West Asia News and Discussions
Re: Middle East News and Discussion
Hamas have posted Sentries in border towns and villages to maintain the ceasefire. The chief of Hamas military wing. the"Hard Line" Ahmed Jabari has been placed in charge of maintaining the ceasefire. Hamas is watching all other groups, such as Jihad Islami. They are protecting Sderot.
Reports are going around that Hamas security beat the crap out of Fatah Al Aqsa Martyrs brigade people who launched rockets 5 days ago.
Reports are going around that Hamas security beat the crap out of Fatah Al Aqsa Martyrs brigade people who launched rockets 5 days ago.
Re: Middle East News and Discussion
Israeli officials are in Turkey for 3rd Round of mediated talks with Syria.
Gains from recent secret Iran-US talks:
Some deal on oil prices, Help from Iran in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Gains from recent secret Iran-US talks:
Some deal on oil prices, Help from Iran in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Re: Middle East News and Discussion
More "Turkish Delight"!
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 58336.html
Two Turkish generals held over plot to kill Nobel laureate
Conspirators 'planned armed rebellion to destabilise Turkey'
Wednesday, 2 July 2008
Reuters
Hursit Tolon, (right) a retired general, is arrested by police investigating a series of killings allegedly by a state-backed gang
Turkish police have arrested two retired top generals they believe were members of a state-backed gang suspected of a slew of high-profile killings and a plot to murder the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk.
The former military police chief Sener Eruygur and Hursit Tolon, former army number two, were among 25 people taken into custody in Ankara early yesterday in the latest twist in investigations that began last year.
Dozens of people – including another retired general and a prominent ultra-nationalist lawyer – are already in custody on charges of "provoking armed rebellion against the government".
The plotters' plan, allegedly, was to assassinate public intellectuals, Kurdish politicians, even target military personnel, as part of a campaign to destabilise Turkish society and force military intervention.
The arrests mark a sudden intensification of a power struggle consuming the country. The arrest of the two members of the secular establishment came on the same day that the religious-minded ruling party was fighting court charges aimed at shutting it down.
The country's senior prosecutor has brought a case against the AK Party of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accusing it of trying to establish an Islamic state. If the prosecution results in the party being banned it is likely to lead to political turmoil and an early parliamentary election.
The latest developments hit the Turkish stock market and could dim Turkey's chances of joining the European Union.
The editor of the liberal daily Radikal, Ismet Berkan, compared the plan to the civil unrest in 1960 that preceded the first of Turkey's three full-on coups. "It's a classic model, a classic case of social engineering", he said.
"The difference is that, this time, for the first time in Turkey's history, four-star generals – the big fish – have been hauled in by a civilian prosecutor."
Not everybody shares his view. Coming just hours before the state prosecutor in the case against the Islamic-rooted government argued his case in court, the arrests are seen by many as the latest step in an increasingly bitter power struggle between government and state.
"It's not one coup d'etat Turkey is facing, it's two," said Cuneyt Ulsever, a liberal columnist for the mass market daily Hurriyet who is critical of AKP's increasingly authoritarian rhetoric.
The state prosecution issued the charges in March, saying the AKP should be dissolved because it threatens Turkey's secular principles. Party leaders deny the charge. Prosecutors also are calling for about 70 AK party members, including Mr Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul, to be barred from politics.
Belma Akcura, an investigative journalist, is also concerned about the way the investigation into what Turks have dubbed the "Ergenekon" network is unfolding.
"It's been over a year and we still don't know for sure what these people are being accused of," she said. "I get the feeling the government is using Ergenekon as a card in its own fight for life – 'take me down, and I'll take you down too.'"
Yet as the author of a recent book on what Turks call the "Deep State", which means a paramilitary grouping of military and civilian bureaucrats and mafia opposed to full democracy, Ms Akcura is not surprised by the accusations or the identities of the people arrested.
Turkey's army has long considered itself the final arbiter on the nature of the country's regime, she pointed out, adding "paramilitary efforts to shape politics go back at least 50 years".
A well-known hardliner, Sener Eruygur, was revealed last year to have played a central role in two aborted attempts to unseat the government in 2004.
The first – codenamed "Yellow Girl", a popular Turkish name for cows – was a plan for direct military intervention that foundered because of the opposition of the Chief of Staff. The second, "Moonshine", was closer to Ergenekon and its scheme to mould public opinion via the media.
Mr Berkan said: "They came to talk to all the big media bosses in 2004 to ask for their support. They didn't get it."
Mr Eruygur appears not to have forgotten the slight. When the staunchly secularist lobbying group he has led since his retirement organised massive protests last year, a favourite slogan was "buy one Tayyip, get two Aydin Dogans free." (Tayyip is the Prime Minister, Aydin Dogan is in charge of the country's biggest media group.)
For Alper Gormus, left-leaning editor of the investigative magazine that revealed the 2004 coup plans last year and was shut down for its pains, Mr Eruygur's arrest is evidence of a fundamental change in the balance of power between the elected government and the state. "People say Turkey is in crisis and they are right, but what revolution comes to pass without a political crisis?", he asked.
"What we are living through today are the birth pangs of a new regime – the death of 60 years of limited democracy, the birth of a Turkey that has the full democracy it deserves."
*Russia's Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, has arrived in Ankara where he is expected to discuss bilateral relations and regional issues, including efforts to resolve the standoff with Iran over its disputed nuclear programme. Mr Lavrov's visit to Turkey, which borders Iran, comes amid renewed demands for more diplomatic pressure on Iran over its nuclear activities.
Who is Orhan Pamuk?
A best-selling novelist at home and abroad, Orhan Pamuk became the first Turkish author to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006.
His achievement met with an ambiguous reaction in his home country, where his literary reputation had been all but forgotten amid a scandal over comments he made to a Swiss newspaper the year before.
"Thirty thousand Kurds and a million Armenians were killed in these lands and nobody but me dares to talk about it," Pamuk told Tages-Anzeiger in February 2005. A prosecutor promptly charged him with "insulting Turkishness" under the most notorious of a raft of Turkish laws limiting freedom of speech. He was cleared in January 2006, but not before the car ferrying him to court had been attacked by an angry mob of nationalists. Facing death threats, he left Turkey and now spends most of his time in the United States.
Talking about Turkey's conflict with Kurdish separatists and the ethnic cleansing of Armenians in 1915 remains taboo among conservative Turks.
But possibly his greatest crime, in a country which can feel positively Sicilian in its insistence that dirty washing be kept "in the family", was to talk to foreigners about it.
Most Turks remain convinced that Pamuk was awarded the Nobel Prize for political, not literary, reasons.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 58336.html
Two Turkish generals held over plot to kill Nobel laureate
Conspirators 'planned armed rebellion to destabilise Turkey'
Wednesday, 2 July 2008
Reuters
Hursit Tolon, (right) a retired general, is arrested by police investigating a series of killings allegedly by a state-backed gang
Turkish police have arrested two retired top generals they believe were members of a state-backed gang suspected of a slew of high-profile killings and a plot to murder the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk.
The former military police chief Sener Eruygur and Hursit Tolon, former army number two, were among 25 people taken into custody in Ankara early yesterday in the latest twist in investigations that began last year.
Dozens of people – including another retired general and a prominent ultra-nationalist lawyer – are already in custody on charges of "provoking armed rebellion against the government".
The plotters' plan, allegedly, was to assassinate public intellectuals, Kurdish politicians, even target military personnel, as part of a campaign to destabilise Turkish society and force military intervention.
The arrests mark a sudden intensification of a power struggle consuming the country. The arrest of the two members of the secular establishment came on the same day that the religious-minded ruling party was fighting court charges aimed at shutting it down.
The country's senior prosecutor has brought a case against the AK Party of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accusing it of trying to establish an Islamic state. If the prosecution results in the party being banned it is likely to lead to political turmoil and an early parliamentary election.
The latest developments hit the Turkish stock market and could dim Turkey's chances of joining the European Union.
The editor of the liberal daily Radikal, Ismet Berkan, compared the plan to the civil unrest in 1960 that preceded the first of Turkey's three full-on coups. "It's a classic model, a classic case of social engineering", he said.
"The difference is that, this time, for the first time in Turkey's history, four-star generals – the big fish – have been hauled in by a civilian prosecutor."
Not everybody shares his view. Coming just hours before the state prosecutor in the case against the Islamic-rooted government argued his case in court, the arrests are seen by many as the latest step in an increasingly bitter power struggle between government and state.
