut's southern suburbs, in South Lebanon and in the Bekaa Valley. "We have special sections all over the country that provide financial and food assistance to the poor," said Hezbollah spokesman Hussein Nabulsi. "We also run an emergency fund for instant care in case of immediate hospitalisation."

One beneficiary of Hezbollah financial aid is 35-year-old Alia. She and her three children live in a one-room apartment 15 km east of Beirut. Originally Druze, Alia converted to Shi'ite Islam after marrying an Egyptian Shi'ite, which led to her being ostracised by her family.

Life did not get any easier after her husband was sent to jail three years ago, for reasons Alia prefers not to disclose. While she now works part-time as a cleaning lady, Alia hardly has enough money to put food on the table. "Fortunately, Hezbollah supports us with US $100 month," she said. "It's still not enough, but it keeps us alive."

According to the UNDP Living Conditions Index, 35.2 percent of the Lebanese population live below the satisfaction threshold. These are divided between households with a very low degree of satisfaction (7.1 percent) and those having a low degree of satisfaction (25 percent). Households having an intermediate satisfaction represent 41.6 percent of households, which leaves 26.4 percent of households with a high degree of satisfaction.

Geographically, the districts of Akkar, Baalbek, Nabatiyeh and South Lebanon register the lowest annual average incomes. Hezbollah is strongly represented in all these areas except for northern Akkar. "Last week, I visited a widow with three daughters in Nabatiyeh," said Nabulsi. "We gave them a refrigerator, a washing machine and a stove. Still, the poverty in which they live is shocking.""

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Live coverage: government session
(Arman Homsi, Annahar, 31/03/06)

Bankers' propaganda

"Raising taxes on interest rates on bank deposits may force the migration of funds and capitals from Lebanon, leading bankers warned on Friday. "This is a very dangerous proposal by the government. Banks are the main pillar of the local economy and this step would certainly cause serious damage to the sector," Adnan Kassar, chairman of Fransabank told a local newspaper.

According to a draft proposal, which is yet to be discussed and approved by the Cabinet and the Parliament, taxes on interest rates on bank deposits should rise from 5 percent to 8 percent. . .

"We warned Siniora when he was a finance minister not to slap a 5 percent tax on bank deposits but unfortunately he did not heed our advice," Kassar said.

Every time the government needed money to increase state revenues they resort to the easiest way: "Raising taxes," he said." [my emphasis]

Reading the last sentence above, you'd think it was a revolutionary socialist being quoted. That shows how poweful the bankers' lobby is. You'd forget how much they have been priviledged historically, and how small is the shy incrase of the interest tax rate to 8 percent.

Compare it to that of some other countries (data in 2003):
17.6 percent | France
12.5 percent | Italy
20.0 percent | Japan
up to 40 percent | UK

The proposal is part of the Beirut 1 promised reforms. Bankers oppose it from the right. And there are those who oppose Beirut 1 from the left. A few weeks ago some communist students were arrested because they distributed stickers opposing Beirut 1. But you won't see bankers being arrested for their opposition to government plans. And March 14 will not accuse them of being agents of the joint Lebanese-Syrian security regime. Any guess why?

Don't get mad

"Elie Karam (St George Hospital University Medical Center and Balamand University, Beirut, Lebanon) and colleagues conducted face-to-face interviews with over 2800 adults representative of the adult population in Lebanon. They found one out of every 6 surveyed met criteria for having a mental disorder at some time in the previous year, the most common being anxiety followed by mood disorders. The investigators found that half the respondents were exposed to war-related traumatic events at some point in their lives, and this predicted having mental disorders in the past 12 months as well as their severity. Only one out of every 10 of respondents with a mental disorder obtained treatment, a proportion much lower than that found in industrialised countries.

Professor Karam concludes: "Mental disorders are common in Lebanon, with a prevalence equivalent to that in Western Europe. However, the number of individuals with mental disorders who are not receiving treatment is considerably higher in Lebanon than in Western countries." "

Reinvestigating the fate of foreign domestic worker

"MANILA will ask Beirut to reinvestigate the death of an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) who reportedly fell from her employer’s apartment in Lebanon, Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas said Wednesday.

She said that Philippine embassy officials in Beirut would soon meet with Lebanese Prosecutor Claude Ghanem to push for a reinvestigation of the death on February 26 of Rea Jamilla, 26, a domestic helper.

Jamilla’s death was reported by the media as a suicide, but according to his brother Prudencio, there was no reason for her to kill herself. He said Jamilla told family members in her last phone call that she was doing well in Lebanon.

Autopsy reports said she fell to her death from the third floor balcony of the building where her employer’s apartment is situated. It said Jamilla had no injuries that were not related to the accident.

The remains of Jamilla, a native of Boac, Marinduque, arrived in Manila on March 15, after the Philippine Overseas Labor Office(POLO) in Beirut facilitated the repatriation.

