English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For November 03/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://data.eliasbejjaninews.com/eliasnews19/english.november03.20.htm

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Bible Quotations For today
I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 17/09-13/I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on November 02-03/2020

Lebanese Authorities In Occupied Lebanon Arrested Arbitrarily Director & Producer Youssef Al Koury
Health Ministry: 1080 new Coronavirus cases
Hariri Meets Aoun Seeking 'Breakthrough' in Govt. Formation Process
Presidential Office Says Cabinet Talks in Progress, No Intrusions
Report: Lebanon 'Loses' French Opportunity to Draw It Out of Crisis
Report: No Stepping Back for Hariri
Reports: Hariri May Present 18-Minister Line-Up despite Objections
Economic Committees Reject Country Shutdown to Curb Virus
Bassil Denies Impeding Govt., Warns against Outsmarting Attempts
UNIFIL Holds Discussion on Resolution on Women, Peace and Security
Is Lebanon on the Verge of a Full Coronavirus Lockdown?
UNIFIL Holds Discussion on Resolution on Women, Peace and Security
Geagea Says LF Was Right Not to Partake in Government
Armenia’s Lebanese repatriates support humanitarian efforts in Nagorno-Karabakh
Hariri will at any moment present a cabinet lineup of 18...
Govt formation hits snags as rival factions dictate demands
Ghada Aoun attends a court petition … immunity first
Judges Who Don’t Care For Torture: Immunity First

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 02-03/2020

Audio Report From FDD:"Time to penalize Hamas and Hezbollah for using human shields," Orde Kittrie, FDD Video Byte/Click Here
Six locations in Vienna targeted in apparent terror attack; deaths, injuries reported
Armenia calls for international investigation into ‘foreign mercenaries’ in Karabakh
US seeks lifting of Darfur sanctions amid Sudan reconciliation: Pompeo
Iran’s violations, interferences raises tensions in the region: Saudi Arabia’s FM
U.S. Campaign Enters Final Day with Nation on Edge
Biden Leads in Polls Going into Election Day but Battlegrounds Tight
Trump Dismisses 'Fake' Polls, Biden Says Time to End the 'Chaos'
Canada/Statement by Media Freedom Coalition on International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists
Algeria Constitution Reform Passes by 66.8% on Record Low Turnout

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 02-03/2020

Iran’s Mullahs are in Turmoil Thanks to America’s Current Policy/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/November 02/2020
Will America Hand Space Dominance to China?/Gordon G. Chang/Gatestone Institute/November 02/2020
Trump vs. Biden on Islam: The Important Details/Raymond Ibrahim /November 02/2020
U.S. Should Sanction Key Iranian Automobile Companies/Saeed Ghasseminejad/FDD/November 02/2020
Biden’s Middle East policy would only differ from Trump on Iran and Turkey/Hussain Abdul-Hussain/Al Arabiya/Monday 02 November 2020

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on November 02-03/2020

Lebanese Authorities In Occupied Lebanon Arrested Arbitrarily Director & Producer Youssef Al Koury
Elias Bejjani/November 03/2020

http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/92042/elias-bejjani-lebanese-authorities-in-occupied-lebanon-arrested-arbitrarily-director-producer-youssef-al-koury/

The judicial authorities in Iranian occupied Lebanon has arrested yesterday (Monday 02 November/2020) the well know producer and director and staunch opposition figure Youssef AlKhoury.
AlKhoury was Arbitrarily charged with incitement of denominational strives.
The charges are totally false, malicious, vindictive and merely fabricated as well as the lawless arrest .
The charges and the arrest were based on the content of an article that AlKhoury wrote lately and published in which he criticized the dire Iranian influence on Lebanon in general and in particular on the Shiite Hezbollah and Amal parties.
Al Khouy’s article was merely a document that exposed certain historical and political well known facts and certain past and recent practices by Lebanese Shiite political figures. It was completely within the the frame of his right and freedom of expression and did not infringe on any Lebanese law.
The kind of charges that were harshly inflicted on AlKhoury have been systematically used by the occupational Lebanese authorities as tools of oppression in a bid to intimidate, terrorize, tame and deter opposition Lebanese citizens, activists and journalists who cry foul the occupational status quo and all the atrocities committed against opposition figures from all walks of life.
We strongly condemn this judicial atrocity and call on the Lebanese authorities to drop the fabricated and false charges and release Mr. Khoury without any further infringements on his rights and freedom.

Health Ministry: 1080 new Coronavirus cases
NNANovember 03/2020
The Ministry of Public Health announced on Monday the registration of 1080 new Coronavirus infections, thus raising the cumulative number of confirmed cases to 83,697.
It also reported 9 death cases during the past 24 hours.

Hariri Meets Aoun Seeking 'Breakthrough' in Govt. Formation Process
Naharnet/November 02, 2020
President Michel Aoun met PM-designate Saad Hariri on Monday and discussed with him the cabinet formation process in “an atmosphere of cooperation and positive progress,” the Presidency said.“Aoun and Hariri were scheduled to meet on Wednesday but the latter decided to make a breakthrough, so he headed to Baabda today,” al-Jadeed TV reported after the meeting. “There will be another visit by Hariri to Baabda tomorrow or Wednesday,” al-Jadeed added. Unnamed sources meanwhile told the TV network that “there is no dispute over the number of ministers nor over the rotation of portfolios.”“The dispute is still revolving around names, knowing that there is progress, and the next meeting will be over this very point, which is the names of candidates,” the sources added.

Presidential Office Says Cabinet Talks in Progress, No Intrusions
Naharnet/November 02, 2020
President Michel Aoun's press office said on Monday that the cabinet formation discussions are underway “strictly” between the President and PM-designate Saad Hariri, without any “interference” from third parties. “Discussions on the cabinet formation process, as per the constitution, are ongoing strictly between President Aoun and PM-designate Saad Hariri ,” said the Presidency in a tweet. The media office emphasized that “no third parties are involved in the consultations which are in progress to serve the higher national interest.” Aoun and Hariri were reportedly expected to meet Sunday or Monday, but their meeting was pushed to later this week. Media reports said some obstacles emerged over the past days were linked to the number of ministers, the rotation of portfolios and the distribution of sovereign and service-related portfolios. Sources informed on the negotiations told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper over the weekend that there are ongoing discussions over portfolios such as health and public works. “The formation of the government will need several more days after previous expectations that it would be formed early next week,” the sources said.

Report: Lebanon 'Loses' French Opportunity to Draw It Out of Crisis
Naharnet/November 02, 2020
Crisis-hit Lebanon has reportedly “wasted” a valuable opportunity by not benefiting from the momentum of the French initiative “at the right time,” al-Joumhouria daily reported on Monday. Diplomatic sources in Paris told the daily that Lebanon “lost” the priority on the agenda of the French President Emmanuel Macron by not grasping the initiative he presented to help Lebanon steer out of its crisis. “Macron was disappointed by the failure of Lebanon’s political forces to capture an international and regional moment favorable to obtaining the aid that the Lebanese desperately need,” said the sources on condition of anonymity. The French president reportedly has different priorities now beginning with, confronting a terrorist wave that France is witnessing recently, adding to combating a second wave of coronavirus and its economic repercussions on the French economy, according to the sources. “France no longer has anything to provide to Lebanon, mainly that Lebanese officials refused to take the French advice into consideration in order to get international assistance,” added the sources. They revealed that “Bernard Emie, director general of France's external intelligence service, is becoming more concerned about the issue of combating terrorist operations, while the head of the crisis cell in the French presidency, Emmanuel Bonn, is facing internal administrative problems, which has negatively affected Lebanon, whose officials chose to leave it without any assistance as it falls.”

Report: No Stepping Back for Hariri
Naharnet/November 02, 2020
PM-designate Saad Hariri reportedly plans to submit to President Michel Aoun a draft of an 18-minister cabinet format to break the stalemate delaying the cabinet formation, the Saudi Asharq el-Awsat reported on Monday. A Lebanese source well-informed on the formation process, told the daily on condition of anonymity, that the PM-designate plans to act and “will not stand idle and watch the stalemate delaying the formation process.” “He plans to submit a cabinet format composed of 18 ministers so that he can build on the response of President Michel Aoun who, by the constitution, can either accept or reject it,” added the source. The PM-designate does not plan to step down, stressed the source.

Reports: Hariri May Present 18-Minister Line-Up despite Objections
Naharnet/November 02, 2020
Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri will submit to President Michel Aoun during his visit to Baabda on Wednesday a draft cabinet line-up based on an 18-minister format “unless some side intervenes to restore communication between the presidency” and Hariri, al-Jadeed TV said on Monday. “There is no serious and real communication over the issue of government, contrary to what the presidency’s statement tried to reflect, and according to some reports, thing have returned to square one,” al-Jadeed added. The Free Patriotic Movement meanwhile considers that Wednesday’s meeting will be “decisive” as to whether the government will be “formed or obstructed,” the TV network reported. MP Qassem Hashem of Speaker Nabih Berri’s Development and Liberation bloc meanwhile told al-Jadeed that the government was supposed be formed in the beginning of this week. “But complications surfaced after no agreement was reached over the number of ministers in the government. Some said that happened after President Aoun’s meeting with (FPM chief Jebran) Bassil, who proposed the idea of enlarging the government to represent allies, especially (Lebanese Democratic Party leader Talal) Arslan,” Hashem added. Resigned MP Marwan Hamadeh for his part told al-Jadeed that the disputed second Druze seat is “a Trojan horse aimed at securing a one-third veto power for the FPM and Jebran Bassil through a Druze minister.” According to media reports, Hariri is insisting on an 18-minister cabinet containing one Druze minister while Bassil and Arslan have called for a 20-seat government in order to represent the latter’s party with a second Druze minister.

Economic Committees Reject Country Shutdown to Curb Virus
Naharnet/November 02, 2020
The Economic Committees, a grouping of Lebanon’s main businessmen and owners of major firms, on Monday announced their “categorical rejection of any possible decision by the government to completely shut down the country to confront the spread of coronavirus.”In a statement, the Committees warned of “huge negative repercussions from the shutdown of the private sector, which cannot be contained at the social and economic levels.”“The government’s inclination to shut down the country for four weeks as reported today to contain the pandemic would be a rash step and an escape forward, especially after it failed in implementing the measures it took throughout the weeks,” the Committees added. Noting that “the health and safety of the Lebanese citizen” remains their “top priority,” the Committees called on the government to “confront the real causes behind the spread of the pandemic, especially in regions that do not abide by the measures, before moving to new decisions and measures.”And emphasizing their commitment to precautionary measures and “willingness to implement any new measures,” the Committees demanded that they be represented in the country’s anti-virus committee to be able to “take part in the committee’s meetings and the drafting of proposals so that they be balanced for everyone.”Earlier in the day, the press office of caretaker Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi dismissed reports suggesting that authorities have decided to impose a nationwide lockdown as of Thursday. “Social media reports are quoting health ministerial sources as saying that an agreement has been reached among the ministries concerned with the coronavirus crisis on enforcing a full 18-day lockdown and curfew as of Thursday,” the office said. “The press office would like to note that no communication has taken place with the Ministry of Interior and Municipalities over this issue, and accordingly citizens should abide by the measures announced by the ministry or those that will be announced later, while calling on everyone to seek accuracy before circulating any report,” the press office added. Fahmi had on Sunday issued a memo ordering a nationwide nighttime curfew and the lockdown of 115 towns across Lebanon as of Monday, November 2.