"It's not one coup d'etat Turkey is facing, it's two," said Cuneyt Ulsever, a liberal columnist for the mass market daily Hurriyet who is critical of AKP's increasingly authoritarian rhetoric.
The state prosecution issued the charges in March, saying the AKP should be dissolved because it threatens Turkey's secular principles. Party leaders deny the charge. Prosecutors also are calling for about 70 AK party members, including Mr Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul, to be barred from politics.
Belma Akcura, an investigative journalist, is also concerned about the way the investigation into what Turks have dubbed the "Ergenekon" network is unfolding.
"It's been over a year and we still don't know for sure what these people are being accused of," she said. "I get the feeling the government is using Ergenekon as a card in its own fight for life – 'take me down, and I'll take you down too.'"
Yet as the author of a recent book on what Turks call the "Deep State", which means a paramilitary grouping of military and civilian bureaucrats and mafia opposed to full democracy, Ms Akcura is not surprised by the accusations or the identities of the people arrested.
Turkey's army has long considered itself the final arbiter on the nature of the country's regime, she pointed out, adding "paramilitary efforts to shape politics go back at least 50 years".
A well-known hardliner, Sener Eruygur, was revealed last year to have played a central role in two aborted attempts to unseat the government in 2004.
The first – codenamed "Yellow Girl", a popular Turkish name for cows – was a plan for direct military intervention that foundered because of the opposition of the Chief of Staff. The second, "Moonshine", was closer to Ergenekon and its scheme to mould public opinion via the media.
Mr Berkan said: "They came to talk to all the big media bosses in 2004 to ask for their support. They didn't get it."
Mr Eruygur appears not to have forgotten the slight. When the staunchly secularist lobbying group he has led since his retirement organised massive protests last year, a favourite slogan was "buy one Tayyip, get two Aydin Dogans free." (Tayyip is the Prime Minister, Aydin Dogan is in charge of the country's biggest media group.)
For Alper Gormus, left-leaning editor of the investigative magazine that revealed the 2004 coup plans last year and was shut down for its pains, Mr Eruygur's arrest is evidence of a fundamental change in the balance of power between the elected government and the state. "People say Turkey is in crisis and they are right, but what revolution comes to pass without a political crisis?", he asked.
"What we are living through today are the birth pangs of a new regime – the death of 60 years of limited democracy, the birth of a Turkey that has the full democracy it deserves."
*Russia's Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, has arrived in Ankara where he is expected to discuss bilateral relations and regional issues, including efforts to resolve the standoff with Iran over its disputed nuclear programme. Mr Lavrov's visit to Turkey, which borders Iran, comes amid renewed demands for more diplomatic pressure on Iran over its nuclear activities.
Who is Orhan Pamuk?
A best-selling novelist at home and abroad, Orhan Pamuk became the first Turkish author to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006.
His achievement met with an ambiguous reaction in his home country, where his literary reputation had been all but forgotten amid a scandal over comments he made to a Swiss newspaper the year before.
"Thirty thousand Kurds and a million Armenians were killed in these lands and nobody but me dares to talk about it," Pamuk told Tages-Anzeiger in February 2005. A prosecutor promptly charged him with "insulting Turkishness" under the most notorious of a raft of Turkish laws limiting freedom of speech. He was cleared in January 2006, but not before the car ferrying him to court had been attacked by an angry mob of nationalists. Facing death threats, he left Turkey and now spends most of his time in the United States.
Talking about Turkey's conflict with Kurdish separatists and the ethnic cleansing of Armenians in 1915 remains taboo among conservative Turks.
But possibly his greatest crime, in a country which can feel positively Sicilian in its insistence that dirty washing be kept "in the family", was to talk to foreigners about it.
Most Turks remain convinced that Pamuk was awarded the Nobel Prize for political, not literary, reasons.
Re: Middle East News and Discussion
17 women 'freed' from Brussels hotel
Seventeen women were "rescued" by police and officials of the Labour Audit Authority, from the most luxurious hotel in Brussels, the Conrad Brussels, where European royals and prime ministers stay during EU summits.
A report in The Times said the women were made to wait hand and foot on a widow of an emir from the United Arab Emirates and her four daughters.
According to the newspaper report, 15 women were found from countries including the Philippines, Morocco, India, Egypt, Turkey, Iraq and Syria. The police operation on Tuesday involving over a dozen officers and was described like a scene from a Hollywood movie, followed amid allegations that the women- had been "enslaved" and kept captive for eight months.
A senior diplomat of the Indian embassy in Brussels told HT that the mission had not been contacted as yet by the authorities. "In such matters it could take days before we are informed.
" He added that if the passports of the Indians found during the raid were in order, the Embassy might not be informed at all unless the women wanted some help from the mission. The family had hired the entire fourth floor comprising luxury rooms each costing and #163;260 a night and was staying for over eight months.
A Filipino maid, who managed to escape from the hotel, triggered the raid. The women claimed that they were kept as prisoners and forced to work as cleaners, servants and cooks after their passports were taken away.
They were reportedly paid less than and #163;80 each month and had to be on call 24 hours a day and not permitted to step out of the hotel. One young woman from the Middle East reportedly told police, "We were not allowed to leave the hotel and we had to be at their disposal 24 hours a day and #8230; We were not allowed to complain or to ask any questions.
We just had to be there at their beck and call." The police have questioned by police.
No charges had been brought until Wednesday but the investigation was continuing. "We are convinced that these 17 girls are victims of people trafficking," one official said.
Fri, Jul 4 01:35 AM
Seventeen women were "rescued" by police and officials of the Labour Audit Authority, from the most luxurious hotel in Brussels, the Conrad Brussels, where European royals and prime ministers stay during EU summits.
A report in The Times said the women were made to wait hand and foot on a widow of an emir from the United Arab Emirates and her four daughters.
According to the newspaper report, 15 women were found from countries including the Philippines, Morocco, India, Egypt, Turkey, Iraq and Syria. The police operation on Tuesday involving over a dozen officers and was described like a scene from a Hollywood movie, followed amid allegations that the women- had been "enslaved" and kept captive for eight months.
A senior diplomat of the Indian embassy in Brussels told HT that the mission had not been contacted as yet by the authorities. "In such matters it could take days before we are informed.
" He added that if the passports of the Indians found during the raid were in order, the Embassy might not be informed at all unless the women wanted some help from the mission. The family had hired the entire fourth floor comprising luxury rooms each costing and #163;260 a night and was staying for over eight months.
A Filipino maid, who managed to escape from the hotel, triggered the raid. The women claimed that they were kept as prisoners and forced to work as cleaners, servants and cooks after their passports were taken away.
They were reportedly paid less than and #163;80 each month and had to be on call 24 hours a day and not permitted to step out of the hotel. One young woman from the Middle East reportedly told police, "We were not allowed to leave the hotel and we had to be at their disposal 24 hours a day and #8230; We were not allowed to complain or to ask any questions.
We just had to be there at their beck and call." The police have questioned by police.
No charges had been brought until Wednesday but the investigation was continuing. "We are convinced that these 17 girls are victims of people trafficking," one official said.
Re: Middle East News and Discussion
Israel successfully tests missile interceptor
Israel has successfully tested a new defence system designed to intercept rockets fired from southern Lebanon and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, public radio reported on Sunday.
Israel has successfully tested a new defence system designed to intercept rockets fired from southern Lebanon and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, public radio reported on Sunday.
Re: Middle East News and Discussion
Terrorist Killer of Leon Klinghoffer Freed
I'm sure we all remember the Achille Lauro hijacking. Apparently, the Italian judges don't.
I'm sure we all remember the Achille Lauro hijacking. Apparently, the Italian judges don't.
Re: Middle East News and Discussion
ISI is not the TSP Praetorian guard. They are only informers for the TSPA which is the Praetorian guard for Nazaria-e- Pakistan. They guard the idea of Pakistan and not any emperor or ruler as the Roman PG did.Sanjay M wrote:Turkey's ISI-style Praetorian Guard:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/01/ ... turkey.php
Re: Middle East News and Discussion
FYI, from a comment on turcopolier.typepad.com
Out of interest, I have just returned from a short trip to a North African nation run effectively as a dictatorship - I lost count of the number of times I was told by the locals of how they wished they had a Hizballah. The Hizballah effect is slowly rippling out of Lebanon and the many dictators and kings of the Arab world fear it far more than any Iranian nuke.
The more "wins" Hizballah have the worse it will get for said leaders.
