LebaneseForces.com: Fighting for Freedom

Update on Samir Geagea's New Cell

On Saturday, Samir Geagea was told to pack his stuff and prepare to move to a new cell located on the ground floor. The new cell has a window and was on the same floor as Fouad Maleks cell. The difference though is Samir Geagea's cell will contain a bathroom. Until this very moment Samir Geagea does not know if they will be providing him with a television or if he will be allowed to read the newspaper.

Although Samir Geagea was scheduled to be moved to the new cell yesterday (Monday), he still has not been moved. The reason behind the delay is the fact that the ground floor currently has construction taking place in preparation for Hakims arrival. The new additions to the ground floor are large metal doors and a new visiting room. Samir Geagea is now scheduled to be moved to the new cell as early as tonight or as late as tomorrow morning.
More info will be posted when available.

Posted by 40-Tactical on Tuesday, September 28, 2004 | Permalink

Geagea Moves to Ground Level Room at Yarze Prison Monday

Samir Geagea will be moved to a ground-level room at the Defense Ministry prison in Yarze on Monday in what was officially described as "essential improvements" of his condition in jail designed to satisfy Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir, Premier Hariri's Al Mustaqbal newspaper reported.

The Lebanese Forces commander has spent 10 years and five months in a cell three floors underground with no sunlight or fresh air. He will be awarded as of Monday the treatment reserved to imprisoned army officers, which was previously awarded to Major Fouad Malek, the newspaper said.

The new room presumably has windows that would allow sunlight and fresh air in. There is no information yet whether a TV set would be installed or newspapers would be allowed into Geagea's new prison room.

"Political quarters have viewed the move as an endeavor to please the Patriarch after the extension of President Lahoud's term," Al Mustaqbal said.

It noted that the Lebanese Forces, now under the leadership of Geagea's wife Sitrida Geagea has taken no stance about the extension.

But Naharnet recalls that Mrs. Geagea had actually taken a stance when she declared after a recent meeting with the Patriarch in Bkirki that the LF supported his opposition to the extension and the amendment of the constitution.

Posted by 40-Tactical on Monday, September 27, 2004 | Permalink

Pictures from the LF Boston Memorial Mass 2004

Pictures from the LF Boston Memorial Mass 2004 are now online and availabe on Lebanese-Forces.org. Click here to view the pictures.

Posted by 40-Tactical on Tuesday, September 21, 2004 | Permalink

Bachir Gemayel's Tomb Visited

On the occasion of the 22nd remembrance, Lebanese-Forces.org and LebaneseForces.com recently visited Bachir Gemayel's tomb and placed flowers. Two cards with a small word from each site were also placed with the flowers. click here to see the pictures

Posted by 40-Tactical on Tuesday, September 21, 2004 | Permalink

Pictures from the Ilige Martyrs Mass 2004

Pictures of the Ilige Martyrs Mass are now online and availabe on Lebanese-Forces.org. Click here to view the pictures.

Posted by 40-Tactical on Monday, September 20, 2004 | Permalink

Syrians Run Amok

Security forces hurled teargas canisters and used water cannons to subdue violent riots by Syrian workers of Sukleen, Lebanon's biggest garbage collecting firm, at Beirut's low-income residential neighborhood of Karantina. An Nahar said Monday 10 rioters were arrested and 7 policemen injured.

The flare-up carried a confrontation between Syrian Kurds working for Sukleen and Armenian men from the neighboring Bourj Hammoud quarter into a third straight day after the death of a Lebanese citizen from knife wounds he sustained in a scuffle on Friday.

The latest clash broke out Sunday after the arrival at Sukleen headquarters of a batch of Syria workers, who were told that a group of Syrian comrades were severely beaten up in Bourj Hammoud. The Syrians were enraged by a provocative tale of horror that one comrade had his ear chopped off by Lebanese locals, An Nahar reported.

The workers, incensed, bolted out of the headquarters and attempted to block the coastal highway connection of Beirut with northern Lebanon. They shouted such chants as "we want the Syrian army, period" and "Allah, Syria and Bashar, period."

In no time, the rioters were reinforced by Syrian workers from other Beirut neighborhoods and from Sidon, the provincial capital of south Lebanon. Police forces treated the rioters with leniency at the beginning, letting them express their protests but cordoning them off the highway, according to An Nahar.

"But the rioters grew abusive and some of them tried to beat an officer, which helped spin the disorders rapidly out of control," An Nahar said. Troops and police then used rifle butts to push the rioters back and they responded with throwing rocks, cement objects and shoes, injuring seven policemen.

