Who We Are: 

The United States Committee for a Free Lebanon ("USCFL")  is a non-profit, non-sectarian think tank, founded in 1997 by prominent New York based investment banker and financier Ziad K. Abdelnour, along with 56 other Lebanese American activists, to educate the American public as to Lebanon's strategic and moral significance as an ally of the United States and an outpost of Western values in the Middle East. 

Our Mission:

The United States Committee for a Free Lebanon holds that the United States has vital interests in the Middle East and sees the region, with its profusion of dictatorships, radical ideologies, existential conflicts, border disagreements, political violence, and weapons of mass destruction as a major source of problems for the Free World. 

Toward this end, the USCFL seeks to help shape the intellectual climate in which U.S. foreign policy is made by addressing key issues regarding the region in an accessible way and for a sophisticated public. 

The USCFL also functions as a resource for individuals and institutions seeking not only accurate and reliable information, but also new and fresh perspectives, combined with innovative and effective solutions, for Lebanon and the Lebanese people. 

Consequently, the USCFL  serves as a vehicle to disseminate "intelligence" and "out-of-the box" ideas to institutions and policymakers in the United States and abroad that are capable of exercising political, economic, military or spiritual leverage to bring these abuses to an end and hold those responsible to account. 

The USCFL finally mobilizes interested parties for the purpose of protests and media campaigns to combat the injustice and corruption that is now prevailing in the post-Taif Lebanese regime and its benefactors.  

Our Philosophy:

1)  Lebanon is a pluralistic country with peoples of many religions, ethnicities and beliefs.  In recognition of this reality, the USCFL advocates only solutions for Lebanon upon which genuine consensus can be built, irrespective of race, creed, religion or ethnicity.  In other words, the USCFL believes that in order to find a basis for peace, prosperity and security in Lebanon, we must begin by emphasizing and focusing on issues upon which all Lebanese of good will, Druze, Muslim and Christian, can agree.

2)  The USCFL condemns all forms of bigotry and racism, including anti-Arab racism, anti-Muslim and anti-Christian hatred, anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism. We believe that all peoples in the Middle East deserve the right to be heard, as well as the right to own property and the right to basic liberties of speech, religion, the press, and assembly without fear of terrorism or retribution from states or fanatical organizations, seeking to forcibly impose their will on peoples of different beliefs and backgrounds. The USCFL supports the right to self-government and self-determination for all the diverse peoples in Lebanon and the entire Middle East, as well as the right of these peoples to live securely and in tranquility anywhere in the region.

3)  The USCFL is an organization committed to the fundamental values of Constitutional Democracy, which alone are able to bring genuine stability, prosperity, peace and security to Lebanon.  Therefore, the USCFL will be utilizing all the resources at its disposal to promote the universal principles of free enterprise, limited government scope and involvement, individual freedom, strong and positive religious and traditional values, and an independent and sovereign government with a strong national defense for the nation of Lebanon and its beleaguered people. 

The USCFL also believes that to facilitate its fundamental goals, Lebanon should work to forge new regional alliances in the Middle East, as well as global alliances abroad, with nations and institutions that share these fundamental values of freedom and Constitutional Democracy.

Our Bedrock Foundations:

1) Lebanon is an independent and distinct nation.

2) Lebanon has the absolute right to be free from occupation. The unabridged sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Lebanon must be restored with the prompt, complete and unconditional withdrawal of all foreign forces from Lebanese territory.

3) The restoration of a legitimate and constitutional government in Lebanon based on UN supervised free and fair elections.

4) US interests in the Middle East are best served by a free and democratic Lebanon.

5) Lebanon must be a partner to, and not an object of, the Middle East peace process.

6) The human and civil rights of the people of Lebanon must be upheld.

7) The cause of peace, reconciliation and economic cooperation in the Middle East, based on mutual respect, justice and recognition of rights of all states and peoples to be free from the threat of war, must be achieved in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.

© Copyright 1997-2004 United States Committee For A Free Lebanon. All rights reserved.