I doubt that the above topic which describes the real situation in Lebanon will really cause any worries to the decision makers in western countries, almost the majority of Lebanese people are sharing me these doubts.

In fact most of Lebanese people voted against the project of “Hezbollah” to establish Extremist Shia’at republic in the country of the19 religions sects, but this majority are now suffering their greatest disappointment since US administration decides to replace the influence of PLO in Lebanon by the tutelage of “Albaath” over that country.

“Saad Alhariri” the man who was the main leader of 14th of March movement which demanded ending the tutelage of “Assads” over Lebanon and demanded disarmament “Hezbollah”.

“Saad Alhariri” is currently leading the process of handing over the Lebanese State to the shia’at terrorist organization of “Hezbollah”

 

The most Lebanese people I met – in Lebanon or out of Lebanon - expressed their great Anger of Saad Alhariri simply by calling him “The Traitor”.

Since 8th of June 2009 All changes in the main sensitive positions in security forces and in The Army was in favorite of “Hezbollah” and gave this terrorist organization full control over all Lebanese institutions; these changes been done by “Alhariri” himself; all he got instead of his services to “Hezbollah” is the title “Prime Minister Of Lebanon” but with no ability to make any serious resolutions except those gives more government positions to Hezbollah’s loyalists and to obligate all Lebanon bore the entire responsibility of Hezbollah’s services to Khamin’ee and to The Iranian regime. This was the opinion of most Sunnis and Christians whom I know in that poor country.

For fully understanding the political image of the Islamic republic of Lebanon we need to look at each piece of the mosaics which constitute this small unlucky nation.

First the government.

The Lebanese government consists of 3 parties:

1 - Hezbollah and it’s followers including the ministers of “Junblat”. They are controlling the most important ministries without reference to the prime minster. These ministries working by direct commands of “Nasr Allah” and his assistants.

2- President “Michel Suleiman” and his ministers. They are controlling most of the government forces including the security forces.

The President and his ministers are openly a strong loyalists to “Hezbollah”; all their work during the last year was replacing the opponents of “Hezbollah – Syria” by officers are fully obedience to the orders of “wafiq safa” and “Abbas Ibrahim”.

3- “Saad Alhariri” and the ministers of 14th of March. They are hardly controlling non important ministries. At the end of the day they operate their ministries in the direction of “Hezbollah – Syria” policies with little noise just keep some respect to their voters.

Second The Sects:

1 – A- Sunnis Out Of Camps. You can hear a lot of talk of divisions in the Sunni street between pro-Hariri and his opponents, but the real Sunnis opinion was expressed in many events during the last 5 years, it depends on three major issues. First opposing Syrian regime till the end. Second opposing Hezbollah and demanding to disarm it. Third to get redress for the persecution to which face them in particular during the Syrian tutelage which turned them to the poorest and most miserable community in “Lebanon”; not any of the above Issues is regarded by the government of “Hezbollah - Alhariri”. In fact they are sure now that “Hezbollah” and it’s government are doing every thing to humiliate the Sunnis by disarming them and by impoverishment them and by Increasing their deprivation of basic services and the denial of government jobs, and by punishing Sunnis field leaders and Sunnis army officers whom faced the Hezbollah’s coup at the 7th of May 2008.

They are all very sure that the Lebanese State now is just an arm for Hezbollah to punish Sunnis – covered by the gloves of “Alhariri” – sect; more than 65 % of prisoners in Lebanese Jails are Sunnis.

B- Sunnis in the Refugees Camps (Palestinians). The streets fighters of the Camps where in the front line to defend “Tareeq Aljadida” the Sunni suburb in Beirut at the 7th of May 2008. They where sure that Hezbollah will never help them to improve their life miserable conditions and will never support them in any real clashes.

They thought that “Alhariri” will pay them back by implementing what he what he used to tell their leaders in his private meetings “No differences between Sunnis Lebanese and Palestinians in Lebanon they are all one”.

In fact they understood from Alhariri’s above words he realizes that they are Lebanese being persecuted because their grandparents belong to Palestine.

This people Have lost faith in all political entities that surround them, including militias, which controls their poor camps.

They are living under the worst Segregation law in the world.

Their only choice is keeping their weapons and going to the options to turn to the chaotic and rebellious and hostile to all current political systems the choice of “Al-Qaida”; already thousands of them are wanted by Lebanese security forces with no hope of fair trail.

2- Shia’at Sect. the vast majority of them are now under total fascist control of “Hezbollah”, very slim minority of this sect can express any sign of objection to the orders of “Nasr Allah” - Who represents the “Wali al-Faqih” ayatollah “Khomeini” and (semi god) "Al Mahdi" who absent in tour which began since 1200 years ago.