Anti-riot police then charged in with teargas grenades and doused the rioters with fire-engine water cannons, which eventually quelled the mutiny after 10 arrests were made.

Posted by 40-Tactical on Monday, September 20, 2004 | Permalink

Ilige Mass Speech

Part of a speech from todays mass at Ilige is now available. Its a speech by Saud Abou Chebel, an officer in the LF and a close friend of Dr. Samir Geagea. click here to hear the speech. Thank you Gilo.

Posted by 40-Tactical on Sunday, September 19, 2004 | Permalink

Video from Bachir Memorial

Click here to view a short movie from the Bachir Gemayel Memorial. Thank you Gilbert for the clip.

Posted by 40-Tactical on Friday, September 17, 2004 | Permalink

Geagea Suffers Bone Weakness But is Not in Life-Threatening Condition

Five physicians of varying specialties have examined Lebanese Forces commander Samir Geagea at his third-floor underground cell in the Defense Ministry prison in Yarze and concluded that he is in no life-threatening condition.

But he is suffering from a bone weakness known as osteomalacie, emanating from a 10-year incarceration underground that renders him vulnerable to fractures at any slip, the doctors said in a statement read out at a packed news conference in Beirut Thursday, An Nahar reported on Friday.

Geagea, in his early fifties, is also suffering from spasms in the heart arteries, said the doctors who were commissioned by his family to carry out the checkups in the press conference that was attended by his wife Sitrida and Lebanon's top jurist Dr. Edmond Naim, who headed Geagea's defense during the trials that gave him a total of 120 years in jail.

"After 10 years and more than four months imprisonment, the only option left is his prompt release," Sitrida Geagea told An Nahar. "This is the demand I will never abandon."

Posted by 40-Tactical on Friday, September 17, 2004 | Permalink

Lahoud, Berri Make Secret Trips to Syria, Sfeir Demands Geagea's Release

President Lahoud and Speaker Berri made hushed up separate trips to Damascus on the last two Tuesdays and met secretly with President Assad to win his approval of delaying the resignation of Premier Hariri, An Nahar reported on Friday.

It termed the two trips and Assad's stance as a "Lebanonization of the government change" in an attempt to allay the international uproar over Syria's overt intervention to dictate a 3-year extension for President Lahoud in office.

In a separate move to offset international outrage, Lahoud on Thursday visited Bkirki and held an 80-minute tête-à-tête with Patriarch Sfeir, who reasserted his opposition to the amendment of the constitution that kept Lahoud as president for 3 more years.

The talks also focused on the formation of a national reconciliation cabinet to lower the curtain on the aftershocks of the civil war., according to An Nahar.

Lahoud stated his position that his hand is stretched out to all to join the new government, but the Patriarch emphasized that the release of Lebanese Forces commander Samir Geagea from prison was an essential part of the hoped-for national reconciliation.

Taken from Naharnet

Posted by 40-Tactical on Friday, September 17, 2004 | Permalink

UAE, Dubai. Bachir Gemayel Mass

Tomorrow, Friday 17th, a Bachir Gemayel Mass will be held at the St. Mary's Catholic Church in Dubai. Pictures will be available online after the Mass.

Posted by 40-Tactical on Thursday, September 16, 2004 | Permalink

Bachir Gemayel Memorial 2004

The LF has observed the 22nd anniversary of its founder's assassination with vows resist the master-lackey relationship with Syria and a resounding denunciation of President Lahoud's extended regime as a front for a "mafia of loyalists desperate to complete the systematic plunder of public funds."

"Our opposition struggles for a relationship of equality with Syria, not one of master and lackey or 'Amrak Seidna'" said Mrs. Solange Gemayel on the death anniversary of her husband, President-Elect Bashir Gemayel, who founded the Lebanese Forces Christian militia in the early years of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war.

She was the star speaker at the massive observation rally that was held Tuesday at the Miracle Icon Cathedral in Ashrafiyeh, marking the debut of a 'holly alliance' among the nation's main right-wing opposition factions—the LF, Qornet Shahwan and ex-President Amin Gemayel's Katayeb Corrective Movement, An Nahar reported on Wednesday.

Solange Gemayel sat at the front row of the memorial service held with Cardinal Sfeir's blessing for her husband, who perished with 22 associates in a 1982 bomb blast in Ashrafiyeh just 20 days after his election for Lebanon's presidency and only two weeks before his swearing-in ceremony.

Mrs. Gemayel was flanked by her son Nadim, daughter Yumna, and her husband's elder brother, ex-President Amin Gemayel and his wife. Amin was elected president to succeed the slain Bashir.

