Wednesday, August 18, 2004

  • Wednesday, August 18, 2004
  • Elder of Ziyon
Read it carefully - he never actually says he made a mistake, but the relieved press still acts as if this is news.

By Haaretz Service and Agencies

Yasser Arafat, in a rare nod to pressure for reforms in his Palestinian Authority, said Wednesday that the Palestinian leadership has made 'mistakes' and promised to correct them.
He did not, however, say what these mistakes were.

The remarks were among Arafat's strongest since Palestinian areas were rocked by unprecedented internal turmoil last month amid a clamor for reforms to security forces and the removal of officials accused of graft.

Arafat made the comments in an address to Palestinian lawmakers at his headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

'There were wrong actions ... by some institutions, and some were irresponsible and misused their positions,' Arafat said in a speech to Palestinian lawmakers. 'There is nobody immune from mistakes, starting from me on down. Even prophets committed mistakes.'

The veteran Palestinian leader said 'We need to move together to correct and reform all the mistakes.'

But he made no promises of specific action.
  • Wednesday, August 18, 2004
  • Elder of Ziyon
Video shows Barghouti break hunger strike:

A secretly filmed videotape, released by the Prison Services Wednesday, shows Tanzim head Marwan Barghouti breaking the hunger strike

Many cases of strike breaking have been reported on the fourth day of the Palestinian security prisoner hunger strike, including imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti and other strike leaders, who have been put together in separate cells.

The Prison Services released a film Wednesday filmed by a hidden camera that shows a man, apparently Barghouti, eating in his cell with the door and window covered by a cloth.

Marwan Barghouti, the highest ranking Palestinian in Israeli custody, is serving five consecutive life terms after being convicted of involvement in fatal attacks.

Barghouti, the West Bank leader of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, was one of the organizers of the hunger strike.

The black and white film carries a date of Aug. 17 in the lower right corner. It shows a bare-chested man who looks exactly like Barghouti washing his hands and then eating.

Prison Services spokesman Ofer Lefler said Barghouti asked wardens for the food and ate without knowing that a camera was filming from a small hole in the wall. Israel wanted to show fasting prisoners how their leader was behaving, Lefler said.

'I want to show the world and the Palestinians that we are dealing with terrorists,' Lefler said. 'Barghouti is sitting on a pot of meat and he sends his friends to die.'"
  • Wednesday, August 18, 2004
  • Elder of Ziyon
What is the world coming to when you cannot trust bloodthirsty murderers to keep their promises?

Haaretz Flash News: "13:54 Leaders of Palestinian security prisoners` strike, among them Marwan Barghouti, seen eating in secret in their cells"
  • Wednesday, August 18, 2004
  • Elder of Ziyon
By Doron Almog- Middle East Quarterly - Summer 2004
The term "smuggling" does not do justice to the problem of the Philadelphi corridor, and indeed, of the entire length of the Egyptian-Israeli border. Of course, some of the cross-border smuggling, overland or by tunnel, involves contraband and drugs—economic smuggling that occurs across all borders (and all of Israel's borders). But in Gaza, this smuggling has a strategic dimension. It involves the illegal importation into Gaza of significant quantities of arms and materiel, on a scale sufficient to turn Gaza into launching pad for ever-deeper attacks against Israel proper. Armed militias, awash with illegal weapons, could also undermine the balance of forces within Gaza itself, creating a situation of near-chaos and dangerous spirals of terrorist attacks and reprisals.

But however worrisome these prospects, there is one that eclipses them all. Given the position of Gaza, sandwiched between Israel and Egypt, it is not difficult to imagine scenarios in which these events could produce international crises of the first order. Smuggling and infiltration have the potential to endanger the Israeli-Egyptian peace accord and threaten the stability of the whole region. This might be even more likely in certain post-disengagement scenarios, in which Egypt would assume responsibility for the border area or the Gaza Strip itself.

