Via FLC
(AFP) - " Lebanon's police chief is facing legal action linked to an alleged secret telecoms network after the president referred the case to the justice ministry on Monday. President Michel Sleiman asked the justice minister to take the necessary measures against General Ashraf Rifi after the police chief refused to pull his troops from a state-controlled building where the network is based...
Hariri-Baroud-Nahas
Hezbollah and its Christian ally, former army commander Michel Aoun, have accused Rifi's police force -- considered close to Saudi-backed caretaker premier Saad Hariri -- of using what would be a state-owned network for their personal ends. Lebanon, which has one of the world's priciest telecoms sectors, has two private mobile service providers, Alfa and MTC Touch. State-run telecommunications provider OGERO has said the second floor of its building in Beirut housed staff working on the third network, funded by China. OGERO has said the network is still being tested, but Aoun has raised suspicion that the network is already in use by Hariri (allegations of over 50,000 lines in use)..."
Rifi - Wessam Al-Hassan
Posted by G, M, Z, or B at 10:53 AM
The parliamentary media and telecommunications committee failed on Monday to agree to form a specialized technical team to determine what is located on the second floor of a Telecommunications Ministry building at Adliyeh following last week’s dangerous incidents.
The committee’s head, member of Loyalty to the resistance parliamentary bloc, MP Hasan Fadallah said during a press conference after a heated committee session at parliament that the failure was a result of a dispute which erupted over who has the authority to appoint an Ogero Telecom member in the technical team.
He explained that Telecommunications Minister in the caretaker government Charbel Nahhas insisted that he has the authority to make the appointment. “A final decision has not been made to form the team because of the dispute over it,” he added.
Fadlallah highlighted that the discussions focused on who should be held responsible for the Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau “rebellion” against the Interior and Telecommunications Ministers. They also centered on whether OGERO had committed a violation in installing the third GSM network, as well as the functioning of the network itself and for whom it works for.
“An investigation will be launched in all the aspects of the case even if it means holding another session for the parliamentary telecommunications committee,” Fadlallah said. “We want to know the truth behind the network,” he stressed. “Nahhas should form the technical team,” he added.
Nahhas, who also spoke after the meeting, said that the main issue was the presence of armed forces on the floor where the equipment was stored, without the knowledge or approval of the telecoms or interior ministries. He added that no decision had been made regarding the use of the Chinese network and that the equipment was still being tested to see if it worked.
A dispute erupted on Thursday at the Telecoms Ministry where some 400 heavily-equipped members from the Internal Security Forces’ Information Branch banned Telecoms Minister in the caretaker government Charbel Nahhas from entering the second story of the building attached to the ministry in Beirut. According to reports, a third telephone networks existed on the second floor; one that was established in 2007 yet not made available to Lebanese. The Information Branch’s behavior posed major questions on the nature of the Ogero-Mobile network and the purpose of its existence. MP Nicolas said that the incidents “signal a very dangerous development” and wondered who could guarantee that the recently-discovered network is not one for spying on the Resistance.
River to Sea
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