Change and Reform Slams 'Dangerous Campaign' against Sehnaoui
The Change and Reform parliamentary bloc on Tuesday condemned what it described as a “dangerous campaign” against caretaker Telecom Minister Nicolas Sehnaoui over the issue of telecom data, announcing that it will play a role in reactivating the work of parliament.
“There is a dangerous campaign against Sehnaoui and those behind it bear the responsibility. They are accusing him of crimes over the issue of telecom data, but we stress that security agencies have always received the data they want,” the bloc's secretary MP Ibrahim Kanaan said after Change and Reform's weekly meeting in Rabieh.
“There is a control center that cost the state large sums of money. It allows them to have direct access to the phone calls and to obtain the information they want, so why is the center still closed?” Kanaan said.
“Why don't you activate the control center which was created according to resolutions taken by the successive governments. It was a Lebanese dream to gather intelligence without encroaching on the privacy of people,” he noted.
Former Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi has accused Sehnaoui of withholding telecom data from security agencies in the periods that witnessed the assassination of Intelligence Bureau chief Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan and the attempt on Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea's life.
Rifi accused Sehnaoui of being accomplice in al-Hasan's assassination “because he withheld the telecom data from investigators.”
But the minister hit back, stressing that “security agencies were receiving the complete telecom data everyday during the past three years, including during the period of the assassination of martyr Major General Wissam al-Hasan and the other incidents.”
Separately, Kanaan said “Speaker (Nabih) Berri informed us that some of the exits he suggested have been rejected, and we believe that we must continue the discussions with Berri and with the other blocs in order to resume the legislative sessions and the work of parliament, as there are social priorities that we need to address.”
“We will contribute to relaunching the work of parliament," Kanaan noted.
Turning to the issue of the nine Lebanese pilgrims who were freed on Saturday after a 17-month kidnap ordeal in Syria, Kanaan said: “We consider that the joy is not complete as the fate of the two (Syrian) bishops is still unclear.”
“We have not obtained any information about them and about all those who went missing in Syria. This is a humanitarian and not political issue and we will exert efforts in this regard,” he added.
On the issue of the row over oil excavation, Kanaan emphasized that “all the needed oil decrees must be approved and this must not be a topic for overbidding.
“The cabinet must convene even if it is a caretaker cabinet as the issue of oil is a priority,” he underlined.
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