Diplomatic Briefing
Your exclusive news aggregator handpicked daily!Archive for Lebanon
Newsline: US Embassy in Lebanon warns over violence
The US Embassy in Lebanon has issued a warning to its citizens in the country to avoid public areas and exercise caution. Violence between pro and anti-Syrian groups in Beirut left two people dead and 18 injured early Monday, sparking concerns the conflict in Syria is spilling across the border into Lebanon. “The US Embassy advises US citizens in Lebanon of the potential for continued demonstrations, road blockages, and violence throughout this period,” the embassy said in an email to American citizens. The US Embassy advises US citizens to maintain low profiles in public, it said.
http://www.arabianbusiness.com/us-embassy-in-lebanon-warns-over-violence-458613.html
Newsline: U.S. embassy calls Syria bombings “unacceptable”
The U.S. embassy in Beirut called a double bombing that killed 55 people in Syria on Thursday “reprehensible and unacceptable” but said it would not change U.S. demands that the Syrian government implement a UN-backed peace plan. The bombings were the deadliest attacks in the Syrian capital, Damascus, since an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began 14 months ago. “The United States condemns in the strongest terms the attacks that took place today in Damascus,” the U.S. embassy said in statements posted on Twitter. “The indiscriminate targeting and killing of civilians is reprehensible and unacceptable in any context,” it said. The U.S. embassy in Damascus was closed earlier this year when tensions between the two countries rose as Washington voiced support for the revolt against Assad’s rule.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-syria-bombsbre8490sn-20120510,0,4555262.story
Newsline: Syrian embassy in Lebanon accused of smuggling weapons
Lebanese security forces apprehended two days ago a Lebanese military vehicle put at the disposal of the Syrian embassy transporting unlicensed weapons toward Syria, Al-Hayat newspaper reported on Friday. The daily also said that the vehicle had the license plate of a Syrian embassy vehicle and that an officer previously accused of abducting Syrian dissidents was inside. Syrian activists have claimed that the Syrian Embassy in Lebanon is complicit in the mysterious disappearances of a number of Syrians in Lebanon.
http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=384148
Newsline: US embassy in Beirut accused of espionage against Syria
Hezbollah has accused the U.S. embassy in Lebanon of overseeing the infiltration, armament and operations against Syria. Hezbollah has described the U.S. embassy in Lebanon as “a military operations room against Syria.” now, analysts believe that the US embassy does have a history of intelligence work aimed at Beirut and Damascus, and despite its recent claim to have refused to arm the Syrian opposition, it has been financing this group even before the unrest began in Syrian a year ago. Former Lebanese Minister Michel Samaha told press TV that the visits of Michael G. Vickers, US under secretary of defense for intelligence to Beirut shows that the US embassy is in a war of espionage with Syria. Since the unrest began percolating in Syria in mid-March last year, several reports have suggested that arms were being smuggled from Lebanon into Syria to support the opposition. Some Arab countries such as Qatar have called on the UN to send arms to the opposition groups. However, the UN seems to be brokering a political solution, which could be backed by Russia, a main critic of US policies in the Middle East.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/231402.html
Newsline: Rival demonstrators face off at Russian embassy in Beirut
Two opposing rallies took place in front of the Russian Embassy in Beirut Sunday, with one group of people decrying Moscow’s veto of a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Syria for its lethal crackdown on protesters, and another group chanting pro-Assad slogans. Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya organized a sit-in in front of the embassy in Corniche Al-Mazraa protesting Russia’s veto, while tens of Syrian expatriates gathered to voice support for both Moscow and President Bashar Assad. Internal Security Forces arrived at the scene and situated themselves between the two groups of protesters so as to prevent possible clashes. On Saturday, both Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council Resolution prepared by European and Arab nations. Even as Assad grows increasingly isolated, both regionally and internationally, he retains the support of some of his traditional allies. Russia had warned that it would veto any resolution seeking to punish Syria.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2012/Feb-05/162204-al-jamaa-al-islamiya-to-protest-russian-stance-on-syria.ashx#axzz1lWNjUzTI
Newsline: Canadian diplomat seeks Algerian aid in potato farmer’s release
A veteran Canadian diplomat says the best chance of getting New Brunswick farmer Henk Tepper out of a Lebanon prison is to deal directly with Algeria, the country that issued the arrest warrant in the first place. Gar Pardy, a now retired ambassador and longtime director of consular services, told the Toronto Star that if Algeria’s grievances over a bad shipment of potatoes are satisfied then his detention in Lebanon is unnecessary. The office of the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Diane Ablonczy confirmed there has been contact with Algeria with respect to Tepper but no further details were available. Tepper was on a trade mission to Lebanon last March with Potatoes Canada, an industry organization, when he was arrested on an Interpol warrant alleging he tampered with federal documents to sell potatoes to Algeria in 2007 that were unfit for human consumption. His more than nine months of being held in a Lebanon jail has caused a storm of controversy in Ottawa with critics calling on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to personally intervene. However, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird has insisted that all diplomatic efforts are being made to bring Tepper back to Canada. Toronto lawyer Paul Cavalluzzo, who is now advising Tepper’s New Brunswick lawyer James Mockler, said he fears the Teppers’ criticism of the government is in part responsible for the lack of movement in the case. Richard Belliveau, the retired Canadian ambassador to Algeria, shared Pardy’s take on things, adding that “it seems preposterous” that Tepper is being held in jail for months at a time on a questionable commercial transaction. Belliveau offered that “we’ve had very good relations in the area of food inspection with Algeria.” Questions to the Algerian Embassy in Ottawa went unanswered.
