By Noor H. Salem

With the new director in place, the Islamic Center of Detroit has been hosting family events on a weekly basis. On Friday, dozens of families joined together in the front parking lot at 6pm and enjoyed the evening with friends. The smell of grilled food filled the air.  There were free balloons for the children, and cotton candy as well as fresh, hot popcorn for sale. There was a “make your own ice cream sundae” booth as well, which gathered many children around.

After Maghrib prayer the ICD welcomed a guest speaker from Oregon, Brother Yosof Wanly. He gave a heart touching lecture about preparing for Ramadan. However, this was not the usual lecture one would hear every year about learning to cut down on your coffee so you don’t face hardships while fasting. This was not the typical reminder telling you to preparing your house for your guests, meal plan for iftar, and shopping list for Eid. No, Brother Yosof reminded us all to begin with our inner self- fixing our relationship with our Creator. Once we work on our inner souls and relationship with our Creator, undoubtedly He will fix our relationship with the people. He discussed the importance of taking care of our parents, and how everything that comes your way later in life will reflect the way you dealt with your parents in the past. He reminded us about the importance of good character, and guarding our tongues. He gave good reminders about Ramadan preparation and the session ended with Q & A.

Next week the ICD will be hosting a diminutive graduation ceremony for all high school and college graduates in the community. Graduates will be given certificates along with a small present. The event is public and refreshments will be served.

15-27

By Karin Friedemann, TMO

As a little boy, Sharmin’s brother often reminded her to not to step on bugs. As a young man, he worked with his sister Sonali at Raksha, an Atlanta-based organization dedicated to the eradication of violence against women. The US-born Bangladeshi, who had attended a private Islamic high school in Canada, used his knowledge of classical Arabic to translate ancient Islamic texts into English for the former Tibyan Institute website. (The current website appears to be run by US government agents.) Some of the religious opinions that he translated he agreed with, and some he did not agree with. Some of the scholarly work he translated analyzed the concept of ‘jihad.’

Shifa engaged in frank and sometimes wild chat discussions with his online friends. The teenagers who connected through this website discussed Freemasonry and the New World Order as well as their obligations as Muslim men.

Shifa’s mother, Shirin Sadequee said her son was just “talking” about jihad and exploring ideas with other youth.

Shifa Sadequee’s sister Sharmin told TMO that the online chats “consisted of teenagers discussing religious and spiritual matters and opinions of scholars on various issues, political comments, wars abroad, etc.” The mostly South Asian teenagers “used cultural idioms, slang terms that a lot of second generation immigrant youths use in their conversations, but the government interpreted a lot of those phrases and conversations as ‘code’ words.”

“He was not at all planning to join Taliban. He was living in Bangladesh in 2001, when the war in Afghanistan broke out. He emailed some websites wanting to know how he could help the Muslims in Afghanistan. Which the government interpreted as ‘joining’ the Taliban.”

In August 2005, Shifa was detained and questioned at Kennedy International Airport in New York on his way to Bangladesh to get married.

On April 17, 2006, twelve days after his wedding, Shifa was disappeared by Bangladeshi authorities. At a press conference in Bangladesh, his father begged for help from the public in finding his missing son. The Bangladeshi government kept silent.

The FBI brought him to New York aboard a “secret” CIA rendition aircraft via Alaska, stripping off his clothes and wrapping him in clear plastic wrap. FBI agent Michael Sherck requested the warrant for Shifa’s arrest.

In New York, Shifa was charged with making a “false statement” to the FBI but the case was later dropped. In August, 2006, the US government transferred Shifa to Atlanta Federal Penitentiary on “terrorism” related charges. No government agencies communicated about his arrest to his father and wife in Bangladesh or to his family in Atlanta. Shifa was held for three years in solitary confinement without trial, during which time he was pressured to testify against his friends in exchange for a plea bargain. He refused.

Sharmin told TMO, “When my brother was arrested, Atlanta Muslim community leaders and members, when they went to talk with the US Attorneys to learn more about the case, the US Attorneys acknowledged that my brother and his friend did not do anything, but that they really needed to prosecute someone to let others know not to talk or do things like these youth.”

Shifa was targeted due to online association with FBI targets including the Toronto 12. Tarek Mehanna was translating for the same online publication and they knew each other from online. There is no evidence that there was any plan to do anything illegal.

Sadequee was charged with supporting a foreign terrorist organization, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET), a group struggling to liberate Muslim-dominated Kashmir from India––although LET was not designated as a terrorist organization in the U.S. in 2005 and did not even exist as an organization then.

““The LET… one of the terrorist organizations that they’re accusing him of beginning to intend to start becoming a part of, didn’t even exist at the time and also was not registered in the U.S. as a foreign terrorist organization until two weeks after Shifa was arrested,” stated Atlanta activist Stephanie Guilloud.

He was also accused of sending videos of tourist sites in Washington, D.C. to his online friends, who supposedly were in contact with LET. However, the government could not demonstrate a single conversation or sentence from the online chats about plans or plots for attacking these sites.

