National unity appears threatened by revelations concerning agreements signed during Lebanon's recent period of polarisation, reports Omayma Abdel-Latif from Beirut The meeting of the Media and Telecommunications Committee at the Lebanese parliament on 10 March served as a reminder of the extreme political polarisation that gripped Lebanon for 18 months from November 2006 until May 2008. The meeting aimed to discuss a security agreement signed in 2007 under the premiership of Fouad Siniora by Ashraf Rifi, head of the Internal Security Forces (ISF) with the then US ambassador in Lebanon Jeffery Feltman for "training purposes". Instead of seriously addressing the issue, and avoiding its politicisation, MPs attending the meeting were soon divided into two camps: those defending the agreement and Rifi, and those who considered it illegal and called for annulling it. The meeting was adjourned until 18 March when another session will be held to discuss the outcomes of the committee assigned to study the agreement. Rifi and members of the March 14 movement meanwhile went onto the offensive. Defending the agreement, Rifi explained in press interview on 13 March that the agreement provided $50 million for long-term training and equipment. Then $12 million were added to establish a telephone network that the ISF needed. Rifi defended the agreement by saying that this donation was for technical support and training purposes. He dismissed that he "rushed into signing the agreement with the US". When asked why did he and not ask the cabinet to sign the agreement, Rifi said: "[the] agreement was planned in 2007, and the circumstances in Lebanon at that time did not allow the cabinet to sign the agreement." The Siniora government then asked him to sign it and it was approved by the cabinet four days later. It is on precisely this point that the opposition argues the agreement should be deemed illegal. Both the head of the Media and Telecommunications Committee, MP Hassan Fadlallah, and parliament Speaker Nabih Berri criticised Siniora's cabinet for reportedly signing an agreement with Washington "when the parliament was shut down from December 2006 until May 2008". The parliamentary majority media offensive suggested to some that it regards the targeting of General Rifi as aimed to undermine Lebanon's relations with the US. Rifi suggested that the campaign against the agreement was meant to divert attention from the latest achievements of the ISF -- that being the disclosure of tens of Israeli espionage networks in Lebanon. In response, several Hizbullah MPs were keen to stress that the issue should not be personalised and that Rifi and ISF achievements of disclosing Israeli sleeping cells in Lebanon was highly appreciated by the resistance movement. MP Nawaf Al-Musawi called on Rifi to "look at the bigger picture" and that the issue was meant to strengthen Lebanon sovereignty against possible US violations. Musawi called for annulling all similar agreements, strengthening the role of the ISF and preventing US attempts to infiltrate it. The timing of the agreement is not without significance. Following the 2006 July War, Lebanon increasingly came on the receiving end of US security and military assistance. The motives behind increased US assistance to Lebanon's different security sectors -- according to a US congressional study published in May 2009 entitled "US Security Assistance to Lebanon" -- was "to increase the capacity of its various security forces to combat terrorism and secure Lebanon's borders against weapons smuggling to Hizbullah and other armed groups". The US State Department went further to explain that US security assistance to Lebanon would "promote Lebanese control over Southern Lebanon and Palestinian refugee camps to prevent them from being used as bases to attack Israel". In 2007, the US provided training in counter-narcotics, intellectual property rights, cyber-crime as well as border security to over 1,000 police officers. The training programme supported the training of 109 instructors for the police academy in Beirut as well as 54 first-level supervisors and mid- level officers to "improve the leadership of the ISF". In 2009, training programmes included community and proximity policing, "to prepare the ISF for its new security role in Nahr Al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp". Part of the funding for the ISF was directed to the installation of "a secure national communications system to improve coordination and communication among ISF police forces operating in different areas of Lebanon". This triggered heated debate among Lebanon's political factions. One of the US concerns regarding security assistance to Lebanon has been the fear that any of training equipment would fall into the hands of Hizbullah and be eventually "used against Israel". To ensure against this selection criteria were outlined for ISF training programme candidates, eliciting the wrath of the Lebanese opposition. "All ISF candidates selected for US sponsored training are first vetted for human rights abuses in accordance with the Leahy Amendment by the State Department Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement as well as for connections to foreign terrorist organisations through a process coordinated by the Terrorist Screening Centre," according to the congressional study. As the Lebanese awaited further discussion of the case on Thursday, 18 March, some opposition MPs made vocal call for annulling all agreements signed during the recent period of Lebanon's political division.