Re: Middle East News and Discussion
Bush gave Israel amber light to attack Eyeran
US President George W. Bush has given Israel the "amber light" to carry out an attack on Iran if diplomatic efforts are unsuccessful in causing the Islamic Republic to back down and relinquish its nuclear program, according to a senior Pentagon official quoted by the British Sunday Times on Sunday morning.
Re: Middle East News and Discussion
Assad pours icy water on Olmert-Sarkozy-Abbas upbeat peace show
-------------------
Meanwhile, Israeli military is looking at hitting Hezb and Hamas before hitting Iran. This will be one of the points Barak will be taking up in washington on his visit.
---------------
People close to Assad are sayingthat Assad is turning towards the west, but some critics want to see more proof.
---------------
People are more worried about iranian terrorist cells in the middle east than their missiles. Apparently Iran has a shortage of missiles.
There are lots of Hamas members going to Cairo this week, so I guess the announcement of this deal, is probably why they are headed there. This development has been going on for the last 3 weeks I think............Behind the bonhomie, DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources report that Abbas’ Fatah and its rival, the rejectionist Palestinian Hamas, have never been so close to a peace accord as they are today, largely due to the efforts of Mubarak himself. Success in this effort would write finis to the US-sponsored Palestinian peace track with Israel.This is the real purpose of the lengthy talks the Hamas delegations from Gaza and Damascus have been holding in Cairo. According to our sources, the rival factions have covered considerable ground:
1. Hamas has agreed to relinquish its rule of the Gaza Strip and accept a government manned by nonpartisan technocrats.
2. Parliamentary and presidential elections will be held in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, the date subject to the Hamas proviso that it is admitted to the Palestinian Liberation Organization leadership under a major structural reform.
3. Hamas and Fatah have agreed to Egyptian military forces’ deployment in the Gaza Strip to organize and train Palestinian security and intelligence bodies.
Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah, Hamas and Egypt agreed to leave Israel out in the cold and present the Palestinian reunion as a fait accompli. They reckoned that Israel would swallow the deal if captive Israeli soldier Gilead Shalit were freed. In any case, the prime minister Olmert is not expected to survive the corruption scandals gathering over his head.
The Palestinians groups and Cairo are moving forward as though George W. Bush, whose two-state solution was one of the high points of his international policy, had already left the White House.
A senior Abbas adviser, Yasser Abd Rabbo said in Ramallah last Thursday that A senior Abbas adviser, Yasser Abd Rabbo said in Ramallah last Thursday that his faction is seriously considering putting peace talks with Israel on ice.
-------------------
Meanwhile, Israeli military is looking at hitting Hezb and Hamas before hitting Iran. This will be one of the points Barak will be taking up in washington on his visit.
---------------
People close to Assad are sayingthat Assad is turning towards the west, but some critics want to see more proof.
---------------
People are more worried about iranian terrorist cells in the middle east than their missiles. Apparently Iran has a shortage of missiles.
Re: Middle East News and Discussion
Turkey charges 86 for 'coup plot'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7504900.stm
A top Turkish prosecutor has brought charges against 86 people allegedly involved in a coup plot.
Five dead as Turkey battles PKK
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7505376.stm
Two Turkish soldiers and three Kurdish rebels have died in clashes in south-eastern Turkey, near the border with Iraq, security officials say.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7504900.stm
A top Turkish prosecutor has brought charges against 86 people allegedly involved in a coup plot.
Five dead as Turkey battles PKK
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7505376.stm
Two Turkish soldiers and three Kurdish rebels have died in clashes in south-eastern Turkey, near the border with Iraq, security officials say.
Re: Middle East News and Discussion
Israelis gripped by new photos of missing airman
JERUSALEM - Israelis pored Monday over every detail of 20-year-old pictures just received of their most famous missing soldier — his injured arm held close, the length of his beard and the Arabic writing on a wall in the background.
Israeli airman Ron Arad was captured in Lebanon in 1986, and his unknown fate has since gripped the nation and become one of the great mysteries of the past generation. Over the weekend, the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah transferred photographs, diary excerpts and an 80-page report to Israel as part of a prisoner swap planned for Wednesday.
In Wednesday's swap, Israel will free five Lebanese, including the perpetrator of one of the most notorious attacks in Israeli history. In exchange, Hezbollah will return two soldiers it captured in a cross-border raid that sparked the 2006 war. Israel believes the soldiers are dead.
His story is well known. Arad was a 28-year-old navigator when he was forced to parachute out of his fighter jet on a mission over Lebanon in October 1986 after one of his Phantom aircraft's bombs apparently malfunctioned. Israeli forces rescued the jet's pilot, but Arad was seized by guerrillas from the Shiite Amal organization.
Re: Middle East News and Discussion
Kidnapped troops return in coffins from Lebanon
Abduction affair which ignited Second Lebanon War comes to its tragic end as bodies of Eldad Regev, Ehud Goldwasser handed over to Red Cross. Earlier, Samir Kuntar, four other Lebanese prisoners leave Israeli prison, arrive at IDF base in northern Israel
The bodies Israel Defense Forces soldiers Staff Sergeant Eldad Regev and Sergeant Major Ehud Goldwasser were handed over to the Red Cross on the Lebanese side of the border at 9 am Wednesday, more than two years after they were kidnapped into Lebanon on July 12, 2006.
Hizbullah's al-Manar network broadcast live images from the Lebanese side of the border, showing two coffins taken off a truck at the Naqoura crossing, north of Rosh Hanikra.
Cries of horror sounded at the Regev residence, as the family witnessed the TV broadcast of the prisoners exchange at the Lebanese border showing Hizbullah turning over two coffins to the Red Cross.
The transmission was accompanied by propaganda videos praising the organizations and its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, for "keeping his promise" and succeeding in releasing Kuntar.
Hizbullah's liaison officer, Wafik Safa, refused to provide information on the two troops' fate as the exchange began. "I refuse to provide details on the condition of the two hostage soldiers," he said.
The Red Cross representatives, who were the first to see the captives on the Lebanese side of the border, had no information on their condition until the last minute.
The prisoner exchange deal with Hizbullah was executed following months of German mediation, and after the government ratified the deal and President Shimon Peres pardoned Lebanese murderer Samir Kuntar.
Kuntar will return to Lebanon along with four other Lebanese prisoners, as well as the bodies of 199 Hizbullah members.
Dozens of media crews from Israel and the world have flocked to the Rosh Hanikra area to cover the prisoner exchange. Defense Minister Ehud Barak is in his Tel Aviv office, receiving updates from his military secretary.
The five Lebanese prisoners left the Hadarim Prison in the Sharon region on Tuesday night and were taken to an IDF base in northern Israel, where they will await the implementation of the deal.
The five, including Kuntar, were escorted to the border under heavy guard, provided by the Prison Service's Nahshon Unit, including wardens, attack dogs, police officers and four police cars.
"I don't know what world I'm coming out to," Kuntar said while preparing for his release.
On Tuesday, Kuntar and the four Lebanese prisoners met in prison with Red Cross representatives. They underwent medical examinations by the Israel Prison Service's medical crews and by the Red Cross.
After bidding farewell to their fellow inmates, the five were then taken out of the wings they were jailed in and put in seclusion. Early Tuesday, they underwent final identification by the prison's chief inspector, Colonel Nabil Amar. Cuffed in their hands and legs, the four were put into the vehicles taking them up north.
The prisoners left the jail with a towel and two private items, and without suitcases or bags. The rest of the personal equipment they left behind will be transferred by the IPS to the Red Cross, and it will be delivered to them after they arrive in Lebanon.
The IDF completed all its preparation for the prisoner exchange on Tuesday evening. The sensitive operation was to take place in four centers: The Amiad Camp, from where 23 Red Cross trucks carrying 199 bodies left towards northern Israel; the Rosh Hanikra border crossing, where the Israeli soldiers' bodies arrived; the Shraga Camp, where the troops' families will arrive, as well as senior state and IDF officials; and the Liman Camp, where IDF forces will be on high alert in case of any surprises.
The preparations for the operation were completed upon the declaration of all these areas a closed military zone, in order to prevent the entry of civilians who may disrupt the process.
As for the Lebanese reports that one of the soldiers was killed and the second one's condition is unknown, IDF officials said this was another manipulation by Hizbullah aimed at creating bad feelings among the troops' families and the Israeli public.
After the two soldiers are brought to the Rosh Hanikra crossing, their identification process will be carried out by senior staff, including members of the Military Rabbinate and the police's criminal identification unit – a process which may take hours. People involved in the procedure explained that DNA samples may be needed.