Shia’at regions in “Lebanon” are completely independent and separate from the rest of the country.

They have their own administration with full of their own state institutions.

“Hezbollah” and Shia’at are also controlling the rest of “Lebanon” using their share in Lebanese government positions. They transformed Lebanon into a miniature version of the one-party state that controls Iran; in fact they copied every single characteristic of the state of dictatorship of Iran and applied it in every corner of the country.

In Iran there is state Army with no real power and there are militias semi-official with complete military equipments which Dominates over the institutions and economy and security forces.

In “Lebanon” there is State Army with no real power and there are militias with complete military equipments which Dominates over all institutions and economy and security forces.

Even in southern of “Litany” the area of “1701” UN resolution you can see in your naked eyes the Lebanese Army working day and night under the direct command of Hezbollah’s local officers ; and you can see the mechanisms of the Lebanese army are working in the transfer of weapons to Hezbollah’s bases.

The whole Iranian State including the judicial system is infected by Bribery, corruption and nepotism; the keys of the federation of state mafias are in hands of “khamin’ee”; as for total dictatorship state in fact the best policy to keep the nation under control is by occupying people with no end of trouble and making them look for a living day and night.

“Hezbollah” copied that corrupted system for “Lebanon” to make every one there busy with a lot of no end of trouble and increasing fears and increasing miseries and to push Sunnis and Christians to leave the country.

No thing in “Lebanon” is getting better; in fact there is nothing not getting worse every day unless Hezbollah's hegemony over the country and Hezbollah’s increasing strength.

In Iran the whole State is in service of Project of exporting the Shia’at revolution to the rest of the world.

In “Lebanon” whole facilities of the State are in service of the Project of exporting the Shia’at revolution to the rest of the world and under direct commands of “khamin’ee” and his adopted son “Nasr Allah”.

For Example “Lebanese General Security” and “Lebanese Customs” are controlling the immigration and border authorities; these institutions are under direct commands of “Hezbollah”.

These institutions are serving the Project of exporting Shia’at revolution by issuing any kind of identities for the agents of “Hezbollah” and by opening the Lebanese border’s and ports for these agents and for “Arms & drugs” shipments belonging to “Hezbollah”. The case of Hezbollah’s faction in “Egypt” shows small sample of these services.

In “Iran” the freedom of expression is the greatest enemy of “Khamin’ee” – the Emperor - and gagging the opposition is the first goal for the Authorities; In “Lebanon” Hezbollah adopts the same policy it’s using Lebanese state and it’s institutions to achieve this goal.

In “Iran” reforming is prohibited; In “Lebanon” you can see that “Hezbollah” is working openly to block any attempt to reform in any sphere.

In “Iran” the loyalists of “Khamin’ee” are above the law; In “Lebanon” all Hezbollah’s loyalists are above the law; they don’t pay any tax or any bills and it is not possible to take them to courts; They are the employers of all gangs of smuggling and theft and criminal acts in the country and they are engaging in such business without any fear of any authority except the authority of “Hezbollah”.

3- Christians. They are now divided for two parties. The first one which is loyal to the “Catholic Church” they are calling there self “14th of March” supporters; they sparked “anti Syrian uprising” at 14th of Feb and they are still the main leaders of anti (Syria – Iran’s influence) in the country.

They share Sunnis people most of their anger about the current situation in “Lebanon”; more over they have their own worries about their fate because of threatens of extremist Islamist (Hezbollah & allies); these Christians are afraid to suffer what happened to the Christians of Iraq.

They are now depending on western support but they are so sure that a deal had been held between America and Iran are similar to those held by the James Baker with Hafez Assad at 1990 which canceled the political privileges of Christians.

The second Christian party is loyalist to “Hezbollah” in fact this party is opposing the Catholic Church and opposing Sunnis countries.

They are small minority but the Shia’at voters enlarged the political size of this party in mixed areas.

They have no real effects in Christian community and they have no clear political views their only business is following the orders of “Hezbollah”.

4- Druze. They are small sect (population 120000) they are old enemies of Christianity in “Lebanon”; they used to depend on support of Syrian regime.

They know very well that western allies decided to renew the Iranian and Syrian hegemony over Lebanon; this was their main reason of giving up the dreams of youth and educated generation for the choice of traditional cautious clerics and they ran for their safety to the warm chest of the Iranian-Syrian alliance.

Third. the international dimension. “14th of March” Lebanese politicians are working as a mask to hide the realty of Islamic republic of Lebanon; they are now joining the government of “Hezbollah” and thus give the seizure of Hezbollah over the country the necessary legitimacy and giving to the Government of Hezbollah international recognition and international relations necessary to strengthen this government and to allow it to penetrate the international community and to inject Hezbollah’s terrorists in the world countries to establish their gangs and mafia underground to secure more funding for this terrorist group.

