Moammar Gaddafi, Socialist Revolutionary Or Charlatan?
By Dave Fryett
15 March, 2011
Countercurrents.org
Defining socialism broadly as the advocacy of an egalitarian, classless society, and those figures and movements who made it their cause, what is Moammar Gaddafi's place in this evolution? He is never mentioned in the same league as the more influential thinkers such as Lukacs or Gramsci or Foucault, and rightly so, but he is the creator of the Third Universal Theory. It rejects capitalism and communism in favor of an organic, participatory, bottom-up process which he dubbed Jamahiriya (Arabic for "government by the masses"). This democratic contruct was rendered impotent however, when he induced it to cede critical decision-making powers to him. Nevertheless, he did effect boldly anti-capitalist measures which abolished "slave wage labor" and made all workers equal partners."Power, wealth, and weapons--in the hands of the people," is Jamahiriya's mission statement.
While Gaddafi's autocracy vexes most socialists, it is not incompatible with some strains of Marxist thought. He wields no more power than did Lenin, Castro, or Mao. Allowing for the sake of analysis that the vesting of unvitiated prerogative in a single individual is consonant with the aims of socialism, has Gaddafi used Libya's wealth and his authority to promote international socialist transformation? What follows is an assessment, admittedly scant, narrow, and desultory, of Gaddafi as a revolutionary.
In 2003, Moammar Gaddafi made a "slimy, disgusting" deal to accept responsibility for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in exchange for the lifting of sanctions against Libya.
[1,2]
 
The bargain was brokered by the Rothschild family with negotiations taking place in their hillside mansion on the island of Corfu.
[2]
 Since then the Colonel has been the darling of Western capital, even winning the praise of the ever-fastidious IMF.
[3]
 He has thrown open Libya's markets to freebooting investment banks and privatized much of its industries.
[3,4]
The Rothschild's chief salesman and million-dollar "part-time" consultant, Tony Blair, negotiated shared-operating agreements on behalf of BP (the family's British oil company) and Shell (their Dutch holding) in which the former British prime minister secured a eighty-five percent share for his employer.
[5]
 So great is now the investment of foreign capital in the Central Bank of Libya and the Libya Investment Authority (sovereign wealth fund) that it exceeds by half the oil-rich nation's entire GDP.
[3]
Gaddafi too has taken to investing his and Libya's money in everything from real estate to banks and newspapers and even an Italian football (soccer) team.
[6]
 
In fact, so convivial is the relationship between the "socialist" Libyan leader and his new bourgeois friends that he has taken a position in the Pearson Group, which publishes the Financial Times, the voice of international capital.
[6]
 If it is the case that the Corfu deal was a Faustian bargain entered into by Gaddafi of necessity and in contravention of his dearest personal convictions, then congratulations are in order. For not only has he overcome his long-held, oft-proclaimed aversion to capitalism, he seems to be thriving in his new life as an entrepreneur. If one didn't know better, it might appear as though he were enjoying his new membership in the global billionaires' club. For most it would be a daunting task to partner with those against whom one has spent a lifetime in bellicose opposition, not so for the Colonel. Gaddafi is so deeply ensconced in the milieu of high finance that some of his new fraternity brothers are suffering the effects of the Libyan revolution along with him.
[7]
That Gaddafi is now wedded to capital is beyond dispute, but since 1969, when, at the head of the Movement of Free Officers, Socialists, and Unionists, he overthrew the Libyan monarchy, there have been whispers that he was the tool of imperial interests and was aided in the coup by the British.
[8]
 At first blush this appears ridiculous. It is difficult to imagine how the Brits could have been unhappy with the deposed king, Idris I, as he was utterly compliant. Why then should they intrigue against him? Yet when one examines Gaddafi's career, one is struck by the shear number of controversies in which there is ample reason to believe he acted in concert with reactionary forces. Many of these disturbing episodes concern his campaigns in Africa. This worthy topic, as it is far too broad and I too inexpert, cannot be done justice here.
[9,10,11]
 Instead I will focus on three puzzling incidents whose reverberations were felt more keenly in Europe and the Mideast.

The Edwin Wilson Affair
One of the more serious charges against Gaddafi is that he is a sponsor of terrorism. What is less well known is that arms and explosives which the Libyan leader distributed were provided by a CIA agent named Edwin Wilson. And that at least some of the terror operations were in fact the false-flag operations of Western intelligence services.
Edwin Wilson ostensibly left the agency in 1971. Thereafter he ran shipping companies as part of a naval intelligence unit called Task Force 157. One such outfit was World Marine. As its head, Wilson brokered a series of arms deals for American intelligence, including one which sent a high-tech spy ship to Iran. These clandestine purchases were laundered by the Nugan Hand Bank of Australia, a CIA front. The bank eventually imploded and the resulting investigation revealed its illegal activities. Wilson, by this time living in Libya, was indicted on weapons and other charges in the US and a request for extradition was made, which was refused.
Gaddafi was Wilson's biggest customer. World Marine had provided him with arms and no less than twenty tons of military-grade plastic explosives. Under Wilson's direction, "former" American intelligence agents and Green Berets trained Libya's army and police. A weapon used to murder a Gaddafi opponent living in Bonn, West Germany was provided by Wilson. A Libyan dissident living in Colorado was assassinated by one of Wilson's Green Berets who traveled from and subsequently returned to Libya. It is no wonder Gaddafi didn't want to hand Wilson over.
Wilson was tricked by one of his "former" CIA colleagues into believing he could safely travel to the Carribean where he was arrested. At his trial he said that he was still a CIA agent and acting under their orders, and that he was being made the fall guy to protect the agency. CIA Executive Director Charles Briggs produced an affidavit which falsely claimed that they had had no dealings with Wilson after his putative resignation in 1971. Wilson was convicted on numerous charges, and sentenced to 52 years.
Once in prison, through the Freedom of Information Act Wilson obtained scores of government documents dated after 1971 in which he is named as an agent. He sought and received a new trial and the federal judge in Houston, Lynn Hughes, overturned the most serious conviction saying that the prosecutor and the CIA had "deliberately deceived" the court in the first trial and that Wilson had been "double-crossed" by the agency.
It is incomprehensible that Gaddafi didn't know with whom he was dealing. He would also have to know that the weaponry he provided to terrorists would have been unavailable if US intelligence didn't want those organizations to have them. Furthermore, these arms ended up in the hands of the Palestine Liberation Front, among others, who under the leadership of Abu Abbas commandeered the cruise ship Achille Lauro in 1985. According to Mossad defector Ari Ben-Menashe, the hijacking was part of a series of black ops orchestrated by Israeli intelligence.
[12]
 This was not the only case where weapons provided by Gaddafi were used in "terror attacks" which later were revealed to be the operations of Western intelligence services. Arms originating with the CIA through its man Wilson are sold to Libya, and pass into the hands of reputed terror cells, which turn out in fact to be agents of Western governments, was Gaddafi duped each time? Or was he complicit?
[13,14,15,16]
The Case of the Missing Imam
In 1928, Musa as-Sadr (sometimes transliterated al-Sadr) was born in Iran to a Shi'ite family of Lebanese Arabs. He attended Tehran University where he earned degrees in Islamic Jurisprudence and Political Science. He continued his Islamic studies after graduation and became a widely revered imam.
Sadr was one of those rare clerics who could submerge in his own ecumenical culture without succumbing to disdain for the secular world or other religious traditions. He was a progressive, as much concerned with the affairs of state as with theology. During his years at university, he became acquainted with radical teachers and students who would later play a pivotal role in the Iranian revolution. He also became associated with the Freedom Movement of Iran, a leftist dissident group opposed to the Shah. As an imam and the son of an ayatollah, he had extensive contacts within the clergy. He was related to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini by marriage.
In 1960, Sadr accepted an offer to go to Lebanon and become the chief imam in the city of Tyre. Imam Musa was appalled to see the extent to which the ruling pro-Western Christian and Sunni factions had subjugated the Shi'a. He began to agitate for reform. In 1967, he persuaded the government to recognize the Twelvers (a Shi'ite denomination) as an official Lebanese community, which gave them civil rights. In 1974, he launched the Movement of the Disinherited. It operated clinics and schools and other essential services for the poor, and lobbied the government on their behalf. Many of their leaders were drawn from the Iranian expatriate community which had fled the Shah and his feared security apparatus, the SAVAK.
While mainly Shi'ite, the Movement stood for all of Lebanon's disadvantaged and claimed Christians among its founding members. It also reached out to other religious minorities and in so doing won the favor of Syrian ruler Hafez al-Assad. The Assads are Alawis, an independent sect regarded as non-Islamic by some Muslims. Sadr aggressively courted the autonomous group in the hope of bringing them into the Twelver fold. Perhaps his motives for embracing the Alawis had more to do with a larger political vision than a concern for theological comity, but in either case he succeeded.
[17]
The Assads were strengthened by the agreement as objection to their rule on religious grounds was thereby invalidated. Mutual interest thickened to friendship and the goodwill between Sadr and the House of Assad spawned a networking back-channel for Mideast dissidents of all stripes.
Due in no small part to the imam's successes, relations between the Lebanese government and the Movement deteriorated. Sadr was allied with the Lebanese National Movement, a coalition of political parties, many Marxist, which stood in opposition to the rightist government. As tensions deepened, in 1974, Sadr's Movement formed a militia which came to be known by its acronym AMAL (Arabic for "hope").
In Iran, revolution was in the air. The US advised the Shah to make accommodations with the Freedom Movement of Iran and the newly revived National Front, which favored a constitutional monarchy. Their hope was to cleave the secular factions from the more conservative clerical opposition of Ayatollah Khomeini and his Council of Islamic Revolution. Nothing, however, could save the Shah. He fled and the revolutionary forces seized power in February of 1979. Eight months later, US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinksi met with the FMI's Ebrahim Yazdi in Algeria. News of this meeting caused concern among supporters of the ayatollah that the secular revolutionaries were colluding with the Americans. Thus belatedly did the US succeed in sundering the revolutionary right from the left, but the provocation bolstered Khomeini's position and led to the storming of the American Embassy and the hostage crisis. The interim government dissolved and left the clergy in control.
Meanwhile civil war had begun in Lebanon. Sadr embarked on a tour of Arab states in the hopes of convening a summit to find a solution. In Libya, Sadr and two companions left their hotel for a scheduled afternoon meeting with Moammar Gaddafi and were never seen again.
Suspicion immediately fell on Gaddafi. He claimed that the three left Libya for Rome and met their fate there. This explanation was received with what in the guarded, circumspect world of diplomacy was unusually blunt skepticism. The imam's family, which has never believed Gaddafi's account, insisted that Italy was not on Sadr's itinerary, and given the purpose of his trip, he would have no reason to go there. Italian authorities investigated the matter and reported that as far as they could determine no one by the name of Sadr had entered Italy.
So what happened to the charismatic cleric and his companions? Since there is no evidence that they ever left Libya, the conventional wisdom is that Gaddafi had them killed. The Lebanese government indicted Gaddafi in 2008.
[18]
Who benefited from Sadr's removal? As an Arab, Lebanese, Iranian national, head of an armed resistance movement, leftist political activist, and imam, he had areas of mutual sensitivity and experience with many of the hostile parties in the Middle East. As an Arab he could have served as an emissary of the Iranian revolution to the Arab world. Sadr disappeared during the period when the US was maneuvering to split the opposition. With his connections to both the secular and religious revolutionary factions, he could have served as intermediary and thwarted the divisive plot.
Perhaps more importantly, it was through the mediation of Sadr and AMAL that the bond between the Assads and revolutionary elements in Iran was forged.
[19]
This unlikely entente persists to this day, much to the chagrin of the US and Israel.
In Lebanon, Sadr was succeeded at the head of AMAL by Hussein el-Husseini. Unfortunately he lacked the imam's appeal and never commanded the respect his predecessor enjoyed. He resigned, which paved the way for Nabih Berri.
Berri worked as a lawyer for General Motors in Beirut and Detroit. He left his home of two years in Michigan when Sadr disappeared and headed for Lebanon. He joined AMAL and served in varying capacities until he became its head when el-Husseini departed.
As leader, Berri moved AMAL to the right and eventually participated in the National Unity government with rightist Rashid Karami. His policies were anathema to rank and file members who saw them as a betrayal. They left the organization in numbers and formed a new defense organization--Hizbollah. These defections marked the end of AMAL as a force in Lebanese life. What had been an inspired popular resistance movement declined into moribund irrelevance under Berri.
Why would Gaddafi have Sadr killed? They had much in common. They both professed Islam and socialism, they were natural allies. Sadr's disappearance occurs during that period when Edwin Wilson is selling Libya weapons and "former" agents of American intelligence and armed services are training Gaddafi's goons and murdering his opponents. For those who entertain the idea that Gaddafi has, at least at times, acted at the behest of imperialist interests, this incident is instructive. Sadr was an enemy of two governments allied with Washington and Tel Aviv, it was they who had the most to gain from his demise. Even if Gaddafi was taken unawares, and Sadr was slain by Wilson's thugs, he had to know who was responsible and should have acted accordingly. Instead he reacted with apathy and silence. If Sadr was assassinated, which seems quite likely, then Gaddafi is at the very least an accessory.
Former Gaddafi loyalist Major Abdel Moneim al Houni has said that Sadr was killed on Gaddafi's orders and is buried in southern Libya.
[20]
Other recent Libyan defectors have claimed that the imam is still alive and being held in prison.
[21]
There is even one account of the imam being hurriedly boarded onto a small aircaft
[22]
 Sadly, it is much more likely that Gaddafi has Elvis under lock and key as the rock star's discovery would pose less a danger to the regime than the imam's. It is reasonable to speculate that once detained, the unfortunate cleric would have been aggressively interrogated and his brain emptied of all that it knew of the revolutionary cells in Iran and Lebanon. It is possible that they kept him alive for a time as events unfolded in the region, but once AMAL had been successfully corralled and the clergy had triumphed in Iran, Sadr would no longer be of any value. Ironically, it may have been the ascent of his in-law, Ayatollah Khomeini, which sealed his fate.
Lockerbie
In December of 1988, Pan Am flight 103 burst into pieces over Lockerbie, Scotland when a bomb exploded in its cargo hold. Two hundred and seventy were killed. The US first pointed its finger at Syria, more specifically Ahmed Jibril and his Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, the Marxist militia then enjoying Syrian protection.
[23]
Later they blamed Iran.
[24]
They accused the Islamic republic of perpetrating the outrage in retaliation for the USS Vincennes' "accidental" shooting down of Iranian Air flight 655.
[25] Then, finally, they settled on their favorite foil--Libya. Again revenge was said to be the motive and the US bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi the provocation.
From the very beginning there were doubts. Locals were especially incredulous as what they were hearing from their government differed from what they had experienced. Many residents of the small Scottish town reported seeing a number of officials with American accents on scene within an hour of the crash. These men walked among the debris and removed several items.
[26]
 No mention of this was ever heard in media reports and the US government denied having investigators at the crash site that quickly. Among the most vocal of the skeptics was Lockerbie's representative in parliament, Tam Dalyell, and local pastor, Rev. Patrick Keegans, of the Holy Trinity Church.
[26,27]
Some of the victim's families filed a law suit against the airline. Pan Am's insurer hired Interfor. According to its "about" web-page, Interfor, Inc. is an international investigation and security consulting firm offering comprehensive domestic and foreign intelligence services.
[28]
 Their detailed report makes no mention of Libya.
[29]
Maggie Mahar of Barron's, John Picton of the Toronto Star, and Ian Ferguson and John Biewen of America Radio Works also looked into the bombing and likewise determined that Libya played no part.
[30]
 Vincent Cannistraro, who investigated the matter for the CIA, told the New York Times that it was "outrageous" to blame the Libyans.
[31]
While the conclusions of these four inquiries differ, they all contend that drug-runners with deep ties to American intelligence services committed the horrific crime. The motive was to silence the Defense Intelligence Agency's Major Charles McKee and his team who had left their mission in Lebanon without authorization, and who had resolved to expose the illegal trafficking in narcotics.
[32
In 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait. In its preparation for war, the US solicited and received support from Syria and Iran. It was at this point that new evidence in the Lockerbie case came to light. Syria and Iran were exonerated, and Abdelbasset Ali al-Megrahi, head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines, and Lamen Khalifa Fhima, station manager for the airline in Malta, were indicted in US District Court. Gaddafi refused to extradite them but in 1993 agreed to hand the two men over for trial before three Scottish judges in Holland. The US and UK at first rejected the proposal but eventually yielded in 1998. The trial began in May of 2000.
As the date approached, the US AND UK had two obstacles to overcome: the absence of evidence against the defendants; and the mutinous chorus of disgust, increasingly audible, wafting up from the usually taciturn intelligence underworld. Cannistraro's unhelpful remarks to the press may have been a faux pas, but many of his colleagues, enraged by the loss of so many confederates, were defiantly voicing their disbelief. In order to quell this rebellion and prevent further embarrassing revelations, the US muzzled its intelligence community.
[33]
As for the lack of evidence: The three most important witnesses against the Libyans, Toni Gauci, Edwin Bollier, and Ulrich Lumpert, have admitted to perjury, with Gauci and Bollier disclosing they were offered enormous sums.
[34,35,36]
The allegation was that the two men conspired to place the bomb upon the aircraft in retribution for the US attack on Libya in 1986. This theory was dealt a blow when just weeks before the trial was set to begin, the chief prosecutor, Lord Hardie, resigned in dismay claiming he had been deceived about the strength of the Crown's case.
[37]
His replacement called over a hundred witnesses, almost all of whom were British and American intelligence agents. In a decision which seemed incongruous even to supporters, the judges ruled that one defendant, Megrahi, was guilty of conspiring to blow up the plane while his alleged co-conspirator was found to be not guilty. UN observer Hans Koechler called the decision "arbitrary" and "inconsistent" and "a travesty".
[38]
In 2003, the deal was struck in the Rothschild villa in Corfu. In exchange for the lifting of sanctions, Libya agreed to accept responsibility for Lockerbie, pay billions in reparations, and open up its markets to foreign investment.
Conclusion
Even if we grant Gaddafi the benefit of the doubt and stipulate that he resisted as long as he could, his capitulation has been absolute. He has conceded everything. He has come to complete accommodation with the same forces which imposed the crippling sanctions, framed Megrahi for Lockerbie, and now loot Libya through usurious oil contracts. It is hard to square this acquiescence with socialism. As it now stands, his relationship to capital differs in no meaningful way from that of King Idris, save that Gaddafi claims the mantle of revolutionary.
Was Gaddafi defeated? Or has he been on the winning team all along? His career is mixed, with self-interest being its dominant theme. Never was this more manifest than in his squalid defense of Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak. Nothing could be more definitive.
When the Dark Ages finally come to an end, and the history of universal human suffrage can at long last be written, Moammar Gaddafi will have no place in it.
----------

