|
Iraqi General: Saddam Moved
WMD to Syria
New
York Sun - The man who served as the no. 2 official in Saddam Hussein's
air force says Iraq moved weapons of mass destruction into Syria before the war by loading the weapons into civilian aircraft
in which the passenger seats were removed. The Iraqi general, Georges Sada, makes the charges in a new book, "Saddam's Secrets,"
released this week. He detailed the transfers in an interview yesterday with The New York Sun. "There are weapons of mass
destruction gone out from Iraq to Syria,
and they must be found and returned to safe hands," Mr. Sada said. "I am confident they were taken over." Mr. Sada's comments
come just more than a month after Israel's top general during Operation
Iraqi Freedom, Moshe Yaalon, told the Sun that Saddam "transferred the chemical agents from Iraq
to Syria."
A Most-Wanted Terrorist
Is Spotted in Syria
New
York Sun - One of the American government's most wanted terrorists
visited Syria late last week with Iran's President Ahmadinejad, according to a former Reagan administration national security
official and Iran watchers on Capitol Hill. The former official, Michael Ledeen, now an author and scholar at the American
Enterprise Institute, made the claim in an article published yesterday afternoon on the Web site of the conservative magazine
National Review. Several American government officials refused to confirm that the Lebanese Hezbollah figure, Imad Mugniyah,
was sighted at the meeting in Damascus last Thursday with
Mr. Ahmadinejad and the Syrian dictator, Bashar Assad. Major Matthew McLaughlin, a spokesman for the Central Command, the
military division responsible for the Middle East, said, "Central Command keeps its eyes on various terrorists and terrorist
groups within the region, but would not offer any comment on the whereabouts of a particular terrorist because the information
is classified."
Hamas is Born as Political
Force
Times of London - Exit polls showed that the Islamist group Hamas was
set to deprive Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction of its majority in the Palestinian Parliament, marking a huge shift in
the balance of power in Middle East politics. As voting ended last night in the historic
parliamentary election, the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research predicted that Fatah would lose its majority,
capturing only 58 seats out of a total of 132. Another exit poll, conducted by Bir
Zeit University, showed 46.4
per cent for the secular nationalist Fatah, giving it 63 out of 132 seats but denying an absolute majority, with 39.5 per
cent — 58 seats — for its Islamist rival. Whatever the final outcome, the Islamist group, contesting its first
parliamentary elections, is certain to be a key player in power or in opposition.
Nearly 1,000 Iraqis Demonstrate
Against al Qaeda
Al-Bawaba - Hundreds of Iraqi citizens poured into the streets of
Samarra on Tuesday in a massive demonstration against Al Qaeda.
Most estimated the crowd to numbering between 700 and 1,000. The protest, organized by two major Sunni groups, the Iraqi Islamic
Party and Muslim Scholars Association, blamed Al Qaeda for the deaths of some 40 Iraqi police recruits last week, according
to Reuters, and condemned other attacks by the group. The 40 men had reportedly been forcibly removed from the bus they were
traveling in last week and shot to death in a large pit.
Indonesian Police Arrest
Another Terror Suspect
Khaleej
Times - Indonesian police on Tuesday said they had arrested
another man suspected of assisting a fugitive Malaysian extremist involved in last October’s Bali
suicide bombings. A man named Catur was arrested in the Central Java capital of Semarang
by elite anti-terror police and their local counterparts, national police deputy spokesman Anton Bahrul Alam told reporters.
Several other Bali bombing suspects have been nabbed in the same city. Alam said that Catur
was suspected of assisting Malaysian fugitive Noordin Mohammad Top, but police were still interrogating him.
Southeast Asian Terrorists
are “Regrouping and Recruiting”
SITE/Khaleej Times - Southeast Asian terrorists are “regrouping, adapting
and recruiting,” and more regional cooperation is required to defeat them, Indonesia’s president said on Monday.
In a speech to lawmakers from the Asia-Pacific region, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono warned that the campaign against militants
would be a long one, and said it would need to be fought on “political, economical, legal, social and spiritual”
fronts. “We know that the terrorists are regrouping, adapting and recruiting,” he said. “We all need to
intensify our cooperation to fight terrorism.” Indonesia, the world’s
most populous Muslim nation, is a key front in the war against terrorism in Southeast Asia.
Iraqi Shiite Cleric Pledges
to Defend Iran
Washington
Post - An Iraqi Muslim cleric
who leads a major Shiite militia pledged to come to the defense of neighboring Iran if it were attacked, aides to the cleric,
Moqtada Sadr, said Monday. The commitment, made Sunday in Tehran during a visit by Sadr, came
in response to a senior Iranian official's query about what the cleric would do in the event of an attack on Iran. It marked the first open indication that Iraq's Shiite neighbor is preparing for a military response
if attacked in a showdown with the West over its nuclear program. The pledge was also one of the strongest signs yet that
Iraq could become a battleground in any Western conflict with Iran, raising the specter of Iraqi Shiite militias -- or perhaps even the U.S.-trained Shiite-dominated
military -- taking on American troops here in sympathy with Iran.
