SAT 28 - 3 - 2026
 
Date: Aug 13, 2012
Source: The Daily Star
Lebanon's Arabic press digest - Aug. 13, 2012

Following are summaries of some of the main stories in a selection of Lebanese newspapers Monday. The Daily Star cannot vouch for the accuracy of these reports.
 
An-Nahar
 
Dialogue likely to be postponed, Jumblatt hints to Samaha
 
Security official to An-Nahar: Era of intimidating language is over
 
Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai in Akkar today, former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora to visit Baabda Palace, former Cabinet Minister Michel Samaha to military judicial authorities, Prime Minister Najib Mikati to Saudi Arabia and MP Walid Jumblatt to the March 14 coalition again.
 
Rai arrives in Akkar Monday morning on a pastoral visit that has been repeatedly postponed, amid strict security measures in light of the bombing threats aimed against the area.
 
Regarding a dialogue session scheduled for Thursday, President Michel Sleiman will meet Siniora today to discuss details. Sources told An-Nahar that Siniora will ask Sleiman to provide an appropriate formula to relaunch dialogue.
 
Jumblatt believes there is a link between the 1983 assassination attempt against his life and former Cabinet Minister Michel Samaha [who was arrested on charges of terror plots in Lebanon with the aim of sowing sectarian strife]. Samaha was present in the same area where the assassination attempt took place. Jamal Saab, a comrade of Jumblatt, was killed in the attack.
 
Jumblatt told his inner circle that he would like to reopen the case after increased suspicions that Samaha could be behind the attack.
 
Ad-Diyar
 
Will [undercover] agent Kfouri’s operation lead to sacking or immobilization of Wissam Hasan?
 
How were $5 million secured for Kfouri as well as political asylum for him and his family?
 
Milad Kfouri visited Israel from Cyprus many times using a foreign passport

 
Will the crisis over [undercover] agent Milad Kfouri lead to the sacking of the head of the Internal Security Forces Information Branch Wissam Hasan or immobilizing his work because it has led to a huge crisis – a crisis the size of Lebanon and Syria – after Hasan provided Kfouri with political asylum, just as the case with false witness Mohammad Zuheir Siddiq.
 
Hasan is responsible for Kfouri’s location. How was the money paid and where did the money come from and how was political asylum secured and how was the issue dealt with? – Hasan gave Kfouri a password-locked device that is not linked to Lebanon.
 
Kfouri’s operation will be presented at the Cabinet table.
 
Judge Riad Abu Ghida will also summon Kfouri and Samaha and here the picture will be uncovered during the faceoff.
 
Information has it that Kfouri has a foreign passport which he has used to travel to Israel via Cyprus, knowing that Kfouri has close ties with the Israeli Mossad secret service since the days of the late Elie Hobeika.
 
Ad-Diyar does not know whether Kfouri wrote reports on Hezbollah to hand them over to Israel, based on information from Samaha.
 
El-Shark
 
Pope is not going to visit Lebanon and the Patriarch is not going to visit Akkar

 
El-Shark has learned from well-informed sources that the Pope [Benedict the XVI] is not going to visit Lebanon this summer as scheduled.
 
The sources said the Pope’s visit was not cancelled but is being regarded as having been postponed until the circumstances allow for such a visit.
 
Similarly, El-Shark has learned that Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai, for his part, has decided to postpone a visit planned to the Akkar region Monday.
 
As-Safir
 
Samaha’s case: defense [attorney] armed with theory that he has been lured
 
Jumblatt continues his [political] shift: Hezbollah linked with foreign alliance

 
The internal situation remains focused on the arrest of former Cabinet Minister Michel Samaha, amid leaks and conflicting reports without any legal restrictions.
 
Samaha is expected to stand before the military court today regarding the accusations leveled against him about terror plots and igniting sectarian fight.
 
In parallel, MP Walid Jumblatt is hastening steps to “politically detach” himself from his partnership with the incumbent majority by rebelling against the equation: The army, the people, the resistance. He accused Hezbollah with links to a foreign alliance at the expense of Lebanon.
 
Jumblatt continued his [political] shift. A few days prior to a National Dialogue session, Jumblatt told As-Safir that the war/peace decision should belong to the state exclusively and that any defense strategy should be based on this principle.
 
The picture in the Samaha case is likely to become clearer now that the file has reached military judicial authorities; and particularly since one of the defense attorneys will attend today the first interrogation session with the presence of a lawyer.
 
As-Safir has learned that the defense team will adopt a counter-attack in the Samaha case based on the hypothesis that Samaha had been “lured” to transport the bombs to entrap him.
 
According to information in the possession of the defense team, the individual who lured Samaha has multiple identities and various security affiliations. He has worked for Lebanese Army Intelligence, then for French intelligence all the way to [becoming an undercover agent] for the ISF Information Branch.
 
His real name is Milad Kfouri.


 



 
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