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<font size=3><a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.counterpunch.org/<br><br>
</a></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4><b>May 24,
2007<br><br>
</font><h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5 color="#990000"><b>
CounterPunch Exclusive<br><br>
<br>
</font>Inside Narh al-Bared and Bedawi Refugee Camps<br><br>
<br>
</i><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5 color="#990000">Who's
Behind the Fighting in North
Lebanon?</b></font></h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5>By
FRANKLIN LAMB<br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4><i>Tripoli,
Lebanon.<br><br>
</i></font><font face="Verdana" size=6 color="#990000">W</font>
<font face="Verdana" size=2>earing a beat-up ratty UNCHR tee-shirt left
over from Bint Jbeil and the Israeli-Hezbollah July probably helped. As
did, I suspect, the Red Cross jersey, my black and white checkered
kaffieyh and the Palestinian flag taped to my lapel as I joined a group
of Palestinian aid workers and slipped into Nahr el-Bared trying not to
look conspicuous.<br><br>
Our mission was to facilitate the delivery of food, blankets and
mattresses, but I was also curious about the political situation. Who was
behind the events that erupted so quickly and violently following a
claimed 'bank robbery'? A heist that depending on who you talked to,
netted the masked bandits $ 150,000, $ 1,500 or $ 150!<br><br>
It seems that every Beirut media outlet has a different source of 'inside
information' based on which Confession owns it and 'knows' the
<i>real</i> culprits pulling the strings. But then, even we who are
particularly obtuse have realized, as the late Rafic Hariri often
counseled: "In Lebanon, believe<i> nothing</i> of what you are told
and only <i>half</i> of what you see!"<br><br>
My friends made we swear out loud that I would claim to be Canadian
instead of American if Al Qaeda types stopped us inside the Camp. My
impression was that they were not so worried about <i>my</i> safety but
for <i>their own</i> if they got caught with me. It would not be the
first time that I relied on my northern neighbors to get me out of a
potential US nationality jam in the Middle East, so I ditched my American
ID.<br><br>
We were advised as we approached the Fatah al Islam stronghold that we
would be in the cross-hairs of Lebanese army snipers from outside of Nahr
el-Bared Camp as well as Fatah al-Islam snipers from the inside, and that
any false move or bad luck could prove fatal.<br><br>
After three days of shelling and more than 100 dead and with no
electricity or water, Nahr el-Baled reeks of burned and rotting flesh,
charred houses with smoldering contents, raw sewage and the acrid smell
of exploded mortars and tank rounds.<br><br>
Press figures of 30,000-32,000 are not accurate. 45,000 live in Bared!
Contrary to some reports food and water still not being allowed
in.<br><br>
15 to 70 percent of some areas destroyed. Some light shooting this
morning and afternoon. Army shelling at rate of 10-18 shells per minute
from 4:30 am to 10 am on Tuesday. Army will not allow Palestinian Red
Crescent to move out civilians because they don't trust them. Only the
Lebanese Red Cross is allowed. It is possible to enter Bared from the
back (east side). The Army taking cameras of journalists they catch. The
Lebanese government is controlling the information and don't want extent
of damage known yet. Still unrecovered bodies. 40 per cent of the camp
population have been evacuated. The rest don't want to leave out of fear
of being shot or that they are losing their homes for the 5th time or
more for some.<br><br>
No electricity and cell phone batteries are dying. Relatives who fled are
telling families to stay because there are not enough mattresses at
Bedawi Camp. Bared evacuees are living up to 25 in one room in Badawi
schools etc. 3,000 evacuees in one school in Bedawi. UN aid is starting
to arrive at Badawi but workers not able so far to deliver it to Bared
due to attack on relief convoy on Tuesday.<br><br>
I met Abdul Rahman Hallab famous for Lebanese candy factory in Tripoli.
Helped him unload 5,000 meals to evacuees from Bared staying in Badawi.
He is Lebanese not Palestinian.<br><br>
The camp population all say that Fatah Al-Islam came in September-October
2006 and have no relatives in the camp. They are from Saudi, Pakistan,
Algeria, Iraq, and Tunisia and elsewhere. No Palestinians among them
except some hanger ons. Most say they are paid by the Hariri
group.<br><br>
Reports that Fateh al-Islam helps people in Bared are denied. " All
they do is pray, one woman told me..and do military training.. They are
much more religious than the Shia" she said.<br><br>
Population of Badawi camp was 15,000 and as of this morning it is 28,000.
