The Daily Star - Rival MPs feud over charges of collaboration, March 20, 2012

By Wassim Mroueh

BEIRUT: Future Movement MP Khaled Daher traded barbs with rival March 8 lawmakers Monday over accusations of collaborating with foreign countries and remarks over a subversive cell recently discovered by the Lebanese Army.

Speaking to reporters at Parliament, Daher defended himself against accusations by Baabda MP Alain Aoun and Jezzine MP Ziad Aswad from the Free Patriotic Movement bloc, and Baalbek-Hermel MP Ghazi Zeaiter, that his denial of the presence of a subversive cell in the Army undermined the military.

“We reject exploiting these institutions and [reject that] some Shabbiha [thugs] in [Army] intelligence insult people and fabricate accusations against the innocent, such as what happened with ... officer cadet Suhaib al-Qass and soldier Abdel-Qader Noaman,” Daher said, referring to two soldiers who were detained on suspicion of belonging to a subversive cell discovered by the Army last week.

Daher complained that although Investigative Judge Najat Abu Shaqra ordered the release of the two soldiers, “the military prosecutor’s office opposed the move because media outlets were reporting that [this] terrorist Salafist cell had been discovered.”

The lawmaker rejected “spreading the big lie” that a “terrorist Salafist cell” had infiltrated the Lebanese Army.

Daher questioned why MPs from Michel Aoun’s bloc had shown concern about the Army when they “support illegal arms and militias at the expense of the Army,” in reference to their alliance with Hezbollah. “It seems that Iranian money has blinded them.”

Addressing Aswad, Daher said: “You ... said on TV that you were accused of collaborating with Israel and were forbidden from going to the south for a long time” in reference to the period when Israel occupied a strip of south Lebanon.

Responding to Zeaiter, Daher said that he and his March 14 coalition support the state, “but you, and those who back you, undermine institutions and assume their role.”

Daher’s remarks prompted a swift response by Aswad, who arrived in Parliament shortly after Daher’s accusations. Aswad urged Speaker Nabih Berri to lift his and Daher’s immunity. “Let the Lebanese judiciary take action ... and determine whether the collaborator was me or Daher.”

“A person who is now against Syria after standing by its side [when its Army was in Lebanon] ... cannot accuse the Lebanese and people of Jezzine of being collaborators,” Aswad told reporters.

Responding to accusations that his bloc receives Iranian funds, Aswad called on Berri to oblige MPs to make public their bank accounts and their judicial records.


http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2012/Mar-20/167294-rival-mps-feud-over-charges-of-collaboration.ashx#axzz1peKK35TQ