Bassil Denies Impeding Govt., Warns against Outsmarting Attempts
Naharnet/November 02, 2020
The press office of Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Monday denied media reports accusing him of obstructing the formation of the new government.“Everything that is being fabricated and circulated in the media about MP Bassil’s interference in the cabinet formation process is baseless and aimed at holding him responsible for impeding the government’s formation in order to cover up for the actual obstructors,” the press office said in a statement.“To date, MP Bassil and the FPM have not carried out any intervention or dialogue with any party, despite their constitutional right to do so like the rest of the parliamentary blocs,” the statement noted. “The continued policy of lying in the media distorts facts and the outsmarting attempts in the cabinet formation process obstruct and delay its formation,” the statement warned. It accordingly called for “stopping the distortion of facts and quitting anything that delays the formation process… for interests and objectives that have become well-known.”

UNIFIL Holds Discussion on Resolution on Women, Peace and Security
Naharnet/November 02, 2020
UNIFIL on Monday commemorated the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the landmark U.N. Security Council resolution 1325 on women, peace and security with a virtual panel discussion with prominent women leaders of Lebanon. UNIFIL Head of Mission and Force Commander Major General Stefano Del Col lauded "the essential role of women peacekeepers in U.N. peace operations around the world," a UNIFIL statement said. “They help improve all aspects of our operations and performance; they ensure better access to local communities; they prevent and reduce conflict and confrontation; and they serve as role models for their peers and others,” said the UNIFIL head. Although the number of women in U.N. peacekeeping operations remains very low, Maj. Gen. Del Col added, they have increased significantly in the past five years. “Amongst civilian staff, in the last year, UNIFIL achieved gender parity in three staff levels and made progress at all levels,” he said. On the military side, women account for about six percent of UNIFIL’s more than 10,300 peacekeepers -– up from 2.5 per cent in 2006. Del Col emphasized UNIFIL support to Lebanon in the establishment of its first National Action Plan for the implementation of the resolution 1325, which reaffirms the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts, peace negotiations, peace-building, peacekeeping, humanitarian response and in post-conflict reconstruction.
Del Col also stressed that, during the past year, more than 15 percent of the UNIFIL budget allocated for community assistance was spent in projects related to women, peace and security. Adopted on 31 October 2000, Resolution 1325 stresses the importance of women’s equal participation and full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security. The resolution has been followed by nine other resolutions aimed at supporting its implementation, and they collectively form the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Agenda. Moderated by UNIFIL Deputy Head of Mission, Jack Christofides, and hosted by the Mission’s Gender Advisor, Dr. Afaf Omer, the panel discussion titled ‘Twenty years of UNSCR 1325: Success and Challenges in Lebanon’ included as speakers the President of the Women and Children Committee of the Lebanese Parliament, MP Enaya Ezzeddine, the President of the National Commission for Lebanese Women, Claudine Aoun, and the MENA Representative of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Roueida Al Hage.

Is Lebanon on the Verge of a Full Coronavirus Lockdown?
Naharnet/November 02, 2020
The press office of caretaker Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi on Monday dismissed reports suggesting that authorities have decided to impose a nationwide lockdown as of Thursday. “Social media reports are quoting health ministerial sources as saying that an agreement has been reached among the ministries concerned with the coronavirus crisis on enforcing a full 18-day lockdown and curfew as of Thursday,” the office said. “The press office would like to note that no communication has taken place with the Ministry of Interior and Municipalities over this issue, and accordingly citizens should abide by the measures announced by the ministry or those that will be announced later, while calling on everyone to seek accuracy before circulating any report,” the press office added. Fahmi had on Sunday issued a memo ordering a nationwide nighttime curfew and the lockdown of 115 towns across Lebanon as of Monday, November 2. The curfew will be enforced between 9:00 pm and 5:00 am. Caretaker Education Minister Tarek al-Majzoub meanwhile announced that schools and all educational institutions will be closed in the locked-down towns. Fahmi’s memo said those who have emergencies obliging them to be on the streets after 9pm will have to call the 112 emergency number.

UNIFIL Holds Discussion on Resolution on Women, Peace and Security
Naharnet/November 02, 2020
UNIFIL on Monday commemorated the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the landmark U.N. Security Council resolution 1325 on women, peace and security with a virtual panel discussion with prominent women leaders of Lebanon. UNIFIL Head of Mission and Force Commander Major General Stefano Del Col lauded "the essential role of women peacekeepers in U.N. peace operations around the world," a UNIFIL statement said. “They help improve all aspects of our operations and performance; they ensure better access to local communities; they prevent and reduce conflict and confrontation; and they serve as role models for their peers and others,” said the UNIFIL head. Although the number of women in U.N. peacekeeping operations remains very low, Maj. Gen. Del Col added, they have increased significantly in the past five years. “Amongst civilian staff, in the last year, UNIFIL achieved gender parity in three staff levels and made progress at all levels,” he said. On the military side, women account for about six percent of UNIFIL’s more than 10,300 peacekeepers -– up from 2.5 per cent in 2006. Del Col emphasized UNIFIL support to Lebanon in the establishment of its first National Action Plan for the implementation of the resolution 1325, which reaffirms the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts, peace negotiations, peace-building, peacekeeping, humanitarian response and in post-conflict reconstruction. Del Col also stressed that, during the past year, more than 15 percent of the UNIFIL budget allocated for community assistance was spent in projects related to women, peace and security. Adopted on 31 October 2000, Resolution 1325 stresses the importance of women’s equal participation and full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security. The resolution has been followed by nine other resolutions aimed at supporting its implementation, and they collectively form the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Agenda. Moderated by UNIFIL Deputy Head of Mission, Jack Christofides, and hosted by the Mission’s Gender Advisor, Dr. Afaf Omer, the panel discussion titled ‘Twenty years of UNSCR 1325: Success and Challenges in Lebanon’ included as speakers the President of the Women and Children Committee of the Lebanese Parliament, MP Enaya Ezzeddine, the President of the National Commission for Lebanese Women, Claudine Aoun, and the MENA Representative of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Roueida Al Hage.

Geagea Says LF Was Right Not to Partake in Government
Naharnet/November 02, 2020
As the cabinet formation process faces hurdles, Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea said Monday his party was right not to name PM-designate Saad Hariri as its candidate to form a new Lebanese government. “Do you see why the Lebanese Forces refrained in the cabinet formation issue?” said Geagea in a tweet, stating that Lebanon sees “no hope” as long as the ruling “trio” remain in power. “There is no hope for salvation as long as the ruling trio stay in power,” said Geagea in his tweet. PM-designate Saad Hariri was expected to form a government not later than a week after President Michel Aoun had signed him on October 22 for the task, following consultations with parliamentary blocs.But the Lebanese Forces, whose party has the second biggest Christian parliamentary bloc, did not name anyone during the consultations. The party also refrains from taking part in the government. Hariri was renamed to the post to create a reform-orientated cabinet that can lift the country out of its worst economic crisis in decades. But the PM-designate has not succeeded so far into his mission because of reported obstacles that emerged over the past days and linked to the number of ministers, the rotation of portfolios and the distribution of sovereign and service-related portfolios.

Armenia’s Lebanese repatriates support humanitarian efforts in Nagorno-Karabakh
Lemma Shehadi/, Al Arabiya English/Monday 02 November 2020
Small business owners from Lebanon who sought new opportunities in Armenia are now finding themselves at the frontline of Armenia’s humanitarian efforts amid the ongoing war with neighboring Azerbaijan. “We’re running from place to place every day, delivering food donations to different camps and displaced families,” said Sarkis Altounyan, a Lebanese-born resident of the Armenian capital of Yerevan. He is the founder of the Lebanese Armenian Community of Armenia, an NGO that supports food donations for those displaced by the conflict. The organization currently works with seven Lebanese and Syrian restaurants in Yerevan, providing over 300 hot meals a week. “We started off as a group of five families who made donations, then we decided to reach out to the city’s Lebanese restaurants.” In addition, a group of Lebanese-Armenian doctors have volunteered on the frontline to treat the wounded, Altounyan said.Looming humanitarian crises. Armenia faces a humanitarian crisis as it enters its second month of war with Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. According to the latest official data, over 1,100 Armenian soldiers have been killed since the fighting began, with thousands more injured. On top of this, new cases of the coronavirus pandemic have spiked, rising from an average of 300 new cases a day before the conflict began to over 2,400 new cases on October 23. “Most of the private hospital beds in Yerevan are full from treating casualties. And we have more coming,” said Fouad Reda, a Lebanese plastic surgeon who has treated soldiers at his private clinic in Yerevan, “There are few beds left in the state hospitals.” According to the Human Rights Defender’s Office of the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh, which is controlled by ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, 90,000 people have been displaced from the territory after civilian settlements were shelled by Azerbaijani forces. The majority are staying in camps and disused buildings in the country’s capital, Yerevan, and nearby provinces. “Most of the children and families we are feeding have family-members on the frontline,” said Altounyan.
Seeking stability, finding war
Thousands of Lebanese citizens have migrated to Armenia in recent years, fleeing economic and political instability. Most of these were of Lebanese of Armenian descent responding to Armenia’s offer of citizenship and repatriation opportunities. Others with no Armenian heritage sought new lives here after the Velvet Revolution in 2018, which saw a new government come to power promising reforms. “There were new opportunities opening up in Armenia. I’ve been here two years with my family, discovering the country,” said Joe El Khal, from the Kesrouane region in Lebanon, who runs a bakery and restaurant in Yerevan that has been making daily donations. More than a thousand Lebanese citizens moved to Armenia between 14 July and 2 September 2020, according to Armenia’s Chief Commissioner of Diaspora issues Zareh Sinanyan, as quoted by Hetq. Lebanon’s economic crisis had deepened, and Beirut was reeling from the aftermath of the August 4 blast. But others were weary of the instability, which they thought they had left behind in Lebanon. “I’m doing this to help children who have been displaced, not for any politician or political reason,” said El Khal, “I left Lebanon because of its politicians.”
 

Hariri will at any moment present a cabinet lineup of 18...
AlKhaleej Today/November 02, 2020
A political source stressed to “Asharq Al-Awsat” newspaper that “the president in charge of forming the new government, Saad Hariri, will not remain idle regarding the continuation of the stalemate that delays her birth and returns consultations to square one,” revealing that “Hariri will initiate at any moment To break the vicious circle surrounding its composition process by presenting President Michel Aoun with a draft ministerial formation of 18 ministers, so that he can build on what he requires in light of Aoun’s reaction, who is constitutionally entitled not to agree to it or to He asks to wait before determining his final position in the squad. “
The political source pointed out that, “Hariri has withdrawn himself from contacts since last Friday, and went to assess the outcome of his consultations with Aoun in preparation for determining which option he will take from a set of options to break the stall in the consultations that are taking place in a vicious circle,” and he said “He decided in his opinion that he would present Aoun in a cabinet formation, and so forth, he would return the ball if he objected to it without resorting to the option of apologizing, at least in the near future.”
“Hariri takes into account that the ministerial formula is made up of independent and specialized ministers, and those who participate in it have nothing to do with the media leaks that dealt with his consultations from an angle that gives priority to quotas in the distribution of ministerial portfolios.” He believed that it “achieves a balance between the sects and pushes towards breaking the customs and traditions in the distribution of the sovereign portfolios in terms of his insistence that some of these bags be from the share of the small sects instead of being limited to the four sects: Maronites, Shiites and Sunnis.” Orthodox. ”
And he considered that “the ministerial formula prepared by Hariri is supposed to be a cause for local, Arab and international confidence to pass a message to everyone concerned that he remains committed to the French initiative and to the road map presented by President Emmanuel Macron and which won the support of the most prominent political components that he met at the Pine Palace”, categorically “Another formula will inevitably be met with rejection by the international community, which is showing its willingness to save Lebanon and help it out of its crises, provided the Lebanese start helping themselves.”
The political source affirmed that “the ministerial formation prepared by Hariri will not be subject to the political bazaar nor the distribution of quotas or granting consolation prizes to this or that group,” indicating that “any combination that takes into account the previous criteria in forming governments will rebound negatively on Lebanon and will be more like someone who emulates himself, and therefore not Feasibility of marketing it locally or abroad. ”And he believed that “Hariri does not intend from this step to crowd this or that team, insofar as he wanted to sound the alarm at the appropriate time to send a message in more than one direction that saving the country will not be achieved through relying on previous work tools, and thus behaving as if we are a thousand good.” We passed the disaster that struck Beirut as a result of the explosion that occurred in the port. ”
He advised not to bet that “Hariri will be forced to accept the conditions of some to release the cabinet formation,” and attributed the reason to that “he changed and benefited from previous experiences and conducted a critical review that showed him where he made a mistake and where he was right.” Under the pretext that he is interested in returning to the premiership at any cost. ”The same source considered that “the positive atmosphere that characterized his consultations with Aoun soon changed, and this led to a decrease in the level of optimism that prevailed until last Thursday night and was reflected by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in front of his visitors, before he took the initiative to hold his breath.” The next day, in light of the information received that were not satisfactory, stressing that “Hariri committed himself to complete secrecy about the deliberations that took place between him and Aoun throughout more than half a dozen meetings because some of them were kept in complete secrecy, and he said that he would not be drawn into political debates. With nobody. “
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Govt formation hits snags as rival factions dictate demands
Hussein Dakroub/The Daily Star/November 02, 2020
BEIRUT: Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri’s attempts to form a new government have hit snags over new demands by rival factions, including those by President Michel Aoun and his political party to control three key ministries: Interior, Defense and Justice, bringing the Cabinet formation process back to square one, political sources said Sunday. The unexpected last-minute hurdles emerged as Hariri and Aoun were reported to be putting the final touches on a draft Cabinet lineup in the hopes of announcing the government formation over the weekend or early next week. Contrary to wide expectations that Hariri had planned to present Aoun with his first draft Cabinet lineup this week, the premier-designate has not visited Baabda Palace since Wednesday, a clear signal that the Cabinet formation process was running into trouble. Since he was designated with the support of 65 MPs to form a new government on Oct. 22, Hariri has met four times with Aoun, discussing the size and shape of a new Cabinet made up of specialists to deliver reforms in line with the French initiative to rescue Lebanon from a series of multiple crises. “Following the optimism that prevailed this week, heralding the birth of a new Cabinet soon, obstacles have emerged in the past 24 hours over the distribution of the public services-related ministries such as Health, Public Works, Education and Social Affairs. These obstacles are bound to delay the formation,” a political source familiar with the process told The Daily Star. “Also, the problem of Druze representation has not been solved yet as MP Talal Arslan is pushing for a ministerial portfolio,” the source said.
Arslan, head of the Lebanese Democratic Party and a Druze rival of Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Joumblatt, met earlier Tuesday with Aoun, seeking to secure a ministerial post for his four-member parliamentary bloc in the face of Joumblatt’s drive to acquire the Health Ministry, currently held by a minister affiliated with Hezbollah, or alternatively a sovereign ministry.
The source said an earlier agreement between Aoun and Hariri on an 18-member Cabinet – nine Christians and nine Muslims – including one ministry for the Druze sect, appeared to be in jeopardy amid Arslan’s insistence on being allotted a ministerial post for his bloc. Hariri had initially called for a small Cabinet of 14 nonpartisan experts to deliver urgent reforms badly needed to unlock promised international aid to the country wrestling with an economic meltdown and the grave consequences of the August deadly explosion that devastated Beirut Port and left swaths of the capital in ruins. The Aug. 4 blast, the biggest in Lebanon’s history and caused by the detonation of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, killed nearly 200 people, injured thousands, left 300,000 people homeless and caused losses worth billions of dollars.
“Similarly, the problem of the Marada Movement’s representation has yet to be solved as [Marada leader] Sleiman Frangieh is demanding that either a sovereign ministry or two public services-related ministries be allocated to his party,” the source said. However, another political source close to the Cabinet formation process blamed Aoun and the Free Patriotic Movement headed by MP Gebran Bassil for obstructing the formation by seeking to control three key ministries: Defense, Interior and Justice. “Bassil is back at it again. Despite his claims that the FPM will facilitate the Cabinet formation, he is now insisting on obtaining a veto power [in the new government] with a view to controlling the Cabinet’s decision-making, in addition to reviving the sharing of spoils among blocs,” the source told The Daily Star.
Bassil, who heads the FPM’s Strong Lebanon bloc, the largest Christian bloc in Parliament, had been accused by his opponents of hindering the government formation for months by insisting on retaining hold of the Energy Ministry, which has been controlled by FPM ministers for more than 10 years.
Future Movement officials could not be reached to comment on the obstruction of the government formation in line with a shroud of secrecy imposed by Hariri and Aoun on the Cabinet formation efforts .
Rafik Shalala, the president’s media adviser, said Aoun was making efforts in order for the next government to be “homogenous and productive.” His remarks came as Aoun concluded the fourth year of his six-year term in office.
Asked whether the new government to be formed by Hariri would be a gift of the fifth year of Aoun’s mandate, Shalala said in an interview with “Sawt al-Mada” radio station Saturday: “Inshallah. Everyone wants a new government to be born today not tomorrow. But everyone realizes that the government formation in Lebanon is subject to specific balances and considerations. President Aoun is making all efforts in order for the next government to be homogenous, productive and capable of confronting major deadlines and challenges.”Shalala added that Aoun and Hariri were in contact daily to finalize the Cabinet formation and overcome hurdles that crop up every now and then.
Referring to the hurdles facing the Cabinet formation, he said: “Efforts are underway to resolve some points in consultation between President Aoun and Prime Minister Hariri, especially the president is pinning great importance on the formation of the next government and the role it will play at various levels.”The new government would be tasked with implementing a string of structural economic and administrative reforms outlined in the French initiative designed to lift the crises-hit country out of its catastrophic economic and financial crunch, the worst since the 1975-90 Civil War.
Shalala refuted opposition claims that the four years of Aoun’s tenure had been a failure. He cited among the president’s major achievements Aoun’s determination to fight endemic corruption in the public administration, liberating Lebanon from terrorist groups, the start of indirect US-mediated negotiations between Lebanon and Israel on border demarcation, signed agreements with foreign companies to explore for oil and gas in Lebanon’s territorial waters and his insistence on conducting a forensic audit in the Central Bank’s accounts.
“There is a big hope that the next two years will be productive as were the first three years of President Aoun’s term,” Shalala said.
Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rai Sunday kept up his campaign against the political elite and called on rival factions to stop exerting pressure on Hariri so that he could form a new government.
“Until when will officials, politicians, influential people and parties persist in obstructing the formation of a new government? Aren’t they ashamed of God and the people while they are obstructing, not for the sake of protecting constitutional and national principles, but rather for adhering to sectarian quotas and portfolios, while half of the Lebanese people do not find food to eat and they are packing up their luggage to emigrate,” Rai said in Sunday’s sermon in Bkirki, north of Beirut.“Let all the parties stop their pressure on the prime minister-designate so that he can announce, in cooperation with the president, a government that will be up to the challenges. But what has been circulated about the kind of the next government is not reassuring,” Rai added. In another sermon Saturday, Rai lambasted Lebanese politicians, accusing them of “killing” the country’s people and urging them to step down.
Lebanon has been left without a fully functioning government since caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab submitted his Cabinet’s resignation on Aug. 10 over the port blast.
 