This article will outline the scale of the problem, consider its recent evolution, establish its political context, and ask what can be done to neutralize it.
  • Wednesday, August 18, 2004
  • Elder of Ziyon
(IsraelNN.com) PA sources reported during the night that terrorist Majdi Salah was killed in a village in the Ramallah area during the night when a bomb he was preparing exploded. According to the report, his parents were critically injured in the explosion."
  • Wednesday, August 18, 2004
  • Elder of Ziyon
US congressman Lantos criticizes Egypt on Palestinian weapons smuggling:

"CAIRO (AFP) - United States Congressman Tom Lantos accused Egypt of not doing enough to halt the smuggling of weapons by Palestinian militants across the Egyptian border.

'I do not believe that the Egyptian government has done enough historically,' Lantos, the high-ranking Democratic Party member on the House International Relations Committee, told a news conference in Cairo.

Israel has repeatedly accused the Palestinians of using tunnels dug under the Rafah border crossing to smuggle weapons from Egypt for attacks against Israel.

'I believe Egypt has the capacity to shut down these tunnels,' said Lantos but added: 'I am totally opposed to terrorists obtaining weapons whether through tunnels or through some other means.'

Lantos held a series of meetings in Egypt with the Egyptian leadership, including President Hosni Mubarak, intelligence chief General Omar Suleiman, presidential advisor Osama al-Baz and Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit.

He said much of the discussions 'related to our joint efforts...to terminate this murderous activity through the tunnels at the Gaza border'.

He added: 'I am strongly and irrevocably opposed to arming terrorists,' referring to Palestinian militant groups.


Lantos' visit to Egypt coincided with a harsh campaign against him in the semi-official press that accused him of being unfriendly and biased towards Egypt.

The press took particular issue with the congressman's recent proposal for a reduction in US military aid to Egypt, 'which represents only less than half of what Israel gets', according to an editorial in the semi-official al-Akhbar daily that described Lantos as being 'shameless.'

Lantos had proposed directing some of the military assistance Egypt receives annually from the US for economic and other purposes.

'The world is changing, the demands and requirements of Egyptian society are changing,' he argued. 'It is clearly in the interests of the people of Egypt, whose prime needs at the moment are in the educational and medical fields and not in additional high-tech weaponary,' Lantos added.

The US Congressman's visit to Egypt was the second leg of a regional tour. He arrived in Egypt Monday from Libya and was scheduled to travel to Syria, Jordan and Israel.

"

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

  • Tuesday, August 17, 2004
  • Elder of Ziyon
More evidence that WMD may have gone to Syria. The pieces are fitting together, slowly.
Saddam agents on Syria border helped move banned materials
Saddam Hussein periodically removed guards on the Syrian border and replaced them with his own intelligence agents who supervised the movement of banned materials between the two countries, U.S. investigators have discovered.
The recent discovery by the Bush administration's Iraq Survey Group (ISG) is fueling speculation, but is not proof, that the Iraqi dictator moved prohibited weapons of mass destruction (WMD) into Syria before the March 2003 invasion by a U.S.-led coalition.

Two defense sources told The Washington Times that the ISG has interviewed Iraqis who told of Saddam's system of dispatching his trusted Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS) to the border, where they would send border inspectors away.
The shift was followed by the movement of trucks in and out of Syria suspected of carrying materials banned by U.N. sanctions. Once the shipments were made, the agents would leave and the regular border guards would resume their posts.
"If you leave it to border guards, then the border guards could stop the trucks and extract their 10 percent, just like the mob would do," said a Pentagon official who asked not to be named. "Saddam's family was controlling the black market, and it was a good opportunity for them to make money."
Sources said Saddam and his family grew rich from this black market and personally dispatched his dreaded intelligence service to the border to make sure the shipments got through.
The ISG is a 1,400-member team organized by the Pentagon and CIA to hunt for Saddam's suspected stockpiles of WMD, such as chemical and biological agents. So far, the search has failed to find such stockpiles, which were the main reason for President Bush ordering the invasion of Iraq to remove Saddam.
But there is evidence of unusually heavy truck traffic into Syria in the days before the attack, and with it, speculation that some of the trucks contained the banned weapons.
"Of course, it's always suspicious," the Pentagon official said.
The source said the ISG has confirmed the practice of IIS agents going to the border. Investigators also have heard from Iraqi sources that this maneuver was done days before the war at a time of brisk cross-border movements.
  • Tuesday, August 17, 2004
  • Elder of Ziyon
Sleeping With the Saudi Enemy

Can't copy and paste it but a very disturbing article on how close we are with a very big potential enemy.
  • Tuesday, August 17, 2004
  • Elder of Ziyon
South Africa, Iran discuss defense cooperation

South Africa's Defense Minister Patrick "Terror" Lekota and his Iranian counterpart Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani met on Monday to discuss an expansion of mutual cooperation between the two countries, especially in the domain of defense, the Islamic Republic's news agency (IRNA) reported.