http://mobile.thestar.com/mobile/NEWS/article/1111402
Newsline: Innocent Canadian held in Beirut says embassy no help
A Canadian man detained recently in Beirut – in a case of mistaken identity – says the Canadian Embassy did nothing to help him or his family through a frightening situation. “You feel like an animal that’s sitting in a jail cell. You don’t even know what you did. You are in a foreign country,” said Ahmed Metwali. “And you can’t depend on the embassy. You have to fend for yourself.” Metwali flew to Lebanon in early October for a wedding, along with several relatives. He said Lebanese authorities pulled him aside, and accused him of being on the run – wanted for crimes in Saudi Arabia. Metwali was born in Canada and works for Air Canada at the Calgary airport, where he has top security clearances. He apparently has the same name and birth year as not one, but two Islamist extremists wanted by Interpol. “I said to him, ‘I’m Canadian. I was born in Canada.’ He looked at me and he looked at my passport and he threw it on the desk and he said, ‘You are not in Canada anymore.’” Mohamed Metwali says he made frantic calls to the Canadian embassy, trying get help for his son, but was told to hire a lawyer instead. As he was scrambling, he said he called the Canadian Embassy in Beirut, looking for help. He says a Lebanese staffer working there told him she couldn’t do anything to help. Metwali believes if his family hadn’t been there to help, he could have been on a plane to Saudi Arabia. The Metwalis believe the federal government did nothing to help them, despite Ottawa’s assertion that embassy officials tried. Metwali complained to his MP, Rob Anders, who told CBC News he’s heard many similar complaints about local hires at Canadian embassies and consulates. Between 80 and 90 per cent of staff at overseas embassies are not Canadian. “They are cheaper, but I would support local hires being replaced by more Canadians, even though it would cost more,” the Conservative politician said. Gar Pardy, former head of consular affairs, has been calling for years for a law to make immediate assistance for Canadians in trouble mandatory, similar to the protection U.S. citizens have. This case comes to light as another Canadian, New Brunswick farmer Henk Tepper, sits in a Lebanese jail. He is being held on an Interpol warrant for allegedly exporting rotten potatoes to Algeria. Tepper’s supporters say the Canadian Embassy in Beirut has also done little to help him. They say he has been detained without charge in a crowded jail cell since March. “The embassy has been doing absolutely nothing to help us,” said Tepper’s lawyer, James Mockler, of New Brunswick. “Once a month, he gets a brief visit from a Canadian official.” Mockler said Ambassador Hilary Childs-Adams recently met with the Lebanese justice minister, but Tepper was imprisoned for six months before that happened. A spokesman for the minister responsible for consulate services, Diane Ablonczy, said she wasn’t available to answer questions about consular services and would not talk about the Metwali case.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/11/18/bc-beirutdetention.html
Newsline: CIA under Embassy cover forced to curb spying in Lebanon
The CIA was forced to curtail its spying in Lebanon, where U.S. operatives and their agents collect crucial intelligence on Syria, terrorist groups and other targets, following the arrests of several CIA informants inBeirutthis year, according to U.S. officials and other sources. “Beirut station is out of business,” a source said, using the CIA term for its post there. The same source, who declined to be identified while speaking about a classified matter, alleged that up to a dozen CIA informants have been compromised, butU.S.officials disputed that figure.U.S.officials acknowledged that some CIA operations were suspended inBeirutlast summer. It’s unclear if full operations have resumed. Beirut is considered a key watching post for turmoil in theMiddle East. Senior CIA officials have briefed congressional staffers about the breach, and Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., who chairs the House intelligence committee, visitedBeirutrecently to interview CIA officers. Committee staff members want to determine if CIA operatives used sloppy practices that revealed sensitive sources and methods. Much in the case remains unclear, including the extent of the damage and whether negligence by CIA managers led to the loss of the Lebanese agents. According to the source, CIA case officers met a series of Lebanese informants at a local Pizza Hut, allowing Hezbollah and Lebanese authorities to identify who was helping the CIA. U.S. officials strongly disputed that agents were compromised at a Pizza Hut.U.S.officials also denied the source’s allegation that the former CIA station chief dismissed an email warning that some of his Lebanese agents could be identified because they used mobile phones to call only their CIA handlers and no one else. Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militant group that the U.S. considers a terrorist organization, and Lebanon’s internal security service have used software to analyze cellphone calling and location records to help them identify a network of alleged Israeli spies since 2007, according to several people familiar with the case. Dozens of people were arrested. In 2010, U.S. counterintelligence officials determined that the CIA’s Lebanese agents could be traced the same way, the source said. But the station chief allegedly ignored the warning. “He said, ‘The Lebanese are our friends. They wouldn’t do that to us,’ ” the source said. The Los Angeles Times is withholding the former station chief’s name because he remains undercover. He now has a supervisory role at CIA headquarters in operations targeting Hezbollah. The CIA declined to make him available for comment. In June, Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, announced the arrest of three of its members. He said two were “affiliated with the CIA, and one more might be affiliated with either the CIA, European intelligence or Mossad,”Israel’s foreign intelligence service. Nasrallah did not disclose their names, explaining that he wanted to protect their families, “whom I know personally.” He said that CIA officers, working under diplomatic cover at the U.S. Embassy, had recruited them in early 2011. The U.S. Embassy dismissed the charge. “These are the same kind of empty allegations that we have heard repeatedly from Hezbollah,” it said in a statement. Lebanon’s security service was able to isolate the CIA informants by analyzing mobile phone company records that showed the numbers called, duration of each call and location of the phone at the time of the call, the source said. Using billing and cell tower records for hundreds of thousands of phone numbers, software can isolate mobile phones used near an embassy, or used only once, or only on quick calls. The process quickly narrows out a small group of phones that a security service can monitor. In 2005, an Italian prosecutor used cellphone calling and location records to help identify 26 Americans he said took part in a 2003 abduction of a Muslim cleric on a street inMilan. A judge later convicted 23 Americans, including the CIA’s formerMilanbase chief, in absentia for their role in the “extraordinary rendition” case.
http://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/cia-forced-to-curb-spying-in-lebanon-1.161299
Newsline: Saudi embassy advises nationals not to visit downtown Beirut
Al-Hayat newspaper reported on Sunday that the Saudi Embassy in Lebanon advised its nationals not to visit Downtown Beirut. The daily also reported that the embassy took the decision due to “the annoyances that some Saudi residents were subjected to in Downtown Beirut.” Several weeks ago, a group of Lebanese youths beat a Saudi prince in downtown Beirut when he refused to move his car from a no-parking spot and told the traffic officer that “the Downtown area belongs to Saudis,” according to Al-Akhbar newspaper.
Newsline: Embassies tighten travel warnings for Lebanon
Several embassies have tightened travel warnings forLebanon, advising their nationals to avoid parts of the country due to unrest in neighbouring Syria and the kidnapping of a group of Estonians. The British embassy now advises its nationals to avoid travel toLebanon’s eastern and southern borders withSyriafollowing incursions by Syrian troops into the country. “We advise against all but essential travel to anywhere within five kilometres (three miles) of the border with Syria,” reads the travel warning. Embassies including those of the United States, Australia, Britain, Canada and France have also warned of the risk of abduction inLebanonafter seven Estonian nationals were kidnapped at gunpoint in the Bekaa Valley in March. The Estonians were released unharmed in July and some of their abductors were killed in a police raid last month. The U.S., Canadian and Australian embassies also cite in their warnings the Special Tribunal forLebanon, a UN-backed court which has charged four Hezbollah operatives with the 2005 assassination of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri. France now also includes in its list of areas to avoid the popular city ofSidonin the south after UN peacekeeping troops were the target of a roadside bomb there in July as well as the northern port city of Tripoli.
http://www.canada.com/news/Embassies+tighten+travel+warnings+Lebanon/5543707/story.html