Ghada Aoun attends a court petition … immunity first
AlKhaleej Today/November 02/2020
Lina Fakhr El-Din wrote in “Al-Akhbar” that the judges woke up from their repression, not to demand the independence of the judiciary, nor to pressure the issuance of judicial formations, nor even to confront those who hinder accountability. All this did not push the “guardians of justice” to the uprising. Rather, what touched them at the core was a law aimed at strengthening the basic guarantees for the arrested and activating the rights of defense, which was published in the Official Gazette on October 22 last year.
The security services were supposed to declare their weapons in the face of Law 191, on the grounds that its implementation means preventing them from exerting pressure and torture on detainees and adopting technical methods to search for evidence.
However, it is surprising that the strike came from the provisions of the Law on the Organization of the Judiciary and the Criminal Procedure Law that it is a guarantor of public freedoms and a protector of citizens’ rights to obtain fair trials.
This is how the roles have been reversed between the security services that have come to assure, even over the table, that they will implement the law, and between the judges who are fighting an open battle on the basis of “Oh killer, killed,” given that the immunity that has transformed some judges into “semi-gods” will inevitably disappear with the implementation of Law, and they will no longer be outside the accountability. Note that it is not the first law that criminalizes judges.
Judges: These are our justifications
The judges declare that what provoked them is the last point of the third article, which indicated that “the investigator, whether a judge of the Public Prosecution office or a member of the judicial police, is subject to a prison sentence ranging from three months to a year and a fine ranging between two million Lebanese pounds to 10 million Lira if none of the guarantees stipulated in the law are observed.
Here is the crux of the dispute, as the opposing judges consider this article “unacceptable.” However, they try to add other objections to save face, including their fear that the presence of the lawyer in the preliminary investigations will have a negative role by giving the detainee the testimony he deems appropriate, and the inability of the judicial police to expedite the interrogation and uncover cells, especially in crimes of terrorism, murder, kidnapping and speed, considering that The 24-hour time limit for attending the attorney may be a reason for the escape of the rest of the gang to which a detainee belongs or killing a kidnapped person, for example.
They also point out that the outposts and detachments are not equipped with the simplest tools, so how will the investigations be filmed with audio and video, as stipulated by law? This question shows that the judges are trying to play the role of the king more than the king himself, with the security services confirming that they are working to equip the investigation centers with the necessary equipment to implement the law! The “Supreme Judiciary” is angry at Aoun
In addition to these objections, the judges claim that the Parliamentary Administration and Justice Committee did not seek the opinion of the Supreme Judicial Council (its opinion) of the law before referring it to the General Assembly of the Council of Representatives.
Some jurists point out that seeking the opinion of the “Supreme Judiciary” is not mandatory in this law and the provisions of Article 5 of the Law on the Organization of the Judicial Judiciary do not apply to it, given that it is an amendment to the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Some go further, stressing that Parliament is the master of itself, in support of Articles 8 and 20 of the Lebanese constitution, which stipulate that “the conditions and limits of the judicial guarantee are set by law, and the legislating authority is independent to define, protect and establish those guarantees.”
Whatever the case, the judges who are opposed to the existence of a legal loophole in disregarding the opinion of the Supreme Judicial Council are the same who jumped over the council’s powers and ignored its existence.
Therefore, the “Supreme Judiciary” pours its anger on the Appellate Public Prosecutor in Mount Lebanon, Judge Ghada Aoun, who expressed her dissatisfaction with the law to the President of the Republic, without going through the Council.
These were the details of the news Ghada Aoun attends a court petition … immunity first for this day. We hope that we have succeeded by giving you the full details and information. To follow all our news, you can subscribe to the alerts system or to one of our different systems to provide you with all that is new.
It is also worth noting that the original news has been published and is available at saudi24news and the editorial team at AlKhaleej Today has confirmed it and it has been modified, and it may have been completely transferred or quoted from it and you can read and follow this news from its main source.

Judges Who Don’t Care For Torture: Immunity First
AlKhaleej Today/November 02/2020
Judges woke up from their repression, not to demand the independence of the judiciary, nor to pressure to issue judicial formations, nor even to confront those who hinder accountability. All this did not push the “guardians of justice” to the uprising. Rather, what touched them at the core was a law aimed at strengthening the basic guarantees for the arrested and activating the rights of defense, which was published in the Official Gazette on October 22 last year. The security services were supposed to declare their weapons in the face of Law 191, on the grounds that its implementation means preventing them from exerting pressure and torture on detainees and adopting technical methods to search for evidence.
However, it is surprising that the strike came from the provisions of the Law on the Organization of the Judiciary and the Criminal Procedure Law that it is a guarantor of public freedoms and a protector of citizens’ rights to obtain fair trials.
This is how the roles have been reversed between the security services that have come to assure, even over the table, that they will implement the law, and between the judges who are fighting an open battle on the basis of “Oh killer, killed,” given that the immunity that has transformed some judges into “semi-gods” will inevitably disappear with the implementation of Law, and they will no longer be outside the accountability. Note that it is not the first law that criminalizes judges.
Judges: These are our justifications
The judges declare that what provoked them is the last point of the third article, which indicated that “the investigator, whether a judge of the Public Prosecution office or a member of the judicial police, is subject to a prison sentence ranging from three months to a year and a fine ranging between two million Lebanese pounds to 10 million Lira if none of the guarantees stipulated in the law are observed.
Here is the crux of the dispute, as the opposing judges consider this article “unacceptable.” However, they try to add other objections to save face, including their fear that the presence of the lawyer in the preliminary investigations will have a negative role by giving the detainee the testimony he deems appropriate, and the inability of the judicial police to expedite the interrogation and uncover cells, especially in crimes of terrorism, murder, kidnapping and speed, considering that The 24-hour time limit for attending the attorney may be a reason for the escape of the rest of the gang to which a detainee belongs or killing a kidnapped person, for example.
They also point out that the outposts and detachments are not equipped with the simplest tools, so how will the investigations be filmed with audio and video, as stipulated by law? This question shows that the judges are trying to play the role of the king more than the king himself, with the security services confirming that they are working to equip the investigation centers with the necessary equipment to implement the law!
The “Supreme Judiciary” is angry at Aoun
In addition to these objections, the judges claim that the Parliamentary Administration and Justice Committee did not seek the opinion of the Supreme Judicial Council (its opinion) of the law before referring it to the General Assembly of the Council of Representatives.
Some jurists point out that seeking the opinion of the “Supreme Judiciary” is not mandatory in this law and the provisions of Article 5 of the Law on the Organization of the Judicial Judiciary do not apply to it, given that it is an amendment to the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Some go further, stressing that Parliament is the master of itself, in support of Articles 8 and 20 of the Lebanese constitution, which stipulate that “the conditions and limits of the judicial guarantee are set by law, and the legislating authority is independent to define, protect and establish those guarantees.”
Whatever the case, the judges who are opposed to the existence of a legal loophole in disregarding the opinion of the Supreme Judicial Council are the same who jumped over the council’s powers and ignored its existence.
Therefore, the “Supreme Judiciary” pours its anger on the Appellate Public Prosecutor in Mount Lebanon, Judge Ghada Aoun, who expressed her dissatisfaction with the law to the President of the Republic, without going through the Council.
Ghada Aoun obtained the signatures of more than 170 judges for the petition rejecting Law 191
This blame was evident in the statement issued by the Judicial Council on Saturday, when it stressed that “there is nothing that prevents judges from making proposals in this regard to the Council pursuant to the text of Article 44 of the Judicial Judiciary Law, which must be adhered to as a single legal way. It can be deviated from or overlooked ».
Aoun does not care about this anger. Rather, she asks in front of her visitors: “Do they want to prevent me from visiting?” Pointing out that she sought refuge in the Supreme Judicial Council, before heading to Baabda, while others assert that she did the opposite.
In the context of forming a “lobby” to pressure the President of the Republic and urge him to challenge the law, Aoun points out to her colleagues that Law 191 is an exact copy of a United Nations project. She explains that she did a detailed search for a law similar to Law 191 in France, but she did not find that, disregarding a set of laws that punish judges and members of the judiciary for breaching the basic guarantees of detainees and denying justice.
The Appeal Group
Today, Aoun seems busy collecting the judges ’signatures, since one of the advisors of the President of the Republic, Michel Aoun, whispered in the ear of the” president “that the judges’ signing of a petition detailing the loopholes in Law 191 would be a way out for Aoun’s lack of embarrassment after signing the law and publishing it in the official gazette.
To this end, Aoun succeeded, with the support of a number of judges and public prosecutors, in obtaining 170 signatures, most of whom were judges working in the criminal judiciary. They joined a group on WhatsApp called “The Stabbing Group”, in order to coordinate their next steps. With the knowledge that the Judges Club did not interact with this petition, either negatively or positively!
On the other hand, the judges defending the law appear in a state of shock, as the volume of objections is “frightening” and accounts for a quarter of the number of working judges. They point out that this percentage reflects the need to change the mentality and culture of judges, and give up their view of inferiority toward the judicial police, lawyers, and citizens, stressing that this law is “an achievement for those who consider themselves servants to citizens and achieve justice.”
In the end, it seems as usual the majority of judges are the silent majority, as only about 70 judges interacted on the WhatsApp group, knowing that the names of the most of the signatories are still secret. Consequently, judges are divided between refusing to implement this law in any way possible, and between defenders, and others pointing out that a slight amendment to it will make it acceptable, “but we will not work to confront it or prevent its implementation, especially since it has come into effect after it was published in the Official Gazette.”
But will the opponents reach a conclusion? They have 5 days before the deadline for submitting the appeal (which ends on Friday), while observers confirm that the President of the Republic will not take the steps that the judge Aoun is trying to market through WhatsApp. Consequently, the “president” will return with an empty basket from her visit to Baabda in the coming days, and the law will not be transferred to the Constitutional Council to stop its implementation.
Only amending the law is the likely option. It is also the option suggested by the “Supreme Judiciary” in his statement. The objecting judges have in their pocket the “Plan B” by urging a member of parliament to present an urgent and repeated law that is referred directly to the Administration and Justice Committee, which includes a single article, which is the abolition of the clause of imprisonment of judges in the event of violating Law 191, and the possibility of being satisfied with their fine.
On the other hand, others stress that this plan will not achieve the objectives of the objectors as well, due to the conduct of some members of the Administration and Justice Committee in proposing other laws that complement what Law 191 began!
Judges vs Lawyers
A leaked statement by the Appeal Attorney General in Mount Lebanon, Judge Ghada Aoun, provoked a large number of lawyers on WhatsApp, in which she states that Law 191 serves the lawyer who only cares for his financial interest, pointing out that the attorney’s presence in the preliminary investigations will increase the lawyers ’fortunes .
The head of the North Bar Association, Muhammad al-Murad, stresses that “lawyers are not a stick figure,” and he tells Al-Akhbar: “I am not an attacker or a defiant, but I do not accept what some judges issue in harming lawyers.”
These were the details of the news Judges Who Don’t Care For Torture: Immunity First for this day. We hope that we have succeeded by giving you the full details and information. To follow all our news, you can subscribe to the alerts system or to one of our different systems to provide you with all that is new.
It is also worth noting that the original news has been published and is available at saudi24news and the editorial team at AlKhaleej Today has confirmed it and it has been modified, and it may have been completely transferred or quoted from it and you can read and follow this news from its main source.
 