Evan Kohlmann testified as an “expert” witness at Sadequee’s trial. Kohlmann, who is connected with Steve Emerson and Israel lobbies, has a history of giving false testimony about Muslim political groups – at Yassin Aref’s trial he absurdly claimed that Saddam Hussein, al Qaeda and Kurdish separatists were working together.

The religious debates of teenagers were taken out of context by the government to paint them as terrorists and to preemptively prosecute them. Yet the actual chats remained classified as “secret evidence” and were not presented to the jury.

FBI agents testified that online chat conversations by Sadequee discussed robbing people at ATMs and selling marijuana to raise travel money. Sadequee cross examined FBI Agent James Allen regarding the conversations, pointing out that the term “LOL” (laugh out loud) indicated that the conversations were not serious. The judge allowed Allen to interpret evidence which he, as a fact witness, should not have done.

“When ethnocentrism guides in the making and application of the law, jurors and courts/judges as products of culture and bound by culture and politics will always find certain groups ‘guilty.’” said Sharmin.

Shifa was convicted on August 13th, 2009 and sentenced to 17 years. He was also sentenced to an additional 30 years probation, during which time he cannot access the Internet. He spent some time at the CMU in Marion, Illinois before being moved to the CMU in Terre Haute, Indiana in May 2012.

“Within 24 hours of my brother’s conviction, the Director of the US Attorney Office in GA, David Nahmias, was promoted as a Judge to the Georgia Supreme Court– it was headline news in the local media the morning after my brother’s verdict.  And a few years later the lead US Attorney in the case was also placed as a judge in the Fulton County System. Not sure what kind of promotion the FBI agents received,” Sharmin told TMO.

Community organizing played a large role in Shifa’s relatively light sentencing, who was faced with up to 60 years and defended himself without help of a lawyer. 2,900 people wrote letters to the judge asking for leniency. Sharmin explains:

“From the very beginning it was the progressive non-Muslim community and the queer community who stood by us. And, communities that were active around Imam Jamil Al Amin’s case and campaign were very supportive and understood how my brother was targeted for his spiritual and political beliefs and how the case against him was an attack on his First Amendment Rights because he was brown and Muslim.

“This attack was not only on Shifa who is a critical thinker, or on our family, but it was also a violence on the whole community and our ability to think critically about our beliefs, practices, politics, and the way of the world. So, our community-based cross-racial and interfaith alliance helped us to create collective resiliency to respond to the violence of the War on Terror.

“Of course this case was in 2006, and a lot of Muslims in America then believed only the ‘bad’ Muslims are under surveillance and get targeted but now we know this is not true. Things are improving, however. I think more people are realizing keeping quiet is not going to take them anywhere.”

15-27

By Mariam Karouny

BEIRUT (Reuters) – A rift between Syrian jihadis and their fellow fighters from al Qaeda’s Iraqi wing may lead to internecine war among some of the most effective rebel groups in combating President Bashar al-Assad.

Trouble has been brewing since April over what Syria’s Nusra Front regards as a power grab by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State of Iraq. Now, Baghdadi’s insistence that he will keep fighting as head of a united jihadi brigade in Syria, defying orders from al Qaeda chief Ayman Zawahri, has brought the two groups close to turning on each other.

“Tension is increasing, it is about to reach boiling point. Both sides are saying they are right. A clash between them could occur soon and if it happens, it will be ugly,” said a senior rebel commander in Damascus who is following the dispute.

The two-year uprising against Assad has drawn fighters from many foreign countries to both sides, in what is increasingly a sectarian struggle between the main denominations of Islam. Some Iraqi Shi’ites are fighting for Assad, whose Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shia Islam, while Iraqi Sunni radicals who once took on U.S.-led forces at home have joined the Syrian rebels.

Baghdadi’s attempt to unite the Syrian and Iraqi wings of al Qaeda has provoked the dispute at a sensitive time when some Western governments are considering arming more moderate rebels, but fear the weapons might fall into the radicals’ hands.

In April Baghdadi announced his Islamic State of Iraq was merging with the Nusra Front, which has staged some of the deadliest attacks on Assad’s forces.

This apparently unilateral move opened up bitter and public rifts with the Nusra Front leadership – which resisted what it saw as his bid for overall power – and with Zawahri, the global al Qaeda leader who instructed him to put the merger on hold in an apparent attempt to settle the row.

Baghdadi dismissed the demand from Zawahri, who has headed al Qaeda since U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden in 2011. The merged Islamic state of Iraq and Levant “is staying as long as we have a pulse and an eye that blinks… We will not compromise over its existence,” Baghdadi responded earlier this month.

“After consultation I decided to (follow) the order from God over the order that opposes it,” he added in an audio message.

Nusra fighters, other rebels and Islamic sources reacted by saying Baghdadi had effectively severed his al Qaeda links.

“He rejected the ruling of Sheikh Zawahri and therefore he is no longer a brother of al Qaeda,” said a senior Nusra commander. “After Sheikh Zawahri ruled in our favor, the State (Islamic State of Iraq and Levant) is illegitimate.”