حسين الصدر في رسالة لرؤساء الكتل العراقية:
لتخفيف المطالب المتعلقة بتشكيل الحكومة العراقية خدمة ً للعراق

(أ.ل) - بغداد – الكاظمية المقدسة - وجه سماحة المرجع الديني آية الله الفقيه السيد حسين اسماعيل الصدر (دام ظله) رسالة لرؤوساء الكتل العراقية تضمنت دعوتهم لتخفيف المطالب المتعلقة بتشكيل الحكومة العراقية خدمة ً للعراق وشعبه العزيز، وفيما يلي النص الكامل لهذه الرسالة
السادة رؤوساء الكتل السياسية العراقية (رعاهم الله) السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته:
يعيش عراقنا هذه الأيام مرحلة مهمة من خلال مايحيط به من توجه معادي يريد السوء بالبلاد والعباد، وتقومون أنتم بجهدٍ مخلص للخروج بتشكيلة وزارية تنهض بالمهام الملقاة على عاتقها ،لذا فأننا في الوقت الذي نبارك لكم هذا الجهد ونشد على أيديكم من أجل الوصول الى أفضل الفرص في التشكيل الحكومي فأننا ندعو للنظر بأمعان الى حال البلاد وظروفها والتخفيف من حجم الشروط والمطالب التي تحملونها والتنازل عن جوانب منها خاصة وأنها تصلح للبحث والتداول بعد تشكيل الوزارة.
ان الدور الذي نهضتم به والكثير من القوى السياسية يستحق ان نبذل من خلاله الشيء الكثير للحفاظ على سعادة العراقيين وسلامتهم عبر تأجيل وتنازلات هنا وهناك ، نتمنى أن يسود شعور لدى كل القوى السياسية بأنها تمثل العراق بشعبه من الشمال الى الجنوب وتعمل على هذا الأساس وأن الخير حيث ما أقتطف فهو في العراق. بارك الله فيكم ووفقكم وأيدكم عنواناً لوحدة العراق والعراقيين.-انتهى-
-------
وفد من مؤسسات الإمام الصدر زار بلدية الغبيري

(أ.ل) - استقبل رئيس البلدية الغبيري محمد سعيد الخنسا، في إطار التعاون والتنسيق بين جمعيات المجتمع الأهلي مع البلدية، وفي حضور الأعضاء ماهر سليم ويوسف الخليل ورمزي علامة، وفدا من "مؤسسات الامام الصدر" ضم نجاد شرف الدين ومليحة الصدر شرف الدين ومالك شمص وحسن حمادة.
وخلال الاجتماع، تحدث شرف الدين طبيعة الخدمات الاجتماعية والصحية والارشادية والمهنية التي تقدمها مؤسسات الامام موسى الصدر، وخصوصا في الجنوب من صيدا الى بنت جبيل، وصولا الى تخوم فلسطين المحتلة. ووجه الدعوة الى الخنسا لزيارة المراكز والمستوصفات والمعاهد التابعة للمؤسسات بغية الوقوف ميدانيا على نوعية الخدمات الهادفة الى صون المجتمع وخير الناس".
وتمنت مليحة شرف الدين أن يزور وفد من بلدية الغبيري مركز "أسيل" في بيروت، والذي يعنى ببناء قدرات الاطفال دون الثلاث سنوات وتحسينها.
من جهته، أثنى الخنسا على الجهود التي تبذلها "مؤسسات الصدر" في كل المجالات، واعدا بزيارة بعض مراكزها في الجنوب، على ان ينتدب وفد آخر لزيارة مركز "أسيل" للاطلاع والتنسيق الميداني. وأوضح لضيوفه أن "المجلس البلدي في الغبيري يضع في سلم أولوياته الاهتمام بالنواحي التربوية والثقافية والاجتماعية والصحية، نظرا الى تأثيرها المباشر على صون المجتمع وحمايته". وختم لافتا الى "إنطلاق الورشة التنفيذية لبناء المركز الصحي الاجتماعي الذي سينعكس نفعا على الغبيري وأبنائها".-انتهى-
-------
اتحاد المصارف العربية افتتح منتدى المشروعات الصغيرة
وكلمات أشادت بدورها في مكافحة البطالة