Saudi Police Arrest 5 Suspected
Terrorists in Capital
SITE/AP/Khaleej
Times - Saudi police arrested five suspected terrorists on Monday
in raids in several neighborhoods in the capital and seized large quantities of explosives and money, security officials said.
The officials said the five suspects - four Saudis and one foreigner - are believed to be part of a network preparing for
a terror attack in Riyadh. “They were apparently preparing
for a terrorist attack, probably soon,” one official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he
is not authorized to speak to the media. Another official said police seized some 20 kilograms of explosives and 1 million
Saudi riyals (US$373,000; Ð308,000) in a raid north of Riyadh.
2 Abu Members Killed, 2
Soldiers Hurt in Basilan Clashes
INQ7/Agence
France Presse - Two members of the Abu Sayyaf Muslim militant group
have been killed and two soldiers wounded in clashes in the southern Philippines, the military said Tuesday. The casualties
occurred when a firefight broke out near the town of Sumisip on Basilan Island, a stronghold of the gunmen, on Wednesday last
week, said local army chief Brigadier General Reymundo Ferrer. Troops also encountered some 30 members of the Abu Sayyaf in
a remote village near Tuburan town also on Basilan last Friday, a military report said. No casualty reports were issued. The
Abu Sayyaf, formed in the early 1990s by Afghan-trained Islamic firebrand Abubakar Abdurajak Janjalani, is listed as a "foreign
terrorist organization" by the US government.
Iraqi Military Officials:
We Know Where Zarqawi Is
The
Scotsman - Iraqi military officials said yesterday that they had
intelligence indicating that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the militant leader behind some of the bloodiest attacks in Iraq, is in Diyala province near Baghdad.
The news came amid reports that Zarqawi, leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq,
was constantly prepared to be captured. A leader of a Sunni resistance group, who said he recently spent time with the most
wanted man in Iraq, reportedly said the
militant leader wore a suicide belt even when asleep. "He told me: 'I would rather blow myself up and die as a martyr - and
kill a few Americans along the way - than be humiliated by them," Sheikh Abu Omar al-Ansari, leader of Jeish al- Taiifa al-Mansoura
[Army of the Victorious Sect] was quoted as saying. United States
officials have said in the past that Zarqawi was believed to have lost a leg. But Sheikh Ansari reportedly claimed that he
had both legs and walked "with confidence and balance". He was also said to be seeking to build new alliances with Sunni opponents
of US-led forces in Iraq. |
|
P. David Hornik:
Hamas Rising
FrontPage
Magazine - More than a million Palestinians in the West Bank and
Gaza already live under local Hamas jurisdiction. Once thought
to be popular mainly in Gaza, last December 15 Hamas extended a string of electoral successes
by winning big in the important West Bank cities of Nablus,
Jenin, and al-Bireh. Not surprisingly, the group is expected, at least, to take a major position in governance of the PA in
today’s elections to the Palestinian National Council.
Dan Darling: Al Qaeda's
Mad Scientist
The
Daily Standard - Before his untimely demise in Damadola, Midhat Mursi
al-Sayid Umar--a man known better among both jihadists and intelligence agencies as Abu Khabab al-Masri--was one of the most
reclusive members of the al Qaeda leadership. Despite having been identified as a senior member of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad,
little public information exists about him. He was among the dozens of Islamists arrested in the 1980s for participation in
the conspiracy to kill Anwar Sadat and no information except his birth date (April 29, 1953) is available on the "Rewards
for Justice" poster circulated by the U.S.
government which offered a $5,000,000 reward for his capture.
Barbara Stock: Bin Laden Offers
a Deceptive Truce
New Media Journal - “To go back to where I started, I say
that the results of the poll satisfy sane people and that Bush's objection to them is false.” Thus were the words of
Osama bin Laden. The simple translation of that line is: Bush lied. Sound familiar? It should. It has been said by almost
every powerful Democrat in Washington.
Decision Brief: Mortal
Threat
Center for Security
Policy - Suddenly, the Iranian nuclear program is all the buzz.
It appears to be nearing the point at which weapons-grade material, if not actual atomic or nuclear weapons, will be in the
hands of one of the world's most dangerous regimes. Given the magnitude of the danger thus posed, it is astounding that the
world's response to date seems confined to rhetorical hand-wringing and diplomatic maneuvering. |
. 