At the other end of the front row sat Sitrida Geagea, leaders of the Qornet Shahwan collation and Dory Chamoun, leader of the National Liberal Party. 'Bashir Gemayel's Death Anniversary Unites Opposition," exclaimed a headline on An Nahar's front page.

Crowds brandished portraits of Bashir Gemayel and Samir Geagea, who headed the LF three years after Bashir's assassination until the end of the civil war. Geagea then changed the militia into a full-fledged political party, which was technically outlawed by the government upon his 1994 arrest. He is still in solitary confinement at the prison of Lebanon's defense Ministry in Yarze.

Taken from Naharnet

Posted by 40-Tactical on Wednesday, September 15, 2004 | Permalink

Lebanese Forces Martyrs Day

Sitrida Geagea has declared that her husband was well despite his 10 years in solitary confinement within a 3-by-two 2 meter underground cell bereft from fresh air and sunlight, "but he is in pain the for the agonies Lebanon and the Lebanese are suffering."
Addressing a 20,000-strong rally in Harissa, she also pledged allegiance on behalf of Lebanese Forces commander Samir Geagea to Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir, "who is leading with prophetic wisdom the march to restore Lebanon's freedom, sovereignty and dignity."

She also pledged the LF within the framework of the Qornet Shahwan coalition to follow the Patriarch's lead in rejecting the Syrian-dictated amendment of the Lebanese constitution that allowed Gen. Lahoud to stay on as president of Lebanon for 3 additional years.

Crowds brandished portraits of the Patriarch, Geagea and Bashir Gemayel, Lebanon's slain president-elect who founded the LF, as Sitrida Geagea made her address after the yearly memorial service "held for martyrs of the Lebanese Forces" at the Lady of Lebanon Cathedral in Harissa north of Beirut Sunday, An Nahar reported on Monday.

The massive presence at the Harissa event has gone to show that the LF remains a throbbing nerve in the Christian heartland, An Nahar said, highlighting Mrs. Geagea's declaration that the LF would stand in Lebanon's general elections next spring.

"Samir Geagea is well, but Lebanon is not well," she said from a makeshift podium at the Cathedral's spacious courtyard. "He is well in a cell they designed to be his grave, but which he transformed into a monk's hermitage. Yet he is in pain for the agonies of the homeland and its citizens."

In an address read out on his behalf by Monsignor Youssef Taouk, the Patriarch called for the release of every unjustly held prisoner, "foremost among whom is Samir Geagea." The head of the Maronite Church beseeched the Almighty to help the Lebanese bring about national reconciliation.

Taken from Naharnet

Posted by 40-Tactical on Monday, September 13, 2004 | Permalink

Mass commemorates LF martyrs' day

In commemoration of the Lebanese Forces martyrs day, a mass was celebrated at Notre Dame du Liban, Our Lady of Lebanon Cathedral in Harissa. The event was attended by over 40,000 people with the roads leading up to the cathedral all packed with buses and cars full of Lebanese Forces supporters as hundreds of people walked most of the way up under a burning Sunday sun, passing the various army checkpoints set up along the way.

Alongside the families of the martyrs and the Lebanese Forces supporters who came from all over Lebanon, many guests attended the mass including Strida Geagea, wife of imprisoned Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, Solange Gemayel, Nadim Gemayel and former Lebanese President Amin Gemayel.

"The martyrs we are commemorating today never actually died," said Father Chikrallah Harb, representing Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir. "It is only when national heroes die that a country such as this one can prosper."

Harb added that Lebanon is known for its martyr history. "People of all religions and backgrounds have given their soul for the sake of this country," Harb said, "and this is something we should all be proud of."

At the end of the Mass, Geagea addressed the audience saying that "the doctor (Samir Geagea) is OK, he is OK ... but Lebanon is not."

Geagea highlighted a series of recommendations, among which was the release of innocent prisoner Samir Geagea, and the formulation of a new parliament election law that "represents every category in the Lebanese population, be it Muslims or Christians, residents or emigrants."

Geagea added that the "diplomatic balance should be preserved by cancelling any settlement law and that dialogue should be encouraged among all Lebanese parties."

To commemorate the Lebanese Forces Martyrs' Day, hundreds of celebrations were held by Lebanese communities in several European and American countries.

Masses were also celebrated in Sydney, Australia, as well as in Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Washington, Michigan, Paris, London, Rome and Brussels.

From the DailyStar

Posted by 40-Tactical on Monday, September 13, 2004 | Permalink

LF Martyrs Memorial 2004

"Samir Geagea bi khair" with this quote, Strida Geagea started her speech after saluting the thousands of LF supporters that were gathered around the John Paul II square at the Harrissa Basilique.

