Charbel Says Unprecedented Measures to Protect Pope
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Interior Minister Marwan Charbel revealed on Thursday that Lebanese Armed Forces will coordinate through a special operations room in an unprecedented way to protect Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to Lebanon next week.
In remarks to An Nahar daily, Charbel said: “All security agencies led by the army and the presidential guards have taken all precautionary measures and put coordinated plans to protect the convoy of the pope.”
“Each agency has a specific role to play” during Benedict’s visit on Sept. 14-16, he said.
“The operations room includes all the security apparatuses that come under the command of the presidential guards brigade which has been tasked with protecting the pope,” Charbel told An Nahar.
Asked whether he fears that a fifth column would seek to stir tension during Benedict’s visit to give a bad image of Lebanon, the minister said: “Of course not. That would never happen.”
“We have taken all the precautions and studied the security situation well,” he said, adding “I assure and stress that the pope’s security in Lebanon is preserved.”
Such security measures have not been previously adopted during any visit of a head of state to Lebanon, Charbel told his interviewer.
His remarks to An Nahar came a day after the visit's coordinator Father Abdo Abou Kasm confirmed “all Lebanese security organizations are on a state of alert poised to protect” Benedict.
"All eventualities have been considered... so that this visit will be crowned with success," he said.
06 September 2012, 08:51
63
When Jean-Paul II visited Lebanon in 1997, there were reports that Hizbullah tried to assassinate him by shooting down his airplane soon after it took off from the airport on his way back to Rome. The plan was foiled by Canadian and Italian Interpol. At the time I thought these allegations were ridiculous, now no one puts anything past Hizbullah. I wish the Pope would postpone his visit. Lebanon is not safe. Our security agencies cannot even stop kidnappings, how do we expect them to protect the Pontiff?
06 September 2012, 17:03
44
Well sir, if the truth hurts you, that doesn't give you the right to track people's IP and force them to shut-up because you did not like what they said. That's what the Syrians do. Syrian mentality goes deep in some Lebanese; that's what we got after 30 years of Syrian tutelage.
06 September 2012, 09:15
00
i doubt any political party in Lebanon that respects itself would actually risk such an international incident.
06 September 2012, 13:52
07
God protect Lebanon and the pope during his visit. And all the time for that matter.
06 September 2012, 14:10
63
From the alleged assassination of Harriri to the 2006 war, Hizbullah did what no one expects them to do. Intelligence does not hurt, stupidity does. What we're afraid of is not a smart action, it is a stupid action, and stupid actions often don't make sense. The typical question that follows is always: Why on earth did they do that for?
06 September 2012, 14:19
00
Hitech is typing away from his arm chair in occupied Palestine.. mind your own business.
06 September 2012, 14:21
00
Hitech, for your own info. harriri was assasinated by israeli and Syrina agents. Orders were given from occupied Jerusalem.
06 September 2012, 14:46
43
FlameThrower: So the war of 2006, the invasion of Beirut in May 2007, were those the work of individuals, absolutely not. Those were premeditated and pre-thought actions taken by Hizbullah, and none the less very, very, very stupid. Stop defending them mate. Sometimes the line between right and wrong is very thin, in case of Hizbullah, it's crystal clear. Hizbullah as an institution is the incarnation of evil in Lebanon, it is a "terrorist organization that is not separate from Syria" to quote Michel Aoun.
06 September 2012, 16:03
34
You know what mate, us Lebanese we have something very valuable in our culture, it is our sense or responsibility. This is something in which we are far better than the Europeans, and way, way, way better than the Americans. Europeans and Americans are 'blame' cultures. To give a simple example, if a student is not doing well at school, in Lebanon they say he/she has to work harder, in Europe they blame the school and the teacher, in America they give it a fancy name like Attention Deficit Disorder (or even Homeopathic ADD, which means it looks like ADD but we don't know what it is) and they put the kid on a cocktail of drugs. We are way better than that, we take responsibility. So let's take responsibility and admit that the 2006 war was a mistake and a failure because it did not bring Lebanon or the Lebanese anything. That's a fact.
06 September 2012, 15:28
43
I'm sorry to disappoint you but I'm not Israeli nor I swore allegiance to their flag (although I would be happy to piss on it if I had the chance to). I am purely bred, born, and raised in Lebanon. On a side note I appreciate the fact that you welcome me to discuss my opinion here; I did not know you own this forum. In any case it's a pleasure for me to be here.
06 September 2012, 16:22
01
I completely agree with you FlameThrower, they all make comments against each other, and all their comments are usually true.
06 September 2012, 17:52
31
Also FrameThrower: Hizbullah admitted it was a mistake, so let's not take this any further. If you are so proud of what they did, next time you invite them to fight Israel from your house and you sacrifice your family members, then you can rightfully vent how glorious their actions were. I, and many other Lebanese, just want to live in peace.
06 September 2012, 20:12
20
As I said before, quoting Michel Aoun, "Hizbullah is a terrorist organization that is not separate from Syria".
I wish I knew what goes on in terrorists' minds, but I don't. All I know is that our security agencies cannot even stop kidnappings, how do we expect them to protect the Pontiff?
06 September 2012, 23:40
00
Whether or Hezbullah had planned to assassinate Pope John-Paul II is irrelevant and obsolete. Pope Benedict's ultra-conservative views may be highly unpopular, however if the Lebanese "state" truly existed, I would have no fear in its capacity ofpretecting such a high-visibility visitor. Unfortunately, Lebanon is riddled with various mini-states (statelets), the first one being Hizbullah. I hate any party, any organisation based on a religious community with total allegiance to a foreign power, Iran in the case of the Hizb.
