Sayyed Fadlallah: Lebanon has become center for spies

By Dalila Mahdawi
Source: Daily Star, 18-5-2009

BEIRUT: Lebanon has become a center for regional and international intelligence gathering, the country's foremost Shiite spiritual figure said on Sunday. "This small country has been transformed into a center for international and regional intelligence," the Elnashra news website quoted Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah as telling a delegation of long-term observers from the US non-governmental organization the National Democratic Institute (NDI). Employees of the Washington-based organization's Beirut office will be monitoring Lebanon's June 7 parliamentary organization as part of its mandate to support global democratic practices and governance, and regularly meet with Lebanese political figures. 

Foreign interference through ambassadors and intelligence services was responsible for turning Lebanon into "an intelligence headquarters," Fadlallah reportedly told his guests. His comments were in indirect reference to the recent spy scandal that has swept across Lebanon. At least 12 people accused of spying for "Israel" have been arrested by Lebanon's security services since the beginning of the year, including a number of Lebanese army and intelligence officials. 

Fadlallah expressed pessimism that Lebanon's upcoming elections would herald in a new era of political discourse.
"The results of the elections won't change much," Fadlallah said, adding Lebanon's national unity government was based on "consensus democracy." 

Western governments were not dedicated to democracy, the 73-year-old cleric added.
During the meeting, Fadlallah also reportedly urged Lebanon's voters to vote for those who had "the nation's interest" in mind, warning candidates not to exert political or financial pressure on their electorate.
"There are known and unknown foreign interventions in Lebanon's most expensive upcoming parliamentary elections," he said. 

Certain countries were taking advantage of the country's poor to "spend hundreds of millions of dollars on voters and political sides," he added, reiterating comments made in March, when he issued a fatwa [religious edict] prohibiting political bribery in the elections. The June elections are set to be the most competitive polls in decades, pitting the opposition coalition against the March 14 coalition headed by Saad Hariri's Future Movement. 

 Fadlallah frequently speaks out on social and political matters. Among other issues, he has urged greater rights for women and foreign domestic workers in Lebanon.