(أ.ل) - إفتتح اتحاد المصارف العربية صباح اليوم منتدى "المشروعات الصغيرة والمتوسطة: الطريق الى التنمية الاقتصادية والعدالة الاجتماعية"، الذي ينظمه الاتحاد بالتعاون مع "ايدال" ومصرف لبنان ووزارة الاقتصاد والتجارة والاتحاد الدولي للمصرفيين العرب والاتحاد العربي للمنشآت الصغيرة على مدى ثلاثة ايام في فندق "موفنبيك".
طربيه
بعد النشيد الوطني، وفي حضور عدد من المصرفيين اللبنانيين والعرب ورجال اعمال ومعنيين في الشأن الاقتصادي، تحدث رئيس اللجنة التنفيذية لاتحاد المصارف العربية ورئيس مجلس ادارة الاتحاد الدولي للمصرفيين العرب الدكتور جوزف طربيه، فلفت الى غياب الاستراتيجيات العربية على المستوى الوطني لتفعيل دور هذا القطاع إن لناحية الدعم والتشجيع، أو بالنسبة للتمويل". وقال: "التجربة في دول العالم المتقدم كما في بعض دولنا العربية اثبتت أن المشروعات الصغيرة والمتوسطة هي أكثر قدرة على الصمود في مواجهة المتغيرات والأزمات والتقلبات الإقتصادية من المشروعات الكبيرة".
وأكد على دورها في "مكافحة البطالة ومساهمته في تخفيف الضغط على أسواق العمل نتيجة للعدد الهائل من الداخلين الجدد إلى سوق العمل، ولمساهمته في زيادة القيمة المضافة الصناعية، وتحسين تنافسية القطاع الإنتاجي والمساهمة في جهود الإبتكار وتنويع الهيكل الإقتصادي".
وشدد على "أهمية مساهمة المنشآت الصغيرة والمتوسطة في التشغيل، وتحسين الكفاءة والإبتكار والإنتاجية من خلال تعزيز المنافسة، إضافة إلى تنويع الهيكل الإقتصادي"، سائلا عن "دور القطاع المصرفي العربي في دعم تمويل المشروعات الصغيرة والمتوسطة، وما هي نسبة الائتمان المقدمة لتمويل هذه المشروعات من حجم الائتمان البالغ 1.67 تريليون دولار اميركي"؟
ونبه الى ان "دور المنشآت الصغيرة والمتوسطة في الدول العربية، يواجه اليوم العديد من المعوقات من حيث التنمية والتمويل والتشغيل، حيث أن هذا القطاع ما زال يشكو من معوقات أساسية مثل صعوبة الحصول على التمويل والضمانات، إضافة إلى صعوبات كثيرة أخرى متعلقة بعدم ملاءمة مناخ الأعمال والقوانين والتشريعات، وتواضع البنية التحتية والمصرفية، أو نقص المعلومات، وضعف الخبرات في مجال إدارة المشاريع، وعدم إنتشار ثقافة المبادرة والإبتكار".
واوضح ان "هذا القطاع يمثل في لبنان نحو 90 في المئة من عدد مؤسسات القطاع الخاص ويتكفل بتشغيل أكثر من 80 في المئة من مجموع العاملين فيه، مع الاشارة الى أن القطاع الخاص هو أساس الاقتصاد الوطني كما في كل الأنظمة الليبرالية"، لافتا الى ان "مبادرة البنك المركزي قبل سنوات في اطلاق مؤسسة كفالات المختصة بضمان برامج التمويل المصرفية الموجهة تحديدا الى هذا القطاع الحيوي، مثلت علامة فارقة في فتح الأبواب والآفاق أمام تطوير جذري في بنية القطاع وخدماته ودوره في استقطاب العمالة والكفاءات والتنمية".
وأشار الى ان لبنان يمتلك "منصة نموذجية تضم مروحة واسعة من المنتجات التي تلائم كل المشاريع المبادرة والعاملة، كما تتيح لكل المبدعين تحويل أفكارهم الى مؤسسات ومشاريع".
القصار
ثم تحدث رئيس الهيئات الاقتصادية عدنان القصار فشدد على ان "المشاريع الصغيرة والمتوسطة في العالم العربي تشكل أكثر من 90% من مجمل المشروعات في البلاد العربية، وتتميز بمساهمتها المرتفعة في الناتج المحلي الإجمالي، وبقدرتها على استقطاب وتوظيف العمالة، وبالأخص من فرص العمل التي يوفرها القطاع الخاص، والتي تشكل عموما 40% من إجمالي فرص العمل التي يوفرها القطاع الخاص العربي"، معتبرا انها "تشكل مفتاحا أساسيا لمواجهة التحدي الأساسي لنا اليوم في العالم العربي، والمتمثل بالقدرة على تحقيق معدلات عالية من النمو المستدام والقادر على خلق الوظائف الجديدة بالكمية والنوعية المناسبتين، بهدف التصدي لمعضلة البطالة المتفاقمة التي تقدر بنسبة 16%، وبما يفوق 25% بالنسبة للشباب، بما يعتبر أعلى المعدلات في العالم على الإطلاق".
ولفت الى ان "العالم العربي يحتاج الى أن يخلق ما بين 40 إلى 50 مليون فرصة عمل من الآن لغاية عام 2020، خصوصا وأن أحداث "الربيع العربي" أثرت كثيرا في تراجع البيئة الاستثمارية، اذ انخفضت الاستثمارات الخارجية المباشرة منذ عام 2011 بنسبة 43%، كما انخفض معدل فرص العمل الجديدة بنسبة 23%"، لافتا في هذا السياق الى "أهمية المؤسسات الصغيرة والمتوسطة، وأهمية دور المصارف العربية في توفير التمويل المناسب الذي يمثل عصب الأساس لهذه المؤسسات، ولا سيما وأن حصتها من مجموع حقائب الإقراض للمصارف العربية تبلغ 7.6% فقط".
موري
وتحدث مستشار الاتحاد الاوروبي لشؤون التنمية المستدامة في لبنان مارتشيلو موري فتناول واقع العلاقة بين التنمية المستدامة والعدالة الاجتماعية، معتبرا ان "النمو الاقتصادي الذي يستثني شرائح اجتماعية واسعة من حلقة الرفاه الاجتماعي من شأنه ان يفاقم بسرعة انعدام المساواة ويزيد شعور الفئات غير المشمولة بهذا الرفاه بالغبن".
وشدد على ان "العدالة الاجتماعية لا يمكن ان تتحقق من دون ان تشمل السياسات الاقتصادية خلق فرص عمل لأوسع الشرائح الاجتماعية ومن دون ايجاد اطر مؤسسية تسمح بتنمية المؤسسات الصغيرة والمتوسطة"، مؤكدا على تلازم التنمية الاقتصادية والعدالة الاجتماعية".
وأشار الى الدور الاساسي للمصارف "في هذا النموذج الاقتصادي الشامل طالما انه يتمتع بالقدرة على تلبية متطلبات المؤسسات الصغيرة والمتوسطة وعلى خلق فرص عمل"، آملا في "ان يعي القطاع المصرفي وصانعو القرار في الدول العربية اهمية الدور الملقى على عاتقهم في دعم التنمية الاقتصادية لا سيما في ضوء المخاطر السياسية والامنية التي تعاني منها دول المنطقة العربية".
وذكر بأن الاتحاد الاوروبي "دعم ويدع القطاع الخاص في لبنان كونه رافعة النمو ومولد فرص العمل، كما انه دعم المؤسسات الفائقة الصغر وساهم في خلق فرص عمل في المجتمعات الريفية من خلال لعب دور فاعل في انشاء "الصندوق الاقتصادي والاجتماعي للتنمية".

