Snapped Shot

The servants of the master celebrate in Beirut:

A Hezbollah gunman poses as he flashes a victory sign after putting up posters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and taking over of an office of the Future group loyal to Saad al-Hariri Majority leader, in the Rass al-Naba'a area in Beirut May 9, 2008. Hezbollah gunmen took control of large areas of Beirut on Friday in a third day of fighting between the pro-Iranian group and fighters loyal to the U.S.- backed governing coalition. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir (LEBANON)

It would seem that Hezbullah is winning the Battle of Beirut—Will this be the second time that this poor city falls to a band of ruthless thugs?

They've managed to run members of Parliament that were hostile to them out of town, and Jeha has written a very eloquent analysis of the stakes of the game. He's also updated his maps to illustrate the current state of affairs in downtown Beirut.

The Lebanese Forces, for whatever reason, don't seem to be willing to stand up and fight the Iranian-backed bullies so far. If things remain the way they are right now, the outcome is as inevitable as it ever has been.

Update: Photographic evidence that Hezbullah is taking the Hamas approach to coups? More photos here.

Charles Malik has more on Hezbullah's non-coup in Beirut:

Hezbollah has no interest in ruling other sects or doing the day to day management of Lebanon. Their goal is simply to get whatever they want from the Lebanese state, which is exactly what has happened for the last few years. Of course, this means that no other sect or group gets to do what they want.

The Lebanese government and people (including the Shia) should never, according to Hezbollah, do anything that impinges on Hezbollah's actions, or which might cause negative repercussions to Hezbollah's allies in Syria and Iran.

If Hezbollah decides to take actions which negatively affect Lebanese citizens - for example, starting a war with Israel that creates massive destruction, all other Lebanese must keep their mouths shut and allow Hezbollah to do whatever it decides is the best route forward. After the war, Hezbollah will kindly rebuild Hezbollah infrastructure, provide social welfare to their most loyal supporters in the Shia sect, and maybe throw pennies at the rest of us. However, they will expect the rest of us not to complain about the war, destruction, or the pittance they provide for us after the war (if we are even alive), and blame everything that happened on the Zionist enemy and the American conspiracy against Lebanon, which are the only reasons why bad things happen here.

For a bunch of "brave warriors," Hezbullah sure does behave like a bunch of spoiled 4-year-old girls, don't they?

Jeha is maintaining a nice map of the current battle/siege in Beirut. I'll hotlink it for now, so you get the latest updates. Whenever he gets around to posting it to Google Maps, will get it updated asap.


Click to zoom

My good friend Jeha has IM'ed to say that the word on the street in Lebanon is that Hezbullah's alliance is starting to make a move on the Serail, the Lebanese parliament. This news comes almost immediately after Hassan "The Coward" Nasrallah announced that any attempt by the Lebanese government to enforce the law prevent Hezbullah from spying on the country would be interpreted by Hezbullah as a declaration of war.

It'll be interesting to see if the Lebanese Forces will be able to muster the will to defend the country, or if Hezbullah will officially take the reins of government by force.

Of course, Hassan "The Coward" Nasrallah was nowhere to be found, seeing how he prefers to cower in a bunker and let his totally expendable supporters take the brunt of any military action for him. Good leaders lead from waaaay behind, right?

Stay safe over there, Jeha—Especially now that the fight seems to be spreading into Christian territory.

More on Hezbullah's endgame over at Mr. Totten's place. A very intriguing set of analyses.

Jeha has posted some details on the topic here, and there is a truly fascinating look at the role Facebook is playing in this current conflict/proto-war over here.

May God's hand be over His followers in Lebanon, and keep them safe from the actions of the Party of the Insane.

Update: The Lebanese Forces are withdrawing from the battle areas? Maybe their interpretation of "backbone" differs slightly from mine...

More madness from March 14: One-on-one negotiations with Hassan "The Coward." Psst, guys? You're not supposed to be giving credibility to that cowardly thug.