PUSHING BAGHDADI OUT

A source close to Nusra leader Abu Mohammad Golani described Baghdadi’s defiance as dangerous. “We have no choice but to confront them, or Zawahri himself has to deal with these people,” he said.

Nusra was ready to fight Baghdadi’s forces and kick them out of Syria, but “Golani does not want bloodshed among brothers in Islam, he added. “Right now there is a decision to avoid them… but if he acts in a way that goes against Syria’s interest he will be pushed out by force, him and his people.”

Beneath the bluster, Nusra fighters appear to be in no position for now to challenge Baghdadi’s forces, and would need time to regroup and find allies among Syria’s other rebels.

A senior commander from a hardline Islamist rebel brigade in the northern province of Idlib said Baghdadi’s men would probably win a direct clash.

“Nusra was weakened by (Baghdadi’s) takeover and weakened even more by the split that happened,” he said. “It will be very difficult for Golani or anybody to bring it back from ashes.”

With powerful, mostly foreign, fighters on his side, Baghdadi forced Golani and some of his men to go underground, confiscating some Nusra weapons. Many other Nusra fighters went home or joined other Islamist brigades.

But the source close to Golani said the fact that most of Baghdadi’s fighters were non-Syrians meant they could end up isolated, even among the jihadis, because they were more concerned with imposing an Islamist agenda than toppling Assad.

Resentment about Baghdadi’s agenda in Syria echoes the way that al Qaeda fighters alienated many Sunni fighters during the Iraqi insurgency against the U.S. occupation forces and the Shi’ite-led government in Baghdad. This could encourage other rebel brigades to join a Nusra backlash against Baghdadi.

“Baghdadi and those who believe in his extreme thinking, they are mostly foreigners and they are on their own,” the source said. “Nusra is back to work,” he added, saying Golani had ordered his commanders to prepare to resume operations.

Despite losing ground to Baghdadi’s men in the north, particularly in Aleppo and Raqqa provinces, rebels say the Nusra Front remains active and prominent in operations in the southern province of Deraa, near the border with Jordan.

Any resurgence of the Nusra Front, which fights alongside other rebel brigades against Syrian government forces, would further complicate Western efforts to support Assad’s opponents.

The United States has been reluctant to arm the rebels because of fears that weapons could end up in the hands of anti-Western jihadis such as the Nusra fighters. However, after a string of Assad gains around Damascus and near the Lebanese border, backed by Lebanon’s Shi’ite militia Hezbollah, President Barack Obama said Washington would increase military aid.

ARMING A FRACTURED FORCE

Any weapons which are sent would flow into a fractured rebel force. “Nusra believe, and they are right, that this is their land, it is their Syria and they have the right to lead the battle here,” said the senior rebel commander in Damascus.

Islamist sources close to al Qaeda’s thinking say that Baghdadi’s attempt to merge the Iraq and Syrian wings of the movement did not contradict Zawahri’s belief in a hierarchy and structure that could form the basis of a powerful Islamic state.

Unlike bin Laden, who believed al Qaeda should train fighters to carry out attacks across the globe, possibly autonomously, Zawahri wanted a more rigid command structure.

Baghdadi’s failure to consult over the merger and Golani’s popularity among Islamist rebels, in contrast to the way al Qaeda alienated itself in Iraq, made it unacceptable.

“Golani is the son of Syria and he was so far doing a great job in paving the way for the creation of the (Islamic) state as a choice of people not by force, so Baghdadi in a way is an obstacle,” the source said.

(Editing by Dominic Evans and David Stamp)

15-27

By Shibani Mahtani

Myanmar has banned this issue of Time magazine carrying the words, “The Face of Buddhist Terror,” with a photo of a controversial Buddhist monk.

YANGON, Myanmar — Myanmar’s government has banned this week’s international issue of TIME after widespread outrage in the country over the magazine’s cover story featuring a controversial monk known as the Venerable Wirathu with the title “The Face of Buddhist Terror.”

Ye Htut, spokesperson for President Thein Sein, said on his official Facebook FB -0.21% page Tuesday evening that copies of the magazine “would not be sold and distributed to prevent the recurrence of racial and religious conflict.”

TIME profiles the Venerable Wirathu, leader of the Buddhist 969 movement that advocates the social exclusion of the country’s minority Muslim population. The movement has been accused of stirring up deadly clashes between Buddhists and Muslims that have spread across the country over the past year, leaving more than 140,000 people displaced and more than 200 dead, most of whom were Muslims. Buddhist mobs have attacked mosques and Muslim businesses, and stickers and pamphlets of the 969 movement have often appeared during and after the violence.

The monk denies responsibility for the violence. But in countless media interviews, he has expressed pride in being a radical Buddhist and has called for boycotts of Muslim-owned businesses. This Thursday, he will hold a forum in order to garner support for a law he has proposed to restrict marriages between Buddhist women and anyone outside their religion, which he hopes would carry a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.