Lebanon is a popular destination for OFWs seeking work as domestic helpers, with some 8,000 deployed there last year.

However, many have run away, complaining of long working hours, maltreatment, and sexual advances from their employers. Some have even resorted to jumping off buildings."

Gas and Politics

"The energy ministers of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Turkey have agreed on a timeframe for extension of the Arab Gas Pipeline project to Turkey, according to which Egyptian gas should start flowing to Syria by March 2007, and a link to Turkey should be completed within two years. . .

The Syria stretch -- the third phase of the project -- was awarded as a more straightforward construction contract to Russia's Stroitransgas. The completion of this phase to Homs in central Syria is slated for end-2007. Early gas deliveries to Syria would start arriving in March 2007. . .

The Arab Gas Pipeline has a design capacity of 10 billion cubic meters per year. About 3.3 Bcm/yr of that has been allocated to Jordan, which is converting power and industrial facilities to gas and planning a residential distribution network. A further 2 Bcm/yr has been assigned to Syria and Lebanon.

A pipeline from Homs in Syria to the Baddawi power plant in northern Lebanon was completed last year. However, Lebanon's relationship with Syria has become increasingly strained since the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri in February 2005, which led to the withdrawal of Syria's military from its tiny neighbor after almost 20 years. "

Love and crime

"The arrest of Al-Madina Bank's former executive secretary Rana Qoleilat is still making headlines in Brazil, as its media and locals follow the issue around the clock. It was reported on Saturday that the Sao Paolo-based police found love letters among the belongings of the woman suspected of having a connection to the murder of former Premier Rafik Hariri.

Among the letters found, there are some that relate the tale of Al-Madina Bank and other related scandals.

One letter highlighted a relationship between Qoleilat and a man named "Mahmoud," who works in the real estate sector. Qoleilat reportedly met Mahmoud through a deal that turned into a love story.

According to another letter addressed solely to "dear brother," Mahmoud took advantage of this passion and Qoleilat could never refuse any of Mahmoud's demands. Qoleilat acknowledged in the letter that she transferred money from the bank to Mahmoud, adding elsewhere "if you [plural] don't deposit a sum of the money in my account, you will seriously hurt me; do you want me to talk?" Qoleilat's letter added: "Everything I experienced makes me more convinced that I can't trust anybody."

"Had I done this to a dog, it would have shown me loyalty, but from them, [I can get] nothing ... dear brother, this is not a document, this group does not know anything about trust.""

Second-class citizens

""We have no electricity or paved roads, no health insurance and none of the essential services that a government should provide its people," said Hassan who works as a taxi driver to provide for seven dependants. He and his family have been living in a two-room apartment in Hay al-Selom since they were forced out of the southern village of Arabsalim by the Israeli occupation 15 years ago.

"I get about 300,000 Lebanese pounds a month from driving people around," he said. "It barely covers the rent of the car I'm using and basic needs, like food. We have to buy clothes second-hand – if not third-hand." . . .

"If it wasn't for the work of volunteers, we wouldn't have been able to offer half of the services we now provide," Bazzi said. He added that government officials were unconcerned with the plight of Hay al-Selom residents because most of them are migrants from rural areas.

"As migrants, they don't have the right to vote in municipal and parliamentary elections," said Bazzi. "Officials tend to offer services to voters in their constituencies." According to the CDR study, there are only 350 registered voters in Hay al-Selom. "

Breaking the silence over child prostitution

"At a glance, Nadine (not her real name) is an innocent, 16 year-old-girl, but a conversation with her soon reveals the shocking details of the hard life she endured as a child. "I didn't choose to work as a prostitute," she said. "It's just my luck in life."

Explaining how she was raped at the age of nine by a neighbour, and therefore "had nothing to lose" when she accepted money for the first time in exchange for sex with an older man, Nadine blamed her situation on her family's financial needs.

"My parents needed money so they sent me to work as a housemaid at the age of 12. Do you know how much I had to put up with in my situation?" Nadine asked rhetorically. "All men want is one thing – your body! So I decided to ask for money in exchange for what I was offering."

Now in her fourth year of working in the sex trade, Nadine talks about the abuses she suffered by men she has slept with. "I've been beaten up, forced to have unprotected sex, thrown out in the middle of the night without getting paid… but life goes on," she said.

There is little protection for sex workers in Lebanon, where prostitution is illegal. Even though some amendments in the law have been made to encourage exploited children to come forward, they often remain reluctant. The official age of adulthood in Lebanon is 18.

"I can't go to the authorities and file a complaint. What would I say? 'I slept with this man and he refused to pay me my money'?" said Nadine, refusing to say how much she usually charged customers. . .

Zeina (not her real name), 21, said she was sold to a man for sex by her mother when she was just nine-years-old. She has since continued to sell herself.

"People are very judgmental, but at that age, if your own parents don't want you, how are you supposed to survive? Tell me if there is any other way," she said. . .