"Samir Geagea is ok, but he is hurting because Lebanon is hurting" she continued.

This year’s memorial was very well organized. Four organizing committees were put in charge of the mass with responsibilities ranging from the distribution of the seats between the martyrs families and the political figures and to organizing the large crowds outside.

From the break of dawn, members from all regions of Lebanon started coming to Harris. The mass which was scheduled to start at 12 noon ended up starting later due to the crowded roads leading to Harrisa. When Strida Geagea arrived, the crowd applauded heavily.

The mass began by asking God to protect Lebanon, bless our martyrs, protect our Church , and to protect our leader Dr. Samir Geagea who has been imprisoned for over a decade.

The mass was followed by a speech given by Strida Geagea which asked for the release of Dr. Samir Geagea and the achievement of national reconciliation. She described Hakim's situation in his 3 meters by 2 meters prison and quoted Patriarch Sfeir saying, "Even though he is imprisoned, he will always be free". The rest of the speech asked for new electoral laws, for disabling the nationalization laws and refusing the nationalization of Palestinians.

At the end, Mrs. Geagea asked for LF youth to stay strong and committed to the cause, hoping by this time next year, Hakim himself will be giving the speech and Lebanon would be sound.

The main political figures present were Sheikh Solange Gemayel, President Amine Gemayel, Nayla Mouawad, Nadim Bashir Gemayel, Mansour el Bon, Michel Sassine , and the past head of the Kataeb Elie Karameh.

Written by 3agib

Posted by 40-Tactical on Sunday, September 12, 2004 | Permalink

New Bachir Gemayel Site

The official Lebanese Forces website have just opened a new Bachir Gemayel website. The site contains tons of information and articles in both English and Arabic. Its really incredible so check it out.
bachirgemayel.lebanese-forces.org

Posted by 40-Tactical on Sunday, September 12, 2004 | Permalink

LF Martyrs Memorial Services *updated*

If your city or country is missing please inform us.

Lebanon

Our Lady of Harissa Basilic
Sunday, September 12th @12:00PM
Azariyeh Church
[President Bachir Gemayel Memorial]
Tuesday, September 14th @4:00PM
Our Lady of Ilige, Ilige-Kattara
Sunday, September 19th @11:00AM

Australia, Sydney

Saint Charbels Church, Punchbowl
Tuesday, September 14th @6:00PM

Belgium

Notre Dame du Liban Church
Sunday, September 12th @11:30AM

Canada, Montreal

Saint Antonios The Great Monastery
Sunday, September 12th @11:30AM

Canada, Toronto

Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Church
Sunday, September 12th @12:30pm

Canada, Windsor

St Anthony's Maronite Parish, Leamington
Sunday, September 12th @11:30AM

France, Paris

Notre Dame du Liban Church
Sunday, September 12th @11:00AM

USA, Boston

Our Lady of the Cedars Church
Sunday, September 19th @1:00pm

USA, Cleveland/Akron

Our Lady of the Cedars Church
Sunday, September 12th @11:00AM

USA, Detroit/Michigan

St Sharbel Church
Sunday, September 12th @11:30AM

USA, Los Angeles

Our Lady of Mount Lebanon
Sunday, September 19th @11:00AM

USA, Washington DC.

Our Lady of Lebanon Church
Tuesday, September 14th @7:30PM

Posted by 40-Tactical on Saturday, September 11, 2004 | Permalink

Contribute

I would like to start off by saying thank you for all the kind emails alot of you have been sending in. The site is back and it will continue to bring LF related news and events as soon as they unfold. Many of the emails were related to the SamirGeagea.com website and asking how you can help. For this reason a new section has been setup on that site called Contribute. If you are interested in contributing to SamirGeagea.com then please check it out.
click here to go to the Contribute section

Posted by 40-Tactical on Friday, September 10, 2004 | Permalink

Third Quarter - 2004

Since the site was closed, minor updates and changes were made in the background. The weapons section is complete now and every weapon has a link to an image of the weapon in question. During this time off, work was done to simplify the navigation. The left side now contains only internal links while the right side contains the banners, external links, the site search and ouwet.com email login. Radio LF will also be reactivated again on the 15th of September.

During the summer our good friend Ramzi El-Khoury (dragunov) who was a contributer to the site including the weapons and ouwet 101 section, died tragically on Friday the 2nd of July, 2004 in a freak accident.

He will not be forgotten.

Posted by 40-Tactical on Sunday, September 05, 2004 | Permalink