Four bodies arrived this morning at Safad, the only Palestinian Red
Crescent Hospitals in north Lebanon.<br><br>
I was told the army will have to destroy every house in Bared to remove
Fateh al Islam.<br><br>
I expect to stay in Bared tonight with aid workers. Some say FAI with die
fighting others than a settlement could be negotiated. I may try the
latter with NGO from Norway here. Not sure if anyone in government is
interested. One minute ago a member of Fateh at_Islam walked into the
medical office I am using at Safed Hospital and said they want a
permanent cease fire and do not want more people killed or
injured.<br><br>
They claim to have no problem with the army<br><br>
Now some background about Nahr el-Bared. Like the other Palestinian camps
in Lebanon, it is inhabited by Palestinians who were forced from their
homes, land, and personal property in 1947-48, in order to make room for
Jews from Europe and elsewhere prior to the May 15, 1948 founding of
Israel.<br><br>
Of the original 16 Refugee camps, set up to settle the more than 100,000
refugees crossing the border into Lebanon from Palestine during the
Nakba, 12 official ones remain. The camp at Tal El-Za`tar was ethnically
cleansed by Christian Phalange forces at the beginning of the 1975-1990,
Lebanese Civil War and the Nabatieh, Dikwaneh and Jisr el-Basha camps
were destroyed by Israeli attacks and Lebanese militia and not rebuilt.
Those remaining include the following which currently house more than
half of Lebanon's 433,276 Palestinian refugees:<br><br>
Al-Badawi, Burj El-Barajna, Jal El-Bahr, Sabra and Shatilla, Ain
El-Helwa, Nahr El-Bared, Rashidieh, Burj El Shemali, El-Buss, Wavel, Mieh
Mieh and Mar Elias.<br><br>
Nahr el-Bared is 7 miles north of Tripoli near the stunning Mediterranean
coast and is home to more than 32,000 refuges many of whom were expelled
from the Lake Huleh area of Palestine, including Safed. Like all the
official Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, plus several 'unofficial'
ones, Nahr el-Bared suffers from serious problems including no proper
infrastructure, overcrowding, poverty and unemployment.<br><br>
Tabulated at more than 25%, Nahr el-Bared has the highest percentage of
Palestinian refugees anywhere who are living in abject poverty and who
are officially registered with the UN as "special hardship"
cases. <br><br>
Its residents, like all Palestinians in Lebanon are blatantly
discriminated against and not even officially counted. They are denied
citizenship and banned from working in the top 70 trades and professions
(that includes McDonald's and KFC in downtown Beirut) and cannot own real
estate. Palestinians in Lebanon have essentially no social or civil
rights and only limited access to government educational facilities. They
have no access to public social services. Consequently most rely entirely
on the UNRWA as the sole provider for their families needs.<br><br>
It is not surprising that al-Qaeda sympathies, if not formal
affiliations, are found in the 12 official camps as well as 7 unofficial
ones. Groups with names such as Fateh al-Islam, Jund al-Shams (Soldier of
Damascus) , Ibns al-Shaheed" (sons of the martyrs) Issbat al-Anssar
which morphed into Issbat al-Noor - "The Community of
Illumination" and many others.<br><br>
Given Bush administration debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan and its
encouragement for Israel to continue its destruction of Lebanon this past
summer, the situation in Lebanon mirrors, in some respects, the early
1980's when groups sprung up to resist the US green lighted Israeli
invasion and occupation. But rather than being Shia and pro-Hezbollah,
today's groups are largely Sunni and anti-Hezbollah. Hence they qualify
for US aid, funneled by Sunni financial backers in league with the Bush
administration which is committed to funding Islamist Sunni groups to
weaken Hezbollah.<br><br>
This project has become the White House obsession following Israel's July
2006 defeat.<br><br>
To understand what is going on with Fatah al-Islam at Nahr el-Bared one
would want a brief introduction to Lebanon's amazing, but shadowy 'Welch
Club'.<br><br>
The Club is named for its godfather, David Welch, assistant to Secretary
of State Rice who is the point man for the Bush administration and is
guided by Eliot Abrams.<br>
Key Lebanese members of the Welch Club (aka: the 'Club')
include:<br><br>
</font>
<dl>
<dd>The Lebanese civil war veteran, warlord, feudalist and mercurial
Walid Jumblatt of the Druze party( the Progressive Socialist Party or
PSP)<br><br>
<dd>Another civil war veteran, warlord, terrorist (Served 11 years in
prison for massacres committed against fellow</i> Christians </i>among
others) Samir Geagea. Leader of the extremist Phalange party and its
Lebanese Forces (LF) the group that conducted the Israel organized
massacre at Sabra-Shatilla (although led by Elie Hobeika, once Geagea's
