There’s a hilarious Egyptian version already. I couldn’t understand a word of that – I guess Egyptian isn’t exactly my strong suit.
And now there’s a Lebanese version for the Southern city of Saida – of which I could understand the minimum required to call myself Lebanese. Is it very Saida oriented or am I very disoriented? I have no clue!
I don’t know about you but I’m sticking to the Korean version 😛
Color me confused but I have absolutely no idea what to make of it.
News of an assassination attempt, his fourth in total, against Michel Aoun, the head of FPM, surfaced yesterday evening. It was followed by news denying it happened for security reasons apparently. Then Aoun confirmed to a crowd in Batroun that it did during an FPM dinner. Then this morning LBC denied it happened: there was no convoy passing and no shooting. And now the minister of interior affairs is saying that the assassination attempt happened. And it seems that the car that was shot hasn’t been given in to the authorities for examination yet as it is on a mission. Why would a car that was shot be on a mission?
So which is it? Was the head of FPM targeted or not?
I think Michel Aoun was targeted. Why? Because any attack against any of Lebanon’s top Christian leaders (Aoun and Geagea) would be enough to send the country into chaos and that is what many want to do. I wouldn’t even be surprised if the people targeting him were the same people who targeted previous people in the country. Of course Aoun wants you to think it’s the bad Sunnis because that would play well with his base who will eat it up.
Geagea was targeted back in April (click here).
Either way, I hope Michel Aoun, regardless of whether I like him or not, is safe and I also hope he won’t milk this attempt into electoral gains as it has become customary. But it seems to have already started. I also hope people don’t start doing what Aoun’s supporters did when Geagea was targeted and start making funny comics out of it (click here).
One thing has to be said though, the Lebanese Forces website is sure handling this way more professionally than Tayyar.org did when Geagea was targeted (click here).
Fellow Lebanese, if you don’t have super protective privacy settings on your Facebook profiles, it’s high time to do so. In a country where many people can rationalize the army killing people at checkpoints (I had a “conversation” with one an hour ago), where people burn tires for leisure, where guns are taken to pubs, the next big national threat is none of those. It’s your Facebook profile.
86 people from the Jezzine area were summoned by the intelligence of the Lebanese Army to the Zougheib Barracks in Saida for investigation, Annahar reports. Those people don’t have warrants against them. They haven’t done anything wrong – unless having a Facebook account is a crime.
The summoned individuals have to be present at the barracks around 8 am. The investigation with them lasts till 2 pm. Most of them are people who hold jobs and have classes. One of them was even a university professor.
Instead of investigating things that are worth investigating, such as the murder of Charbel Rahme who had no warrants against him and actually wanted to join the ISF, the army intelligence is busy stalking Facebook profiles and asking people to come in for a full-day affair to ask you about your statuses, friends, profile pictures and whatnot.
The age of no retribution for any organization within the Lebanese state needs to come to an end. Accountability is key – especially when it comes to an organization which is supposedly concerned with protecting Lebanese citizens. If we put everything that’s done by the army on a pedestal away from questioning, we will quickly turn into a military state. If that’s acceptable for you, it sure isn’t for me.
Why would they summon 86 people – with the list still having more names to go – based on their Facebook profiles? We will never know. And you will still find people who rationalize this when there’s no room for reason. Is it the time to start deactivating Facebook accounts? It sure beats going to jail for posting a not very army-pleasing Facebook status
A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares 