+961

I actually found this news a bit surprising because it’s the first time for me to read about people getting arrested for hacking e-mail and Facebook accounts in Lebanon.

The department of Public Relations at the ISF General Directorate announced that investigations were carried out by the Cyber Crime and Intellectual Property Rights Bureau Unit based on more than 70 complaints filed by citizens regarding stolen and hacked electronic accounts (e-mail and Facebook among others). The hackers blackmail the account owners and steal their identity to get large sums of money.

During inquiries, the first man admitted to having carried out acts of piracy and stolen around 600 emails, blackmailing their owners and stealing their identity to get large sums of money by transferring recharge card dollars to cellphones and selling them. These amounts reached around $200.000 and all the electronic equipment used was seized. Source

Still, the police might have chased these two because they went so far with the blackmailing they did.

Anyway, I personally know some people who do such things just for the fun of it. They go to some cafe offering wireless internet for the purpose of “stealing” Facebook session. Some tools to use in the process are widely available and are pretty easy to use if you have enough IT knowledge.

These people better know that things can turn really bad now that the Cyber Crime unit out and about. So unless you know how to really cover your tracks, just keep away from these stuff!

The below photos were taken in Tallet El-Khayyat showing a police car running a red light. Definitely not a shocking scene as we’re all used to the reckless driving by the police in Beirut, but it’s cool to have their actions documented by Cheyef 7alak now!

And I know, they can always justify that by saying it was an emergency!

Nice catch by Salim Al Lawzi.

Salim spotted two members from the ISF washing the Mercedes of some Lebanese official in Achrafiyeh. Think of it, if for the simplest things, in this case a car wash, this official is abusing his power, can you imagine what he does when dealing with other more important issues?

On the other hand, that most probably explains why ISF members act like douchebags with people, they get abused by their supperiors and they eventually have to let it out at others, us! (Although they do have some fun sometimes)

I was listening to the radio on my way to work today when I heard that the internal security forces issued a total of 5,000 tickets after 24 hours of activating the speeding radars.

Given that each ticket costs 50,000 L.L, a quick calculation shows that we now owe the Lebanese government a total of 250,000,000 L.L (~$166,000) in just one day! And at this rate, the government will be generating $5,000,000 a month from these radars!

Assuming that the cost of the radars + installing them is $10,000,000, it will take 2 months to cover this amount and start generating profit! Now that’s a business I wish I can invest in!

Still, I have some question marks about collecting these fines from violators. In a country like Lebanon where people can drive a car with defected number plates on their cars and still get away with it when going through the yearly car inspection, how will the police identify the car number in such case? And what about all these foreign cars with Khaliji number plates? Is there some mechanism to force their owners to pay the fines before leaving Lebanon?

I just saw this video of 6 Israeli soldiers performing a cool dance to Keisha’s Tik Tok in the West Bank on the Ouwet blog (they’ll be disciplined though).

Compared to Israel, we seem to have a boring army! I hope to see them or the internal security forces doing such stunts one day!

According to this news article, chief Achraf Rifi issued an “unusual” order to his force calling on them to vote in favor of Jeita Grotto for the seven natural wonders of the world.

“I gave orders to 23,500 police officers to cast their ballot in favor of Jeita Grotto so that they do their part as citizens and our entry comes out the winner,” General Achraf Rifi told AFP, in commenting on his written order.

Next week’s “unusual” order will be calling them to either join the Internal Security Forces group on Facebook, or become fans of his Facebook page.

Mr. Rifi, teach your officers how to respect us and behave well in the streets before giving them orders to do online voting!

One month ago, every single party was calling for change, however the election did not bring anything new to Lebanon. The majority defended its position, while the opposition  maintained it’s parliamentary block almost as it is.

Best of all, Nabih Berri was re-elected today as the speaker of the Lebanese parliament! (Did you hear the gunfire in Beirut??)

If the majority was really serious about its program, it should have proceeded with electing Okab Sakr or one of the pro March 14 Shi’a to replace Berri and go further with forming a government that is all made up of pro March 14 ministers. Let them rule with an iron fist and show the Lebanese people how good they can do!

But seems like everyone is happy with maintaining his position, and the joke was on the people. What change were they all (be it March 8 or 14) promising with people like Berri in authority? (w 3a shiklo shakshiklo!)

Anyway, I leave you now with some pictures of people celebrating Nabih Berri’s “victory” today, they speak for themselves.

Recall, he was competing with no one! Why were they crazily celebrating?