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This blog address will now longer be updated. The Beirut Spring can now only be accessed via www.beirutspring.com

Friends, readers and other bloggers, please adjust your bookmarks to www.beirutspring.com. For those who are subscribed to the old feed please move to this new one. I encourage all of you to do so.

Thank you all for reading my blog..

(PS: feel like watching some cool Lebanese videos? )

Free Alan

Why would anyone kidnap or kill Alan johnston?

Journalists protest in Beirut today (Photo New York Times)

Sign petition here.

Caught Wire-Handed

Cheating on your exams, Hezbollah style.

Who is the mastermind?

Notary Publics are important people. They are sworn in by the government to handle critical legal documents and are often sought by wrong-doers for bribery. This is why in Lebanon, prospects for this lucrative job have to pass a wrenching written exam (concours).

In one such exam a few days ago, the proctor suspected an applicant who was suspiciously touching his hear. According to Naharnet, "after he was sent out of the exam hall and examined, inspectors found hidden wires attached all over his body as well as a sophisticated button-like receiver."

A network was eventually uncovered. It used "its expertise in logistics and wireless communication by means of linking a number of candidates with receivers connected to the "mastermind" who was taking charge of answering test questions"

And where does the "mastermind" live? Naharnet was delighted to tell us in the very first sentence: "Haret Hreik". A suburb in Southern Beirut that supports Hezbollah.

The exams were immediately canceled and the cheaters with gizmos are being interrogated.

Playing By The Same Playbook

I saw this today:

Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr pulls his ministers out of Iraq's cabinet to press for a timetable for US withdrawal.

Sounds familiar, I wonder where I've seen it before..

The Truth About Syria

Some minds just need to be refreshed. Check out this excellent article by Liz Cheney in the Washington Post:

Anyone familiar with the past two years of Lebanese politics would never claim, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did in Damascus last week, that "the road to Damascus is a road to peace." Her assertion must have seemed especially naive to the people of Lebanon, where the list of the slain reads like a "Who's Who" of Syria's most vocal and effective opponents.

more >>>>

Update: And guess who sees this article as "The Cheney team's [..] last ditch effort to get the Security Council to establishing an international tribunal to try the Hariri murder"

Destruction Exposed

Google dabbles into politics


Remember that famous before/after picture of Dahieh which used Google Earth to expose Israeli brutality in the Lebanon war? That picture was an example of how users of Google Earth can use the program for political purposes.

The news now is that Google itself wants to point its users to international trouble spots, starting with Darfur.

Now, after logging in, users of Google Earth will see fire icons scattered all around Darfur (see picture above). When they zoom into these icons, they will see clear views of villages burnt by government-allied forces, in addition to pictures and stories of survivors and witnesses.

The purpose of the praise-worthy enterprise is to raise awareness among the 200m Google Earth users of the genocide taking place in Darfur.

But questions remain about Google's policies.

Would it for instance feature satellite images of bombed areas in Lebanon if heaven-forbids, another war with Israel took place?

The Lone Ranger

Hassan Nassrallah may be loud, but he is increasingly isolated

Please hold me tightly and don't let go

You have to be seriously short on allies to attempt to resurrect the widely hated four generals implicated in Hariri's assassination. Also, when your own underlings start contradicting your highness, you know you're in trouble. This is why when our dear Sheikh starts shouting and threatening, you should know that his feet are beginning to catch fire in his cave.

The divine decider is insecure about his unkept divine promises, not to mention the 1701 ropes tying his hands in the south. So like a caged bleeding tiger, he tries to roar away the steel bars slowly closing in on him.

His own allies are shying away from defending him. Aoun keeps changing the subject to, euh, corrupt government baddies who are bent on breaking the constitution, while lamely insisting that he supports the international tribunal. Mr. Berri, meanwhile, watched silently as his boss shattered away the benign façade he was slowly trying to build and the promise he had made just a few days ago that the tribunal would be ratified in the parliament.

The Lebanese are queuing up to calmly and confidently denounce "the President of the Republic of Hezbollah" (sounds cool, we should use that more often). Unlike the sheep that keep cheering him, the Lebanese are starting to see Mr. Nassrallah for what he really is: an annoyance whose bluffs can easily be called.

Rashed Fayed: Hezbollah supporters cheered when Hariri was killed (Arabic)
Fayed thinks it's 'boring' every time Nassrallah calls Hariri a martyr.

A Lebanese Perspective: Why Pelosi's Visit Was Wrong

Michael Young, a veteran Lebanese commentator, is not happy with the "dilettante" Pelosi's visit to Syria. He explain why her trip was a "fool's errand" and then he sighs:

Unfortunately, foreign bigwigs come to town, their domestic calculations in hand; then they leave, and we're left picking up the pieces.

More from Anton Efendi who also points out editorials with a similar point.

The Economist thinks that Assad got away with it:

Syria's leaders, long shunned by fellow Arabs as well as Westerners, seem suddenly back in fashion... President Bashar Assad's relations with the governments of neighbouring Turkey and Iraq have warmed. He has strengthened Syria's long-standing alliance with Iran, yet seems also to have reconciled with the region's rival heavyweight, Saudi Arabia. King Abdullah greeted him in person last week at the airport of Riyadh, the Saudi capital, on his arrival for an Arab summit whose next venue is to be Syria. Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign-affairs head, had soothing words for Mr Assad on a recent visit. This week, defying President Bush's ban on high-level contacts, two American congressional delegations, one led by Nancy Pelosi, the top-ranking Democrat, took the road to Damascus.

Mr Assad may even get back into the swim of Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy, from which he has been largely excluded, thanks in part to his backing of Hamas's exiled leader, Khaled Meshal, whose haven is Damascus. The resuscitated Arab League peace plan of 2002 includes a demand that Syria be given back the Golan Heights in return for peace with Israel. And there is talk within the newly-formed Arab Quartet of moderate states (Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates) that Syria should be included, partly to detach it from its ally, Iran.

The Bishops Rebuff Aoun

The Maronite bishops have decided to put an end to Aoun's habit of putting words in their mouth..

When the Patriarch warned against a chapter 7 resolution last month, M.P. Michel Aoun suddenly had a new, convenient soundbite: The Patriarch is on our side!

However, when the Patriarch made that infamous interview with a Kuwaiti newspaper in which he accused Aoun of Opportunism, the FPM's website immediately denied that the Patriarch had made such an interview, citing 'a chat between Mr. Sfeir and journalists' (The Patriarch didn't deny that interview but labeled it: "inaccurate").

Aoun kept taking the Patriarch for granted. A few days ago, Aoun "Predicted" that the presidential elections might not happen on time, and today, the Tayyar's website featured what they called "the Patriarch's strong opposition to the international tribunal under chapter 7"

So imagine Aoun's embarrassment after the Maronite bishops took the following stance after their monthly meeting today:(source Naharnet)

The Council of Maronite Bishops on Wednesday urged parliament to practice its constitutional and national role.
It also said that presidential elections should be held on time and considered any attempt to prevent quorum an anti-constitutional measure.
The statement issued after the Bishops’ monthly meeting stressed on the importance of implementing U.N. Security Council Resolutions concerning Lebanon, including the creation of an international tribunal to try suspects in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s assassination and related crimes.