Picnicking on Mount Vesuvius?
Beirut
Tensions are
rising in Lebanon between elected representatives in Parliament,
"Unity' Cabinet members and the American Embassy, as the 27th
anniversary of the 1983 attack on the US Embassy approaches and the
Embassy issues another warning for Americans to leave Lebanon.
On March 29, 2010 the US Embassy instructed Americans not to travel to
Lebanon citing "safety and security concerns." Simultaneously it warned
those who are in Lebanon to seriously consider leaving.
Advising
that Lebanon, placed on a US list of 14 countries "linked to Terrorism"
following the Christmas Day attempted aircraft bombing near Detroit,
has "the potential for a spontaneous upsurge in violence, US citizens
living and working in Lebanon should understand that they accept risks
in remaining and should carefully consider those risks, as Embassy
personnel may not be able to aid them in case of conflict." The "Warder
Warning" to American citizens follows a series of recent efforts by the
Embassy to pressure the National Lebanese Resistance led by Hezbollah,
currently shaping the new Unity' government with its work in Parliament
and the Cabinet. It comes following Opposition charges, emphasized by
Hezbollah's Secretary Hassan Nasrallah the preceding week, that the US
Embassy in Beirut engages in espionage activities for Israel and
cautioning that the collaboration was very dangerous for Lebanon.
According to Nasrallah during an interview with Al Manar channel:
"All the information which the US embassy gathers in Beirut reaches
Israel. Here we are not speaking about a normal foreign embassy which is
gathering information for its own government "
"When it comes
to the American embassy in Beirut, it is a different story"And so what
is given to the US Embassy and what reaches the Israelis, the
information, all of these leads to the destruction of Lebanon.This helps
the Israeli enemy to understand what is going on in Lebanon, to use
this information against Lebanon and to take revenge against our
country" What is the difference between espionage networks, which give
information directly, or giving information by mediation, meaning giving
it to the US embassy who then gives it to the Israeli side?"
Nasrallah was speaking to an audience estimated at more than 100
million viewers around the region.
April 2010 and April 1983
parallels?
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The Hezbollah Secretary-General is not the only one questioning whether
the US Embassy operates as "a normal foreign embassy" with acceptable
"mild spying and information gathering" or operates as "an espionage
network" for Israel and passing it intelligence reports from US assets
throughout Lebanon who monitor all roads and paths from Syria as well as
South Lebanon and South Beirut.
What increasingly concerns many
in Lebanon is the US Embassy role in recent projects including a
"security agreement between the US and the Lebanese Internal Security
Force' (ISF) which the Embassy and their allies described as "an
American donation" to train and equip the ISF and make Lebanon stronger.
The "donation" resulted from the January 25, 2007 Paris-3 International
Conference on the support for Lebanon. As far as security is concerned,
[the] March 14 [opposition] charges that the then
pro-American-pro-Saudi Fuad Saniora government "gave away the store" to
U.S. intelligence by placing data related to Lebanon's two mobile phone
networks at the disposal of the United States, that it is believed would
allow the Embassy and Israel to tap Lebanese phones. There is a widely
held belief in Lebanon that all information the Embassy receives goes to
Israel. Also protested was the adopting of the American interpretation
of "terrorism" which as applied by the Embassy means that no ISF member
who is a Hezbollah member could receive any training to due various US
Terrorism lists issues.