Tuesday’s ban on the publication is the first time that Myanmar’s government has put any blatant restrictions on Western media since it embarked on a series of sweeping political and economic reforms two years ago. Explaining its decision, the government said on state television Tuesday evening that the article could damage reconciliation between the two groups. It remains unclear how the Myanmar government would block access of the article online for internet users in Myanmar.

On Sunday, the president’s office issued a rare statement  condemning the magazine piece and labeling the 969 movement “peaceful.” The statement defended the Venerable Wirathu, calling him a “son of Buddha,” and said the article could negatively affect the perception of Buddhists in the country. The statement followed calls for the boycott of TIME magazine on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, and vociferous statements from angry Buddhists attacking the Western media and the author behind the piece personally.

Analysts say, though, that this rare condemnation from the Myanmar government could serve to embolden more radical elements within the Buddhist community, and spur further attacks on the country’s minority Muslims. Some have also criticized the TIME magazine piece for being overly provocative and for implicating the Buddhist religion rather than specific actors for violence against the country’s Muslims.

The government’s response and tacit support for the Venerable Wirathu and the 969 movement is a “really bad sign of things to come for Myanmar Muslims,” said Maung Zarni, a Burmese academic at the London School of Economics, because it allows radical elements in society to operate with impunity. Mr. Maung Zarni also criticized the TIME magazine piece for reporting that he says can have a “heavy societal cost” on the Myanmar people by whipping up tensions between the two communities.

The “Venerable Wirathu,” who also has spoken out against the piece, says that he won’t sue TIME magazine for defamation, what he believes is keeping true to Buddhist principles of acceptance.

15-27

By Alastair Macdonald and Shadia Nasralla

A man reads the Koran inside the El Sayeda Nafisa Mosque in Cairo, June 24, 2013. Picture taken, June 24, 2013. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s president, accused of fuelling sectarian hatred, promised swift justice on Monday for a deadly attack on minority Shi’ites as he tried to quell broader factional conflict to avoid a threatened military intervention.

The army, which handed power to elected Sunni Islamists a year ago after decades of oppression, have warned Mohamed Mursi – and his liberal opponents – to end an increasingly violent deadlock or see troops back on the streets to impose order.

There was little sign of reconciliation, however. Liberals and Shi’ites accused Mursi, who announced he will address the nation on Wednesday evening, of fostering sectarian hatred by associating with radical Sunni preachers.

As the army was speaking out on Sunday, a reminder of the fragility of the polarized new order that has emerged from the revolution of 2011, a mob in a Cairo suburb was raiding a house where Shi’ites were marking a religious festival, killing four and dragging bodies through the streets to cries of “Infidels!”.

Local people said police stood by and failed to intervene.

The unusually violent attack on a minority barely visible in predominantly Sunni Muslim Egypt – although, even at less than 1 percent of the population, Shi’ites still number in the hundreds of thousands – was in part a reflection of sectarian passions inflamed across the Middle East by the war in Syria.

But for the Egyptian opposition, it was also held up as more evidence that Mursi and his MuslimBrotherhood have allied with harder line Islamists to intimidate those who joined them in ousting Hosni Mubarak but who now criticize their handling of a crisis-hit economy and fear they will entrench Islamic rule.

An opposition campaign for mass rallies demanding Mursi’s resignation on June 30, the anniversary of his inauguration, has been preceded by shows of strength by his supporters. More are planned across the country, starting on Tuesday.

Critics accuse Mursi of preferring to build ties with former militants and Salafist hardliners in the Islamist camp, rather than reaching toward the center. He and the Brotherhood complain their opponents are an obstinate minority who lost the election.

ARMY WARNING

Liberals, secular conservatives, millions of Christians and many less engaged Egyptians simply fed up with shortages and falling living standards hope the “Tamarud – Rebel!” campaign can overcome the opposition disunity that helped the Brotherhood win the series of elections that has given it sweeping control.

But army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who insisted he was not seeking political power and was widely believed, also seemed to warn the opposition against trying to overturn Mursi’s election. He said the army would defend “the will of the people” and urged politicians to forge a consensus before next Sunday.

“The army is basically sending a warning that it won’t tolerate violence. Period. That includes both sides,” said Michael Walid Hanna of the Century Foundation think-tank. “Obviously what the military wants is to force a compromise.”

Both Mursi and his opponents declared themselves pleased by the call to order from the military, long respected by Egyptians who tended to blame oppression under Mubarak on the police.
Mursi’s spokesman Ihab Fahmy said: “We cannot even think that the army will come back and rule the country.”

But there was little sign of reconciliation talks being held on Sisi’s timetable.

“We are still sticking to our position that it’s too late for any calls for dialogue,” said Khaled Dawoud of the liberal opposition bloc. “We insist on our call for the president to resign and open the door to early elections.”

Mursi’s spokesman Fahmy said Mursi had previously issued an “open-ended invitation”: “Our target is to defuse any tension,” he said. “I think we can make it very soon … We are confident that through dialogue we can reach this common consensus.”