شرف الدين
بدوره، قال النائب الأول لحاكم مصرف لبنان رائد شرف الدين "إن الأوضاع الاقتصادية في المنطقة ليست في أفضل حال، فتوقعات صندوق النقد الدولي ان لا تتجاوز نسب النمو الـ 3.6% في العام الحالي و3.9% للعام القادم، وهي معدلات أدنى من تلك المتوقعة للدول النامية (4.9%-5.3%) ومن هنا يكمن التحدي بالسعي إلى زيادة النمو الإقتصادي ورفع مستويات الدخل مما يساعد على تحسين التنمية الإقتصادية والإجتماعية".
اضاف "من المعروف أن معظم المؤسسات في العالم العربي هي مؤسسات متوسطة وصغيرة. فبحسب الدراسة الأخيرة لمؤسسة التمويل الدولية تتراوح نسبة مساهمة هذه المؤسسات من مجمل الناتج المحلي ما بين 33% في المملكة العربية السعودية، و50% في الأردن، و80% في مصر وصولا إلى 99% في لبنان. كما تخلص الدراسة إلى أن المؤسسات المتوسطة والصغيرة تساهم في خلق النسبة الأكبر من فرص العمل، (82% في لبنان مثلا)، في حين تقدر الدراسة نفسها الفجوة التمويلية لهذه المؤسسات في الشرق الأوسط بما بين 110 و140 مليار دولار".
وتابع "في لبنان، كما في العديد من دول منطقتنا، تواجه المؤسسات الكثير من التحديات أبرزها عدم الإستقرار، إضافة إلى ضعف البيئة الداعمة للأعمال بسبب البيروقراطية وتعدد الأكلاف التشغيلية في غياب البنى التحتية الفعالة، كما تعاني من الصعوبة في الوصول إلى التمويل، وإن بدرجات متفاوتة من بلد إلى آخر. المطلوب إعادة النظر في السياسات التسليفية لتأخذ في الإعتبار المتطلبات التمويلية للمؤسسات المتوسطة والصغيرة، وحتى المؤسسات المتناهية الصغر، والسعي لإيجاد حلول للمشاكل التي تحد من قدرتها في الحصول على التمويل وإيجاد أدوات تمويلية مبتكرة تساعدها على التوسع والتطور. التحدي الكبير هو في هندسة هذه الأدوات بشكل يؤمن التمويل المطلوب بشكل سريع وبإجراءات مبسطة وبكلفة مقبولة".
وتطرق إلى دور مصرف لبنان في دعم المؤسسات الصغيرة والمتوسطة منذ العام 2001. وقال: "وضعنا في العام 2013 بتصرف القطاع المصرفي ما يفوق المليار و 400 مليون دولار، وتم تسليف القسم الأكبر للقطاعات الإنتاجية والقطاع السكني إضافة إلى الأبحاث والتطوير والمشاريع الجديدة مما ساهم في تحقيق نمو إقتصادي فاق الـ 2% خلال العام الماضي بالرغم من الظروف الإقتصادية الصعبة التي واجهتنا. وقد أكملنا المبادرة بتخصيص مبلغ إضافي لهذا العام يقارب الـ 800 مليون دولار.
وفي موازاة السعي إلى تطوير السوق المالية وزيادة الشمول المالي نعمل على زيادة الثقافة المالية للتأكد أن مستهلك الخدمة المصرفية أو المالية هو على علم بالكلفة الحقيقية لالتزاماته وبحقوقه وبواجباته. وبالتالي قدرته على الوفاء بهذه الإلتزامات. كما قررنا إنشاء وحدة متخصصة لحماية المستهلك لدى لجنة الرقابة على المصارف وذلك لتأمين سلامة العمل المصرفي والمالي والتشجيع على المنافسة".
ولفت الى أن "العمل على تأمين التمويل اللازم للمؤسسات المتوسطة والصغيرة غير كاف دون مواجهة التحديات الأخرى التي تواجه المؤسسات، لا سيما ضعف البنية التحتية والإصلاحات الهيكلية للتخفيف من البيروقراطية والفساد". وقال: "نرى أنه من الضروري، ومن أجل ضمان الإستفادة القصوى من مختلف المبادرات، أن يتم وضع خطة وطنية شاملة في كل دولة يتم من خلالها تحديد سلم أولويات وأهداف محددة قابلة للقياس، إن على صعيد تطوير البيئة التنظيمية والتشريعية، أو على صعيد الدعم اللوجستي والتقني والتدريبي، أو على صعيد الحاجات التمويلية على مختلف أنواعها للفئات والقطاعات المستهدفة. كما لا بد من إيجاد آلية للتنسيق بين مختلف المبادرات القائمة الأمر الذي سيؤدي إلى توحيد الجهود وتكاملها ولزيادة الفعالية عبر الإستفادة المثلى من مختلف الخبرات".
حكيم
من جهته، قال وزير الاقتصاد والتجارة الان حكيم: "ان المؤسسات الصغيرة والمتوسطة هي العمود الفقري للاقتصاد وهي الحافز الأساسي نحو تحقيق أهدافنا الوطنية وتحفيز النمو الاقتصادي والتخفيف من حدة الفقر وتحسين مستوى المعيشة وخلق المزيد من فرص العمل، لذا علينا التركيز على مكامن الضعف التي تعتري هذه الؤسسات وتحد من تنافسيته".
وكشف عن قيام وزارة الاقتصاد والتجارة بالعديد من المبادرات "أهمها العمل على وضع ميثاق وطني يهدف إلى تعريف وتحديد ماهية الشركات الصغيرة والمتوسطة الحجم وكذلك إلى رسم أطر العمل لتنمية المشاريع الصغيرة والمتوسطة والتركيز على رفع مستوى المؤسسات القائمة والتي يبلغ عددها حتى اليوم حوالي 67,000 شركة صغيرة ومتوسطة الحجم كما والإسراع في إنشاء شركات جديدة تسهم إلى حد كبير في خلق فرص العمل وتعزيز اقتصادنا الوطني".
ودعا حكيم الى "تفعيل الديبلوماسية الاقتصادية، والى ضرورة تحفيز التعاون البيني بين الدول العربية إذ من غير المعقول أن تكون الاقتصادات العربية مندمجة عموديا في الاقتصاد العالمي مما يجعلها عرضة للهزات الاقتصادية والمالية العالمية، والى التعاون مع الدول الأخرى لا سيما مع الاتحاد الأوروبي الذي يولي أهمية خاصة لهذه المشروعات في منطقة البحر المتوسط، سيكون من شأنه الإرتقاء بهذه المؤسسات الصغيرة والمتوسطة وبالتالي رفع مستوى إقتصاداتنا وقدرتها على خلق الآلاف من فرص العمل التي ستحتاجها المنطقة في السنوات المقبلة".-انتهى-
-------
قهوجي عرض مع العميد حمدان الأوضاع والتطورات الراهنة

(أ.ل) - استقبل قائد الجيش العماد جان قهوجي في مكتبه في اليرزة، النائب نعمة طعمة، ثم أمين الهيئة القيادية لحركة " المرابطون" العميد المتقاعد مصطفى حمدان على رأس وفد مرافق، وتناول البحث الأوضاع العامة والتطورات الراهنة.-انتهى-
-------
حساب جديد للأمن العام على تويتر

(أ.ل) - تفيد المديرية العامة للأمن العام بأنها إعتمدت حساباً رسمياً جديداُ لها على تويتر تحت إسم: "الحساب الرسمي للمديرية العامة للأمن العام" (الأمن العام اللبناني).
•    الرابط:" https://twitter.com/DGSG_Security".-انتهى-
-------
Moammar Gaddafi, Socialist Revolutionary Or Charlatan?
By Dave Fryett
15 March, 2011
Countercurrents.org
Defining socialism broadly as the advocacy of an egalitarian, classless society, and those figures and movements who made it their cause, what is Moammar Gaddafi's place in this evolution? He is never mentioned in the same league as the more influential thinkers such as Lukacs or Gramsci or Foucault, and rightly so, but he is the creator of the Third Universal Theory. It rejects capitalism and communism in favor of an organic, participatory, bottom-up process which he dubbed Jamahiriya (Arabic for "government by the masses"). This democratic contruct was rendered impotent however, when he induced it to cede critical decision-making powers to him. Nevertheless, he did effect boldly anti-capitalist measures which abolished "slave wage labor" and made all workers equal partners."Power, wealth, and weapons--in the hands of the people," is Jamahiriya's mission statement.
While Gaddafi's autocracy vexes most socialists, it is not incompatible with some strains of Marxist thought. He wields no more power than did Lenin, Castro, or Mao. Allowing for the sake of analysis that the vesting of unvitiated prerogative in a single individual is consonant with the aims of socialism, has Gaddafi used Libya's wealth and his authority to promote international socialist transformation? What follows is an assessment, admittedly scant, narrow, and desultory, of Gaddafi as a revolutionary.
In 2003, Moammar Gaddafi made a "slimy, disgusting" deal to accept responsibility for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in exchange for the lifting of sanctions against Libya.
[1,2]
 
The bargain was brokered by the Rothschild family with negotiations taking place in their hillside mansion on the island of Corfu.
[2]
 Since then the Colonel has been the darling of Western capital, even winning the praise of the ever-fastidious IMF.
[3]
 He has thrown open Libya's markets to freebooting investment banks and privatized much of its industries.
[3,4]
The Rothschild's chief salesman and million-dollar "part-time" consultant, Tony Blair, negotiated shared-operating agreements on behalf of BP (the family's British oil company) and Shell (their Dutch holding) in which the former British prime minister secured a eighty-five percent share for his employer.
[5]
 So great is now the investment of foreign capital in the Central Bank of Libya and the Libya Investment Authority (sovereign wealth fund) that it exceeds by half the oil-rich nation's entire GDP.
[3]
Gaddafi too has taken to investing his and Libya's money in everything from real estate to banks and newspapers and even an Italian football (soccer) team.
[6]
 
In fact, so convivial is the relationship between the "socialist" Libyan leader and his new bourgeois friends that he has taken a position in the Pearson Group, which publishes the Financial Times, the voice of international capital.
[6]
 If it is the case that the Corfu deal was a Faustian bargain entered into by Gaddafi of necessity and in contravention of his dearest personal convictions, then congratulations are in order. For not only has he overcome his long-held, oft-proclaimed aversion to capitalism, he seems to be thriving in his new life as an entrepreneur. If one didn't know better, it might appear as though he were enjoying his new membership in the global billionaires' club. For most it would be a daunting task to partner with those against whom one has spent a lifetime in bellicose opposition, not so for the Colonel. Gaddafi is so deeply ensconced in the milieu of high finance that some of his new fraternity brothers are suffering the effects of the Libyan revolution along with him.
[7]
That Gaddafi is now wedded to capital is beyond dispute, but since 1969, when, at the head of the Movement of Free Officers, Socialists, and Unionists, he overthrew the Libyan monarchy, there have been whispers that he was the tool of imperial interests and was aided in the coup by the British.
[8]
 At first blush this appears ridiculous. It is difficult to imagine how the Brits could have been unhappy with the deposed king, Idris I, as he was utterly compliant. Why then should they intrigue against him? Yet when one examines Gaddafi's career, one is struck by the shear number of controversies in which there is ample reason to believe he acted in concert with reactionary forces. Many of these disturbing episodes concern his campaigns in Africa. This worthy topic, as it is far too broad and I too inexpert, cannot be done justice here.
[9,10,11]
 Instead I will focus on three puzzling incidents whose reverberations were felt more keenly in Europe and the Mideast.