These “14th of March” Lebanese politicians are doing these services for Hezbollah under full coordination with western allies this is an other evidence that western allies has sold Lebanon to Syria and Iran Alliance in dirty transaction.

If the international tribunal issues an indictment against Hezbollah for the assassination of Hariri the first Lebanese politician will speak against the tribunal will be “Saad Alhariri” and his assistants he will say: “the unity of the nation is much greater then any case – Lebanon is first” and he will deny all his previous statements about the impossibility of building a unified nation without real justice ; even with this position Hezbollah will talk about an international Zionist conspiracy and will take the whole country and will declare his Islamic.

The same Scenario will happened if Israel sparked full scale war against “Lebanon”; during this war - and because of the current situation in “Lebanon”- Israel will destroy Lebanese State forces and Israel will not eliminate “Hezbollah”; After the end of this war “Lebanon” will become in hands of “Hezbollah” with UN seize fire resolution includes international recognition of “Islamic Republic Of Lebanon”.

We should not forget that “Hezbollah” has a great chance to impose it’s Islamic republic to the world by copying Khomeini's plan to impose the recognition of Iranian Islamic regime upon the world governments; the plan was holding a lot of western hostages and involving in successful clash with USA forced the public opinion in western countries to accept the international recognition of Khomeini’s regime.

There are thousands of western citizens under the hands of “Hezbollah” they are still in Lebanon because their governments refuse to recognize the current reality in Lebanon and refuse to issue warnings to their nationals to prevent them from traveling to the Islamic Republic In Lebanon; also we should not forget that “Ahmadi Najad” - the direct boss of “Nasr Allah”- was One of those who occupied the American Embassy in Tehran in the late seventies of the last century and he is so proud of this.

All democracy’s loyalists I met in Syria and Lebanon are sure about this becoming catastrophe.

Day after day unfolding events show plainly and with no doubt that Hezbollah fully controls Beirut's International Airport while the presence of the Lebanese official authorities at this vital and dynamic facility is mere symbolic, totally marginalized and practically does not exist at all. This terrorist Iranian armed militia has the upper hand inside the airport and all over its vicinity that is adjacent to its mini southern suburb mini state (Al Dahya Al Janobia). In reality it is Hezbollah's air port par excellence and not Lebanon's.

Hezbollah has installed dozens of its own run cameras all over the airport and closely monitors around the clock offices, corridors, waiting halls, runways, control tower, entrances, exits, stores etc. Meanwhile the airport's security chief, Brigadier General Wafiq Choucair, is loyal to Hezbollah and not to the Lebanese official authorities. In 2008 when the Saniora Lebanese government tried to transfer Choucair to another post, Hezbollah was boldly defiant, and militarily invaded and occupied the Sunni West Beirut and tried but failed to occupy the Druze stronghold of Mt. Lebanon. Hundreds of people were killed and injured during the bloody invasion. Hezbollah's general secretary, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, called the invasion a glorious day.

Hezbollah has been holding the airport, as well as the whole country, hostage since 2005. In this terrorism context dozens of Lebanese nationals from Diaspora who support the sovereignty, freedom and independence of their homeland and oppose Hezbollah's hegemony and occupation were either unlawfully banned from entering Lebanon via the airport, or humiliated, threatened, detained arbitrarily, and wrongfully and falsely accused of treason. Many of them were flagrantly harassed and badly intimidated before they could return to their Diaspora countries.

Hezbollah freely uses the airport for importing all kinds of weapons and for all other illegal trafficking. Jihadists enter and leave through the airport freely as well as Iranian militant personal and officials. In this realm two Lebanese MP'S who opposed Hezbollah and Syria were assassinated only a few hours after they disguisedly and secretly returned to Lebanon via the airport (Gobran Tueini September 13/2005 and Antoine Ghanem in December 20/2007). Hezbollah's Camera's taped their entrance and assailants took care of them.

The latest Beirut airport - Hezbollah scandal unfolded last week when presumably a terrorist plot to explode a Saudi-owned (Nasair company) Airbus 320 failed.

News agencies stated that on Friday 09/10 passengers on board a Saudi aircraft at the Beirut airport runway reported seeing a man in a baseball cap with a backpack make a dash for the plane as it prepared to taxi. He stumbled once and then continued towards the plane. The passengers and flight attendants informed the pilot, but he did not take any action and continued takeoff without informing the Beirut control tower that anything was amiss.