Meanwhile, for girls like Nadine, the worst part of the job is the stigma attached to the trade, as well as the constant fear of her parents finding out what she does.

"I know my neighbours are talking about me behind my back, and I'm ashamed when my family hears rumours about me," she said. "But I keep assuring them that it's not true, and they turn a blind eye because they need the money." "

Fighting methods

So while the US military is studying ways to better spread democracy through the Lebanese military, resistance fighters in Iraq are already using methods they have learned from Hizbullah:

"According to Iraqi and Lebanese officials, some of the Hezbollah tactics being used by Iraqi insurgents include: Stacked mines. In August, a huge explosion destroyed a 25-ton armored U.S. troop carrier as it drove in a convoy near the western Iraqi town of Haditha, killing all 14 Marines inside. The bomb consisted of three anti-tank mines stacked on top of each other. That stacking technique was used often by Hezbollah to destroy armored Israeli vehicles.

Shaped charges. These are powerful explosives that have been used extensively against U.S. forces since early 2005. The devices combine an explosive charge with a curved chunk of metal such as copper. When the blast occurs, it shapes the metal into a molten slug that can penetrate armor.

Hidden roadside bombs. Hezbollah refined the practice of concealing bombs so they would be more difficult to clear off the sides of roads by Israeli bulldozers. For example, Hezbollah fighters placed explosives inside fake plastic rocks, which could be bought in Beirut garden stores for about $10. They also buried bombs under gravel or asphalt. Both methods are being used now against U.S. troops in Iraq."

No gun culture?

"‘Too many guns in our society,’ say young people across the Middle East region according to a new report published today by the Middle East North Africa Network on Small Arms (MENAANSA). . .

In Lebanon, more than 22% of the young people surveyed possess more than 3 guns; however given the choice more than 50% of the respondents would choose not to own a gun. This is definitely a challenge to the idea that there is an uncontested gun culture in the region, at least in the areas studied."

"Fadi Abi Allam of the Permanent Peace Movement Lebanese NGO, which conducted the Lebanese surveys, said about two million people were believed to possess guns in Lebanon, which has a population of nearly four million. Civil war tore Lebanon apart from 1975-1990, and the country remains riven by sectarian differences.

Lebanese survey participants blamed the high number of private weapons to fears of instability, given the country's recent history. Thirty-seven percent of Lebanese questioned said they owned one gun; 22 percent said they possessed three or more. Survey participants, however, differentiated between guns held for reasons of national security, political resistance or for other uses, such as hunting.

Under the Taif agreement that ended Lebanon's civil war in 1990, only political/religious group Hizbollah was allowed to maintain its weapons to fight Israel's continued occupation of the south. "As for the other militias in Lebanon, they were disarmed of their heavy and medium weapons, but not the light ones," Abi Allam said."

Regions surveyed in Lebanon were Southern Lebanon, Bekaa district, and Beirut.
You can download the full report.

Democracy through the military - the enemy within

"U.S. military officials have been quietly assessing Lebanon's military capability, making a general inventory of its army, air and naval forces, and suggesting reforms following a request last year from top Lebanese government officials.

Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, a top military planner, confirmed the review this week but would not elaborate on recommended reforms. The review was initiated after a request was made directly through the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, military and political sources said, and is part of a continuing process to help democratic forces in Lebanon.

"We're looking for stability," said Kimmitt, deputy director for strategy and plans at U.S. Central Command. "An unstable Lebanon is a danger to itself, to its immediate neighbors and the region. This is part of our overall strategy."

About a dozen U.S. military officers traveled to Beirut in November and December for the review, military sources said, and visited bases to produce three reports. The inventory was described as a comprehensive assessment of the condition of U.S.-made equipment in the Lebanon armed forces.

The U.S. inventory was a separate but coordinated effort with other Western embassies contacted by the Lebanese. Britain and France were asked to assess policy and policing needs. Arab countries, including Egypt and Jordan, also were contacted and are engaged, sources said.

The Bush administration has been intent on shoring up democratic efforts in the region, and the military assessment was described as part of a drive to bolster Lebanon, coping in the past year with political assassinations, car and truck bombings, and popular demonstrations in support of a Lebanon free of Syrian involvement. . .

Questions about Lebanon's military strategy were central to the effort recently completed by the U.S. assessment teams, said Kimmitt, the U.S. military planner.

"The larger question is: Who is their enemy? Are they looking at Israel? Al Qaeda? Syria? . . . In our minds, this is the army that sooner or later will have to stand up to the armed branch of Hezbollah. . . . And right now, it's a military [whose equipment] may be too large and too heavily armored for the threats around them," Kimmitt said.

Military aid to the Middle East plays a key role in U.S. foreign policy, and additional aid to Lebanon would fit into a familiar pattern. Egypt and Israel have received billions of dollars of military aid in the past decade; Beirut in fiscal 2006 received less than $1 million in military aid. Under the Bush administration's request for 2007, Lebanon would receive nearly $5 million in military aid."