MidEastMonitor: On Lebanon, the US & Fath el Islam

MidEastMonitor's Gary Gambil on Fath el Islam, here

"After the Syrian withdrawal in 2005, radical Sunni Islamist groups steadily grew stronger in Ain al-Hilweh and began infiltrating previously peaceful camps, such as Baddawi and Nahr al-Bared, as Syrian-backed groups lost influence. The new government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora has been unable to do anything about it. While the head of Lebanon's Internal Security Forces (ISF), Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi, told The New York Times in March that he would need the approval of "other Arab countries" to enter Nahr al-Bared,[12] this statement was patently false, both legally (the Arab League has no authority to restrict Lebanon's sovereignty) and practically (had the Lebanese government been willing to stamp out Fatah al-Islam and arrest Absi, no other Arab states would have publicly objected). "

and another interesting article on US policy in Lebanon, here

"While encouraging Lebanon's ruling coalition to form a more representative government and carry out sweeping reforms could stabilize the country and erode Syrian and Iranian influence in the long run, two years of hyperbolic American rhetoric in support of the status quo have ensured that any political compromise in Lebanon will be seen as a symbolic defeat for the administration in the short run, both at home and abroad - a tradeoff that the White House is unwilling to make."