The Nas Air flight XY 720 that took off from Beirut airport late Friday with 130 passengers on board including high ranking Saudi military officers, safely landed Saturday morning in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. At that time a body of an unidentified man was found by a maintenance worker while inspected the right rear landing gear of the plane. Saudi authorities reported that they found along with the dead man a picture for his wife, Jihadist verses and a picture for Al Khomeini. On Monday, after a series of investigations it was officially announced in Beirut that the man's name was Firas Haidar, a Shiite Lebanese, national from the area of Burj al-Barajneh near Beirut airport.

The question is how could this man alone and peacefully manage to freely infiltrate and fool all the security checkpoints and then easily reach the airport runway unnoticed by the dozens of cameras that are installed all over the facility? And how he was able without any kind of resistance or usage of weapons or force to run to the plane carrying his bag, climb to its wheel bay and grab hold of a wheel without the control tower noticing his presence before the jet took off?

It is very clear that the man was moving inside the airport freely, relaxed and not paying any attention to the cameras or to security personnel measures. This simply means that the airport officials on all levels were either facilitating his mission or deeply sleeping.

By mere analysis based on logic and available facts one can hypothetically assume the following scenario:

The man was a Jihadist assigned by his terrorist superiors to explode the Saudi plane by putting a kind of sophisticated explosives (that can be detonated via a remote control) at the wheel bay after all the plane's checking and supplying procedures were over, and then to leave the wheel bay before the plane takes off. It is worth mentioning that a big pair of scissors fell from him when the plane took off and was found later on the runway. Apparently his superiors had an upper hand inside the airport and accordingly were able to guarantee and secure his free movement and facilitate his mission.

Why he failed? Presumably his stumbling before reaching the plane disturbed his scheduled time span, made him very nervous and perhaps the explosives fell with the scissors and accordingly did not have enough time execute the terrorist act and to get down before the plane took off.

Why the scissors were only found and nothing else? Again presumably and hypothetically those who sent him and secured his free and unnoticed entrance would have collected all the stuff that he either left behind or fell from him on the runway.

Hezbollah who might have assigned the man to carry the terrorist mission tagged him as mentally unstable, a camouflaging tactic the Egyptian government resorts to all the time to cover terrorists and Jihadists who assault Christians in Egypt. Meanwhile Lebanese newspapers said the man knew exactly what he was doing because two cigarette filters were found inside his ears to safeguard him from the plane's loud noise.

In his bid to abort and block any kind of investigation, Hezbollah's strong man, the airport's security chief, Brigadier General Wafiq Choucair, submitted his resignation to the Interior minister. The government will not dare to accept the resignation and will not risk to go through the hassle of appointing a replacement in which Hezbollah will have the last saying.

Definitely the formal investigation in the incident is going to be faked and forged and no one shall ever know what actually happened because Hezbollah will not allow the Lebanese authorities to exercise freely their duties and responsibilities as was the situation in many previous similar circumstances.

This very serious incident sheds light on the Ethiopian plane disaster that exploded in last January a few minutes after taking off from Beirut airport and all of its passengers were killed. One wonders if the same tactic was used to explode it?

In conclusion, this serious incident will remain a mystery with no answers while similar incidents will continue to take place as long as Hezbollah and not the Lebanese Government dominates, controls and runs the Beirut airport.

N.B: To read the Arabic version of the above editorial CLICK Here

Beirut - Blogs are becoming increasingly popular in Lebanon as they cover the political and social landscape, expressing society's demands. As a result, blogs and online groups have become a true political tool in the hands of civil society to promote causes online.

Many web actors, mainly bloggers, are working to mobilise internet users to action on issues affecting citizens. "Social justice", "democracy" and "mobilisation" are key words in the vocabulary of Lebanese bloggers. And the environment, national heritage and human rights are key themes.

Through their blogs, posts or comments, these bloggers and "e-activists" hope to trigger change in Lebanon - toward a real democracy, based on reinforcing citizen participation in political decisions.

For instance, Lebanese e-activists have recently taken action against the construction of a parking lot under an old park in Beirut, which would result in chopping down the park's aged trees because of their deep roots. They initiated the "Saving the Sanayeh Garden" campaign through an online petition and issued a call to citizens to protest through a "sit-in" in the garden.

Lebanese e-activists also mobilised groups in favour of preserving old buildings or sites that are important parts of Lebanon's national heritage by creating lobbying groups and urging members of parliament to create a law to protect these places. In one instance, these e-activists convinced Lebanon's Culture Minister Salim Warde to head a new initiative aimed at getting Parliament to draft a law which, if passed, would protect some of Lebanon's oldest and most endangered buildings.