The Edwin Wilson Affair
One of the more serious charges against Gaddafi is that he is a sponsor of terrorism. What is less well known is that arms and explosives which the Libyan leader distributed were provided by a CIA agent named Edwin Wilson. And that at least some of the terror operations were in fact the false-flag operations of Western intelligence services.
Edwin Wilson ostensibly left the agency in 1971. Thereafter he ran shipping companies as part of a naval intelligence unit called Task Force 157. One such outfit was World Marine. As its head, Wilson brokered a series of arms deals for American intelligence, including one which sent a high-tech spy ship to Iran. These clandestine purchases were laundered by the Nugan Hand Bank of Australia, a CIA front. The bank eventually imploded and the resulting investigation revealed its illegal activities. Wilson, by this time living in Libya, was indicted on weapons and other charges in the US and a request for extradition was made, which was refused.
Gaddafi was Wilson's biggest customer. World Marine had provided him with arms and no less than twenty tons of military-grade plastic explosives. Under Wilson's direction, "former" American intelligence agents and Green Berets trained Libya's army and police. A weapon used to murder a Gaddafi opponent living in Bonn, West Germany was provided by Wilson. A Libyan dissident living in Colorado was assassinated by one of Wilson's Green Berets who traveled from and subsequently returned to Libya. It is no wonder Gaddafi didn't want to hand Wilson over.
Wilson was tricked by one of his "former" CIA colleagues into believing he could safely travel to the Carribean where he was arrested. At his trial he said that he was still a CIA agent and acting under their orders, and that he was being made the fall guy to protect the agency. CIA Executive Director Charles Briggs produced an affidavit which falsely claimed that they had had no dealings with Wilson after his putative resignation in 1971. Wilson was convicted on numerous charges, and sentenced to 52 years.
Once in prison, through the Freedom of Information Act Wilson obtained scores of government documents dated after 1971 in which he is named as an agent. He sought and received a new trial and the federal judge in Houston, Lynn Hughes, overturned the most serious conviction saying that the prosecutor and the CIA had "deliberately deceived" the court in the first trial and that Wilson had been "double-crossed" by the agency.
It is incomprehensible that Gaddafi didn't know with whom he was dealing. He would also have to know that the weaponry he provided to terrorists would have been unavailable if US intelligence didn't want those organizations to have them. Furthermore, these arms ended up in the hands of the Palestine Liberation Front, among others, who under the leadership of Abu Abbas commandeered the cruise ship Achille Lauro in 1985. According to Mossad defector Ari Ben-Menashe, the hijacking was part of a series of black ops orchestrated by Israeli intelligence.
[12]
 This was not the only case where weapons provided by Gaddafi were used in "terror attacks" which later were revealed to be the operations of Western intelligence services. Arms originating with the CIA through its man Wilson are sold to Libya, and pass into the hands of reputed terror cells, which turn out in fact to be agents of Western governments, was Gaddafi duped each time? Or was he complicit?
[13,14,15,16]
The Case of the Missing Imam
In 1928, Musa as-Sadr (sometimes transliterated al-Sadr) was born in Iran to a Shi'ite family of Lebanese Arabs. He attended Tehran University where he earned degrees in Islamic Jurisprudence and Political Science. He continued his Islamic studies after graduation and became a widely revered imam.
Sadr was one of those rare clerics who could submerge in his own ecumenical culture without succumbing to disdain for the secular world or other religious traditions. He was a progressive, as much concerned with the affairs of state as with theology. During his years at university, he became acquainted with radical teachers and students who would later play a pivotal role in the Iranian revolution. He also became associated with the Freedom Movement of Iran, a leftist dissident group opposed to the Shah. As an imam and the son of an ayatollah, he had extensive contacts within the clergy. He was related to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini by marriage.
In 1960, Sadr accepted an offer to go to Lebanon and become the chief imam in the city of Tyre. Imam Musa was appalled to see the extent to which the ruling pro-Western Christian and Sunni factions had subjugated the Shi'a. He began to agitate for reform. In 1967, he persuaded the government to recognize the Twelvers (a Shi'ite denomination) as an official Lebanese community, which gave them civil rights. In 1974, he launched the Movement of the Disinherited. It operated clinics and schools and other essential services for the poor, and lobbied the government on their behalf. Many of their leaders were drawn from the Iranian expatriate community which had fled the Shah and his feared security apparatus, the SAVAK.
While mainly Shi'ite, the Movement stood for all of Lebanon's disadvantaged and claimed Christians among its founding members. It also reached out to other religious minorities and in so doing won the favor of Syrian ruler Hafez al-Assad. The Assads are Alawis, an independent sect regarded as non-Islamic by some Muslims. Sadr aggressively courted the autonomous group in the hope of bringing them into the Twelver fold. Perhaps his motives for embracing the Alawis had more to do with a larger political vision than a concern for theological comity, but in either case he succeeded.
[17]
The Assads were strengthened by the agreement as objection to their rule on religious grounds was thereby invalidated. Mutual interest thickened to friendship and the goodwill between Sadr and the House of Assad spawned a networking back-channel for Mideast dissidents of all stripes.
Due in no small part to the imam's successes, relations between the Lebanese government and the Movement deteriorated. Sadr was allied with the Lebanese National Movement, a coalition of political parties, many Marxist, which stood in opposition to the rightist government. As tensions deepened, in 1974, Sadr's Movement formed a militia which came to be known by its acronym AMAL (Arabic for "hope").
In Iran, revolution was in the air. The US advised the Shah to make accommodations with the Freedom Movement of Iran and the newly revived National Front, which favored a constitutional monarchy. Their hope was to cleave the secular factions from the more conservative clerical opposition of Ayatollah Khomeini and his Council of Islamic Revolution. Nothing, however, could save the Shah. He fled and the revolutionary forces seized power in February of 1979. Eight months later, US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinksi met with the FMI's Ebrahim Yazdi in Algeria. News of this meeting caused concern among supporters of the ayatollah that the secular revolutionaries were colluding with the Americans. Thus belatedly did the US succeed in sundering the revolutionary right from the left, but the provocation bolstered Khomeini's position and led to the storming of the American Embassy and the hostage crisis. The interim government dissolved and left the clergy in control.
Meanwhile civil war had begun in Lebanon. Sadr embarked on a tour of Arab states in the hopes of convening a summit to find a solution. In Libya, Sadr and two companions left their hotel for a scheduled afternoon meeting with Moammar Gaddafi and were never seen again.
Suspicion immediately fell on Gaddafi. He claimed that the three left Libya for Rome and met their fate there. This explanation was received with what in the guarded, circumspect world of diplomacy was unusually blunt skepticism. The imam's family, which has never believed Gaddafi's account, insisted that Italy was not on Sadr's itinerary, and given the purpose of his trip, he would have no reason to go there. Italian authorities investigated the matter and reported that as far as they could determine no one by the name of Sadr had entered Italy.
So what happened to the charismatic cleric and his companions? Since there is no evidence that they ever left Libya, the conventional wisdom is that Gaddafi had them killed. The Lebanese government indicted Gaddafi in 2008.
[18]
Who benefited from Sadr's removal? As an Arab, Lebanese, Iranian national, head of an armed resistance movement, leftist political activist, and imam, he had areas of mutual sensitivity and experience with many of the hostile parties in the Middle East. As an Arab he could have served as an emissary of the Iranian revolution to the Arab world. Sadr disappeared during the period when the US was maneuvering to split the opposition. With his connections to both the secular and religious revolutionary factions, he could have served as intermediary and thwarted the divisive plot.