The president, who promised swift justice over the Shi’ite attack, announced an “important speech to the Egyptian people” on Wednesday night. He gave no detail on its theme.

After he met General Sisi and his National Security Council, Mursi’s office issued a statement saying all institutions would work for peace and to defend the democratic system – Egypt’s first – that stemmed from the “glorious January 25 Revolution”.

The uncertainties that political deadlock has generated for the 84 million Egyptians has prompted some to hoard supplies.

A slump in tourism, weakening currency and rising world commodity prices, plus a growing population used to subsidized bread and fuel, has put pressure on government finances. That has raised fears of fuel shortages and high-summer power cuts during the Muslim holiday month of Ramadan, now two weeks away.

“The situation is unbearable. The country is falling apart,” said Mohamed Emad, 52, who was taking a walk in central Cairo.

“We cannot find food, fuel, water and have electricity cuts and now heading towards a sectarian conflict. We need to wake up and think, and not listen to idiots or liar politicians.”

(Additional reporting by Maggie Fick, Yasmine Saleh and Shaimaa Fayed in Cairo and Alexander Dziadosz in Zawiyat Abu Musallem; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Alison Williams; Editing by Alison Williams)

15-27

By Marie-Louise Gumuchian

SABRATHA, Libya, June 19 (Reuters) – The ruins of a grandiose Roman theatre behind them, two foreigners taking pictures in the Libyan coastal city of Sabratha make a rare sight these days.

The ancient Roman city used to attract more than 20,000 foreign visitors annually before the 2011 war that ousted Muammar Gaddafi. Now the temples and mosaics overlooking the turquoise waters of the Mediterranean are usually deserted.

The two European visitors touring the UNESCO World Heritage site on this quiet day are geologists on a work trip to Libya. A few Libyan families and a group of boy scouts mill around.

“The numbers are low these days, people no longer come to Libya as tourists. Our visitors are people who already work in Libya or those who travel here on business trips,” Mohammed Bujila, head of the antiquities department at Sabratha, said.

“Things are different because of the problems we have but we hope that maybe next year, tourism will begin again.”

With Gaddafi’s iron-fisted rule isolating Libya for years, the tourism industry was in its infancy before the country’s “Arab Spring” uprising ground it to a halt.

Now that he is gone, many hope democratic reforms will bring tourists to a country that boasts 1,700 kms (1,056 miles) of coastline, ancient treasures including five UNESCO World Heritage sites and spectacular desert views.

The government hopes future tourism revenues will help diversify Libya’s income – making it less reliant on oil and gas exports – and create jobs to reduce unemployment, currently estimated at 15 percent.

But while life in the country has mainly returned to normal nearly two years after Gaddafi’s ouster, with new shops and restaurants opening regularly in Tripoli and daily flights operating to Europe, this vast country remains awash with weapons and that is keeping foreign visitors away.

The country has appointed its first post-war tourism minister but with armed brigades often doing as they please, sometimes besieging state buildings or fighting in the streets, the government acknowledges that the industry is unlikely to take off until security problems are tackled.

“Tourism is a mark of stability in a nation,” said Tourism Minister Ikram Abdusalam Bash Imam.

“We need a very high level of security for people to come. We don’t deny that there are some problems but this is normal after a war.”

OPENING UP

Imam, appointed last November, said she did not expect foreign holiday makers to return for another two years.

Foreign visitors had been on the rise since the lifting in 2003 of United Nations sanctions, imposed over the 1988 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland of a U.S. passenger plane that killed 270 people.

But those working in the industry – as operators or guides – say tourism was languishing because of apathy, incompetence, complex visa requirements and mercurial regulation.

The country attracted 32,038 foreign visitors – from outside North Africa and the Middle East – in 2010, according to tourism ministry figures, but they do not break down how many came for holidays or work.

The number was nearly 10 percent higher than in 2000 but well down from 125,480 visitors in 2006 after which passports required Arabic translations by law.

Libya’s lucrative revenues from its oil industry made tourism less of a priority than for its neighbours Egypt and Tunisia, where it was a major income contributor before uprisings in those countries.

Abdulmajid Abodabous, head of the ministry’s planning department, said tourism revenues accounted for less than 1 percent of national income. An ambitious plan initiated in 2008 aimed to increase that to 6 percent by 2025.

“Tourism depends on transport and banking and mostly security,” said Abodabous. “You feel embarrassed when you invite someone to your house and it’s in disarray.”

Imam said it was too early to set new targets – her priority is to plan for infrastructure overhauls and staff training.

“We need to look at the success of other countries and learn from them. This country is like a flower opening.”

A survey of tourism professionals published in the World Travel Market Industry Report 2012 showed that 56 percent believed Libya had all the ingredients to become a major destination, once the country was perceived as politically stable and had better infrastructure.

“Libya is already behind by four decades in this sector,” Taleb Rifai, secretary general of the UN’s World Tourism Organisation, told a news conference on a recent visit to Tripoli. “There is no more time to waste.”