I guess this means that 2008 is going to end up becoming the first year of the Islamic Republic of Lebanon.

Update: After a brief pause for Hariri's speech, the bullets are flying again.

Update: The Lebanese Forces speaks, albeit unofficially:

Nothing is more annoying the Aounists & Hezbollah and other Opposition parties than the fact that the LFers refuse to get involved in the violent incidents …

Hezbollah & Tayyar media have been initimidating the LF since yesterday, and making up rumors about their presence in several spots, yet all news were denied by the LF ..

I warn them and assure them that the guys are all ready and waiting for any HA or Amal thug to put one foot in the Christian regions … and i assure them that they ll only be getting back in body bags if they try to cause trouble in our regions ..

Peace

Photojournalist Wadih Shlink, a Reuters stringer who reports from Beirut, Lebanon, was pretty savagely beaten by Hezbullah "supporters" this morning. I haven't been able to find any details of this account yet, but from the history we already know, I'm betting that he was taking pictures of something that would've cast Hezbullah in a negative light.

I'll be waiting on the edge of my seat to see if Reuters can muster an ounce of condemnation against their terrorist friends' Hezbullah's savagery against one of their treasured employees.

A civil defence medic attends to photographer Wadih Shlink after he was beaten by Hezbollah supporters in a Beirut suburb May 7, 2008. Supporters of Lebanon's Hezbollah-led opposition blocked main roads in Beirut with burning barricades on Wednesday, paralysing the capital in a long-running political standoff with the U.S.-backed government. REUTERS/ Fadi Ghalioum (LEBANON)

I have ghosts of Wadih's photographs here, here, and here.

Update: My good friend Jeha has e-mailed with some background from on the ground in Beirut:

Hey Brian,

The guy's Lebanese, he may have been attacked by people who belong to another confessional group. None of those idiots know Reuters...

That's because the day's is ugly, at least on the edges of the Southern side of Beirut, with clashes between mainly "Shiite" parties on one side, and Sunni and Druze parties on the other... The army's trying to stop it, but it has been much undermined by Hezb'O. The Easter side is generally quiet today....

Of course, I wouldn't suspect that he was beaten by anyone who knew him personally, or even necessarily of Reuters itself. And, given that they don't know him, I'd also be comfortable saying that they didn't beat him because he came from a different "confessional group," as Jeha puts it, as such a "political proclivity," in my parlance, wouldn't really be obvious from a casual inspection.

Notice, however, how he's carrying a camera bag in the linked photo above?

I don't know about you, but to me, that says pretty clearly that he was "on the job" at the time he was beaten. And, given Hezbullah's past, at least when it comes to how strongly they control news coverage about themselves, the most likely explanation for Wadih's beating still seems to be that he was taking pictures of something Hezbullah didn't want to be seen.

At least, not by news consumers in the West.

If any of you know more about this story, I'd love to hear it. Am I barking up the wrong tree here?

Update: Could this be something that's going around? The photojournalist in this picture looks very familiar, but so far I'm unable to put a name to the face:

A cameraman reacts after he was hit in the head during a protest in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, May 7, 2008. Hezbollah supporters clashed with government backers in several Beirut neighborhoods Wednesday, using guns and stones after the militant group blocked major roads with burning tires and dirt to enforce a labor strike. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Also, more details from Jeha:

Understood.

But don't read too much into it; those goons are good at such a thing, especially knowing a guy's origins. There are so many accents in tiny Lebanon, we can pinpoint one another's origins by the way we pronounce things.

Back in the civil war and tit for tat massacres, we had our confessions on our ID's. But there were faster ways; Christian Phalango militias could tell if someone was a Palestinian just by showing a tomato and asking them to name it. In the Mountain, Druze militiamen could easily tell "their" guys from the "others" by the way they pronounce their "a"... To that day, I still have my regional accent; even when I speak French of English, some words give me away to other Lebanese.

This brings a very happy tear to my eye:

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