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 02-03/2020

Audio Report From FDD:"Time to penalize Hamas and Hezbollah for using human shields," Orde Kittrie, FDD Video Byte/Click Here
https://youtu.be/gqRCy3QHl5M

Six locations in Vienna targeted in apparent terror attack; deaths, injuries reported
Reuters/Monday 02 November 2020
At least one person was killed and several wounded in central Vienna in exchanges of gunfire late on Monday, in what the Austrian interior minister said was believed to be a terrorist attack near the central synagogue. Vienna police said on Twitter there were multiple suspects and six different locations involved. A large area of central Vienna was cordoned off and police said a significant deployment was under way. Interior Minister Karl Nehammer told Austrian broadcaster ORF that the attack was believed to have been carried out by several people and that all six locations were in the immediate vicinity of the street housing the central synagogue. “At the moment I can confirm we believe this is an apparent terror attack,” he said. “We believe there are several perpetrators. Unfortunately there are also several injured, probably also dead.” A spokesman for the ambulance service said at least one person had been killed and several injured. One of the suspects and a bystander had been shot dead and a police officer was among those injured, local news agency APA said. “Shots fired in the Inner City district - there are persons injured - KEEP AWAY from all public places or public transport,” the police said on Twitter. Jewish community leader Oskar Deutsch said on Twitter that it was not clear whether the Vienna synagogue and adjoining offices had been the target of the attack, and said they were closed at the time. Videos circulated on social media of a gunman running down a cobblestone street shooting and shouting. Reuters could not immediately verify the videos. Vienna police urged people not to share videos and photos via social media. “This jeopardizes police forces as well as the civilian population,” they said on Twitter. In 1981, two people were killed and 18 injured during an attack by two Palestinians at the same synagogue. In 1985, a Palestinian extremist group attacked Vienna airport with hand grenades and attack rifles, killing three civilians. In recent years, Austria has been spared the sort of large-scale attacks seen in Paris, Berlin and London. In August, authorities arrested a 31-year-old Syrian refugee suspected of trying to attack a Jewish community leader in the country’s second city Graz. The leader was unhurt.

Armenia calls for international investigation into ‘foreign mercenaries’ in Karabakh
Reuters, Yerevan/Monday 02 November 2020
Armenia’s prime minister called on Monday for an international investigation into the presence of “foreign mercenaries” in Nagorno-Karabakh after ethnic Armenian forces said they had captured two mercenaries from Syria. Azerbaijian has repeatedly denied the presence of foreign combatants in the conflict zone. Its ministry of defense was not immediately available for comment. Fierce battles continued near the front line of the conflict over the mountain enclave and seven surrounding regions in which more than 1,000 people, and possibly many more, have been killed since fighting erupted more than a month ago. Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but is populated and controlled by ethnic Armenians. The conflict has brought into sharp focus the increased influence of Turkey, an ally of Azerbaijan, in a formerly Soviet region considered by Russia to be in its sphere of influence. Russia has a defense pact with Armenia. Armenia’s foreign ministry said on Monday the Artsakh defense Army, its name for the ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh, had captured a second Syrian combatant over the weekend. It said the fighter was from Syria’s Idlib province. Another fighter, from the city of Hama, was captured on Friday, it said. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, in a Facebook post, said the involvement of “foreign mercenaries” was “a threat not only to the security of Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia but also to international security, and this issue should become a subject of international investigation.” The ethnic Armenian-controlled, Nagorno-Karabakh defense ministry said battles took place overnight along the northwestern part of the front line. It said it had repelled a platoon of Azeri troops in fierce fighting. Azerbaijan’s defense ministry said it had repelled an attack on its positions in the high ground of the Zangilan district, between the enclave and the Iranian border, while army units in the Gazakh, Tovuz and Dashkesan regions also came under fire. Azeri President Ilham Aliyev wrote on Twitter that Azerbaijan had retaken a further eight settlements in Zangilan, Gubadli and Jabrayil regions. Azerbaijan’s advances on the battlefield since fighting began on Sept. 27 have reduced its incentive to strike a lasting peace deal and complicated international efforts to broker a truce. Three ceasefires have failed to hold. Nagorno-Karabakh’s army says 1,177 of its soldiers have been killed. Azerbaijan does not disclose its military casualties, while Russia has estimated as many as 5,000 deaths on both sides.

US seeks lifting of Darfur sanctions amid Sudan reconciliation: Pompeo
AFP/Monday 02 November 2020
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday the United States would seek to end UN sanctions on Sudan over the conflict in Darfur as the new government makes peace. The promise is another sign that the United States is eager to reward Sudan after it agreed to recognize Israel – a decision made at the urging of President Donald Trump’s administration as it moved to delist Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism. Pompeo said the year-old civilian-backed government had made “substantial improvements” in human rights including in Darfur, the parched western region where the former dictatorship carried out a scorched-earth military campaign. “The United States is committed to working with the Sudanese government and our international partners to identify circumstances that could result in lifting sanctions related to the Darfur conflict at the earliest opportunity,” Pompeo said in a statement. “We have already begun consultations at the UN with this objective in mind.”Sudan’s new government a month ago signed a landmark agreement with rebels that have been active in Darfur as well as the southern states of Blue Nile and South Kordofan. In 2005, the UN Security Council imposed an arms embargo, a ban on travel and a freeze on assets of anyone found to have inhibited peace efforts in Darfur. The then US administration of George W. Bush had supported international action on Darfur, which it characterized as genocide against the region’s mostly black people. Sudan has been eager for a removal of international sanctions, especially the US designation that it is a state sponsor of terrorism, which has severely impeded investment. Trump started the process to delist Sudan after the new government agreed to recognize Israel and deposited $335 million in compensation for survivors and families of victims of attacks dating from the reign of ousted president Omar al-Bashir, who had welcomed al-Qaeda.

Iran’s violations, interferences raises tensions in the region: Saudi Arabia’s FM
Tamara Abueish, Al Arabiya English/Monday 02 November 2020
Iran’s violations of international treaties and its interference in the affairs of other countries has caused tensions to rise in the region, the Saudi Press Agency cites the Kingdom’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Faisal bin Farhan as saying. The Iranian regime’s practices have destabilized the region at both a regional and international level, the minister said. Iran supports extremist militias – such as the Houthi militia in Yemen – and continues to threaten maritime navigation. Prince Faisal’s statements come at a time of heightened tension in the region the Iran-backed Houthi militia continues to launch explosive-laden drones towards Saudi Arabia. The Arab Coalition has said it thwarted multiple attacks in October.

U.S. Campaign Enters Final Day with Nation on Edge
Agence France Presse/November 02/2020
The U.S. presidential campaign enters its final day Monday with a last-minute scramble for votes by Donald Trump and Joe Biden, drawing to a close an extraordinary race that has put a pandemic-stricken country on edge. But while campaigning will halt and voters will have their say on Tuesday, many questions remain over how soon a result will be known due to a flood of mail-in ballots and possible legal challenges. Those factors, along with an unprecedented convergence of social justice protests, coronavirus precautions and President Trump's fear-mongering campaign, have led to apprehension over whether unrest could erupt. Taking no chances, businesses in some cities have boarded up windows, while across the country the harsh political climate has led to fierce debate, in some cases even dividing families.
As proof of how much Americans have been galvanized -- and perhaps frightened by the pandemic -- a record of more than 93 million people have cast early ballots, including in-person and mailed votes, according to the nonpartisan U.S. Elections Project.
As the hours count down on Monday and with polls showing him behind, Trump will repeat his marathon performance from the previous day with another set of five rallies in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Biden will also be in Pennsylvania -- including for a drive-in rally with pop star Lady Gaga -- as well as in Cleveland, Ohio. Seeking to energize Democrats and prevent a 2016-like surprise, Barack Obama will appear in Georgia before holding an election eve rally in Miami.
- 'Talk of the world' -
On Sunday, Trump and Biden drove home their closing arguments -- and the president said his supporters would again shock the world. In Georgia, wearing his familiar red campaign hat, the 74-year-old Republican said: "It's going to be the talk of the world."
Wrapping up a long day, he held a rally that didn't begin until shortly before midnight in Opa-locka, Florida, a crucial state for him which polls show is a tossup. Crowds there chanted "fire Fauci" -- referring to the widely respected government infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci, who has drawn White House anger over his outspokenness on the need to do more to rein in Covid-19. "Don't tell anybody, but let me wait until a little bit after the election," Trump said in response. Biden set a very different pace, beginning the day attending Mass with his wife Jill at a Catholic church near their home in Wilmington, Delaware. Afterward, at a drive-in rally in Philadelphia, the 77-year-old former vice president said: "In two days, we can put an end to a presidency that has divided this nation.""It's time to stand up, take back our democracy," he said.
- Poll warnings -
Nationally, polls have consistently put Biden well ahead, and a RealClearPolitics average of surveys had him up 7.2 percentage points Sunday. But there have been repeated warnings from both camps that the polls could be wrong -- like in 2016. Trump has held an exhausting string of raucous rallies with crowds pressed together, many of them without masks. Biden has held far fewer rallies with much more caution -- usually socially distanced drive-up gatherings -- and has taken care to wear a mask. That decision has resulted in mockery from Trump, playing down the dangerousness of the virus even though he was hospitalized over it. The former reality show star and real estate mogul has called for businesses and schools to reopen, talking up signs of an economic recovery though economists say underlying factors are tenuous. Biden has embraced the criticism and doubled down, repeatedly hammering away at the president's "almost criminal" handling of the pandemic, saying it had cost tens of thousands of lives. The virus has been resurgent across the country, with more than 230,000 dead since the start of the pandemic.
- 'Steal this election' -
Fears of tensions on election night and afterward were further stoked by a report that Trump could declare victory prematurely. The Axios news site reported Sunday that Trump has told confidants he would declare victory Tuesday night if it looks like he's ahead. Trump called it a "false report" but repeated his argument that "I don't think it's fair that we have to wait for a long period of time after the election." He has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that mail-in ballots are open to fraud, warning of "bedlam" if no clear winner emerges quickly.  Asked about the report, Biden said: "The president is not going to steal this election." In yet another sign of how tense the race has become, Biden also denounced the alleged harassment of one of his campaign buses by Trump supporters on a Texas highway -- an incident the FBI confirmed it was investigating. Americans have meanwhile been showing up nationwide to cast early ballots. "The future of our country is at risk," said 66-year-old Carmen Gomez, who wore a mask as she arrived on the last day of early voting in Florida on Sunday.

Biden Leads in Polls Going into Election Day but Battlegrounds Tight
Agence France Presse/November 02/2020
Democrat Joe Biden leads in the national polls and most of the battleground states going into Election Day but President Donald Trump is insisting they're wrong and he'll repeat his upset victory of 2016. Biden, the 77-year-old former vice president, has enjoyed a solid lead over Trump, 74, in the national polls for months, at times reaching double digits. But US presidential elections are not decided by the popular vote. They are won in the 538-member Electoral College, where each state has a number of electoral votes equivalent to its representation in the House and Senate. And the electoral votes of battleground states such as Florida and Pennsylvania could determine the winner of Tuesday's battle for the White House. Here is a look at the latest national polls and polls in key battleground states:
National polls -
An average of national polls by the RealClearPolitics (RCP) website gives Biden a 6.7 point lead over Trump -- 51 percent to 44.3 percent. That is roughly in line with the averages of other leading outlets such as FiveThirtyEight.com, which has Biden up by 8.5 points nationally.
Biden's lead nationally is more than double that of Hillary Clinton going into the 2016 election, when the polls were relatively accurate concerning the popular vote, which she won while losing in the Electoral College.
- Florida -
In Florida, Biden has a one-point lead over Trump, according to the RCP average of state polls. A Siena College/New York Times poll has Biden up by three points in the Sunshine State but a Washington Post/ABC News poll has the Republican incumbent up by two points.
Trump won Florida and its 29 electoral votes in 2016 and winning the state again is seen as crucial to his hopes of victory.
- Pennsylvania -
In Pennsylvania, Biden has a 4.3-point lead, according to the RCP average of polls in the Keystone State, which has 20 electoral votes. Trump won Pennsylvania by just 44,000 votes in 2016 and his reelection hopes could hang on taking the state again.
- Michigan, Wisconsin -
Michigan and Wisconsin are two Midwestern states Trump won narrowly in 2016 but the RCP averages have him trailing in both this time. According to the RCP averages, Biden is up by 5.1 points in Michigan, which has 16 electoral votes, and by 6.6 points in Wisconsin, which has 10 electoral votes.
- Arizona, North Carolina -
The battleground states of Arizona and North Carolina, both of which Trump won in 2016, are also being closely watched. According to the RCP averages, Biden has a one-point lead in Arizona, which has 11 electoral votes, while Trump leads by 0.6 points in North Carolina, which has 15 electoral votes.
- Georgia, Iowa, Ohio, Texas -
Four other states are also being closely watched this time -- Georgia (16 electoral votes), Iowa (six), Ohio (18) and Texas (38). Trump won all four states relatively easily in 2016 but the polls are showing close races there this time.
Biden is up by 0.4 points in Georgia, according to the RCP average, a state Trump won by 5.1 points in 2016. Trump is up by 1.4 points in Iowa -- he won by 9.4 points four years ago -- and by 0.2 points in Ohio, a significantly smaller margin than his 8.1-point win last time around.
Trump won Texas, one of the biggest prizes of the night, by nine points in 2016 but the RCP average gives him a narrow 1.2 point lead there ahead of Tuesday's vote.

Trump Dismisses 'Fake' Polls, Biden Says Time to End the 'Chaos'
Agence France Presse/November 02/2020
President Donald Trump entered his final day of campaigning for reelection Monday by dismissing polls that show him headed for a humiliating loss, while Democrat Joe Biden urged Americans to draw a line under the "chaos" of the last four years.
"I watch these fake polls," Trump, 74, told a crowd in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on the eve of Election Day. "We're going to win anyway."
The Republican's gripe at pollsters -- combined with angry swipes at everybody from journalists, social media CEOs, his defeated 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton and Democratic opponents in Congress -- reflected the bitter mood as he faces the possibility of being removed from the White House after one term. When he wasn't complaining about his "crooked" opponents, Trump focused back on his months-long attempts to paint Biden as "sleepy" and "corrupt," leading the crowd to chant: "Lock him up!"And Trump sought to recapture the spirit of his shock win four years ago by casting himself as the rebel against an "arrogant, corrupt, ruthless" establishment. "You elected an outsider as president who is finally putting America first," he told the crowd. "Get out and vote, that's all I ask."
But Biden, who has built his campaign on casting Trump as a reckless failure during the coronavirus pandemic, scents victory.
Opinion polls give him small but steady advantages in all the swing states that tip close elections and even threatening Republican strongholds like Georgia and Texas. "It's time for Donald Trump to pack his bags and go home," Biden, 77, told supporters in Cleveland, Ohio.
"We're done with the chaos! We're done with the tweets, the anger, the hate, the failure, the irresponsibility," said Biden.
- Fears of violence, chaos -
Tuesday is formally Election Day but in reality it marks the culmination of a drawn-out election month. With a huge expansion in mail-in voting to safeguard against the Covid-19 pandemic, more than 95 million people are estimated to have already cast ballots, highlighting the raw passion in what is turning into a referendum on the norm-shattering Republican's first term.
All over central Washington, businesses boarded up windows in expectation of unrest and NBC News reported that a new "unscalable" fence was planned around the White House, which has been behind growing layers of fortifications since a summer of anti-racism protests.
While the Trump administration warned of left-wing extremists causing havoc, the president's supporters made their own show of force, driving in caravans of flag-bedecked pick-up trucks and blocking roads around the country. The FBI said it was investigating an incident in Texas where Trump supporters in trucks swarmed around a Biden campaign bus while it was on a highway. Biden was closing up his startlingly low key campaign with socially distanced events in Ohio and Pennsylvania, the fiercest battleground of them all. Pop superstar Lady Gaga was to join the 77-year-old, while former president Barack Obama was lending his own political star power by rallying for Biden in Florida and Georgia -- a steady Republican state targeted by the Democrats.
Trump, who mocks Biden's modestly attended events as proof that the opinion polls must be wrong, was capping his closing surge of 14 rallies in three days with visits to North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. The last rally will be in Grand Rapids -- the site where Trump delivered the final speech of his victorious 2016 campaign and where he hopes he will once more spark an upset.
- Trump attacks election integrity -
The president, who for months has been falsely claiming that mail-in votes will lead to mass fraud, upped the ante in the final days by suggesting that he will push to disqualify votes that arrive after Tuesday -- a practice which is in fact legal in several of the key states, provided that the ballots are postmarked in time. Together with Republican attempts to get a court to throw out more than 100,000 ballots in Texas and other aggressive legal measures, Trump's hostility to the election rules is raising fears that he will try to declare premature victory or refuse to accept defeat.
The Axios news site reported Sunday that Trump has told confidants he will declare victory right away if it looked like he was ahead.
Trump called it a "false report" but repeated his argument that "I don't think it's fair that we have to wait for a long period of time after the election."
.
Canada/Statement by Media Freedom Coalition on International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists
November 2, 2020 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
The International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists was established on 2 November in 2013, drawing vital attention to the necessary protection of unrepressed journalism as a key element of freedom of opinion and expression, both online and offline.
The global death rates from, and low conviction rates for, violent crimes against journalists and media workers clearly demonstrate the current obstacles to achieving a free media globally. On this day, we pay tribute to those journalists who have been threatened, subjected to violence or killed in their line of work, including female journalists, who remain disproportionately targeted.
In nine out of ten cases, the perpetrators of violence against journalists go unpunished. UNESCO reports that 99 journalists and media workers were killed in 2018 and another 57 journalists and media workers were killed in 2019. This climate of impunity perpetuates the cycle of violence against journalists and the media. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing threats to journalists across the globe. Many have been reporting from the front lines of this health crisis, where too many have faced censorship, intimidation or violence.
Violence against journalists and media workers comes in many forms, from harassment and intimidation to abduction, sexual and gender-based violence and from illegal arrest to murder. They also face deliberate attempts to impact their ability to work, to investigate and to report, from overly restrictive laws to censorship. Apart from killings, female journalists are also affected by gender-specific safety risks, such as sexual harassment, sexual violence and threats of violence. Yet the ability of journalists to work freely is fundamental to a functioning democracy. It allows access to reliable information and counters disinformation, misinformation and other forms of manipulation of information.
We call upon all states to advocate for a free, independent, plural and diverse media; to condemn actions that might jeopardize the safety and independence of journalists and media workers; and to hold to account those who seek to harm journalists or restrict their ability to work.
Nations from around the world will come together to address this issue at the first ministerial meeting of the Media Freedom Coalition on 16 November 2020, as part of the second Global Conference for Media Freedom.
Together, we stand committed to universal human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Algeria Constitution Reform Passes by 66.8% on Record Low Turnout
Agence France Presse/November 02/2020
Algerians approved a revised version of the North African country's constitution with two thirds of votes cast, the electoral commission said Monday, after record low turnout in the previous day's referendum. The revised constitution passed with 66.8 percent of the vote, National Independent Elections Authority (ANIE) chief Mohamed Charfi told a press conference. He had earlier announced turnout of just 23.7 percent, a historic low for a major poll.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 02-03/2020

Iran’s Mullahs are in Turmoil Thanks to America’s Current Policy
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/November 02/2020
د. مجيد رافيزادا: ملالي إيران في حالة اضطراب بفضل السياسة الأمريكية الحالية

http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/92032/dr-majid-rafizadeh-irans-mullahs-are-in-turmoil-thanks-to-americas-current-policy-%d8%af-%d9%85%d8%ac%d9%8a%d8%af-%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%81%d9%8a%d8%b2%d8%a7%d8%af%d8%a7-%d9%85%d9%84%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%8a/