Perhaps more importantly, it was through the mediation of Sadr and AMAL that the bond between the Assads and revolutionary elements in Iran was forged.
[19]
This unlikely entente persists to this day, much to the chagrin of the US and Israel.
In Lebanon, Sadr was succeeded at the head of AMAL by Hussein el-Husseini. Unfortunately he lacked the imam's appeal and never commanded the respect his predecessor enjoyed. He resigned, which paved the way for Nabih Berri.
Berri worked as a lawyer for General Motors in Beirut and Detroit. He left his home of two years in Michigan when Sadr disappeared and headed for Lebanon. He joined AMAL and served in varying capacities until he became its head when el-Husseini departed.
As leader, Berri moved AMAL to the right and eventually participated in the National Unity government with rightist Rashid Karami. His policies were anathema to rank and file members who saw them as a betrayal. They left the organization in numbers and formed a new defense organization--Hizbollah. These defections marked the end of AMAL as a force in Lebanese life. What had been an inspired popular resistance movement declined into moribund irrelevance under Berri.
Why would Gaddafi have Sadr killed? They had much in common. They both professed Islam and socialism, they were natural allies. Sadr's disappearance occurs during that period when Edwin Wilson is selling Libya weapons and "former" agents of American intelligence and armed services are training Gaddafi's goons and murdering his opponents. For those who entertain the idea that Gaddafi has, at least at times, acted at the behest of imperialist interests, this incident is instructive. Sadr was an enemy of two governments allied with Washington and Tel Aviv, it was they who had the most to gain from his demise. Even if Gaddafi was taken unawares, and Sadr was slain by Wilson's thugs, he had to know who was responsible and should have acted accordingly. Instead he reacted with apathy and silence. If Sadr was assassinated, which seems quite likely, then Gaddafi is at the very least an accessory.
Former Gaddafi loyalist Major Abdel Moneim al Houni has said that Sadr was killed on Gaddafi's orders and is buried in southern Libya.
[20]
Other recent Libyan defectors have claimed that the imam is still alive and being held in prison.
[21]
There is even one account of the imam being hurriedly boarded onto a small aircaft
[22]
 Sadly, it is much more likely that Gaddafi has Elvis under lock and key as the rock star's discovery would pose less a danger to the regime than the imam's. It is reasonable to speculate that once detained, the unfortunate cleric would have been aggressively interrogated and his brain emptied of all that it knew of the revolutionary cells in Iran and Lebanon. It is possible that they kept him alive for a time as events unfolded in the region, but once AMAL had been successfully corralled and the clergy had triumphed in Iran, Sadr would no longer be of any value. Ironically, it may have been the ascent of his in-law, Ayatollah Khomeini, which sealed his fate.
Lockerbie
In December of 1988, Pan Am flight 103 burst into pieces over Lockerbie, Scotland when a bomb exploded in its cargo hold. Two hundred and seventy were killed. The US first pointed its finger at Syria, more specifically Ahmed Jibril and his Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, the Marxist militia then enjoying Syrian protection.
[23]
Later they blamed Iran.
[24]
They accused the Islamic republic of perpetrating the outrage in retaliation for the USS Vincennes' "accidental" shooting down of Iranian Air flight 655.
[25] Then, finally, they settled on their favorite foil--Libya. Again revenge was said to be the motive and the US bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi the provocation.
From the very beginning there were doubts. Locals were especially incredulous as what they were hearing from their government differed from what they had experienced. Many residents of the small Scottish town reported seeing a number of officials with American accents on scene within an hour of the crash. These men walked among the debris and removed several items.
[26]
 No mention of this was ever heard in media reports and the US government denied having investigators at the crash site that quickly. Among the most vocal of the skeptics was Lockerbie's representative in parliament, Tam Dalyell, and local pastor, Rev. Patrick Keegans, of the Holy Trinity Church.
[26,27]
Some of the victim's families filed a law suit against the airline. Pan Am's insurer hired Interfor. According to its "about" web-page, Interfor, Inc. is an international investigation and security consulting firm offering comprehensive domestic and foreign intelligence services.
[28]
 Their detailed report makes no mention of Libya.
[29]
Maggie Mahar of Barron's, John Picton of the Toronto Star, and Ian Ferguson and John Biewen of America Radio Works also looked into the bombing and likewise determined that Libya played no part.
[30]
 Vincent Cannistraro, who investigated the matter for the CIA, told the New York Times that it was "outrageous" to blame the Libyans.
[31]
While the conclusions of these four inquiries differ, they all contend that drug-runners with deep ties to American intelligence services committed the horrific crime. The motive was to silence the Defense Intelligence Agency's Major Charles McKee and his team who had left their mission in Lebanon without authorization, and who had resolved to expose the illegal trafficking in narcotics.
[32
In 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait. In its preparation for war, the US solicited and received support from Syria and Iran. It was at this point that new evidence in the Lockerbie case came to light. Syria and Iran were exonerated, and Abdelbasset Ali al-Megrahi, head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines, and Lamen Khalifa Fhima, station manager for the airline in Malta, were indicted in US District Court. Gaddafi refused to extradite them but in 1993 agreed to hand the two men over for trial before three Scottish judges in Holland. The US and UK at first rejected the proposal but eventually yielded in 1998. The trial began in May of 2000.
As the date approached, the US AND UK had two obstacles to overcome: the absence of evidence against the defendants; and the mutinous chorus of disgust, increasingly audible, wafting up from the usually taciturn intelligence underworld. Cannistraro's unhelpful remarks to the press may have been a faux pas, but many of his colleagues, enraged by the loss of so many confederates, were defiantly voicing their disbelief. In order to quell this rebellion and prevent further embarrassing revelations, the US muzzled its intelligence community.
[33]
As for the lack of evidence: The three most important witnesses against the Libyans, Toni Gauci, Edwin Bollier, and Ulrich Lumpert, have admitted to perjury, with Gauci and Bollier disclosing they were offered enormous sums.
[34,35,36]
The allegation was that the two men conspired to place the bomb upon the aircraft in retribution for the US attack on Libya in 1986. This theory was dealt a blow when just weeks before the trial was set to begin, the chief prosecutor, Lord Hardie, resigned in dismay claiming he had been deceived about the strength of the Crown's case.
[37]
His replacement called over a hundred witnesses, almost all of whom were British and American intelligence agents. In a decision which seemed incongruous even to supporters, the judges ruled that one defendant, Megrahi, was guilty of conspiring to blow up the plane while his alleged co-conspirator was found to be not guilty. UN observer Hans Koechler called the decision "arbitrary" and "inconsistent" and "a travesty".
[38]
In 2003, the deal was struck in the Rothschild villa in Corfu. In exchange for the lifting of sanctions, Libya agreed to accept responsibility for Lockerbie, pay billions in reparations, and open up its markets to foreign investment.
Conclusion
Even if we grant Gaddafi the benefit of the doubt and stipulate that he resisted as long as he could, his capitulation has been absolute. He has conceded everything. He has come to complete accommodation with the same forces which imposed the crippling sanctions, framed Megrahi for Lockerbie, and now loot Libya through usurious oil contracts. It is hard to square this acquiescence with socialism. As it now stands, his relationship to capital differs in no meaningful way from that of King Idris, save that Gaddafi claims the mantle of revolutionary.
Was Gaddafi defeated? Or has he been on the winning team all along? His career is mixed, with self-interest being its dominant theme. Never was this more manifest than in his squalid defense of Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak. Nothing could be more definitive.
When the Dark Ages finally come to an end, and the history of universal human suffrage can at long last be written, Moammar Gaddafi will have no place in it.
----------