The families remained at their homes awaiting the IDF announcements, which was to be given to them by Major-General Elazar Stern, head of the army's Personnel Directorate, and Central Command Chief Major-General Gadi Shamni.
After receiving the news, the family members were expected to arrive at the Shraga Camp, where they will meet with their loved ones for the last time. Heads of the State and military may join the families.
'Lebanese turning despicable killed into hero'
Following the final identification of Regev and Goldwasser, the 199 bodies and five Lebanese prisoners will be transferred to Lebanon through the Rosh Hanikra crossing.
IDF officials estimated Tuesday that Kuntar will be welcomed in a festive manner, and that Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah may even leave his hiding place for several hours in order to take part in the celebrations.
"One must remember that Hizbullah caused great damage in Lebanon and 20 times more casualties than in Israel. Therefore, with all due respect to their celebrations, we must remember the real situation. They are about to turn a despicable killer who murdered a four-year-old girl into a national hero. This testifies to their grim situation," an IDF official said.
Ahead of the deal's implementation, the IDF raised its alert level in northern Israel. However, there are no concrete warnings on plans to carry out attacks. Army officials said that the forces were on high alert, but estimated that Hizbullah had learned the lesson from the 2006 kidnapping and will think twice before attacking again.
Abduction affair which ignited Second Lebanon War comes to its tragic end as bodies of Eldad Regev, Ehud Goldwasser handed over to Red Cross. Earlier, Samir Kuntar, four other Lebanese prisoners leave Israeli prison, arrive at IDF base in northern Israel
The bodies Israel Defense Forces soldiers Staff Sergeant Eldad Regev and Sergeant Major Ehud Goldwasser were handed over to the Red Cross on the Lebanese side of the border at 9 am Wednesday, more than two years after they were kidnapped into Lebanon on July 12, 2006.
Hizbullah's al-Manar network broadcast live images from the Lebanese side of the border, showing two coffins taken off a truck at the Naqoura crossing, north of Rosh Hanikra.
Cries of horror sounded at the Regev residence, as the family witnessed the TV broadcast of the prisoners exchange at the Lebanese border showing Hizbullah turning over two coffins to the Red Cross.
The transmission was accompanied by propaganda videos praising the organizations and its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, for "keeping his promise" and succeeding in releasing Kuntar.
Hizbullah's liaison officer, Wafik Safa, refused to provide information on the two troops' fate as the exchange began. "I refuse to provide details on the condition of the two hostage soldiers," he said.
The Red Cross representatives, who were the first to see the captives on the Lebanese side of the border, had no information on their condition until the last minute.
The prisoner exchange deal with Hizbullah was executed following months of German mediation, and after the government ratified the deal and President Shimon Peres pardoned Lebanese murderer Samir Kuntar.
Kuntar will return to Lebanon along with four other Lebanese prisoners, as well as the bodies of 199 Hizbullah members.
Dozens of media crews from Israel and the world have flocked to the Rosh Hanikra area to cover the prisoner exchange. Defense Minister Ehud Barak is in his Tel Aviv office, receiving updates from his military secretary.
The five Lebanese prisoners left the Hadarim Prison in the Sharon region on Tuesday night and were taken to an IDF base in northern Israel, where they will await the implementation of the deal.
The five, including Kuntar, were escorted to the border under heavy guard, provided by the Prison Service's Nahshon Unit, including wardens, attack dogs, police officers and four police cars.
"I don't know what world I'm coming out to," Kuntar said while preparing for his release.
On Tuesday, Kuntar and the four Lebanese prisoners met in prison with Red Cross representatives. They underwent medical examinations by the Israel Prison Service's medical crews and by the Red Cross.
After bidding farewell to their fellow inmates, the five were then taken out of the wings they were jailed in and put in seclusion. Early Tuesday, they underwent final identification by the prison's chief inspector, Colonel Nabil Amar. Cuffed in their hands and legs, the four were put into the vehicles taking them up north.
The prisoners left the jail with a towel and two private items, and without suitcases or bags. The rest of the personal equipment they left behind will be transferred by the IPS to the Red Cross, and it will be delivered to them after they arrive in Lebanon.
The IDF completed all its preparation for the prisoner exchange on Tuesday evening. The sensitive operation was to take place in four centers: The Amiad Camp, from where 23 Red Cross trucks carrying 199 bodies left towards northern Israel; the Rosh Hanikra border crossing, where the Israeli soldiers' bodies arrived; the Shraga Camp, where the troops' families will arrive, as well as senior state and IDF officials; and the Liman Camp, where IDF forces will be on high alert in case of any surprises.
The preparations for the operation were completed upon the declaration of all these areas a closed military zone, in order to prevent the entry of civilians who may disrupt the process.
As for the Lebanese reports that one of the soldiers was killed and the second one's condition is unknown, IDF officials said this was another manipulation by Hizbullah aimed at creating bad feelings among the troops' families and the Israeli public.
After the two soldiers are brought to the Rosh Hanikra crossing, their identification process will be carried out by senior staff, including members of the Military Rabbinate and the police's criminal identification unit – a process which may take hours. People involved in the procedure explained that DNA samples may be needed.
The families remained at their homes awaiting the IDF announcements, which was to be given to them by Major-General Elazar Stern, head of the army's Personnel Directorate, and Central Command Chief Major-General Gadi Shamni.
After receiving the news, the family members were expected to arrive at the Shraga Camp, where they will meet with their loved ones for the last time. Heads of the State and military may join the families.
'Lebanese turning despicable killed into hero'
Following the final identification of Regev and Goldwasser, the 199 bodies and five Lebanese prisoners will be transferred to Lebanon through the Rosh Hanikra crossing.
IDF officials estimated Tuesday that Kuntar will be welcomed in a festive manner, and that Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah may even leave his hiding place for several hours in order to take part in the celebrations.
"One must remember that Hizbullah caused great damage in Lebanon and 20 times more casualties than in Israel. Therefore, with all due respect to their celebrations, we must remember the real situation. They are about to turn a despicable killer who murdered a four-year-old girl into a national hero. This testifies to their grim situation," an IDF official said.
Ahead of the deal's implementation, the IDF raised its alert level in northern Israel. However, there are no concrete warnings on plans to carry out attacks. Army officials said that the forces were on high alert, but estimated that Hizbullah had learned the lesson from the 2006 kidnapping and will think twice before attacking again.
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RamaY
- BRF Oldie
- Posts: 17249
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Re: Middle East News and Discussion
Interesting times...Avinash R wrote:Kidnapped troops return in coffins from Lebanon
The terrorist Israel releases Hamas prisoners in healthy condition after pardoning them so they can continue their holy jihad...
and the victim Hamas "refuses to provide details on the condition of the two hostage soldiers until the last minute" and returns them in coffins"...
somebody's terrorist is the other's freedom fighter...
Re: Middle East News and Discussion
Iran rules out enrichment freeze at nuclear talks
Iraqi PM backs Obama troop exit plan - magazine
Iraqi PM backs Obama troop exit plan - magazine
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told a German magazine he supported prospective U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's proposal that U.S. troops should leave Iraq within 16 months.
Some five years after the U.S.-led invasion, there are still some 146,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq.
Re: Middle East News and Discussion
Jerusalem to be Israel's capital: Obama
Agence France-Presse
Thursday, July 24, 2008 (Sderot, Israel)
US presidential candidate Barack Obama reaffirmed on Wednesday his position that Jerusalem will be the capital of Israel but insisted its final status must be decided through peace talks.
''I continue to say that Jerusalem will be the capital of Israel. I have said it before and will say it again... but I've also said that it is a final status issue that has to be dealt with by the parties involved,'' he said in the southern Israeli town of Sderot.
The international community, including the United States, does not recognise Israel's claim that Jerusalem is its ''eternal, undivided capital.'' Israel occupied mainly Arab east Jerusalem and the Old City in war in June 1967.
Jerusalem remains one of the most contentious issues in the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, who wish to make it the capital of their future state.
Re: Middle East News and Discussion
Israeli PM to resign next month
Thursday, July 31, 2008, (Jerusalem)
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has announced that he would resign next month, throwing his country into political turmoil.
The move could stall US-backed Mideast peace efforts.
Olmert said he would not run in his party's primary election, set for September 17, and would step down afterwards.
His brief address included harsh criticism of police investigations of corruption allegations against him.
Thursday, July 31, 2008, (Jerusalem)
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has announced that he would resign next month, throwing his country into political turmoil.