Iran's currency, the rial, lost more than half its value so far just in 2020.
Iran's regime is currently running a $200 million budget deficit per week and it is estimated that if the pressure on Tehran continues, the deficit will hit roughly $10 billion by March 2021. This deficit will, in return, increase inflation and devalue the currency even further.
Iran's militia groups are subsequently receiving less funding to pursue their terror activities. This shortfall may be why, for the first time in more than three decades, Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, made a public statement asking people to donate money to his group.
Iran's ruling mullahs desire to maintain the JCPOA. It not only provided their regime with many benefits including economic relief and global legitimacy; at the same time, it ignored Tehran's military adventurism in the region, its ballistic missile program and its support for terror groups across the Middle East. Most importantly, the JCPOA also paved the way for Tehran ultimately to become a nuclear state.
The "maximum pressure" policy against Iran's ruling mullahs is working and must absolutely continue.
The Iranian regime is in turmoil thanks to the "maximum pressure" policy implemented by US President Donald J. Trump against the ruling mullahs. Iran's currency, the rial, lost more than half its value so far just in 2020. Pictured: A currency exchange shop at the Grand Bazaar in Tehran, Iran on February 12, 2020. (Photo by Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images)
The Iranian regime is in turmoil thanks to the "maximum pressure" policy implemented by US President Donald J. Trump against the ruling mullahs.
Iran's currency, the rial, lost more than half its value so far just in 2020. That decline makes it one of the most worthless national currencies in the world. As of October 25, the rial traded on unofficial markets at 300,500 to the US dollar. The rate has pushed the Iranian authorities to agree on removing four zeros from its currency, which has gone into a virtual free-fall. Two years ago, one US dollar was worth nearly 30,000 rials.
The plummeting currency has also increased the demand for US dollars and gold. Even Iran's state-run Mardom Salari Daily warned:
"We have an extremely failed and fallen economy. The main reason is the currency shock and the plundering of the economy by semi-private companies and banks. Sanctions have become an excuse for some people to plunder the country. We suffer from both foreign and domestic sanctions and those who profit from this situation."
Since the Trump administration pulled out of the nuclear deal, which by the way Iran never signed, Tehran's oil exports have shrunk from nearly 2.5 million barrels per day to approximately 100,000 barrels per day.
As a result, the ruling mullahs are facing one of the worst budget deficits in their four-decade history of being in power. Iran's regime is currently running a $200 million budget deficit per week and it is estimated that if the pressure on Tehran continues, the deficit will hit roughly $10 billion by March 2021. This deficit will, in return, increase inflation and devalue the currency even further.
The decrease in revenues directly impacts Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its affiliates, the Office of the Supreme Leader, and the regime's associates who control considerable parts of the economy and financial systems. The IRGC reportedly controls more than half of Iran's GDP and owns several major economic powerhouses and religious endowments, such as Astan Qods Razavi in the northeastern city of Mashhad.
Iran's militia groups are subsequently receiving less funding to pursue their terror activities. This shortfall may be why, for the first time in more than three decades, Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, made a public statement asking people to donate money to his group. "The sanctions and terror lists," he pointed out, "are a form of warfare against the resistance and we must deal with them as such. I announce today that we are in need of the support of our popular base. It is the responsibility of the Lebanese resistance, its popular base, its milieu," to battle these measures.
He also acknowledged that the US sanctions are the primary reason behind the group's financial problems: "financial difficulties that we may face are a result of this (financial) war" and not due to "administrative defect". The Yemeni militia group, the Houthis, has also been sending people SMS text messages asking for donations.
Facing significant financial problems, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in October 2020, surprisingly ordered all factions of Iraqi armed groups to stop attacking US interests in Iraq, according to Middle East Eye. A senior commander of an Iranian-backed armed group involved in the attacks told Middle East Eye, "Khamenei's orders were straightforward and clear. All attacks targeting US interests in Iraq must stop".
The Trump administration also triggered snapback sanctions against the Iranian regime. That act will put further pressure on the ruling mullahs in spite of the fact that other members of the UN Security Council opposed Washington's move. As a prominent cleric, Saidd Lavasani, head of Lavasan's Friday prayer, acknowledged regarding the regime's defeat:
"Activation of the trigger mechanism means the defeat and complete death of the JCPOA, which means the path that we went with for seven years and on which we put all the facilities of the nation, now we must return that way. The mechanism of the Security Council is such that it allows the United States to take such an action, which, although China and Russia have formally opposed it, implicitly acknowledges that a new legal challenge is emerging in the Security Council that will lead to long discussions, of course, it is not in our interest."
Iran's ruling mullahs desire to maintain the JCPOA. It not only provided their regime with many benefits, including economic relief and global legitimacy; at the same time, it ignored Tehran's military adventurism in the region, its ballistic missile program and its support for terror groups across the Middle East. Most importantly, the JCPOA also paved the way for Tehran ultimately to become a nuclear state.
In short, the Iranian regime is now in a much weaker position compared to four years ago, before Donald J. Trump became president. The "maximum pressure" policy against Iran's ruling mullahs is working and must absolutely continue.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US foreign policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu
© 2020 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Will America Hand Space Dominance to China?
Gordon G. Chang/Gatestone Institute/November 02/2020
Some believe the US space program should emphasize climate change research. If there is no overall increase in space spending, there will be less money for, among other things, defending American assets in space.
Brandon Weichert of The Weichert Report said in an interview with Gatestone that there might be a move to "staff the Space Force with people inimical to its mission."
America is... in many respects behind Russia and China in the ability to fight "over great distances at tremendous speeds, " as Space Force's General John Raymond said in September.
Moreover, there are other policy proposals that would degrade America's ability to defend itself.... Unfortunately, there are many who still believe America can come to agreement with China.
In space, almost everything has a dual purpose. Fisher, for instance, reports that China will put a laser on its upcoming space station for the announced purpose of eliminating space junk. Of course, such a laser is also capable of killing American satellites.
Other dual use items are Russia's co-orbital "Space Stalkers." In peacetime, they can be used to repair satellites. In wartime, Weichert says, "they can physically push U.S. satellites out of their orbits." That would render America's forces, and America itself, "deaf, dumb, and blind on land, at sea, in the air, and within cyberspace."
In any event, neither Russia nor China honors agreements, especially arms control treaties.
This year, through the end of September, China launched 29 satellites, more than any other nation. Pictured: A Long March 3B rocket, carrying the Beidou-3GEO3 satellite, lifts off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China's Sichuan province on June 23, 2020.
China will be launching satellites almost every other week starting next March. In one instance the gap in next year's frenetic schedule of launches will be only five days.
This year, through the end of September, China launched 29 satellites, more than any other nation. The U.S. was a close second with 27.
Beijing aims to widen its lead. Most observers worry that the Chinese regime is determined to get to the moon before U.S. astronauts return there, but another troublesome development is that China will quickly be filling up orbits with satellites.
With a presidential candidate who has not been all that communicative, Americans may want to think more about space policy. In short, there are growing concerns that a new administration will, with the best of intentions but an utter lack of common sense, hand space leadership to the Chinese.
Observers believe that, going forward, US space policy will not differ much from the current one. Yet a new administration could make crucial differences in emphasis that will have far-reaching consequences.
Take last December's establishment of the Space Force, the sixth branch of the American military. No one thinks anyone will reverse that long-delayed and much-needed move.
Yet American space warriors still worry. Brandon Weichert of The Weichert Report said in an interview with Gatestone that there might be a move to "staff the Space Force with people inimical to its mission."
Space Force's mission is to fight wars in space, but are all Americans fully committed?
Some believe the US space program should emphasize climate change research. If there is no overall increase in space spending, there will be less money for, among other things, defending American assets in space.
There are many American assets to defend. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists Satellite Database, the U.S. owned or operated 1,425 of the 2,787 satellites in orbit as of August 1.
This large lead — it was even larger last decade — convinced the Obama administration it was not wise to "militarize" space because the U.S. had so much more to lose should it trigger an arms race in the heavens.
President Obama's view sounds smart but was deeply mistaken because, among other things, it failed to take into account the fact that Beijing was already weaponizing the high ground. "China has been working hard to militarize space since the issuance of its '863 Program' of 1986," Rick Fisher of the Virginia-based International Assessment and Strategy Center told Gatestone. The 863 Program was followed by 1992's "Project 921," run by the General Armaments Department of the Central Military Commission. After the sweeping 2015 reorganization of the Chinese military, control of space ended up in the Commission's Armaments Development Department.
"Space was not then and is not now a weapons-free sanctuary, like Antarctica," Weichert, also the author of the just-released Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, said. As a result of Obama's flawed decision, the U.S. lagged in both developing weapons to kill other nations' satellites and devising methods to protect its own. "Even as Obama tied America's hands behind its back in space, the Russians and later the Chinese were developing robust counterspace capabilities," Weichert added.
America is therefore in many respects behind Russia and China in the ability to fight "over great distances at tremendous speeds, " as Space Force's General John Raymond said in September.
Moreover, there are other policy proposals that would degrade America's ability to defend itself. The Obama administration, for instance, announced in June 2010 a new policy stating the U.S. would "consider proposals and concepts for arms control measures if they are equitable, effectively verifiable, and enhance the national security of the United States and its allies." Unfortunately, there are many who still believe America can come to agreement with China.
Any such agreement, however, would be impractical. In space, almost everything has a dual purpose. Fisher, for instance, reports that China will put a laser on its upcoming space station for the announced purpose of eliminating space junk. Of course, such a laser is also capable of killing American satellites.
Other dual use items are Russia's co-orbital "Space Stalkers." In peacetime, they can be used to repair satellites. In wartime, Weichert says, "they can physically push U.S. satellites out of their orbits." That would render America's forces, and America itself, "deaf, dumb, and blind on land, at sea, in the air, and within cyberspace."
In any event, neither Russia nor China honors agreements, especially arms control treaties.
There is another disturbing policy approach for Americans to consider. The Obama administration, in May 2011, sought to enlist China as a partner in the exploration of Mars. Weichert reports Vice President Biden himself proposed joint NASA-China National Space Administration missions in orbit. "Of course," Weichert says, "this would have been simply the greatest tech transfer ever from the United States to China."
There is no such thing as purely "civilian" cooperation with China, which has a civil-military fusion policy. All technical research, pursuant to that policy, gets pipelined into the Chinese military.
So what is at stake? The next 9/11 will almost certainly occur in space.
Gordon G. Chang is the author of The Coming Collapse of China, a Gatestone Institute Distinguished Senior Fellow, and member of its Advisory Board.
© 2020 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Trump vs. Biden on Islam: The Important Details
Raymond Ibrahim /November 02/2020
As the most important U.S. presidential election draws nigh, what—one must ask in light of the spate of terror attacks in France and elsewhere—are the two candidates’ positions on Islam?
Most recently, President Trump summarized both what his and a Biden presidency would entail during a rally in Butler, Pa., on October 31:
To protect our security I suspended the entry of foreign refugees from terror afflicted nations. Biden has pledged a staggering 700 percent increase in refugees from the most violent terrorist hotspots anywhere on earth. If you don’t mind, I’ll end that. And that was the deal, the manifesto, that he agreed to with Bernie Sanders and AOC+3 [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and three other female “progressive” reps, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts]…
The Biden plan would overwhelm your communities … and open the floodgates to radical Islamic terrorism. Call France; ask them how are they doing? You saw what’s happening there, and what’s happening is a disgrace…. So, if you don’t mind, we’ll take a pass, ok? You know I passed the ban, right, the ban, and everyone said “what a terrible thing,” and we won at the Supreme Court, and now we keep people out who can’t love our country, people that want to hurt people. We want them out and we will keep them out. We are keeping the terrorists and the jihadists … the hell out of our country.
Trump certainly seems to “get it.” His interest in “keep[ing] people out who can’t love our country” echoes another important assertion he once made. Back in March 2016, during a CNN interview when Trump was a Republican presidential candidate, he said:
I think Islam hates us. There’s something there that — there’s a tremendous hatred there. There’s a tremendous hatred. We have to get to the bottom of it. There’s an unbelievable hatred of us.
While these remarks were, as might be imagined, “triggering” to the Left, they also touched on a central truth: Islam does indeed teach Muslims to hate non-Muslims. According to the central doctrine of al-wal’a wa al-bara’, or “loyalty and enmity”—which is well-grounded in the Koran and other Islamic scriptures, well sponsored by Islamic authorities, and well manifested all throughout Islamic history and contemporary affairs—Muslims must hate and oppose everyone who is not Muslim, including family members and their own wives.
Indeed, as if to settle the debate once and for all, a few months after Trump said “Islam hates us,” the Islamic State published an article aptly titled “Why We Hate You & Why We Fight You”:
We hate you, first and foremost, because you are disbelievers; you reject the oneness of Allah – whether you realize it or not – by making partners for Him in worship, you blaspheme against Him, claiming that He has a son [Christ], you fabricate lies against His prophets and messengers, and you indulge in all manner of devilish practices. It is for this reason that we were commanded to openly declare our hatred for you and our enmity towards you. [ISIS then quotes the Koran:] “There has already been for you an excellent example in Abraham and those with him, when they said to their people, ‘Indeed, we are disassociated from you and from whatever you worship other than Allah. We have rejected you, and there has arisen, between us and you, enmity and hatred forever until you believe in Allah alone’” [Koran 60:4]. Furthermore, just as your disbelief is the primary reason we hate you, your disbelief is the primary reason we fight you, as we have been commanded to fight the disbelievers until they submit to the authority of Islam, either by becoming Muslims, or by paying jizyah – for those afforded this option [“People of the Book”] – and living in humiliation under the rule of the Muslims [per Koran 9:29].
What about ol’ Joe? The Democratic presidential nominee is, as might be expected, standing by all the usual Democratic clichés: that Islam is inherently good and peaceful; that terrorists are “hijacking” the great faith for their own ends; and that more education, more “inclusion,” and less “Islamophobia” are what will put an end to terrorism. Or, to quote from an October 15 New Arab report:
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden promised on Wednesday that Muslim Americans would serve at “every level” of his administration.
In a video message to civil rights organization Muslim Advocates, Biden repeated his pledge to repeal the Trump administration’s travel ban on his first day in office.
The former vice president added that he would push for legislation to fight a rise in hate crimes in the United States, according to media reports.
“As president, I’ll work with you to rip the poison of hate from our society, honor your contributions and seek your ideas,” Biden said in the video address. “My administration will look like America, Muslim Americans serving at every level,” he added.
So, along with the countless other extreme differences between the current and the would-be presidents, Trump offers a serious approach that recognizes some of Islam’s most problematic doctrines, while Biden offers the usual, feel-good bromides—the natural culmination of which can now be seen in France, which is slowly resembling a war zone.