To promote human rights, Lebanese bloggers have organised an online campaign against arbitrary detentions and the improvement of detention centres. There have also been campaigns to establish the rights of Lebanese women married to foreign men, who currently cannot pass their nationality to their husbands and children.

These are just a few examples of concerned citizens taking action, having their say, being heard and mobilizing citizens - all through the power of the internet.

Using an online platform accessible to everyone, blogs provide politicians with the opportunity to read citizens' reactions to some of their policy decisions. Passive receivers of policy in the past, citizens have become active users of new technologies to influence policy. French author Francis Pisani, who focuses on technology and communication, says "web surfers" have now become "web actors".

Bloggers are only one part of a new trend towards a participative culture for citizens. In January 2010, 20 young Lebanese bloggers decided to come together and form a coalition. These internet users, including students, wanted to prove that they could change society for the better through activism. This belief led to the creation of the Lebanese Bloggers Organization (lebloggers.org) - with the aim of generating social change through an electronic revolution.

The Lebanese Bloggers Organization's mission (as stated in their charter) is to contribute to the creation of communities which will trigger positive changes in Lebanese society. The bloggers in the organisation decided to use the 2010 municipal elections as a platform, following the elections and opening an online information portal where they posted messages, photos and videos about the campaign.

These bloggers provided uncensored information to their internet audiences, showing behind-the-scenes coverage of elections, and even election abuses committed by politicians and their security guards. For example, they revealed a security agent helping citizens vote in the voting area, which is prohibited by law.

Their objective is to provide non-biased, exhaustive information that is not usually presented by the mainstream media or by the country's political parties.

Blogs are creating a revolution. In Lebanon and throughout the Arab world, these platforms provide a space for youth who do not belong to the political class with a mechanism to express their views on topics that affect them - from freedom of expression to protecting the environment, as well as various other topics. Blogs are transforming inactive but concerned citizens into active players who can express themselves, ultimately changing the societies in which they live.

* Rita Chemaly is a social and political science researcher, and author of Spring 2005 in Lebanon: Between Myths and Realities. She won the Samir Kassir Award for Freedom of the Press in 2007 and blogs at ritachemaly.wordpress.com. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).

Hundreds of local and international media reports and analyses extensively addressed the recent dire and unprecedented assaults that viciously targeted the UNIFIL troops in south Lebanon within the region that is adjacent to the Israeli borders. Journalists, analysts and reporters gave numerous and diversified readings for Hezbollah's actual agenda, which practically orchestrated, planned and executed the assaults through its militant southern villager supporters.

One can freely say that most of the analysts' readings in regard to the Syrian and Iranian regional and global agenda were true to a certain extent, but Hezbollah's main objective, as well as that of its two Iranian and Syrian masters, was to cripple and castrate the UNIFIL troops and replicate its venomous ongoing scheme that crippled the Lebanese army since 2005 and totally marginalized its role.

Hezbollah wants UNIFIL to be something like a boy scout contingent, only assigned to prepare reports and having no military teeth, power, or authority, as well as no freedom of movement. Hezbollah is planning to make the UNIFIL troops mere hostages and pawns under its control that it can manipulate and use in any future confrontation with Israel or between Iran and Syria on one side and the Free World on the other.

The reports said that southern villagers seized weapons from the UN peacekeepers, hurled stones and eggs at their patrols, prevented them by force from entering the villages, accused their soldiers and officers of being Israeli spies, physically and morally assaulted them, and damaged their armored vehicles

The assailants were falsely and disguisedly portrayed by Hezbollah's media facilities and by other mercenary trumpet and cymbal media as "civil citizens", while in fact all these men and women who launched the well planned and organized attacks against the UNIFIL troops were actually militant Hezbollah personnel on its payroll. They simply followed the orders of their superiors, while the majority of the southern villagers had nothing to do with this havoc.

One might wonder why the majority of the southern citizens were mute, did not expose Hezbollah's schemes and allowed its media to falsely portray them as its supporters? Their subservient stance simply lies in the fact that Hezbollah practically occupies all the southern region by force, manipulation, money, terrorism, religious decrees (fatwas) and bribery. The Lebanese government has no say in all the region and its officials are either intimidated by Hezbollah or committed members in its organization.

It is worth mentioning that Hezbollah did not abide by UN Resolution 1701 that called for its disarmament and for the Lebanese army supported by the UNIFIL troops to have the sole control of south Lebanon in general and of the region where UNIFIL functions in particular. Sadly, the Lebanese army whose leadership is greatly influenced by Hezbollah's hegemony and terrorism did not execute its duties and obligations and kept a blind eye on all of Hezbollah's infringements and atrocities.