The move could stall US-backed Mideast peace efforts.
Olmert said he would not run in his party's primary election, set for September 17, and would step down afterwards.
His brief address included harsh criticism of police investigations of corruption allegations against him.
Re: Middle East News and Discussion
US X-Band radar for early Iranian missile detection, but no US involvement in any Israeli attack
Hezbollah have taken over two major peaks in Lebanon, which give them full control of Lebanese airspace.
Israeli overflights into Lebanon have also increased recently.
There is an Iranian/Hezbollah trained Al Qods(some sources call it a Hezbollah cell) cell in India. This cell is ready for action to target Israeli/western interests as part of Imad Mugniyeh's death anniversary. This info is coming from both CIA and Mossad.
Israeli-Syrian peace track breaks up amid shakeups in Jerusalem and Damascus
Hezbollah have taken over two major peaks in Lebanon, which give them full control of Lebanese airspace.
Israeli overflights into Lebanon have also increased recently.
There is an Iranian/Hezbollah trained Al Qods(some sources call it a Hezbollah cell) cell in India. This cell is ready for action to target Israeli/western interests as part of Imad Mugniyeh's death anniversary. This info is coming from both CIA and Mossad.
Israeli-Syrian peace track breaks up amid shakeups in Jerusalem and Damascus
DEBKAfile’s Exclusive Middle East sources reveal that not only has prime minister Ehud Olmert’s chief of staff and lead negotiator with Syria, Yoram Turbowicz, decided to resign, but Syrian foreign minister Walid Mualem, the leading proponent of talks with Israel in Damascus, is also on his way out.
Turkey, envisaging the breakdown of its initiative, has hared off in a new direction, a bid to mediate between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas.
In the last 24 hours, Hamas has become the object of hot pursuit by Turkey, Jordan which has decided to patch up its nine-year quarrel with the radical Palestinian group, and Palestinian Authority Chairman, Mahmoud Abbas, who suddenly ordered the release of 200 Hamas prisoners in the interests of reconciliation with Fatah’s rival in the Gaza Strip.
Re: Middle East News and Discussion
Another Goldie?
Livni favored for Kadima leadership
Livni favored for Kadima leadership
New polls show Tzipi Livni as the favorite to lead Kadima, and possibly Israel's favorite in a general election contest.
A poll published Friday by Israel's daily Yediot Achronot showed Livni, the Israeli foreign minister, ahead of her primary Kadima rival, Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, by 51 to 43 percent.
The flurry of polling followed Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's surprise announcement Wednesday that he would not compete in the Kadima primary race, slated for Sept. 17.
Re: Middle East News and Discussion
There is an Iranian/Hezbollah trained Al Qods(some sources call it a Hezbollah cell) cell in India. This cell is ready for action to target Israeli/western interests as part of Imad Mugniyeh's death anniversary. This info is coming from both CIA and Mossad.
As if our homegrown sunni cells werent creating havoc,we now have even Shia cells!!!!!
Guess, India is turning into a fair game for all and sundry terrorists of all hues...
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vishwakarmaa
- BRFite
- Posts: 385
- Joined: 19 Jun 2008 08:47
Re: Middle East News and Discussion
Bogus information.sum wrote:There is an Iranian/Hezbollah trained Al Qods(some sources call it a Hezbollah cell) cell in India. This cell is ready for action to target Israeli/western interests as part of Imad Mugniyeh's death anniversary. This info is coming from both CIA and Mossad.
As if our homegrown sunni cells werent creating havoc,we now have even Shia cells!!!!!
Guess, India is turning into a fair game for all and sundry terrorists of all hues...
CIA created Taliban to beat Russians. Now, CIA created Al-qaeda to beat the world. Only an organization like CIA has such network to co-ordinate and execute events across the world in successive manner within period of 24 hours. Like recent Ahemadabad blasts followed by Turkey blasts.
Normally, when someone thinks about CIA, he imagines "white" soldiers. But, CIA is filled with Muslims, who thinks they are working for some "Islamic cause". But, in reality they are being used.
Also, a point to ponder on is, if such "Al-Qaeda" really exists then why it is found in China too, recently? When the news of "Al-Qaeda" came out on world stage, it was mostly called "Anti-US" after 9/11.
But, after 9/11, this "al-qaeda" started appearing in the countries world over. First, in Afghanistan and then in "Iraq". Then this "Al-qaeda" magically appeared once in southern China also. But, then it shifted again to Afghanistan and Iraq. Nowadays, "Al-qaeda" is appearing in Iran. So funny, isn't it?
If al-qaeda's principle enemy is USA then, its obvious that they won't go around the world attacking just every other country who supports US. One is not so stupid.
If CIA claims Al-qaeda to be well-trained and having global network, then how come super-power CIA is unable to track-back "Al-qaeda" to its head-quarter from where it operates this global communication network?? Or, maybe because this global network doesn't require any electronic network, which makes it un-traceable, is it?
This whole story of "Al-qaeda" seems fake and ridiculous just to make countries toe the western line and join US/UK wars so they fulfill their real motives under facade of "war against terrorism".
Re: Middle East News and Discussion
The information is about Hezbollah and Al Qods(Iranian controlled) not Al Qaeda.
Re: Middle East News and Discussion
From a Indo-Iranian article pointed out by NRao:
We surely do seem to have significant presence there(military/Intel wise)..... Can now appreciate the Paranoia of the Pakis when the Indians are executing a "string of pearls" of their own around the pakis.....
How many consulates do we have in Iran??Numerous analysts of South Asia infer that there are close security ties between Delhi and Tehran because of the Indian consulate in Zahedan with a likely intelligence presence there. India also established a consulate in Iran's port city of Bandar Abbas in 2001, which will permit India to monitor ship movements in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.[41] From a regional security point of view, the volume of defense trade, measured in dollars, may be less relevant than the kind of activities that appear to be ongoing, many of which may be more qualitative in nature. The presence of Indian engineers at Chahbahar and of Indian military advisors and intelligence officials in Iran confers to India a significant access to Iran. This access has tremendous import for India's ability to project power vis-à-vis Pakistan and Central Asia. It clearly provides India an enhanced ability to monitor Pakistan and even launch sub-conventional operations against Pakistan from Iran. Of late, numerous Pakistani officials opine that India is supporting the insurgency in Pakistan's troubled Baluchistan province and is exploiting its position in Afghanistan to enhance its intelligence activities against Pakistan. Pakistani observers also note that the presence of Indian engineers (and perhaps naval personnel in the future) at Chahbahar has particular utility for monitoring what is happening at Pakistan's Gwador port.
We surely do seem to have significant presence there(military/Intel wise)..... Can now appreciate the Paranoia of the Pakis when the Indians are executing a "string of pearls" of their own around the pakis.....
Re: Middle East News and Discussion
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080806/ap_ ... iking_iran
Israel mulls military option for Iran nukes By STEVEN GUTKIN, Associated Press Writer
30 minutes ago
Israel is building up its strike capabilities amid growing anxiety over Iran's nuclear ambitions and appears confident that a military attack would cripple Tehran's atomic program, even if it can't destroy it.
Such talk could be more threat than reality. However, Iran's refusal to accept Western conditions is worrying Israel as is the perception that Washington now prefers diplomacy over confrontation with Tehran.
The Jewish state has purchased 90 F-16I fighter planes that can carry enough fuel to reach Iran, and will receive 11 more by the end of next year. It has bought two new Dolphin submarines from Germany reportedly capable of firing nuclear-armed warheads — in addition to the three it already has.
And this summer it carried out air maneuvers in the Mediterranean that touched off an international debate over whether they were a "dress rehearsal" for an imminent attack, a stern warning to Iran or a just a way to get allies to step up the pressure on Tehran to stop building nukes.
According to foreign media reports, Israeli intelligence is active inside Iranian territory. Israel's military censor, who can impose a range of legal sanctions against journalists operating in the country, does not permit publication of details of such information in news reports written from Israel.
The issue of Iran's nuclear program took on new urgency this week after U.S. officials rejected Tehran's response to an incentives package aimed at getting it to stop sensitive nuclear activity — setting the stage for a fourth round of international sanctions against the country.
Israel, itself an undeclared nuclear power, sees an atomic bomb in Iranian hands as a direct threat to its existence.