U.S. Should Sanction Key Iranian Automobile Companies
Saeed Ghasseminejad/FDD/November 02/2020
Iranian Air Force commander Brigadier General Aziz Nasirzadeh announced earlier this month that the Air Force and the Iranian automobile manufacturer SAIPA would co-produce unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for the country’s military. This agreement illustrates the dependence of the Iranian military on the country’s top auto manufacturers, which also stabilize the regime by reducing the need for imported vehicles, whose purchase would consume scarce reserves of hard currency.
In August 2018, the United States reimposed sanctions on Iran’s automobile sector – part of a package of sanctions that Washington reenacted after it left the 2015 nuclear deal three months earlier. Iran’s automotive industry primarily serves domestic needs; it does not have significant markets outside Iran. This means the industry does not bring much hard currency into the country, yet by meeting domestic needs it removes the need to spend hard currency on imported vehicles.
Nonetheless, the industry heavily relies on foreign technology and parts to manufacture its products, especially its newer ones. Sanctions could block these acquisitions, forcing the regime to spend its reserves on imported vehicles.
Previously, Iran’s car production reached its peak in the 2011-2012 Iranian fiscal year (March to March), shortly after the Obama administration began to impose crippling sanctions on Iran. From that point on, production dropped as a result of Iran’s economic troubles, reaching an all-time low during the 2013-2014 fiscal year. Thanks to the 2015 nuclear deal, output returned to its previous peak in the 2017-2018 fiscal year. By 2019-2020, however, the industry halved its production, although output did not fall to its previous 2013-2014 low.
Despite its domestic production, Iran imported 470,000 vehicles between 2011 and 2018. Its imports increased in years when its domestic production decreased, showing the need to compensate with imports for lower domestic output.
As a result of the sanctions that Washington reimposed in August 2018, many international carmakers left Iran and put their investments in the country on hold. Chief among them have been Peugeot, Renault, and Mercedes Benz. Even Chinese carmakers have significantly reduced their presence in the country.
The sanctions have successfully reduced Iran’s production to a significant degree but could have a much greater impact. Washington should thus identify and designate entities and persons that re-export auto manufacturing parts to Iran.
Iran’s automotive sector is dominated by two companies: Iran Khodro and SAIPA, which produce more than 90 percent of cars in Iran. Washington has yet to sanction these two giants and their subsidiaries, despite their crucial role in a blacklisted sector.
Both companies have extensive ties to Iran’s defense industry and designated military entities. In December 2019, Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL) signed a deal with SAIPA to produce car parts for the company. Seyyed Javad Soleimanisaid, SAIPA’s CEO, said, “With [the] Defense Ministry’s help, domestic substitutes for 35 key auto parts are to be produced in Iran to curb the industry’s reliance on the global supply chain.” That same month, Iran Khodro signed deals with eight MODAFL-affiliated companies. In March 2019, Treasury designated MODAFL under Executive Order 13224 for providing support to terrorist groups.
Washington should designate SAIPA and Iran Khodro for their cooperation with Iran’s defense industry. Both companies provide material support to an entity designated for terrorism and are the key players in Iran’s automotive sector, a designated industry. Blacklisting them would be another key step in Washington’s ongoing maximum pressure campaign.
*Saeed Ghasseminejad is a senior Iran and financial economics advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where he also contributes to FDD’s Center on Economic and Financial Power (CEFP) and Iran Program. For more analysis from Saeed, CEFP, and the Iran Program, please subscribe HERE. Follow Saeed on Twitter @SGhasseminejad. Follow FDD on Twitter @FDD and @FDD_CEFP and @FDD_Iran. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.
U.S. Should Sanction Key Iranian Automobile Companies
 

Biden’s Middle East policy would only differ from Trump on Iran and Turkey
Hussain Abdul-Hussain/Al Arabiya/Monday 02 November 2020
In 2008, candidate Barack Obama promised that, if elected president, he would pull US troops out of Iraq in six months, which would have been mid-2009. Yet Obama instead did not withdraw the troops until the end of 2011, and ended up sending back a few thousand soldiers in 2014. Reality shapes policy and, in the case of Obama, it turned his ambitious anti-war election talk into less glamorous policy.
President Donald Trump similarly talked of reversing Obama’s entire Middle East approach, but only did so on Iran. While Democratic candidate Joe Biden has similarly promised to undo Trump’s foreign policy, it is unlikely that Biden will do so, except in minor ways, like on Iran and Turkey.
While American presidents have some freedom to direct foreign policy, they rarely stray away from the guidelines dictated by US national interests and recommended by specialized agencies. If elected president, Biden will likely tweak Trump’s Middle East policy slightly, but will not depart from it substantially.
Biden will likely follow both Obama and Trump by maintaining a bipartisan policy on the Gulf, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Egypt. The Democrats and Trump have only differed on Iran and Turkey.
Under a Biden presidency, GCC countries will remain America’s steadfast allies. Despite the electoral noise about a possible deterioration in US-Saudi relations, ties between Washington and Riyadh transcend partisanship and will remain strong.
America went to war in Iraq with a consensus inside Washington, but when things turned bad, the Democrats accused the Republicans of tricking them into supporting the war. Despite this, both parties understand that America’s investment in Iraq cannot be left to Iran. Both Obama and Trump kept troops in Iraq, despite promises to withdraw them. Biden will keep them further, until a time when Baghdad is strong enough to handle its sovereignty and safeguard US interests.
In Syria, the US has little to no interests, except for making sure that the country does not turn into a failing state that exports terrorism, like in the northeast, where a global coalition defeated ISIS and is holding ground to keep the terrorist group from coming back. Biden will maintain the presence of US troops in east Syria to continue to prohibit both ISIS and the Syrian government from tapping into oil resources. While this oil counts for much in the hands of ISIS or Damascus, it has little value on the international market. At its peak, Syria produced a puny amount of 400 thousand barrels a day of heavy crude that can only be refined at specialized refineries.
Like in Syria, America has little to no interest in Lebanon, except for combating Hezbollah’s terrorism. Because Beirut has failed to do so, Washington has tightened the screws on the pro-Iran militia through sanctions. In both Syria and Lebanon, and also in Gaza, a Biden presidency will continue supporting Israel in keeping its borders with these areas peaceful, even if this requires Israeli military intervention.
In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used Obama as punching bag for domestic Israeli reasons, and yet Obama joined Congress in increasing US aid to Israel to unprecedented level. Before leaving, Obama handed Netanyahu a parting gift by not vetoing a UN Security Council resolution on Israeli settlements. The resolution was ceremonial, and had little effect on US or Israeli policies.
Biden will maintain America’s strong alliance with Israel, and is unlikely to move the US embassy back from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. It is also unlikely that Biden will play an active role in reviving peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, and will probably stick to Obama’s mantra: “America cannot want peace more than the involved parties.” The State Department might resort to old traditional phrasing of describing the Palestinian Territories as occupied, which the Trump administration had dropped. Again, such phrasing is more ceremonial and has little consequence on the status quo between the Israelis and Palestinians.
Biden has already issued statements praising unilateral peace between Israel, on one hand, and the UAE, Bahrain and Sudan, on the other. It is most probable that Biden will continue Trump’s policy of encouraging the remaining Arab countries to sign peace with Israel.
In Egypt, unlike what many think, America’s policy has been steady over the past decades, and revolves around strong military-to-military ties. Obama only called on late President Hosni Mubarak to step down after Washington had gotten a nod from Egypt’s military. Similarly, Obama engaged with late President Mohamed Morsi after the military had joined Morsi’s government, and let go of such support when the military moved on. Despite Congressional pressure, Obama never held back on supporting President Abdul-Fattah al-Sisi.
Whether Obama, Trump or Biden, America will continue its annual aid to Egypt, as long as Cairo deliver on three strategic issues: Freedom of navigation in the Suez Canal, US military flights in Egyptian airspace, and the stability of Egypt’s border with Israel.
Biden, however, will depart from Trump’s Middle East policy on Iran and Turkey. Biden is unlikely to continue Trump’s policy of “maximum pressure” on Iran, and will try to rejoin the nuclear deal when Iran reverses its violations. However, many of the sanctions that Trump imposed on Iran are irrelevant to Tehran’s nuclear program, and are instead connected to Iran’s “destabilizing activity,” mainly its sponsorship of terrorism. Trump’s non-nuclear sanctions might nullify Biden’s removal of the nuclear sanctions, which will keep the Iranian economy reeling and force Iran to negotiations, not only over sunset clauses in the nuclear deal, but also over its support of global terror.
As for Turkey, Ankara has no friends in Washington. After a honeymoon between Obama and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, relations started deteriorating when the former US president reasoned that Turkey’s shooting down of a Russian fighter jet might lead to unwanted American escalation with Russia. Erdogan felt abandoned, apologized to Putin, and started spiting Washington and NATO, including through buying the Russian air defense system S400.
Trump has inexplicably broken ranks with both Democrats and Republicans on Turkey, and has personally connected with Erdogan. But the US mood on Turkey has been sour, given Erdogan’s populist shenanigans. Should Biden become president, relations between America and Turkey might further deteriorate, adding to Ankara’s troubles with the EU.
While presidential candidates spin and use hyperbole when talking about US foreign policy, reality suggests that sharp turns are rare, and that successive presidents continue, and build on, policies of their predecessors, regardless of party politics.
*Hussain Abdul-Hussain is an Iraqi-Lebanese columnist and writer. He is the Washington bureau chief of Kuwaiti daily al-Rai and a former visiting fellow at Chatham House in London. He tweets @hahussain.