mentor, Geagea did not take part in the Sept. 1982 slaughter of 1,700
Palestinian and Lebanese).<br><br>
<dd>The billionaire, Saudi Sheikh and Club president Saad Hariri leader
of the Sunni Future Movement (FM).<br><br>
</dl>Over a year ago Hariri's Future Movement started setting up Sunni
Islamist terrorist cells (the PSP and LF already had their own militia
since the civil war and despite the Taif Accords requiring militia to
disarm they are now rearmed and itching for action and trying hard to
provoke Hezbollah).<br><br>
The FM created Sunni Islamist 'terrorist' cells were to serve as a cover
for (anti-Hezbollah) Welch Club projects. The plan was that actions of
these cells, of which Fatah el-Islam is one, could be blamed on al Qaeda
or Syria or anyone but the Club.<br><br>
To staff the new militias, FM rounded up remnants of previous extremists
in the Palestinian Refugee camps that had been subdued, marginalized and
diminished during the Syrian occupation of Lebanon. Each fighter got $700
per month, not bad in today's Lebanon.<br><br>
The first Welch Club funded militia, set up by FM, is known locally as
Jund-al-Sham (Soldiers of Sham, where "Sham" in Arabic denotes
Syria, Lebanon, Palestine & Jordan) created in Ain-el-Hilwa
Palestinian refugee camp near Sidon. This group is also referred to in
the Camps as Jund-el-Sitt (Soldiers of the Sitt, where "Sitt"
in Sidon, Ain-el-Hilwa and the outskirts pertain to Bahia Hariri, the
sister of Rafiq Hariri, aunt of Saad, and Member of Parliament).<br><br>
The second was Fateh-al-Islam (The name cleverly put together, joining
Fateh as in Palestinian and the word Islam as in Qaeda). FM set this Club
cell up in Nahr-al-Bared refugee camp north of Tripoli for geographical
balance.<br><br>
Fatah el-Islam had about 400 well paid fighters until three days ago.
Today they may have more or fewer plus volunteers. The leaders were
provided with ocean view luxury apartments in Tripoli where they stored
arms and chilled when not in Nahr-al-Bared. Guess who owns the
apartments?<br><br>
According to members of both Fatah el-Islam and Jund-al-Sham their groups
acted on the directive of the Club president, Saad Hariri. <br>
So what went wrong? "Why the bank robbery" and the slaughter at
Nahr el-Baled?<br><br>
According to operatives of Fatah el-Islam, the Bush administration got
cold feet with people like Seymour Hirsh snooping around and with the
White House post-Iraq discipline in free fall. Moreover, Hezbollah
intelligence knew all about the Clubs activities and was in a position to
flip the two groups who were supposed to ignite a Sunni Shia civil war
which Hezbollah vows to prevent.<br><br>
Things started to go very wrong quickly for the Club last week.<br>
FM "stopped" the payroll of Fateh el-Islam's account at the
Hariri family owned back.<br><br>
Fateh-al-Islam, tried to negotiate at least 'severance pay' with no luck
and they felt betrayed. (Remember many of their fighters are easily
frustrated teenagers and their pay supports their families). Militia
members knocked off the bank which issued their worthless checks. They
were doubly angry when they learned FM is claiming in the media a loss
much greater than they actually snatched and that the Club is going to
stiff the insurance company and actually make a huge profit.<br><br>
Lebanon's Internal Security Forces (newly recruited to serve the bidding
of the Club and the Future Movement) assaulted the apartments of
Fatah-al-Islam Tripoli. They didn't have much luck and were forced to
call in the Lebanese army.<br><br>
Within the hour, Fatah-al-Islam retaliated against Lebanese Army posts,
checkpoints and unarmed, off-duty Lebanese soldiers in civilian clothing
and committed outrageous killings including severing at four
heads.<br><br>
Up to this point Fatah-al-Islam did not retaliate against the Internal
Security forces in Tripoli because the ISF is pro-Hariri and some are
friends and Fatah al-Islam still hoped to get paid by Hariri. Instead
Fatah al Islam went after the Army.<br><br>
The Seniora cabinet convenes and asks the Lebanese Army to enter the
refugee camp and silence (in more ways than one) Fatah-al-Islam. Since
entrance into the Camps is forbidden by the 1969 Arab league agreement,
the Army refuses after realizing the extent of the conspiracy against it
by the Welch Club. The army knows that entering a refugee camp in force
will open a front against the Army in all twelve Palestinian refugee
camps and tear the army apart along sectarian cracks.<br><br>
The army feels set up by the Club's Internal Security Forces which did
not coordinate with the Lebanese Army, as required by Lebanese law and
did not even make them aware of the "inter family operation"
the ISF carried out against Fatah-al-Islam safe houses in
Tripoli.<br><br>
Today, tensions are high between the Lebanese army and the Welch Club.