Israel believes Tehran will have enriched enough uranium for a nuclear bomb by next year or 2010 at the latest. The United States has trimmed its estimate that Iran is several years or as much as a decade away from being able to field a bomb, but has not been precise about a timetable. In general U.S. officials think Iran isn't as close to a bomb as Israel claims, but are concerned that Iran is working faster than anticipated to add centrifuges, the workhorses of uranium enrichment.
"If Israeli, U.S., or European intelligence gets proof that Iran has succeeded in developing nuclear weapons technology, then Israel will respond in a manner reflecting the existential threat posed by such a weapon," said Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz, speaking at a policy forum in Washington last week.
"Israel takes (Iranian President) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's statements regarding its destruction seriously. Israel cannot risk another Holocaust," Mofaz said.
The Iranian leader has in the past called for Israel's elimination, though his exact remarks have been disputed. Some translators say he called for Israel to be "wiped off the map," while others say a better translation would be "vanish from the pages of time" — implying Israel would disappear on its own rather than be destroyed.
Iran insists its uranium enrichment is meant only for electricity generation, not a bomb — an assertion that most Western nations see as disingenuous.
Israeli policymakers and experts have been debating for quite some time whether it would even be possible for Israel to take out Iran's nuclear program. The mission would be far more complicated than a 1981 Israeli raid that destroyed Iraq's partially built Osirak nuclear reactor, or an Israeli raid last year on what U.S. intelligence officials said was another unfinished nuclear facility in Syria.
In Iran, multiple atomic installations are scattered throughout the country, some underground or bored into mountains — unlike the Iraqi and Syrian installations, which were single aboveground complexes.
Still, the Syria action seemed to indicate that Israel would also be willing to use force preemptively against Iran.
"For Israel this is not a target that cannot be achieved," said Maj. Gen. Aharon Zeevi-Farkash, former head of Israel's army intelligence.
However, it's unlikely Israel would carry out an attack without approval from the United States.
Recent signs that Washington may be moving away from a military option — including a proposal to open a low-level U.S. diplomatic office in Tehran and a recent decision to allow a senior U.S. diplomat to participate alongside Iran in international talks in Geneva — are not sitting very well with Israel.
That may help explain recent visits to Jerusalem by Mike McConnell, the U.S. director of national intelligence, and Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, each of whom delivered a message to Israel that it does not have a green light to attack Iran at this time.
Senior Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they do not wish to appear at odds with their most important ally, said they were concerned about a possible softening of the U.S. stance toward Iran.
Apparently to allay Israeli concerns, Bush administration officials last week assured visiting Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak that the U.S. has not ruled out the possibility of a military strike on Iran. And the U.S., aware of Israel's high anxiety over Iran's nukes, is also hooking Israel up to an advanced missile detection system known as X-Band to guard against any future attack by Iran, said a senior U.S. defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions over the issue have not been made public.
With sanctions and diplomacy still the international community's preferred method to get Iran to stop building the bomb, an Israeli strike does not appear imminent.
If it did attack, however, Israel would have to contend with upgraded Iranian defense capabilities, including 29 new Tor-M1 surface-to-air missile systems Iran purchased from Russia last year in a $700 million deal.
Russia has so far not gone through with a proposed sale to Iran of S-300 surface-to-air missiles, an even more powerful air defense system than the Tor-M1. An Israeli defense official said the deal is still on the table, however. This is a big source of consternation for Israel because the system could significantly complicate a pre-emptive Israeli assault on Iran.
Military experts say an Israeli strike would require manned aircraft to bombard multiple targets and heavy precision bombs that can blast through underground bunkers — something Israel failed to do in its 2006 war against Hezbollah. It's widely assumed that Israel is seeking to obtain bunker buster bombs, if it hasn't already done so.
Elite ground troops could also be necessary to penetrate the most difficult sites, though Israeli military planners say they see that option as perhaps too risky.
America's ability to take out Iran's nuclear facilities is far superior to Israel's.
Unlike Israel, the United States has cruise missiles that can deliver high-explosive bombs to precise locations and B-2 bombers capable of dropping 85 500-pound bombs in a single run.
Yet the cost of an attack — by the U.S., Israel or both — is likely to be enormous.
Iran could halt oil production and shut down tanker traffic in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, which could send the price of crude skyrocketing and wreck Western economies.
It could stir up trouble for the U.S. in Iraq by revving up Shiite militias there just as Washington is showing some important gains in reining in Iraqi chaos.
It could activate its militant proxies in both Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, from where Israel could come under heavy rocket attack. And it could strike Israel with its arsenal of Shahab-3 long-range missiles — something Israel is hoping to guard against through its Arrow missile defense system.
Perhaps most importantly, any strike on Iran — especially if it's done without having exhausted all diplomatic channels — could have the opposite of the desired effect, "actually increasing the nationalist fervor to build a nuclear weapon," said Meir Javedanfar, an Iranian-born Israeli and expert on Iranian affairs.
Whether an attack on Iran would be worth its cost would depend on how long the nuclear program could be delayed, said Chuck Freilich, a former Israeli deputy national security adviser and now a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School.
"A two, three-year delay is not worth it. For a five to 10-year delay I would say yes," he said.
___
Associated Press Writers Anne Gearan and Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report from Washington
Israel mulls military option for Iran nukes By STEVEN GUTKIN, Associated Press Writer
30 minutes ago
Israel is building up its strike capabilities amid growing anxiety over Iran's nuclear ambitions and appears confident that a military attack would cripple Tehran's atomic program, even if it can't destroy it.
Such talk could be more threat than reality. However, Iran's refusal to accept Western conditions is worrying Israel as is the perception that Washington now prefers diplomacy over confrontation with Tehran.
The Jewish state has purchased 90 F-16I fighter planes that can carry enough fuel to reach Iran, and will receive 11 more by the end of next year. It has bought two new Dolphin submarines from Germany reportedly capable of firing nuclear-armed warheads — in addition to the three it already has.
And this summer it carried out air maneuvers in the Mediterranean that touched off an international debate over whether they were a "dress rehearsal" for an imminent attack, a stern warning to Iran or a just a way to get allies to step up the pressure on Tehran to stop building nukes.
According to foreign media reports, Israeli intelligence is active inside Iranian territory. Israel's military censor, who can impose a range of legal sanctions against journalists operating in the country, does not permit publication of details of such information in news reports written from Israel.
The issue of Iran's nuclear program took on new urgency this week after U.S. officials rejected Tehran's response to an incentives package aimed at getting it to stop sensitive nuclear activity — setting the stage for a fourth round of international sanctions against the country.
Israel, itself an undeclared nuclear power, sees an atomic bomb in Iranian hands as a direct threat to its existence.
Israel believes Tehran will have enriched enough uranium for a nuclear bomb by next year or 2010 at the latest. The United States has trimmed its estimate that Iran is several years or as much as a decade away from being able to field a bomb, but has not been precise about a timetable. In general U.S. officials think Iran isn't as close to a bomb as Israel claims, but are concerned that Iran is working faster than anticipated to add centrifuges, the workhorses of uranium enrichment.
"If Israeli, U.S., or European intelligence gets proof that Iran has succeeded in developing nuclear weapons technology, then Israel will respond in a manner reflecting the existential threat posed by such a weapon," said Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz, speaking at a policy forum in Washington last week.
"Israel takes (Iranian President) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's statements regarding its destruction seriously. Israel cannot risk another Holocaust," Mofaz said.
The Iranian leader has in the past called for Israel's elimination, though his exact remarks have been disputed. Some translators say he called for Israel to be "wiped off the map," while others say a better translation would be "vanish from the pages of time" — implying Israel would disappear on its own rather than be destroyed.
Iran insists its uranium enrichment is meant only for electricity generation, not a bomb — an assertion that most Western nations see as disingenuous.
Israeli policymakers and experts have been debating for quite some time whether it would even be possible for Israel to take out Iran's nuclear program. The mission would be far more complicated than a 1981 Israeli raid that destroyed Iraq's partially built Osirak nuclear reactor, or an Israeli raid last year on what U.S. intelligence officials said was another unfinished nuclear facility in Syria.
In Iran, multiple atomic installations are scattered throughout the country, some underground or bored into mountains — unlike the Iraqi and Syrian installations, which were single aboveground complexes.
Still, the Syria action seemed to indicate that Israel would also be willing to use force preemptively against Iran.
"For Israel this is not a target that cannot be achieved," said Maj. Gen. Aharon Zeevi-Farkash, former head of Israel's army intelligence.
However, it's unlikely Israel would carry out an attack without approval from the United States.
