Friday, April 29, 2011

'Lebanese ambassador in USA, Antoine Chedid, sued for abusing Filipino maid for years'

"Lebanese ambassador to the US Antoine Chedid is being sued by his family’s former Filipino maid on claims he failed to pay minimum wage and verbally abused and mistreated her. (See the lawsuit here)
Araceli D. Montuya, reportedly the mother of 10 children, says she was made to work for $3 per hour as a full-time housekeeper and nanny for approximately 16 hours per day, six days a week, for a period of 26 months from August 2007 through September 2009. At a status hearing on April 19, Chedid’s lawyer denied the allegations and argued the ambassador and his family are entitled to diplomatic immunity under the Vienna Convention.
Similar events happened years ago with Lebanese diplomats in Paris and elsewhere in Europe, etc. and was hushed-up....Pathetic!
Ok Lebanon, we really need to get a grip on ourselves and ditch this repeated association with the essential enslavement of foreign domestic workers. C’mon now."

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Wikileaks: Michel Sleiman to Jeffrey Feltman: "Elias Murr is the best choice for the Ministry of Interior because he antagonizes Hezbollah"

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Wikileaks: Michel Sleiman to Jeffrey Feltman: "Elias Murr is the best choice for the Ministry of Interior because he antagonizes Hezbollah"
"... Two days after the meeting, Feltman had dinner with Michel Suleiman. It lasted three hours in the officer's club at Yarze. Feltman explained the 'call' (07BEIRUT1641) as an attempt by Suleimann 'to correct the bad impression left by his performance during his meeting with Adelman'. Suleiman expressed his displeasure with the charge against him as a 'Syrian agent' & expressed his fears that Damascus was concocting bad things for Lebanon..... Suleiman talked with admiration of Elias Murr, and Saad Hariri. He added that the Sunnis 'discovered the Lebanese army' thanks to Hariri... Suleiman wanted to leave a strong impression in Feltman's mind that he is 'independent from Syria', ..... Suleiman also spoke very negatively of President Emile Lahoud, in terms (according to Feltman, November 24, 2007, 07BEIRUT1852) that were never used in Diplomatic cables ,.... . At the end of this meeting, Feltman saw that Suleiman succeeded in convincing the Americans that he is not a 'Syrian agent'. But as far as presenting himself as a candidate for the presidency, Feltman goes on to say that Suleiman failed....
12 days later (07BEIRUT1723, October 30, 2007), Feltman noted that 'Suleiman's positions evolved' significantly. Feltman visited him to inform him that the U.S. government was poised to impose sanctions against any individual who'd accept appointment to a second government formed by President Emile Lahoud. Suleiman commented by saying that this was 'clear and good', .... Suleiman often reminded Feltman of his 'evolution' and stressed his conviction that the army should NOT remain neutral should one of the parties decide to change the status quo by force. Feltman believed that the 'evolution' in Suleiman's position was due to three things: (1) the intervention of Elias Murr has, and (2) a threat by Walid Jumblatt that the Druze officers would not stand idly by and (3), Suleiman's 'ambitions'.... Suleiman saw that Hezbollah's declared support for his candidacy was to 'burn' him.... Suleiman saw that once Hezbollah & Syria's allies support a candidate, the later loses his appeal as people will brand him as a 'Syrian lackey'... When Feltman asked for Suleiman's advice for any future President whether to keep Elias Murr in the Ministry of Defence, Suleiman replied that the Ministry of Defense is not important, especially if the relationship was good between the President and the government and the commander of the army...... but the presence of Murr, a rival for Hezbollah, in the Ministry of Interior, was thus essential..." Now we know for sure that Michel Sleiman and the Infamous White house Murder INC; were behind the odious assassination of General Francois Hajj in Hazmieh..........