At the conclusion of the meeting the two countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding on bilateral cooperation, which included an arrangement for South Africa to sell uranium to Iran, Channel 1 TV reported.

A South African spokesman for the Ministry of Defense declined to comment on the claim.

SA Defense Minister Lekota stressed that making peaceful use of nuclear energy "is the legitimate right of the Islamic Republic," the IRNA reported on Tuesday.
  • Tuesday, August 17, 2004
  • Elder of Ziyon
"IDF teaches US soldiers guerilla response"

In order to improve their skills and learn firsthand tactics adopted by the IDF in urban and guerilla warfare in the West Bank and Gaza, US Army units are undergoing training in the special anti-terror school located in the Adam base near Modi'in.

After completing their training, the units will return to Iraq. The IDF Spokesman said, "The army does not comment on cooperation with foreign armies," but did not deny US forces were currently training in Israel.

In November last year, US generals visited Israel to study tactics adopted by the IDF in its ongoing war against terror. A report in the New York Times claimed US military officials were studying the tactics and strategy used by IDF forces operating in the West Bank and Gaza within densely populated Palestinian areas.

US Army officials later adopted the IDF's policy of demolishing houses belonging to terrorists suspected of attacking US troops in Iraq, set up checkpoints similar to those in the West Bank, deployed sniffer dogs to seek out explosives, and in a number of cases arrested relatives of terror suspects to glean information.

Last year, a senior OC Ground Forces officer told The Jerusalem Post the IDF will rent out the new urban warfare training center located at Tze'elim in the Negev to foreign armies in an attempt to revive the slashed defense budget. Since then, a number of countries, including Germany, have sent units to the center.

The center, expected to be completely operational within two years, is considered the largest of its kind in the world and boasts a digital battlefield. Even while it is under construction entire divisions, infantry, and armored units will be able to train without using their vehicles.
  • Tuesday, August 17, 2004
  • Elder of Ziyon

Five Palestinians were killed shortly after midnight Wednesday when IAF helicopters fired a missile at the Gaza City house of a Hamas member.


Hospital officials said seven people were wounded, four critically. Palestinians said the house is in the Shajaiyeh neighborhood of Gaza City, a stronghold of Islamic militants, and belonged to Hamas member Ahmed Jabari. Residents said several men were in the first floor apartment at the time of the explosion.

Hospital officials said all the dead were adults. Two were Hamas members and another was with Islamic Jihad. The others were not immediately identified.

Dozens of Hamas members gathered at Gaza City's Shifa Hospital, where the dead and wounded were taken.
  • Tuesday, August 17, 2004
  • Elder of Ziyon

"A lot" of Canadians trained at al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and some still live freely in Canada
, Abdurahman Khadr testified at a court hearing at which he revealed chilling new details about Canadian terror suspects and his father's ties to Osama bin Laden's training camps.

Mr. Khadr, a 21-year-old Toronto man who underwent weapons and explosives training at four camps in Afghanistan, said in testimony made public yesterday that he had given CIA agents the names of several Canadians who trained at camps such as Khalden.

"I know a lot of people that are living in the West and are living in Canada, and that live their everyday life now and are not under arrest or anything, that have been to Khalden," Mr. Khadr testified at a July 13 hearing in Montreal.

"I had a lot of friends that were Canadians that came to Afghanistan and went to training," Mr. Khadr said. "Some of them are dead now and some of them are back in Canada and some of them are under arrest."

His contention that graduates of the Afghan camps are living normal lives in Canada comes as U.S. officials are concerned that al-Qaeda might try to use Canada as a staging ground for a terrorist strike some time before November's presidential election.

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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 14 years and 30,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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