AEI panel on tense situation in Lebanon

The American Enterprise Institute hosted a panel on Lebanon highlighting many of the issues affecting the country. The panel consisted of Danielle Pletka and Michael Rubin of AEI, Robert Malley of the International Crisis Group, Lee Smith of the Hudson Institute, and Hassan Mneimneh, Iraq Memory Foundation.

Hassan began by giving a brief history of the two governing bodies within Lebanon. He said that since the 1970's the country of Lebanon has been functioning under two different governments, one that is pro western influence, and one that is aligned with Syria and Iran, called Hezbollah.

Smith said that the fight for Lebanon is not over, that Hezbollah has been stopped in the north and the south. Smith said that the peace talks between Syria and Israel will play part in the continued conflict in Lebanon and the U.S. needs to broker these talks if they want any sort of presence in the middle east.

Malley talked mostly of news from the last two weeks in Lebanon, along with his opinions on U.S. involvement. He said that there have been three recent events in Lebanon that should concern the U.S. He said the Doha Agreement, the peace talks between Syria and Israel, and Egypt's failure to broker a peace deal between Israel and Syria were losses for the U.S. campaign in the Middle East.

Pletka said that the U.S. doesn't necessarily need to create a new policy for Lebanon, but needs to work on implementation of the current policy. She said that Iran and Syria send foreign ministers to Lebanon on a regular basis and the U.S. rarely sends a representative of that caliber. She said that in order to influence politics in the Lebanon the U.S. must have a presence in Lebanon

White House Gaggle

Briefer: Dana Perino


President’s Schedule

President Bush had his normal briefings at 8 am this morning. At 10.50 am, he will participate in a small foreign print media round table and later also meet with foreign television media. At 11.40 am the President has an interview with Mark Knoller and Peter Maer of CBS News.
There is an update in the schedule for the afternoon where the President was supposed to introduce Mrs. Bush at the Preserve America Presidential awards ceremony, but she is now on her own, as the President will prepare for the Middle East trip.
White House Press Secretary Dana Perino will brief the press at 1 pm today.

Tornados: Yesterday, the President called up the governors in Oklahoma, Missouri and Georgia. The President offered his condolences and told them that the federal government is ready to assist. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Federal Emergency Management Agency chief David Paulison are expected to travel to the effected regions tomorrow.

Earthquake in China: It is still very early to assess the extent of the damage. The President expressed his condolences to the injured and families of the victims of the earthquake.

Burma: One flight, a C-130 has gotten permission to land with emergency supplies. They have two more flights scheduled for tomorrow and then they will go one day at a time. Perino said that they hope that this is just the beginning of the much needed assistance. In addition to that, the US is prepared to provide more money allocated through the United Nations World Food program and Perino will get back with the exact numbers.

Today the President also announced an honorary delegation to attend celebrations of the 60th anniversary of Israel’s statehood, May 14-15, in Jerusalem. The delegation consists of a diverse group of American leaders from the public, business, religious, civic and academia and media sectors.

Farm Bill

Perino was questioned about the willingness of negotiations of the President in terms of not vetoing the bill even if he does not get what he wants; and she said that there is entirely too much spending involved and it also does not contain the much needed reform that the President wanted. Perino referred to a fact sheet that was issued on Friday which explains why they cannot support the bill. “We will see what the vote count is,” she said. If the bill passes, the President will veto, and on the questions of enough votes to override a veto, Perino referred to the whip officers. “It will be up to them what kind of a statement they want to send to the American people on this time of reform, with record farm incomes and an opportunity to put in place a much needed reform that we have been calling on for years, “ Perino said.


Lebanon

Perino was asked how concerned the White House is about the government giving in to the demands to Hezbollah, and she replied that their concern is with the safely of the innocent civilians who were caught in the middle of this conflict. “We believe that the Lebanese deserve to have the democracy that they asked for, that they voted for…” Perino said.


Cease Fire in Sadr City, Iraq

When asked for a White House reaction to the cease fire in Sadr City in Iraq, Perino said that, “We want to see the end to the violence, that would be good. We are please by the pro-active steps that are taken… It is a little bit of a fluid situation that we need to see how it progresses and we are keeping an eye on it”

Russia

Perino was asked about if there has been a delay in the presidential calls between President Bush and the new Russian President Medvedev, and she replied that she will have more info later today.

N. Korea

Perino referred to the State Department for an update regarding the document handed over by North Korea including who will be reviewing them.

Lebanon: “staring into the abyss of another possible war”

Mohamad Bazzi, Council on Foreign Relations fellow on the ground in Beirut, held a media conference call to discuss the events this week in Lebanon. He said that on Saturday Hezbollah was accused of spying on the Lebanese state with a camera on a Beirut airport runway, and also of using a private communication network to communicate with each other through their own infrastructure. He said that on Monday night the Lebanese government held a meeting, and condemned what Hezbollah had done. He said Hezbollah and other opposition parties used a strike planned by labor unions on Wednesday as a vehicle to express their displeasure with the government’s decisions.

Since then, Bazzi said, some of the roads in Beirut have been closed and fights have been breaking out in cities and neighborhoods. He said hundreds of Hezbollah fighters were deployed into different neighborhoods today, and even took over some political and media offices, but then then turned them back over to the Lebanese army. He said this allowed Hezbollah to show how quickly they can control Beirut, and to display their military and tactical advantages. He said the Lebanese army did not intervene in the fighting, because the army leadership believes it needs to be worked out politically. However, he said the Lebanese army maintains a visible presence on the streets.

Bazzi said that Hezbollah had made clear that any attempt to interfere with their communication network would be “dealt with.” He also said some believe the Lebanese government is worried about the end of the Bush administration, and that Hezbollah and others may believe “this entire maneuver was cooked up by the U.S.” He said he feels Lebanon is “staring into the abyss of another possible war”

Talking Points: American Enterprise Institute event on bloggers in the Middle East

Speaking were:

Arash Sigarchi, an Iranian blogger who had been sentenced to 14 years in prison for espionage and insulting the country's leaders, speaking through an interpretter

Mohammed Ali, an Iraqi blogger (http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/)

Tony Badran, a Lebanese blogger (http://beirut2bayside.blogspot.com/)

Arash in his opening statement described how he was forced into blogging by the pervasive censorship of the media in Iran. Publishing anything critical of the government results in beatings, fines, and jail. When Arash began blogging, the government was largely unaware of the Internet, so he was free to publish whatever he wanted. In recent years, though, it has begun monitoring the Internet. Arash said that western funds to promote democracy in Iraq allows the government to brand bloggers and others as mouthpieces of the US, so a better form of aid would be to help people get Internet access. Responding to a question from Paul Wolfowitz about the reach of Voice of America and other media, Arash also said that access to western media is more limited than access to drugs. He also noted that Ahmadinejad is still quite popular, and the general people don't know about economic sanctions against Iran.

Ali, an Iraqi blogger, said that he had spoken with other bloggers, in both Iraq and Sudan, who had been inspired by him to begin blogging. Arab media outlets are heavily government funded, but blogging allows independent people to express themselves cheaply. Blogging can be difficult, though, because Internet access is scarce.

Tony Badran said that in Lebanon, where Internet access and access to western media are much more common, blogging presents other difficulties. Blogs are being used for propaganda and conspiracy theories by Syria, and it can be difficult to distinguish genuine citizen blogs from Syrian "info ops."