Row on Telecom Data Threatens Sehnaoui’s Seat in Cabinet
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Telecommunications Minister Nicolas Sehnaoui has turned down several requests to provide telecom data to security services, putting the country in an “information blindness” that risks holding him legally accountable, security sources and MP Marwan Hamadeh said.
The sources that are investigating the assassination attempt on Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea told An Nahar daily on Saturday that Sehnaoui has so far refused to meet the request of handing over the telephone communications information to the agencies probing the attack.
The minister has also turned down six similar requests in the past months in the investigation of a Salafist network that was planning attacks on the army, kidnappings of teenagers in the Bekaa valley and planned attacks on Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi and the head of the ISF Intelligence Branch Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan, the sources said.
About Sehnaoui’s referral of the requests to a competent judicial authority, the sources said that the judiciary argues it cannot decide before the wiretapping command center begins operating.
Their comments came as opposition March 14 MP Hamadeh warned Sehnaoui that he would be held legally and legislatively accountable and lawmakers could withdraw their vote of confidence if he continued to ignore the requests on the telecom data.
“The law prevented wiretapping and organized it but it didn’t prohibit the security and the judiciary from seeing the telecom data as is done in all other countries to investigate crimes,” Hamadeh said.
But Sehnaoui said in remarks to Beirut media on Friday that the decision to withhold data was taken by the cabinet after it agreed that a final decision by a judicial committee is necessary.
He reiterated that his ministry can’t provide all the data, which covers around 3 million phone subscribers, because this would mean an infringement on individual freedom.
Meanwhile, the investigation continued into the assassination attempt on Geagea, who said in remarks published in An Nahar that the effects of the Doha agreement ended when a sniper or several perpetrators fired on him from a nearby forest as he was walking in the garden of his fortified residence in Maarab.
The LF chief did not rule out the use of rockets in future killings.
“They have decided to (carry out) assassinations to alter the balance of power,” he said, without specifying who is behind the planned attacks.
07 April 2012, 08:45
00
I do not understand what the hell is wrong with FPM ministers, are they in the cabinet to intentionally put stick in the wheels???Or they are a plant to execute Hizbollah demands??
This is the worse Cabinet the country has witnessed in all it's history!!!
07 April 2012, 08:55
00
They have used assassinations to alter the balance of power? What power does Geagea has first of all? Whoever wanted to assassinate him is probably a person from within his own ranks. Assassins who wanted to kill would've killed not shot when he was yielding to grab a flower! How far is the distance between the shooter and him? By knowing this, one can know the delay to target...
07 April 2012, 08:58
10
I can't wait for the day when I no longer hear about hamade. He almost got us on a new civil was in 2008! He will never be elected again. thanks God.
07 April 2012, 11:00
15
has anyone noticed that it is always fpm ministers that are the centre of controversy?
07 April 2012, 18:58
02
That is why the Hezb and Iran pays them, so they become the front and the Hezb does not have to get dirty themselves.
08 April 2012, 07:20
00
I'm glad you realized. It's because your people always make them the center of controversy. Maybe we should let them run the country and not deter their work? Or would that be countering your interests? Afterall, why would we even want a proper country? Let's leave it a sinkhole for stealing money.
07 April 2012, 11:22
14
infringement on individual freedom. So is the arms of the filthy Persian militia
07 April 2012, 11:40
00
Just following orders from the Mullahs of Iran via Hizboterorist. These data were crucial in finding evidences for the kilings of M14 politicians.
07 April 2012, 12:48
14
It is time to move the "Data Monitoring Unit" from the telecom to either the interior or defense ministry. This is a matter of national security and we can't afford having a bunch of geeks handle this critical inofrmation. Let the professionals in the intelligence services take care of this issue once and for all!!!
And by the way, Sehnaoui should go home too and save all the Lebanese from all his nonsense BS. You can't have a kid trying to do a man's job!!!
07 April 2012, 15:06
04
your ignorant statement does not even deserve a reply but for the benefit of the readers here is my final statement.
National security matters can't be contracted to a 3rd party for obvious reasons. However, every other industry can and should be privatized as I advocate a smaller governemnt in order to promote economic growth in the country.
Oops, I just realized that what I wrote is something very foreign to people like you who are not only ingorant but full of sectarian hatred. But the good news is that they have discovered a medicine for what you are going through right now.
Go educate yourself first before you splash your filth around that only shows your inferior mental capacity!!! and one day that flamethrower of yours will be directed to a part of your body that is going to hurt you so bad that you will wish you were never born...
And just FYI, I don't belong to any party and my IQ is more than double your useless weight!!!
07 April 2012, 13:05
01
Telecommunications Minister Nicolas Sehnaoui is such a pathetic poor reason for a human being who like many other FPM public figures should bluntly declare loyalty to Assad's regime and Ali Baba Nasrallah... These guys don't have Lebanon's best interests at heart nor care about the well being of the citizenry or its leadership that opposes them... They are sort of a bunch of Nazis like creatures, plain and simple...
07 April 2012, 13:47
02
we have to be serious...sehnawi or any other will do the same thing as ordered by the mafia,they put him where he is, to do what they want..it all depends on the fate or weakness of the regime in damascus and the free officers in both lebanon and syria....the good news are :god left hassoun and saved hakeem.
07 April 2012, 14:10
13
did you include bassil in that list .. i think you did lol that is the best comment youv'e come up with for a while.
07 April 2012, 19:01
03
F.T. believes only M8 and Hezb should have access to such Data. Maybe we should start requesting it from the Hezb instead of the ministry.