أعلن عن مشروع لتقديم مساهمات تنموية إلى بلديات قرى زراعة التبغ
علي حسن خليل: على جميع الفرقاء المشاركة في الجلسات النيابية
وإقرار القوانين المرتبطة بحياة الناس وحاجاتهم
حرصاء على استمرار عمل الحكومة وعلى تفعيلها واعطائها كل الدعم اللازم

شقير: غرفة بيروت ستعمل ما بوسعها لتوفير افضل
مشاركة للبنان في القرية العالمية في دبي

خليل حمدان: في ذكرى اخفاء الامام الصدر نستحضر المواقف الوطنية له

بري التقى وزير المالية وبهية الحريري

السيد نصر الله: سنغير مسار المنطقة كما في حرب تموز
الاستحقاق الرئاسي لا يُعالج مع وسطاء
وكل لحظة تمر وهناك اسرى للجيش هي لحظة اذلال

(أ.ل) - رأى سماحة الامين العام لحزب الله السيد حسن نصر الله في كلمة له عبر قناة "المنار" لمناسبة ذكرى الانتصار في حرب تموز 2006، أن هذا النصر كان نعمة لكل الأمة الإسلامية، موجهاً التحية والتقدير لأرواح جميع شهداء المقاومة وشهداء الشعب والجيش والقوى الأمنية.
وإذ أشار إلى أن "حرب تموز 2006 لم تكن معركة صغيرة بل حرباً حقيقية لها ابعاد واهداف وتداعيات في كل المنطقة"، اعتبر أنها كانت جزءً أساسياً من مسلسل في مراحل ولها أهداف وكان المطلوب من خلالها سحق المقاومة وليس نزع سلاحها".كما ولفت إلى أن "الإسرائيلي كان يزمع إكمالها من أجل إسقاط النظام في سوريا وإقامة نظام بديل صديق للولايات المتحدة و"إسرائيل" ومن ثم ضرب المقاومة الفلسطينية في غزة، لكن صمود المقاومة في الميدان والإحتضان الشعبي والسياسي أوصل إلى إقرار المجتمع الدولي عن أغلب الشروط التي وضعها لوقف العدوان.
ولفت السيد نصر الله إلى أن المقاومة والصمود اللبناني الأسطوري أسقطا أهدف حرب تموز وأفضيا الى بقاء المقاومة وأرجآ الحرب على غزة على الاقل عامين، ورأى "اننا جميعا قادرون اليوم على اسقاط اي مسارات تآمرية على منطقتنا وشعوبنا ومقدساتنا.
واعتبر الأمين العام لحزب الله أن ما يجري في قطاع غزة من حرب هو جزء من مسار جديد، مشيراً إلى أن اميركا حذرة جدا اليوم من العودة البرية العسكرية الى المنطقة.
وعن خلفيات بروز "داعش" وخطره أشار السيد نصر الله إلى إنه يأتي ضمن مسار يرسم للمنطقة "يقضي بتدمير كل شيء وتحطيمه من جيوش ومؤسسات ومجتمعات"، وأكد أن هذا المسار "يبنى على أشلاء دول وقلوب مرتعبة وعقول تائهة". مشيراً إلى أنه يراد أن يتحول العدو الاساس للمنطقة الى منفذ لما تمر به. معتبراً أن من ينكر الخطر الذي يتهدد المنطقة هو منفصل عن الواقع.
وتابع السيد نصر الله أن المطلوب هو البحث في وسائل مواجهة هذا التهديد، مطالباً الجميع بالمشاركة في وضع خطة متكاملة العناصر لمواجهة التهديد الذي يضرب المنطقة.
واعتبر سماحته أن ظروف نشأة "اسرائيل" لم تترافق مع الوعي المطلوب للاهداف التوسعية لهذا الكيان، لافتاً إلى أنه "تم الرهان على التدخل الدولي والجامعة العربية ومنظمة المؤتمر الإسلامي وانتظروا 70 عاماً (..) فالرهانات الخاطئة لعقود اوصلت اسرائيل الى ان تكون بنظر المجتمع الدولي دولة يحق لها فرض شروط".
وشدد السيد نصر الله على أن الخطر اليوم حقيقي من النموذج الثاني، أي التكفيري على المقدسات والكنائس والمساجد، فـ"داعش" الذي يبيع النفط ويحصل على التمويل تحت نظر المجتمع الدولي، يرتكب مجازر وبدأ بأبناء جلدته أي جبهة النصرة وما زال يفتك بحلفائه في سوريا وقام بتهجير اكثر من مليون شخص في داخل العراق من اهل السنة بسبب فكره الإقصائي التكفيري الإلغائي الذي يريد فرض نمط حياة على كل الناس ليس له علاقة بكتاب الله.
واتهم سماحته دولاً اقليمية برعاية "داعش" واميركا بتسهيل وفتح الابواب للاستفادة من هذه الظاهرة، داعياً الجميع لـ"وضع العصبية على جنب والتفكير بان خطر داعش على الكل وعلى أهل السنة والجماعة، فيجب ان ندرك هذا الخطر جيداً ثم ان نناقش ما الذي علينا فعله، فهذه ليست حرباً سنية شيعية هذه حرب داعش ضد كل من عاداها".
وتوجّه السيد نصر الله لمسيحيي لبنان بالقول إنه امام اي خطر سيقال لكم كما قالت فرنسا لمسيحيي العراق، ولان كردستان تعني ما تعني سياسيا واقتصاديا للادارة الاميركية وللغرب تدخلوا.
وقال سماحته إن المسؤولية الوطنية تستدعي أن نهب لحماية البلد، وسأل اللبنانيين مسلمين ومسيحيين هل اذا انسحب حزب الله من سوريا يزول الخطر عن لبنان؟ وهل تصدقون ان اليونيفيل هم يحمون لبنان؟!، وأشار إلى أن معادلة جيش - شعب - مقاومة، وقدرات المقاومة الصاروخية والعقيدة القتالية للجيش اللبناني هي التي تحمي لبنان.
وحثّ السيد نصر الله القوى السياسية اللبنانية للبحث عن عناصر القوة وتجميعها لحماية البلد ومواجهة الخطر، والعنوان الاول هو الجيش اللبناني والقوى الامنية لأنها هي المعنية أصلاً عن حماية الجميع، والمطلوب دعم معنوي للجيش بالدرجة الاولى ورفض التهجّم عليه. واعتبر أن كل لحظة تمر وهناك اسرى للجيش هي لحظة اذلال وهذه مسؤولية الدولة، مجدداً التأكيد على أن الجيش ليس اداة بيد حزب الله انما الجيش هو جيش اللبنانيين جميعا والقوى الامنية ينطبق عليها نفس المنطق، وأن التحريض الطائفي والمذهبي هو ليس حرية وهو مثل السيارة المفخخة"، مشدداً على أن "مستقبل عرسال هو بعلبك الهرمل وليس الجماعات المسلحة".
ورأى الأمين العام لحزب الله أن من عناصر القوة اليوم التي يجب الحفاط عليها في لبنان هي الحكومة إلى حين انتخاب رئيس للجمهورية.
وشدد السيد نصرالله على أن التعاون مع سوريا بالحد الأدنى في ملف النازحين تصنعه حكومتان ودولتان وليس حزباً، داعياً للتعاون مع دمشق حول الحدود لأن الـ 1701 لن يقدم ولن يؤخر ونشر الجيش على امتداد حدود طويلة غير مجدٍ.
وفي الملف الرئاسي، أكد السيد نصرالله أن قراره لدى اللبنانيين وليس من الخارج وأنه لا يبحث مع وسطاء، مشيراً في هذا الإطار إلى أن قوى 8 آذار مجمعة على مرشح واحد، والمرجعية الواجب الحديث إليها معروفة.
وختم سماحته بالقول: "نحن فريق مستعد للتضحية ونقدم شهداء يوميا ولن نبخل على شعبنا وبلدنا ومقدساتنا وامتنا، وداعش ومن وراءها يمكن الحاق الهزيمة بهم بسهولة وهذا التيار ليس له مستقبل بالمنطقة شرط ان يجتمع العراقيون والسوريون واللبنانيون وكل دولة عربية ويتحملوا المسؤولية (..) نحن لن نتخلى عن المسؤولية ولن نغادر هذه الأرض لو تخلى الجميع عنها. نقاتل وننتصر أو نستشهد ونغيّر مسار المنطقة كما فعلنا في حرب تموز.-انتهى-
-------

محمد نصر الله في اللقاء الاغترابي لحركة أمل: حكومة العدو الاسرائيلي
تضغط كي لا يتم تسليح الجيش اللبناني لأنه يشكل خطرا على وجودها

مجلس الوزراء وافق على الهبة السعودية
وفوض بو صعب اعطاء افادات للطلاب

لاريجاني: انتصار حزب الله انجاز كبير للبنان والمنطقة
القوة الوحيدة التي يمكنها ان تقف اليوم بمواجهة اسرائيل هي قوة المقاومة

لقاء إقتصادي لمجلس الأعمال اللبناني الصيني في جمعية تجار الحدث

(أ.ل) - أقامت جمعية تجار الحدث لقاءً لكبار رجال أعمال الحدث في مركز الجمعية برعاية وحضور رئيس الجمعية أنطوان عبود حيث إلتقو بوفد من مجلس الأعمال اللبناني الصيني ضم رئيس المجلس علي المصري ونائب الرئيس عبير فرح وأعضاء من المجلس حيث قدم المجلس دعوة لعشرون رجل أعمال لزيارة  المعرض الصيني الدولي الذي سيقام في الأردن عمان شملت الدعوة ليلتين في فندق خمس نجوم ـ إستقبال في المطار ـ تنقلات داخلية ـ لقاءات ثنائية ـ تأمين مترجمين ـ وشكر الحاضرون المجلس على الدور الذي يقوم به لتعزيز التبادل التجاري اللبناني الصيني  وعلى ما يقدمة لخدمة ومساعدة رجال الأعمال.-انتهى-
-------
باسيل يشارك في اجتماع لمنظمة التعاون في جدة بشأن الوضع في فلسطين
الفيصل: أهمية وحدة الصفّ الفلسطيني في الحكومة الفلسطينية