Officials Praise Army's Security Achievement, Describe it as Sole Protector of Nation
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Lebanese officials hailed on Wednesday the Lebanese army and the Intelligence directorate on its security accomplishment by arresting a most-wanted fugitive and seizing two explosive-laden vehicles.
President Michel Suleiman praised the Lebanese army on the arrest of Naim Abbas, a leader in the Qaida-linked Abdullah Azzam Brigades, described as the group's number two man in Lebanon, and seizing two booby-trapped cars in Beirut and the Bekaa.
He expressed his staunch support to the “army and security agencies to follow up and detain all the culprits.”
Military experts defused on Wednesday a booby-trapped vehicle in Beirut's Corniche al-Mazraa neighborhood after the army announced the arrest of Abbas, it also intercepted another explosive-laden vehicle in the Bekaa region.
Speaker Nabih Berri stressed before his visitors the importance of supporting the military institution in its war on terror.
For his part, Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam commended the military's achievement in a telephone conversation with Army commander General Jean Qahwaji.
“Lebanon was saved from yet another disaster that the power of evil was plotting,” Salam told Qahwaji.
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati applauded the Lebanese army for carrying out an “extraordinary security accomplishment.”
“Once again the Lebanese army, in cooperation with the rest of security agencies, proved that it is the side that is safeguarding Lebanon and the Lebanese,” Miqati said in a statement issued by his press office.
He pointed out that the army is capable of protecting the nation from the malicious plots against it.
Miqati urged all citizens to be vigilant at this critical stage in the country's history.
Qahwaji briefed the premier on the details of the security operations carried out by the army on Wednesday.
Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader Saad Hariri contacted Qahwaji and lauded the achievements of the military.
The former premier considered it an “opportunity to grant the security agencies the required trust to enable them to carry out their tasks amid this delicate and critical stage that Lebanon and the region are passing through.”
Meanwhile, head of al-Mustabqal parliamentary bloc ex-PM Fouad Saniora lauded “the security achievement made by security agencies, especially the Lebanese Army, which discovered booby-trapped cars and arrested terrorists who were plotting terrorist operations in Lebanon.”
“This success proves an essential fact, which is that Lebanese security agencies are capable to achieve advanced steps in protecting citizens through unveiling crimes and criminals – when they want and when they are able to do so,” Saniora added in a statement.
He also hoped “this advanced achievement will be completed by unveiling the rest of criminals who are involved in terrorist crimes against the Lebanese people.”
12 February 2014, 13:40
55
Army on all our borders (few hundreeds km so not usa/mexico, nor syrian/iraki long borders.. UN help if needed, no one comes in our get out without being checked (including hezbos) so we can hope to enjoy some stabilty...
Please mikati donnot forget tripoli bombing, butros harb assassination attempt,salman who got assassinated in front of iranian embassi in day light and in front of our armed forces, smaha/mamlouk.. So we all feel safe..
And finaly najib, go hv some chupachups... (With ur billions u should get plenty...)
12 February 2014, 14:15
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All lebanese frontieres (not the sea) are 474 km (375 with syria) so to cover 500 km of borders u need 260k soldiers flame? 1 soldier every 2 meters?...
Flame we have a long history of coments but please be reallistic....
Dont u think it would be the best way for our coutry? (Not for geagea aoun hariri hezbos... But for our country...
Or u prefer each community gets it own protection? Cause if shit continu that's what's gonna happen and frankly i don't wanna live thus again...
So? What do u think?...
12 February 2014, 14:25
42
Sagh long time no see?..
Training at SANA i heard, the other chose to ignore u which i find rude, so i will encourage u on ur great posts as usual.. Bravo...
Now u can go back having some chupachups man...
12 February 2014, 15:04
34
Flame i know we rarely agree on stuff but be realistic.. Wouldn't it be the best solution?... Or at least a logic solution?...
Our army, plus UN if needed, control all (less than 500km) our borders...
What do u really think?...
12 February 2014, 17:10
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imagine: i wouldnt know the exact number of soldiers required, but FT's point is that the army does not have enough men and that is an evidence.
it is not enough to control the land borders, you also need to protect the shore, and skies, and be present on all major routes in the countr, and every hotspot or sensitive areas.
also, when counting the number of soldiers you can never say for example 10 soldiers per km = 1 every 100m, because that is not how it works. there are rotations of staff (they are humans, they cannot be on their posts 24/7. if on average they do 12 hours at a time, that means it takes twice the amount to ensure continuous presence on a spot)
12 February 2014, 17:10
61
also, many are needed as logistics (supplying food and ammo to outposts) for instance, or for maintenance etc... plus there is the chain of command that is needed to command, plan, and oversee, the whole thing. etc etc etc.. in the end you may have 1 soldier on that 100m of border, but behind him you need 2, 3 or 4 others.
the army is already super thinly spread as it is today so i dont see how covering the whole border could be done.
even though i agree on the principle that ideally we -should- be able to, i think it is hardly realistic, at least for the moment.
12 February 2014, 17:32
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Flame it is 500 km, 500 km all our borders with israel and syria (ok there is still the sea and the air..) so how many do we need, 3billion grands for ksa can be use for equipments, there must be a solution, we cannot let the country in a situation that everyone do as pleased, ok syria don't want to demarcate bc strian regime still thinks that we are some syrian department, lets demarcate unilateraly, what will they do launch war on us? Or lets UN demarcate it for us...
Then if there is a will i'm sure that all of us can help...
But let they take some logical decision...
No?...