LIBYAN TOURISTS

For now, Libyan families are the main visitors to the country’s biggest attractions such as the Roman city of Leptis Magna, with a magnificently preserved amphitheatre and colonnaded and cobbled streets.

Other highlights include sleeping under the stars in the Sahara desert, visiting the old enclosed town in the desert oasis Ghadames or troglodyte caves in the western mountains.

Landmarks from the uprising are also seen as tourist attractions, such as Gaddafi’s old compound in Tripoli and museums displaying weapons from the war in the cities of Misrata and Benghazi.

“People from around the world will want to see these places,” a Tripoli taxi driver said. “This is history.”

With fewer foreign tourists, hotels now bank on a new type of business – visiting work delegations.

“We used to have guests from France, Germany, America and other countries,” Abbass al-Faghi, a manager at the Tellil hotel on the sea front in Sabratha said. “Now we have local conferences held here – some are even about developing tourism.”

Some international hotel chains are operating in Tripoli, including Radisson Blu, while others such as Marriott had planned to open before the war but put those plans on hold as the unrest unfolded.

One of the geologists visiting Sabratha, who gave his name as Jan, said he had been warned by concerned family and friends before visiting Libya.

“We have instructions not to go out after dark but so far, it seems stable and I feel at ease,” he said. “It’s nice to come out and see places like Sabratha. Libya has hidden gems.”

Salem al-Toaish, managing director of Tripoli-based United Tours company, which used to bring in tourists from Germany and from Mediterranean cruises, is starting to see renewed interest from abroad.

“They are writing to us as there is a cruise planned for 2014 in the region. If things go well, it can maybe come to Libya,” Toaish said on the sidelines of a tourism ministry workshop last month. “But as long as there are many weapons, we cannot expect people to come here and face danger.”

(Additional reporting by Ghaith Shennib in Tripoli; Editing by Susan Fenton)

15-26

By Marwa Rashad

RIYADH, June 19 (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s years of economic growth have been good to Abu Ahmad, an Egyptian ceramics worker in the city of Medina, who since 1997 has run his own business installing tiles and marble floors in new villas.

But after spending 16 years building up his company, the father of four now fears he might lose everything, not for lack of market demand in an economy where high oil revenue is fuelling a construction boom, but because he is a foreigner.

Around the country, the government is cracking down on illegal “cover-up” businesses which are nominally registered to Saudi Arabian owners but in practice, owned and operated by foreigners.

The crackdown has forced some foreigners to leave the country and if it continues, could potentially result in the departure of tens of thousands more, according to businessmen, economists and government officials.

“If I can’t adjust my status and work for a decent income, I will preferably leave and go back to my country. I know many of my friends who had to leave,” said Abu Ahmad, identifying himself by a nickname since he was worried about being targeted by authorities.

REGULATIONS

Under Saudi regulations, foreign-owned businesses face a complex licensing process and are tightly controlled. Over the decades, this system has not satisfied the demand for new businesses in a rapidly growing economy.

So many of the roughly 9 million expatriates in the Saudi Arabia, who account for nearly a third of the population, have gone into business themselves. They enter the country on workers’ visas, then set up companies and illegally pay fees to Saudi citizens who act as front men for them.

Such firms tend to be small and require little capital, but they are part of the sinews of the economy in many areas, ranging from mechanics’ shops to plumbing businesses, restaurants and market stalls.

Abu Ahmad said he had used four illegal sponsors during his time in Saudi Arabia, and paid his current sponsor in Riyadh 5,000 riyals ($1,335) every year.

Abdulwahab Abu Dahesh, a prominent Saudi economist, said there was no official data on the size of the illegal business sector but he believed cover-up businesses and other unregulated activities might be worth 700 billion riyals a year – or about a quarter of recorded gross domestic product.

In the last several months, however, authorities have begun to act against illegal firms as part of a wide crackdown on illicit economic activity by foreigners, which has seen tens of thousands of illegal foreign workers deported so far in 2013.

Many Saudis argue the cover-up firms make the economy inefficient, take commercial opportunities from local citizens and effectively deprive them of jobs, since the firms tend to hire lower-cost foreign workers. Unemployment among Saudi citizens last year was 12 percent, according to official data.

“Most of the grocery stores and mini-markets we see in Riyadh are formed under cover-up practices. This harms the economy as it employs more than the needed staff – instead of employing two or three you employ six or seven,” said Dahesh.

“It also leads to crimes and the emergence of customs and traditions that do not match those of our society.”

Some of the profits of cover-up businesses are sent back to the foreign owners’ home countries – a drain which Saudi Arabia can easily afford at a time of high oil prices, but which will become a burden if oil prices fall sharply. Workers’ remittances abroad, which include some of these flows, rose 3.7 percent to 107.3 billion riyals last year, central bank data shows.

Under a law issued in 2004 but until now not strictly enforced, Saudis and foreigners involved in cover-up businesses face up to two years in jail, a fine of up to 1 million riyals or both. The business is liquidated and the foreign owner is deported after any jail term.