Recent signs that Washington may be moving away from a military option — including a proposal to open a low-level U.S. diplomatic office in Tehran and a recent decision to allow a senior U.S. diplomat to participate alongside Iran in international talks in Geneva — are not sitting very well with Israel.
That may help explain recent visits to Jerusalem by Mike McConnell, the U.S. director of national intelligence, and Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, each of whom delivered a message to Israel that it does not have a green light to attack Iran at this time.
Senior Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they do not wish to appear at odds with their most important ally, said they were concerned about a possible softening of the U.S. stance toward Iran.
Apparently to allay Israeli concerns, Bush administration officials last week assured visiting Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak that the U.S. has not ruled out the possibility of a military strike on Iran. And the U.S., aware of Israel's high anxiety over Iran's nukes, is also hooking Israel up to an advanced missile detection system known as X-Band to guard against any future attack by Iran, said a senior U.S. defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions over the issue have not been made public.
With sanctions and diplomacy still the international community's preferred method to get Iran to stop building the bomb, an Israeli strike does not appear imminent.
If it did attack, however, Israel would have to contend with upgraded Iranian defense capabilities, including 29 new Tor-M1 surface-to-air missile systems Iran purchased from Russia last year in a $700 million deal.
Russia has so far not gone through with a proposed sale to Iran of S-300 surface-to-air missiles, an even more powerful air defense system than the Tor-M1. An Israeli defense official said the deal is still on the table, however. This is a big source of consternation for Israel because the system could significantly complicate a pre-emptive Israeli assault on Iran.
Military experts say an Israeli strike would require manned aircraft to bombard multiple targets and heavy precision bombs that can blast through underground bunkers — something Israel failed to do in its 2006 war against Hezbollah. It's widely assumed that Israel is seeking to obtain bunker buster bombs, if it hasn't already done so.
Elite ground troops could also be necessary to penetrate the most difficult sites, though Israeli military planners say they see that option as perhaps too risky.
America's ability to take out Iran's nuclear facilities is far superior to Israel's.
Unlike Israel, the United States has cruise missiles that can deliver high-explosive bombs to precise locations and B-2 bombers capable of dropping 85 500-pound bombs in a single run.
Yet the cost of an attack — by the U.S., Israel or both — is likely to be enormous.
Iran could halt oil production and shut down tanker traffic in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, which could send the price of crude skyrocketing and wreck Western economies.
It could stir up trouble for the U.S. in Iraq by revving up Shiite militias there just as Washington is showing some important gains in reining in Iraqi chaos.
It could activate its militant proxies in both Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, from where Israel could come under heavy rocket attack. And it could strike Israel with its arsenal of Shahab-3 long-range missiles — something Israel is hoping to guard against through its Arrow missile defense system.
Perhaps most importantly, any strike on Iran — especially if it's done without having exhausted all diplomatic channels — could have the opposite of the desired effect, "actually increasing the nationalist fervor to build a nuclear weapon," said Meir Javedanfar, an Iranian-born Israeli and expert on Iranian affairs.
Whether an attack on Iran would be worth its cost would depend on how long the nuclear program could be delayed, said Chuck Freilich, a former Israeli deputy national security adviser and now a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School.
"A two, three-year delay is not worth it. For a five to 10-year delay I would say yes," he said.
___
Associated Press Writers Anne Gearan and Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report from Washington
Re: Middle East News and Discussion
forget the name of the town, but we actually have a consulate in an obscure town inside Iran bordering baluchistan.sum wrote:How many consulates do we have in Iran??
We surely do seem to have significant presence there(military/Intel wise)..... Can now appreciate the Paranoia of the Pakis when the Indians are executing a "string of pearls" of their own around the pakis.....
Re: Middle East News and Discussion
Zahidan. There was a bomb blast near the embassy in 2001. No casualities.Rahul M wrote:forget the name of the town, but we actually have a consulate in an obscure town inside Iran bordering baluchistan.sum wrote:How many consulates do we have in Iran??
We surely do seem to have significant presence there(military/Intel wise)..... Can now appreciate the Paranoia of the Pakis when the Indians are executing a "string of pearls" of their own around the pakis.....
Re: Middle East News and Discussion
That consulate has been giving Indian visas since the days of the Raj
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rshoraka/2486000851/
India Visa, by British Vice Consulate, Zahidan, Persia, March 1933
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rshoraka/2486000851/
India Visa, by British Vice Consulate, Zahidan, Persia, March 1933
Re: Middle East News and Discussion
Dhimmitude prevails; Israel reopens Gaza crossings
another chance for child rapists to drive bull dozers.August 13, 2008
Gaza: Israel reopened crossings into the Gaza Strip that were closed for a day after Palestinian militants fired an unguided Qassam rocket at a southern Israeli town, an army spokesman said.
The spokesman, who spoke anonymously by regulation, had no further details.
Israel and Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls Gaza, reached a cease-fire agreement through Egyptian mediation last month that was meant to stop rocket attacks and ease the blockade on the Palestinian seaside territory.
Re: Middle East News and Discussion
mo' and allah hates jews. jews are "apes and pigs" etc. the religion of pi$$ at its finest.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr4TONP99jU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr4TONP99jU
Re: Middle East News and Discussion
Israel approves release of 200 jailed Palestinians
JERUSALEM - Israel's Cabinet on Sunday approved the release of some 200 Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill gesture to the government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Abbas he would free some of the 11,000 Palestinians held by Israel to help energize peace talks between the two sides.
The prisoner issue is an emotional one for Palestinians, many of whom know somebody behind bars or have been imprisoned themselves. Palestinians see Israel's justice system as unfair and have elevated prisoners to hero status.
Abbas, known as Abu Mazen, has repeatedly called for a large release to boost his public standing.
"This is a gesture to Abu Mazen and the Palestinian people for the upcoming month of Ramadan," Olmert told the Cabinet, according to a meeting participant who spoke on condition of anonymity because the proceedings were closed.
In the West Bank, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad welcomed the gesture, but said Israel should release even larger numbers of prisoners.
"We welcome the release of any Palestinian prisoner. It is considered a victory for Palestinians," he told The Associated Press during a tour of the northern village of Tubas. "We ask Israeli to change its conditions for releasing prisoners and we ask for the release of all prisoners without exception."
Israeli security officials must still approve the list of prisoners to be freed under Sunday's decision. But the Cabinet official said the release would likely include two Palestinians involved in deadly attacks on Israelis. The official said officials believe the two men, convicted in attacks that occurred in the late 1970s, were unlikely to return to violence.
Israel's official position is that Palestinians involved in fatal attacks cannot be freed. However, it has made exceptions, most recently last month when it released a Lebanese prisoner convicted of killing three Israelis as part of a swap with the Hezbollah guerrilla group.
The Cabinet decision followed Olmert's announcement last month that he will leave office as he battles a corruption investigation. Palestinians have been seeking assurances that the peace talks, which began with great fanfare at a U.S.-sponsored conference last November, will continue despite Israel's political turmoil.
Olmert has said he is determined to press ahead with peace efforts as long as he is in office. His Kadima Party is scheduled to choose a new leader next month, but because of Israel's complicated political system, his term could extend into next year.
Olmert and Abbas had hoped to reach a peace agreement by the end of the year, though both sides have scaled back those expectations.
Israeli officials also said Sunday's vote was meant to send a message that Abbas can make progress through peaceful means, in contrast to his opponents' efforts to use force and abductions against the Jewish state.
Abbas' rival, the Hamas militant group, is demanding the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for a captured Israeli soldier held in the Gaza Strip for more than a year.
As Israel tries to negotiate a peace deal with Abbas, it has boycotted Hamas, which it considers a terrorist group. Hamas violently seized control of the Gaza Strip from Abbas' forces in June 2006.
In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the Israeli prisoner release aimed to widen internal Palestinian divisions between Hamas and Abbas' Fatah movement.
Re: Middle East News and Discussion
Top Israeli candidate wants unity government
JERUSALEM - The politician with perhaps the best chance to replace Israel's embattled prime minister on Thursday called for a unity government to pursue the creation of a Palestinian state living peacefully alongside Israel.
Deputy Premier Tzipi Livni, who also serves as Israel's foreign minister, said she will try to form such a government if she wins next month's primary election of the ruling Kadima Party, as polls indicate she is likely to do.
"I believe that what we called in the past left and right is something that belongs to the past," she told foreign reporters. Now most Israelis understand that having two states in the lands comprising historic Palestine "is an Israeli interest."