According to the UN Resolution 1701 articles, the Lebanese government is requested to deploy 15,000 soldiers of the Lebanese army in south Lebanon in a bid to secure stability and peace in the region jointly with the UNIFIL troops and confiscate all illegal arms. Because of Hezbollah's power, influence and control of the government, only 3,000 Lebanese soldiers are in fact deployed in south Lebanon, and mostly if not all their officers are loyal to Hezbollah and not to the Lebanese state.

Hezbollah has reached a stage of "ego and power inflation" where its leadership has deluded itself that it can easily cripple the UNIFIL troops without any serious repercussions or reprisals after it has castrated the Lebanese army while the whole world watches quietly without taking any action.

Hezbollah�s leaders felt that the countries that have troops in UNIFIL, especially France, Spain and Germany, are helpless and would not stand up against their assaults, especially since that Free World has not yet been decisive in deterring their Iranian and Syrian rogue custodians.

Ironically, the current devastating problem in Lebanon that is totally occupied by Hezbollah and its two malevolent overlords, Syria and Iran, is no longer limited to the heresies, abuses, crimes and violations committed by Hezbollah at all levels and in all domains, but also profoundly lies in the sickening mentality of the majority of Lebanon's officials and politicians who cowardly have abandoned their national and ethical responsibilities and blindly accepted subordination to the evil forces of terrorism.

These puppet officials and politicians have succumbed to the evil Syrian-Iranian forces and to Hezbollah who are seeking to destroy Lebanon's entity, uproot his identity, marginalize his civilization, enslave the Lebanese people and drag the county back to the Stone Age era.

We call on the Free World and on the moderate Arab countries to jointly come to the rescue of the Lebanese people whose country is occupied and whose government is a mere cover for the occupier, Hezbollah.

Hezbollah is gradually devouring the country piece by piece while the people of Lebanon have reached a stage where they have become unable alone to stop this brutal, reprehensible terrorist organization from completely taking over their beloved country.

In conclusion, the recent Hezbollah terrorist-organized assaults against the UNIFIL troops in south Lebanon are going to escalate and become bolder unless the United Nations and the UNIFIL-participating countries take decisive measures to deter Hezbollah, and implement and enforce UN Resolution 1701 under Chapter 7.

THIS PHOTO IS ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL. BE SURE TO READ THE TEXT BELOW TO HAVE A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT YOU ARE VIEWING. IT IS HISTORIC TOO AS THIS IS THE LAST MISSION FOR COLUMBIA ..

The photograph attached was taken by the crew on board the Columbia during its last mission, on a cloudless day.

The picture is of Europe and Africa when the sun is setting. Half of the picture is in night. The bright dots you see are the cities' lights.

The top part of Africa is the Sahara Desert .

Note that the lights are already on in Holland , Paris , and Barcelona, and that's it's still daylight in Dublin , London , Lisbon , and Madrid .

The sun is still shining on the Strait of Gibraltar . The Mediterranean Sea is already in darkness.

In the middle of the Atlantic Ocean you can see the Azores Islands; below them to the right are the Madeira Islands ; a bit below are the Canary Islands; and further South, close to the farthest western point

of Africa , are the Cape Verde Islands.

Note that the Sahara is huge and can be seen clearly both during day time and night time

To the left on top, is Greenland, totally frozen..

Radio station 2DayFM has refused to reveal why it removed an interview with Sophie Monk from its website in which the blonde pin-up revealed the real reason behind the split with her boyfriend.

Monk said in the interview, broadcast from LA on the Kyle and Jackie O Show yesterday morning, that she caught her plastic surgeon boyfriend John Diaz in bed with another woman.

"He was doing another chick?" host Kyle Sandilands asked.

Monk said she fled the home and drove off before turning back and questioning the pair.

"I spoke to the girl. She was in shock. I didn't know her. She was innocent," Monk said.

 

Monk said she tipped coffee over Diaz's car when she left again.

A story about the ordeal was published on the 2DayFM website's "The Dirt" blog but all traces of it have since been removed.

A 2DayFM spokeswoman told ninemsn the reason behind the decision "could not be disclosed".

"We've decided to let that [story] lie," the spokeswoman said.

Monk's manager could not be reached for comment.

The 30-year-old announced her split with Diaz in February after joining the Kyle and Jackie O Show as its LA correspondent.

"He is a lovely guy and we're still really good friends so there is nothing crazy about the split," Monk said at the time.

Please take a minute to read this. This is very scary and could happen to any of us.. Seems like every nice thing people do for one another can be perverted.

A new twist on kidnapping from a very smart survivor:

About a month ago there was a woman standing by the mall entrance passing out flyers to all the women going in. The woman had written the flyer herself to tell about an experience she had, so that she might warn other women.