IMPACT

Officials at the ministry of commerce and industry, which is responsible for dealing with cover-up businesses, were not available to comment, and authorities have not revealed how many firms have been closed. Because it can be hard to prove that a nominal Saudi owner is in fact only a front man, it is unlikely that the practice can be entirely stamped out any time soon.

So far there is no clear sign that the crackdown is hurting the overall economy, and Labour Minister Adel Fakieh told Reuters last month that he was “not worried at all” by that possibility.

If all the cover-up companies reformed themselves to become legal and employed at least one full-time Saudi citizen, that would generate about 350,000 new job opportunities for local people, he estimated.

The alternative is for many of the companies to close down and if they do, that will provide opportunities for Saudi entrepreneurs to set up new businesses, he added.

Abdullah bin Mahfouz, board member at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a Saudi businessmen’s association, agreed that cover-up companies hurt the economy but suggested that to minimise any dislocation, they be given time to legalise themselves.

One option would be to allow the companies to register as legal foreign-owned enterprises within a certain time, he said. Alternatively, the nominal Saudi owners of businesses could be obliged to invest in and run them.

Abu Ahmad does not at present see either outcome as a possibility for him, however, so he worries about his future.

“The decisions prohibit working for yourself, and if anything happens, it is I who will be fined and jailed – foreigners are always the ones to blame,” he said.

(With additional reporting by Angus McDowall; Editing by Andrew Torchia)

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By Susan Kelly

CHICAGO, June 19 (Reuters) – Shares of U.S. hospital operators have been on a tear this year, on average posting triple the gains of the broader stock market, as investors tallied up the benefits of President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform.

While some on Wall Street have held back amid signs of trouble as U.S. states prepare to implement the reform law, long-term investors still see more reward than risk on the horizon for hospital stocks.

They expect company earnings to strengthen as more Americans gain insurance coverage and hospitals lose less money treating the uninsured. The reform law has spurred consolidation among hospitals, and further merger activity could lift valuations.

“We believe there is still a significant amount of upside in the stocks, particularly if you believe these companies have the ability to sustain their earnings growth through acquisitions,” said Jessica Bemer, analyst with Snow Capital Management. Snow Capital identified the potential in hospital shares early on and has holdings in Community Health Systems Inc and Health Management Associates Inc.

Since the start of the year, shares of the largest publicly traded hospital chain, HCA Holdings Inc, are up 34 percent, while No. 2 Community Health has climbed 71 percent. Tenet Healthcare Corp and Universal Health Services Inc each have risen 50 percent; and Health Management, fueled by takeover rumors, has leaped 79 percent. The Standard and Poor’s 500 index, by comparison, is up 15 percent.

For the top five hospital operators, analysts are projecting combined growth of 21 percent in adjusted earnings per share in 2014, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S data. That would represent a price to earnings ratio for the group of 12.76, based on 2014 estimates and current share prices, compared with 14.5 for the S&P 500.

Once investment underdogs, the stocks began to take off after the Supreme Court upheld most of Obama’s health reform law last June, paving the way for millions of uninsured Americans to obtain coverage in 2014. The rally stumbled this spring when hospital companies reported surprisingly low admissions, and government estimates suggested that not everyone who is eligible will sign up for “Obamacare” on day one.

Other investors have expressed concern about the many variables still to be worked out, including whether key Republican-led states like Texas and Florida will accept federal funding to expand their Medicaid programs for the poor, helping pay for the care that hospitals in those regions now deliver for nearly no compensation.

“It will be rough, it will be rocky, and it will take time,” said Tim Nelson, analyst with Nuveen Asset Management, which owns shares of Universal Health. Nelson believes other names in the sector are fully valued.

The biggest benefit from health reform is expected to be an influx of patients whose treatment will be paid for either through expanded Medicaid programs or with private insurance obtained from state-based exchanges that will take effect on Jan. 1.

That should help drive down the percentage of revenue now being written off as bad debt for treating the uninsured, which can be up to 20 percent or greater for some hospital chains.

“They definitely will be winners at least in the near term under healthcare reform,” said Jeff Jonas, a portfolio manager for Gabelli Funds, which hold shares of HCA and Tenet. “We should see some pretty significant reductions in their bad debt in particular and maybe a little increase in volume.”
Jonas estimates HCA and Tenet stocks each could add another 10 percent this year.

Another positive for companies in the sector has been the ability to refinance debt loads at significantly lower interest rates. “They’ve locked it in for years to come,” said Jonas.

Hospitals are also managing their own expenses better than in the past. Efforts to centralize supply sourcing are driving annual decreases in prices for medical devices such as heart stents and orthopedic implants. Bringing doctors on staff by acquiring physician practices has also helped to control costs.

“It is going to be a multiyear period of benefiting from health reform,” Jonas said.

The drive for efficiency is accelerating consolidation across the industry, as hospitals partner with other facilities within geographic regions to form networks that can offer a wider range of specialties or reduce duplication.