Livni pointed to opinion polls that show her party winning a general election if she becomes Kadima head. However, she said she would prefer to keep the existing coalition, and even bring in new partners to strengthen it, rather than go to new elections.
"It's not my choice. It's theirs," she said of parliament members who will have to decide whether to join up with her if she becomes head of Kadima.
The party's current head, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, has promised to step down after next month's primary. He is the target of a series of highly damaging corruption probes that have made his continued stay in office untenable.
The 50-year-old Livni spent much of her career as a member of the hawkish Likud Party, and she is the daughter of a famous fighter of the early militant Zionist group Irgun.
However, she has carved a niche for herself as a leading moderate since leaving Likud and joining the government of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who formed Kadima in 2005 as a way of pushing through his plan to withdraw Israeli troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip.
In the coming months, Livni will face stiff political competition both inside and outside her party, especially from hardliners such as former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Success, however, would make her Israel's first female prime minister since Golda Meir.
Livni is currently Israel's lead negotiator in peace talks with the Palestinians. On Thursday she sent mixed signals on whether it will be possible anytime soon to sign and implement a peace accord that would presumably enable Israel to remain both Jewish and democratic by allowing it to shed responsibility for millions of Palestinians.
"We decided that time is against us, that time is against the moderates and that stagnation is not an option for the Israeli government," she said in explaining the government's decision to hold peace talks with the moderate Palestinian leadership based in the West Bank.
At the same time, however, she implied that no agreement could actually be implemented until moderate Palestinians established full control of their own territory and regained control of the Gaza Strip, which the militant Hamas group violently took over last year.
"Nobody, nobody can afford in the region a terror state, a failed state or an extreme Islamic state between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean sea," she said.
Israeli and Palestinian leaders vowed at a U.S.-hosted Mideast peace conference last November that they would strive to have an agreement signed by the end of this year. Officials have been backing away from that timetable in recent weeks.
And on Thursday Livni said it is dangerous to rush into an agreement without hashing out key details.
"This can lead to clashes. This can lead to misunderstandings. This can lead to violence," she said.
On other issues, Livni expressed concern about a visit to Russia this week by Syrian President Bashar Assad, who is reportedly seeking to purchase long-range anti-aircraft missiles from Moscow.
"It is of mutual interest of Israel of Russia, of the pragmatic leaders in the region, not to send these kinds of long range missiles to Syria," which she said was working to destabilize Lebanon, strengthen ties with Iran and prop up extremist groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas.
Livni also called for tougher sanctions against Iran, which she said is moving rapidly to enrich enough uranium to build an atomic weapon.
Re: Middle East News and Discussion
Well Livni would have probably got what she wanted if Israel wouldn't have sent its military advisors to Georgia and supply weapons to the Georgians. Its a costly mistake, and especially at a time when Israel needed Russia to hold back supplies to Iran.
Big Russian flotilla led by Admiral Kuznetsov carrier heads for Syrian port
Big Russian flotilla led by Admiral Kuznetsov carrier heads for Syrian port
As the West awaits Moscow’s threatened reprisal for the treaty installing American missile interceptors at Redzikowo, on Poland’s Baltic coast – signed in Warsaw Wednesday - the Kremlin is striking back in the Middle East – hence Russian president Dimitry Medvedev’s honeyed words of reassurance to Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert in a call he made to Jerusalem Wednesday, Aug. 20.
DEBKAfile’s military sources disclose that a powerful Russian naval contingent, led by the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov , left Murmansk on the Barents Sea Aug. 18 to dock at the Syrian Mediterranean port of Tartus Saturday, Aug. 23. It includes the Russian Navy’s biggest missile cruiser Moskva and at least four nuclear missile submarines.
At the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Syrian president Bashar Assad told reporters Thursday, Aug. 21, that he is considering a Russian request to deploy missiles in his country in view of Russian-Western tensions over the Georgian conflict, which he said had polarized East and West anew.
Assad signaled he would also be representing Tehran’s interests in his talks with Russian leaders. Jordan’s King Abdullah is on his way to join them later in the day.
Before the Russian flotilla departed Murmansk, Assad is reported by our sources as having given the nod for Tartus port’s conversion into a permanent Middle East base for Russia’s nuclear-armed warships.
Assad’s arrival coincided with a visit by a large Syrian military delegation Thursday at the Russian weapons manufacturing giant, the Kalinin Machines Plant, east of Moscow. DEBKAfile’s military sources report that this plant makes sophisticated anti-air missile systems, including the S-300 and the BUK M, for which Damascus is bidding.
The Syrian ruler has said he is seeking closer military cooperation with Russia. The deal emerging from his visit is expected to cover the Russian Navy’s use of Tartus in return for a mutual defense accord providing Syria with a Russian nuclear umbrella and generous terms for his arms purchases.
Aug. 17, DEBKAfile first revealed Russia’s planned nuclear military deployments in the Middle East and Baltic to punish America for its missile deal with Poland and Georgia's attack in South Ossetia. They would included the installation of Iskandar surface missiles in Syria and Kaliningrad.
Re: Middle East News and Discussion
Israel warns nationals of Hezbollah kid ... eat abroad
There is definet Al Qods/Hezbollah presence in India, there are repeated warnings from Mossad and CIA of imminent attacks by Hezbollah/Al Qods on Indian soil against western/Israeli interests. I would think that it is concentrated in the J&K region. This is due to the fact that intelligence reports last year stated that Iranian embassy had organised a couple of big anti war protests in J&K.New intelligence on Hezbollah's intentions to abduct Israelis abroad prompted the government's counterterrorism unit this week to issue a warning to travelers, who were advised to take special precautions.
In its warning Wednesday, the Prime Minister's Office Counterterrorism Bureau explained that intelligence reports suggested Hezbollah is planning abductions as its revenge for the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh, the militia's operations chief, who was killed in a Damascus car bombing in February. Israel has denied any involvement in the bombing. But the Sunday Times in London quoted "informed Israeli sources" that the Mossad spy agency carried out the car bombing that killed Mughniyeh.
Hezbollah has vowed to avenge Mughniyeh's death by attacking Israel or Israelis abroad. The travel advisory was a general warning, applicable to the entire world, not any specific travel destinations. According to people within the intelligence community, Israel does possess specific information regarding the location where Hezbollah plans to attack. But the Counterterrorism Bureau's warning says it applies to all countries.
The warning came one day after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel would dispense with restrictions it has so far imposed on itself in combating Hezbollah on Lebanese soil should Lebanon "become a Hezbollah state."
The prime minister's comments were made while discussing the decision of Lebanon's unity government two weeks ago to approve the right of Hezbollah to use all means in order to "liberate territory occupied by Israel." The Lebanese decision followed the formation of a new national-unity government in which Hezbollah enjoys ample representation.
Israeli security officials earlier this month warned Israelis living and working in West Africa that Hezbollah intended to carry out abductions there. In recent months, Jewish and Israeli institutions outside Israel have bolstered security in anticipation of a possible Hezbollah attack, as have Israeli aircraft and ships.
"It won't be long before the conceited Zionists realize that Imad Mughniyeh's blood is extremely costly, and it makes history and brings about a new victory," Hezbollah's head of the southern Lebanon region, Sheikh Nabil Kauk, said a week after Mughniyeh's death.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said then that he anticipated Hezbollah would try to retaliate for the assassination, possibly with help from Syria and Iran. Israeli security officials, including Barak, said they expected Hezbollah would opt to strike abroad instead of inside Israel or along the border so as to make it easier for the Shi'ite organization to maintain a plausible denial of its involvement, thus possibly escaping immediate Israeli retaliation.
Security experts said Hezbollah is more likely to attempt a terrorist attack in Third World countries, especially in South America, India and southeast Asia, than in developed European countries or in North America.
However, in June the American ABC News Network revealed that suspected Hezbollah operatives had conducted surveillance of the Israeli embassy in Ottawa, Canada and of several synagogues in Toronto. In addition to the Jewish community in Toronto, Jewish institutions in Rome were also mentioned as possible or desirable targets.
Let the traveler beware
In the statement, the Counterterrorism Bureau urged Israelis abroad to be wary of "unusual events," to turn down unexpected, tempting business or recreational offers and to avoid letting anyone suspicious or unknown visitors into their hotel rooms or apartments.
The warning also cautioned Israeli travelers not to linger in remote locations, especially after dark, and to attend business meetings or take part in recreational activities only in the company of reliable companions and to avoid regular and predictable routines.
The statement named no specific country as a potential focus of a terror attempt but classified the threat as "high" and "concrete."