12 February 2014, 17:38
33
m8 guys will repeat day in day out that the army cannot do it. why? because they need to validate the existence of hizbushaitan.
the army does not need more men, rather they need qualified men and better equipment. they need 2 to 3 dozen drones that will monitor constantly the whole of our borders, and the teams to man them.
but hizbushaitan will not let that happen because they want an open border with Syria.
12 February 2014, 17:40
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anonyme: you keep starting conversations with me, asking me for sources and then disappearing when i prove you wrong. so please stop making me waste my time.
12 February 2014, 17:47
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imagine: 500km is not little. the US-mexico border is about 3000 kms, 6x ours, and they're not able to prevent illegal immigrants or traffics.
and we're talking about a country that has 400x our GDP and 800x our military expenditures.
12 February 2014, 17:49
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geha: top dreaming, HA is here to stay. whine all you want it wont change a thing, and we dont need to invent or justify anything.
12 February 2014, 18:29
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here you posted 2 days ago at 11pm and i replied the next morning. you were already accusing me of what you do yourself. and you did it once more.
http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/118010-islamist-rebels-oust-isil-from-syria-s-deir-ezzor
12 February 2014, 18:29
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ps: i challenge you to show me anywhere i did that. you accuse emptily as always.
12 February 2014, 18:33
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do you have any link about that 5000 members recalled for duty? i only heard they would 2000, didnt hear about any 5000.
in any case, that would be an improvement, but to pretend 2 or 5 thousand men are going to solve the problem is wishful thinking.
12 February 2014, 18:39
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i answered that a million times, and will answer it 1 more time, but only if you answer first on the above and the other article. tired of you jumping to shift the topic when it suits you.
12 February 2014, 19:24
12
So mowaten we are bound to have a shite armed group who is free to act as it wants...
U know this will eventually lead to christian an sunni organized armed group (not miserable alouki style but 1974 millicias style)...
Don't u think a civil states with all under the same law would be more beneficial to us and to our country?..
Mowaten we are headding to war, alreddy tense in tripoli akar bekaa saida dahiyeh... This is not what ministery and how much money our dear politicians will steal but survival...
Anyway again i might be wrong.. But give it a thought....
12 February 2014, 20:23
11
imagine: no, not "free to act as it wants", of course there should be rules and they should operate under the law! you must keep one thing in mind when comparing to other militias: HA's was created under foreign occupation and fought off the invaders when the rest of the country had given up. in post 1990, did the army fight israel? was there a political will? or did the rest of the country just abandon them?
12 February 2014, 20:25
11
they organized and fought and liberated themselves on their own. given that experience, which is still fresh in the minds of all and the flesh of many, they cannot be asked to lay down weapons and put themselves back into the situation they spent 30 years to get out of. i am for a national defense strategy, but it has to be in bulletproof and watertight, not subject to political spins and changes of mood. who is to say another donation to suleiman would not make him close his eyes in case of an israel invasion, or mass slaughter at the hands of takfiris? who would stop them? the UN? dont make me laugh!
technically the army is not equipped to fight israel, and politically there a re no guarantees. that is the main problem, and that supposed 5000 retired officers rejoining the ISF is not even a drop in the ocean.
12 February 2014, 20:29
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anonyme: you cannot stop the flow by placing men on the borders. there will always be people coming and going, and most of the times, the suicide bombers only strikes once (pun intended). they can enter the border as innocent civilians and blow themselves up later.
also, dont ask HA to abide by the baabda declaration when all other groups got involved in syria years before them.
HA was being blackmailed through kidnappings (like with the pilgrims, where instead of showing solidarity you guys laughed and accused them of being fighters just because they were shiites. they were old men barely able to walk!). also there were rockets fired on hermel and slaughters were ongoing in border villages and nobody could do, or wanted to do, anything. in certain situations you dont wait to thousands to die just to abide by a declaration that nobody else respected in the first place.
12 February 2014, 20:46
21
Mowaten please review our past hezbos faught amal for more than 2 years in south lebanon (aklim el tofah for exemple) hezbollah assassinated leftist leaders clearing the way for domination over south lebanon,they hv kidnapped people, hezbolla acted like any other lebanese millicia..please stop picturing them as saints...
Communist last resistance action was in 2000 (they kept resistance act all over the 90s but many were killed on their way to the frontiers and on their way back home)does this give them right to rearm? Right to go fight beyounfd our frontiers, right to hv private communication network?...
Moqaten please stop thinking about which politician u like and from who he can benefit.. Think about the country..
And the country is headding back to civil war...
12 February 2014, 16:14
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But aoun supports bkirki declaration...
Don't get me wrong i wish no religious man intervene in politics, but aoun said he defenitly supports bkirki stance so....
No texas?
12 February 2014, 17:40
00
1979
good and patriotic decisions are the holy grail of a state
god bless you
god bless all patriotic Lebanese( patriotic: people whom the country is before religion)
12 February 2014, 18:38
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anonyme: actually the "sole" part is in the title, but nowhere in the quotes.
and aoun and hezbollah dont need to make punctual praises steal the light when the army does something good. because unlike the hypocrites of m14 who accuse the army every other day, they support it in every position the take and every speech they make.
12 February 2014, 19:34
01
I disagree with the path, first they enter southern suburbs and after that the camps and Arsal are a walkover.
12 February 2014, 21:08
02
Haha, true outleb. Long live the LF without weapons sure, I really dont want to see them re arming man, lived the war, got the t shirt.
12 February 2014, 21:41
11
so quick to find terrorists and bboby trap cars... good thing though. but during all the string of assassinations targeting anti syrian people the army never found a clue...
strange thing... or they are just protecting the perpetrators.....