The previous day, this woman had finished shopping, went out to her car and discovered that she had a flat.

She got the jack out of the trunk and began to change the flat. A nice man dressed in a business suit and carrying a briefcase walked up to her and said, 'I noticed you're changing a flat tire. Would you like me to take care of it for you?'

The woman was grateful for his offer and accepted his help. They chatted amiably while the man changed the flat, and then put the flat tire and the jack in the trunk, shut it and dusted his hands off.

The woman thanked him profusely, and as she was about to get in her car, the man told her that he left his car around on the other side of the mall, and asked if she would mind giving him a lift to his car.

She was a little surprised and she asked him why his car was on other side.

He explained that he had seen an old friend in the mall that he hadn't seen for some time and they had a bite to eat, visited for a while, and he got turned around in the mall and left through the wrong exit, and now he was running late.

The woman hated to tell him 'no' because he had just rescued her from having to change her flat tire all by herself, but she! felt un easy . (Trust that gut feeling!)

Then she remembered seeing the man put his briefcase in her trunk before shutting it and before he asked her for a ride to his car.

She told him that she'd be happy to drive him around to his car, But she just remembered one last thing she needed to buy (Smart woman!!)

She said she would only be a few minutes; he could sit down in her car and wait for her; she would be as quick as she could be

She hurried into the mall, and told a security guard what had happened, the guard came out to her car with her, but the man had left. They opened the trunk, took out his locked briefcase and took it down to the police station.

The police opened it (ostensibly to look for ID so they could return it to the man). What they found was rope, duct tape, and knives. When the police checked her 'flat' tire, there was nothing wrong with it; the air had simply been let out. It was obvious what the man's intention was, and obvious that he had carefully thought it out i n advance. The woman was blessed to have escaped harm.

How much worse it would have been if she had children with her and had them wait in the car while the man fixed the tire, or if she had a baby strapped into a car seat ? Or if she'd gone against her judgment and given him a lift?

It is a righteous, legitimate and constitutional obligation for every nation to safeguard its national security, protect its people, enforce order and law and see that citizens who breach laws or regulations and threaten the public safety and stability are held accountable and dealt with officially by security and judiciary bodies. In this respect the act of espionage for a foreign country is a very serious crime and most countries deal harshly with those who commit it.

The transparent legal process that the US applied and abided by in regards to the recently discovered Russian spying cell is a typical role model of how democratic and free countries handle espionage issues under the umbrella of law and justice. Unfortunately this is not the situation in Lebanon where Hezbollah, the armed Iranian terrorist organization, is hijacking the country, holding her people hostage, fully controlling the government and manipulating all her institutions.

Last week, according to the daily Al-Liwaa Beirut newspaper, Hezbollah arrested Mr. Charbel Qazzi, a Lebanese telecommunications executive, at Alfa mobile phone network, and accused him of spying for Israel. Hezbollah interrogated Mr. Qazzi, prepared the espionage case against him and then handed him over to the Lebanese Army Intelligence services.

What is sad, frightening, ironic and deplorable is that the Lebanese officials at all levels, the president, the prime minister, the government members, the security bodies (institutions), politicians and clergy, all disregarded the fact that Hezbollah and not the Lebanese security personnel had arrested Mr. Qazzi. They all turned their heads away from the core and essence of this terrible judicial scandal, and ignored the confiscation and marginalization of their roles by Hezbollah. They all with no exception sank in trivial and superficial childish details and openly adopted Hezbollah's rhetoric of hostility, war, revenge, hanging and beheading.

It is not the first time during the last five years that Hezbollah in violation of all laws confiscated the state's judicial and security institutions' roles in arresting, kidnapping or liquidating citizens after arbitrarily and unlawfully accusing them of treason and espionage while the state's officials were subservient, scared and mute.

In Hezbollah's evil context, on February 12/09, in full view of a Lebanese Armed Forces manning checkpoint at the Beirut International airport, three masked armed men kidnapped the information technology operations manager for Middle East Airlines, Mr. Joseph Sadder, as he walked to work, and took him to Hezbollah's mini-state in the southern suburbs. Since then, no one knows about his whereabouts or what happened to him. Sadly, many Lebanese citizens face such a doomed fate on a daily basis.

The scary and barbaric facet in Hezbollah's newly engineered fiasco is that all the Lebanese officials have adopted Hezbollah's Dracula-like bloodthirsty rhetoric and like parrots are echoing their demand to quickly hang Mr. Qazzi and all others who have been accused of spying for Israel. They surpassed the judiciary and did not even wait to see if the accused was actually guilty or not.