Many uncertainties remain. Hospitals still don’t know how they will be reimbursed under health plans sold on the state insurance exchanges. The extent to which employers drop commercial coverage for their workers and direct them to the exchanges is another major variable. And states are progressing at different rates in setting up their exchanges.

The federal government hopes to get 7 million Americans to sign up for health plans on the exchanges in their first year, and 24 million by 2016, aided by subsidies to purchase coverage. Enrollment begins Oct. 1 for plans that take effect in January.

Perhaps the biggest wildcard for hospitals is the expansion of Medicaid, which is being determined state by state and will affect companies differently based on where their facilities are located. HCA’s stock performance, for example, has lagged its peers, Nelson said, because of its concentration of hospitals in Florida, where the state legislature has blocked Republican Governor Rick Scott’s support for Medicaid expansion.

Nelson said there was a real opportunity to reduce the amount spent on treating uninsured people for free, but he added: “How real it is and how big just depends upon the geographic footprint.”
If high-deductible health plans, which have become increasingly popular with small employers, predominate on the insurance exchanges, hospitals may not see as great a reduction in bad debt expense as hoped, because they will still need to collect the uncovered portion of a patient’s bill, he said.

Weak demand for healthcare services dragged on hospitals’ earnings in the first quarter, exacerbated by the still-high jobless rate and the rising number of patients with high-deductible health plans who are staying away from the doctor. Some do not see that picture improving soon.

“The economy isn’t picking up fast enough. I think the hospitals are in a holding pattern at least through the summer and possibly into fall, until we get clarification on Obamacare,” said Les Funtleyder, healthcare strategist at investment firm Polliwog, which does not own hospital stocks.

“Over time, if the economy improves and we get visibility on Obamacare, the valuations still have a little bit of room on the upside,” he said. “I wouldn’t short them.”

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By David Alexander and Lesley Wroughton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States said on Saturday it will keep Patriot missiles and F-16 jet fighters in Jordan after joint military exercises end next week while Secretary of State John Kerry said a political solution to the civil war in neighboring Syria may be getting “out of reach.”

The decision to put Patriot batteries – an air and missile defense system – in Jordan has been particularly controversial for Russia, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s main global ally.

Russia is worried the missiles could be used by the United States and its allies to impose a “no-fly” zone over Syria in the first direct Western military intervention in the conflict.

The Pentagon announced the action two days before President Barack Obama meets Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday at a G8 conference in Northern Ireland to discuss Syria.

The Patriot missiles could be used to protect U.S. ally Jordan against any possible missile attack as the Syrian war threatens to widen into a more regional, sectarian conflict.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel “has approved a request from the Kingdom of Jordan for a detachment of F-16s and Patriot Missiles to remain in Jordan following the conclusion of the Eager Lion Exercise next week,” Pentagon spokesman George Little said in a statement.

“All other U.S. personnel assigned to Jordan for Eager Lion will depart at the conclusion of the exercise. The United States enjoys a longstanding partnership with Jordan and is committed to its defense,” Little added.

Assad’s forces are fighting insurgents in a two-year-old conflict.

Secretary of State John Kerry asked Iraq to do what it could to help halt new military supplies from reaching Assad’s forces, the State Department said in a statement on Saturday that gave details of Kerry’s telephone call on Friday with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.

‘OUT OF REACH’

“The secretary reaffirmed that the United States continues to work aggressively for a political solution with the goal of a second Geneva meeting, but that the use of chemical weapons and increasing involvement of Hezbollah demonstrates the regime’s lack of commitment to negotiations and threatens to put a political settlement out of reach,” the department said.

Jordan and Syria’s other neighbors are increasingly nervous the Syrian civil war will spill over its borders.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday any attempt to enforce a no-fly zone over Syria using F-16s and Patriot missiles from Jordan would violate international law.

A U.S. official said earlier this month that the Eager Lion exercises – held annually with a theme of irregular warfare – include more than 8,000 service members from about 19 countries, running from June 9 to 20.

Jordan on June 6 threatened to expel Syria’s ambassador after he warned the Jordanians that Syrian missiles could be used against the Patriot missile batteries.

Hagel said in April that the United States was dispatching U.S. Army planners to Jordan, bolstering efforts started last year to plan for contingencies related to Syria’s chemical weapons and to prevent a spillover of violence across Jordan’s border. A US official said at the time that about 200 US personnel would be involved.

Accusing Assad’s forces of using chemical weapons, the White House said on Thursday the United States would supply direct military assistance to the rebels. A U.S. official said that meant sending them weapons supplies for the first time. The weapons likely will include rocket-propelled grenades and mortars, sources said on Friday.

Syria’s government denies using chemical weapons.

The State Department also said Kerry, in his talks with the Iraqi foreign minister, expressed U.S. concern “about the increasingly sectarian nature of the Syrian conflict on both sides.” It said Kerry thanked Zebari for “discouraging Iraqis from joining the fight in Syria.”

“The secretary further urged that Iraq take every possible measure to help end the military resupply of the Assad regime and thereby increase the pressure that will be necessary to advance a political solution,” the State Department said.

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