Some mention the phrase 'army coup'.<br><br>
The Club is trying to run Parliament and is prepared to go all the way
not to 'lose' Lebanon. It still holds 70 seats in the house of parliament
while the Hezbollah led opposition holds 58 seats. It has a dutiful PM in
Fouad Siniora.<br><br>
The club tried to seize control of the presidency and when it failed it
marginalized it. Last year it tried to control of the Parliamentary
Constitutional Committee, which audits the government's policies, laws
and watch dogs their actions. When the Club failed to control it they
simply abolished the Constitutional Committee. This key committee no
longer exists in Lebanon's government.<br><br>
The Welch Club's major error was when it attempted to influence the
Lebanese Army into disarming the Lebanese Resistance led by Hezbollah.
When the Army wisely refused, the Club coordinated with the Bush
Administration to pressure Israel to dramatically intensify its
retaliation to the capture of the two soldiers by Hezbollah and 'break
the rules' regarding the historically more limited response and try to
destroy Hezbollah during the July 2006 war.<br><br>
The Welch Club now considers the Lebanese Army a serious problem. The
Bush administration is trying to undermine and marginalize it to
eliminate one of the last two obstacles to implementing Israel's agenda
in Lebanon.<br><br>
If the army is weakened, it can not protect _over 70% of the Christians
in Lebanon who support General Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement. The F.P.M.
is mainly constituted of well educated, middle class and unarmed Lebanese
civilians. The only protection they have is the Lebanese Army which aids
in maintaining their presence in the political scene. The other type of
Christians in Lebanon is the minority, about 15% of Christians associated
with Geagea's Lebanese Forces who are purely militia. If the Club can
weaken the Army even more than it is, then this Phalange minority will be
the only relatively strong force on the Christian scene and become the
"army" of the Club.<br><br>
Another reason the Club wants to weaken the Lebanese Army is that the
Army is nationalistic and is a safety valve for Lebanon to ensure the
Palestinian right of return to Palestine, Lebanese nationhood and the
resistance culture led by Hezbollah, with which is has excellent
relations.<br><br>
For their part, the Welch Club wants to keep some Palestinians in Lebanon
for cheap labor, ship others to countries willing to take them (and be
paid handsomely to do so by American taxpayers) and allow at most a few
thousand to return to Palestine to settle the 'right of return' issue
while at the same time signing a May 17th 1983 type treaty with Israel
with enriches the Club members and gives Israel Lebanon's water and much
of Lebanon's sovereignty.<br><br>
Long story short, Fatah el-Islam must be silenced at all costs. Their
tale, if told, is poison for the Club and its sponsors. We will likely
see their attempted destruction in the coming days.<br><br>
Hezbollah is watching and supporting the Lebanese army.<br><br>
Franklin Lamb's </b>recent book, The Price We Pay: A Quarter Century of
Israel's use of American Weapon's against</i> Lebanon (1978-2006)</i> is
available at Amazon.com.uk. Hezbollah: A Brief Guide for Beginners</b> is
expected in early summer.<br><br>
Dr. Lamb can be reached at
<a href="mailto:fplamb@gmail.com">fplamb@gmail.com</a>.<br><br>
<br><br>
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