Even President Michel Suleiman fell into Hezbollah's rhetorical trap, who told reporters: "Punishment should be severe. The issue of spying on the nation is unacceptable from anyone and there must be severity in punishing the spies. The judiciary will not show leniency and if I get a verdict of the death sentence, I will sign it".

Hezbollah's leadership�s ongoing boldness, arrogance, bragging, infringement on the state's authorities and constitution, despise for human rights, criminal conduct, and contempt for law and order, are all on the rise. A few hours after its illegal and scandalous arrest of Mr. Charbel Qazzi, Hezbollah's Member of Parliament, Mohamed Raad, publicly challenged the government and the people of Lebanon and made it so clear that his armed group would arrest whoever is a threat to their security and "resistance".

Raad said: "The disclosure of this telecommunication agent makes us think with utmost seriousness and caution to pursue all those who we sense as suspicious in culture, security, communications, information, education and economy." "The focus of the Israeli enemy to infiltrate our domestic front aims to buy it time, since it currently lacks military readiness to launch a war, which would be very expensive and put its very [existence] at risk.

It is worth mentioning that Hezbollah owns and runs an illegal private and secretive telecommunication network that the Lebanese state has no control over . At the same time, this terrorist group dominates by force and bullying all Lebanon's private and governmental communication networks and thus openly monitors and spies on all the Lebanese, including officials, clergy, and politicians as well as foreign embassies.

The question here is who is spying on whom and who is the real culprit of spying, and where is the state? Meanwhile, Mr. Qazzi's innocence or guilt must be decided on by the judiciary and dealt with in accordance with the country's laws. But what is really pivotal, important, crucial and unanswered is who gave Hezbollah, this armed terrorist group, the authority and the legitimacy to spy openly on the Lebanese people and on their officials, and in accordance with which covenant or law could it arrest Lebanese citizens and accuse them of treason and spying?

This bizarre debauchery of an accusation and arrest and incident of arrogance and mockery show beyond any doubt that Lebanon is occupied by Hezbollah and that all the state's officials are either intimidated by, or directly related to this group's leadership.

Why has Hezbollah's leadership been lately so nervous, restless, angry, hostile and creating havoc in south Lebanon with the UNIFIL, targeting the USA and accusing its administration of defamation, questioning boldly with suspicion a security agreement signed few years ago between Lebanon and the USA and now arresting a telecommunication technician and accusing him of treason and spying for Israel?

The answer lies in the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) verdict that will be issued within few weeks. All unofficial reports and analyses say that Hezbollah had assassinated Lebanon's late Prime Minister Raffic Hariri, and accordingly, the expected verdict will charge numerous top notch Hezbollah personnel.

According to the same reports and analyses, the most solid proof that the STL has against Hezbollah is the telecommunication database. By the arrest of Mr. Qazzi and the kind of accusations made against him, Hezbollah is trying to discredit this solid evidence against its leaders.

It is interesting to know that Mr. Qazzi is the latest of some 70 Lebanese including security personnel arrested on questionable spying charges for Israel since April last year. Hezbollah directly or indirectly was behind most of these very suspicious arrests.

In conclusion, Hezbollah, the Iranian proxy army, is occupying Lebanon, while neither the Lebanese people nor their government leaders are anymore capable of standing up to Hezbollah�s cruelty, hegemony and terror. The Free World has an obligation to come to the rescue of this occupied country that Hezbollah and its two masters, Syria and Iran, are mercilessly devouring round-the-clock.

N.B: To read the Arabic version of the above editorial CLICK Here

Paris Hilton is speaking out after news broke that she has been detained and then cleared in an incident related to suspicion of marijuana possession in South Africa.

 

The heiress tweeted, "Everything is fine guys. I had nothing to do with it."

Following that she tweeted: "Hey guys, there's a lot of crazy rumors going around. Just want you all to know the truth. Everything is completely fine. I was not charged or arrested, cause I didn't do anything. I was assisting the police with the investigation and answering their questions. Everyone was super nice and friendly to me. I love South Africa! Such an amazing place, especially during The World Cup! Hope that clears everything up. Love you guys, thanks for your concern. Xoxo P."

Her rep told ET Friday: "Paris Hilton was questioned today by police in South Africa on allegations of smoking marijuana. However I can confirm that the incident was a complete misunderstanding and it was actually another person in the group who did it."

"The case has been dropped against Paris and no charges will be made. The authorities have apologized for wrongfully accusing her since she had nothing to do with the incident," Hilton's rep added.

She is now assisting officers with inquiries as to her whereabouts for the past 72 hours, he said.

Ms Kukk, who had been camping at Elouera Beach at Cronulla, in the city's south, had not been seen since Tuesday.

Lifeguards found her belongings on the beach on Wednesday.